Justin Trudeau is set to become Canada’s new prime minister after his Liberal Party swept to power in general elections, ending nearly a decade of Conservative Party rule.
The Liberals seized a parliamentary majority, an unprecedented turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next.
The Liberals had been a distant third place party in parliament before this election.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper conceded defeat, ending his government’s nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old’s brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism.
Trudeau, 43, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, pledged to run a $7.7bn annual budget deficit for three years to invest in infrastructure and help stimulate Canada’s anaemic economic growth.
This rattled financial markets ahead of the vote and the Canadian dollar weakened on news of his victory.
Trudeau has said he will repair Canada’s cool relations with the Obama administration, withdraw Canada from the combat mission against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group in favour of humanitarian aid and training, and tackle climate change.
Trudeau vaulted from third place to lead the polls in the final days of the campaign, overcoming Conservative attacks that he is too inexperienced to govern and to return to the prime minister’s residence in Ottawa where he grew up as a child.
“When the time for change strikes, it’s lethal,” former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said in a television interview.
“I ran and was successful because I wasn’t Pierre Trudeau. Justin is successful because he isn’t Stephen Harper,” Mulroney added.
The Conservatives were projected to become the official opposition in parliament, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party in third.
Liberal supporters at the party’s campaign headquarters broke into cheers and whistles when television networks projected that Trudeau would be the next prime minister.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Canada’s opposition wins historic elections
Court remands man, 25, for allegedly raping minor
The Modakeke Chief Magistrate’s Court has remanded a 25-year-old man, Kabiru Daramola, in prison custody for alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl, in Modakeke-Ife. Daramola was arraigned on a four-count charge of gross indecency, impersonation, procurement of minor and unlawful sexual intercourse.
Prosecutor Ona Glory said the offence was committed on Sept 26, 2015 at 2:30 p.m. at N0 5, Oke_Owu Street, Modakeke, in Ife East Area Office of Osun. Glory said the offence contravened Sections 31 (1) (2), 360, 361 and 484 of State Child’s Right Laws.
She said that the accused paraded himself as a police officer and had carnal knowledge of the under-aged without her consent. The accused pleaded not guilty to the four-count charges.
In her ruling, the Senior Magistrate Bose Awosan, ordered that the accused be remanded in Ile-Ife Prison. Awosan adjourned the case till Nov. 23, for hearing.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Spiritual world 2
I am not sure how many Christians understand these things. Three hundred years ago, almost everyone understood their world in this way. Many people in Africa still think this way, although they focus to much on the dark side of the spiritual. Now, under the relentless pressure of education and the enlightenment, interest in the spiritual dimension of life is labelled old fashioned and superstitious.
I also wonder how many Christians understand these things, but do not live them. How many live as if the spiritual realms are irrelevant?
Many Christians are looking inward to establish connecting with the Holy Spirit. This is good, but if we ignore what is happening in the spiritual realms that surround us, we will misunderstand much of what happens in the world. Most Christians need a vastly expanded worldview.
The previous picture correctly shows how the spiritual and physical realms overlap each other. However, in the remainder of the article, I will place the spiritual realms just above the physical realms so that the interactions between them can be illustrated, but we must always remember that these two worlds overlap and exist in parallel to each other.
Multi-dimensional
The spiritual realms are not limited to three dimensions like our physical world. The Bible does not tell us how many more, but the fact that it is more complex than our three-dimension world means that it is hard for our minds to understand. The spiritual aspect of life can be thought of as additional dimensions beyond the three core dimensions of length, height and breadth. The spiritual world is not another world in another place, but additional dimensions to the physical world we observe.
An even better way might be to think of the physical world as three additional dimensions tacked on to a multi-dimension spiritual world. The spiritual world is more real than the physical world, so this latter view is most likely correct, but it is very hard for us to handle, because our eyes are calibrated for a physical world. Our eyes are so attuned to seeing a three-dimensional world, that we find anything grander difficult to conceive.
Paul visited the spiritual realms in a vision. He was dramatically affected by what he saw, but he could not describe it (2 Cor 12:2-4). His problem was that human language is designed for describing a physical world, so it cannot cope with spiritual reality. He explained that,
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and no human mind has conceived (1 Cor 2:9).
We need spiritual insight to understand what is happening in the spiritual dimension. That is why Paul prayed that the "eyes our hearts may be enlightened' (Eph 1:18).
Seeing Changed
Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve could see into the spiritual world. They were able to walk with God in the cool of the evenings and speak directly to him. They were able to see the devil, when he came to tempt them. His activity in the spiritual dimensions, made him appear snakelike from a physical perspective.
This situation did not last longs. When Adam and Eve sinned, their sight was changed so that they could no longer see into the spiritual realms.
The Bible says their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked (Gen 3:7). This statement is a huge irony. Their eyes were actually closed to the spiritual realms. When they could see the brilliant glory of the heavenly realms, their observation of the physical world was dimmed, and they did not notice they were naked. Once the light of heavenly glory was turned off, their view of the physical world was greatly intensified, so they realised for the first time that they were naked.
After his death and resurrection, Jesus gained a spiritual body, which enabled him to interact more freely with the spiritual world. After death, those who believe in Jesus will be given new spiritual bodies.
Spiritual world 1
Better World View1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This was not just earth and sky. "The heavens" is the biblical name for the spiritual world that exists in parallel to the physical world. God created a multi-dimensional universe. We can only see the three dimensions of physical space plus time, so we assume that is all that exists. The spiritual dimensions consist of many more dimensions of reality beyond what we can see.
We cannot see into the spiritual world due to the effects of sin, so we think that the physical world we see makes up most of the universe. This leads us to assume that the authority systems that we see on earth are important, but we miss the parallel authority systems that exist in the spiritual realms and frequently interact with the authority system on earth. To understand the full working of authority, we need a thorough understanding of the way that authority functions in the spiritual realms, and how it affects events on earth.
Growing up in the modern world, we are taught that the physical world is all that is important. If something cannot be scientifically observed, it is not real. We all imbibe this materialistic understanding of the world during our education and daily lives. We think that the physical world that we live in is all that exists.
The physical realms consist of the earth, the sea and the sky. It includes people and the things they have made. This realm of life can be partitioned into two parts. The people who live according to Gods will are part of the Kingdom of God. Those who reject God's will belong to "the world" (1 John 2:15-17). In reality, these two groups are mixed up together and interact with each other all the time. I have only portrayed them separately for the purpose of illustration.
Spiritual Realms
Christians need a new worldview, that that sees the spiritual realms operating over and alongside the physical realms. We need an awareness of authority in the spiritual realms, if we are to understand the functioning of authority here on earth.
Part of the problem is that we see God as "way up there" far away from our world. We think of heaven as a distant place that we go to where we die. This is short sighted.
Heaven is not a distant place where God lives. Nor is just a place that we go to when we die. The Bible refers to the "heavenlies" as a label for the spiritual realms that exist alongside the physical world. The spiritual realms are just as real as the physical world that we can see. These two realms overlap and interact with each other.
We live in a multi-dimensional universe in which the spiritual dimensions exist in parallel to our three-dimensional physical world. The spiritual realms operate in continuity with the physical/natural world that we observe. Most humans cannot see into the spiritual dimensions, so we can only observe the physical side of existence. However, events in our physical world are shaped by activities in the spiritual realm. When we look at the physical world in isolation, we miss much of what is happening in the universe.
God operates in the spiritual dimensions of reality, but he also created and sustains the physical world. After the creation, the Holy Spirit remained close to the earth.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Gen 1:2).
The Spirit was not in a distant place. The spiritual realms where he operates hover over the earth. The spiritual dimensions of reality are not way out at the edge of the universe, they exist in parallel to the physical world in which we live. These two realms of existence interact with each other in ways that we often cannot see, and fail to understand.
