Gary Habermas argues for Jesus' resurrection using minimal facts at Southern Evangelical Seminary's annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics

"Speaking at the Southern Evangelical Seminary's annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics, Christian philosopher and historian Gary Habermas shared historical facts that a vast majority of scholars, including even skeptics, do not dispute — facts that are the basis for proving Jesus' boldly resurrection.

" 'Of what did earliest preaching consist before there was a single New Testament book? What did the earliest Christian preaching look like before any books were written?' Habermas, a New Testament scholar, asked the audience, explaining that he would talk about what the first 20 years after Jesus' Crucifixion looked like.

"Oral testimonies are important as evidence of a historical event, he said Saturday at what's known as America's largest and longest-running apologetics conference. He added that studies have shown that if you have special reasons to remember special events, you'll remember it more carefully for a longer period of time.

"Habermas, the distinguished research professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, said there are some historical facts that even critics "allow," referring to the minimal facts theory. "Two arguments for what makes a minimal fact include only those historical data that are strongly evidenced by multiple independent lines of argumentation, and only those data which are accepted as historical by virtually all historical scholars," he explained..." Read More.

Oprah Winfrey and the rise of the queen of Mystery Babylon

In my book Mystery Babylon Rising, I document the historic roots behind the 5000 year history of the New World Order. This conspiracy culminates in a loosely coagulated network of elites that rule the earth in the season just before the return of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  At the heart of this conspiracy is a spiritual conspiracy against God. Satan seeks to use a global religion to control the masses and seek to get people to worship him. He does this by directing people to gaze their worship at things other than God. 

Ancient Mystery Babylon typically sought to direct people towards worship of a husband-wife or mother-son duo. The female figure would represent nature worship, and the male figure represented worship of the state. Communion with nature was achieved either symbolically or literally via some variant of the  Hieros Gamos where a politician would have sex with a temple priestess who represented the so-called mother goddess. This was represented as the path to secure blessings of the society, human reproduction, and the agriculture. By this scheme Satan would receive ultimate worship, religious elites would attain high social standing and carnal rewards, and governments received a convenient way to control the people.

Starting with Hegel, modern Mystery Babylon updated the particulars of this method. Instead of literal worship of carnal deities, divinity was seen as a cosmic principle that manifested itself through evolutionary processes. Through biological and social evolution this cosmic principle would manifest and concentrate itself through critical historical events and crucial historical personages. In this paradigm, advances in technology and the emergence of the modern state are seem as the march of god on earth. The Hieros Gamos was replaced by intercourse of loosely organized technological, business, and governmental elites. 

This intercourse has largely gone on behind the scenes.  In Ch 11 of Mystery Babylon Rising I document the spiritual conspiracy that is taking place in the United Nations, a conspiracy that will culminate in the establishment of a one world religion. I believe that this behind the scenes activity is about to take a  front row seat in the ongoing culture war that is taking over the West. One of the key players in this movement to establish a one world religion, Oprah Winfrey, is positioning herself to both give this movement a much larger platform and ascend to become queen of Mystery Babylon.

Oprah made her billions as a talk show host of the Oprah Winfrey program. During its run it became the most popular talk show in America. This success has made her both a billionaire and given her a huge platform to influence social change. Oprah's television program would frequently feature spiritual overtones which continued when she stopped production on that program to start her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which features several shows dedicated to spiritual topics (Belief, The Wisdom  of Sundays). Oprah's emphasis on religion has led author Marcia Z Nelson to write a book documenting Oprah as a symbol and catalyst for America's new religion in her book The Gospel according to Oprah. Oprah's programs have featured the likes of Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Rick Warren, Eckart Tolle, Rob Bell, and others.

Oprah's approach to faith bears no adherence to the faith once delivered to the saints(Jude 1:3). She has repeatedly denied that Christ is the name given under heaven as the name by which all must be saved. On her own program she has ridiculed those who believe in Christ and Christ alone.

Oprah proclaims that Joel Osteen's "I am" message changed her life. In this video  she gives her take on what "I am" means to her. Her take is completely divorced from the Biblical context of "I am" in Exodus where God reveals Himself as the eternally existent and self existent One.  She perverts it into a formula that makes her the "I am." Oprah see her self as god in this treatment of "I am." Oprah's religion is New Age and Naturalistic, rejecting the Bible.

Oprah has recently made the news as a possible contender for the Presidency in 2020. After she made this speech at the Golden Globe Awards, Meryl Streep endorsed her for President of the United States in the 2020 election.  After initially saying she would not run for President, she now says that she will run for President in 2020 if God says so.

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My prediction is that she will, at the opportune time, proclaim that God has told her to run for President in 2020. She will use a religious trigger for her campaign for President as a hook to bring her religious agenda into the national spotlight. If elected such a hook would also serve as a segway into bringing her religious agenda into public policy of the United States and into the national conversation through her use of the bully pulpit of the Presidency.

Oprah's wealth and social clout would make her a formidable opponent in any Presidential campaign. Her endorsement of Barack Obama in 2008 was critical in Obama  prevailing over Hillary Clinton and ultimately securing the White House. She has been  viewed by multiple commentators as the most powerful woman in the world. She is far, far more powerful than the Clintons.

Oprah's influence has also extends to people who are held in high esteem by some  Evangelicals and Conservatives. In addition to operational connections with religious leaders such as Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes, she helped launch the career of "Dr Phil," who is highly esteemed by many Evangelicals and Conservatives. Oprah will also  promote views on the Establishment Clause that are more in line with Conservative Perspectives than typical secular Leftists. She will need to ease the current legal restrictions on church-state interaction in order to carry out her agenda as President.

If she runs in 2020, she has the potential to curb-stomp Trump. She would claim every constituency that typically votes Democrat, as well as make inroads into constituencies that typically votes Republican. Below is a map I generated at 270towin that illustrates one possible outcome to the 2020 election.

Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

Given her religious agenda that parallels that of the United Nations, her rise to the Presidency could lead to a scenario in which America could be hooked wholesale into a one world religion. In the worst case scenario, it could lead to the establishment of an entity that would be authorized by the government to regulate religion that would be fashioned largely in the image of the Alliance of Civilizations. Such an entity's regulation would be enforced by the police power of the state.

The Alliance of Civilization believes that the big problem facing society is religious extremism, which they define as belief in absolute truth and the conviction that one's religion is the true religion.

Their answer is to set up entities that would be authorized by the state to regulate the ecclesiastical affairs of religion such as sacraments and doctrine, with such regulations enforced by the police power of the state. Such power would give the state extreme tools to shape the culture in its image; this is but is a short step to the state proclaiming itself god on earth. The Alliance of Civilizations answer to religious extremism is to set itself up as the ultimate religious extremist, as religion outside this regulatory scope would be outlawed.

This agenda is what the Bible calls the Great Harlot. Such agendas, if enacted in 2020, put American at risk of martyring its citizens by 2025 for refusal to cohabit with the Great Harlot.