The Jim Bakker Show

Shorey talks food security during Grace Street seminar

John Shorey thought he was doing a commendable job of preparing for the trials of the last days.

The author had been storing food for several years, and knew he had enough tucked safely away to feed 30 people for four years. In a pinch, he said he probably could have been able to feed 50.

A few months ago, however, Shorey asked God exactly how many hungry people would come to him for help in the days ahead. Shorey thought he’d get some words of encouragement, with God saying his estimates were right on par. Instead, Shorey received a much different response.

“A number came into my mind so loud, it was not the audible voice of God, but it was as close as you could get,” Shorey recalled on Monday morning. “And the number was 100.”

Shorey made the comments as he delivered a food security seminar on Grace Street, the first of three preparation talks he is scheduled to give this week at Morningside. The story underlined one of the main messages of his address, that one can never have enough food stored away.

“It’s almost going to be impossible to have too much, because the measure of your preparedness will be the measure of how many people you can help,” Shorey said. “If you can help more people with more resources, how can you be too prepared? How can you have too much food?”

Shorey talks about storing food in his books, which include “The Window of the Lord’s Return” and “Unlocking the Mystery of the Book of Revelation,” though he used Monday’s seminar to offer tips that preppers can use to ensure they have enough food for the coming days.

He noted Christians might be asked to feed people who are outside their immediate families.

“What are you going to do when your neighbors and their kids show up at your door hungry and starving?” Shorey told the crowd. “Are you going to turn them away? When Jesus fed the 5,000 and they were hungry (Matthew 14:13-21), did he turn them away? No, he didn’t turn them away. … How we act and how we reach out to help people in the last days is going to determine whether or not God looks at you and says ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’”

Shorey said simply having food wasn’t enough.

Preppers needed a good hiding spot to prevent their food from being stolen or confiscated, and they should also explore gardening and canning to help generate and preserve new harvests.

“I don’t care how much food you think you have stored,” Shorey said. “If you don’t have a means of replenishing that food, you can easily run out.”

He suggested that people should not keep any more than 25 percent of their food exposed to the naked eye. That way, if people should come to take their food, the majority of it will be hidden.

Shorey also suggested purchasing seeds, fertilizer and gardening tools to help them grow new food. He said canning those fruits and vegetables would help add to their shelf life, but warned of the potential health risks of improper canning, such as botulism. He encouraged people to research canning and practice it — and gardening — before they have to rely on them for food.

“If you wait until you need it until you practice, you could be in trouble,” Shorey cautioned.

Shorey also encouraged people to make sure they had enough rice, beans, wheat and oatmeal in their stockpiles, calling them the “staples of food storage” because of their lengthy shelf lives.

Successful gardens will help preppers slow down the consumption of those stockpiles, he said.

According to Shorey, there’s more to food security than stockpiling, gardening and canning.

Shorey said faith is also a key component, sharing Biblical messages of God’s ability to multiply food — such as the feeding of the 5,000. He believes God will do the same for those who share their food in the days ahead, and noted that feeding 100 is “impossible” for him, but not for God.

“We have to believe and trust God that as we do our part, God will do his part,” Shorey said.

Shorey is scheduled to give preparation seminars titled “The Preppers Top 10 Keys to Survival” and “Last-Minute Prepping” this Wednesday and Thursday. The seminars are set to begin at 11 a.m. and will be live-streamed on jimbakkershow.com and the PTL Television Network on Roku.

Snyder: 2016 shaping up to be bleak year for global economy

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Global economic trends suggest a bleak economic outlook for the remainder of the year, according to a new blog post from frequent Jim Bakker Show guest Michael Snyder.

Writing for his blog, “The Economic Collapse,” Snyder recently published a list of 22 signs that suggest January is only the beginning of what could be a rough year for the global economy.

Items on the list range from store closures and layoffs to slumping oil prices and bank decisions.

“Each one by itself would be reason for concern, but when you put all of the pieces together it creates a picture that is hard to deny,” Snyder wrote in his blog. “The global economy is in crisis, and this is going to have very serious implications for the financial markets moving forward.”

Snyder wrote recent trends indicate 2016 “is going to get progressively worse as it goes along.”

Click here to read Snyder’s full list on “The Economic Collapse.”

Blizzard sets sights on New England, forecasts call for a foot of snow

Parts of New England were preparing for a blizzard on Monday morning.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for southeastern Massachusetts, warning that 8 to 12 inches of heavy snow and wind gusts of 60 mph were in the forecast.

The service warned the storm could damage trees, cause power outages and lead to whiteout conditions, which may complicate travel. The blizzard warning expires at 7 p.m. this evening.

Snowfall totals were steadily on the rise on Cape Cod, with the National Weather Service reporting that 3.5 inches fell in Centerville, Massachusetts, in just four hours.

Other parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Long Island and coastal New Hampshire were under less-severe winter storm warnings, though the National Weather Service was still calling for 4 to 10 inches of snow and wind gusts of up to 45 mph in those regions.

Lighter totals are forecast in Maine, New Jersey, New York and northern New Hampshire, which were under winter weather advisories. The service is calling for 2 to 6 inches of snow there.

Those advisories and warnings are set to expire tomorrow morning, according to the service.

The Weather Channel is calling the storm Winter Storm Mars.

The winter storm comes just two days after another winter storm knocked out power for at least 170,000 customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. About 5,000 customers in those states were without power as of 11 a.m. local time Monday, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and local utility companies Eversource and National Grid.

The latest storm already led to more than 300 flight cancellations to or from Boston Logan International Airport, according to flight monitoring website FlightAware.com. Nearly 400 flights to or from the three airports that serve New York City were cancelled, the site reported.

Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker said that all non-emergency government employees in nine of the state’s 14 counties should not report to work on Monday. The Massachusetts State Police also tweeted that ferry service to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket had been suspended.

Separately, the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings in parts of Iowa and Minnesota as another storm moves across the Great Plains. The service is only calling for an inch of snow, but 55 mph wind gusts could significantly reduce visibility through tonight.

“Travel is not advised in many areas,” the blizzard warning states.

The service also issued winter storm warnings in parts of Carolina and Tennessee, saying parts of the East Tennessee Mountains could see a foot of snow before Wednesday. Winter weather advisories were issued in several surrounding states, though lighter totals were expected there.

Residents of all the affected states should monitor their local forecasts.

Alleged site of Christ’s baptism named World Heritage Site

The purported baptism site of Jesus Christ has been named a World Heritage Site.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) originally announced the decision last summer, saying it would add the Bethany Beyond the Jordan site on the east bank of the Jordan River — also known as Al-Maghtas — to its list of significant locations. The Vatican’s Fides News Agency reported it became official earlier this week.

Matthew 3 tells the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River, which forms part of the modern-day boundary between Israel and Jordan. However, there had been some dispute over whether the baptism actually occurred on the river’s west bank or east bank.

UNESCO says Bethany Beyond the Jordan is “believed to be” the place of Jesus’ baptism, and also includes churches, chapels and a monastery dating to the Roman and Byzantine empires.

In an advisory report to UNESCO, the International Council on Monuments and Sites wrote “historical structures associated with the baptism of Jesus” sit on the west bank, but most churches stage pilgrimages to Bethany Beyond the Jordan “as the likely baptism site as a result of the wilderness character, described as the setting of the baptism, which seems lacking on the opposite banks.”

The council wrote “the large majority of Christians” consider Bethany Beyond the Jordan as the baptism site, and while it couldn’t verify that the location was the actual place where Jesus was baptized, the site still held “immense religious importance” to believers.

UNESCO has named 1,031 World Heritage Sites, either for cultural or natural significance. Other locations include the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu and the Grand Canyon National Park.

ISIS committing ‘genocide’ against Christians, EU Parliament says

The European Parliament has labeled the Islamic State’s actions against Christians and other religious and ethnic groups as genocide, calling for world powers to hold the group responsible.

The parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution that states the Islamic State “is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities who do not agree with” its radical religious beliefs, adding the actions of the insurgency “are part of its attempts to exterminate any religious and ethnic minorities from the areas under its control.”

The resolution also accuses the Islamic State of “egregious human rights abuses, which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.” The genocide label carries some added weight, though, because the United Nations has adopted a treaty devoted to punishing and preventing it.

The treaty, implemented in 1948, defines genocide as certain actions “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The actions include murdering the group’s members, or inflicting serious bodily or mental harm upon them.

The parliament’s resolution calls for the United Nations Security Council to ask the International Criminal Court to launch an official investigation into the genocide allegations.

It was approved one week after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a group concerned with human rights, adopted a similar resolution that stated the Islamic State has “perpetrated acts of genocide and other serious crimes punishable under international law.”

Lawmakers and advocacy groups have called for the United States to declare the Islamic State’s actions as genocide, though the country has yet to take that step. Resolutions to that effect have been introduced in the House and Senate, but they have not been adopted.

The European Parliament’s resolution details several of the Islamic State’s actions against civilians, notably Christians and Yazidis, as the group captured large parts of Syria and Iraq.

The resolution states the Islamic State killed some 5,000 Yazidis and forced some 2,000 women into marriages, slavery or human trafficking. Others have been forced to convert to Islam.

The Islamic State also kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians last February, according to the resolution. While some of them have since been released, the fate of most remains unknown.

The resolution charges that more than 150,000 Christians fled their homes on Aug. 6, 2014, as the Islamic State gained territory in Ninevah Province. Some of those who did not escape were captured, and the Islamic State executed some and enslaved others. The Islamic State still controls Mosul, leaving thousands of Christians displaced without any of their possessions.

According to ADF International, a religious freedom advocate, the number of Christians living in Syria and Iraq has dropped from 2.65 million to 775,000 in recent years. The organization’s director of EU advocacy, Sophia Kuby, said it welcomed the European Parliament’s resolution.

“It was high time that the EU responded to the undeniable evidence of this genocide, which includes assassinations of church leaders, torture, mass murders, kidnapping, sexual enslavement, systematic rape of Christian and Yazidi girls and women, and the destruction of churches, monasteries, and cemeteries,” Kuby said in a statement.

Last month, Open Doors USA released a report that said Christian persecution had reached “unprecedented” levels and warned that it would likely continue to increase.

The nonprofit group released a list of the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution. Middle Eastern countries occupied five of the top 10 spots, and Islamic extremist groups were a source of persecution in four others.

In December, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent group that makes recommendations to the government, urged officials to designate Christians, Yazidis and other groups victims of Islamic State’s genocide.

No such declaration has been made.

“The hallmark of genocide is the intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic, or religious group, in whole or in part,” the commission’s chairman, Robert P. George, said in a statement at the time. “ISIL’s intent to destroy religious groups that do not subscribe to its extremist ideology in the areas in Iraq and Syria that it controls, or seeks to control, is evident in, not only its barbarous acts, but also its own propaganda.”

Obama discusses power of faith during National Prayer Breakfast

President Barack Obama spoke about the power of faith on Thursday morning, telling those gathered at the National Prayer Breakfast that it can be used to conquer any fears in life.

Obama gave a speech centered on 2nd Timothy 1:7 NKJV, which states “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” The verse was woven throughout his address, which also urged people of all faiths to respect religious liberties of other groups.

“Fear does funny things,” Obama said during his address. “Fear can lead us to lash out against those who are different, or lead us to try to get some sinister ‘other’ under control. Alternatively, fear can lead us to succumb to despair, or paralysis, or cynicism.”

The president spoke about how his faith has helped him overcome fear.

“For me, and I know for so many of you, faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good cure for fear,” Obama said in his speech. “God gives believers the power, the love, the sound mind required to conquer any fear. And what more important moment for that faith than right now?”

Obama briefly touched on some of the issues facing the world like terrorism, climate change and refugees fleeing their homes — “those things are real,” he said — though cautioned that fear had the power to consume people and trigger consequences “worse than any outward threat.”

He said that faith in Jesus can help the world find strength in today’s society.

“His love gives us the power to resist fear’s temptations,” Obama said in his speech. “He gives us the courage to reach out to others across that divide, rather than push people away. He gives us the courage to go against the conventional wisdom and stand up for what’s right, even when it’s not popular. To stand up not just to our enemies but, sometimes, to stand up to our friends.”

The National Prayer Breakfast is a non-denominational event where people gather in prayer.

Obama gave his speech to a room filled with bipartisan lawmakers, celebrities and religious leaders from several faiths. The president commended how people who follow different religions have united and cooperated in relief efforts for the Haiti earthquake, West African ebola epidemic and Flint water crisis, and have helped welcome refugees who have fled Syria.

Obama stressed different faiths share common tenants and encouraged religious tolerance.

“Just as we call on other countries to respect the rights of religious minorities, we, too, respect the right of every single American to practice their faith freely,” Obama said during his speech. “For this is what each of us is called on to do: To seek our common humanity in each other. To make sure our politics and our public discourse reflect that same spirit of love and sound mind. To assume the best in each other and not just the worst … To begin each of our works from the shared belief that all of us want what’s good and right for our country and our future.”

Obama also welcomed the safe return of Saeed Abedini, a pastor who had been held prisoner in Iran and was recently freed as part of the implementation of the Iran Nuclear Deal.

“We pray for God’s protection for all around the world who are not free to practice their faith, including Christians who are persecuted, or who have been driven from their ancient homelands by unspeakable violence,” Obama said during his address.

Other speakers included House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who also stressed common themes from different religions before reading from John 13, 15 and 17.

“This command of love is not confined to the New Testament,” Pelosi told those gathered. “The same message stands at the center of the Torah and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, too. From the Torah, it says ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ And from Muhammad, ‘None of you has faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbor what he loves for himself.’”

The keynote address was given by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the husband and wife who produced the 2014 film “Son of God” and the 2013 History Channel miniseries “The Bible.”

Downey and Burnett discussed their film during a 2014 appearance on The Jim Bakker Show.

Christian persecution ‘unprecedented’ and poised to increase, report finds

Christian persecution surged to record levels last year and will likely continue to increase, according to a nonprofit group that monitors the treatment of Christians worldwide.

The organization, Open Doors USA, recently released its 2016 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations in which Christians are persecuted the most. The organization grades the countries on a zero-to-100 scale, with a higher score representing a higher level of persecution.

The report indicates that those scores increased in 34 of the countries that were also on the list issued at the start of 2015, and two new countries — Bahrain and Niger — broke into the top 50.

The group called 2014 an “unprecedented” year for Christian persecution, which it defines as “any hostility experienced from the world as a result of one’s identification as a Christian.” That covers a broad range of things ranging from discrimination and beatings to jail time and death.

“In 2015, Christian persecution not only increased, but expanded into areas where there was not the same level of persecution in the previous year,” the report states. In a video posted to Open Doors USA’s website, the group cautioned that Christian persecution “will likely get worse.”

The report’s findings were audited by the International Institute for Religion Freedom.

The report says Islamic extremists have expanded their reach and governments have responded by implementing rules that restrict religion, both of which harm religious liberties of Christians.

All but two of the list’s 50 countries are located in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The others are Mexico and Colombia, where the report charges corruption is an issue.

With a score of 92, North Korea remained atop the list of the most oppressive nations for the 14th consecutive year. It was followed by Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria.

The report indicates that between 50,000 and 70,000 of the country’s 300,000 Christians are currently imprisoned in labor camps. The United States government advises its citizens not to travel to North Korea because “unsanctioned religious activity” is often punished.

The report cautions that Christians “are currently on the verge of extinction” in Iraq (90), where only a few thousand remain. Many have tried to flee the Islamic State, which has taken over large parts of the country and strongly opposes religions beyond its own interpretation of Islam.

Christians in Eritrea (89) face oppression from radical extremists and their government, the report found, and Islamic extremists also remain a threat in Afghanistan (88) and Syria (87).

Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Libya rounded out the top 10 nations for persecution.

Maryland couple files lawsuit alleging school indoctrinated daughter with Islam

A Christian couple in Maryland has lodged a federal lawsuit against their teenage daughter’s school district and other school officials, charging the school indoctrinated her with Islam and gave her failing grades when she wouldn’t complete assignments that violated her beliefs.

John Kevin Wood and Melissa Wood filed the civil rights in U.S. District Court last week, claiming the teachings at Charles County Public Schools promoted Islam over other religions.

The lawsuit alleges the couple’s then-16-year-old daughter was “instructed and indoctrinated in Islam” in 2014-15 during her 11th-grade world history class at La Plata High School. The Woods claim the course spent one day teaching Christianity and roughly two weeks teaching Islam.

The lawsuit claims the school violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by “implementing a curriculum that impermissibly endorses and advances the Islamic religion.”

One assignment allegedly required students to profess the Shahada, according to the lawsuit.

The statement is a key component of the Islamic religion, though translated into English it reads “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Making such a statement would have violated their daughter’s Christian beliefs, the Woods allege in court documents.

The Thomas More Law Center, which is working with the Woods on the lawsuit, released worksheets purported to be school assignments. None of them specifically prompt students to write the Shahada, though they do contain a fill-in-the-blank sentence where students can write “Allah” and “messenger.” If they do, they will complete the English translation of the Shahada.

“Defendants forced Wood’s daughter to disparage her Christian faith by reciting the Shahada, and acknowledging Mohammed as her spiritual leader,” Richard Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, said in a statement. “Her World History class spent one day on Christianity and two weeks immersed in Islam. Such discriminatory treatment of Christianity is an unconstitutional promotion of one religion over another.”

The Woods also allege the class taught their daughter most Muslims have stronger faiths than average Christians, while another argument focused on a semantic difference in the teachings.

The lawsuit claims that the Woods’ daughter was taught that the “Qur’an is the word of Allah as revealed to Muhammad in the same way that Jews and Christians believe the Torah and the Gospels were revealed to Moses and the New Testament writers.” The use of “is” and “believe” in that sentence, the Woods argue, represents Islam as fact and the other religions as beliefs.

The lawsuit claims that John Kevin Wood called the school’s vice principal and tried to get an alternate assignment for his daughter, though the request was denied and he was ultimately banned from school grounds after he said that he would contact lawyers and the media.

The Woods claim their daughter didn’t complete the assignments and was given zeroes “because she refused to violate her beliefs and derogate her faith,” according to the lawsuit. The parents argue their daughter was punished “because she would not act contrary to her Christian faith.”

Thompson, of the Thomas More Law Center, warned similar lessons are being taught elsewhere.

“Parents must be ever vigilant to the Islamic indoctrination of their children under the guise of teaching history and multiculturalism,” Thompson said in a statement. “This is happening in public schools across the country. And they must take action to stop it.”

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the school violated the Woods’ civil rights and injunctions that prevent the school from endorsing or favoring Islam and banning John Kevin Wood from school property, according to the Thomas More Law Center. Defendants include the school district, its board of education and La Plata High School’s principal and vice principal.

The lawsuit identifies John Kevin Wood as a former Marine who fought in Desert Storm and later served as a firefighter who responded to the Pentagon following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Startup company growing meat, plans to sell it within five years

A startup company says it is growing authentic beef, pork and chicken from animal cells.

In a video posted on YouTube, Memphis Meats said it recently created the first meatball that did not require the killing of an animal. The company said it used real meat cells to grow the food.

In a news release, the San Francisco-based company said it will officially debut tomorrow. It also plans to create hot dogs, sausages and burgers and aims to sell its products within five years.

“We plan to do to the meat industry what the car did to the horse and buggy,” the company’s chief executive officer, Uma Valeti, said in a statement. “Cultured meat will completely replace the status quo and make raising animals to eat them simply unthinkable.”

Cultured meat, or that which is grown outside of an animal, is not an all-new concept.

In 2013, a professor from Maastricht University in the Netherlands announced he had grown a cultured hamburger. The university held an international symposium on cultured meat last October, billed as a meeting of the minds for all of the scientists working toward growing meat.

Cultured meat advocates say it’s a viable method to combat food shortages and climate change.

Valenti said in the video that the Memphis Meats method uses about 90 percent less greenhouse gasses than traditional agriculture would produce. It also takes just 3 calories to produce just 1 calorie of beef, compared to traditional agriculture’s need for 23, according to the news release.

Memphis Meats did not explain the exact process it uses to grow its own meat, though Maastricht University has some resources that explain how cultured beef is made.

According to the university, scientists take some muscle cells from a cow, the major component of the beef humans eat, and nurture them so they multiply into strands. It takes about 20,000 strands to create one burger, but a single sample could yield 20,000 tons of the cultured meat.

The university says cultured beef isn’t genetically modified. It’s just grown outside the animal, which isn’t killed.

Still, some people could be apprehensive to eating food that is produced in that manner.

Cultured beef also isn’t cheap.

Maastricht University reported the first cultured hamburger cost about $365,000 to produce, though that was partly because the science was still in its infancy.

However, it argues that cultured beef may be cheaper than traditional beef in the long-run.

It cited a 2011 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization that says livestock demand will increase in the next 40 years, and it will be “increasingly challenging” to match that demand. The report cautions that could drive up prices and threaten the poor’s ability to afford food.

Maastricht University says that cultured beef is safe to eat, and Memphis Meats adds its products will be free of antibiotics and other contaminants that may be found in traditional meat.

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