News and Prophecy Staff

“Japan will provide $12 billion of soft loans to build India’s first bullet train, the two nations announced during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that also yielded deeper defence ties and a plan for civil nuclear cooperation… Under defence deals announced on Saturday, the two sides will share technology, equipment and military information, but the long-awaited sale of Japanese aircraft in a deal worth about $1.1 billion was not concluded” (Reuters, December 12, 2015).

“An evangelical preacher from Northern Ireland who branded Islam satanic has been charged with spreading a ‘grossly offensive’ message. In a May 2014 sermon [broadcast online], James McConnell told worshippers… in Belfast: ‘Islam is heathen. Islam is satanic’” (AP, December 14, 2015). The prosecutor in the case claimed that Mr. McConnell’s comments had “nothing to do with religion or freedom of expression” (ibid.).

“Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 34 nations have agreed to form a new ‘Islamic military alliance’ to fight terrorism with a joint operations center based in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh… The new counterterrorism coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen.

“In a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi requested that Germany play a more active role in the fight against the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS). The dpa news agency reported that the Iraqi premier had in particular asked the German government to provide help with troop training” (Deutsche Welle, December 7, 2015).

Critics like to claim that the Bible is only a collection of myths and legends, yet archaeologists digging near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have found a clay impression of the royal seal of the biblical King Hezekiah. The seal reads “Belonging to Hezekiah (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah” (biblicalarchaeology.org, December 3, 2015).