HOMELAND SECURITY EMPLOYEES GET LOCKED OUT OF THEIR COMPUTER NETWORKS.
A BRITISH MAN RELEASED FROM GITMO, BLOWS HIMSELF UP IN A ROCK, AND FLATTERTH.
IT'S WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22, 2017, I'm Derek Gilbert.
First up, Israeli jets allegedly stuck targets near Damascus overnight Wednesday, reportedly
a weapons shipment to the Shiite militia group Hezbollah, according to Lebanese media.
The Syrian media witnesses hearing loud explosion sounds in the early morning hours Wednesday.
The IDF reportedly hitting targets belonging to the Assad regime, the regime army's third
division at the Al-Khatif suburb of Damascus, no official confirmation yet from Israel.
Storms continue to bring record rainfall to California.
The drought appears to be officially over, wettest winter on record.
Wind gusts up to 199 miles an hour hitting northern California early this week.
The atmospheric river continues to bring moisture to the area.
Dramatic gusts in the Sierra Nevada mountains, a gust of 199 miles an hour, measured atop
Ward Mountain, that's the Alpine Meadows Ski Resort, late Monday night.
The ski resort, obviously, closed due to a threat of avalanche and not to mention 200
mile an hour winds.
The winds averaged over 100 miles per hour.
That's a pretty decent hurricane through Tuesday morning.
Homeland Security employees got locked out of their computer networks Monday morning
or Tuesday morning, rather.
Three sources familiar with the matter were kind of leaked this to the press.
The irony here, of course, is that cyber defense is one of the areas of responsibility for
the Department of Homeland Security.
Not immediately clear how many employees were affected or how significantly it impacted
their ability to do their jobs.
Tensions are high across the U.S. in Jewish communities after a number of bomb threats
phoned into Jewish community centers and the vandalism of an historic Jewish cemetery
in St. Louis.
Police there Monday confirmed that vandals toppled and damaged about 100 headstones
at the Chazed Shell Ameth Society Cemetery in St. Louis.
City, which is a suburb in near West St. Louis County, reported to a call of vandalism
about 8.30 that morning.
Police reviewing security camera footage, not yet confirming whether they considered
this a hate crime.
The report of that vandalism came the same day that the White House denounced 11 bomb
threats against Jewish community centers that were reported Monday morning.
President Trump criticized the bomb threats, made his comments Tuesday after touring the
National Museum of African American History and Culture, which just recently opened in
Washington, D.C.
He said, quote, the anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community
centers are horrible, painful, and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be
done to root out hate and prejudice and evil, end quote.
Interestingly, when CNN reported this story, they managed to spin the wording of the story
to make it appear somehow that Trump or Trump supporters, or both, were somehow responsible
for these anti-Semitic attacks, even though Mr. Trump, as we've said before, has a daughter
married to an Orthodox Jew and his grandchildren are being raised as Orthodox Jews.
A heterosexual couple in England have lost an appeal in court to be granted a civil partnership.
This is Shoe on the Other Foot story.
Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Kadan from Hammersmith, that's West London, have argued
that the UK government's position on civil partnerships is incompatible with equality
law.
The three judges who heard the case rejected their argument and said they could just get
married.
Now, the Civil Partnership Act in the UK was passed in 2004, provided legal rights, property,
and pensions to two people of the same sex.
It was passed, of course, after gay rights campaigners demanded legal recognition for
same sex couples, and then in 2013, in the UK, same sex marriage was legalized.
But they can still join together in a civil partnership, but not heterosexual couples.
The case may be appealed, and we shall see what happens.
Speaking of the UK, a suicide bomber for the Islamic State, it has been disclosed, was
released back in 2004 from Guantanamo Bay after a campaign by the British press.
The gentleman born Ronald Fiddler had changed his name to Jamal Uddin al-Harith, and he
was paid 1.25 million dollars, about a million pounds, by the UK government as compensation
after his release.
A million and a quarter in taxpayer money, and then he took it to ISIS, blew himself
up and took a number of people with him.
This information coming out now as Tony Blair appears to be trying to make a political comeback,
and this, of course, would be very embarrassing because this happened on Blair's watch.
In the US, businesses are placing their names on a growing national list of sanctuary restaurants
according to the website behind the campaign, the Sanctuary Restaurants Campaign.
This means that these restaurants have zero tolerance for sexism, racism, and xenophobia,
and they're motto, we believe there is a place at the table for everyone.
This kind of aligns with the whole sanctuary city movement around the country, city leaders
around the country expressing opposition to President Trump's immigration ban or his proposed
immigration ban.
Now, this is not a legal designation, calling yourself your business sanctuary restaurant
does not give anyone any safety from ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or local
law enforcement.
Just people participating are being asked to put a sign in their window promoting the
movement, which, of course, then lets everybody who supports the president also know that
where this group stands, this organization, this restaurant stands.
They're claiming that this is not a political movement, that it is simply a message of their
mission to treat every customer and employee with dignity and respect.
Of course, it's a political movement.
It is nothing but a political movement.
It's virtue signaling and posturing is what it is.
Certainly welcome to do it.
It's a free country.
You see on the map here locations of sanctuary restaurants around the country, none yet here
in our home state of Missouri.
Wouldn't be surprised to see some pop up.
We've got a couple of major universities here that tend to be a little left of center, but
again, nothing but a political statement and posturing.
In Massachusetts, a police department there has scrapped their High Five Friday program.
This is a program in which local police officers would greet children as they entered school
on a Friday morning and give them a High Five.
Why has the Northampton, Massachusetts police department stopped the program?
Because some parents complained that a police presence at their child's school may make
children specifically, and I'm quoting from the article here, kids of color or immigrant
children feel uncomfortable presented without comment.
Coming up a story we really, really tried not to deal with and details on how you can
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We really, really tried not to address this story at Skywatch TV.
Frankly, in our opinion, it's divisive and it's a distraction.
But it has gone mainstream over the past week, NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving publicly stated
his support for the position that the earth is flat.
And so being reported in the mainstream, we discussed this yesterday and felt that it
was time to at least express our opinion on this particular story.
We have received a number of emails over the two years that we've been broadcasting asking
us to address the flat earth issue.
Again, we've avoided it because frankly it is a distraction and because it is observably
untrue.
Now I'm under no illusions that what I say over the next few minutes will change the
minds of anybody who is already convinced that the earth is a disk instead of a globe.
But we'll present just a couple of ideas here first of all.
In a flat earth model, the sun and the moon must be in the sky 24 hours a day.
And what you see behind me on the screen here is a representation of how the people of the
ancient world viewed the earth and its relationship to the heavens, the sky, and shale and the
abyss or tartaris below that.
And this is represented in descriptions in the Bible and that's where members of the
flat earth community draw their support for their beliefs.
Let me just say this, the Bible often uses figurative language in a variety of ways.
Poetic language, metaphor, allegory, simile, anthropomorphism in order to illustrate a point.
God revealed himself to people of the ancient world and remember that the Bible began to
be written down around the 15th century BC if we accept that Moses is the earliest author
of the books of the Bible starting in the mid 15th century BC.
And God revealed himself in terms that men and women of that age could understand.
God did not impose on them the burden of understanding 21st century astrophysics as a precondition
for hearing the law and then the gospel.
He revealed himself to them in ways they could understand otherwise revealing himself in
that day and age would have made no sense whatsoever.
In other words, if they needed a 21st century understanding of astrophysics and geology
to accept the gospel, God would not have revealed himself at all until our day.
To read the Bible, well, just a couple of problems with the model.
Because the earth is flat, if in fact that is the case, the sun and the moon would never
drop below the horizon.
They'd have to be in the sky 24 hours a day.
And everything I'm going to tell you, I should point out, proponents of the flat earth model
haven't answered for.
And that's why I'm convinced that I will not change anyone's mind here.
But I've not yet heard a logical and observable explanation for the few things I'm going to
bring up here.
The sun, the moon would never leave the sky.
They would never drop below the horizon.
They couldn't because it is always daylight somewhere on planet earth.
When it's noon here in Missouri, it is midnight somewhere in Asia and vice versa.
Now flat earthers will say that it's because the sun and the moon shine their light like
a spotlight.
And so when you're not below the scope of the beam, it's night.
But that's observably untrue.
Because I presume you've seen a searchlight at night, grand opening of some new business
or a car novel is in town or something.
And you can see the beam of the searchlight when you're not directly over the beam.
You can see it from the side.
Even a tightly focused beam of light, a laser, is visible from the side.
Additionally, in order for the shadow, the differences in shadows that are observed at
different points on the earth at the same time of day, if you have the same longitude
but a different latitude, you'll get a different shadow on the same length stick.
This is how the Greek scientist Eratosthenes hundreds of years before Jesus was able to
calculate, roughly calculate and fairly accurately, the diameter of the earth by observing the
difference in the length of shadows cast by sticks of the same length at the same time
of day.
Now, the flat earth explanation is that the sun and the moon are only 32 miles in diameter
and about 3,000 miles above the earth.
That information would also produce the same result here on the earth.
But if that were true, then as the earth, as the sun and moon revolve around the firmament
above the disk that is the earth, we would see the size of the sun and the moon change
as they grew nearer and then, you know, grow as they grew nearer and then grow smaller
as they passed away.
The speed at which they moved would apparently change.
It would appear to get faster as it got closer to us and then it passed directly overhead
and then it would appear to slow down as it moved further away.
Just as a car at distance on the highway moving at 60 miles an hour appears to move more slowly
than a car on the highway when you're standing on the shoulder that passes you.
We do not observe that.
It is observably untrue.
The moon, as it traveled around this firmament, would present different sides of itself to
different parts of the world.
We in North America would see one side of the moon while people in Asia would see the
other side of the moon, again, observably untrue.
There are other things.
Gravity, for example, doesn't work on a disk.
As we understand gravity, as you move closer to the edge of the disk, gravity would point
back toward the center of the disk so that by the time you got the edge, gravity would
be pulling at a 90-degree angle to the surface of the Earth.
Of course, proponents of the Flat Earth model suggest that gravity doesn't work like that,
that our understanding of gravity is fundamentally flawed and that we're all held to the ground
because the Earth is accelerating upward at 9.8 meters a second.
Curvature of the Earth.
Oftentimes you'll hear proponents of the Flat Earth model say that engineers and surveyors
don't calculate for curvature of the Earth.
That again is observably untrue.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island, about an inch and five-eighths,
the towers that hold it up, about an inch and five-eighths, more distance farther apart
at the top than they are at the base to account for the curvature of the Earth.
The laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory, LIGO, in California, four kilometer
length of the tube through which they have to shoot a laser, there is a one meter drop.
That's about three foot four inches over the four kilometers.
So again, it's observably untrue.
I would also suggest that the photographs of Colonel Jeffrey Williams, retired NASA astronaut,
who is an outspoken Christian, a creationist, a financial supporter of the Institute for
Creation Research, who has published a book of photographs that he has taken during his
hundreds of days in space.
In fact, he spent a cumulative total of nearly two years in space in all of the images that
he's taken of the Earth from the International Space Station show a globe.
But proponents of the Flat Earth model, because this is a direct challenge to their understanding
of the Bible, even coming from a man who is an outspoken Bible-believing Christian, believes
that the Earth was created by God as described in the Bible and puts his money where his
mouth was by supporting the Institute for Creation Research, must be lying because he
worked for NASA.
NASA is evil and therefore he must, with no more evidence than that.
This is an example of circular reasoning.
They start with the conclusion that NASA is evil, so he must be lying, therefore all
of his evidence is disqualified, with no more evidence that he is being deceitful than that.
They start with the conclusion that it must be untrue, rather than letting the evidence
speak for itself.
Well, we wouldn't have spent any time on this at all, because in the grand scheme of things,
as we said, this is a distraction, it is a non-essential.
We certainly, certainly do not question the belief or the sincerity of those who believe
in a flat Earth, those who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ, are saved.
They confess their sins and confess him as Lord and Savior.
They are saved.
We're not questioning their sincerity or their salvation.
But there are some who will make this a test of orthodoxy and contend that those of us
who accept that the Earth is, in fact, a globe, don't believe in the Bible, and therefore
are rejecting the Word of God, and that is absolutely false.
God revealed himself to man in a manner that we were able to understand 3,500 years ago,
3,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago.
Had he not done so, people would have thought his prophets were even crazier than they already
thought they were.
Please, if you choose to believe in a flat Earth, know that we bury you no ill will.
We are not questioning your salvation.
We are not questioning your sanity.
We are not questioning your reason or your logic, okay?
You are free to believe as you choose to believe.
But please, do not make this issue a reason to divide within the body of Christ.
We have too many of those already, timing of the rapture, best translation of the Bible,
now the flat Earth.
The spirit of division is not from God, so please, consider well how you deal with this
particular issue.
We just wanted you to know where we at Skywatch TV stand and why we have not to this point
addressed it, until it went and became mainstream news, thanks to Kyrie Irving.
Skywatch TV, we are offering you an opportunity to win a prize package, including the new
books by Dr. Michael Heiser and yours truly, Reversing Herman, and The Great Inception
along with a special collector's edition hardcover edition of the book of Enoch, a DVD
featuring five hours of teachings on the material from The Great Inception and seven
hours of an MP3 CD audio interviews, me talking with Dr. Heiser about his research into the
Divine Council, the UFO phenomena, and of course the new book, Reversing Herman, The
Sin of the Watchers and How It Influenced the New Testament and Our Christian Faith.
To enter, click the notes below this video if you are watching at YouTube.
You'll also find it at SkywatchTV.com and of course the Skywatch TV page on Facebook.
Enter through March 6th through midnight central time, March 6th, three winners will be announced
March 7th and thank you very much for watching.
Please take advantage of the Skywatch TV podcast, audio editions of all of our daily broadcasts,
weekly television broadcasts, you'll find those at the Skywatch TV website SkywatchTV.com,
look in the top menu bar where it says podcast.
And we hope to see you at the Hear the Watchman conference.
Josh Peck, my best friend Sharon Gilbert, Jake Rohutsky and myself, be among the speakers
at the Hear the Watchman conference, March 31st through April 2nd at the Hilton DFW
Lakes Executive Center.
For more information and to register, log on to HeartheWatchman.com, HeartheWatchman.com.
They just confirmed that live video streaming will be available and the video streams will
be archived for 30 days after the conference.
Again, more information there at HeartheWatchman.com and if you plan to attend, save $20 off your
registration by using the promo code Skywatch.
Look us up online at SkywatchTV.com, you'll find all of our social media links there and
my stuff, including the ongoing article series, The Long War Journal, leading up to the release
of The Great Inception.
It's all linked at my website, DerekPGilbert.com.
Thank you for watching as we keep watch.
I'm Derek Gilbert and this is SkywatchTV.
