MALIBU WILDFIRES

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Wind-whipped fires sear Southern California
One person dies in blaze in San Diego County; Malibu evacuated
Fires in Malibu

Oct. 21: Firefighters are battling a brutal combination of hurricane-like winds and fires in the Malibu area. NBC’s Chris Jansing reports. Updated: 37 minutes ago

MALIBU, Calif. - Nearly a dozen wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds spread across Southern California on Sunday, killing one person near San Diego and destroying several homes and a church in celebrity-laden Malibu. The fire was among at least 10 blazes stretching from north of Los Angeles to San Diego as hot weather and the strong winds, arriving from the desert, marked the traditional height of the wildfire season. Four firefighters and four other people were injured and taken to hospitals in connection with the San Diego fire, said Roxanne Provaznik, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. The blaze burned about 2,500 acres near a highway, and a second charred about 3,000 acres in northern San Diego County and was threatening homes near Witch Creek, Provaznik said. Meanwhile, in Malibu, about 700 firefighters worked to protect about 200 homes in several upscale communities nestled in the hills, officials said. About 1,500 people fled the fires, officials said. The blaze, which started in Malibu Canyon, had charred at least 1,200 acres and destroyed a church and several homes, one of them a landmark castle. No residents or firefighters were injured, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said. The winds carried embers across the Pacific Coast Highway, closing the popular road and setting fire to cars and trees in the parking lot of a shopping center where a supermarket, drug store and other shops were damaged.

At the mercy of the wind

TV footage showed several buildings in flames in the area, including clusters of beach-side homes. This fire is zero percent contained, which means we're at the mercy of the wind, acting Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said.In all, five homes and two commercial buildings had been confirmed lost throughout the Malibu area, Freeman said. Nine more homes were damaged, he said.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Georgia’s governor declares drought emergency
White House says it will review Perdue’s request for federal assistance - Robin Nelson / Zuma Press file - Perilously low water levels in Lake Lanier Reservoir north of Atlanta is threatening the metro area's water supply.

Historic Southeast drought - Updated: 4:46 p.m. ET Oct 20, 2007
CUMMING, Georgia - With water supplies rapidly shrinking during a drought of historic proportions, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency Saturday for the northern third of the state of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare it a major disaster area.Georgia officials warn that Lake Lanier, a 38,000-acre reservoir that supplies more than 3 million residents with water, is less than three months from depletion. Smaller reservoirs are dropping even lower.Perdue asked the president to exempt Georgia from complying with federal regulations that dictate the amount of water released from Georgia's reservoirs to protect federally protected mussel species downstream.

We need to cut through the tangle of unnecessary bureaucracy to manage our resources prudently — so that in the long term, all species may have access to life-sustaining water, he said.On Friday, Perdue's office asked a federal judge to force the Army Corps of Engineers to curb the amount of water it drains from Georgia reservoirs into streams in Alabama and Florida. Georgia's environmental protection director is drafting proposals for more water restrictions.More than a billion gallons of water is released from Lanier every day. The Corps of Engineers bases its water releases on two requirements: The minimum flow needed for a coal-fired power plant in Florida and mandates to protect two mussel species in a Florida river.White House press secretary Dana Perino said Perdue's request will be reviewed.In the meantime, we have already begun drafting interim rules to use procedures and flexibility to address the endangered species requirements and the Army Corps has started the process of revising the operations manual for the river basin, Perino said.

Georgia point fingers at neighboring states - Georgia lawmakers say neighboring states also are exploiting the law as a tool to draw more water from Georgia's lakes.We've learned from this what a blunt weapon the Endangered Species Act has become, said state Rep. John Linder. We need to understand this lake was created not for mussels but for people.More than a quarter of the Southeast is covered by an exceptional drought — the National Weather Service's worst drought category. The Atlanta area, with a population of 5 million, is smack in the middle of the affected region, which encompasses most of Tennessee, Alabama and the northern half of Georgia, as well as parts of North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.Georgia was placed under statewide water restrictions in April that limited outdoor watering to three days a week. By May Atlanta allowed watering only on weekends, and in September environmental officials banned virtually all outdoor watering through the northern half of the state.

Olmert sees no big breakthrough at Mideast conference By Jeffrey Heller Sun Oct 21, 3:27 PM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday a U.S.-led conference on Palestinian statehood would not yield a peace breakthrough, a statement that appeared aimed at heading off a revolt by rightist coalition partners. Two members of Olmert's coalition have threatened to quit the government if the gathering, expected to convene in late November or early December, tackles the most sensitive issues, including control of Jerusalem and its holy sites.The conference is not supposed to provide solutions. It can serve as a foundation for negotiations that would lead to a two-state solution, Olmert told reporters who accompanied him to France, where he meets President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday.On Tuesday, he will hold talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London before returning to Jerusalem.Olmert said Iran's nuclear program and his peace moves with the Palestinians would top the agenda of his first meetings with the two leaders since they took office.Israeli allegations about a suspected Palestinian plot against Olmert's life earlier this year cast a further shadow over preparations for the conference the United States plans to host in Annapolis, Maryland.

Olmert expressed great displeasure but said the suspected plot would not derail further talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel's public security minister, Avi Dichter, said Olmert's life was not seriously threatened.Before leaving for Paris, Olmert said the Annapolis conference was not meant to be an event on its own or an event for an agreement or a historic breakthrough.

JOINT DOCUMENT

Olmert and Abbas have instructed their negotiating teams to draft a joint document for the conference that addresses so-called final status issues, including borders and the fate of Jerusalem and millions of Palestinian refugees.The paper is meant to serve as the basis for the statehood talks that Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said should be concluded by August, 2008.Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the leading far-right member of Olmert's coalition, said he warned Washington the government could collapse if talks went too far.Cabinet Minister Eli Yishai, who heads the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said he likewise cautioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit last week that the conference could shake up the government.The collapse of Olmert's coalition could usher in new Israeli elections and possibly paralyze peace moves for the rest of President George W. Bush's term.Israel's internal security chief told the cabinet on Sunday of a plot to attack Olmert's convoy en route to a meeting with Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho, which was delayed and eventually took place in August.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the suspects were taken into custody in June and freed after three months because Palestinian authorities concluded there was no imminent danger. After Israel protested, the men were detained again, a Palestinian security source said.(Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Wafa Amr in Ramallah)

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE

REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Priestly Blessing on Temple Mount - by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) A historic first: Last week, during a special visit to the Temple Mount, the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) was recited there, for arguably the first time since the 1st-century destruction. The Blessing is recited daily in synagogues in Israel by descendants of Aaron the Priest, and only on festivals in the Diaspora.On the Temple Mount: During the Priestly Blessing, the Kohanim raise their hands. www.TempleInstitute.org

The special visit was held to commemorate the 842nd anniversary of Maimonides's famous visit to the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. A group of some 25 Jews, organized by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, marked the special day with a commemorative visit. Giving extra-special meaning to the occasion was a spontaneous Priestly Blessing delivered to the group by Yehuda Katz, the lead singer of the Reva L'Sheva band, and Eliezer Breuer, originally of the former Soviet Union and now from Kiryat Arba.Rabbi Chaim Richman, one of the organizers of the trip, said, This was probably the first time since the destruction of the Temple [1,928 years ago] that the Priestly Blessing was delivered on our holiest site. At times like these, when there is talk of giving away our precious places, and when despair is sometimes in the air, events of this nature serve to remind us that G-d has not forgotten about us, and that He still has big plans for both us and the Holy Temple - and that the Temple will yet become the focal point of the world once again.Another notable aspect of the visit was the welcoming attitude of the police. In an unusual departure from standard procedure, one participant said, we found that the police were particularly sympathetic to our needs. At one point, when the Moslem Wakf guards started yelling that we were praying, one of the policemen took our side and even threatened to remove them if necessary.

Maimonides, also known as the Rambam, made his historic visit to the Temple Mount on the sixth day of the month of MarCheshvan in the year 1166 (4926 in the Jewish calendar). Unanimously considered one of Judaism's greatest figures, the Rambam wrote that he put himself in danger to make a trip to Jerusalem, where he entered the Large and Holy House [the Temple Mount] and prayed. Three days later, he also visited the Machpelah Cave in Hevron, and vowed to commemorate the anniversaries of those days as his personal festivals for years to come. Last week's visit was also led by Rabbis Yisrael Ariel and Yehuda Glick. Rabbi Ariel is a former Yeshiva head, founder of the Temple Institute, and one of the paratroopers who took part in the 1967 liberation of the Temple Mount. Rabbi Glick made news briefly over two years ago when, as Director of the Absorption Ministry's Ashkelon region, he became the first public official to resign in protest over the plans to withdraw from and destroy Gush Katif. Though the Chief Rabbinate disagrees, the Yesha Rabbis Council has ruled that one who ascends and visits the Temple Mount while adhering to three conditions - prior immersion in a mikveh; keeping the laws of Awe of the Temple (no leather shoes, proper respect, etc.); and knowledge of the precise permitted areas - is fulfilling a great mitzvah [Torah commandment].The group stands on a staircase built recently by the Muslim Waqf on the Mount's southern end, leading to new mosques below. The Waqf does not allow entry to non-Muslims. www.TempleInstitute.org To arrange a trip to the Temple Mount in accordance with the above requirements of Jewish law, click here. The more Jews who visit this holy site, Rabbi Richman told Arutz-7, the more cooperative the police are with us and the more respectful they are of our needs - as some police officers have indicated to me. And the more we encourage Jews with stories like what happened last week, the more they will come.

10 Cheshvan 5768, October 22, 07
Temple Findings Uncovered Published: 10/21/07, 6:16 PM
Finds on Temple Mount from First Temple by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The unauthorized dig of a trench this past summer by the Moslem Waqf on the Temple Mount, in the course of which it was assumed that precious findings were destroyed, apparently had a thin silver lining. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) personnel monitoring the trench-digging have, for the first time, found traces of the First Temple. The IAA studied an archaeological level dating to the First Temple Period, exposed in the area close to the south-eastern corner of the raised platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock. Archaeological examination of a small section of this level, led by Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yuval Baruch, uncovered fragments of ceramic table wares, animal bones, and more. The finds date from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE; the First Temple existed between the 9th and 5th centuries BCE, having been built by King Solomon in 832 and destroyed in 422.

The archaeological team - Baruch of the IAA, Prof. Sy Gitin, Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Ronny Reich of Haifa University - reached the conclusion, after examining the finds and archaeological data, that their characteristics and location may aid scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the First Temple Period.The finds include fragments of bowl rims, bases and body sherds, the base of a juglet used for the ladling of oil, the handle of a small juglet, and the rim of a storage jar. The bowl sherds were decorated with wheel burnishing lines characteristic of the First Temple Period. The IAA announced that it will hold an archaeological seminar concerning these finds and their archaeological interpretation at a later date.

Muslim and Jewish Claims

Muslim scholars often deny any Jewish claim to the Temple Mount, and it is often charged that Arab excavations there are employed for the purpose of throwing out truckloads of artifacts that would prove otherwise. Moslem claims to the Temple Mount, on the other hand, have been debunked even by other Moslems. A commentator for the official Egyptian government weekly, of all places, has written that the entire Moslem claim on Jerusalem and the El-Aksa mosque is based on a mistaken reading of one chapter of the Quran. Ahmed Mahmad Oufa wrote that the verse that mentions a night journey by Muhammed to a mosque has nothing to do with Jerusalem, as is generally claimed, but with a mosque near the holy Moslem city of Medina.Prof. Moshe Sharon, Middle Eastern expert in the Hebrew University, expressed great surprise at the fact that such an article would be published in Arabic and in an Arabic-speaking country. He told Arutz-7 at the time, All in all, this is not a new claim. We must remember that Jerusalem is not mentioned at all in the Quran [though it is mentioned hundreds of time in the Bible - ed. note]. The verse in question is in Sura [chapter] 17, which states that Muhammad was brought at night from one mosque to a 'more distant' - aktsa, in Arabic - mosque. The first Moslem commentators did not explain this as referring to Jerusalem at all, of course, but rather as a miraculous night journey or night vision or some such. In the beginning of the 8th century, however, they began associating this with Jerusalem, because they had a need to start giving sanctity to Jerusalem, and so they started connecting this verse with Jerusalem... Originally, however, the Moslems recognized the area of the Dome of the Rock as holy because of the Jewish Temple of King Solomon.