Wednesday, October 13, 2004

The short but profound testimony of Abraham Lincoln

The Civil War battle of Gettysburg played a very important part in the lives of two famous American presidents: Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower. But of the two, it may have had a more profound effect--spiritually speaking--on Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, throughout most of his life, was not a Christian though very familiar with the Bible and Christian principles. But when he visited the the battlefield of Gettysburg several months after the battle had taken place, a significant thing happened that caused him to dedicate his life to Christ. This is his short testimony:
"Shortly before Abraham Lincoln was murdered by John Wilkes Booth, an Illinois pastor asked President Lincoln, 'Do you love Jesus?' President Lincoln responded, 'When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there gave my heart to Christ. I can now say I do love the Savior.' "

Source: The Iron Pen #60

Friday, October 08, 2004

Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD

For those who are interested....

The entire CIA report on Iraq and their program to develop Weapons of Mass Destruction can be found at the following link: Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq�s WMD: "This report relays the findings of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction." Be forwarned that the report is HUGE and will take about a half hour to download with high-speed internet access. If you have a dial-up, don't even try it.

Of course the American New Media is broadcasting that this report states that there were were no stockpiles of WMD's in Iraq--which is true.

However...

There were definately weapon development programs in place, and Sadam DID have stockpiles of WMD's that were destroyed in the 1990 Gulf War. He's been trying desperately to restock, but was prevented from doing so by the sanctions placed on him after the war.

Sadly, the sanctions were being routinely violated by France, Russia and China who were making backdoor deals with Saddam, and flooding him with cash. That cash went into weapon procurment, and kept his WMD programs alive. He did not have quite enough cash and equipment to begin building WMD's again, but he was certainly well on his way to achieving that goal.