End Times News and Gospel Message 10-12-2013

Friends, the newer stories at the very bottom.

We, the American people have begun the countdown to our next Shemitah! Based on the date of 12 Oct 2013 we have 704 days, let me repeat 703 days to our next Shemitah on 9-13-15, friends prepare yourself. Time is running short. Let me remind you, America faced its first harbinger on 9-11-01 with the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. Our second harbinger occurred on 2008 with the financial meltdown. Harbingers occur every 7 years if a people or nation refuses to repent. To date we have refused to repent before our God. In fact, Tom Daschle and John Edwards and Obama all defied God and said the people of the U.S. would build bigger, better and stronger. This caused Daschle’s and Edwards downfall. Look carefully at the date September 13, thirteen, of course, is Satan's number. Let me say it again, we a little less than 2 years to repent.

Rabbi Cahn, who wrote the book above, says our next Shemitah will be financial in nature. Obama is facing his personal shemitah, if he does not repent God will cause his downfall. I do not know how or when that downfall will take place but it will happen. If you wish to read more about harbingers and the Shemitah See Watchman Report 13-109 concerning Blood Moons, tetrads and solar eclipses.

2. “When you hear about one Muslim coming to Christ, it’s a great thing, and everybody rejoices,” said a Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) Syrian contact. “Today in Syria I’m not talking about one person. We’re talking about hundreds and even thousands of Muslims coming to know Christ.” (Watchman comment: Friends, this Illuminati/Muslim inspired war in Syria is backfiring on Islam. They are winning the battle in Syria but losing the overall war to Yeshua Hamaschiach!

We received the following letter from Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) concerning the war in Syria and I quote: This war is one of the greatest crises seen in the Middle East in the last 20 years. It has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people, both Muslim and Christian. More than 2 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries. In the midst of this crisis, our persecuted family is boldly reaching out and the reactions of Muslims have been astonishing.

Teams of believers are working in the Syrian refugee camps, providing Christ’s love while sharing material aid, such as medical supplies and Bibles, as well as spiritual aid. Christians, widely considered “infidels” in Syria, are now often and affectionately referred to as “the Bible People.”

“This war is like a knife in the heart of the church. No human can stand that suffering. But there is God’s presence. I can see Christ in the midst of darkness.”

Please pray for Syrian Christians who face not only the horrific effects of war but also continued persecution. Please also pray for those who are bravely using this opportunity to advance the kingdom.

“God is doing miracles inside the country,” a Christian worker told VOM. “But even if he allows us to die, it will be an honor for us to die for his name, to glorify his name.”

The opportunities for ministry in Syria today exceed what we thought possible. Working with the Syrian church and local workers, VOM continues to distribute material aid, Bibles and Christian literature, and support for pastors and the evangelistic teams. VOM will continually seek ways to increase our efforts.

During this time of crisis and opportunity, VOM invites you to make a special contribution to support this ministry in Syria. We urge you to please Make a contribution for Syria today.

3. Much of the discussion about Israel in the end times revolves around the battle of Ezekiel 38-39. So let me start by offering my opinion as to why Ezekiel’s prophecy is not on the verge of fulfillment and cannot be the next battle on Israel’s horizon.

I think three verses from Ezekiel 38 support my conclusion.

1.(Ezek. 38:8) After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety.

2.(Ezek. 38:11)You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars.”

3.(Ezek. 38:14)“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it?”

Part of Israel's security wall

This is not the case in Israel today, Israel is not living in peace with its neighbors. It is simply a cease fire situation. The Jews are surrounded by enemies sworn to their destruction. 

The Jews are under constant threat of attack, and had to build a giant “ghetto” wall along their border to protect themselves and keep their enemies out. Every day they wake up to the threat of Hamas and Hezbollah rockets, the threat of war with Syria, and nuclear  extinction. The Jews know the day they let down their guard could be the day their enemies strike. They learned this in the fall of 1973 during the Yom Kippur War when for one of the few times in their history they let down their guard during a Jewish Feast and they were almost overrun. In fact, Israel has faced so much war and terrorism that I would say the Jews are very war weary and out of desperation are willing to sacrifice their land for peace.

So what will it take for these three verses in Ezekiel to become effective?

1. Israelis must believe that they are living in peace and are not subject to attack.  This requires the belief that they have nothing to fear from their next door neighbors in Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel’s neighbors are currently being used by Israel’s greater enemies, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Persian Gulf States to keep Israel on the brink of war. 

2.Israel’s immediate neighbors must be neutralized to create the illusion of peace.

To buttress my argument let’s look at what God says in  Zechariah 12.

Zechariah 12:2-3 

2.“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of trembling that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling.” Note the phrase “surrounding peoples”. 

3.“On that day, when all the nations of the Earth are gathered against her I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all nations.” 

Note the phrase all the nations of the Earth, this includes the United States of America, my friends if we still exist as a sovereign nation.

I think even though these two verses are adjacent to one another in the text, they describe two separate operations that are at least 7 years apart. First, the surrounding peoples will be sent reeling, and sometime after that all the nations of the Earth will come against Jerusalem. These two verses are not part of the same thought and don’t even belong in the same paragraph.

Friends, Zechariah 12:2 will set the stage for Ezekiel 38 and the beginning of Daniel’s 70th Week, The Great Tribulation and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. All three of these terms are synonymous. Zechariah 12:3 will take place at the end of Daniel’s 70th Week, The Great Tribulation and the Time of Jacob’s trouble just before the Lord’s return.

Between these two verses there will be over seven years of continuous warfare in the Middle East.

Please note Biblical scholars disagree on the location of the Hagarenes

Let’s briefly look at Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83.

These two prophecies provide the commentary on Zechariah 12:2, the events that send the enemies surrounding Jerusalem reeling. These two prophecies are crucial for thinking Christians and friends of Israel and these prophecies have begun to dominate my thinking again.

I believe that Isaiah 17 was given as a prophecy for our time. But I think like several other end times prophecies it combines a partial historical fulfillment with a complete future fulfillment. When this kind of staged fulfillment is the case, the partial fulfillment confirms that the complete fulfillment will also happen. God does not leave anything half done.

Isaiah 9:6-7 is a good example of this.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

The Child was born, the Son was given, and the titles you see here are used by many in reference to the Lord.  But He’s never run a government, we don’t have peace without end, and He never sat on David’s throne. However, the fact that the first part of the prophecy has been fulfilled is confirmation that eventually it will all be fulfilled.

In  Isaiah 17 we see parts of the prophecy that were fulfilled in history and parts that are still in the future.

Isaiah began his ministry in 740BC. He was a contemporary of Amos, Hosea, and Micah. He died in 681 BC when according to Jewish tradition he was sawed in half.

Hebrews 11:36-37 seems to confirm this. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—(Hebrews 11:36-37)

As an aside, Yeshua In Matt. 23:37 complained about the way Israel treated God’s prophets and He was justified in doing so. Israel’s prophets were not treated well at all, and some were even executed. It was not an office to which a normal person would aspire. Only Isaiah was sawed in two.

Now let’s read Isaiah 17.

An Oracle Concerning Damascus:

(Isaiah 17:1-2) “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.

The sons of Shem were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshek. (Genesis 10:22-23)

The sons of Shem

Because of the language, it’s obvious this prophecy was only partially fulfilled when the Assyrians defeated the Arameans and overran their capital, Damascus, in 732 BC. To this day Damascus is thought to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city, with a 5000-year history. Its current population is close to 2 million, yet Isaiah 17:1 indicates that it will one day cease to exist. So that part is definitely still unfulfilled prophecy.

Some believe the phrase “cities of Aroer” refers to an area east of Jordan around the Arnon River, which flows from the east into the Dead Sea in southern Jordan. However, the Jewish Encyclopedia claims that this phrase is probably translated incorrectly because the geographical distance from Damascus to the Arnon River is too great (over 300 miles).  While they say it’s possible that there may have been another Aroer near Damascus, it is more likely that the passage should be rendered “the cities thereof shall be deserted.” That makes more sense to some Biblical scholars.

(Isaiah 17:3-5) The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus (A symbol of royalty is the Lion, Assad in Arabic mean Lion and Yeshua will return as the Lion of Judah; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty. “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm- as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

This segment speaks of the defeat of Aram in 732BC and the destruction of Samaria, the capitol of the Northern Kingdom, 10 years later (722 BC).  Damascus continued to exist as part of the Assyrian Empire and is still here today, but the ruins of Samaria have only recently been excavated out of the sandy soil of Israel.

The systematic relocation of the defeated ruling class to various places in the Assyrian Empire is also in view here, symbolized by the fat of Jacob’s body wasting away.  This was standard Assyrian policy. Separating the leaders from their people reduced the likelihood of a subsequent rebellion among their conquered nations. Jacob and Ephraim are alternate names for the Northern Kingdom.

(Isaiah 17:6) Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

Not all the people were dispersed.  Farmers were left behind to tend the crops and prepare the harvest for their new rulers. They were joined by refugees who were brought in from other parts of Assyria and their combined descendants were known as the Samaritans in the time of Jesus.

(A quick reading of 2 Chronicles 11:16 shows that all the faithful from the 10 northern tribes moved south at the time of the civil war that divided the nation after King Solomon’s death 150 years earlier.  Some Biblical scholars believe that from then on, all 12 Israelite tribes were represented in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, so the 10 tribes from the North weren’t totally lost.  The Lord has always preserved a believing remnant from all the Tribes of Israel.)

(Isaiah 17:7-9) In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

The Assyrians did not turn to God following their conquest of Aram and Israel. And far from abandoning their cities because of the Israelites, it was the Israelites who were defeated and dispersed.

I think the phrase “because of the Israelites” tells us the yet future attack on Damascus that brings about it’s destruction and the abandonment of Syria’s strong cities will come from Israel, not someone else, and will result in the eventual return of the survivors to the one true God.

(Isaiah 17:10) You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.

Genesis 10:22-23 gives us some interesting insight on the spiritual condition of the men who were the patriarchs the Assyrian and Aramean peoples. Let’s take a look.

Asshur - the father of the Assyrians

Asshur was father of the Assyrians, and his brother Aram was the father of the Arameans.

As you see, They were both sons of Shem, one of Noah’s sons. They were born after the great flood.

Aram’s son Uz is the traditional founder of Damascus. (The setting for Job, the Bible’s oldest book, is the Land of Uz. As an aside, the term Oz from the Wizard of Oz came from the Bible land of Uz.)

Being the direct offspring of Shem, the knowledge of God in the memories of these men cannot be questioned. It wasn’t that their descendants never knew the one true God but that they had forgotten Him and abandoned Him in favor of the false Canaanite gods of the region.

Isaiah 17:10-11 Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.

Currently Syria is almost totally Muslim. Until they return to their Maker and Savior none of their plans and schemes will prosper in the long run, no matter how promising they seem at the beginning.

(Isaiah 17:12-14) Oh, the raging of many nations- they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples- they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.

Sennacherib

Having conquered most of the Middle East including the Arameans and the Northern Kingdom, the Assyrians set their sights on the Southern Kingdom of Judah. In 701 BC Assyria’s King Sennacherib brought his armies almost literally to the gates of Jerusalem, so close his commanders were within speaking distance of the Jewish defenders.

Isaiah 37:36-37 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

On the night before they were to attack, the Lord sent His angel into the Assyrian camp on Mt. Scopus to single handedly defeat the Assyrian army. The Assyrians had packed up and retreated, ending 44 years of conquest. This time in Israel’s history so closely parallels the Jewish view of the End Times that Sennacherib is seen by them as a type of the anti-Christ.

But read carefully, Isaiah speaks of many nations raging against God’s people, not just Assyria, leading us to see Sennacherib’s defeat as only a partial fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

The phrase quote “rushing of many waters” is often used to describe the sound of loud voices and today many nations are stirred up.  The cry of anti-Israeli sentiment can be heard around the globe.  The various Midddle East “peace” conferences have pretty much left Israel standing alone. The Jews are negotiating away their very existence. Because of the current turmoil in Syria and the arrival of so many Muslim extremists there, the whole region could erupt in flames.

Now we’ll look at the other commentary on Zechariah 12:2, and that’s Psalm 83

Again - Biblical scholars disagree on the location of the Hagrites/Hagarenes 

As I said, I believe Israel’s next door neighbors have to be neutralized before Israel can become a peaceful unsuspecting nation. Therefore I don’t think the phrase “and the many nations with you” from Ezekiel 38:6 can be used to include them, as some commentators insist. They say this is a “catch-all” phrase that is meant to include Lebanon, Hezbollah, the Palestinians, Hamas, and others, but I don’t buy it for several reasons.

First, the names listed in Psalm 83 are nations existing in our time. Second, no battle like this has ever happened, and third, some of the very words written there have been publically proclaimed by Israel’s current enemies.

Asaph

Asaph, the author of Psalm 83, was a Levite, and one of the chief musicians during the time of King David. (1 Chron. 16:5). Today we might call him a minister of music. 2 Chron. 29:30 tells us he was also a “seer”. That means he had visions of the future. The Hebrew word translated “seer” comes from a root that means “to prophesy”. This lends credence to the view that Psalm 83 is a prophecy, perhaps resulting from one of Asaph’s visions.

Let’s  continue with  Psalm 83.

(Psalm 83:1-4) O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.  “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more”

Sound familiar? These words are frequently contained in the speeches of Israel’s enemies today.

(Psalm 83:5-8) With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you- the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot.

Add caption

Add caption

The language is out of today’s headlines and the countries lined up against Israel in this Psalm inhabited the lands of Israel’s current neighbors.

the land of Edom

Edom was in land that we call the an-Nafud desert today. It stretches across Northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel, and into the Sinai peninsula.

Moab and Ammon were part of today’s Jordan, represented by the Palestinians.

The same process that led to the rebirth of Israel as the Jewish homeland also created Jordan as the Palestinian homeland. Today about 1/3 of the people living in Jordan identify themselves as Palestinians. Personally, I don’t know how Jordan will be involved because Jordan has a king who is secular and western educated but God will work that out. Besides, I don’t think the government can completely prevent their Palestinian population from joining the attack. Jordan’s border would simply be over run with Palestinian fighters. As we speak today Jordan is being used as a base of operations to attack Assad’s government in Syria. So, Jordan is already in the political and military mix and is subservient to Western, Saudi and Persian Gulf foreign aid.

Some scholars have tried to link the Hagrites to Egypt, saying they were the descendants of Hagar.  Remember, Hagar was the Egyptian slave woman and Abraham and Sarah bought her. She was the mother of Ishmael. Some scholars say the names “Hagrite” and “Ishmaelite” are synonymous. If so, this aligns them with the desert tribes of Ishmael rather than with Egypt and locates them in the desert east and south of Israel.

Remember, the desert people of today, called Bedouins, or in Arabic “Bedu”. The name means desert dweller, although today many are no longer nomadic. and they don’t owe total allegiance to most countries and don’t recognize nation’s borders.

 

In the Sinai they have aligned themselves with Muslim terror groups, including al Qaeda, hence they are currently at war with the military regime in Egypt. 

The majority of people in Jordan are of Bedouin origin and they are considered the “backbone” of the monarchy of Jordan. However, in recent years there has been Bedouin discontent in Jordan as they try to exert more power.

Map showing Gebal and Tyre in modern day Lebanon

Gebal (also called Byblos) and Tyre are cities that can still be found in present day Lebanon, the home of Hezbollah.

The Amalekites lived in Israel’s southern desert and Philistia settled in Gaza on Israel’s southern border, where Hamas currently reigns.

 

Assyria pretty much surrounded Israel and the phrase “descendants of Lot” is another reference to Jordan.  Remember, Moab and Ammon were the sons of incestuous unions between Lot and his two daughters. They and their families settled in land the Lord gave them east of the Jordan River (Deut. 2:9), land that today is called Jordan.

So here we have all of Israel’s next door neighbors.

Back to Psalm 83:9-12. Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

land of the Midians

Midian was defeated by a vastly outnumbered force under the command of Gideon. It was another case of the Lord turning Israel’s enemies against each other and causing them to defeat themselves. Judges 7 records this. By the way, the Lord likes to repeat his miracles and Yeshua will use this same strategy to defeat His enemies at the end of the Great Tribulation just like God did twice at Michmash.

Jabin was a king of the Canaanites and Sisera was the commander of his army. The Lord lured the Canaanite army into a trap and the Israelites destroyed them. Judges 4 is the reference.

Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, and Zalmunna were all leaders of the Midianite army who were executed by Gideon and the Israelites in Judges 7-8.

Gideon's Army Attacks

(Psalm 83:13-18) Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.

Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O LORD. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

                              Asaph

Asaph tells the Lord exactly how he’d like Israel’s enemies to be dealt with. His prayer was that Israel’s current enemies will be just as soundly defeated as were the Midianites and the Canaanites, their armies scattered and their leaders executed.

Now here is an extremely important point, when this happens Israel will become larger, not smaller, with the contention over the ownership of Gaza, the West bank and the Golan Heights put to an end. Israel will become stronger, not weaker, its military reputation vastly enhanced. The divided land of Israel will be divided no more, and Jerusalem will become a unified city. The security fence will come down, since the borders on all three sides of Israel will be considered safe and the threat of terrorist attacks extremely low. In most people’s minds 60 years of war will have finally ended. It will be the perfect opportunity to lure Israel into a false sense of security. The Jews will become a peaceful and unsuspecting people living in a land of unwalled villages as our verses from Ezekiel 38 require. This is a critical condition that must be met prior to Ezekiel’s battle and the fulfillment of Psalm 83 war will go a long way toward meeting it

Friends, make no mistake about it, these prophecies will be fulfilled by our God, if not today then another day soon. Leaders and even nations may come and go but the Word of the Lord is eternal.

All the prophets and your Watchman and Watchwoman on the wall agree that Israel is in for a terrible time in the years to come.

The second coming of Jesus/Yeshua Hamashiach

Between now and the 2nd Coming of Yeshua, several wars will be fought for control of the only place on Earth God has claimed as his own (2 Chron. 6:5-6). Friends, keep your eyes on Jerusalem, God’s city.

"The Time of Jacob's Trouble"

One of God’s Old testament names for the End Times judgments is “the time of Jacob’s trouble” It comes from Jeremiah 30:4-11. In verses 10-11 He said,

I am with you and will save you, ’declares the Lord. ‘Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you,I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely unpunished.’

Here we can see the dual purpose of the Great Tribulation; 1. to completely destroy all the nations who over the course of history have persecuted and murdered God’s chosen people and 

2. to discipline the Jews in order to prepare them for their coming Millennial Kingdom.

It is extremely important to remember that in Ezekiel 36:22 God said He isn’t going to save them because they deserve it, but because He PROMISED to do so.

And in Jeremiah 31:35-36, He repeated that promise in the clearest possible terms.

This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars

to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the Lord Almighty is his name:

“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”

When all of the mid-East flames are extinguished and the smoke clears away there will still be a nation called Israel. Our one true God has proclaimed it. Friends, as my friend Jack Bullock says, do not tie your shoes to tight because we can hear the footsteps of the true Messiah on the horizon. Israel look up and repent because your salvation through Yeshua Hamaschiach draws near! 

Comet C/ISON was imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope on April 10 using the Wide Field Camera 3, when the comet was 394 million miles from Earth. Image credit: NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute) and Hubble Comet ISON Imaging Science Team.

Have you ever wonder why abortionists constantly run crying to unelected judges to do their dirty work?

The fact is, when popularly elected representatives decide, the outcome is overwhelmingly pro-life.

And while the outrageously bad Roe v. Wade decision makes our battles more difficult, at least within the limits of Roe we pro-lifers continue to make progress.

Across the country since 2011 more than 170 new pro-life legislative provisions have been enacted in multiple states.

Legislation for ultrasound requirements and parental intervention has been passed in states like Michigan and Oklahoma.

More than 20 states have opted out of paying for abortions with state taxpayer dollars in Obamacare.

And in 2013 alone four states have successfully pushed for the enactment of provisions that would ban abortion coverage established in Obamacare within their states.

Even with the pro-abortion media solidly on their side, pro-abortion activists have failed to bolster popular support for abortion-on-demand.

In fact, even the staunchly pro-abortion Time Magazine recently lamented their lack of popular support in a cover story entitled, “Why Abortion Right Activists Have Been Losing Ever Since Roe v. Wade."

Yet the Roe v. Wade decision still limits what we can do.

The top legislative priority is passing the Life at Conception Act, removing judicial obstacles from the process so that the unborn can be truly protected. This bill was recently re-introduced in both the House and Senate. There are now up to 120 cosponsors in the House and Senate.

Ultimately, an up or down vote on the Life at Conception Act will put politicians on record either for or against ending abortion-on-demand. I urge you to e-mail your Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 1091 and your Senators to co-sponsor S.583 today.

At least 430 liters of contaminated water spilled  Thursday when workers overfilled a tank while transferring water without using a gauge. TEPCO revealed that the water that escaped had readings as high as 200,000 becquerels per liter, well above the legal limit of 30 becquerels.

Plant workers resorted to using sandbags in an attempt to absorb the leak, but TEPCO admits that by now, the radioactive water may have reached the Pacific Ocean.

This was just the latest in a series of near daily mishaps that, when added up, paint a picture of ongoing structural failure to contain a nuclear disaster that has only grown since a tsunami sparked a reactor-meltdown two and a half years ago.

While it is nearly impossible to paint a complete picture of the Fukushima emergency, given efforts on the part of TEPCO, the nuclear industry, and the Japanese government to cover it up, as well as the sheer scope of the crisis, Common Dreams has reported a series of key developments that occurred in September alone:

• Tanks are leaking and spilling on a near-daily basis, releasing radioactive water into the groundwater and sea. Even a ‘radiation barrier’ fence surrounding the tanks burst a hole. There is no short-term strategy for containing the ever-growing amounts of radioactive water contaminated by efforts to cool the melted reactors.
• The destroyed plant is extremely vulnerable to weather fluctuations, with storms and heavy rains resulting in the further release of toxic water. Facing the threat of Typhoon Man-Yi in mid-September, TEPCO released an unknown quantity of radioactive water into the ocean, in a bid to fend off further disaster, the company claims. As recently as Tuesday, a heavy rainstorm resulted in the leakage of at least 4 tons of toxic water.
• In early September, TEPCO admitted it had detected leaked water with radiation at levels high enough to kill a person within 4 hours of exposure. To date, it is not known what the short or long-term health effects will be for the thousands of clean-up workers at the plant.
• A rare admission from TEPCO senior official Kazuhiko Yamashita that the “situation is not under control” was quickly covered up by other company officials and the Japanese government, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scrambles to convince the International Olympic Committee that the problem is manageable.
• The Japanese government announced in early September it will invest $500 million to build a giant ‘wall of ice’ surrounding the plant. Yet, experts it will take at least 2 years to complete, and there is no evidence it will mitigate the crisis.
• Despite the growing emergency, TEPCO is pushing to re-activate the world’s largest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility, located approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Tokyo.