Scientific paper says the human hand was designed by a ‘Creator’

Scientific paper which says the human hand was designed by a ‘Creator’ sparks controversy

The paper’s perceived references to intelligent design have provoked anger and calls for a boycott of the journal

• Doug Bolton

The language of the paper references a ‘Creator’, which some saw as an endorsement of intelligent design Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

A recent scientific paper on the movement of the human hand has faced strong criticism for referring to a ‘Creator’ throughout.

 The paper, titled: ‘Biomechanical characteristics of hand coordination in grasping activities of daily living’ was written by a team of four researchers, three from Huazhong University in China, and one from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

 Published in the PLOS ONE journal, the fairly conventional study looked at the mechanics of how we grasp things, and involved the measurement of the hand movements of 30 participants.

However, members of the scientific community have demanded the paper be retracted, for its several perceived references to the pseudoscientific theory of intelligent design and a possibly divine ‘Creator’.

In the opening sentences of the study, it claims the link between muscles and hand movements is the product of “proper design by the Creator.”

Later, it says human hand coordination “should indicate the mystery of the Creator’s invention,” and concludes by again claiming the mechanical architecture of the hand is the result of “proper design by the Creator.”

‘Don’t cram’ religious neutrality ‘down throats of American people’

Scalia: ‘Don’t cram’ religious neutrality ‘down throats of American people’

By Rebecca Kheel – 

The idea that the U.S. government should be neutral about religion is not supported by the Constitution and is not rooted in American history, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday.

“God has been very good to us,” Scalia said at a speech at a Catholic high school in Louisiana, according to the Times-Picayune. “One of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor.”

Scalia, a Catholic, is one of the court’s more conservative members. He recently caused uproar over remarks on affirmative action.

On Saturday, he said the First Amendment prohibits the government from endorsing one religion over another. But, he added, that doesn’t mean the government has to favor non-religion over religion.

He argued that’s a more modern reading originating in the courts in the 1960s.

He also said there is “nothing wrong” with presidents and others invoking God in speeches, according to The Associated Press.

If Americans want to the government to be non-religious, he said, they should vote on it instead of courts deciding.

“Don’t cram it down the throats of an American people that has always honored God on the pretext that the Constitution requires it,” he said, according to the Times-Picayune.

3 DAYS THAT WILL IMPACT THE NATION

How could 3 days in Branson possibly change America?   We are not alone in the conviction that it can and will happen.  On December 3, 4& 6th the Branson Outbreak—will not only continue—it will reach nation changing glory.   Hundreds have been healed. Let us present to you two that need to be told everywhere!

She entered the doctor’s office in physical agony from head to toe.  She had so many different ailments she said, “My doctor didn’t know what to treat first.”   I had been diagnosed with severe arthritis, bulging disks, and many other maladies in my body.”

Then, when it looked like it could not get worse—it did. “On February 15, 2015 my life took a drastic change.  While standing at church, I cried out in severe pain.  Two men carried me to the car—with me screaming very loudly.”

She spent the next 13 days in the hospital and then began 8 months in a wheelchair.  At her next visit to her doctor she was given two drastic injections to help her deal with the hellish pain.  Her doctor told her, “I rarely have ever had to do this.”

Then one of her friends told her about the Branson Outbreak. “A good friend said she would pick me up and take me to the Mario Murillo Awakening service.”  This was the first of three meetings she would attend in her wheelchair.

Then on Friday Night October 16^th everything changed.  Mario Murillo asked that Mary be brought to the front.  “Mario called me to the front and his first words to me were, “What a Christmas you are going to have!”

Here is how she describes what happened next:

“Mario stated that Jesus was healing me of 15 diseases in my body, including my neck, shoulders, arms, hands, and back.  Then he asked the usher to put her hand on my back.  When she put her hand on my lower back, my bulging disks were going back into place.

The shock came when he told me my abdomen, liver, and blood was being healed as well. I had gone to my primary care doctor about a month before this happened and forgot about the tests. 

She had run almost every blood test imaginable.  On my next visit with her, she stated my bone marrow was not making enough red or white, especially white which were low.  She also told me the tests showed I had multiple myeloma which now explains the extreme pain in my right leg, hip, and back.”

 

She said she felt power surge through her body.  Every trace of pain vanished.  She walked freely.  Nothing hurt!

She immediately returned to her doctor and asked for a new set of tests on “everything.”  After her test results came back her doctor wrote her a letter to verify the healing.  Here are the doctor’s very words: “Praise the Lord’ your bone marrow is now producing good blood cells and that the multiple myeloma is gone.”

This is not the end of the story.  Listen to what she says happened next: “Mario’s words, ‘What a Christmas you are going to have’ were enlarged on Sunday October 18, 2015.  Mario called out Harold (her husband) and told him that that he was a kind man, and that Jesus was healing his heart and knees.  Mario stated that Harold had 4 heart attacks and I have seen Harold clutch his heart area on at least three different occasions.  Getting out of a chair was almost impossible for him.”

Now Harold almost jumps out of his chair and I walk standing straight!  What an AWESOME God we serve.” -Mary Heird

America is in desperate need of a good Christmas.  Mary’s healing—and all of the amazing things happening in Branson—are a message of love that Jesus has not given up on America.

Branson celebrates the Birth of Christ like few places on earth.  It is saturated with lights, trees, festive shows for the whole family—not to mention the good cheer you will encounter on all of the streets.

We-the staff family at Mario Murillo Ministries—give all of the Glory to Jesus Christ for the multitudes that have been saved and healed in Branson.

Now read about the other healing that happened in Branson…

When one relates a miracle—it’s wise to remember—we live in a day where we are flooded with “reports” of healings.  So much is sensationalized today; it actually has the opposite of its intended effect—it does not build faith…it casts doubt.

The report we are about to relate to you is real. Vernette’s miracle is a wonderful fact.  But—far beyond just a healing—this points out the staggering significance of what is currently happening in Branson.  Miracles—though wonderful—can be hollow manifestations unless you see their larger purpose.  At the end of this report we intend to put an emphatic bottom line on this miracle.

To present this testimony to you, we will employ a new format.   We will present Vernette’s own words—she wrote in a letter to Mario detailing her condition before her healing—interspersed with the actual words of knowledge Mario spoke to her at the point of her healing.  We give Jesus Christ all the glory for this miracle.

Mario: “You need a dramatic healing.  One big reason is that you cannot afford the cost of your medication.”

From Vernette’s letter: “Here is a synopsis of conditions in my life prior to last night: One of the first things that Holy Spirit spoke through Mario had to do with finances and prescriptions.  Toward the end of 2014 my insulin went from $43 to over $800 so I could no longer afford meds.”

Mario: “You have diabetes. The medicine you are taking is damaging your body.”

From Vernette’s letter: “In 1995 I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I discovered much later that Insulin is not even needed for Type 2 and can be controlled with diet and exercise.  As a result it began to destroy my body.”

Mario: “You also have a heart condition.”

Vernette: “In 2013, during a trip to ER I was experiencing an irregular heartbeat.  Recently, I began to experience shooting pain in my left chest area and down my arm continuing into my left abdomen.”

Mario: “You have severe pain in both your feet from neuropathy.”

Vernette: “At this point I’d been suffering for some time from neuropathy pain in my feet.  Dark spots began to appear on my legs from improper blood flow due to diabetes.”

Mario: “You also have a condition in your lungs.”

Vernette: “My x-rays showed a dark area on my lungs.”

Mario: “You have an intense pain on your entire right side.  There is damage to your neck, hands, hip and especially your leg.”  This damage is focused on your right side.”

Vernette: “On the right side of my body I’ve experienced muscle cramps and my neck and leg, severe pain in my hip…and pain so severe in the joints of my fingers that I could not straighten them.”

No one who was an eyewitness will ever forget what happened next.  A radiating, overwhelming presence covered Vernette and the atmosphere shifted in the entire room.

What would have been impossible for her just seconds before was now effortless.  Her right side demonstrated the most obvious transformation.  The cruel constant pain had evaporated from her hands, hips, legs and feet.   On top of all of this… she could breathe—she could see—she felt totally healed!

Vernette came back the next night more joyous and bold than she was the night before.  She freely demonstrated how she could move pain free and strong.

Here is the bottom line: Dark clouds are covering the nation.  America is soul-sick and lost. She is hopelessly divided and ill-prepared for the future.  God is doing something in Branson to overpower the evil that is destroying our nation.

“There’s an army rising up.”  That might just be a lyric in other places—here it is an unambiguous fact.  The question is…is it the atmosphere igniting the faith and bold outreach of these people…or are the people so hungry that they are creating the atmosphere?

It may not matter.  What does matter is that in our time—a desperate time—an outpouring of God’s Spirit is increasing in Branson just as so many prophecies have said it would.

You can log onto mariomurillo.org/stream  to see for yourself why so many are flocking to these meetings and believe that they will overflow to the nation.  

What will the atmosphere be like when God combines the Glory of Christmas with an ongoing outpouring of the Holy Spirit!

Here is an outrageous invitation: COME TO BRANSON!  The Outbreak continues on December 3^rd!

Maybe this is the Christmas God wants you or someone you love to have?  Pray and believe.

I am about to preach the most important message of my life

I am about to preach the most important message of my life

By Mario Murillo

Only God knows how many thousands of sermons I have preached.  How could this next one be the most important message of my life?   It can because of three irresistible urgencies:

1.America is at the point where revival—true revival—is the only thing that can save us. How deadly is our current president? My friend, you are only aware of the meager bits of information the state-controlled media allows.  Yes—there are independent conservative outlets that are broadcasting vital facts about the murder of freedom—but we do not have the whole sickening picture of Obama’s serial killing of freedom, Christianity and Israel.

America is slumping toward Gomorrah.  The masses are over-medicated and under-informed.   Our schools are nothing but indoctrination clinics for Islam and gender bending.  The average citizen has never been this average—so oblivious to what is happening—so willing to let government reduce them to compliant zombies.

2. The revival America needs has started in Branson. I have waited all of my life to say this: All of the elements of a moral awakening—an awakening that can spread from Branson to reform America—are in this miraculous phenomenon in Branson. It is finally here…TRUE REVIVAL!

Last Friday night’s meeting brought even more verification of this with stunning miracles.  A woman stood transfixed as the Holy Spirit revealed details about her condition and how and when she became ill.  Her arms and legs are virtually useless but she begins waving her arms and running.   No one in the room is able to deny what they just saw.

When John Burton wrote his article for Charisma Magazine, he said, “I am quite undone by the recent meetings led by Mario Murillo in Branson, Missouri. Of course, I’ve been wrecked by the power of God, the intense messages and the incredible number of healings and salvations. Last night’s meeting was probably the most powerful I’ve been to in many years. It was indescribable.”

The Branson Outbreak is not centered on one man.  It is a widespread miracle that involves many pastors and ministries.  The focus is Jesus Christ.  The passion of these people to experience the GLORY OF GOD!

3. There is something coming to Branson that we are not ready for. The Holy Spirit gave me these scriptures:  John 6: 5 “Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.”

A great multitude is coming to Branson—we aren’t ready yet!  They are not here yet but they are making plans!  A signal has supernaturally gone out in all directions summoning souls to come to Branson.  Leaders have come from thousands of miles away without a schedule to return.  Scores of Pastors are coming at the behest of the Holy Spirit.  It would not surprise me if many who read this are suddenly gripped by the call to come and drink deeply of the River of Life that is flowing and soon to rage from this city.

Jesus said what He said to Philip in order to test him…but Jesus already had a plan.   Is this event in Branson about to touch millions?  I fear so—with a godly fear.   A few days ago I did not realize this.  I thought we were to shut down the meetings.  The Holy Spirit showed me different.  I was not to shut down I was to change venues to accommodate new crowds.   Sometimes change can be violent—people do not like change—but I knew we had to surrender to the plan!

A nation is at stake.  A revival that can save that nation hangs in the balance.  To abort this meeting before it reaches its destiny would be worse than if it had never happened.

The rest of the plan will be revealed this Friday night.  I am preparing to preach the most important message of my life.

Not only do I expect to preach the most important message of my life…I expect this Friday Night to be the best night of the entire Branson Outbreak.  Imagine the finest and most anointed living pianist and the best and most anointed saxophonist together in an atmosphere of GLORY!  Do not miss this night

America’s Final Call

Preface By Mario Murillo:

“Near the end of their lives great men and women of God seem to be most outside of self and clearly able to tell the counsel of God without regard to reputation.   

In the case of Kenneth Hagin the discovery of this vision is even more startling when you consider that he was most identified with prosperity, health and victory.   It is unexpected that he would issue a warning of judgment, persecution and suffering or that he would ever say that America had one last chance.

So the real story here is 2 Corinthians 13:1 “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”  God is telling us we still have a chance but that rampant false doctrine, compromise and deception have all but destroyed our desire to repent and repent we must because time is running out.”  MM  

America’s Final Call

By Kenneth E. Hagin

As I looked to the west, I saw what appeared to be a tiny dot on the horizon. It was the only moving thing I could see. As I watched, it grew larger and came toward me, taking on shape and form. Soon I could see it was a horse. As it came closer I could see a man upon the horse. He was riding toward me at full speed. As he approached, I could see he held the reins of the horse’s bridle in his right hand, and in his left hand, high above his head, he held a scroll of paper.

When the horseman came to me, he pulled on the reins and stopped. I stood on his right. He passed the scroll from his left hand to his right hand and handed it to me.  As I unrolled the scroll, which was a roll of paper 12 or 14 inches long, he said, “Take and read.” At the top of the page in big, bold, black print were the words “WAR AND DESTRUCTION.” I was struck dumb. He laid his right hand on my head and said, “Read, in the Name of Jesus Christ!”

I began to read what was written on the paper, and as the words instructed me, I looked and saw what I had just read about. First I read about thousands upon thousands of men in uniform. Then I looked and saw these men marching, wave after wave of soldiers marching as to war. I looked in the direction they were going, and as far as I could see there were thousands of men marching.

I turned to read the scroll again, and then looked and saw what I had just read about. I saw many women —old women with snowy white hair, middle-aged women, young women, and teenagers. Some of the younger ones held babies in their arms. All of the women were bowed together in sorrow and were weeping profusely. Those who did not carry babies held their hands on their stomachs as they bowed over and wept. Tears flowed from their eyes like water.

I looked at the scroll again, and again I looked to see what I had read about. I saw the skyline of a large city. Looking closer, I saw the skyscrapers were burned-out hulls. Portions of the city lay in ruins. It was not written that just one city would be destroyed, burned, and in ruins, but that there would be many such cities.

 America’s Last Call

The scroll was written in the first person, and seemed as if Jesus Himself were speaking. I read, “America is receiving her last call. Some nations already have received their last call and never will receive another.”

Then, in larger print it said, “THE TIME OF THE END OF ALL THINGS IS AT HAND This statement was repeated four or five times. Jesus also said this was the last great revival. He went on to say, “All the gifts of the Spirit will be in operation in the Church in these last days, and the Church will do greater things than even the Early Church did. It will have greater power, signs, and wonders than were recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.”

I Believe in Visions we have seen and experienced many healings, but we will now behold amazing miracles that have not been seen before. Jesus continued, “More and more miracles will be performed in the last days which are just ahead, for it is time for the gift of the working of miracles to be more in prominence. We now have entered into the era of the miraculous.

“Many of my own people will not accept the moving of my Spirit, and will turn back and will not be ready to meet Me at my coming. Many will be deceived by false prophets and miracles of satanic origin. But follow the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and Me, and you will not be deceived. I am gathering my own together and am preparing them, for the time is short.”

There were several other exhortations to watchfulness, to awaken and pray, and not to be deceived. Then I read, “As it was in the days of Noah, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. As I spoke to Noah and said, ‘For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth

‘ [Gen. 7:4], so today I am speaking and giving America her last warning and call to repentance, and the time that is left is comparable to the last seven days of Noah’s time.”

‘Judgment Is Coming.’ “Warn this generation, as did Noah his generation, for judgment is about to fall. And these sayings shall be fulfilled filled shortly, for I am coming soon.” Jesus repeated, “This is the last revival. I am preparing my people for my coming. Judgment is coming, but I will call my people away, even unto Myself, before the worst shall come. But be thou faithful; watch and pray, for the time of the end of all things is at hand.”

Coming Sunday August 9th at 7 PM!

THE COMING PERSECUTION AND THE COMING POWER

 

Editor’s note:   In case you missed it we are reposting it.  If you read it, reread it now in the light of what is happening.

THE COMING PERSECUTION AND THE COMING POWER

By Mario Murillo

As I prayed, I experienced colliding emotions of dread and excitement.  The Holy Spirit made it clear that persecution against Christians is going to spike in the United States in the next few months.  He also made it clear that this would touch off a towering flow of miracles of healing.

I was led to a specific moment recorded in the Book of Acts: Acts 12:1-3, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also.”

That mood, the one that pleases people when Christians are harassed and blamed, is upon us.  I am warning you that it will start within weeks, and the mindless ferocity of it will surprise you.

Satan wants America destroyed.   It is the grand prize.  With America gone, the devil can unleash worldwide devastation.   But the global tyranny that he craves cannot happen until the American firewall is removed.

He also knows that he can only destroy America from within.  Somehow, he must pit us against each other. 

The only deterrent to civil war at this point is Christianity. Notice that I do not say the church, I say Christianity.  The church is sidelined by equal parts division and denial.  The Christianity that seeps out despite religion is the only thing protecting us.

The only reason there was no rioting, looting, or arson in Charleston was Christians.  Individual believers, under the impulse of faith and forgiveness, won the day.

The devil’s weapon of choice is hate.  He must foment hate.  Today, that hate is coming from secular progressives who seek social justice. The things that were once loving, moral and trustworthy, including marriage, manhood, military service, freedom of speech, witnessing, the Bible and, yes, freedom itself, are now hateful.

Don’t let them fool you with the term “new normal.”  Their new normal is nothing but the old abnormal.

Hitler fueled a frenzy of hatred by blaming anything and everything bad on the Jews. He created a new form of right and wrong that made it your duty to hate Jews.

Today, as it was in Nazi Germany, only one side of the story is allowed in the media.  Only one narrative is legal.  That narrative redefines every element of our daily lives.  Even Tylenol has a commercial meant to brainwash you about gay marriage.

Why on earth would Tylenol feel the need to weigh in on gay marriage?  The answer is chilling: it is economics.   This is an early version of the mark of the beast.  The beast will bankrupt any business that stands against gay marriage.  You are not allowed an opinion on this or any other pet peeve of the social justice movement.

My great heartache is in the fact that God has been lovingly warning the American Church.  He has repeatedly ordered the church to stand as one against immorality, but she has flatly refused.  God reserves the right to allow persecution if it will wake up the church and spare the nation.

Look at these verses: Isaiah 8:5-8, “The Lord also spoke to me again, saying: 6 “Inasmuch as these people refused the waters of Shiloah that flow softly, and rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son; 7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them the waters of the River, strong and mighty—The king of Assyria and all his glory; He will go up over all his channels and go over all his banks. 8 He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.”  Why would God side with Israel’s enemy?  They had rejected the countless gentle tugs and warnings.

Is there any good news in this?  There is much good news, but only for a certain group.  A core of Christians who refuse to side with the compromised church, and who are seeking Jesus, will be protected and used mightily. 

After this, Herod arrested Peter, but an angel appeared and brought him out.  This miracle ignited the church.  I am telling you what the Holy Spirit has told me.  Every vessel that seeks God right now will receive greater power and greater miracles.

Call it legend, call me crazy, but I know that this wave of persecution is here.  We can turn it all around.  We can regain lost ground.  Those who disobey God cannot escape this misery and those who obey God will not be denied special grace and increased supernatural power.

THE BEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE

Millions have left the church.  This is the reality that Christian leaders do not want to talk about.  However, facts do not go away.  The facts are these: an entire generation has virtually discarded the faith of their parents.

Not only this, but many who were on fire for God and even effective vessels have fallen and have abandoned their faith in Jesus.  A famous Christian singer announces that he is now an atheist.  Is that shocking? The real shock is that the church is not shocked because this kind of recanting of faith is now common.

Maybe you were wounded on the battlefield and did not get up again.  The reasons are as varied as the people themselves are.  It may have been an abusive church.  It may have been an old habit that raged its way back in control.  It may have been a divorce, a false teaching that weakened you, or the gravitational force of unbelief and skepticism of this age.

The most common cause is sudden tragedy.  Something horrendous happened that ran off of your theological map.  You felt that you had no choice but to abandon your faith.  You may be angry with God.  You are not alone.  There are millions in this condition.

The Holy Spirit has burned a message into my soul that I cannot contain. I want this message to get into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have never felt as great an urgency to open my heart to you.  Millions have left the church.

Let me be frank, I believe that God is turning your heart back to Him.  He is doing this on a massive scale.

He has done this before.  Right before the fire fell on Mount Carmel, Elijah prayed these words, “Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again (1 Kings 18:37).”

He is doing this not just because He loves you but because He is trying to spare America: “and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:6).”

You are most likely a casualty of the lukewarm American church.  Widespread compromise left her unprotected.  The active ingredient was left out of preaching; that ingredient is surrender.  The power of God to stand against tragedy and evil never kicked in for this very reason.

The Holy Spirit is intensifying His voice to the fallen, the wounded and the forgotten.  While His wooing is loving and hopeful, it does not mask the truth.

In America entire churches are backslidden!  And it is not unprecedented.  Look at these verses: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Revelations 3:15).”

Okay, you may have been caught in the cultural crossfire of the compromised church, the toxic church and even the false church, but why lose your soul to get back at false ministers and sick churches?

This is about you and Jesus.  This is about a destiny that God still keeps for you.  There is one thing that Satan does not want you to remember.  It is the one thing that can break the chains of lies and heartbreak.

What Satan does not want you to think about is this: if you brush away the cobwebs of church politics, hypocrites, and unexpected tragedy you will admit that the best days of your life were when you walked with God in fervent commitment.  Those were the days of peace and joy. 

The best days were the days before anybody and anything came between you and Jesus.  You prayed and sensed that no matter what everything would come out alright.  Even your questions were harnessed by a total trust in the character of God!

You have never felt anything like His presence.  Those were the best days.  Those days can come again.  Jesus is knocking and wants to have dinner with you alone.  “I will sup with him” Jesus promised.

I will admit that I am speaking a divine desperation to come over you.  I want you to break, I want you to yearn to come home to your best life, your only life.  There is an army rising up, made of people that Satan thought he had but is about to lose on a grand scale.  Welcome back to the war!

George W. Bush Bashes Obama on Middle East

George W. Bush Bashes Obama on Middle East

9705 APR 26, 2015 9:21 PM EDT

By Josh Rogin

In a closed-door meeting with Jewish donors on Saturday night, former President George W. Bush delivered his harshest public criticisms to date against his successor on foreign policy, saying that President Barack Obama is being naïve about Iran and the pending nuclear deal and losing the war against the Islamic State.

One attendee at the Republican Jewish Coalition session, held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas with owner Sheldon Adelson in attendance, transcribed large portions of Bush’s remarks. The former president, who rarely ever criticizes Obama in public, at first remarked that the idea of re-entering the political arena was something he didn’t want to do. He then proceeded to explain why Obama, in his view, was placing the U.S. in “retreat” around the world. He also said Obama was misreading Iran’s intentions while relaxing sanctions on Tehran too easily.

According to the attendee’s transcription, Bush noted that Iran has a new president, Hassan Rouhani. “He’s smooth,” Bush said. “And you’ve got to ask yourself, is there a new policy or did they just change the spokesman?”

Bush said that Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran with a promise that they could snap back in place at any time was not plausible. He also said the deal would be bad for American national security in the long term: “You think the Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That’s how Americans should view the deal.”

Bush then went into a detailed criticism of Obama’s policies in fighting the Islamic State and dealing with the chaos in Iraq. On Obama’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops in Iraq at the end of 2011, he quoted Senator Lindsey Graham calling it a “strategic blunder.” Bush signed an agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw those troops, but the idea had been to negotiate a new status of forces agreement to keep U.S. forces there past 2011. The Obama administration tried and failed to negotiate such an agreement.

Bush said he views the rise of the Islamic State as al-Qaeda’s “second act” and that they may have changed the name but that murdering innocents is still the favored tactic. He defended his own administration’s handling of terrorism, noting that the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was captured on his watch: “Just remember the guy who slit Danny Pearl’s throat is in Gitmo, and now they’re doing it on TV.”

Obama promised to degrade and destroy Islamic State’s forces but then didn’t develop a strategy to complete the mission, Bush said. He said that if you have a military goal and you mean it, “you call in your military and say ‘What’s your plan?’ ” He indirectly touted his own decision to surge troops to Iraq in 2007, by saying, “When the plan wasn’t working in Iraq, we changed.”

“In order to be an effective president … when you say something you have to mean it,” he said. “You gotta kill em.”

Bush told several anecdotes about his old friend and rival Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush recalled that Putin met his dog Barney at the White House and then later, when Bush went to Moscow, Putin showed him his dog and remarked that he was “bigger stronger and faster than Barney.” For Bush, that behavior showed him that Putin didn’t think in “win-win” terms.

Bush also remarked that Putin was rich, divorced his wife and loves power. Putin’s domestic popularity comes from his control of Russian media, according to Bush. “Hell, I’d be popular, too, if I owned NBC news,” he said.

Regarding his brother Jeb’s potential run for the presidency, Bush acknowledged that he was a political liability for Jeb, that the Bush name can be used against him, and that Americans don’t like dynasties. He also said that foreign policy is going to be especially important in the presidential campaign and that the test for Republicans running will be who has got the “courage” to resist isolationist tendencies.

Regarding Hillary Clinton, Bush said it will be crucial how she plays her relationship with the president. She will eventually have to choose between running on the Obama administration’s policies or running against them. If she defends them, she’s admitting failure, he said, but if she doesn’t she’s blaming the president.

For George W. Bush, the remarks in Vegas showed he has little respect for how the current president is running the world. He also revealed that he takes little responsibility for the policies that he put in place that contributed to the current state of affairs.

Kirsten Powers: Christians thrown overboard left to drown by Obama

Kirsten Powers7:55 a.m. EDT April 21, 2015

Obama only mentions Christians to lecture them, rather than defend them from persecution.

(Photo: Alessandra Tarantino, AP)

What do you call it when 12 men are drowned at sea for praying to Jesus?

Answer: Religious persecution.

Yet, when a throng of Muslims threw a dozen Christians overboard a migrant ship traveling fromLibya to Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi missed the opportunity to label it as such. Standing next to President Obama at their joint news conference Friday, Renzi dismissed it as a one-off event and said, “The problem is not a problem of (a) clash of religions.”

While the prime minister plunged his head into the sand, Italian authorities arrestedand charged the Muslim migrants with “multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate,” according to the BBC.

 As Renzi was questioned about the incident, Obama was mute on the killings. He failed to interject any sense of outrage or even tepid concern for the targeting of Christians for their faith. If a Christian mob on a ship bound for Italy threw 12 Muslims to their death for praying to Allah, does anyone think the president would have been so disinterested? When three North Carolina Muslims were gunned down by a virulent atheist, Obama rightly spoke out against the horrifying killings. But he just can’t seem to find any passion for the mass persecution of Middle Eastern Christians or theeradication of Christianity from its birthplace.

Religious persecution of Christians is rampant worldwide, as Pew has noted, but nowhere is it more prevalent than in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where followers of Jesus are the targets of religious cleansing. Pope Francis has repeatedly decried the persecution and begged the world for help, but it has had little impact. Western leaders — including Obama — will be remembered for their near silence as this human rights tragedy unfolded. The president’s mumblings about the atrocities visited upon Christians (usually extracted after public outcry over his silence) are few and far between. And it will be hard to forget his lecturing of Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast about the centuries-old Crusades while Middle Eastern Christianswere at that moment being harassed, driven from their homes, tortured and murdered for their faith.

A week and a half after Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast speech, 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded for being “people of the cross.” Seven of the victims were former students of my friend and hero “Mama” Maggie Gobran, known as the “Mother Theresa of Cairo” for her work with the poorest of the poor. She told me these dear men grew up in rural Upper Egypt and had gone to Libya seeking work to support their families. They died with dignity as they called out to their God, while the cowardly murderers masked their faces.

 Rather than hectoring Christians about their ancestors’ misdeeds, Obama should honor these men and the countless Middle Eastern Christians persecuted before them.

Monday, there was more horrifying news: ISIL terrorists released a video purporting to show more religiously motivated killing. According to CNN, before beheading and shooting two groups of Christians in Libya, a speaker said, “The Islamic State has offered the Christian community (the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay a tax for being Christian) many times and set a deadline for this, but the Christians never cooperated.”

So they kill them.

Indeed, let’s talk more about the Crusades.

THREE BIG REASONS MIRACLES WILL NOW APPEAR IN MAINSTREAM AMERICA

MIRACLES WILL NOW APPEAR IN MAINSTREAM AMERICA

By Mario Murillo

Dear Reader,

Doctors will be amazed. Churches will be revolutionized. We will see the dead raised and the miraculous multiplication of food. Millions will experience wonder. But it is not all good news.

Here are the three reasons that miracles are coming that I was given by the Holy Spirit.

1.It is time because the Bible has been rejected. Outpourings of the Holy Spirit and clusters of miracles occur like weather patterns. Jesus said, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’;  and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  -Matthew 16:2,3.

The Bible which was a guiding force throughout our history has been set aside as a myth.  It has never been like this before.  Never have we seen such a wholesale rejection of the Word of God like this.  Psalm 119:126 says, “It is time for You to act oh God for they have nullified Your Word.”  We are now a nation without a Bible.   It is been evicted from our halls of government, schools, and even church.  It is time for God to act…and He will.

America is now the foreign mission field.  The Holy Spirit will now work to confirm the Word with signs following. The miracles, healings, and supernatural signs have been a regular part of outreach in Africa, Asia and Latin America will now appear in America.  Resurrections, multiplication of food, angelic visitations    

2.It is time because judgment must begin at house of God. When these miracles come it will not be an endorsement of the current church. In fact, I believe that God is displeased with the overwhelming majority of what we call church in America.    

These signs and wonders will bring judgment.  They will divide churches.  They will expose sin.  They will even bring death.  Remember, Ananias and Sapphira were killed by the Holy Spirit not simply for stealing money, but for doing it in a time of miracles.

The double lives of carnal pastors will come to light.   The sickly grace message that has believers sleeping around and getting drunk will be plowed under by the true fire of God.  Evangelists who operate in false gifts by the power of familiar spirits will be exposed as fakes in front of their audiences.

Judgment indeed will begin at the house of God but it will not end there.  Look for public officials, celebrities and anti-God voices to be suddenly removed.

3.It is time because America is on the brink of destruction.  The White House is demonstrating breathtaking stupidity by betraying Israel.  Israel, to its eternal credit, rejected the stupidity of the White House and placed its fate into the hands of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jesus.

There is no doubt that America has crossed a deadline.  The White House is guilty of the most blatant animosity toward the things of God that we have seen in American history.

The executive branch of our government is literally shaking its fist at God and daring Him to intervene.  If God does not act now there will be no America.  But there will be a World War Three.

There is radical, remnant core who have not bowed their knee to Baal.  There is a growing army who have discarded dead religion, repented of a prayless life and will obey the voice of God.  They are the rightful heirs of a new anointing that will shatter the darkness.  They will flow in true gifts of power and speak only the counsel of God!

I believe that these miracles, signs and wonders will be upon us within a few weeks.  But never forget that this is sobering news…God is giving America one more chance.