September 21, 2015 Islam and Its Cursed Grand Mosque

September 21, 2015 Islam and Its Cursed Grand Mosque A construction crane has crashed through the roof of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing 107 people and injuring nearly 400. The disaster was the result of a violent rainstorm that swept over the city. For the past four years, a series of cranes have been used for a massive expansion of the northern area of the Grand Mosque. The work is part of a $10.6 billion project that, after completion, will allow it to house over 2.5 million worshipers. The failure of the crane begs for comment on its incredible irony. The devastating crash occurred right on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America. First, the crane was struck by lightning, and then it was blown over by a fierce thunderstorm that occurred in a nation that only gets two inches of rainfall each year. Also the owner of the crane is the Saudi Binladin Group; the family of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. I looked at dozens of news stories on this event, and not a single news organization has dared mention the ironic nature of the situation. This is the type of willful ignorance that we have come to expect from a politician; "If I'm lying, may the Lord strike me dead." (And then is promptly killed by a bolt from the blue.) The press is certainly in one accord about the use of the word "holy" in covering all things related to Islam. The accident happened on a Friday, the "holiest day" of the Islamic week, in the "holy city" of Mecca, at the world's "holiest" mosque in Islam. Of course, this incident happened two weeks ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage: the "holiest" Muslim holiday. I find the Grand Mosque more spooky than holy. It has been the epicenter of an endless series of disasters. Here is a list of what I would call the less significant events: December 1975: An exploding gas cylinder caused a fire in a tent colony and resulted in the deaths of 200 pilgrims. November 1979: Over 500 young jihadists seized control the Grand Mosque. It took two weeks for a massive Saudi army effort to retake the Mosque. By the end of the fighting, 127 soldiers as many as 1,000 civilians lost their lives July 1987: A clash between Iranian demonstrators and Saudi security forces brought death to more than 400 pilgrims and injury to thousands more. April 1997: 343 pilgrims were killed and 1,500 injured in a tent fire that raged for two hours. Since then, all tents are required to be fireproof. January 2006: A concrete multi-story building located in Mecca close to the Grand Mosque collapsed. The building, the Al-Ghaza Hotel, is said to have housed a restaurant, a convenience store, and a hotel. The death toll was 76 and the number of injured was 64. A more significant and creepy list cites the calamities that have a direct link to the Stoning of the Devil Ceremony. As pilgrims pass by to throw small stones at pillars representing Satan, deadly stampedes have been a regular part of this ritual. Some notable incidents include: July 2, 1990: A stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel (Al-Ma'aisim tunnel) led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims. May 23, 1994: A stampede killed at least 270 pilgrims at the stoning event. April 9, 1998: at least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death and 180 injured in an incident on Jamarat Bridge. March 5, 2001: Thirty five pilgrims were trampled to death in a stampede during the stoning ritual. February 11, 2003: The Stoning of the Devil ritual claimed 14 pilgrims' lives. February 1, 2004: 251 pilgrims were killed and another 244 injured in a lethal crush. January 12, 2006: A stampede, during the ritual on the last day of the Hajj, killed at least 346 pilgrims and injured at least 289 more. It's not like the Grand Mosque is such a uniquely busy place where mass deaths are to be expected. On the list of the largest peaceful gatherings in history, the Islamic Hajj only ranks in the 17th place. Pope John Paul II had some gatherings that were twice as large, and there was no death angel that plagued his events. On every New Year's Eve, one million spectators pack into Time Square. After the ball drops, everyone goes home in one piece. The Saudi government has done everything humanly possible to prevent more tragedy. The Grand Mosque has a small army of security forces, and every new incident results in more safety measures. These untimely deaths keep coming because the spiritual head of Islam is Satan himself. Because Lucifer is also the god of this world, he is able to cover his tracks after each kill. "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8 NIV). "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV). --Todd No Longer in Kansas Listening to Dr. David Jeremiah the other day, I heard him ask whether anyone in his congregation or his TV audience had ever, in these strange days in which we live, suddenly come to the realization that everything was totally changed around them. He said, "Suddenly you just look around and realize you are 'no longer in Kansas.'" The reference, of course, was to the famous 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy (Judy Garland), one day after a terrible storm had hit their Kansas farm house, looked around her and saw that she was in a strange, unfamiliar land. She was no longer in Kansas. Dr. Jeremiah then spoke on how America and the world had changed so drastically within recent times that it was almost unrecognizable. The political terrain and the cultural and societal landscape of our nation have changed in ways that would have been inconceivable only a few short years ago. He talked about how the culture war was lost, and that there would never be a return to the America those who are older once knew. I then listened to Dr. Charles Stanley, who dealt with much the same theme in his sermon. He asked: "How did we get to this point?" He meant by that, "How has our nation reached its sad state of affairs? How has society and culture become so changed for the worse?" We are no longer in Kansas, but we aren't in the Land of Oz, either. That's for certain. Things around us aren't bright and beautiful, with fanciful prospects for a better future, in terms of what the deteriorating world conditions portend. There is no Yellow Brick Road to show the way to a future of fun and fantasy. There is only a dark pathway that leads toward the plains of Esdraelon--the Valley of Jezreel. And, the movement toward that vast staging region for man's final attempt to achieve his long-desired collective goal is almost unquestionably on its biblically prophetic track. The stage is set and the actors are getting into position to fulfill their designated roles for the great end-times scene. No, it isn't the God of Heaven who wrote the script or who is directing the nation-state actors. The actors themselves wrote the devilish scenario, and their director is Lucifer, who controls their minds and movements. It is a production that he has since far-distant past ages intended to one day bring him glory equal to the Creator of all things. But, it is the Creator who controls the script. He knows every nuance of storyline in His omniscience. He keeps each scene within timeline and stage boundaries through His omnipotence and omnipresence. So, it is no wonder with all this staging going on behind the curtain that obscures our view that the world around us suddenly appears unrecognizable. The Kansas of our familiar, comforting American culture and society of a decade ago has been irreversibly transformed. As a matter of fact, our current president was perfectly clear and up front in promising that he was going to work to fundamentally change America. He's a man of his word in that regard. Our familiar healthcare is gone. In its place is a system that is obviously designed to transfer power to the Washington, D.C., bureaucracy, giving government greatly increased control over the individual American. This president has been at the center of completely redefining marriage, changing the most basic institution God designed for mankind. We are now forced to accept homosexuality as something even better than heterosexuality or face jail time.This administration has put in place economic conditions that now have 94 million eligible workers on the unemployment dole, and have increased the welfare roles immeasurably. The racial divide has been made part of the president's agenda for change, provable by looking at the hatred of civilian police that has burgeoned as results of actions by the U.S. Attorney General and the Justice Department in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. The U.S. Constitution has been assaulted and turned upside-down by the changes an apparently fearful, impotent Congress has failed to resist. The president and leftist judges now rule by fiat a nation that allows them to lead us away from God. Mainstream media, along with much of America's clergy, while Planned Parenthood and their like carry on the slaughter of children in the womb --documented on video in doing their murderous activity--not only look the other way, but vigorously defend this organization that perpetrates such Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele-type evil. Geopolitically, this administration, without pushback from our representatives in government, works incessantly to destroy America's once-strong alliance with Israel. Not only has this administration done things diplomatically to severely damage the relationship, but it now joins with enemies of Israel to assure they have the nuclear weaponry to annihilate the Jewish state as the Iranian supreme leader often promises--and, by the way, to destroy America as well at some point in the not-too-distant future. Yes, Dorothy (America), you are no longer in Kansas. You will never be there again. But, you don't have to stay on the path that leads to the abyss. The true Yellow Brick Road that leads to the brightest of all futures is as near as a moment of genuine repentance. Individually, to step upon this golden pathway of light that leads to forgiveness and a real, not fanciful, utopian world, requires only the following: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans10:9-10).