Month: December 2018

Are We Hearing the Truth About the Riots and Unrest in France?

On By Geri UngureanIn Riots in France13 Comments

As we have been watching the “Yellow Vested” rioters in Paris, setting fires and looting – the news has been reported consistently that the French people are upset about the price of gasoline and taxes.

Something about this story just did not make sense to me.  I began to think that the real reason for the intense anger of the French people was being buried by stories of gas and taxes.

I thought back to the last five or six years and began to remember the many horrific terrorist attacks which took place in France.

Here is a listing of many of these terrorist attacks:

From wikipedia.org

January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, a mass shooting at the antifascist satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, carried out by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, two Islamist gunmen who identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen.During this period, a third Islamist gunman and close friend of the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly was responsible for two shootings and an hostage taking at a Hypercacher kosher market. He said he synchronized his attacks with the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

November 2015 Paris attacks. The single deadliest terrorist attack in French history. Multiple shooting and grenade attacks occurred on a Friday night; among the locations targeted were a music venue, sports stadium and several bar and restaurant terraces. 90 persons were killed during a siege at an Eagles of Death Metal concert inside the Bataclan. French president François Hollandeevacuated from a football match between France and Germany at the Stade de France, venue for the UEFA Euro 2016 Final, after three separate suicide bombings over the course of about 40 minutes. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and President Hollande named the Paris attacks an “‘act of war.”

In July of 2016, 86 people lost their lives when a 19 tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The driver was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian resident of France. The attack ended following an exchange of gunfire, during which Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot and killed by police.

2018 Paris knife attack. A Chechnya-born French Muslim, armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured several more near the Garnier Opera in Paris before being fatally shot by police.  source

The attacks noted above were the most deadly, but there were many other Islamist terrorist attacks in France.

Just out today:

From frontpagemag.com

JIHAD IN STRASBOURG

Cherif Chekatt reminds Emmanuel Macron that climate change is not the only threat France faces

Emmanuel Macron, France’s youthful wunderkind, Europe’s poster child for globalism and socialism, has been absorbed lately with furious protests and riots over a confiscatory new tax he placed on gasoline in order to fight what he thinks of as the greatest threat France and the world face today: climate change. But on Tuesday in Strasbourg, a Muslim named Cherif Chekatt reminded Macron that France faces another threat, one that could prove to be immensely more serious: jihad. Chekatt opened fire at a Christmas market in his native Strasbourg, murdering four and injuring eleven.

As of this writing, Chekatt is on the run, and in a departure from the recent tendency to wave away all such attacks as manifestations of “mental illness” and insist that they’re not terrorism, much less jihad, French authorities are, according to the Telegraph, “treating the attack as a terrorist act. Anti-terrorist prosecutors have opened an investigation.”

In fact, Chekatt was “on a list of ‘security threats,’” France’s “Fiche S” list of people who pose a serious terror threat. RT reported that the regional prefecture announced: “The author of these acts, listed as a security threat, had been sought by police” on Tuesday, but they hadn’t been able to catch up with him before he opened fire. A former London police inspector, Peter Kirkham, explained to RT: “There are so many people that are involved around the edges of this sort of terrorism if this is what it turns out to be, that you can’t keep any sort of meaningful surveillance on them. Even just monitoring the use of communications and social media would be too much.”

And that’s especially true when, like Macron, you don’t want to admit that there is any significant threat at all. But it is also a situation that the Islamic State (ISIS) has been working actively to bring about. As I explain in detail in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS, in 2015 the Islamic State (ISIS) published Black Flags from Rome, detailing its strategy for conquering Europe. It explains how, as the Muslim population of Europe increases, intelligence agencies collect huge amounts of data, “but they will not study it unless you are caught under the radar.” As jihad attacks become more common, law enforcement authorities will not be able to keep up:

As the Western nations get poorer, their intelligence collection agencies will continue to exist, but they simply won’t have enough manpower (less jobs) to analyse it all. With less attacks in the West being group (networked) attacks and an increasing amount of lone-wolf attacks, it will be more difficult for intelligence agencies to stop an increasing amount of violence and chaos from spreading in the West.

As this violence and chaos spreads, Leftist non-Muslim Europeans will help pave the way for the Islamic conquest of Europe, for

a growing population of left-winged [sic] activists (people who are against; human/animal abuses, Zionism, and Austerity measures etc) look upto [sic] the Muslims as a force who are strong enough to fight against the injustices of the world….Many of these people (who are sometimes part of Anonymous and Anarchy movements) will ally with the Muslims to fight against the neo-Nazis’ and rich politicians. They will give intelligence, share weapons and do undercover work for the Muslims to pave the way for the conquest of Rome.

When will this alliance be cemented? When, sooner or later, Leftist protesters realize that taking up arms alongside Muslims is the only viable way of achieving their goals:

If you have ever been at a pro-Palestine / anti-Israel protest, you will see many activists who are not even Muslims who are supportive of what Muslims are calling for (the fall of Zionism). It is most likely here that connections between Muslims and Left-wing activists will be made, and a portion from them will realise that protests are not effective, and that armed combat is the alternative. So they will start to work together in small cells of groups to fight and sabotage against the ‘financial elite’.

Three years later, this plan is working beautifully. And so Cherif Chekatt will fade quickly from the headlines, and the jihad threat will again be downplayed, until the next one. Meanwhile, watch in the coming days for the handwringing establishment media stories about how the local mosque in Strasbourg fears a “backlash,” and that Muslims are the real victims of jihad terror attacks. It always works the same way, like clockwork. That is, until the day that it doesn’t. One day soon the disingenuousness and cynicism of this establishment media propaganda will be obvious to everyone. But by then it will likely be far too late for Emmanuel Macron, and France. source

The terrorist attack yesterday which left 3 dead, At least 12 injured and gunman on the lose

From foxnews.com

France ‘terror’ shooting leaves 3 dead, multiple injured with gunman on the run: officials

A shooting in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday killed three people, wounded several others and is being treated as an act of “terror,” police and government officials said, adding that the gunman is on the run.

The suspect opened fire in downtown Strasbourg on Orfevre Street around 8 p.m. local time, government authorities Préfet de la région Grand-Est et du Bas-Rhin revealed on Twitter.

The gunman is known to police and has a criminal record, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters.

The suspect was shot and wounded before fleeing the scene, police officials told The Associated Press. Authorities had attempted to arrest the individual ahead of the shooting, a police official said, but it wasn’t immediately clear why.

The shooting death toll stood at three, according to Castaner. That’s despite an earlier report from police union officials that four people were killed. Officials did not explain the reason for the conflicting death tolls.

The country increased their security alert level hours after the attack occurred and would be dispersing additional security forces to Strasbourg, the interior minister said.

Part of the incident took place in a Christmas market at Rue des Grandes Arcades and unfolded on different streets in the city, Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries said. Military forces were helping the police, according to the mayor.

The Interior Ministry instructed people in Strasbourg to stay inside due to a “serious security event” taking place, The Associated Press reported.

Government officials in the region also took to Twitter, saying there was an “event underway in Strasbourg” and cautioned against spreading “false rumors.”

“Avoid the area around the police station,” the Préfet de la région Grand-Est et du Bas-Rhin tweeted.

That area is located near the city’s Christmas market, according to The Associated Press. Strasbourg’s well-known market is set up around the city’s cathedral during the Christmas period and becomes a popular gathering place.

The European Parliament, which meets in Strasbourg, was closed and nobody is permitted to leave, according to Jaume Duch, the institution’s director general for communication and spokesperson. source

From gatestoneinstitute.org from today:

France: A Revolt against Europe’s Elites?

  • Maybe this is it — the start of the Western European public’s pushback against the elites’ disastrous multicultural and globalist project.For years, those of us who write and worry about the rise of Islam in Western Europe have known that eventually, if the governments of these countries did not change course dramatically, something had to give. So far, the natives had, for the most part, been remarkably tame. They had swallowed a lot. Their leaders had filled their countries with huge numbers of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, a disproportionate number of whom were making it clear that they had no intention of fully joining or contributing to their host societies but, rather, were content to take, to harm, to damage, and to destroy, and were determined, in the long run, to conquer and rule.

    No one had ever asked the citizens of Western Europe whether they wanted their countries radically transformed in this manner. This transformation, moreover, was intensifying by the year. At some point, surely, the native peoples of Western Europe would react.

    But what form would it take? Those of us who are professionally preoccupied with these topics spent untold hours pondering this question. We asked one another: what do you think will happen? Some prophesied Balkanization. Already there were no-go zones – enclaves in and around major cities where “infidels” were unwelcome and where police and fire personnel were routinely pelted with rocks if they dared to intrude. It was easy enough to imagine those areas expanding, their de facto sovereignty under sharia law officially recognized and some kind of relatively stability established. Other observers forecast riots by natives — not the elites whose personal lives were minimally affected by the Muslim presence in their countries, but the less privileged types whose neighborhoods and schools had become danger zones, whose taxes had been raised repeatedly to bankroll massive payouts to immigrant-group members, and whose doctors and hospitals had been so overburdened by the newcomers that vital treatments were increasingly rationed and waiting times increasingly long.

    In 2016, the British shocked the world by voting for Brexit, and later the same year Americans pulled off an even bigger stunner by electing Donald Trump to the presidency. Some commentators expected that elections in France, Sweden, and the Netherlands would also yield sensational results, but although there were advances for parties that favor immigration controls, such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (formerly National Front), the Sweden Democrats, and Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party and Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy, both in the Netherlands, those gains were smaller than expected. On the other hand, last year the Austrians elected as their Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a vocal opponent of EU-imposed asylum quotas, and this year the Italian premiership went to Giuseppe Conte, who takes a strong stance against illegal immigrants and has barred migrant ships from Italian ports.

    The most important news on this front, however, has not been at the ballot box. This year Brits expressed growing outrage over Theresa May’s bungled Brexit and, during the summer, took to the streets to protest the illegitimate incarceration of Tommy Robinson, who in that country had become the very face of resistance to Islamization. Furthermore, in recent weeks, citizens of France from across the political spectrum, and mostly hailing from small towns and rural areas, have been engaged not just in standard-issue public protests — that perennial Gallic recreational activity — but have been rioting and committing acts of vandalism in Paris and other major cities, despoiling iconic locations such as the Champs-Elysées, forcing the Eiffel Tower and Louvre to close, and even causing damage to the Arc de Triomphe.

    At first it was reported that the French rioters were angry about a hike in fuel taxes that had been motivated by President Emmanuel Macron’s environmental priorities. “The price of gas has become incredible,” Ghislain Coutard, credited with starting the so-called Yellow Vests movement, said the other day, then cited friends who “are barely surviving” because of the costs of owning a car. “The smallest problem with the car becomes a catastrophe,” he explained. “You have to go into debt and then it never ends.” Unfortunately, even after Macron, realizing he had overreached, canceled the tax hike, the rioting continued.

    Journalists have had trouble getting clear and concise explanations from the rioters of their motives and goals. Perhaps the rioters cannot find the words — perhaps they are expressing a rage that they have yet to be able to articulate. Or perhaps they are reluctant to speak their minds out loud for fear of being called xenophobes, Islamophobes, or racists. In an interview the other day, the French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut attributed the riots to economic and cultural insecurity on the part of the ethnically French lower and middle classes — people who have been driven out of the major city centers by rising rents, who have seen their jobs and small businesses destroyed by “green” taxes and regulations, who feel they have lost a power struggle with Muslim immigrants, and who sense that their ruling classes have more sympathy for immigrants than for them.

    Now the riots have spread to Belgium and the Netherlands. There, too, the rioters’ goals can be elusive. The Associated Press quoted one older Dutch women’s complaint about high taxes, the housing shortage, and the loss of welfare benefits: “The social welfare net we grew up with is gone,” she said. “The government is not there for the people. It is there to protect its own interests.” Of course, those “interests” include prioritizing freebies for immigrants at the expense of Dutch people who have put in a lifetime of work. Even today, however, for many Western European natives, it can be easier to be an insurrectionist than to speak honestly about Islam and immigration.

    Will these riots spread even further? Somehow it is hard to picture ordinary Scandinavians rioting — they are just too low-key. Their idea of public demonstration is a quiet candlelight vigil. As for Germans, they are too orderly to erupt in spontaneous uprisings. Yes, they are good at marching in lockstep to the orders of some hysterical fascist maniac, but they are not individually inclined to break into violence. Then again, that impression may be wrong. After all, it was quite a surprise to see so many ordinarily polite, even repressed, Britons piling into London squares to voice their solidarity with Tommy Robinson. So maybe these French riots will spread across Western Europe. Maybe this is it — the start of the Western European public’s pushback against the elites’ disastrous multicultural and globalist project. Or maybe it is just one more step that is bringing us closer to the continent’s day of reckoning. We shall soon find out soon enough. source

Brethren, the rest of this article is going to be youtube videos which clearly show that there is much anger in France over the Muslim Migrant situation.  I read today that Emmanuel Macron has moved many of these migrants to upscale areas of Paris.  This angered many Parisians.

Please make the time to watch these videos – they are quite short:

Migrants being evicted

Muslim are overpowering small towns – they refuse to assimilate

Protestors try to stop Muslim Migrants from praying in their streets and obstructing traffic

Macron resettles many migrants into upscale areas of Paris

Muslims are not wanted in France

Constant unrest and violence

Here is the caveat – they refuse to assimilate and are determined to bring Sharia law  to France

Macron wishes to be known to the world as one of the leaders of Globalism.  This controlled and forced migration of Muslims into Western countries did not happen spontaneously.  This was part of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2015 meeting of the U.N.

I just received this video in which a person in France is being interviewed. During this interview the man says that the people in France know that Macron is taking orders from others outside of France, and this is angering the people.

Here is an article I wrote right after the U.N. met that year.  You can see that “forced migration” was included as one of the development goals.  Of course, Soros is funding much of this migration:

Preparing the World for Antichrist:  The Sustainable Development Goals of the U.N.

So I leave you with all of the information to ponder what we are being told by  the press about the unrest in France.

Personally, I believe that the people of France have had it with the forced migration and want Macron to not only stop the influx of Muslim migrants into France, but also want him to do something about the ones who are already there.  Perhaps this is the reason for Macron’s 27% approval rate.

Globalism IS on the horizon.  We know that from the Word of God.  Antichrist must have a NWO to govern.

Let’s hope and pray that Jesus comes for us soon!

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA

 

 

The Devilish Ministry of Joel Osteen

On By Geri UngureanIn Joel Osteen WOLF20 Comments

Author of “Your Best Life Now” Joel Osteen is well known as a motivational speaker.  But I had no idea of how Satan is using this man to completely mislead his congregation.

I don’t watch Osteen because I don’t need to be “motivated.”  But a reader of my articles wrote to me yesterday about Osteen and was very angry at what she witnessed.  She listens to him occasionally – just to see what he is up to.

I asked if she would send me a link to the sermon.  She did, and after watching as much as I could stand, I realized that this man is truly a WOLF and is taking so many to hell with him.

I was enraged.

Here is part of the email sent to me:

“As I listened today, I was horrified to hear what sounded like him calling all who follow him to come out/away from those who refuse to be enlightened – who refuse to go onto the next level. He kept saying, very heretically, that “God wants you to attach yourself to someone who is higher up than you so you can benefit from their blessings.”   He said that anyone who doesn’t want to advance to the next level (by attaching themselves to someone of a higher level, thus gaining some of their blessings) should be shunned because he wants you to have nothing to do with those who aren’t advancing to the next level.”

YES, brethren, you read that right.  The unspoken reality is that Joel Osteen is saying to his congregation “Go and make more money so that you can bring me more money. And break off ties with the poor.”  <hisssssssss>

Here is the sermon:

Two snapshots of Osteen’s website. Notice that he asks for money to hear his messages:

Screen Shot 2018-12-10 at 10.18.51 AM

Screen Shot 2018-12-10 at 10.21.32 AM

Brethren, I do hope that you are as outraged as I am.  This man is a WOLF in the truest sense of the word.  He is telling people to cut off relationships with people who are financially poor; and seek out the rich.  WHERE is this found in the Word of God??

An Ungodly Pastor in my Life

My husband and I attended a Baptist church near our home years ago.  I won’t go into the many unethical things this man did while he was the pastor, but for the sake of this article I will tell you this:

At a meeting of the Evangelism team, he told them NOT to evangelize in the trailer park because “We don’t want those kind of people in church.”  He said that they had no money to give to the church.

Soon after that meeting, my husband and I left that church.

Read what Osteen says under the youtube version of his “Favor Connections” sermon:

“Sometimes, you will have to let go of old relationships, of old habits and mindsets that are keeping you limited if you are going to reach all that God has for you. Be encouraged during these times. You are making room for what God wants to do. You are rising higher, you are moving towards your destiny. Surround yourself with people who will challenge you, who will not allow you to remain in mediocrity. You are an eagle, designed to soar above the crowd!”

So, what my friend said about calling for people to be shunned was exactly what Osteen was asking.  He was saying “Come away from poor people, and connect up with prosperous people.”

He even had the audacity in this sermon to use the Scriptures about Peter when the Lord told him to cast out his net once again.  Osteen spoke only about Peter being “prospered”  and nothing about the fact that Jesus was showing him that he would become a “Fisher of men.”

 “And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”  (Matthew 4:18-19).

Brethren, that was the lesson which our Lord Jesus was conveying to Peter and Andrew.  He was not saying “Follow me and I will make you rich.”  He was speaking of reaching people for the Kingdom of God – making them “Fishers of men.”

If you attend Osteen’s “church” or know someone who attends, please send them this article.  Did you see the size of the congregation who is being misled by the devil using Joel Osteen?   It breaks my heart.

Osteen will be unveiling his newest book called “Next Level Thinking.” He is using the pyramid scheme in his church to become richer and richer!

Pray for Joel Osteen that God would reach him. Many of us would say that he is beyond help.  If God intends for this man to be saved and in turn begin to preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ – think of how glorious that would be!

Pray for those in the congregation that the Lord would open their eyes to the truth of the Word of God.

Show them that the words of Joel Osteen are NOT from God’s Holy Word.

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!

 

 

 

 

Corrie Ten Boom: The TRUE Face of Christianity During WWII

On By Geri UngureanIn Corrie Ten Boom11 Comments

When I read ignorant statements about Christians taking part in the mass genocide of the Jews in WWII, I seriously want to scream.

When people speak of the Vatican’s part in propping up Hitler during those dark years – what they do not understand is that Catholicism is NOT Christianity – not in any way, shape or form. I am convinced that Satan himself inspired the creation of the Catholic Church.

First of all, are we as born again believers not under the Covenant of Grace?  Of course we are.  Although Martin Luther did not finish well in his ministry, we can thank him for having the courage and conviction to post his 95 theses on the door of the Catholic Church. It ultimately cost him his life.

Luther was attempting to show the leaders of that cult this Bible doctrine:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast”  (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Catholicism has always been a works based cult and I pray that many will come out of that cult and be saved. There are people who still attend Catholic services but are born again.  I don’t understand why they feel the need to stay.

 

pope pius

Pope Pius XII was known as “Hitler’s Pope.”

The love of Jesus shone forth in the life of Corrie Ten Boom

From pbs.org

Corrie ten Boom has long been honored by evangelical Christians as an exemplar of Christian faith in action. Arrested by the Nazis along with the rest of her family for hiding Jews in their Haarlem home during the Holocaust, she was imprisoned and eventually sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp along with her beloved sister, Betsie, who perished there just days before Corrie’s own release on December 31, 1944. Inspired by Betsie’s example of selfless love and forgiveness amid extreme cruelty and persecution, Corrie established a post-war home for other camp survivors trying to recover from the horrors they had escaped. She went on to travel widely as a missionary, preaching God’s forgiveness and the need for reconciliation. Corrie’s devout moral principles were tested when, by chance, she came face to face with one of her former tormentors in 1947. The following description of that experience is excerpted from her 1971 autobiography, The Hiding Place, written with the help of John and Elizabeth Sherrill.

I’m Still Learning to Forgive

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. …

And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. …

“You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.

“I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.”

“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, …” his hand came out, … “will you forgive me?”

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” …

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then. source

The story of Corrie Ten Boom has inspired countless number of people through the decades.  She embodied our Faith – our Love – She embodied Grace.

After all, that is why God has His believers under the Covenant of Grace. It’s all about forgiveness.  He forgives us for our sins. He expects us to forgive those who have sinned against us – no matter how egregious the sin.

This is not a suggestion from the Lord. He commanded that we forgive – and we must.  Remember that forgiveness is not an emotion – it is an act of our will.

We may not feel it, but we do it for our Precious Lord!

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!

KILLER ROBOTS: It’s Not Science Fiction Anymore

On By Geri UngureanIn AI Killer Bots2 Comments

Having just written an article on AI robots and how they are being programmed by many corrupt and immoral people, I just read about the new AI Arms Race. To say that this is disconcerting is a gross understatement.

Conventional warfare is going to be obsolete.  The major nuclear powers in the world are developing killer AI robots which are able to make decisions apart from human intervention.

We have to understand that not all AI “bots” walk on two legs. Some are unmanned stealth fighter jets, some are tanks – some are drones.

Under Obama’s reign, it is said that he decimated our military – manpower and weaponry.  But isn’t it interesting that it was in 2016 when the Pentagon aggressively entered the AI warfare race?  I’ll let the reader ponder that.

From theguardian.com

Killer robots: pressure builds for ban as governments meet

Countries spending billions on ‘third revolution in warfare’ as UN debates regulation of AI-powered weapons

They will be “weapons of terror, used by terrorists and rogue states against civilian populations. Unlike human soldiers, they will follow any orders however evil,” says Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

“These will be weapons of mass destruction. One programmer and a 3D printer can do what previously took an army of people. They will industrialise war, changing the speed and duration of how we can fight. They will be able to kill 24-7 and they will kill faster than humans can act to defend themselves.”

Governments are meeting at the UN in Geneva on Monday for the fifth time to discuss whether and how to regulate lethal autonomous weapons systems (Laws). Also known as killer robots, these AI-powered ships, tanks, planes and guns could fight the wars of the future without any human intervention.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, backed by Tesla’s Elon Musk and Alphabet’s Mustafa Suleyman, is calling for a preemptive ban on Laws, since the window of opportunity for credible preventative action is fast closing and an arms race is already in full swing.

“In 2015, we warned that there would be an arms race to develop lethal autonomous weapons,” says Walsh. “We can see that race has started. In every theatre of war – in the air, on the sea, under the sea and on the land – there are prototype autonomous weapons under development.”

Ahead of the meeting, the US has argued that rather than trying to “stigmatise or ban” Laws, innovation should be encouraged, and that use of the technology could actually reduce the risk of civilian casualties in war. Experts, however, fear the systems will not be able to distinguish between combatants and civilians and act proportionally to the threat.

France and Germany have been accused of shying away from tough rules by activists who say Europe should be leading the charge for a ban. A group of non-aligned states, led by Venezuela, is calling for the negotiation of a new international law to regulate or ban killer robots. The group seeks general agreement from states that “all weapons, including those with autonomous functions, must remain under the direct control and supervision of humans at all times”.

The new global arms race

Fully autonomous weapons do not yet exist, but high-ranking military officials have said the use of robots will be widespread in warfare in a matter of years. At least 381 partly autonomous weapon and military robotics systems have been deployed or are under development in 12 states, including China, France, Israel, the UK and the US.

Automatic systems, such as Israel’s Iron Dome and mechanised sentries in the Korean demilitarised zone, have already been deployed but cannot act fully autonomously. Research by the International Data Corporation suggests global spending on robotics will double from $91.5bn in 2016 to $188bn in 2020, bringing full autonomy closer to realisation.

The US, the frontrunner in the research and development of Laws, has cited autonomy as a cornerstone of its plan to modernise its army and ensure its strategic superiority across the globe. This has caused other major military powers to increase their investment in AI and robotics, as well as in autonomy, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

“We very much acknowledge that we’re in a competition with countries like China and Russia,” says Steven Walker, director of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which develops emerging technologies and whose 2018 budget was increased by 27% last year.

AI fighter jet

The US is currently working on the prototype for a tail-less, unmanned X-47B aircraft, which will be able to land and take off in extreme weather conditions and refuel in mid-air. The country has also completed testing of an autonomous anti-submarine vessel, Sea Hunter, that can stay at sea for months without a single person onboard and is able to sink other submarines and ships. A 6,000kg autonomous tank, Crusher, is capable of navigating incredibly difficult terrain and is advertised as being able to “tackle almost any mission imaginable.”

The UK is developing its own unmanned vehicles, which could be weaponised in the future. Taranis, an unmanned aerial combat vehicle drone named after the Celtic god of thunder, can avoid radar detection and fly in autonomous mode.

Russia, meanwhile, is amassing an arsenal of unmanned vehicles, both in the air and on the ground; commentators say the country sees this as a way to compensate for its conventional military inferiority compared with the US. “Whoever leads in AI will rule the world,” said Vladimir Putin, the recently re-elected Russian president, last year. “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind.”

Russia has developed a robot tank, Nerehta, which can be fitted with a machine gun or a grenade launcher, while its semi-autonomous tank, the T-14, will soon be fully autonomous. Kalashnikov, the Russian arms manufacturer, has developed a fully automated, high-calibre gun that uses artificial neural networks to choose targets.

China has various similar semi-autonomous tanks and is developing aircraft and seaborne swarms, but information on these projects is tightly guarded. “As people are still preparing for a high-tech war, the old and new are becoming intertwined to become a new form of hidden complex ‘hybrid war’,” wrote Wang Weixing, a Chinese military research director, last year.

“Unmanned combat is gradually emerging. While people have their heads buried in the sand trying to close the gap with the world’s military powers in terms of traditional weapons, technology-driven ‘light warfare’ is about to take the stage.”

 

Russian armata tanks

Pandora’s box

According to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, these systems threaten to become the “third revolution in warfare”, after the invention of gunpowder and nuclear bombs, and once the Pandora’s box is opened it will be difficult to close.

“Inanimate machines cannot understand or respect the value of life, yet they would have the power to determine when to take it away,” says Mary Wareham, the campaign coordinator. “Our campaign believes that machines should never be permitted to take human life on the battlefield or in policing, border control, or any circumstances.”

Supporters of a ban say fully autonomous weapons are unlikely to be able to fully comply with the complex and subjective rules of international humanitarian and human rights law, which require human understanding and judgment as well as compassion.

Pointing to the 1997 ban on landmines, now one of the most widely accepted treaties in international law, and the ban on cluster munitions, which has 120 signatories, Wareham says: “History shows how responsible governments have found it necessary in the past to supplement the limits already provided in the international legal framework due to the significant threat posed to civilians.”

 

AI ship

It is believed that the weaponisation of artificial intelligence could bring the world closer to apocalypse than ever before. “Imagine swarms of autonomous tanks and jet fighters meeting on a border and one of them fires in error or because it has been hacked,” says Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robots at the University of Sheffield, who first wrote about the reality of robot war in 2007.

“This could automatically invoke a battle that no human could understand or untangle. It is not even possible for us to know how the systems would interact in conflict. It could all be over in minutes with mass devastation and loss of life.” source

Brethren, I understand that it is frightening, knowing that killer robots are being created for warfare.  We are witnessing a time in history which only decades ago, people would have laughed it off as impossible and the “stuff” of science fiction novels.

Well, it’s here and it’s real.  But it’s even more real that we belong to the Creator of the Universe. He foreknew all of this; and He has allowed it.

The convergence of events which line up perfectly with Bible prophecy should comfort the believer.

I don’t know when the Lord is coming for us, but I will say that I believe it is soon.

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!