Month: September 2014
Airstrikes Move To Syria, Target More Than Just ISIS
Are the Biblical Medes Today’s Kurds?
Okay, Bible students, let’s attempt to answer a question that seems to be asked more and more often every day: Are the Biblical Medes today’s Kurds?
As ISIS stormed across Iraq, they were met with resistance by Kurds in northern Iraq. But who are the Kurds? Though generally Sunni Muslim, Kurds are not ethnically Arabs. In fact, many Kurds harbor hatred for the Arabs. They live in a vast area of land called Kurdistan, stretching from eastern Turkey, across northern Syria and Iraq, into western Iran. Iraq allows them autonomy, though Saddam Hussein repeatedly attempted to destroy them with chemical weapons.
Historians and many Bible scholars indicate that the Kurds of today may be the Medes of the Old Testament, and they point to prophecy to help support that position. Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50-51 describe the total destruction of Babylon at some point in the future, and those chapters…
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A blended Islam?
I had a dream the early morning hours of 9/19/2014. Do with it what you will.
My husband, son and I were at, what I assume to be, a large hotel. The convention center located in the hotel was hosting a meeting/service of some kind. Hubs said we should go check it out and “see for ourselves”. (Side note: in real life I would never agree to this and he would never suggest it, but I digress)
The meeting was an Islamic service of some sort. I knew this instinctively the moment I sat down, though one would not have been able to tell by the “congregants”. The atmosphere and, most notably, the attire was mainstream Christianity. The only exception was a man who stepped up to the microphone. He looked like Iran’s president:
He said something about “the N” and I saw what has now become a familiar image to most of us:
I began to feel uncomfortable and wondered if we would be “discovered”. Just then I noticed a row or two in front of us sat Barak and Michelle. The congregants began singing in a language I do not know (Arabic perhaps?) and Obama stood and sang very solemnly. Then suddenly a “disembodied” chorus rang out. The chorus was to the old hymn: “The Great Physician”,
Sweetest note in seraph song
Sweetest name on mortal tongue
Sweetest carol ever sung
Jesus, blessed Jesus
Obama turned then and looked at my husband and announced for all to hear, “I would never actually sing that song, though I can appreciate its cultural value”.
Then the dream got really weird with ballerinas dressed as camels came and did a dance down the center aisle toward the speaker.
As I faded out of that dream, I half awakened, and immediately had the thought that what I witnessed was a sect of Islam that blended easily into our American culture. At the same time, I felt as if we (my husband and I) stood out like a sore thumb. While I found the chorus of a beloved hymn surprising and out of place, I also drew comfort from it. Not only was this Islam blending itself to look tolerant, but God also used it to send my dream-self a message that despite my dangerous surroundings He was still near. And, He IS still in control.
A Mom Looking Up 