Thursday, September 27, 2012

What is going on?

Well, the summer doldrums are almost over. The heat was so oppressive I felt like it drove some of the energy and drive out of me. This summer I began with the comic book convention. It was a lot of fun. Then I went on my annual training with the military. It wasn't fun-but I got paid. Then I had another comic book convention. And now, school has started again and here we are. Now, I need to get focused and get busy. I am going to discuss my projects in development. But let us begin by reviewing my complete works.

The Complete Works of Stephen Andrew Missick


 

The Words of Jesus in the Original Aramaic: Discovering the Semitic Roots of Christianity (Xulon Press, 2006)

Mary of Magdala: Magdalene, the Forgotten Aramaic Prophetess of Christianity (Xlibris, 2006)

Treasures of the Language of Jesus: The Aramaic Source of Christ's Teaching (Xlibris, 2006)

Aramaic: The Language of Jesus of Nazareth (Xlibris, 2008)

Christ the Man (Xulon Press)

The Hammer of God: The Stories of Judah Maccabee and Charles Martel (Xulon Press, 2010) ( Charles Martel: The Hammer of God and Judas Maccabeus: The Hammer of God (Createspace 2011) are also available.

The Ascents of James: A Lost Acts of the Apostles (Create Space 2010)

The Second Adam and the Restoration of All Things (Create Space 2010)

Saint Thaddeus and the King of Assyria: The Aramaic Origins of Christianity (Create Space 2010)

A Soldier in Iraq (Createspace 2011)

The Lord's Prayer in the Original Aramaic (Createspace 2011)

Jesus the Poet (Createspace 2011)

The Ennead and The Art of the Ennead (Createspace 2011)

The Secret of Jabez (Createspace 2011)

The 613 Commandments (2011)

The Assyrians: The Oldest Christian People (Createspace 2011)


 

KINDLE BOOKS

(These books are also available in hard copies.)


 

The Language of Jesus: Introducing Aramaic (2010)


 

Judas Maccabeus: The Hammer of God (2010)


 

NOOK BOOKS


 

Christ's Language: Spiritual Insight from Aramaic (2011)


 

ARTICLES

(Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies www.jaas.org)

The Assyrian Church in the Mongol Empire, Mar Thoma: The Apostolic Foundation of the Assyrian Church in India, and Socotra: The Mysterious Island of the Church of the East which were published in the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (Volume XIII, No. 2, 1999, Volume XIV, No. 2, 2000 and Volume XVI No. 1, 2002).


 

VIDEOS

(Crossover Videos: www.thecrossoverproject.org)

Iraq's Christians in Crisis

The Armenian Genocide


 

COMIC BOOKS

The Assyrians: The Oldest Christian People

Chronicles: Facts from the Bible

The Hammer of God: Character and Historical Reference

The Hammer of God Coloring Book

The Hammer of God Mini-Comic

The Hammer of God: The Battle for Religious Freedom

The Ennead 1

The Ennead 2

Maccabee (createspace, 2011)


 

BOOKLETS


 

Aramaic: The Language of Jesus of Nazareth

Exploring the Semitic Roots of Christianity

Is the Cross a "Pagan" symbol?


 

BROADSIDES (tri-folds)


 

Hammer of God

Aramaic: the Language of Jesus


 

TRACTS


 

The Glory of Coptic Egypt

The Splendor of Christian Ethiopia

I am an Assyrian!


 

Web-sites

www.youtube.com/aramaic12

www.aramaicherald.blogspot.com

I am also on "face-book"


 

I am nearing the place where I will start running out of money. So, I need your prayers, so that I can make the money. Hopefully, I will find enough work. But, I also need to be doing the Lord's work.


 

Upcoming Projects:


 

I am working on:

  1. Chronicles: Facts from the Bible-a collection of my biblical cartoons
  2. The "Seven Signs"-illustrating the seven miracles in the Gospel of John
  3. The Epic of Baal the God of Thunder-a collection of Canaanite myth. The reason why I am doing this is because people in the "Hebrew Roots" movement like to talk more about "paganism" than they do about the Sacred Scriptures. AND-they put out a lot of inaccurate information-therefore, I have collected accurate information to dispel the myths about Canaanite myth.
  4. The Restoration of the Lost Ark-what the Ark of the Covenant looked like based on the latest archeological discoveries.
  5. A Chaplain in Iraq-a type of memoir
  6. Ka-blam comics: "Christ the Man," "Judas Maccabee," "A Soldier in Iraq" and Charles Martel


 

Foreign Trips?


 

Now that I am running out of money-they are becoming less likely-but I was planning three. 1. To Egypt to go through the Sinai-and to southern Egypt-but Egypt doesn't seem stable right now, 2. The Silk Road-I ran into my long lost Chinese friend-so maybe I can do the Silk Road thing after all, and 3. Malta-which might be the last bastion for Christianity if America falls to Obama.


 

The Last Ounce of Courage


 

I thought it was a good movie. It is basically a Christmas story dealing with the threats to freedom coming from the Left. The movie was a little bit amateurish regarding technical things and acting. But I think it conveyed some important truths. I think the plot was good. It was a little sluggish here and there-but if you are patient, I think the movie is good and has a very important message, so watching the whole movie is rewarding. I give it three stars. (Meaning it's good but not excellent.) But, I think every Christian needs to watch this movie. It does a very good job in dealing with freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Go watch it. If you don't see it in theaters-try to get the DVD for Christmas. It is a very good Christmas movie-hopefully, it will be available on DVD for Christmas. But watch it now. Basically, the story is about a small town mayor, who thinking about the death of his son in the War on Terror, decides to have the city celebrate Christmas, and has to face the ACLU down-he ends up being arrested, but the story does have a happy ending. What I liked about it was how it also had young people, kids in junior high school, standing up for religious freedom. People usually watch "It's a Wonderful Life" every Christmas-it is time to watch this movie every Christmas-at least until we wrest religious freedom back from the ACLU and other similar atheistic anti-American radical leftist hate-groups.


 

http://www.standusa.com/last-ounce-of-courage/


 

What is the 2012 election about? This is the most important election in America's history. The American people are going to decide if we will continue under the United States Constitution or not. The American people will choose to continue to abide by the Constitution with its limited government and its protection of freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and the freedom of religion or they will choose for America to be a totalitarian police state under Obama. If Obama wins-it will be unlikely if we have elections again-and if we do, they won't matter. America will be remade, as it has been being remade for the past four years, as a hard left country. If Obama is re-elected we will no longer be a free people and it will be impossible to change America through the electoral process. If the American people choose Obama-they are choosing a Marxist dictatorship. By bypassing Congress-the rule of law and the constitution to implement his new immigration policy-Obama has shown his true colors. He will not let the Constitution or anything else restrain his thirst for power. In 2008, the media pushed Obama and people got caught up in the Messianic zeal and mass hysteria and supported him without knowing who he really was. They should have known better-he clearly laid out his extremist views in his two autobiographies. Now many people do know better-as for the rest, there is no excuse. Now there is no question that Obama is a radical leftist. This is the reality: a vote for Obama is a vote against the Constitution. A vote for Obama is a vote against liberty, against religious liberty, against freedom of speech, against private gun ownership. A vote for Obama is a vote for tyranny-and the end of America as we have known it. The Democrats actually think that is a good thing because in their point of view-America is and has always been an evil country.

The choice the American people will make this November is whether or not we will continue to be a free country. If the American people vote for Obama there will be some hard consequences. America's experiment with democracy will be over. Obama is a highly educated damn fool-like many academics on the left today. Mark Steyn in "After America" clearly shows what will happen if Obama is re-elected. The United States will fracture into four countries or more-similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union. If Obama is re-elected it WILL happen. It may be inevitable. Perhaps though, Romney can buy us a little more time.

The Decline and Fall of Islam

I saw a picture of a Muslim woman holding a sign protesting the "Innocence of Muslims" movie. The sign said "1.5 Billion Muslims stand with the prophet." Well, now they have falling demographics. So, their numbers have already peaked. With their collapsing numbers, this means their chances of spreading Islam by out-breeding the rest of the world are going to fail. With this not working for them, what is their fall back plan? I mean, Muslim nations are the most backwards nations in the world. So, the Islamic world is going to have to change or die-and they have staked their existence upon resistance to change. Hence, the Islamic civilization will die. Once America becomes energy independent-which will happen very soon-Muslims will no longer have oil power. So, suddenly decline will hit them like a ton of bricks. In reality, the Islamic world has been in decline since 1492. In the 1940s, suddenly, the Islamic world had vast sources of wealth with their black gold. The Saudi used it to spread fanaticism. With vast riches from oil, they have fooled themselves into believing that Islam is the world's "manifest destiny." But in reality, the more these people turn to extremism, the more misery and suffering they are going to bring upon themselves. Islam is not the answer. Muslims are going to learn this hard fact through a lot of pain that they are bringing upon themselves-through their failed culture. It is really sad to see the Egyptians and others vote in Muslim Brotherhood governments-they are voting for war, poverty, and suffering-which is all these regimes have to offer. Hopefully, after an economic collapse and seeing that these extremist don't have the answer the people will moderate. This was about to happen in Gaza-but then the Turks intervened-and what they are really doing is prolonging the peoples' agony. If it wasn't for the Turks, the Gazans would have gotten rid of Hamas, moderated and began negotiations of peace with the Israelis. But the outside forces keep the Gazans from positive change. So, what are the Saudis going to do when they start running out of money? I suspect they will try to hold on power at all costs. These are NOT benevolent dictators. Once they go broke, they will stop giving money to radical Muslim organizations and put all the money into maintaining power-or escaping with what remains of the wealth. All this terrorism is very expensive. Once the petro-dollars dry up-a lot of this violence will stop. However, then the people will get desperate. They pinned all their hopes on radical Islam-and they will not only be no better for it-they will be the worse! All the violence and what will they get for it-poverty, backwardness, and economic stagnation. They will have brought it all upon themselves!

After writing this I discovered similar conclusions written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "As the latest wave of indignation sweeps across the Muslim world, we should not be despondent. Yes, this is a setback for the Arab Spring. Yes, it is bloody, dangerous, and chaotic on the streets. Yes, innocent people are dying and their governments are powerless. But this too shall pass. Utopian ideologies have a short lifespan. Some are bloodier than others. As long as Islamists were able to market their philosophy as the only alternative to dictatorship and foreign meddling, they were attractive to an oppressed polity. But with their election to office they will be subjected to the test of government. It is clear, as we saw in Iran in 2009 and elsewhere, that if the philosophy of the Islamists is fully and forcefully implemented, those who elected them will end up disillusioned. The governments will begin to fail as soon as they set about implementing their philosophy: strip women of their rights; murder homosexuals; constrain the freedoms of conscience and religion of non-Muslims; hunt down dissidents; persecute religious minorities; pick fights with foreign powers, even powers, such as the U.S., that offered them friendship. The Islamists will curtail the freedoms of those who elected them and fail to improve their economic conditions. After the disillusion and bitterness will come a painful lesson: that it is foolish to derive laws for human affairs from gods and prophets. Just like the Iranian people have begun to, the Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, and perhaps Syrians and others will come to this realization. In one or two or three decades we will see the masses in these countries take to the streets—and perhaps call for American help—to liberate them from the governments they elected. This process will be faster in some places than others, but in all of them it will be bloody and painful. If we take the long view, America and other Western countries can help make this happen in the same way we helped bring about the demise of the former Soviet Union. We must be patient. America needs to empower those individuals and groups who are already disenchanted with political Islam by helping find and develop an alternative. At the heart of that alternative are the ideals of the rule of law and freedom of thought, worship, and expression. For these values there can and should be no apologies, no groveling, no hesitation." This quote is from "Muslim Rage & The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate" in Newsweek, September 24, 2012. It looks like she is coming to a similar conclusion that I have. I was inspired by "How Civilizations Die (…and why Islam is dying too)" by David Goldman. This means that I will most likely live to see the fall of Islam. But, I think it will be a long bloody process-but like her I think it will take about 10-25 years and probably starting now. Regarding Ali's comment about "gods and prophets"-it is true when you are dealing with false gods and false prophets-as we are here.

Once Islam has collapsed, we will be able at last to have an honest conversation about it-and all the horrific things that they have done to Christians and non-Muslims for the past 1400 years. (Goldman says, "An educated twenty-five year old Iranian woman today probably grew up in a family of six or seven children, but will bear only one child." As of 2010, Iran's fertility rate stands at 1.7 children per woman. Decadence has enveloped the nation; drug use is rampant, and a sizable portion of the women work willingly as prostitutes. Paradoxically, this makes the Islamic world more dangerous, at least in the short term: "For in their despair, radical Muslims who can already taste the ruin of their culture believe that they have nothing to lose.") Millions have perished at the hands of Islamists for centuries. In the 20th century-over a million Armenians/Assyrians/Greeks were killed by Muslims in Turkey and three million Sudanese Christians in the Sudan. In Islam's last remaining decades, it is possible that millions more may die-but this time it could be millions of Muslims-killed by other Muslims and/or by war that Muslims have provoked through radicalism. So is it time for an epithet? "Islam: 610 A.D.-2042 A.D."

Ali has proven that it is in America's national interests to discard political correctness and begin implementing a strategy to save the Muslims and the world from the suffering that Islamism has brought, is bringing and will bring. We need to stop demonizing Western Civilization and start being honest about the historic and present evils of Islamic "civilization"-if that is what you want to call it. It is time for the Robert Spencer/Allen West approach. Unfortunately, the politically correct pseudo-Academic morons from the Ivy League Liberal extremist schools will oppose the Ali strategy tooth and nail-which will lead to more westerners and Muslims getting killed. Islam is going to fall. What we should be thinking is how we can minimize human suffering and death during the process.

When I was in Syria in 2001, a week before 9-11, I had a vision of the coming conflict and I felt that God told me that a war would soon begin in which Islam would end but at the end of it, although triumphant, America would only be a shadow of its former self. America would have a pyrrhic victory but Islam would be no more. Islam's fatal flaw is that it isn't a religion-it is a theocratic political system. That will be its demise.

Fox News: Ideology, political calculation put Obama in a bind on Muslim uprisings

The ongoing unrest in the Muslim world, including riots at multiple diplomatic outposts, chaos in unstable nuclear power Pakistan and attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is shaping up to be a bigger threat to President Obama's re-election bid than it first appeared. The threat to Obama's chances comes from the decision by him and his administration to declare the anti-American uprisings that began last week on Sept. 11 as spontaneous events triggered by YouTube clips of a unfinished movie that mocks the founder of Islam, Mohammed. Despite the timing of the attacks on the 9/11 anniversary and the growing influence of Islamists in the two countries where the uprising first began -- Libya and Egypt -- team Obama was adamant that the problem was a year-old Internet posting. Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, said on "FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace" that the attack in Libya, which involved multiple stages and heavy weaponry, "was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video." After adamantly refusing suggestions, including from the leaders of the government in Libya, that the attack in that country last week that claimed the lives of the U.S. ambassador and two former Navy SEALs were coordinated and pre-meditated, the Obama administration has now acknowledged the attack as a "terrorist" act. FOX News colleague Bret Baier was first to report that intelligence officials believe the attack was directly linked to al Qaeda and involved Sufyan Ben Qumu, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee tied to the financiers of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America. "Spontaneous" it clearly was not. Perhaps terrorists pushed the video to provide a chaotic environment in which to strike in Libya or harass American interests around the globe. But if it hadn't been this blaspheming of Mohammed, it surely would have been another, like the current turmoil about a cartoon in a French newspaper. There were apparently two main motivations for Obama to hew to the narrative that the video was the cause of the attacks and that the Libya uprising was spontaneous. First was ideological. The President and his team share the worldview that within the root cause of anti-American terrorism and aggression is the insensitivity and foreign policy of the United States. While conservatives hold that it is a corrupt ideology that hates American-style freedom and tolerance, liberals hold that American aggression and insensitivity gave rise to understandable grievances among Muslims then exploited by a radical few. Second was practical politics. One of Obama's main electoral strong suits has been the absence of any successful major terrorist attacks on his watch. The killing of Usama bin Laden and Obama's drone "kill list" have been held up left and right as proof that Obama is tough on Islamist terrorists and vigilant. Allowing any suggestion that his administration was blindsided by a terrorist plot, especially on Sept. 11, would have cut against the preferred narrative for his campaign that Obama is deadly and vigilant. It was not helpful, then, that one of the stories of the day immediately before the attacks was about how Obama had been eschewing in-person national security briefings, which allow for questions and answers with security officials, in favor of reading documents on his iPad while jetting between campaign events and fundraisers. Any questions about the prioritization of national security are unwelcome for any administration. Recall the furor over George W. Bush's vacationing before and after the 2001 attacks. That Obama would be cutting any corners on intelligence while making time for Beyonce, George Clooney and, apparently, a guy dressed like a pirate would undo some of the huge gains he has made in convincing voters that he was a war president. Add to the iPad flap the growing anxiety about a confrontation between Israel and rogue state Iran over the Iranian nuclear program. The current bind for the president is that the Israeli Prime Minister can't get a meeting with Obama while he is in the U.S. for a United Nations conclave. Again, the charge from conservatives is that Obama has time for fawning chat-show appearances and fundraisers, but not the key American ally in the Middle East. The president has been taking his intelligence briefings in person this week and made much of a lengthy phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the red team isn't relenting -- including a new Florida ad from conservative group Secure America Now featuring Netanyahu warning of an imminent attack from Iran. And while the political press hyperventilated over Republican nominee Mitt Romney's response to the initial uprising as being too sharp and too political, the accusation that Obama is an apologist for America who emboldens our enemies is far more damaging when voters see images of American flags burning around the globe. Ideology and political advantage seem to have driven team Obama to stake out an untenable position on the current troubles. In the days to come, the president will have to forgo the former and focus on politics alone as he seeks to put forward a tougher, more attuned and less apologetic-sounding foreign policy pose. ==============================================
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News, and his POWER PLAY column appears Monday-Friday on FoxNews.com. Catch Chris Live online daily at 11:30amET at http:live.foxnews.com. Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/20/ideology-political-calculation-put-obama-in-bind-on-muslim-uprisings/#ixzz272FrrQpl

Additional Comments on "The Innocence of Muslims"

  1. Why would a Coptic Christian make a movie attacking Mohammed? Because they have been victims of hatred and intolerance from Muslims for 1400 years and living under persecution has shaped their view of Islam. (NOTE: I have lived in Egypt.)
  2. In the past few decades 100s of Middle Eastern Christians and over a million Sudanese Christians are put to death-but you don't hear a thing about it from the News Media-now all they want to do is talk about a silly movie-claiming it's the Coptic peoples fault for provoking the Muslims!
  3. I will never forget 31 October 2010 when Islamic radicals killed almost everyone in a church in Baghdad. What provoked them to do this? The Assyrians in church believed it Jesus. That was the provocation. Basically, the provocation is that non-Muslims don't believe in Mohammed and they must be subjugated.
  4. While Middle Eastern Christians were being massacred by Muslims-Obama came out and said "restraint needs to be shown on both sides"! What-by the victims of genocide? This shows the great lengths Obama will go to protect Islam and why he is unfit to be president.
  5. This embassy attack is the culmination of Obama's Libya policy-he went to war in Libya to bring this about. On the other hand, the Libyan president seems to me to be very upset about the attack-but Obama doesn't give a damn-he is out partying in Vegas and with beyance and Jay-Z.
  6. The movie "Innocence of Muslims" was like Martin Scorcece's "Last Tempation of Christ" mixed with his "Cape Fear" in which his deranged Robert De Niro was a born again Christian serial killer mixed with two Saturday Night Live skits-Paul Simon's "Happy B-day Jesus" and SNL's Tim Tebow meets Jesus-but I am waiting for the police to arrest Martin Scorcece and the SNL crew- talk about "deliberately offensive."
  7. I think it is very disturbing that the Obama administration and the News Media are willing to sacrifice the Bill of Rights and free speech in order to appease mobs of violent Islamic extremists.
  8. A-Jazeera has done more to incite violence against America for the past 12 years but I haven't heard Obama complain about that.
  9. An Obama propaganda video entitled "Zero Dark Thirty" will be released soon-it portrays Obama single-handedly defeating Osama. There is no discussion about it "inciting" Muslims oddly enough.
  10. With these attacks-starting with 911, America is now experiencing what the Assyrians and other Christians of the Middle East have been experiencing for the past 1400 years.

Lucian the Assyrian

Another purported witness to ancient Canaanite myth is De Dea Syria or "On the Syrian Goddess" attributed to Lucian of Samosata. This ancient Greek book is disputed on two levels. Many scholars doubt that it was actually written by Lucian of Samosata and they also dispute that it accurately reflects Syrian religious beliefs and practices. In this writing, a temple in northern Syria and its rites are described. Lucian of Samosata (c. AD 125 – after AD 180) was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature. Although he wrote solely in Greek, he was ethnically Assyrian. In his works, Lucian refers to himself as a "Syrian", and "barbarian", perhaps indicating "he was from the Semitic and not the imported Greek population" of Samosata. Lucian was also one of the earliest novelists in Western civilization. In A True Story, a fictional narrative work written in prose, he parodied some fantastic tales told by Homer in the Odyssey and some feeble fantasies that were popular in his time. He anticipated "modern" fictional themes like voyages to the moon and Venus, extraterrestrial life and wars between planets, nearly two millennia before Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. His novel is widely regarded as an early, if not the earliest science fiction work. Lucian also wrote a satire called The Passing of Peregrinus, in which the lead character, Peregrinus Proteus, takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians. This is one of the earliest surviving pagan perceptions of Christianity. (Peregrinus Proteus was a real person who was a member of the Ebionite Jewish Christian community but was excommunicated.) His Philopseudes ("Lover of Lies or Cheater") is a frame story which includes the original version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. (This story was made popular by the Disney Cartoon featuring Micky Mouse.) Lucian almost certainly did not write all of the more than eighty works attributed to him — declamations, essays both laudatory and sarcastic, satiric epigrams, and comic dialogues and symposium with a satirical cast, studded with quotations in alarming contexts and allusions set in an unusual light, designed to be surprising and provocative. His name added luster to any entertaining and sarcastic essay: over 150 surviving manuscripts attest to his continued popularity. The first printed edition of a selection of his works was issued at Florence in 1499. His best known works are A True Story (a romance, patently not "true" at all, which he admits in his introduction to the story), and Dialogues of the Gods and Dialogues of the Dead. Lucian was trained as a rhetorician, a vocation where one pleads in court, composing pleas for others, and teaching the art of pleading. Lucian's practice was to travel about, giving amusing discourses and witty lectures improvised on the spot, somewhat as a rhapsode had done in declaiming poetry at an earlier period. In this way Lucian travelled through Ionia and mainland Greece, to Italy and even to Gaul, and won much wealth and fame. Lucian wrote Attic dialect with a facility almost equal to Plato. He further imitated Herodotus's Ionic dialect so successfully in his work The Syrian Goddess that some scholars refuse to recognize him as the author. Lucian is important as one of the earliest non-Christian historians to write about Jesus. Lucian of Samosata (Born 115 AD) was a well-known Greek satirist and traveling lecturer. More than eighty works bear his name. He mocks the followers of Jesus for their ignorance and credulity, although he does credit Christians with a certain level of morality. He is considered important to Christians for giving insight into the Historical Jesus. We have three quotes about Jesus and his followers. The first quote tells of the lore of the Christians, who worship a man crucified in Palestine because he introduced a new cult to the world. Lucian says, "He was second only to that one whom they still worship today, the man in Palestine who was crucified because he brought this new form of initiation into the world." He continues, "Having convinced themselves that they are immortal and will live forever, the poor wretches despise death and most willingly give themselves to it. Moreover, that first lawgiver of theirs persuaded them that they are all brothers the moment they transgress and deny the Greek gods and begin worshiping that crucified sophists and living by his laws." Lucian's final quote criticizes Christians, "They scorn all possessions without distinction and treat them as community property. They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time."

De Dea Syria ("Concerning the Syrian Goddess") is the conventional Latin title of a work, written in a Herodotean-style of Ionic Greek, which has been traditionally ascribed to the Hellenized Syrian essayist Lucian of Samosata. It is a description of the various religious cults practiced at Hierapolis Bambyce, now Manbij, in Syria. Because of its supposed connection to Lucian, whose reputation as a civilised witty scoffer is well born out by his many genuine essays and dialogues, the value of De Dea Syria as an authentic picture of religious life in Syria in the 2nd century has been unnecessarily diminished, as Lucinda Dirven demonstrated. De Dea Syria describes the orgiastic luxury of the sanctuary and the tank of sacred fish, of which Aelian also relates marvels. According to De Dea Syria, the worship was of a phallic character, votaries offering little male figures of wood and bronze. There were also huge phalli set up like obelisks before the temple, which were ceremoniously climbed once a year and decorated. The story begins with a re-telling of the Atrahasis flood myth where floodwaters are drained through a small cleft in the rock under the temple. For the rest the temple was of Ionic character with golden plated doors and roof, and much gilt decoration. Inside was a holy chamber into which only priests were allowed to enter. Here were statues of a goddess and a god in gold, but the first seems to have been the more richly decorated with gems and other ornaments. Between them stood a gilt xoanon, which seems to have been carried outside in sacred processions. Other rich furniture is described, and a mode of divination by movements of a xoanon of Apollo. A great bronze altar stood in front, set about with statues, and in the forecourt lived numerous sacred animals and birds (but not swine) used for sacrifice. Some three hundred priests served the shrine and there were numerous minor ministrants. The lake was the centre of sacred festivities and it was customary for votaries to swim out and decorate an altar standing in the middle of the water. Self-mutilation and other orgies went on in the temple precinct, and there was an elaborate ritual on entering the city and first visiting the shrine under the conduct of local guides.

How do you say "Word of God" in Aramaic?

It is relatively easy. It is "Miltha D'Alaha." Miltha means "Word." It is feminine in gender but refers to the masculine Jesus. (We shouldn't think of grammatical gender as always corresponding to our literal of physical genders.) Alaha means "god." In the Aramaic section of the book of Daniel, God is called "Al-law." When Jesus was on the cross, he says, (in Mark), "My God," which is transliterated as "Elahi." So, it is clear that the Arabic way of saying God is derived from the Aramaic. But the Islamic concept of God is vastly different to that which was taught by Jesus Christ.

Mel Gibson's Maccabee Movie

Gibson has also courted controversy with the production of Maccabees, which would tell the story of Judah Maccabee, the Jewish hero whose revolt against the Seleucid Empire is celebrated each Hannukah. The Anti-Defamation League condemned the project last fall.
Gibson recently butted heads with Maccabees screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, after Eszterhas wrote Gibson a letter that concluded, "you hate Jews." There is also a recording of Gibson unleashing on Eszterhas a tirade concerning his long-in-the-works script. Eszterhas is no longer attached to the project.
During his interview with ComingSoon.net, Gibson touched on his in-limbo Maccabees project, and shared his version of events, saying, "A guy gets paid to write a screenplay and doesn't turn anything in for 14 months. That's a serious problem. Not even an outline so I lost my nutter with him. I developed a Viking script almost a year after he started and I already had a second draft and he hadn't even given me an outline…. I DO want to make it [Maccabees] and I will make it. And that'll be a great film."

Obama's problematic quotes

Middle East crisis "noise" and death of ambassador "bumps on the road."

Obama born into privilege-not poverty http://video.foxnews.com/v/1850040483001/?intcmp=obinsite10-part report raises questions about narrative of Obama's early life Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/20/10-part-report-raises-questions-about-narrative-obama-early-life/#ixzz27UECBm5A

A newly published report raises questions about some established narratives in the early life of President Obama, suggesting the president's upbringing was one of privilege and not hardship. The Washington Examiner published a 10-part report detailing Obama's path to the White House. Some of the information appears to conflict with the narratives the Obamas and the Democratic Party have pushed, most recently at the party's convention in Charlotte. At the convention, Michelle Obama said they "were both raised by families who didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions." Examiner Executive Editor Mark Tapscott questioned that. "I'm sure he had a difficult childhood given the circumstances with his parents, but from a financial standpoint and social standpoint and so forth , it was not an underprivileged childhood," Tapscott said.

Foxnews: "It's not Islamophobia, it's Islamorealism."

A provocative ad that equates Muslim radicals with savages is set to go up in the city's subway system as violent protests over an anti-Islamic film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad sweep over much of the Muslim world. A conservative blogger who once headed a campaign against an Islamic center near the Sept. 11 terror attack site won a court order to post the ad in 10 subway stations next Monday. The ad reads, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad." The ad was plastered on San Francisco city buses in recent weeks, prompting some artists to deface the ads and remove some of the words, including "Jihad," or holy war. The blogger, Pamela Geller, said she filed suit Thursday in the nation's capital to post the ad in Washington's transit system after officials declined to put up the ad in light of the uproar in the Middle East over the anti-Islam film. Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and publisher of a blog called Atlas Shrugs, called an order by a federal judge in New York allowing the ads "a victory for the First Amendment" and said she wasn't concerned that her ad could spark protests like the ones against the depiction of Muslims in the video "Innocence of Muslims." Violence linked to the movie has left at least 30 people in seven countries dead, including the American ambassador to Libya. "If it's not a film it's a cartoon, if it's not a cartoon it's a teddy bear," she said. "What are you going to do? Are you going to reward Islamic extremism? I will not sacrifice my freedom so as not to offend savages." Geller, as head of a group called Stop Islamization of America, helped spur a monthslong campaign two years ago to remove a planned Islamic community center blocks from the World Trade Center site, which she called the "ground zero mosque." Plans to build a larger center are pending, although Muslims still have regular prayer services at a mosque in the building. Geller's group has also placed ads in Metro-North Railroad stations north of New York City that read: "It's not Islamophobia, it's Islamorealism." The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority hadn't seen Geller's lawsuit on Thursday, spokesman Dan Stessel said. The agency told Geller the ad would be "deferred" because of the ongoing violence in the Middle East, he said. [Deferred is a form of censorship. Recently, a privately owned business in Massachusetts placed anti-Obama ads on his private property. The city said they would file suit because the signs violated "zoning ordinances." If the signs were pro-Obama, I have no doubt that the city wouldn't sue. These are all tactics to get around the constitution and to violate free speech.] "To be clear, we have not rejected the ad," Stessel said, but "merely asked the advertiser to be sensitive to the timing of the placement out of a concern for public safety, given current world events." Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/20/anti-jihad-avage-ads-going-up-in-new-york-city-subway/?test=latestnews#ixzz276xiwzjV

Disgraceful!

The American Embassy in Islamabad, in a bid to tamp down public rage over the anti-Islam film produced in the U.S., is spending $70,000 to air an ad on Pakistani television that features President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denouncing the video. The State Department said Thursday the embassy had compiled brief clips of Obama and Clinton rejecting the contents of the movie and extolling American tolerance for all religions into a 30-second public service announcement that is running on seven Pakistani networks. Obama and Clinton's comments, which are from previous public events in Washington, are in English but subtitled in Urdu, the main Pakistani language. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/20/state-department-spending-70g-on-pakistan-ads-denouncing-anti-islam-film/#ixzz277049qcG

The anti-Mohammed movie had nothing to do with terrorist attacks-it turns out that the protesters at the American Embassy in Cairo were demanding the release of "the Blind Sheik"-who was behind the first WTC attack-and not protesting the movie. Most Muslims have learned about the movie from Obama-they seemed to be largely unaware of it until he began using it to divert the blame for the attack from Muslims and onto the United States. Obama's tactic in dealing with terror is to downplay it-he did it with the Fort Hood Shooter, The Christmas Diaper Bomber and with the 911 anniversary embassy attacks. NOTE: Obama will not allow the Fort Hood Bomber go to trail as long as he is president. He must protect his fellow Muslim.

A Muhammad cartoon a day
By
Daniel Pipes
Published September 21, 2012
FoxNews.com
When Salman Rushdie mocked Islamic sanctities in his magical 1989 realist novel "The Satanic Verses," Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini did something shockingly original: He issued a death edict on Rushdie and all those connected to the production of his book. By doing this, Khomeini sought to impose Islamic mores and laws on the West. We don't insult the prophet, he effectively said, and neither can you.

That started a trend of condemning those in the West deemed anti-Islamic that persists to this day. Again and again, when Westerners are perceived as denigrating Muhammad, the Koran, or Islam, Islamists demonstrate, riot or kill.
Khomeini's edict also had the unexpected side effect of empowering individuals – Western and Islamist alike – to drive their countries' policies.
Fleming Rose, a newspaper editor, created the greatest crisis for Denmark since World War II by publishing 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad. Florida pastor Terry Jones sowed panic among American commanders in Afghanistan by threatening to burn a Koran. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and friends prompted a crisis in U.S.-Egyptian relations with his amateurish "Innocence of Muslims" video. And the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo caused the French government to temporarily shut down
diplomatic missions in 20 countries. Plans by the German satirical magazine Titanicto publish attacks on Muhammad likewise led German missions to be closed.
On the Islamist side, an individual or group took one of these perceived offenses and turned it into a reason to riot. Khomeini did this with "The Satanic Verses." Ahmad Abu Laban did likewise with the Danish cartoons. Afghan President Hamid Karzai goaded his people to riot over burned Korans by American soldiers, and Egyptian preacher
Khaled Abdullah turned "Innocence of Muslims" into an international event.
Any Westerner can now buy a
Koran for a dollar
and burn it, while any Muslim with a platform can transform that act into a fighting offense. As passions rise on both sides of the divide, Western provocateurs and Islamist hotheads have found each other, as confrontations occur with increasing frequency.
Which prompts this question: What would happen if publishers and managers of major media outlets reached a consensus -- "Enough of this intimidation, we will publish the most famous Danish Muhammad cartoon every day, until the Islamists tire out and no longer riot"? What would happen if Korans were recurrently burned?
Would repetition inspire institutionalization, generate ever-more outraged responses, and offer a vehicle for Islamists to ride to greater power? Or would it lead to routinization, to a wearing out of Islamists, and a realization that violence is counter-productive to their cause?
I predict the latter. A Muhammad cartoon published each day, or Koranic desecrations on a quasi-regular basis, would make it harder for Islamists to mobilize Muslim mobs. Westerners could then once again treat Islam as they do other religions – freely, to criticize without fear. That would demonstrate to Islamists that Westerners will not capitulate, that they reject Islamic law, that they are ready to stand up for their values.
So, this is my plea to all Western editors and producers: Display the Muhammad cartoon daily, until the Islamists become accustomed to the fact that we turn sacred cows into hamburger.
Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum.
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/21/muhammad-cartoon-day/#ixzz279E5ZzSt

An organized Al-Qaida attack-not a spontaneous demonstration About 100 attackers carried out a "coordinated assault" last week on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, intelligence sources tell Fox News, further discrediting earlier Obama administration claims that the deadly attack was a "spontaneous" outburst in response to an anti-Islam film.
Fox News' sources say the attack came in two waves and involved rocket-propelled grenades, as well as mortar fire, and both the consulate and safe house were attacked seemingly with inside knowledge.
Libyan officials are now "absolutely convinced" the attack was preplanned, sources say, adding to recent indications that Al Qaeda was involved, specifically a former Guantanamo detainee named Sufyan Ben Qumu.
Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in the strike, which occurred on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, initially described the attack on the consulate as spontaneous with little evidence of a well-planned assault. Administration officials also pointed to the anti-Islam film that has fueled protests in the Mideast against the United States, suggesting the consulate attack may have begun as one of those protests and escalated.
But this week, the administration began shifting its explanations for the attack, with National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen testifying before the Senate on Wednesday that it was a "terrorist attack."
Carney followed up by saying for the first time Thursday that it was "self evident" that the attack was an act of terrorism, but President Obama seemed to backtrack a bit when pressed later that day by a TV interviewer. Obama did not reference terrorism, instead invoking the controversial film, which some analysts have said is being used as a tool of extremists to incite violence.
Qumu, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee, is a Libyan who was released from the U.S. prison in Cuba in 2007 and transferred into Libyan custody on the condition he be kept in jail. He was released by the Qaddafi regime as part of its reconciliation effort with Islamists in 2008. [Amazing! Released from prison in about one year!-and released to kill more Americans.]
His Guantanamo files also show he has ties to the financiers behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The declassified files also point to ties with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a known Al Qaeda affiliate.

Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/21/consulate-attack-in-libya-entailed-coordinated-assault-involving-100-sources/#ixzz279Nfxs6l

The Librarian of Basra-(This is a children's book that portrays American soldiers burning down libraries and tormenting elderly women.) I was deployed to Iraq twice. I was in Basra when this story is purported to have taken place. When I returned from Iraq, I was substitute teaching and I read this book. This book is an attack on me and all the soldiers who served in Iraq. I believe it is all a vicious lie-and anti-American propaganda. I think this book can be emotionally harmful to children. Children in an American classroom could have a parent, sibling, or aunt or uncle who has served or is serving in combat and this book portrays our heroes as vicious monsters terrorizing an old woman and burning down libraries. I was in Basra, and I can tell you from experience, we weren't burning down libraries there. Its a darn lie. How do you think a child feels when the teacher tells them that their family member, whom they love and admire, are doing all of these terrible things? In response to this book, I wrote "A Soldier in Iraq" for children, so that they can know what we were really doing in Iraq and what it is like to be deployed, so I can explain it to them at a child's level and perhaps calm their fears and anxieties. I rate this book "NO STARS"-its garbage. Drawings of our American heroes in this book gives them a demonic appearance. This book can be emotionally harmful and damaging to children whose family members serve in the armed forces and I know from experience-it is not a true story. [[ASIN:1456338153 A Soldier in Iraq]]

News stories about Copts-I have been to Egypt three times and I have seen the persecution of Copts myself. I have been trying for twenty-years to create awareness. And it is almost impossible. Even after mass killing of Copts by rabid Islamic radicals-the Liberal News Media isn't interested. But now, I haven't ever seen as many news stories about the Copts and who they are. I guess the key to creating awareness is to create low-budget anti-Mohammed/anti-Islamic movies.

Coptic Orthodox Church braces for backlash

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1843918032001/coptic-orthodox-church-braces-for-backlash

Q&A: Coptic Christians on film sparking protests

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/14/qa-coptic-christians-on-film-sparking-protests/

Egypt's Christians anxious, anticipate troubles

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/14/egypt-christians-anxious-anticipate-troubles/

It is time for Hillary Clinton to Resign by Arthur Herman

"This is Libya's moment. This is Libya's victory and the future belongs to you."

--Hillary Clinton, October 17, 2011 That was our Secretary of State on a visit to Libya almost a year ago, when administration was touting the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi as its biggest foreign policy triumph after killing Usama Bin Laden–and the success of "leading from behind." Well, now we know that leading from behind was just the excuse for a policy of weakness and passivity–and the cost of that weakness in American prestige and lives, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Remember that Hillary Clinton ad in the 2008 presidential campaign, about who we would want answering that phone call to the Oval Office at 3 a.m.? Now we can assume she would answer the same way she's handled this Libyan debacle: with weakness, prevarication, and stunning misjudgment. As details leak out about the events leading up to the brutal murder of Stevens and three other Americans, it's becoming obvious the State Department knowingly put Stevens in danger of his life, and Secretary Clinton needs to take the lion's share of the blame. After all, Benghazi was no remote tropical post. Clinton was the first cabinet-level visitor to Libya back in October after Qaddafi's fall. Libya has been a major focus of the administration's policy on the Arab Spring, which has been to get the US out of the way and let the locals run wild. All the talk has been about the success of America's hands off policy in Libya, even as armed militias were not only roaming the streets but taking over security, including supposedly protecting our consulate in Benghazi. The British knew better. A rocket-propelled grenade attack on an embassy motor convoy on June 11 in Benghazi led them to close their consulate there, but ours stayed open even after someone exploded a bomb nearby five days before. Then as the September 11 anniversary loomed, nervous Libyan officials issued a warning to the American embassy three days beforehand about the danger of an attack–a warning Clinton and the State Department ignored. Ambassador Stevens himself was worried. Pages from his diary found by CNN note his fears about security threats, a rise in Islamic extremism in Libya, and even that he might be on a Islamist "hit list." Yet the State Department still gave him no security detail for his visit to Benghazi–and the two Navy SEALs who died at his side had volunteered to help, since no one from the State Department was stepping up. Finally, diplomatic sources say forty-eight hours before the attack State Department officials got "credible intelligence" that there might be attacks on US diplomatic missions on the 9/11 anniversary: yet did nothing to alert anyone in Libya, Cairo, or anywhere else. Then Secretary Clinton compounded her failure by insisting, even after the Libyan president said there was no doubt the Benghazi attack was "coordinated" and "preplanned, " that the deaths were the result of spontaneous demonstrations caused by a six-month old You Tube video, not by our failed policy and State's crass negligence. Almost a week after our government's head of the Counterterrorism Center admitted to Congress it was a "terror attack," she's said nothing to correct her version of events. In fact, the weekend after the murders, as that version was steadily unraveling, she let UN ambassador Susan take the flack-and perpetuate the lie. So what's Hillary been doing lately? Appearing on Pakistani TV in a groveling apology for that same video–even as Pakistanis were rioting in the streets, killing 14 and wounding 70; the Al Qaeda flag has been raised over the US embassy in Cairo; and Libya is racing closer to chaos and civil war. The Secretary of State is the person most responsible for how the United States presents itself to other nations–and protecting those who do that job for us. In normal times, under a normal president, Hillary Clinton's performance on both would be enough to force her to step down. But these aren't normal times. So for now, she's still at the helm at State-- to our nation's shame.
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/24/it-time-for-hillary-clinton-to-resign/#ixzz27RGapv3f

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Exploring the Jewish Roots of Jesus


 

 By
Stephen Andrew Missick

 
 

A Misunderstood Jew

A recent book about the Jewish roots of Jesus is entitled “A Misunderstood Jew.” This title can be problematic. Is Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the Christ? No, he is just “misunderstood.” Another book with the same theme is “Kosher Jesus.” In this book the author argues that Jesus wasn’t the Redeemer and the Savior of Mankind-he was a Jewish patriot. So some people obviously have some concerns about this new approach to Jesus and Judaism. (The book “Kosher Jesus” was debunked by Dr. Michael Brown.)

On the other hand, a popular misconception of Jesus was that he rejected Judaism and fought against it. This idea is that Jesus came to abolish Judaism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Another book series has the title “A Marginal Jew.” What does this mean-that Jesus wasn’t truly Jewish-but that his Jewishness and practice of Judaism was marginal? What the author means is that Jesus was a Jew who was marginalized by his society-mostly through Roman oppression.

But, how was Jesus Jewish? What does it mean when we say that Jesus was a Jew? What are the ramifications of this for Christians? These are questions that Christians need to ask themselves.

What does it mean when we say “Jesus was Jewish”?

In “The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant” John Dominic Crossan argues that Jesus was heavily influenced by Greek culture and that he belonged to the Greek philosophical school of the Cynics. However, let us look at the Jesus of the Gospels. In several places Jesus is quoted speaking in Aramaic. The only reason that Jesus was quoted speaking in this language must be because it was the language he spoke-and not Greek. So, Jesus is someone who speaks and thinks in a Semitic language.

We know the names of Jesus’ brothers-Jacob, Simon, Joseph and Judah. These are good Jewish names. In Matthew and Luke we have family trees of Jesus, showing that he was of Jewish descent-and that he was a descendent of King David.

Examining Christ’s teachings, it is obvious that his thinking was shaped by the Hebrew Scriptures-and not by Greek thought.  On the other hand, I don’t think we should demonize or unfairly disparage Greek thought. Anyone who reads the Greek classics will learn to expand their thinking. I do find many of the teachings of Plato disturbing but he was a great thinker that has had a huge impact on history. Plato isn’t the end all and be all of Greek thinking. Aristotle challenged many of the ideas of Plato and many other Greeks had powerful ideas.

Jesus grew up in the traditional Jewish homeland and surrounded by the Jewish way of life. Jesus grew up in the synagogue and would go on pilgrimages to the Temple.

What does it mean to be a Jew-in the first century?

Judaism in the first century was different from Judaism of today. But there is one similarity-Judaism was very diverse. There wasn’t one institution that said what was Jewish and what wasn’t. The different sects strongly opposed each other.

Pharisees: Probably the largest and strongest sect. They believed in angels and demons, heaven and hell.

Sadducees: This sect was the priestly elite. They believed that this life was the only life and the Temple ritual must be the focus of this earthly life since it was commanded by God on Mount Sinai.

Essenes: These were monks who lived in the wilderness practicing baptismal rituals. They were said to be vegetarian.

The Yahad: The community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. A unique and independent Jewish sect.

Zealots: Jews that believed that they had to sacred duty to fight the Romans.

There may have been many other groups that we don’t know about.

An example is the Mandaeans-The Mandaeans are a Gnostic sect centered in Iraq and Iran-who venerate John the Baptist. They do not practice circumcision-but this group is obviously an offshoot of Judaism.

The Temple played an important role in Judaism. Today, Judaism is focused on the study of the Law-to an extent that was also true at the time of Jesus. However, the Temple played a huge role in Judaism in the first century. There is no Temple and hasn’t been for 2,000 years so it is hard for us to grasp what a Temple centered Judaism was like. Probably the closest thing would be the Hajj to Mecca that Muslims have to take. Jews were required to go to Jerusalem three times a year. Now, this really was no longer practical or possible when you have an international Jewish diaspora. At the time of Jesus, as is true today, more Jews lived outside of the Holy Land than lived within the Holy Land. These Greek Jews would make pilgrimage to Jerusalem during their lifetimes-but obviously not three times a year every year as the Torah dictates.

However, some Jews did not participate in Temple worship. The Yahad thought that the rituals in the temple were not valid because they were being incorrectly observed. According to the Bible, John the Baptist stayed in the wilderness his whole life. This means that John did not leave the wilderness to go into the city of Jerusalem. Also, a vegetarian Jew isn’t going to partake of animals slaughtered in the Temple. John did eat bugs and honey. The Bible says that is all he ate. So, John didn’t eat meat.

People of the Book

People tend to think that things have pretty much always been the way they are now. Today, it is an assumption that everyone can read. We cannot imagine the high illiteracy rates that existed in the ancient world. We are a wealthy people and can afford to teach all of our children how to read. But in ancient times people didn’t have the leisure or the wealth to teach all their children how to read. Literacy rates were probably 10%. If the literacy rates of the Jewish people were twice as high as non-Jews that would mean that only 20% of Jewish men could read. This is most likely the case. Over 50% of Jewish men were illiterate. We see this confirmed in the teachings of Jesus. He said, “You have heard it said…but I say unto you…” The reason the crowds had “heard it said” was that they could not read and they heard people recite things to them-or listened while things were read to them.

At the time of Jesus-they pretty much had the Old Testament we have today. The canon wasn’t totally settled-so apocryphal books such as Enoch  and Tobit may have been considered part of Scripture at least by some Jewish communities at that time.

Jews at the time of Jesus had two “problems” in dealing with the Old Testament. Most of the common Jewish people spoke only Aramaic. And although Hebrew and Aramaic are very similar-they couldn’t understand it. (For example, the King James Bible and Shakespeare are considered to be in Modern English-but many people cannot understand them.) So, there are two barriers between them and the Hebrew Bible-first it is in a language, that although they consider it a “holy” language, they cannot understand it. Secondly, they couldn’t read the language. So, the Bible had to be translated into Aramaic-and it was. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Aramaic Bible translations, called Targums (literally Targumim) were discovered. But for most Jews the Targums were an oral form of the Bible. And it should be remembered that the Bible itself started off as an oral document. The Bible is made up of stories that were told and prophecies that were spoken.

The reciting of the Aramaic Targums became an important part of Synagogue services.

The Jewish people did highly value reading, education and study. This is evidenced by their treasures that they hid in the caves during the Jewish War. Their treasures were their books.

But, most of the Jews were poor people who lived in an agricultural society. Even though many of them couldn’t read, they could listen to the Bible being read or recited in the Aramaic targum form. So, many of the Jews did know the stories of the Bible, although most of them were unable to read it for themselves. Jesus is depicted in the Gospels as a man who could read and write and who was well read in the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings.

Jesus and the Land

Part of someone’s national temperament is connected to the land in which they lived. For example, if Mozart had been born or raised in Italy as opposed to Germany, he still would have been a musical genius but his music would have had a different temperament to it.

Having been to Israel and lived in the Galilee, I got a feel of Jesus in the land. The land of Israel, and of Galilee, were part of who Jesus was. The area around the Sea of Galilee is a beautiful, tranquil and spiritual place. Jesus often refers to his environment, and the daily life of people within that environment. Jesus says, “See how the wild flowers grow…” He says to watch the birds how they don’t toil or spin-but God provides for them. He talks about shepherds, farmers and fishermen in his parables.

Did Jesus Bring Change?


Did Jesus bring change or not? Some Messianics/Hebrew Roots people think that Jesus did not. But if Jesus did bring change-what change did he bring? How did he change things? Now, most people seem to agree that Jesus “fulfilled” the animal sacrifice system by dying upon the cross. Now that Jesus died on the cross we no longer kill animals so that we may receive forgiveness of sins. But, is that the only reason Jesus came?

Why Did Jesus Come?

What was Christ’s mission? Was it to affirm the law of Moses? Or was it to redeem mankind? Or could Jesus have done both? After all, Moses appeared with Jesus upon the mountain of transfiguration. Did Jesus come to teach people about how to grow their hair, what diet to keep, how to observe holidays or what type a clothing to wear-or was Jesus more interested in what was in the heart of a man?

What should be our focus?  Paul said, “I am determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.”

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Andrew Missick

About the Author

Reverend Stephen Andrew Missick is the author of The Assyrian Church in the Mongol Empire, Mar Thoma: The Apostolic Foundation of the Assyrian Church in India, and Socotra: The Mysterious Island of the Church of the East which were published in the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (Volume XIII, No. 2, 1999, Volume XIV, No. 2, 2000 and Volume XVI No. 1, 2002). He is the author of The Words of Jesus in the Original Aramaic: Discovering the Semitic Roots of Christianity, Mary of Magdala: Magdalene, the Forgotten Aramaic Prophetess of Christianity, Treasures of the Language of Jesus: The Aramaic Source of Christ’s Teaching, Aramaic: The Language of Jesus of Nazareth and Christ the Man. He is an ordained minister of the gospel. He graduated from Sam Houston State University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Rev. Missick has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and has lived among the Coptic Christians in Egypt and Aramaic Christians in Syria. He also served as a soldier in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004. While serving as a soldier in Iraq he learned Aramaic from native Aramaic-speaking Iraqi Assyrian Christians. Rev. Missick is the writer and illustrator of the comic book “The Assyrians: The Oldest Christian People,” the comic strip Chronicles: Facts from the Bible and the comic book series The Hammer of God which are available from www.comixpress.com. The Hammer of God comic book series dramatizes the stories of Judah Maccabee and Charles Martel. He has also served as a chaplain in the Army National Guard in Iraq during his second deployment in 2009 and 2010.

PO Box 882, Shepherd, Texas, 77371


YOUTUBE CHANNEL: www.youtube.com/aramaic12

 

King of Saints Tabernacle: Messianic Congregation

2228 FM 1725

Cleveland, TX 77328

(218)592-4104

American citizen arrested in the USA for exercising his constitutional freedom of speech.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula arrested!

A sad day for America. I never thought I would see this day. You can now be arrested in America for what you say, think and believe. This is OBAMA’s Amerika.

Middle Eastern Christian arrested in the USA for violating Sharia “Blasphemy” laws.  Now the oppressed people of the world know that America is not a place to flee to in order to find freedom. There is no longer ANY escape from the long arm of Islamic fanaticism.

This Coptic Christian was dragged out by police in the middle of the night because he violated Islam’s Sharia law by “insulting the prophet” and was taken into police custody. Law enforcement and the news media exposed his identity because they want terrorists to find and kill his for questioning Islam.

 

 

From USA TODAY: “We must have laws against questioning Islam in America and those who criticize Islam must be arrested” by Anthea Butler-associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

[NOTE: Originally the producer and director of the movie “Innocence of Muslims” was believed to be a Sam Bacile.] Words have consequences. I know that because one of my tweets asking "when Sam Bacile would be arrested" drew wide attention on Wednesday. My initial tweet about Bacile, the person said to be responsible for the film mocking the prophet Mohammed, was not because I am against the First Amendment. My tweets reflected my exasperation that as a religion professor, it is difficult to teach the facts when movies such as Bacile's Innocence of Muslims are taken as both truth and propaganda, and used against innocent Americans. If there is anyone who values free speech, it is a tenured professor! So why did I tweet that Bacile should be in jail? The "free speech" in Bacile's film is not about expressing a personal opinion about Islam. It denigrates the religion by depicting the faith's founder in several ludicrous and historically inaccurate scenes to incite and inflame viewers. Even the film's actors say they were duped. Bacile's movie is not the first to denigrate a religious figure, nor will it be the last. The Last Temptation of Christ was protested vigorously. The difference is that Bacile indirectly and inadvertently inflamed people half a world away, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Embassy personnel. Bacile's movie does not excuse the rioting in Libya and Egypt, or the murder of Americans. That is deplorable. Unfortunately, people like Bacile and Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who provoked international controversy by burning copies of the Quran, have a tremendous impact on religious tolerance and U.S. foreign policy. Case in point: Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Jones on Wednesday to ask him to stop promoting Bacile's film. Clearly, the military considers the film a serious threat to national security. If the military takes it seriously, there should be consequences for putting American lives at risk. While the First Amendment right to free expression is important, it is also important to remember that other countries and cultures do not have to understand or respect our right. My condolences and prayers go out to the families of the U.S. Embassy employees killed in Libya.

My commentary: Colleges and universities are the places most hostile to free speech in America-with their politically correct speech codes. This was discussed in a recent edition of this newsletter. This points out another important fact-liberal and Obama suck-ups in the military. After the Fort Hood terrorist attack –the general was more concerned about maintaining “diversity” than he was about the loss of the lives of our soldiers. These jerks are Obama appointees who carry out his anti-American agenda.

Obama called Google and asked them to remove the 15 minute excerpts from “Desert Warriors/The Innocence of Islam.” So here we have the state arresting citizens for the crime of free speech and carrying out censorship. Supposedly, the video is still up-but I can’t find it. It bothers me that one company-Google, which is a radical leftist company that attacks and disparages conservatives on its search engine-I have seen this myself-now owns YouTube. This means censorship can be carried out as a matter of corporate policy. Some of the scenes in “Innocence of Muslims” were satirical-however, other scenes were not “historically inaccurate” but were rather accurate portrayals of the life of Mohammed derived from history and Islamic sources.

NEWS STORY: “Sam Bacile”

As outrage over the anti-Muslim film "Innocence of Muslims" spreads across the Middle East, police were sent to the California home of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the film's producer, who according to authorities is frightened for his life. Sheriff's deputies were sent to the Cerritos, California home of Nakoula, 55, Thursday to protect him and his family, a senior law enforcement official told ABC News. According to a sheriff, the police were at Nakoula's home overnight Thursday but have now left, as media reports identifying him as the man behind "Innocence of Muslims," and listing his address, have circulated. According to California law enforcement officials, Nakoula, who is also known to authorities as Bacily Nakoula, was frightened for his life and "scared of retaliation" against his family. Sheriffs from the Cerritos police station were sent to his home to keep Nakoula safe and to provide a uniformed presence to assist the members from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, official reports said. Nakoula told the Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles that he was manager for the company that produced "Innocence of Muslims." He denied he directed the film and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, identified only as "Sam Bacile." But the cell phone number that the AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as "Bacile" traced to the same Southern California address where the AP found Nakoula. A senior official said that they also had sent local law enforcement officers to the production company "Media for Christ" in Duarte, California to keep watch on the facility, which authorities said was affiliated with making the film that has been a trigger for anti-U.S. violence and protest in several countries. Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution and serve 21 months in prison. Outrage over the "Innocence of Muslims" film has spread across the Middle East as protesters have rushed the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, while further demonstrations broke out outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. On Tuesday, protesters in Cairo, Egypt, scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy and tore down the American flag in an angry demonstration against the film that depicts the founder of Islam as a fraud and a womanizer.

President Obama, stop blaming the victim for Mideast violence by Kirsten Powers

"Disgusting and reprehensible." said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Truly abhorrent," an outraged White House official told an international conference. Were they talking about the murder of four Americans in Libya? Or perhaps the hoisting of an Islamist flag over the U.S. Embassy in Cairo? No. For that they stuck to diplomatic speak. For the president, the harshest language was: "I strongly condemn the outrageous attack." For Clinton it was that the US is heartbroken and she condemned "this senseless act of violence." But "disgusting and reprehensible" and "truly abhorrent " were reserved for an amateurish and silly film by someone nobody has ever heard of.  In fact, what is "disgusting and reprehensible" is that there are people in the world who think they are justified in attacking and killing people because someone hurt their feelings or offended their sensibilities. The US government should not act as a validator or enabler of this upside down worldview, which is exactly what the Obama administration has done repeatedly as they have responded to these abhorrent attacks against the United States.  I have defended the Obama administration against the complaints from the right that they have run an "apology tour" in the Middle East because I believe the US should admit when we make mistakes, such as the accidental burning of Korans. But what we shouldn't do is affirm the wrongheaded view that people should be protected from the free speech of others.

Worse, our leaders shouldn't let our enemies know that when they kill our people and attack our embassies that the US Government will act like a battered wife making excuses for her psychotic husband. Wake up: we weren't attacked because of a movie made by an American. We were attacked because there are crazy religious fanatics who hate the United States. We didn't ask for it. Egypt's President Morsi reportedly asked Obama "to put an end to such behavior"—presumably freedom, constitutional rights and the like -- as it led to the making of, in his eyes, the offensive movie. Obama has no legal recourse but our president seems to be acquiescing to Morsi’s request by trying to silence the movie-maker through verbal intimidation, including a call from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dempsey who asked Pastor Terry Jones to withdraw his support for the film. Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the FBI was dispatched to Hollywood to uncover the identity of the filmmaker. (Don't they have real terrorists to catch? I'll be looking for the administration's condemnations next for the selling of the DVD of “The Da Vinci Code,” the blockbuster American movie that claims Jesus had sex with Mary Magdalene.) Team Obama’s unseemly groveling to violent extremists has been cloaked in a newfound concern on the left for respecting religious sensibilities. Tuesday, a liberal professor argued in USA Today that the maker of the Mohammed film should be arrested.  President Obama said in the Rose Garden: "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others" and Clinton asserted that, "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others." Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough endorsed efforts to create "a world where the dignity of all people—and all faiths—is respected." Apparently our foreign policy is now being run by Dr. Phil. Someone needs to explain to the White House that our Constitution protects freedom of religion from government interference, not the protection from people who say mean, critical or offensive things about one's religion. But if this is truly their new position, then they have a lot to be outraged about right here at home. Remember Amanda Marcotte, one of the left's top bloggers and a columnist for the left-wing Guardian who chose last Easter -- the holiest day of the Christian calendar -- to chime "Happy Jeebus Day"? She once asked: "What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit? [Answer]: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology." Then there was the tweet last year by Bill Maher about Tim Tebow during a particularly bad game: "Wow, Jesus just f----- #TimTebow bad! And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is Tebowing, saying to Hitler "Hey, Buffalo's killing them." This was so offensive that President Obama's PAC still managed to take a million dollars from this man to help finance his reelection. If Christians had burned down Maher's house in response, would the administration put out a statement condemning the violence but pointing out that he should have respected the religious beliefs of others?  Of course not. Nor would anyone want that. But that is what the administration keeps doing with their responses to the attacks in the Middle East. The condemnations are paired in with claims about respecting religious beliefs, which is implicit sympathy for the claims of some of the attackers and rioters. It’s time for the Obama administration to stop blaming the victim. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/14/president-obama-stop-blaming-victim-for-mideast-violence/?intcmp=trending#ixzz26jtUboFe

The Five on “The Innocence of Muslims” http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/the-five/transcript/should-hollywood-defend-anti-muslim-film

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So, the U.S. and Hezbollah finally agreed it's our fault, not theirs. But this rush to blame what's been called the U.S.-made film raises some question like where is Alec Baldwin? Why is he so quiet? Isn't freedom of expression the default cocktail chatter of the Hollywood artiste? Chances are, the only way to get Hollywood to defend the filmmaker would be if he's suddenly did a sequel showing that Christians kidnapped orphans for food. But if you think art can make people kill, then shouldn't you support art control? Carrying a concealed haiku would require a license. How about a five-day waiting period for tasteful etchings? See, this isn't about the acts of terror but a response to them. Blaming that video for unrest is like blaming the Fort Hood massacre on the workplace violence. It's moral cowardice. A refusal to confront our enemies because then you must reject your own assumptions about evil America. Repeat after me -- it's them, not us, which runs counter to teacher lounge logic that stains the White House. If it's our fault, why aren't the Muslims rioting in the U.S.? Maybe because our government doesn't orchestrate it. Only the media would think Mitt Romney's response is scarier than our appeasement. This is not war for Islam's hearts and minds, but for our lungs and kidneys. We cannot forfeit our Western principles to appease haters. But it's the media, the champions of free expression doing just that. They track the filmmaker down and justify the anti-West outrage on heels of romanticizing its sister scam, Occupy Wall Street. And why? Because it's all they know. Cultivated on the college campus, the only thing that stuck was a disgust for American strength.

There's a reason Bill Ayers never bombed a college. Those were his hearts and minds.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Nice. Great analogy. GUTFELD: Where is the ACLU? (CROSSTALK) GUTFELD: Respond with facts. Don't ask me --BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: All right. When you say college campuses and teacher lounge, you're assuming that all college campuses are appeasers? GUTFELD: Eighty percent of college campuses are overwhelmingly liberal. The professors have tenure, allowing them to profess ideas that no real American would even care about. The anti-Americanism is born in universities. That's where it comes from. And it bleeds into the government civil servants, and that's why we have this now. There's nobody in the White House, there's nobody in academic who actually thinks our government is not at fault. BECKEL: But you are suggesting that bureaucrats who work for government are anti-American? GUTFELD: No. I'm saying that they were born and bred in an environment which taught them that way. Most professors, study show, are overwhelmingly left wing. This is where you get the attitude. ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: Which is so fascinating because the media that makes a living and is supposed to be embracing free speech is somehow apologizing for it, which I find to be very, very --DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: The Hollywood non-response is bizarre. They talk about everything all the time. All of a sudden, they've gone mute. GUTFELD: Yes. PERINO: Which is more telling than anything they --GUTFELD: And actually kind of a relief. It's nice not to hear from them.

BOLLING: I don't want to cut you off. Can we throw the picture up of the filmmaker again? We saw like in disguise and the cops are leading him out.

To me, America changed.

PERINO: I agree.

BOLLING: Someone e-mailed that picture. Mark Levin actually sent this to me. Take a look at this. America changed at that moment. To use what is called a flimsy ploy to bring a guy in for questioning, proves that the Obama administration, through all his appeasement and the apologizing, answers to the Koran first and to the Constitution second.

BECKEL: Oh, c'mon. That's just outrageous statement. Even for you that's outrageous statement. (CROSSTALK) BECKEL: Of all the things you said and I love you, brother, but that's the most outrageous thing you have said! BOLLING: Why was he brought in? (CROSSTALK) BECKEL: He was brought in because he's investigated for parole dumping, that's why. (CROSSTALK) GUTFELD: Suddenly, they find his parole. BECKEL: I agree with that. But I'll tell you one thing, if he had any sense -- this is a guy who's apparently a Coptic Christian. I can understand why they're outraged because --GUTFELD: You defended them. BECKEL: That's right. I have.  But that does not mean that I would have suggested to him that they put together a film like this that was bound to incite an incitable group of people. GUTFELD: He should do anything he wants. If he wants to make a movie --PERINO: How many high school students tried to put together this weekend a movie more outrageous than that one? Then what are we going to do? Call in, everybody? GUTFELD: By the way, you only incite more violence if you prove to them that violence works. OK, we're going to apologize and they know by killing Americans, this is how you shut Americans. TANTAROS: Or that it's wrong. They say, look, the administration is actually agreeing with us. PERINO: And they can go back to the coffee clutches and say, see, we got America to arrest the guy. That's the picture. Do you think -- this is the -- this is the picture all over the Middle East today. GUTFELD: Yes. (CROSSTALK) GUTFELD: I got to tell you -- I love the New York Post. They are opened by our parent company. But this ticks me off. Sunday, I buy The Post and drink coffee, they have "Cinemaniac." And they probably did this because they love the headline. But this is so bogus. I mean, they say he -- this is the loon who set fire to Muslim world. No, the Muslim set fire to Muslim world. TANTAROS: They need this excuse, because don't forget, this is embarrassing to the administration. Al Qaeda had better intelligence than we did. And eight weeks before a presidential election, it's successful terrorist attack when we drop the ball does not look good for the president. That's why they keep making an issue of this video. Lame. BECKEL: We want to encourage people with the free speech they want. But listen, in a reasonable world, would we want to encourage people to do this film when we know the results --PERINO: No one encouraged him.BOLLING: Hold on. GUTFELD: I'm reasonable. You can't be unreasonable.  PERINO: I think that the administration should demand that Sony cancel the release of the killing bin Laden film or else you don't know what's going to happen. GUTFELD: It's a good point. PERINO: How many Americans could die after that? BOLLING: If you tell that man he or anybody else can't make a film like this Muslim --BECKEL: Nobody said -- I didn't say he couldn't make it. (CROSSTALK) BOLLING: Shouldn't. BECKEL: Shouldn't. I don't think he should have. BOLLING: That's right. BECKEL: Of course he has the right to do it. But that doesn't mean that you also have the right, I guess, to yell "fire" in a theater. PERINO: You have a right to protest but you don't have a right to kill American ambassadors. GUTFELD: You know what the parallel is? The parallel is building the mosque near the World Trade Center. You can do that. It's kind of a bad move. You kind of suck for doing it. It's the same thing with this. You can make the video. Kind of a jerk. But you can make the video. That's the way it works. TANTAROS: You have the right, but it doesn't make it right. BECKEL: That's right. We have come to agreement on that. GUTFELD: But it didn't spark anything. The only thing that sparks violence is our way of life. That's it. BECKEL: Something else would have sparked it. To see it across 20 countries at one time --TANTAROS: They don't need a spark. BECKEL: Why weren't they doing something a month ago? TANTAROS: They ran planes in to our World Trade Center. BECKEL: No, I'm not talking about the last two or three --TANTAROS: They don't need an excuse. GUTFELD: Bruce Springsteen is dancing in the dark. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/the-five/transcript/should-hollywood-defend-anti-muslim-film#ixzz26vCiatyc

Sean Hannity on the 2012 9-11 attacks

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And as anti-American protests spread, this administration is trying to deflect blame for its failed policies and trying to peg all of this violence on a YouTube video. I know, believe it or not. Watch this. JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is a fairly volatile situation. And it is in response, not to the United States policy, not to -- obviously the administration, not to the American people. It is in response to a video, a film that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it. But this is not a case of protests directed at the United States, at large or at U.S. policy. This is in response to a video that is offensive and -- to Muslims. HANNITY: Now, that comment is just pathetic and it pretty much says it all. We are dealing with an administration that does not have the courage to stand up for this country. We have a president who is operating from a position of weakness, a president who refuses to call people what they are, in this case, radical extremists, Islamists. And speaking of that video, the president's indifference to a little something that we call free speech.

Now, Fox News has confirmed that the White House has asked YouTube to, quote, "review the trailer." Now, that sounds an awful lot like an administration strong-arming a private company. Why? To censor its content. But tonight, we have learned that Google, who owns YouTube, will not remove this clip. So, how do we get to this frightening point?

Now, I believe think it all began with this president constantly apologizing for America, his efforts to appease the mobs, his willingness to reason with malevolent forces that are in fact committed to killing us. Now, let's take a look back to 2009, when he spoke in Cairo in the very same city that you are seeing right here tonight, where Islamists are chanting "Death to America." Watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 4, 2009) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I'm grateful for your hospitality and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the good will of the American people and a greeting of peace for Muslim communities in my country. Assalaamu alaykum. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) OBAMA: 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable. But in some cases, it led us to act contrary for our traditions and our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year. (END VIDEO CLIP) HANNITY: Mr. President, EIT, enhanced interrogation, is not torture. Without EIT, without Gitmo, you don't get the call to go after bin Laden. And this was a dangerous display of weakness. And we are now seeing the fruits of this reckless rhetoric. Here with reaction of the latest developments, syndicated columnist, Fox News contributor, our friend, Charles Krauthammer. Charles, welcome back. CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Happy to be here. HANNITY: I loved your line, we should have as the United States, told them to go straight to hell. We didn't. Where does it stand now? KRAUTHAMMER: Well, I think what you're seeing in those things you've quoted from Carney and the administration. "This has nothing to do with us or our policies, it's about a video," is either willfully obtuse or simply clueless. What has happened is, as you pointed out, beginning with the Cairo speech, Obama changed American policy on the theory that the reason that people hated us was because we were tough. They hated us because of Iraq, they hated us because of Guantanamo. They hated us because of the torture -- he used the word, he accuses his own country abroad of torturing. And he was now apologizing and promising to change course. We would no longer be tough. We would be loved. We would show compassion. And we would get out of Iraq. He sets a deadline for Afghanistan. He doesn't support the green revolution in Iran. He shows the ayatollahs tremendous respect. He essentially protects them when they are under attack. He gets nowhere on the Iran nuclear issue. He is equivocal uncertain during the Arab Spring. He leads from behind in Libya. The theory was if we go soft, if we are very nice, if we -- if we say Assalaamu alaykum, enough times, everything will be all right. And what he decided is, the way to do that, the theory and therefore the practice is going to be, retreat and withdraw. Remember the line he uses? The tide of war is receding. HANNITY: Not exactly.

 KRAUTHAMMER: That means the tide of American power is receding. And the reason that American interests, embassies, schools, businesses are aflame throughout the Middle East from Tunis all the way to South Asia is because things don't happen in a vacuum. And when you withdraw the power and the influence of the strongest country on earth from a region, the vacuum will be filled. HANNITY: Great point. KRAUTHAMMER: What we are seeing now is the Salafists, the Islamist, understanding this is their opening, America is in retreat. The tide of America is retreating in the region. And they are now going to fill the gap.

HANNITY: All right, let me, Charles --KRAUTHAMMER: That's why all of this is happening. HANNITY: Charles, a superb analysis. But here's what's happened. And you see the world is burning. And they are against America and our ambassador killed, two U.S. Navy SEALs killed. I will get to this later. What are we going to do about it? But they apologize. They say that Egypt is still our ally, run by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Brotherhood gets $2 billion of our taxpayer dollars. This is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood, Charles. "Allah is our objective. The prophet our leader, the Koran our law. Jihad our way, dying in the way of Allah our highest hope." Why would we give them $2 billion? Why?! KRAUTHAMMER: Well, look, I don't think the issue right now is foreign aid. If Morsi, the president of Egypt, doesn't cooperate, doesn't support our embassies, protect our embassies and doesn't honor the peace treaty with Israel, there is already trouble in the Sayonite (ph). Then I think you withdraw the aid. HANNITY: Not exactly. KRAUTHAMMER: That means the tide of American power is receding. And the reason that American interests, embassies, schools, businesses are aflame throughout the Middle East from Tunis all the way to South Asia is because things don't happen in a vacuum. And when you withdraw the power and the influence of the strongest country on earth from a region, the vacuum will be filled. HANNITY: Great point. KRAUTHAMMER: What we are seeing now is the Salafists, the Islamist, understanding this is their opening, America is in retreat. The tide of America is retreating in the region. And they are now going to fill the gap. HANNITY: All right, let me, Charles --KRAUTHAMMER: That's why all of this is happening. HANNITY: Charles, a superb analysis. But here's what's happened. And you see the world is burning. And they are against America and our ambassador killed, two U.S. Navy SEALs killed. I will get to this later. What are we going to do about it? But they apologize. They say that Egypt is still our ally, run by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Brotherhood gets $2 billion of our taxpayer dollars. This is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood, Charles. "Allah is our objective. The prophet our leader, the Koran our law. Jihad our way, dying in the way of Allah our highest hope." Why would we give them $2 billion? Why?! KRAUTHAMMER: Well, look, I don't think the issue right now is foreign aid. If Morsi, the president of Egypt, doesn't cooperate, doesn't support our embassies, protect our embassies and doesn't honor the peace treaty with Israel, there is already trouble in the Sayonite (ph). Then I think you withdraw the aid. You got to be very careful, now. The vacuum is already been created. The trouble is already at hand. American enemies are right on the move, everywhere as we can see. Right now, our hand is very much weakened because of the three years of Obama policy. At this point, you don't want to make it worse by -- you know, a move that is reactive and too fast. You withdraw all of our aid today, and we have no leverage. What you do is you portion it out depending on how they act. HANNITY: All right, Charles. KRAUTHAMMER: But the problem is this, pro-American elements in the region, look around. There is no America anymore. I will give you one example. Does anybody care about what we think about Syria? The major country in Mesopotamia. Does anybody ask what Obama's view? No. They want to know what the Russians are doing, the Iranians and Hezbollah. These are the active players. And that's what happens when America withdraws its power and its influence. We become irrelevant. HANNITY: Charles, I -- dead-on analysis. Thank you so much for being with us. We need this kind of perspective during this, what is a worldwide crisis now. Thank you for being with us.  Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2012/09/17/krauthammer-tide-american-power-receding#ixzz26pJgKNm4

THE U.S. Constitution is under attack by the Obama White House!!!!!!!!!! Act now-before it is too late.