HD "remastering" kicked off with gusto when Bluepoint Games ported over Sony Santa Monica's brilliant God of War games to the PlayStation 3. While the original releases worked fine on backwards-compatible PS3s, the new remakes were worthwhile in many respects: firstly, resolution was upped to native 720p with anti-aliasing applied, while the inconsistent frame-rate and lack of v-sync on the original games was mostly resolved, resulting in a smoother, more polished experience.
Gilray's argument is bolstered by the recent releases of Ubisoft's Splinter Cell games on the PlayStation Network. On paper the games look good: the first two titles in the series support native 1080p rendering, while all three are equipped with stereoscopic 3D support. However, in actuality they are very basic conversions of the PC versions of the original releases, with rudimentary upgrades in terms of the user interfaces - which on the first two games are still running in standard-def, roughly upscaled to HD. Performance is best described as "variable", as this 720p vs. 1080p analysis of the first level of Pandora Tomorrow demonstrates.
War or Peace 720p 1080p
Bearing in mind that Ubisoft based its original code on modified versions of Unreal Engine 2, it's rather disappointing to see the first two Splinter Cell games perform in such an average manner when running in 720p on the PlayStation 3, especially as they are essentially identical to the original PC games. Computer hardware equivalent to the PS3's 3.2GHz CPU and 7950GT-alike graphics chip would've been able to blitz the original games but on console we see performance stutter, with a bigger impact on performance to factor in if you play the games in either 1080p or stereoscopic 3D.
It matters to Christ. It should matter to us. Watching and understanding the history, the events, the prophecies that the Bible have about the Middle East are a key element of the spiritual preparedness that we must have for our time. So on this program we're going to talk about two things. We're going to talk about "The Middle East in Bible Prophecy," and we're also going to talk about recent moves that have been taken by the United States and others toward actual peace in the relationships within the Middle East. Now both of these, "The Middle East in the Bible Prophecy" and these recent moves toward peace, they're both elements that for a Christian we need to understand in order to be spiritually awake to the times and understanding this.
So what's happened? Well recent headlines tell us that, in a sense, peace is kind of broken out in the Middle East. There's been some treaties that have been signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. And there are probably others that will likely follow. We hear rumors about that. Peace between these nations. This is historic. This is huge. This is big. But what does it mean? And again, why is it important that we pay attention to this? The Middle East is important to anyone who wants to understand the Bible and today's world, to be ignorant of what's taking place over there in so many different ways is to be ignorant of a lot of things in the Bible. Indeed these recent agreements, they are very welcome. They're positive developments at a time, frankly, when there's not a lot of good news to celebrate in the world today in these recent times. Anytime that nations can end hostilities and agree to cooperate, that's great. That's good news. When peace breaks out lives are saved, economies grow, businesses are developed, culture, and civil society develops. In the Middle East we've had more than a generation of war fever. And to see that fever cooled down, well, it gives hope to the young, to the generation coming up, seeds of peace, rather than seeds of hatred and conflict are sown.
He included perpetual title to the land, that land then would be given and passed on to his children. And the book of Genesis, we have a rather complicated story there of the family of Abraham. He and his wife, Sarah, were childless. One day through his maid Hagar, Abraham fathered a child that came to be called Ishmael. He also later through Sarah fathered a child named Isaac. Isaac when he grew up had twin sons Esau and Jacob. And the descendants of that one twin, Esau, intermarried with Ishmael's descendants. And there you have the descendants from those that we call the Arabs today. And they're the sons of Abraham. The modern-day conflict between Israelis, and Palestinians, and other Arab peoples can actually be traced to these stories, these people, right there from the book of Genesis. But the consequences of the intrigue that we read about in the Bible there, it's still with us today. Bitterness, resentment, it grew through the centuries. There's a prophecy in the book of Exodus that foretold endless war between the two branches of Abraham's family that would happen from generation to generation. And what we're seeing today in our headlines and that part of the world is a result of what the Bible talks about. It really is, I think, the greatest family feud in all of history. To name the latest peace agreements, the Abraham Accord, I think it's very appropriate.
So what's led to the current peace and will it be enough to secure lasting peace? We're going to look at that in a moment. And we'll look at what it all means to our spiritual understanding of Bible prophecy. But first I want to make available to our audience today and for those of you that are here today, you are already familiar with this book because I've referenced it to you many times, "The Middle East in Bible Prophecy." It's a study guide that covers prophecies, the many sections of the Bible that you've always wondered about.
And I'm going to say something at this point about the Abraham Accords. It's an honorable step. But it will not bring lasting peace to the Middle East. Why do I say that? I say it because the Bible says it won't. Not just me. I'm going to show you some Scriptures in a moment that will prove what I'm saying. Let me take you back to what we quoted in Revelation 16:15 Revelation 16:15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.American King James Version. Christ said to watch. He's going to come as a thief. And He said there's a blessing for watching. Again, why is that important? It's important because it matters to Christ. And if it matters to Jesus Christ, your Savior, your soon coming King, then it should matter to us. There was another occasion when Jesus looked over the land. He was coming into the city of Jerusalem. Luke 19 gives us this account. He was coming into Jerusalem. And it says as He drew near to the city, He began to cry. He wept over Jerusalem. And He said, and Luke records it, "If you had known, even you speaking to Jerusalem, especially this, your day, what's happening to you and will happen, the things that make for your peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes," He said. Christ agonized, even in that moment, again, over the land and over the actual city of Jerusalem, knowing that they could have peace by following His teachings, but they were rejecting Him. And history shows us that they suffered for that. Let's look again at the current scene in the Middle East, the Abraham accords, the latest in a long series of efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.
Ever since the State of Israel came into existence in 1948, there have been multiple wars, as Arab states have sought to dislodge the Jewish state. Now some states through the years have made peace agreements already with Israel. Jordan is one, Egypt is another, but others like Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the biggest being Iran have been major holdouts of recognition and peace with Israel. Now of those Iran has probably been the most militant. Iran's efforts to build a nuclear bomb is one of the most destabilizing moves in the entire region. They've said that they would use it against Israel, use it probably against others too. Most understand that a nuclear-armed Iran in the Middle East is unacceptable. It would be a disastrous measure. And so these other nations fear Iran. And that's the point to understand. The point of all of this is fear. Fear is as much a force that is the current driving force behind these Abraham Accords as anything else. Fear drives people together into treaties and into relationships.
But let me tell you something, fear does not create lasting peace. It can drive people and nations together for a while. You see Iran is the enemy of Israel as well as the United Arab Emirates, one of the nations has made an agreement with Israel, and the other Arab states. They don't want to see Iran grow in power and dominate. And so they finally figured out, "Hey, an alliance with Israel is in our interest." And so they line up with the powerful State of Israel, and it benefits them. There's an old saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." And it's a dirty truth of international relationships.
Every nation looks out for its own interests, above all others, alliances, treaties, and friendships. They're historically like that. They can lead to periods of peace and sometimes periods of long peace but in time they break down, other issues come up. There's often issues that are rooted in religion, ethnic, or tribal differences that never really disappear. Fear does not bring lasting peace. I wish I could say that the Abraham Accords will bring enduring peace to the Middle East but I can't say that. I'm glad that they have occurred, these peace treaties, and I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi, and all the other cities and the peoples, but this is not a moment where these nations have beat their swords into plowshares. Quite the opposite.
Part of the agreement that we've seen is that the United States is going to supply F-35 jets as part of the deal. So it's the most sophisticated jet in our arsenal. More weapons of technology will be supplied to counter the threats from Iran and other powers. The result is while peace breaks out, part of the peace is more and better weapons as part of the deal. Well armed armies can keep the peace but inevitably those same weapons will become instruments of national policy leading to war. It's frankly the story of mankind and it will happen again in the Middle East. Weapons of war are still being stockpiled there. There's a prophecy in the book of Joel that foretells the coming day when the nations will be gathered for the battle in the land against Jerusalem. It says, "To proclaim this among the nations, consecrate for war, stir up the mighty man, and let the war come, beat your plowshares into swords," it says, "and your pruning hooks into spears, the very opposite of this picture right here." "Let the weak say," Joel 3 says, "I am a warrior." It's a powerful prophecy for telling armed conflict in the Middle East. There's one more picture, one more piece to understand in today's Middle East. 2ff7e9595c
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