Armory of the Saints

The Truth Hurts: George W. Bush's Betrayal

2005-05-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Source Article

One Final Historic Fact: Adolf Hitler's personal Christian testimony: "My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior" - Speech, 4/12/1922
"If you are trying to understand Hitler, the last thing you can believe are his words." [Mattingly, Ibid.; Emphasis added]
Adolf Hitler and George Bush both are lifelong Adepts in the Brotherhood of Death Societies - Both Illuminist to the core
Too many Christians today believe Bush is a Born Again Christian based upon his words; yet, Jesus instructs us to inspect the fruits of a person's life to reach a proper conclusion as to whether they are truly Born Again [Matthew 7:16-20]. Only then can we reach a "righteous judgment" [1 Peter 2:23]. As the Apostle James stated so boldly: "I will shew thee my faith by my works" [James 2:18]
I honestly cannot think of one good action President Bush has taken that we could construe as spiritually "good fruit", and have telephoned Christian authors to see if they could think of any good fruits. Therefore, we are looking forward to your feedback. Tell us the good things President Bush has accomplished. Then, we shall compare lists, compare "bad fruits" and "good fruits".

I can't continue to blindly proclaim the Republicans as the good guys and the Democrats as the bad guys. Both parties are corrupt to the core. Neither uphold our Bill of Rights or Constitution. They pretend to fight, but it's all just a sham. After reading the Patriot Act, I'm convinced that George W. Bush is an enemy of freedom. He truly is a deceiver and a liar. As a final note, John Kerry is no better. His voting record is the same as Bush's, they are cousins, and they are both members of Skull & Bones. George W. Bush needs to be impeached.

The evils of Bush.

Haters

2005-04-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Heh heh heh. This is a great article. Just read this excert:

On the day the Roman Catholic church announced the much-maligned Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger would be the new Pope, I tuned in to the early afternoon CBC call-in show on my way to work.
Their guest was an academic specializing in religion who doesn't much care for the ones that worship a single God. You know, those pesky Christians, Jews and Muslims, although it wasn't Muslims or Jews taking most of the crap.
It was those nasty old Christians, particularly Roman Catholics.
The "expert" recycled the ancient lie that religious folk had caused more wars and human suffering than any other human force.
The expert said Buddhism, that was the ticket. Buddhism didn't run around doing a lot of evil. Buddhism didn't make folks feel bad or do bad things.
Let's see. Despite the fact that German soldiers had the words "Gott Mitt Uns" on their uniform belt-buckles, Nazi Germany isn't a great example of Christianity in action. It was a pagan, left-wing movement, like the NDP on steroids. It featured state control over the economy. It wasn't called the National Socialist German Workers Party for nothing, folks.
They killed in the millions.
I wondered if CBC's expert had ever heard of Joe Stalin of the late and unlamented Soviet Union.
Godless Communist?
Killed more folks than Hitler?
And wasn't Cambodia a country with a lot of those gentle, perfect Buddhists? Didn't Pol Pot manage to kill about 20% of his countrymen in an orgy of insane violence? Not to mention Vietnam where, to this very day, they run a pretty good gulag?
Any of those ringing a bell, Mr. Expert?
The Christian Crusades never even came close to any of these guys and, as far as I know, we haven't burned a witch in years.
Or if we did, I wasn't invited.

And the rest of it is just as good. Communism is a leftist movement. So was Hitler's Germany, and both were as Godless as they come. Hitler was a theosophist. Theosophy gave birth to today's New Age movement. Now go to the website of the left's greatest enemy and buy his book while you're at it. I mean c'mon!! What's not to like about a book called "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder"???

What I Believe

2005-04-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

This is part of a letter I wrote. I'm posting it here because it's true:

Act 21:24 taking them, be purified with them, and be at expense for them, so that they may shave their heads. And all may know that what they have been told about you is nothing, but you yourself also walk orderly and keep the Law.
(shows Paul observed the Law of Moses)

I don't want to rain on your parade but I see things differently. Here are a few questions:

What did Jesus teach?
What was the original faith of the Apostles?

The more I study the more I'm sure of the following:

I think the rabbi is wrong. I also think you are wrong. Do you not understand that Jesus Christ is the Passover Lamb? Jesus Christ gave the Law! Neither "Christian" nor "rabbi" seems to care to actually see what the Bible says:

(Mat 5:19 MKJV) Therefore whoever shall relax one of these commandments, the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.
(Mat 7:23 MKJV) And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!
(Mat 15:9 MKJV) But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
(Mat 19:17 MKJV) And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
(Mar 7:7 MKJV) However, they worship Me in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
(Luk 4:4 MKJV) And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God."
(Luk 6:46 MKJV) And why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?
(Joh 14:15 MKJV) If you love Me, keep My commandments.
(Joh 14:21 MKJV) He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.
(Joh 15:10 MKJV) If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
(2Co 6:14 MKJV) Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship does righteousness have with lawlessness? And what partnership does light have with darkness?
(Gal 2:20 MKJV) I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself on my behalf. (We will live as Jesus lived. We will not live in lawlessness!)
(2Th 2:7 MKJV) For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only he is now holding back until it comes out of the midst. (Then the mystery of lawlessness came into its fullness in Rome. This same lawlessness was continued in the Protestant reformation.)
(1Jo 2:4 MKJV) He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(1Jo 3:4 MKJV) Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.
(1Jo 3:22 MKJV) And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
(1Jo 5:2 MKJV) By this we know that we love the children of God, whenever we love God and keep His commandments.
(1Jo 5:3 MKJV) For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. (The commandments written in the Old Testament and NOT the laws Mr. Rabbi and his ancestors's made up.)
(2Jo 1:6 MKJV) And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
(Rev 12:17 MKJV) And the dragon was enraged over the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (There's the answer.)
(Rev 14:12 MKJV) Here is the patience of the saints. Here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
(Rev 22:14 MKJV) Blessed are they who do His commandments, that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter in by the gates into the city.

And finally let's see what Jesus had to say about it:
Mat 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in Your name, and through Your name throw out demons, and through Your name do many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!
Mat 7:24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock.
The True Christ is revealed in the Bible. Paul wrote about false Christs and false gospels. Which one are you following?

Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

The actual Law in the Scriptures was given by Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ set an example in the Bible. Yes He died for our sins. But as Paul says we are not to sin, we are to uphold the law. Let's learn what Jesus actually taught:
Luk 6:46 And why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?
Mat 5:17 Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Mat 5:18 For truly I say to you, Till the heaven and the earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. (have heaven and earth passed away? NO!)
Mat 5:19 Therefore whoever shall relax one of these commandments, the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. (Why do "Christians" frown on the teaching of the commandments then? They aren't following the Christ of the Bible!)

But wait! Paul did away with the law right? Wrong! Why doesn't anyone want to try to follow what He actually taught? But I must be wrong right? I actually read the Bible instead of just making things up and asking for tithes. Look at these verses at the end of Revelation again. Revelation documents the end. Think about it. If the law was done away with why would this read as it does?

(Rev 12:17 MKJV) And the dragon was enraged over the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
(Rev 14:12 MKJV) Here is the patience of the saints. Here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
(Rev 22:14 MKJV) Blessed are they who do His commandments, that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter in by the gates into the city.

We've both been deceived. I'm not going to be deceived anymore. I love Jesus. I love the Father. I love the Holy Spirit. I WILL NOT LISTEN TO THESE DECEIVING TITHE HUNGRY CHURCHMEN ANYMORE! Christ gives the strength to keep the law. Not perfectly but overall. A true Christian is fully surrendered to God. We've got to learn to do this with the help of the Holy Spirit before it's too late.

Mat 19:17 And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
Luk 14:26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

He is saying here that we must love our family and our own lives less than we love Him. Well I love Him more than anyone. I'm willing to be ridiculed. I'm willing to be despised. In doing so I'll carry my own cross (or gallows, death, not religious symbol). This is true Christianity. This is really letting Jesus Christ live in us. This is TRUE CHRISTIANITY. This is the message that no one wants to preach and very very few will accept. It's written throughout the entire Bible. I'm not going to ignore it anymore. You can work against me or you can join with me. Either way my path is set. You can be a blessing to me or you can be a curse. Read these verses. Think about it. This is what the Bible says. Not some man in a suit. The Bible. These words above are the words of Jesus Christ. If we really love Him we'll obey Him. Otherwise we call out "Lord Lord" in vain. That's what Jesus said, not me, these are His own words. I'm praying for you. Remember this verse from Revelation. There are two things we must have to enter into life:
(Rev 14:12 MKJV) Here is the patience of the saints. Here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

I don't enjoy having to say all of this, but I don't have any choice. This is the truth. If you hate me it's only because you hate Christ. I'm only repeating what He said. He promises a blessing if we teach others to keep His commandments. The problem with Judaism is that they make up their own (the commandments of men) and hated the Messiah because He pointed it out to them. The problem with modern day Christianity is that it totally ignores the law that Christ taught men to observe: The law that is actually laid out in the Old Testament and not the traditions of Judaism. Just read about the church of Laodicea in Revelation. Think about it.
Don't you see now? Grace and law complement each other. By observing the law we obey Christ, our King. Is Christ's Kingdom a Kingdom of Lawlessness? NO! The King creates the Law and His subjects obey. The scriptures prove this and say it over and over again. But you'll never hear a sermon on any of these scriptures. Instead we're taught to feel sentimental about Jesus dying on the cross and then fork over our money. As Elvis would say,"Not me baby."
What was the first thing John the Baptist said in his ministry? Repent.
What was the first thing Jesus said in his ministry? Repent.
What was the first thing Peter said in his ministry? Repent.
The Jews missed it because they were unwilling to repent of their made up laws that they put above the Laws of God.
The vast majority of us are missing it because we're not willing to repent of our lawlessness.
I've been to many churches and they all claim to hold Scripture in the highest regard, but none of them will teach this. None of them teach what Christ or the Apostles taught. Yes Christ died for our sins. But to reject His commands is to reject Him. If I asked you to marry me and you told me,"No", but still claimed to love me wouldn't that be crazy? That's what we do. We say we love God, but no one is willing to do what He asked. His law is not burdensome and it is not hard. Yet we think by going to church we're doing better, doing more for Him with a false show of obedience. If you still aren't convinced read the scriptures above again. Read them over and over. How can you serve Christ by rejecting His teachings? It's obvious to me that the Apostles weren't dispensationalists. Dispensationalism was invented much later by men. Dispensationalism is ridiculous. It claims that the Old Testament and the teachings of Christ don't apply to us. It is a lie. So what are you left with? The Epistles and Revelation? And of course according to a dispensationalist when the epistles and Revelation says we should obey the commandments it isn't written to us but to the Jews? Can't you see it's a lie? Is it not written that man will live by EVERY Word of God? Not just Jews but ALL MEN AND WOMEN.

(quotation from email)Chaplain Rogers' final point was that if you have a problem with Jesus, you have a problem with God the Father. You can't have the Father and not have the Son...IT WILL NOT WORK!

I agree. The reverse is also true. You can't have the Son without the Father. Jesus said that if they wouldn't believe Moses then they wouldn't believe even if someone was to rise from the dead. To reject Christ's commands (the Law) is to reject Him. That is what the Bible teaches. But if we will repent (not just believe on His name. The demons believe and tremble), believe, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" then we're saved. He said it Himself that if we believe Him then we'll do what He said:

Luk 6:46 And why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?

Otherwise we're no better than the demons who believe and tremble. The scriptures cannot contradict each other. Only when understood in this way is there no contradiction. It explains why the church is so weak and why it has no spiritual strength these days. We will struggle. We will make mistakes. The Bible does say that if we say we have no sin we are liars. But that (trying to observe the Law) is infinitely better than rejecting Christ.

Spared From Evil

2005-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. Isaiah 57:1-2

Sometimes God calls the ones that are His home early to their reward. I found this verse today and I find it comforting. It's my current job to do honors for military veterans at funerals. This verse comforts me.

The Religious Left

2005-04-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

I really owe alot to my Dad. Growing up we didn't attend church very much, but Dad always urged me to read the Bible and pray. I did both. Recently we were talking on the phone and Dad told me,"I wish we'd have went to church more your sister wouldn't be in as much trouble as she's in now." I told my Dad,"Dad, you always taught both of us to read our Bibles. If she isn't willing to read her Bible she'll never learn anything from church. There are good preachers and there are bad preachers. Only a strong knowledge of the Bible will let you tell the difference." My point is there are bad preachers that lead astray. Some will get angry at this statement but everyone needs to read the Scriptures for themselves. That is the only way to keep from falling for these things. Here's an example:

They (German churches) would not put Hitler's picture on their wall or altar as they were commanded to do. I write about this in my book about Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman. Her pastor from the Lutheran Confessional Church ignored the Nazis sitting in his service and aided the Jews of his community as well. (See order blank enclosed to purchase the book.)

But during WWII, many of Europe's and America's "religious leaders" were pre-occupied with America's "economic and social agenda" as the "religious Left" is today on both continents. Albert Palmer, President of Chicago Theological Seminary said Americans should be solving the problems of social and economic justice at home rather than condemning Germany through a haze of Allied propaganda."

Methodist leader Ernest Fremont Title claimed that Nazism could be overcome non-violently which is vaguely reminiscent of John Kerry's wish to fight a "kinder, gentler war" with Islamofascism. Thus churches and denominations were protesting wars then as they do now.

As news of the destruction of Jews in Europe reached the American press, America's Christian leadership failed to even lobby for immigration reform. Thus, from 1933 to 1941 more than 100 anti-Semitic groups appeared in the U.S., many with "Christian overtones."

How is the "religious Left" operating today? Several articles are posted on their Web sites, including the National Council of Churches--www.ncccusa.org. You will see them laud the efforts of environmentalists, sharing the wealth, commentaries on poverty, land mines, anti-war rhetoric, boycotts against everything but abortion factories, and an obsession with the Palestinian cause. Some blatantly promote socialism and a few laud Communism, thus anti-Americanism abounds. Hardly what the founders of their denominations had in mind!

You can read more here. The point is that you must be as "wise as serpents" as our Lord commanded if you want to escape from these things. The Scripture says,"We must let the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God guide us. If we ever deny this we are damned.

Proverbs 14:1212 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

If you are not being led by the Holy Spirit then you are racing towards your own death. You will die physically, mentally, and spiritually if you are not led by the Holy Spirit.

Prepared for the Slaughter

2005-04-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Go read this article: PREPARED FOR THE SLAUGHTER:The Disarming of the Church. This is an excellent article that everyone should read. Discernment is being discouraged and the church is silent about the fact that the Anti-Christ's reign is almost here.

The Incomprehensible Silence & the Deafening Roar

2005-04-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

There is a maddening silence and an equally maddening roar that has been going on for as long as I can remember. One such example of this can be found in this article from Rapture Ready:

The Jesus Seminar is not a Christian organization. Its only purpose is to attack the authority of the Bible. This little band of pompous scholars would be nothing more than an insignificant fringe group if it hadn’t been for the liberal media giving it national coverage. The most infamous example of this free coverage occurred when it was featured on an ABC prime time special hosted by Peter Jennings.
The program's producers did not offer a single conservative Christian the opportunity to rebut the claims reported in the broadcast. They depicted conservative "believers" as being too simple-minded to be given any air time.
Much of the blame for the Jesus Seminar gaining fame rests with the average Christian. Believers should have been outraged that the liberal media would dare use the group as a representation of all Christian scholars.
Imagine if the Ku Klux Klan decided to advance its campaign of hatred by changing its name to the African-American League and claiming to represent black Americans. There would be rioting in the streets if major networks decided to lend credibility to this group.
If Christians had just applied a small amount of scorn towards ABC, the network never would have aired the program. As long as the Church remains silent, these wolves in sheep’s clothing will continue their dirty work: "Ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:7).

It seems like we just don't care anymore but.......I know we actually do care. It's just that we don't know what to do about things such as this. We don't control the media so we are easily drowned out by the roar of the media. There probably was an outcry against this but it was ignored by the media. On the other hand, when a Christian leader wants to complain about something that seems petty to most of us, the media jumps all over it. An example would be when Falwell gets all worked up over the latest Harry Potter book. The media is glad to represent Falwell as the voice of all Christendom when he is clearly not. I believe Falwell means well, but the media uses him to make us all look foolish. Then they make programs to try to disprove the claims of our Faith.

But the liberals running the media refuse to address the Islamofacist murderers for what they are. You don't see them running specials trying to disprove Islam or Buddhism's claims.

I'll tell you why: Christ scares them. Muhammed and Buddha are still in their tombs. Christ isn't. Read the rest of the article.

Earth Day? I think not.

2005-04-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

The following is from Constance Cumbey's excellent new blog. You should bookmark it and go read it. Unlike me, she actually has alot to say:

I could not and would not participate in the first Earth Day, even though so much of the crowd in the various peace and civil rights movements were there. I sat in my cubicle in the Speaker's Staff headquarters of the House of Representatives section of the Michigan State Capitol and literally shivered with creeps as I read the announcements for the day. I bought the books for research, but I frankly instinctively disliked all I was hearing. I could not tell you why until 1981, the year I first discovered the New Age Movement. Perusing literature of popular groups of the Movement starting with the Sierra Club and moving through Friends of the Earth and the scare projections of the Club of Rome, I had what the New Agers would probably label an "aha moment" and others might call "an epiphany." My thoughts went something like this:"They are talking about increasing living space, population reduction, mandatory abortion, licensing people to have children, encouraged and even forced sterilizations, terminating life supports -- My God -- that is what the Nazis were all about! So many nice people into this -- somebody's got to warn them." When I discovered the esoteric underpinnings of the movement which were almost universally talking about (a) a new 'messiah' coming; and (b) recognition of Lucifer as a benevolent planetary force (Theosophical Society; Lucis Trust; Benjamin Creme, et al ad nauseum), I knew that I was facing something for which I could not conscientiously keep silent. I remember saying to myself about the probable consequences for speaking out "professional suicide; political suicide"! But speak out I did.

I agree completely. I should dig up some old Hitler and Theosophy links and post them up here. Just google Theosophy and Hitler and you should find plenty to read. Of course the abortion movement started in Nazi Germay, which isn't surprising. I can sum up the abortion industry in one sentence: 30 pieces of silver for a dead baby. The only reason abortion is even an issue is because it's the largest unregulated industry in the U.S. Planned Parenthood gets tax money to carry out this genocide. And money=power just like it always has. The abortionists have bought enough politicians to keep them safe. It boils my blood that an honest man can't run for office anymore. Only a rich man can afford the cost. I'm going to grin when these murderous bastards are tossed into the lake of fire. There'll be a reckoning one day.

Universal Constant Might Not Be Constant

2005-04-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Source Article

This could have implications for our understanding of Genesis and the nature of existence itself.
~Knight for Christ

Summary - (Apr 11, 2005) An international researchers has found evidence that a universal constant in nature which governs the strength of the molecular bonds between atoms - called "alpha" - might have changed over time. The strength of alpha is very important, and life couldn't exist if it was much different from its current value. The team examined the light from distant quasars billions of light-years away, and measured the unique fingerprint of its light being absorbed by clouds of gas. They compared this fingerprint to known values here on Earth to measure the difference.

Physical constants are one of the cornerstones of physics – sacred numbers which we know to be fixed – but what if some of these constants are changing? Speaking at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005, Dr Michael Murphy of Cambridge University will discuss the "fine structure constant" – one of the critical numbers in the universe which seems to be precisely tuned for life to exist – and suggest that it might not be constant after all.Dr Murphy has used the largest optical telescope in the world, the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, to study light from distant quasars. This light has been travelling across the universe for billions of years, and seems to show that the fine structure constant, often known as "alpha", may be varying over time.The fine structure constant governs the electromagnetic force which holds all atoms and molecules together. Scientists have known for many years that if its value was slightly different, life could not exist. Only the very tiniest changes over time could be tolerated, and most scientists believe that alpha today is the same as it always has been.The constant also affects the absorption fingerprint of atoms, which can be detected when light shines through gas clouds. Murphy has used quasars as incredibly distant light sources, whose light encounters gas clouds on its way to Earth. The light takes time to reach Earth, so he sees the fingerprints as they were billions of years ago. By comparing these fingerprints with those obtained in experiments on Earth, he concludes that alpha has changed by about one part in two-hundred-thousand during the last 10 billion years.Other researchers have published results which suggest that alpha does not change. However Dr Murphy's work is the most detailed survey ever performed. He says that the internal checks in his method, which other research groups did not use, make this the most reliable measurement to date.Murphy is careful not to claim that the case is closed, and he says that nobody can really say that alpha varies until another type of experiment has confirmed it. "We are claiming something extraordinary here," says Murphy, "and the evidence, though strong, is not yet extraordinary enough."Dr Michael Murphy is a Research Associate at the Institute of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge, and a Research Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge.

The Historical Jesus: Proof & Evidence He Existed

2005-04-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Evidence the Bible is of Supernatural Origin
The Shroud of Turin
The Origin of Life and the Suppression of Truth
Contacted
The Unexpected King
The Crutches
Gematria
Josephus
Extra Biblical Sources I
Extra Biblical Sources II

Does Israel Have A Right To Exist?

2005-04-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

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A friend of mine asked me how I would answer the following question: "By what right does Israel exist? Why does the world need such a hell-hole of a country, an apartheid-racist-war-mongering-Jewish theocracy?" I suggested that she consider the question as an opening for a conversation about the "right to exist" rather than as a challenge to Israel's character or to its right—or lack thereof—to exist. The Arab Rejection of Israel The last 65 years of Arab hate-speech, hate-preach, and hate-teach make it pretty clear that some significant part of the Arab world really does not want Israel to exist. That same segment really does the best it can to end Israel's existence, with 65 years of terror war punctuated by 3 major attempts at invasion, conquest, and destruction. The rhetoric of annihilation and the diatribe of genocide match the actions of these same Arab states, whose commitment of massive resources to the destruction of Israel is an implicit rejection of Israel's right to exist. In a similar vein, 20 years ago, when Arafat agreed to recognize the state of Israel, his doing so was acclaimed far and wide as a great concession. Only a few had the perspicacity to point out that acknowledging the existence of a state that already existed was no great concession to anything except reality. However, since Arafat continued to run a terror war against Israel and proclaim his desire to destroy Israel, his "concession" about Israel's existence was nothing more than a superficial bid to gain support in the USA. His continued psychotic desire to destroy Israel was an implicit rejection of Israel's right to exist. Mahathir Mohammed, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, indirectly raised the same issue in his speech last year when he claimed that 1,300,000,000 Moslems worldwide could surely defeat Israel with its mere 6,000,000! Since the Arab goal in defeating Israel is the annihilation of Israel, Mahathir's assertion that Islam's worldwide "umma" ought to be able to succeed in this goal is a very clear challenge to Israel's right to exist. Implicit in the proliferation of vitriolic hate education in almost all of the Arab (and some parts of the non-Arab Moslem) world is the denial of the targeted victim's right to exist. There is indeed a significant part of the Arab world, and some in the non-Arab Moslem world, who want Israel and its 6,000,000 Jews destroyed. The commitment to this demonic goal is an expression of the belief that Israel has no right to exist. No Nation Has the Right to Exist In my opinion, Israel has no right to exist. And that is because, in reality, no country in the world and throughout all of history has a right to exist. No country in the world exists today by virtue of its 'right'. All countries exist today by virtue of their ability to defend themselves against those who seek their destruction. Take Tibet, for example, and Israel for the opposite example. Tibet did nothing to threaten or anger China. No aggression, no threat of aggression. But in 1950, China invaded Tibet and ended Tibet's existence as a nation. The world did nothing (except create some bumper stickers). As with all nations, Tibet had no right to exist. It existed only as long as it was not attacked. When it was attacked and could not defend itself adequately, nor garner support for its continued existence from the world's family of nations or from the world's governing body, it ceased to exist. The same would be true of Israel, except that Israel has defended itself adequately. Israel's continued existence is not by right, but only by its ability to defend itself against the Arab and Moslem world that seeks her destruction. And if it were ever unable to defend itself, it would soon share Tibet's fate. Or worse. In the final analysis, no nation has a right to exist. No nation exists because of any right. Nations exist because they can defend themselves from those who want to destroy them. Therefore, the question itself, "what right does Israel have to exist?" is a bogus question. It is misleading in its intention. So let's examine the question from the vantage point of its intention. The Origin of Nations With only one known exception (Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal are possible exceptions to the analysis which follows, but that is not known for sure) no country ever came into existence by virtue of any right to exist, or any right to come into existence from some previous non-nation status. All nations throughout the world and across history came into existence by virtue of their ability to conquer some other country or people or tribe or indigenous inhabitants. Violence, murder, war, rapine, conquest, massacres, burning, looting, pillaging, and sometimes even genocide: those are the costs of nation creation in the real world, throughout all of history. The only known exception to this gallery of historical horrors is the modern state of Israel. Israel came into existence by virtue of:

a. its ability to buy land with the help of world-wide Jewish and Christian Zionists
b. its ability to reclaim deteriorated waste land
c. its ability to organize itself in its pre-state existence into a viable well-governed cohesive society with a developing and expanding economy and an effective defensive force.
d. its ability, via lobbying and political leveraging, to get the world governing body to vote it into existence

In sharp contradistinction to the manner in which all other nations have been created, Israel came into existence by legal, peaceful, constructive processes. A Mechanism for Destruction Despite the fact that Israel is the only country in world history that came into existence via peaceful, legal, constructive means and by majority vote of the world governing body, Israel is the one and only country whose right to exist is challenged. But, no matter how bad Israel may be, and even if the worst of Israel's detractors were correct in their horrific description of Israel's failings as a nation, Israel is certainly no worse than many countries throughout the world with disastrous records of human rights abuses, aggression against neighboring countries, social and religious and gender apartheid, oppression of minorities. And in reality, Israel's track record in these areas is far better than that of most countries. So however bad Israel may be, the fact still remains that it is the only country in the world to ever have come into existence peacefully and legally. So why pick on Israel? Because the question has nothing to do with an inquiry into Israel's rights or lack thereof. It is simply a mechanism for the launching of an anti-Israel diatribe. Its real purpose is to open an avenue of attack, to bash Israel, de-legitimize her, denigrate her; and ultimately to justify the Arab world's desire to destroy her. In the absence of any inquiry into the right of infinitely more reprehensible societies—Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, inter alia, come to mind—why condemn Israel as a rogue state with no right to exist? Why not start with the worst offenders? Why de-legitimize Israel for a conquest (which actually did not happen, but that's a different article) that was far less destructive than that of the Arab states whose Jihad in the 7th to 9th centuries racked up tens, if not hundreds, of millions of casualties and destroyed four ancient civilizations (Byzantine, Coptic, Sassanian, and Berber). Why not start with the most horrific of conquerors? Because the purpose of the question is to attack Israel and justify those who attack Israel! The bottom line is that if you think Israel has no right to exist, you are right. And I'm sure that Hitler would agree with you wholeheartedly.

The Cross

2005-03-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

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And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? – Mark 8:34-37 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. – Luke 9:23 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. – Matthew 10:38 Many dazzlingly eloquent words have been written and spoken lately about Christ's "Passion" – both the Mel Gibson movie and the Real Thing. Indeed, viewing "The Passion of the Christ" is powerfully rekindling many believers' appreciation for what Jesus endured for their sakes. Question: Will this roaring fire of gratitude for Christ's suffering and death on the cross also rekindle – or ignite for the first time – a fire in the belly of believers for "taking up the cross" themselves? What about it? Is it enough to immerse our minds and souls and emotions in the graphic realization of Christ's immense suffering on our behalf? Or are we going to go the distance, finish the race, and fulfill Jesus' direct and repeated instruction that each of us "take up his cross daily"? But first things first. What in the world does "taking up your cross" really mean? 'I die daily' In ages past, Christians dwelt a lot more on the concept of taking up the "cross" than they do these days. Today, the phrase "it's my cross to bear" is usually a somewhat self-congratulatory reference to the fact that we have to put up with a vexing medical condition, or a child in trouble with the law, or perhaps an overbearing, live-in mother-in-law. Admonitions from the pulpit may not shed much more light. Oh sure, a well-intentioned minister will reverently read one of the scriptures cited above on "taking up the cross," and he might even briefly plug the ideal of self-denial. But too often this amounts to a polite nod to a notion that seems both archaic and almost irrelevant, or at least unattainable, and the pastor just moves on to more pleasant topics – like how grateful we are that we're saved by Christ's death and resurrection. It wasn't always so. Throughout past centuries, Christian philosophers and mystics dwelt at length on the crucial, life-and-death need for repentance, resignation, "mortification," the "crucifixion" of sin in man, and the "death of the carnal man" or of "the creaturely self" and so on. The Apostle Paul said it most powerfully and succinctly when he wrote: "I die daily." Unfortunately, much of what has been written in more contemplative eras about this inner transformation of man is highly poetic and allegorical – an attempt to use mere words to chart the straight and narrow road that connects man's lowly estate with God's heavenly one. Although such archaic language may be profound, it's probably insufficient for Christians today, buffeted as we are on the outside by a voracious and atheistic secular culture, and on the inside by what is increasingly a simplistic and far less rigorous Christianity than that embraced by our forefathers. Please allow me to take a stab at this, from a somewhat different angle – this command from Jesus Christ that each of His followers "take up his cross daily." Killing the creature What exactly is this "creaturely self" that Christian thinkers throughout the centuries have so colorfully warned we must "slay" or "crucify" if we're to inherit the Kingdom of God? It's self-evident that we're all born with a troublesome nature called "pride." Basically, pride is the part of us that wants to be God. It loves being praised, quickly puffs up with angry judgment over the real or perceived wrongs of others – and as a rule is oblivious to its own faults. Moreover, you can think of pride as a "life form" – a living, breathing "something" which, like any other life form or "creature," can be fed or starved. When it's fed, it grows and enlarges; when it is starved, it diminishes and dies – daily. As our pride – also referred to as the "sin self" – diminishes and dies through our obedience to God, the direct result is that our good side, our true, God-centered character and identity enlarges. We're not talking about matters of dogma here. Nor is this just a matter of outward behaviors and "works." So please don't e-mail me with arguments about "faith vs. works." This is about real change – about transformation – the mystical heart of the true Christian life, about "dying to the world." Not an archaic, poetic and hopelessly idealistic notion, but the very heartbeat of our everyday life, as we deal with stresses and problems ("trials and tribulations") in our lives. Of course – and this is something of a divine paradox – as Christians, we know we can't save ourselves, and yet we are most definitely called to obedience. So, let's not slough off our responsibility to "die daily" by comfortably presuming on the unending mercy of God. His mercy is unending, indeed, but also balanced with justice, and these two seemingly contradictory qualities work together mysteriously and wonderfully toward our redemption, but only in the truly sincere human soul that doesn't tempt God. A different kind of love To understand what "taking up the cross" means, we have to understand why Jesus Himself had to suffer. More pointedly, if our loving God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent – which He is – why then did His own Son have to be tortured and executed? Countless people throughout the ages have asked, "If God is love, why would he require his own son to endure such torture and death?" Indeed, many have judged God, concluding: "I could never worship a god like that." Although we say "God is love," we don't really know what either one is, do we? "God" is beyond our comprehension – like understanding infinity. And "love" – well, we use that word to describe our "strong feelings" for anything and everything we're attracted to, from sex to butter popcorn to our favorite music group to our children to our spouse to the Lord and Creator of the Universe. Let's talk about real love – as opposed to infatuation, obsession and ego-support. There's one element present in almost every authentic manifestation of real love among us human beings. And that is – are you ready for this? – suffering. From the ultimate expression of love – "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend" – to the simple act of being patient with your misbehaving children, love implies forbearance, longsuffering and patience in the midst of problems. Here's how Webster defines "patience": "the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain without complaint, loss of temper, or anger." Certainly, Jesus' words as he was dying on the cross – "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" – are the kindest, most patient words ever spoken. Thus, patience is nothing less than the basic "cell" or building block of love for each other. The very idea of being patient implies suffering with grace. The recipient of your patience – say, your spouse or child – experiences that patience as love, just as they experience your impatience as a lack of love. Still, why is love inextricably tied to suffering? Just think: God is the architect of an awesome expanding universe involving heavenly bodies and distances and speeds and temperatures beyond human comprehension, as well as of a never-ending microscopic cosmos of orbiting particles and universes within universes, all too small for human eyes or minds to conceive. And yet, there's one thing the Creator of all couldn't just … create out of thin air. And that's love. Oh sure, He loves us. But I'm talking about our love for Him and for each other – fulfilling Jesus' two greatest commandments. The only way God could "create" loving children was for us to have a choice: a choice to love Him, or to be our own god – literally, a choice to make something more important than our own lives, well being and comfort – a choice to love, in other words – and to be able to demonstrate that love, which involves suffering. After all, if I compel you to "love me," is it real love? Of course not. Love always involves a choice. Jesus' teaching that there's no greater love than laying down your life for a friend doesn't only mean that you have to be willing to die for someone else by jumping into a lake to save them, or taking a bullet meant for them. Remember, Paul said, "I die daily." It's a different kind of "death" that's being called for here. You have to be willing to let your pride-self die – for the sake of your "neighbor" – and particularly, for your family's well being. Small example: If someone insults you and you become angry and upset, you've simply failed to find God's love in that moment and to extend it to the offending person. If you are genuinely patient – that is, if you suffer the insult with grace, and resist the temptation to puff up with anger because your pride was offended – you can then respond to the other person with the energy and spirit of love. By "love," I'm not talking about necessarily being nice to them. Your response may be a powerful rebuke, or it may be mild, or perhaps nothing at all – but if it emanates from calm patience (not repressed rage, mind you, but real patience, which is also forgiveness), then there's love in it. So do I need to be a martyr? Do an Internet search on the phrase "Take up your cross" and you'll discover sermon after sermon on the necessity of being willing to be tortured and executed for Christ. "Are you living with a martyr's attitude, that is, willing to suffer and/or die for the cause of Christ?" asks one sermon on the topic. "We are to be Jesus' present-day martyrs, as millions in the past literally were proven to be by giving their lives for the cause of Christ." Others regard the "take up your cross" reference as a call to the celibate, monastic life. And of course there are lots of references to the conflict between man's "natural will" and God's will, and how they are at war with each other. Indeed, "taking up the cross" has always been a common sermon topic. Most typically, listeners are admonished to visit the sick, feed the poor, put their spouse's desires ahead of their own, tithe and volunteer time for church work, and the like. And while these are all fine actions to take, the problem is, one can do all of them and still remain the same weak, resentful, faithless, doubtful, guilt-ridden, but heavily compensated "nice" person. Worse, the approval and adulation we receive from others for our "godly works" often serves to further blind us from seeing and repenting of our still-unregenerate nature. The point is, we're not so much in need of a behavior change as we are of a nature change. The "cross" Christ prescribes for us is an instrument of death. But just as He died to bring life, we are supposed to "die" to sin that we may share His life. All of which boils down to this: The real "cross" we have to bear is that we have a fallen nature, which we need to understand and relate to properly -- which allows God to change us. Let's start with an obvious example – sex. Men in particular are born with a sexual nature that needs to be restrained. If it weren't restrained, men would want to have sex virtually all of the time. Obviously, man needs to control his "animal nature" or "creaturely self." For that matter, what if somebody wrongs you to the point that you have an impulse to do him bodily harm? You've got to restrain that impulse too, don't you? How about a more subtle example? Let's say we suffer from envious thoughts. To covet is to break one of the 10 Commandments. So how do we deal with these troublesome feelings? How do we "restrain" them? Certainly not by wallowing in them and indulging them. But also not by repressing them, or attempting to manufacture "good" thoughts and feelings in their place, or by escaping from them. The Christian answer might be to pray, and that's right on – but what form of prayer? Try this out: If you notice envious thoughts, just observe them – honestly, sincerely, without escaping or trying to change them or making excuses for them or justifying them or getting upset over them. Just see what you see, with poise and dignity – and quietly, wordlessly, cry inwardly to God for help. He will. This is true transparency, which is resignation of your will to His. It calls forth the very process of regeneration, imperceptible though it may be to us. Put another way, "dying" to the world is like fasting – but not from food. The real "fast" God desires is that we fast from evil thoughts, from anger, from envy, from lust, from greed and so on. He wants us to abstain from being irritated by provocations, from becoming impatient and angry toward others, from temptation of all sorts. The truth is, we're never closer to God than when we're just plain quiet and still, aware of all of our defects in each precious moment, looking at ourselves first and foremost, without judgment or worry, and having quiet faith that God is there with us and that He will help us. Shortly before His Passion and death, Jesus gave his disciples what He called "a new commandment" – namely, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." Of course, since He had previously brought forth the Old Testament commandments to love God "with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5) and to "love thy neighbor as thyself" (Leviticus 19:18), how was this Last Supper commandment then "new"? It was new because He was raising the bar to a higher standard. He was now asking us to love one another as He loved us. We are supposed to live the way Jesus lived, and to suffer the way He suffered. (I said, the way he suffered – with love for each other through obedience to the Father – though obviously not to the extent He suffered.) And, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that does not mean only sharing the Gospel of Christ's atoning death and resurrection with as many people as possible. We are called to a still higher standard – to live as He lived – or maybe to put it more aptly, to love as He loved. Love and logic In the classic story of "Ben-Hur," Judah, long-consumed by hatred and a desire for revenge against Masala for falsely condemning him as a galley slave and imprisoning his mother and sister, now lepers, witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus. In the final unforgettable scene, Judah tells his betrothed Esther: "Almost the minute He died, I heard Him say, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Esther, amazed, responds in a whisper: "Even then ..." "Even then," echoes Judah. "And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand." The real Passion of Christ must connect directly with our own internal programming and strengthen our own spirit, as it did in the story of "Ben-Hur." We too must die the death God has prescribed for us – the death of pride, the ancient compulsion to be our own god – that we may share the true life He prepared for us, and which His Son purchased so dearly for us. One of the main reasons I'm a Christian is because it actually makes sense. If God wanted to demonstrate His love for mankind, how else could He do it? Go ahead, tell me! Tell me what He could do to demonstrate the depth of His love. Make mountains of pomegranates for everyone? Give everyone a great job and a big house and three SUVs? Give us everything our proud little hearts desire? No, if God wanted to demonstrate His love for us, and at the same time provide us with the perfect, ultimate example of real love for our fellow man, what could be a more perfect expression of love than the willing suffering and death of His Son – Who while dying asked God to forgive His tormentors? The sheer logic and power of it is transcendent. If you're looking for love in this loveless world, that's it. I know some will be offended by this message, as though by even mentioning and holding up the standard Jesus clearly demanded of His followers, I am somehow denying the sufficiency of His substitutionary death for all mankind. But you see, there's something really wrong with today's Christianity. Over 80 percent of Americans consider themselves Christians, but our country's government, laws, culture and institutions, from its education system to it is entertainment industry – are increasingly and overtly hostile to Christianity. Even Christian families all too often are falling apart. Believe it or not, the divorce rate among Christians is higher than that of unbelievers, according to respected Christian pollster George Barna. Clearly, we're missing something big. So, can you handle a little tough love? Here it is: Just continually telling each other about Jesus' death and resurrection is not enough. It's not what He taught. Jesus didn't say, "Just talk about me and you'll be saved." Rather, He said: "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17) And "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." (John 15:10) And "… he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:13 KJV) What I'm really saying is: Christian viewers of "The Passion of the Christ" are taking a hard look at the reality of what the Messiah suffered. The next question is: What am I willing to do, to suffer? Can I face my own pride? It's the one enemy most of us don't really want to have to face. To take up our cross, then, to "lose our life" for His sake so that we "shall save it" – we need to repent. And we cannot repent without looking in the mirror and honestly facing the sin in our minds and hearts. To stand transparent before God so He can heal us through understanding and repentance may be as hard as watching Jesus being scourged, but don't take your eyes off the screen of your mind. God honors the sincere soul who faces himself or herself and repents. This is the heartbeat of our life, without which there is no real life. Each of us has a moment-to-moment decision to make, whether or not to preserve, protect and defend our sinful, hell-bent nature, or whether to pick up our cross, deny our (wrong) self, and follow Jesus – first to death, and then to life.

Why Should You Believe In The Resurrection?

2005-03-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

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WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Christianity stands or falls with the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul certainly understood this to be the case. In that great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without foundation, and so is your faith. In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ -– whom He did not raise up.... And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14-15, 17). It is difficult, if not impossible, to explain the birth of the church and its Gospel message apart from the resurrection of Jesus. The Christian faith orbits about the confession and conviction that the crucified Jesus is the Son of God, established and vindicated “by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness” (Romans 1:4). It is not surprising that skeptics outside the church have attacked the bodily resurrection from the very beginning. However, it is disappointing that attacks launched against the truth of Jesus’ bodily resurrection come from those who claim to be a part of the Christian community. For example, the infamous Jesus Seminar says, “The body of Jesus probably decayed as do all corpses. The resurrection of Jesus was not something that happened on the first Easter Sunday; it was not an event that could have been captured by a video camera.” Bill Phipps, moderator of the United Church of Canada says, “I don’t believe Jesus was God, but I’m no theologian. I don’t believe Jesus is the only way to God. I don’t believe he rose from the dead as scientific fact. I don’t know whether these things happened. It’s an irrelevant question.” When one approaches the issue of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, those of us who affirm its truth acknowledge that we bear the burden of proof. After all, we are making the claim that Jesus did what no other person has ever done in all of human history. He died, rose from the dead and remains alive until this day. So, the question naturally arises: why should anyone believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth? Is not the claim itself simply incredible and unbelievable from the start? After all, we are making a one-of-a-kind claim that has never been duplicated at any time, in any place, by any other person. I believe we can marshal a strong case of compelling evidence that Christ did indeed rise from the dead. Let me quickly summarize 15 lines of evidence. -- Naturalistic theories fail to explain the event. Naturalistic arguments (swoon, wrong tomb, hallucination, etc.) of the previous centuries did not stand up to careful analysis. Highly selective in the biblical data, they chose that which helped their theory and jettisoned what did not. Such arbitrary methods were doomed to fail from the beginning. -- The creation of faith in the disciples and the radical change in their lives. Something happened that caused the followers of Jesus to believe they had real and genuine encounters with the risen Lord. These encounters with Jesus changed them from timid and fearful cowards to bold and courageous witnesses of the resurrected Christ. In addition, each of the disciples, with the possible exception of John, died the death of a martyr. And, each of them died alone, and yet each died still proclaiming Jesus as the risen Lord with their last dying breath. The importance of this can scarcely be overstated. While it is the case that persons will die for a lie -- consider the terrorists of 9-11 and what they believed awaited them following death -- it is not the case that persons will die for what they know to be a lie. -- The empty tomb and the discarded grave clothes. The Christian movement could have been quickly crushed and brought to an end by one act: producing the dead corpse of Jesus. Evidently, based on the evidence, no one was able to do this. -- Jesus was testified to have been seen by women first. In the Jewish culture of the first century women were not qualified to be witnesses in a major legal proceeding. Given this fact, it is amazing, even astonishing, that the Bible records that women saw the risen Jesus first. -- Change in the day of worship by Jews from the Sabbath to Sunday. Something happened around A.D. 30 that caused a large group of Jews in Jerusalem to change their day of worship from the Sabbath to Sunday. Whatever happened would have to have been extraordinary. It was, they claimed, the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. -- Unlikely nature of mass hallucination. Mass hallucination is not simply unlikely. It is impossible. Hallucinations are inner, subjective experiences of the mind. The repeated appearances of Jesus at different times and to different people is a death knell to this theory.

-- Numerous and varied resurrection appearances which lasted for 40 days and then abruptly ended. The New Testament records at least 10 occasions on which Jesus appeared to his followers shortly following His resurrection.

-- The 50-day interval between the resurrection and the proclamation of the Gospel at Pentecost (Acts 2) in Jerusalem. For some reason the disciples of Jesus did not go about proclaiming the Gospel of the risen Lord for 50 days after the event took place. Why? The biblical witness is clear and compelling. They waited until Jesus had ascended (Luke 24, Acts 1) and the Holy Spirit had come to empower them for witness (Acts 2).

-- The Jewish leaders nor the Romans could disprove the message of the empty tomb. It is an undeniable fact of history that those who opposed and crucified Jesus could not disprove His resurrection. All they had to do was produce the body of Jesus and the Christian movement was dead. Again, it appears there was no body to produce.

-- The unexpected nature of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The disciples did not anticipate that Jesus would rise from the dead, though He had predicted it on several occasions. Mark 9:32 tells us they did not understand. Perhaps they thought He was again speaking in parables. There was no expectancy or anticipation on their part that Jesus would rise from the dead. All the evidence strongly affirms it came as a complete surprise.

-- The conversion of two skeptics: James the half brother of Jesus and Saul of Tarsus. James was an unbeliever in Jesus as Messiah prior to His crucifixion. John 7:5 makes this clear. Yet something happened that transformed the half-brother of Jesus from a doubter to a believer, from a skeptic to a leader in the church at Jerusalem. Saul was a persecutor of the church. However, something happened in Saul’s life that changed him from a persecutor of Christ to a missionary/evangelist for Christ. His own confession and testimony, recorded several times in Scripture, is that he saw the resurrected Christ (Acts 9:3-6; 22:6-10; 26:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:8; Galatians 1:15-16).

-- The moral character of the eyewitnesses. The New Testament provides the greatest teachings found in any literature on love, truth, honesty, hope, faithfulness, kindness, and the list goes on. These teachings come from the pens of men like Matthew, John, Paul, James and Peter: all of whom claim to have been eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus. -- The early creedal witness of 1 Corinthians 15:3-7. The resurrection was the heart of the earliest Christian teaching. This is based on 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, where Paul recorded a very early creed concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection. Some scholars date Paul’s receiving of this creed within a decade of the crucifixion itself, about A.D. 35-40. This is deadly to any type of mythical, fable, or embellishment theory. First, there is not enough time. Second, there are eyewitnesses who can provide a check and balance to any inaccurate or exaggerated claims.

-- The accepted character and claims of Jesus. Jesus on numerous occasions spoke of His crucifixion and resurrection. He claimed He was God (John 8:58; 10:30; 14:9) and He said He would come back from the dead (Matt. 16:21). To claim Jesus as a great religious figure and moral teacher and yet believe He was mistaken on the prediction of His resurrection will not do. If He did not rise He was either a liar or a lunatic.

-- Reliable eyewitness documents recording the events. The New Testament is the most well-authenticated document of antiquity. There are more Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, over 5300, of an earlier date and more reliable nature than any other work of antiquity. The hope of the Gospel and the resurrection is at the core of the Christian Gospel and Christian Theology. It tells us that the God who raised Jesus from the dead exists. It establishes Jesus’ Lordship. It is the greatest event in history. Why should you believe it? Because it really did happen!

Scroll Found 400 Years Older Than Dead Sea Scrolls

2005-03-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

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(AP) "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you." As CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports, it's one of the most familiar prayers from the Bible common to both Christians and Jews. It's known as the "Priestly Benediction" from the Book of Numbers. "When we came back from synagogue on Friday night, these were the words which my late father used to bless me. I was five years old," says Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay. In 1979, Barkay found two small silver scrolls in an ancient Israelite tomb on a Jerusalem hillside. On them were written the words of the prayer. "We have here the name of the Almighty as it appears in the Bible as it appeared to the Israelites," Barkay said. Barkay dated the scrolls to the 7th century B.C., which would make them the oldest existing evidence of biblical verse. They were corroded and cracked; the writing was difficult to read, raising doubts about the age of the scrolls. Now, a team of scientists and scholars from the United States has proven Barkay's theory was correct: that the scrolls are about 2,600 years old. That's 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. It took modern technology to prove their antiquity. "We had one foot planted in the ancient past and one foot planted in the future," says Bruce Zuckerman with the University of Southern California. Sophisticated computer photo-imaging revealed more of the text, allowing experts to confirm the early dating. The scrolls are believed to have been worn as amulets, containing the blessing to protect their wearers from evil. It took centuries for the scrolls to be found and more than two decades to be sure of their age. But over time, the blessing so thinly etched on the surface of the silver -- "The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace" -- became deeply embedded in Jewish and Christian tradition.

Resurrection Sunday

2005-03-24T13:28:00.000-08:00

"I still can't help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where...is the miracle I spoke of? Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time -- possibly to your own home town. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father's shop. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father's shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He never gets farther than an area perhaps 100 miles wide at the most. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing -- the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story? No, this uneducated, property-less young man has, for 2,000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors; all the conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who have ever lived -- all of them put together. How do we explain that -- unless He really was what He said He was?" --Ronald Reagan

Science Fraud Triggers a Decline in Atheism

2005-03-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

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GURAT, France — Godlessness is in trouble, according to a growing consensus among philosophers, intellectuals and scholars. "Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in an interview. His Oxford colleague Alister McGrath agrees. Atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great public domain it once regarded as its habitat," Mr. McGrath wrote in the U.S. magazine, Christianity Today. Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is that it appears to be losing its scientific underpinnings. The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground. British philosopher Anthony Flew, once as hard-nosed a humanist as any, has turned his back on atheism, saying it is impossible for evolution to account for the fact that one single cell can carry more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Mr. Flew still does not accept the God of the Bible. But he has embraced the concept of intelligent design — a stunning desertion of a former intellectual ambassador of secular humanism to the belief in some form of intelligence behind the design of the universe. A few years ago, European scientists snickered when studies in the United States — for example, at Harvard and Duke universities — showed a correlation between faith, prayer and recovery from illness. Now 1,200 studies at research centers around the world have come to similar conclusions, according to "Psychologie Heute," a German journal, citing, for example, the marked improvement of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany's Ruhr District because of "spiritual resources." Atheism's other Achilles' heels are the acts on inhumanity and lunacy committed in its name. "With time, [atheism] turned out to have just as many frauds, psychopaths and careerists as religion does. ... With Stalin and Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheism seems to have ended up mimicking the vices of the Spanish Inquisition and the worst televangelists, respectively," Mr. McGrath wrote in Christianity Today. The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's divinity school and one of the world's most distinguished sociologists of religion, said atheists in Europe have become "an infinitesimally small group." "There are not enough of them to be used for sociological research," he said. Mr. Zulehner cautioned, however, that the decline of atheism in Europe does not mean that re-Christianization is taking place. "What we are observing instead is a re-paganization," he said. The Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Va., said a similar phenomenon is taking place in the United States. "The rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism," he said. After all, a Satanist is also "spiritual." Mr. Pannenberg, a Lutheran, praised the Roman Catholic Church for handling this peril more wisely than many of his fellow Protestants. "The Catholics stick to the central message of Christianity without making any concessions in the ethical realm," he said, referring to issues such as same-sex "marriages" and abortion. In a similar vein, Mr. Zulehner, a Catholic, sees Christianity's greatest opportunity when its message addresses two seemingly irreconcilable quests of contemporary humanity — the quest for freedom and truth. "Christianity alone affirms that truth and God's dependability are inseparable properties to which freedom is linked." As for the "peril of spirituality," Mr. Zulehner sounded quite sanguine. He concluded from his research that in the long run, the survival of worldviews should be expected to follow this lineup: "The great world religions are best placed," he said. As a distant second he sees the diffuse forms of spirituality. Atheism, he said, will come in at the tail end.

The Temple Mount and the Sanhedrin

2005-02-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

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A unique ceremony – probably only the second of its kind in the past 1,600 years – is taking place in Tiberius today: The launching of a Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish-legal tribunal in the land of Israel.
The Sanhedrin, a religious assembly that convened in one of the Holy Temple chambers in Jerusalem [before AD 70], comprised 71 sages and existed during the Tannaitic period, from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E.
Details of today's ceremony are still sketchy, but the organizers' announced their intention to convene 71 rabbis who have received special rabbinic ordination as specified by Maimonides.
These religious authorities believe it was necessary to re-establish the Sanhedrin because only this properly ordained body of sages can authenticate a Messiah when he comes. There is a growing expectation of the long-awaited Messiah to appear among devout Jews. The rebirth of the Jewish state and recapture of Jerusalem has increasingly influenced this conviction.
On Feb. 9, just a few weeks after the Sanhedrin's re-establishment, another enormously important development took place. The religious sages began to consider the rebuilding of the Temple and reinstitution of ancient animal sacrifices as prescribed in the Law of Moses.
The first step toward facilitating this monumental endeavor was to seek to determine the exact location of the Temple's foundation. Sanhedrin spokesman Rabbi Chaim Richman told Arutz-7:It is appropriate that the Sanhedrin convened to discuss this lofty matter of the Temple's location this week ... the Sanhedrin continues to move toward strengthening the nation of Israel.
As all these things happen all around us, the Sanhedrin is researching ways to renew the deepest roots of our faith – to renew Temple service, reunite Jewish legal tradition and inspire the Jewish people to aspire to greatness. Our people have one path before us, and we will continue to march toward our destiny.
Sanhedrin member Rabbi Yisrael Ariel is the most ardent believer that the Temple is to be rebuilt in this generation. He is the former Yeshiva head, founder of the Temple Institute, and one of the paratroopers who took part in the 1967 liberation of the Temple Mount. He said:
People today ask, "Who are we in this generation to even consider building the Temple?" But in this week's Torah portion we see that the commandment to build a Temple was given to Jews who had just sinned and committed idolatry in the Sin of the Golden Calf. The fact is that what God requires in this world is for regular people to do their best. That is what we are trying to do.
The most difficult problem is to determine with certainty exactly where the previous Temple's foundations are. Muslims have not allowed Israeli archeologists to do archeological research on the Temple grounds. As a matter of fact, the Muslim custodians of this area, which they believe is their Third Holiest site, have systematically sought to destroy and remove any archeological evidence of Israel ever having a Temple there.
The Sanhedrin determined that there are only two viable theories as to where the Temple stood. One teaches that the Temple stood on the same basic site on which the Muslim mosque known as the Dome of the Rock was built.
The second theory (which I am convinced is the most accurate) is that the Temple was built north of the Dome of the Rock. Dr. Asher Kaufman developed this theory, using certain archeological evidences that he found before the Muslim's destroyed them. However, the most important archeological sign is the position of the Eastern Gate. According to ancient accounts of the Temple, its east-west centerline passed through the center of the Eastern Gate.
We have absolute evidence as to where the ancient Eastern Gate stood. I have viewed personally the remains of the ancient Eastern Gate, which is located under the modern Gate that was built on top of its ruins.
While photographing the area in 1983 for my book, "A Prophetical Walk Through The Holy Land," I sought to verify Dr. Kaufman's theory. I established the east-west centerline from the Eastern Gate. Then I received one of the most supernatural visitations of my life. My mind was suddenly flooded with a couple of verses that had been a mystery to me.
This is what I was shown. "I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.'" (Revelation 11:1-2 NIV) So I measured off the distance from the centerline to the point where the wall of the inner court would stand. There was at least 6 meters clearance from the nearest points of the Dome of the Rock and the Temple inner-court wall. The Apostle John clearly predicts that "the outer court was not to be included in the rebuilt Temple, because it was given to the Gentiles."
So what does all this mean? The Temple can be rebuilt and stand alongside the Dome of the Rock without disturbing it. And since the outer court, also known as the Court of the Gentiles, is given to the Gentiles in this period just before the Messiah comes, it infers that there would be a Gentile building there, i.e., the Dome of the Rock.
The fact that a re-established Sanhedrin is now considering the rebuilding of the Temple after 2,000 years is extremely important to students of Bible prophecy. I believe that we are very near the final climactic events that end with the Second Coming of Christ.

Tacitus, Pilate, and the Jesus Myth

2005-02-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

Tacitus, a Roman historian, also makes mention of Pilate and Christ. Tacitus despised Jews and Christians so his reference is particularly fascinating. Tacitus has been said to be the most trustworthy Roman historian and it seems likely that Tacitus had access to the Imperial archives.

Tektonics also has a very good refutation of the lie that Jesus was only a myth. The website also provides many other extra Biblical references to Christ.

Pontius Pilate

2005-02-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what happened to Pontius Pilate?

The only information regarding Pontius Pilate is the New Testament and two Jewish writers: Josephus and Philo of Alexandria. By far our greatest amount of information comes from the Jewish writer Flavius Josephus who composed his two great works, the Antiquities of the Jews and the Jewish War, towards the end of the first century.

It wasn't long ago when many scholars were questioning the actual existence of a Roman Governor with the name Pontius Pilate, the procurator who ordered Jesus' crucifixion. In June 1961 Italian archaeologists led by Dr. Frova were excavating an ancient Roman amphitheatre near Caesarea-on-the-Sea (Maritima) and uncovered this interesting limestone block. On the face is a monumental inscription which is part of a larger dedication to Tiberius Caesar which clearly says that it was from "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea."

Interesting stuff.

Vatican: Apostle Paul's Tomb Has Been Found

2005-02-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

Source Article

Vatican archeologists are preparing to announced they have positively identified the tomb of St. Paul the apostle. Giorgio Filippi, a specialist with the Vatican Museums, said a sarcophagus that might still contain the apostle's remains was identified in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, reported Catholic World News. The independent Catholic news service said the sarcophagus was discovered during excavations in 2002 and 2003 around the basilica in south Rome. Vatican experts soon will make a public announcement of their discovery, Catholic World News said. "The tomb that we discovered is the one that the popes and the Emperor Theodosius [A.D. 379- 395] saved and presented to the whole world as being the tomb of the apostle," Filippi said. The excavation was conducted after the administrator of St. Paul's basilica, Archbishop Francesco Gioia, received inquiries about the location of St. Paul's tomb from thousands of pilgrims visiting during the Jubilee Year of 2000. An initial survey of the basilica enabled archeologists to reconstruct the 4th century building's original shape. The Vatican team found the sarcophagus during a second excavation under the basilica's main altar. Under the altar, a marble plaque is visible, dating to the 4th century, bearing the inscription "Apostle Paul, martyr." Surprisingly, said Filippi, "nobody ever thought to look behind that plaque," where the Vatican team found the sarcophagus. Filippi said the tomb should not be opened merely to satisfy curiosity as to whether Paul's remains still are there. He has no doubt, however, Paul was buried on the site, "because this basilica was the object of pilgrimages by emperors; people from all around the world came to venerate him, having faith that he was present in this basilica." Filippi said church officials must now decide whether to order further excavation to make the sarcophagus more visible. The Bible does not state how Paul died. Many scholars believe he was beheaded in Rome in about the A.D. mid-60s during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero.

Anthropologist Found to be a Liar: 'Neanderthal' Bones are Fakes

2005-02-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

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A flamboyant anthropology professor, whose work had been cited as evidence Neanderthal man once lived in Northern Europe, has resigned after a German university panel ruled he fabricated data and plagiarized the works of his colleagues. Reiner Protsch von Zieten, a Frankfurt university panel ruled, lied about the age of human skulls, dating them tens of thousands of years old, even though they were much younger, reports Deutsche Welle. "The commission finds that Prof. Protsch has forged and manipulated scientific facts over the past 30 years," the university said of the widely recognized expert in carbon data in a prepared statement. Protsch's work first came under suspicion last year during a routine investigation of German prehistoric remains by two other anthropologists. "We had decided to subject many of these finds to modern techniques to check their authenticity so we sent them to Oxford [University] for testing," one of the researchers told The Sunday Telegraph. "It was a routine examination and in no way an attempt to discredit Prof. von Zieten." In their report, they called Protsch's 30 years of work a "dating disaster." Among their findings was an age of only 3,300 years for the female "Bischof-Speyer" skeleton, found with unusually good teeth in Northern Germany, that Protsch dated to 21,300 years. Another dating error was identified for a skull found near Paderborn, Germany, that Protsch dated at 27,400 years old. It was believed to be the oldest human remain found in the region until the Oxford investigations indicated it belonged to an elderly man who died in 1750. The Herne anthropological museum, which owned the Paderborn skull, did its own tests following the unsettling results. "We had the skull cut open and it still smelt," said the museum's director. "We are naturally very disappointed." Protsch, known for his love of Cuban cigars and Porsches, did not comment on the commission's findings, but in January he told the Frankfurter Neue Presse, "This was a court of inquisition. They don't have a single piece of hard evidence against me." The fallout from Protsch's false dating of northern European bone finds is only beginning. Chris Stringer, a Stone Age specialist and head of human origins at London's Natural History Museum, said: "What was considered a major piece of evidence showing that the Neanderthals once lived in northern Europe has fallen by the wayside. We are having to rewrite prehistory." "Anthropology now has to revise its picture of modern man between 40,000 and 10,000 B.C.," added Thomas Terberger, an archaeologist at the University of Greifswald. Frankfurt University's president, Rudolf Steinberg, apologized for the university's failure to curb Protsch's misconduct for decades. "A lot of people looked the other way," he said.

And the Skeptics Fell Silent: Daniel's 70 Weeks

2005-02-20T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Debate of Daniel's 70 Weeks

Star Has Two Different Meanings in the Bible: The Truth about Lucifer's Fall

2005-02-18T00:41:00.000-08:00

A star doesn't always mean an astronomical star when it is mentioned in the Bible. The best known reference to this is in John's vision of Christ in the Revelation, where the Lord is holding the seven stars in His hand, and these are declared to be His messengers to the churches (Revelation 1:16,20). Another example of this is when the Lord is speaking to Job and asking him where he was when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth: "Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:6,7).

Now let's determine where Satan was when he rebelled.

Remember Christ said: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18)

Although it is in the past tense, this phrase could be a prophecy of something that has not yet taken place. Since it is part of the ultimate plan of God it can be expressed as having already been completed. A good example of this is the verse about believers,"whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son (past tense for past event). Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called (past tense for a past event); and whom he called them he also justified (past tense for a event that was once future for believers and is now past, but which is yet future for those who shall be saved in days to come); and whom he justified he also glorified (past tense for an event that is future)" (Romans 8:29,30)

Much later the Lord spoke again of this removal of Satan from the heavenly sphere, saying: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31)

Why would we consider these verses prophecies? Because remember Satan went before the Lord in the beginning of Job. If he had been cast out and barred from heaven he would not have been able to approach the Lord's throne. I understand this all to mean that his rebellion took place on earth and that it began when Lucifer made the statement that he would ascend into heaven. Remember too that Paul still referred to Satan after the resurrection as 'the prince of this world'.

Ezekiel chapter 28 describes Satan before his fall,"I have set thee so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God." Checking with a concordance will tell you that the mountain of God is a symbol of the governance of God. Satan ruled over the entire earth. When Satan tempted our Lord Jesus Christ we read,"All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it" (Luke 4:6)

God had placed him in the position of ruler which he exercised and later he wished to initiate from himself rather than giving the glory to God. I have two points to make from this information. First, now the passages in Revelation about the powers of the heavens being shaken and stars falling from the heavens make perfect sense. Demons will come upon this earth. They will fall from the heavens. They are already here and have been here for some time but they will be completely banished from heaven at the time of the end. Job clearly shows that Satan still had access to heaven in Job's time. This office of Satan's as prince of this world has not yet been taken from him , he shall rein until he is put under the feet of Christ. The earth will be the scene of the final triuph of Christ and His Church and the scene of Satan's final defeat. I invite you to research this for yourself. Most of this information I learned from reading The Invisible War by Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. It is well written and comes straight from the scriptures. I do believe however that the view that Satan was cast from heaven when Jesus paid for our sins on the cross could be true as well. I cannot say for sure. The important thing is to have faith in Christ for the victory is our Lord's. The most helpful thing to glean from this is that star often means angel in the Bible and can refer to fallen angels as well. I hope this post was helpful.

Archeologist unearths biblical controversy

2005-01-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

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Canadian archeologist Russell Adams's interest is in Bronze Age and Iron Age copper production. He never intended to walk into archeology's vicious debate over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament -- a conflict likened by one historian to a pack of feral canines at each other's throats. Yet by coincidence, Prof. Adams of Hamilton's McMaster University says, he and an international team of colleagues fit into place a significant piece of the puzzle of human history in the Middle East -- unearthing information that points to the existence of the Bible's vilified Kingdom of Edom at precisely the time the Bible says it existed, and contradicting widespread academic belief that it did not come into being until 200 years later. Their findings mean that those scholars convinced that the Hebrew Old Testament is at best a compendium of revisionist, fragmented history, mixed with folklore and theology, and at worst a piece of outright propaganda, likely will have to apply the brakes to their thinking. Because, if the little bit of the Old Testament's narrative that Prof. Adams and his colleagues have looked at is true, other bits could be true as well. References to the Kingdom of Edom -- almost none of them complimentary -- are woven through the Old Testament. It existed in what is today southern Jordan, next door to Israel, and the relationship between the biblical Edomites and Israelites was one of unrelenting hostility and warfare. The team led by Prof. Adams, Thomas Levy of the University of California at San Diego and Mohammad Najjar of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities was investigating copper mining and smelting at a site called Khirbat en-Nahas, by far the largest copper-production site in the region. They applied high-precision radiocarbon-dating methods to some of their finds, and as they say in the British journal Antiquities, "The results were spectacular." They firmly established that occupation of the site began in the 11th century BC and a monumental fortress was built in the 10th century BC, supporting the argument for existence of an Edomite state at least 200 years earlier than had been assumed. What is particularly exciting about their find is that it implies the existence of an Edomite state at the time the Bible says King David and his son Solomon ruled over a powerful united kingdom of Israel and Judah. It is the historical accuracy -- the very existence of this united kingdom and the might and splendour of David and Solomon, as well as the existence of surrounding kingdoms -- that lies at the heart of the archeological dispute. Those scholars known as minimalists argue that what is known as "state formation" -- the emergence of regional governments and kings -- did not take place in the area until the imperialistic expansion of the Assyrian empire in the 8th century BC, so David and Solomon, rather than being mighty monarchs, were mere petty chieftains. And because everything that takes place in the Middle East inevitably is political, the minimalist argument is seen as weakening modern Israel's claim to Palestine. In the biblical narrative, the Edomites are the descendents of Esau, whose blessing from his father, Isaac, was stolen by his younger brother, Jacob, ancestor of the Israelites. (Fans of the British satirical-comedy group Beyond the Fringe will recall how Jacob pulled off the theft by presenting himself as the hirsute Esau to their blind father, saying in an aside: "My brother Esau is an hairy man, but I am a smooth man.") The Edomites are lambasted in the Bible for refusing to let the Israelites rest on their land as they flee Egypt. God declares obscurely: "Over Edom will I cast out my shoe." The Israelites grumble enviously that there were kings of Edom before there were kings of Israel -- a highly significant passage because it implies that state formation occurred in Edom before it happened in Israel. Finally, there is the biblical account of David's war against the Edomites, in which David and his general, Joab, kill 18,000 Edomites and establish military control over them by "putting garrisons throughout all Edom." Irish scholar John Bartlett, one of the world's great experts on the Edomites, dates the battle at 990 to 980 BC, precisely when Prof. Adams and his colleagues date the fortress. Says Prof. Adams: "This battle between the Israelites and the Edomites, although not possible to document, is typical of the sort of border conflicts between Iron Age states. And the evidence of our new dates at least proves that it may, in fact, be possible to place the Edomites in the 10th century [BC] or earlier, which now supports the chronology of the biblical accounts. "It is intriguing that at Khirbat en-Nahas, our large Iron Age fort is dated to just this period, suggesting conflict as a central concern even at a remote copper-production site." He concludes: "We're not out to prove the Bible right or wrong. We're not trying to be controversial. We're just trying to be good anthropologists and scientists, and tell the story of our archeological site."

Turin Shroud Older Than Thought

2005-01-26T13:34:00.000-08:00

Source Article

The Shroud of Turin, the piece of linen long believed to have been wrapped around Jesus's body after the crucifixion, is much older than the date suggested by radiocarbon tests, according to new microchemical research. Published in the current issue of Thermochimica Acta, a chemistry peer- reviewed scientific journal, the study dismisses the results of the 1988 carbon-14 dating. At that time, three reputable laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Ariz., concluded that the cloth on which the smudged outline of the body of a man is indelibly impressed, was a medieval fake dating from 1260 to 1390, and not the burial cloth wrapped around the body of Christ. "As unlikely as it seems, the sample used to test the age of the shroud in 1988 was taken from a rewoven area of the shroud. Indeed, the patch was very carefully made. The yarn has the same twist as the main part of the cloth, and it was stained to match the color," Raymond Rogers, a retired chemist from Los Alamos National Laboratories and former member of the STURP team of American scientists that examined the Shroud in 1978, told Discovery News. The presence of a patch on the shroud doesn't come as a surprise. The linen cloth has survived several blazes since its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including a church fire in 1532. Badly damaged, it was then restored by nuns who patched burn holes and stitched the shroud to a reinforcing cloth that is now known as the Holland cloth. In his study, Rogers analyzed and compared the radiocarbon sample with other samples from the controversial cloth. "As part of the STURP research project, I took 32 adhesive-tape samples from all areas of the shroud in 1978, including some patches and the Holland cloth. I also obtained the authentic samples used in the radiocarbon dating," Rogers said. It emerged that the radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the shroud, Rogers said. "The radiocarbon sample had been dyed, most likely to match the color of the older, sepia-colored cloth. The sample was dyed using a technology that began to appear in Italy about the time the Crusaders' last bastion fell to the Mameluke Turks in 1291. "The radiocarbon sample cannot be older than about 1290, agreeing with the age determined by carbon-14 dating in 1988. However, the Shroud itself is actually much older," said Rogers. Evidence came from microchemical tests that revealed the presence of vanillin in the radiocarbon sample and in the Holland cloth, but not in the rest of the shroud. Produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, a chemical compound of plant material including flax, vanillin decreases and disappears with time. It is easily detected on medieval linens, but cannot be found in the very old ones, such as the wrappings of the Dead Sea scrolls. "A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests that the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old," Rogers wrote. According to Tom D'Muhala, the president of the American Shroud of Turin Association for Research, the new chemical tests produced "conclusive evidence." "They indicate that the linen Shroud is actually very old — much older than the published 1988 radiocarbon date," D'Muhala said. Shroud History Scientific interest in linen cloth began in 1898, when it was photographed by lawyer Secondo Pia. The negatives revealed the image of a bearded man with pierced wrists and feet and a bloodstained head. In 1988, the Vatican approved carbon-dating tests. Three reputable laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Ariz., concluded that the shroud was medieval, dating from 1260 to 1390, and not a burial cloth wrapped around the body of Christ. But since then a growing sense that the radiocarbon dating might have had substantial flaws emerged among shroud scholars. The history of the cloth has been steeped in mystery. It has survived several blazes since its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including a mysterious fire at Turin Cathedral in 1997. Kept rolled up in a silver casket, it has been on display only five times in the past century. When it last went on display in 2000, more than three million people saw it. The next display will be in 2025.

Anti-Christ, the Beast, 666, and Javier Solana's EU

2005-01-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

I went on a trip to Virginia at the end of December and only returned to Washington last week. I really hit it off with one of my wife's cousins. We discussed Bible prophecy and organized religion in general. He's led me to some interesting conclusions. I'm going to list some very important information that needs to get spread around. All of what I am listing here comes from Fulfilled Prophecy.com. It is the best prophecy website on the internet in my opinion and you should bookmark it and visit it frequently.

- The Unreported News -_
Events are unraveling in Europe and Israel that appear to be major fulfillments of prophecy, and some nobody has noticed!

1992 Israel began saying "Peace and safety" by voting for Yitzhak Rabin and by beginning to trade land for peace. This important, overlooked sign signaled the soon coming of the Antichrist and his false seven-year agreement (1 Thess. 5:3, Daniel 9:27).

1995 A 10-nation military alliance appeared in Europe. According to Bible prophecy, if the Antichrist was on his way, this 10-nation alliance had to come first. And, it did (Daniel 7:7).
The 10 nations here

1999 The first Mr. Europe, Javier Solana, appeared on the scene to oversee the EU's foreign and security policy. The same year he also became head over the 10-nation alliance (Daniel 7:8).
2000 The 10-nation alliance made themselves the official military wing of the EU and the new Mr. Europe was given emergency powers. And the most shocking part ... this was all done with the Western European Union's Assembly Recommendation 666!
See Recommendation 666 here

2004 The rotating six-month presidency is to be replaced and the EU's foreign policy given entirely to one person - possibly Solana.

06-29-2004 Javier Solana is approved as the EU's first, super Foreign Minister.

Discovered later:

1998 Javier Solana's Office of High Representative was created by the EU heads in December of 1998 and, out of over 1100 documents, this document's number was 666.

The Bible tells us, by two witnesses, a truth can be established (2 Cor. 13:1). Here we find two places where a new European leader's rise is associated with the number 666.

You should go here and read through the entire post. As a Summary, there are 3 branches of government in the EU. They are the Parliament, Commission, and Council. The members of Parliment are elected, but the Parliment actually has the least power of the three. Solana doesn't seem to be involved in the Parliment Solana currently is the head of the Counsil, which has most of the decision making authority in the EU. He also heads the department within the Counsil that controls Security and Defence (the military). The power and decision making in this department actually comes from the 10 nation WEU Permanent Council, which Solana also runs. When Solana is appointed as Foreign Minister he will also have a very powerful position in the third branch, the Commision. He will be VP and in charge of all foreign affairs for the EU. Correct me if I'm wrong here Herb, but as a comparison, it seems to me that Solana has about the same power in the EU as one would have if we combined all of the US positions listed below:

Secretary of State, Colin Powell
Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld
National Security Advisor, Dr. Condoleezza Rice
Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge
Speaker of the House (Congress), Dennis Hastert (very powerful but anonymous position) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard B. Myers
Director of Central Intelligence, George J. Tenet
Chairman Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft

And possible a few others. Most of the data above was collected from europa.eu.int/index_en.htmAlso see assembly-weu.itnetwork.fr...ation.html for a VERY interesting overview of Solana. And of course www.whitehouse.gov

Also of note: US equivalent of head of NASA -- European Space Agency is also under Solana's power; and Commander in Chief! Solana has the EU military as well as foreign policy!

What Have We Done?

2005-01-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

All I can say for sure is that I agree with this guy completely. I haven't felt called to go to church for a long time because of the corruption. I love the Lord Yeshua and I've felt troubled in my spirit everytime I've stepped into a church for the past couple of years.

http://www.whathavewedone.org/index.htm

Just go there now. Click the link or copy and paste into your browser. It's a great wake-up call. Instead of giving our money to these churches we should be giving to Gospel for Asia or Farms International and other ministries that actually use the money wisely for our Lord and not for selfish reasons.

Another Crack in Evolution: They're All Homo Sapiens

2005-01-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

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It is one of the best-known stories in science: the evolution of mankind from ape-like creatures to modern humans via knuckle-grazing cave-dwellers. Now it has been blown apart by the first comprehensive study of all the fossils, which has revealed that they are probably all variants of Homo sapiens. The discovery comes as fossil-hunters in Indonesia continue to defend claims to have found yet another new species of human, dubbed "Hobbit Man". If true, the diminutive creature would join such famous specimens as Lucy, Java Man and the Neanderthals in the complex family tree of mankind. The findings have significant implications for the often bitter debates between fossil-hunters about the significance of their finds. While they no longer bicker over the so-called "Missing Link" - the now-derided idea of a creature linking humans to chimpanzees - experts continue to argue over the relationship between Australopithecines and early humans, and between Neanderthals and modern humans. The number of human species claimed by fossil-hunters now stands at around 10, while the total number of human-like species exceeds 50. Such claims have long been based on supposedly significant differences in sizes and shapes of fossil bones. Now they have all been thrown into doubt by research showing that the differences lie within the range expected for just a single species. Professor Maciej Henneberg, of the University of Adelaide, a world authority on fossil human anatomy, made the discovery after analysing the skull sizes and estimated body weights for all of the 200 identified specimens of human-like fossils known as hominims. These span the entire history of humans, from the emergence of so-called Australopithecines with an upright stance more than four million years ago to neolithic modern humans from around 10,000 years ago. Prof Henneberg found that the fossils show clear evidence of evolution, with substantial increases in both skull sizes and body-weight. However, he also found that the fossils show no evidence of being anything other than a single species which had grown bigger and smarter over time. According to Prof Henneberg, the much-vaunted differences in fossil size used to identify "new" species all lie within the normal range expected for one species. Plotted out as a graph, they form the classic bell-shaped curve found using data from modern humans. Reporting his findings in the current issue of the Journal of Comparative Human Biology, Prof Henneberg concludes: "All hominims appear to be a single gradually evolving lineage containing only one species at each point in time." The findings have big implications for the often bitter debates between fossil-hunters about the significance of their finds. Experts have long bickered over the relationship between Australopithecines and early humans, and between Neanderthals and modern humans. Prof Henneberg has said that the new results suggest such disputes are meaningless, as they ignore the possibility of huge differences within the same species. He said they also raise doubts about the reliability of bones in identifying new human species: "There is no precise way in which we can test whether Julius Caesar and Princess Diana were members of the same species of Homo sapiens". According to Prof Henneberg, the study highlights the scant evidence for so many of the claimed new species of human. "Considering that there are only about 200 specimens in total, if these really do represent ten different species, that makes an average of just 20 specimens per species". He added that only a single skull had been found for the "Hobbit Man" of Indonesia. Other authorities hailed Prof Henneberg's findings as a much-needed reality check. "Clearly there is a need to be more aware of the possibility of variation - but that is not the inclination today," said Geoffrey Harrison, emeritus professor of biological anthropology at the University of Oxford. "It has been a problem because the discoverers have usually put so much effort into finding the evidence, so they want it to be important". Professor Chris Stringer, a leading expert on human fossils at the Natural History Museum, London, said even Neanderthals were not significantly different in skull or body size from modern humans. However, he added that they do differ in other details, such as inner ear bones. He said: "The argument they are a different species is, of course, only a hypothesis, but comparisons of skull shape published recently certainly show they are as different from us as monkeys and apes are different from each other". According to Prof Henneberg, there are fewer than 30 examples of Neanderthals on which to base any conclusions. What evidence there is, however, is consistent with Neanderthals being from the same species as modern humans. He added that the never-ending announcements of new species said more about those making the claims than about human evolution. "The problem is there are far more palaeontologists than fossil specimens".

The Return of the Jesus of Islam

2004-12-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

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I found that there is a prophesy in Islam that goes like this. It says that, in the last days, Jesus (as a prophet and not the Son of God) will return to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, set it up as His capital to rule the world, Islam will be His religion, and He will give the Muslims an order to kill off all the remaining or remnant of the Christians and Jews which refuse to worship Allah. The prophesy says that the Muslims will ruthlessly hunt down and kill off all the remaining Christians and Jews establishing Islam as the only religion of the world. Jesus will rule the world with his one-world government and church.Muslims are eagerly looking forward to this coming of their Jesus, Him giving them the order to kill off the remnant of the Christians and Jews, and them killing off the remnant of the Christians and Jews. As a matter of fact, they are working towards doing that now.Interestingly, the Bible predicts the exact same event from the opposite perspective for the exact same time in history. The Bible says that a man will gain control of the one-world government with the aid of the one-world church, seize control of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, declare himself to be Jesus, and wage war against and attempt to kill the remnant of the Christians and Jews. The big difference is that the Bible doesn't call this man Jesus, it calls him the Antichrist.This interesting prophesy and a number of other things I learned while studying the Koran and Islam have some interesting implications for end times prophesy. Keeping this in mind, there is a misconception I realized while reading the Koran which I must clear up.In the Old Testament of the Bible there is a prophesy about the City of Babylon which says Babylon will be destroyed and never rebuilt. The scholars and experts of Biblical prophesy assumed that this prophesy was fulfilled with the past destruction of Babylon. But Saddam Hussein has rebuilt a large portion of the City of Babylon, is currently building more of it, regularly holds celebrations in it, and, today, people live, work, and play in the City of Babylon. Therefore, it is not possible that the fulfillment of this prophesy is in the past and it must be in the future.This is very significant for understanding Bible prophesy because the assumption that the final destruction of Babylon had already occurred, has caused us to assume that the prophesy concerning the destruction of Babylon in the Book of Revelation during the end times was to be taken figuratively and not litteraly. Obviously, that assumption is wrong and we must now read these prophesies literally and as a thing of the future. You will see that this will be significant in understanding the fulfillment of future prophesies in relation to what I have learned about Islam.Islam And ProphesyFor years, I have wondered what could possibly cause the war of the Second Horseman of The Apocalypse or the second Seal in the Book of Revelation. It describes a global war which will occur suddenly and massively. It is very unlikely this could be caused by social unrest, nations waging war, or any other possible event I could imagine because it would take a huge number of troops or people acting simultaneously for the same cause.But, with a warrior religion, like Islam, with more than 1.6 billion people spread around the world, this would easily be possible. If only 25% of the Muslims in the world were to stand up at the same time as a global army, that would be an army of over 400 million soldiers. Their army would be almost twice the size of the Chinese Army of only 200 million and almost 200 times the size of the US military. In the US alone, there are over 16 million Muslims which would give them a military presence of at least 4 million soldiers with increasing numbers of them being armed with weapons purchased from their ally, China, with US drug money. Remember that this is a very conservative estimate based on only 25% of Muslims. In Israel, Muslim women are starting to participate in the fighting and, in Afgahnastan, children of less than 10 years of age have fired weapons in anger. It should only be common sense that a warrior religion of this size could easily raise an army of one billion people. That would be one out of every six people in the world. Therefore, I believe the following events will occur.First, it must be understood that the Battle of Ezekiel 38 & 39 will happen prior to the Rapture and the beginning of the Tribulation. This will permit Israel to expand its borders to the prophesied extremes of from the Euphrates River to the River of Egypt and east of the River Jordan. This will provide Israel with the protected borders necessary for the prophesies to be fulfilled.Next, following the Rapture and at the very beginning of the Tribulation, the Muslims will realize that most of the Christians and the Messianic Jews have disappeared. They will make a unified and concerted global (Rev 6:2) effort which will result in them killing off almost everyone who is not a Muslim and will not convert to Islam and begin a global effort to exterminate the remaining Christians and Jews outside of Israel(Rev 7:9). They will conquer everything from the Euphrates River west to the Pacific Ocean excluding Israel.The Bible says this war(Rev 6:2), the resulting famine(Rev 6:5), and the resulting epidemics (Rev 6:7) will kill one fourth of the people in the world(Rev 6:8). If you assume that there will be six billion people in the world following the Rapture, this means that the war and its after math will kill off 1.5 billion people globally. This will only leave 4.5 billion people. Each Muslim soldier would only need to kill a little more than one person to achieve this. Islam will bring to the world what it brought to Afganastan.The Bible also states that a meteor will kill all of the life from one third of the earth's surface (Rev 8:10) shortly after this war begins and before the Chinese begin their military campaign. For the remaining prophesies to occur, this would have to be North, Central, and South America. This would limit the Islamic empire to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, an area slightly larger than the old Roman Empire. The Muslims will be the clay mingled with the iron in the toes of the figure for Nebuchadnezzar's vision in the second chapter of the Book of Daniel.This death toll would constitute slightly less than one billion people and bring the standing global population to about 3.5 to 4 billion people if this happened today.Shortly after this military action begins, Islam's number one ally, China will move militarily to wipe out the people in Asian countries from the Pacific Ocean west to the Euphrates River and will kill one third of the remaining global population (Rev 9:13)which will be a little over one billion people. This will leave almost three billion people in the world, a little less than two billion Muslims, about one billion Chinese, and a few million people in Israel.Islam has used its great oil wealth to purchase the controlling interest in many of the largest businesses in Europe, the US, and the rest of the world including much of the media. They already have the largest and fastest growing religion in the world. This global Islamic war will give Islam and China control over the world government and its military, it will be the world religion, and it will control the global economy.The City of Babylon is very important to Muslim Arabs because it reminds them of a time when the world was ruled from the most famous city in the world in an Arab country. It would only be natural for them to establish the already existing City of Babylon as their military, political, economic, and religious capital of the world which will fulfill the prophesies in the Book of Revelation concerning Babylon.The Bible says they will and that, shortly before the middle of the Tribulation, God will destroy the City of Babylon (Rev 18). Then the Bible says that a man (Rev 13) will gain power of the global government with the aid of his prophet, break his treaty with Israel, capture Jerusalem and establish it as his global capital, establish the Temple on the Temple Mount as the center for the world religion, declare himself to be Jesus, and begin waging war on the remnant of the Jews and Christians along with the two witnesses (Rev 11:3)of the Bible. It is at this point that the Bible and Koran agree and this man will be the Jesus of Islam.After this point, the Bible takes a different course from Islam and says that the remnant of God's people will flee into the wilderness where the Jesus of Islam will wage war against them for the last half of the Tribulation.According to the Bible, some time during this period, the Jesus of Islam will capture God's two witnesses (Rev 11:7), put them to death on the streets of Jerusalem, they will be raised from the dead 3.5 days later, a great earth quake will kill 7,000 in Jerusalem an hour later, the remaining Jews will realize that Jesus is the Messiah, revolt, and chase the Jesus of Islam out of Israel.Of course this will infuriate the Jesus of Islam and all of Islam. The Bible says the Jesus of Islam will gather his armies from around the world into the valley of Megiddo (Rev 14:14)to wage a final war against Israel. They will line up from west to east in the valley with the intentions of marching through Israel and murdering every one they can find to make sure they don't miss any one.At this point, the Bible says the Jesus of the Bible will return (Rev 19), capture the Jesus of Islam and his Muslim prophet, cast them into the Lake of Fire, destroy 100% of the Muslim and Chinese armies, and set up His kingdom where He will rule the world peacefully from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.After everything I have learned from reading the Bible, the Koran, and studying Islam, I believe that Islam is the one world church, they will rule the world as they have been trying to do for 1,300 years, and the Jesus of Islam will rule from Jerusalem and wage war against the remnant of God's people.But...Rev 19:11 - "And I saw heaven opened and, behold, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war."The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Famed Atheist Turns Toward God Due To Evidence

2004-12-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Christian apologist Gary Habermas had just finished debating noted British atheist Antony Flew about the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The two friends rode an elevator together as they left the Californian university where the debate was held in January 2002. As Habermas exited the elevator, he extended his hand through the open door. "Tony," he said, "this is it for now. I enjoyed talking with you. When you become a Christian, I want to be the first one to know."

Flew laughed and responded, "I think you deserve that right."

The doors closed.

Most observers of the debate never thought that Flew would take steps toward Christianity. The former professor at Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele and Reading universities in Britain had argued against the existence of God for more than 50 years, publishing such books as "Atheistic Humanism" and "Darwinian Evolution."

But in December 2004 the unexpected happened when Flew took a step toward Christianity, announcing that scientific evidence led him to a belief in God.

Habermas was among the first people he told.

Habermas, chairman of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., had known that Flew was reconsidering his position since the fall of 2000 when Flew sent Habermas a letter in which the atheist acknowledged the strength of arguments for theism and Christianity.

"In September 2000, that's about the earliest indication that I had that he was changing," Habermas said in an interview with Baptist Press. "He wrote me a long letter, quite an incredible letter, where at several points he conceded the evidence for [theism and Christianity]."

When Habermas received the letter, he knew something was happening in Flew's life.

"I distinctly remember reading that letter when it came in the mail and thinking, 'Wow, something huge is happening with this guy,'" Habermas said.

Over a period of three years the two scholars corresponded about God. By January 2003 Flew began considering arguments from the "intelligent design" movement and was on the verge of belief in God.

Intelligent design is a theory arguing that some features of the natural world are best explained as the products of an intelligent cause rather than naturalistic evolution.

"He told me he was really rethinking theism and had corresponded with [naturalistic scientist Richard] Dawkins and was putting the ID arguments up against what Dawkins was saying and trying to compare the arguments," Habermas said. "And he was going back and forth as to whether he should be a theist or not."

By early 2004, Flew completed his transition to theism and indicated his change of mind to Habermas in a telephone conversation.

When media reports revealed Flew's belief in God in December 2004, some skeptics argued that the former atheist had changed his mind suddenly. But Habermas said such allegations are clearly incorrect in light of the four-year dialogue he had with Flew.

"The implications that he's just recently arrived at theism ... and that he hasn't had time to think through this aren't correct," Habermas said. "The first sign that I've seen of him changing goes back to the fall of 2000. So he's been thinking about these things for four years."

Flew currently holds a position known as deism -- the belief that God created the universe but is not actively involved in people's lives today, Habermas said. Because deism is traditionally a "tenuous" position, Flew could move closer to traditional Christianity in the days ahead, he said.

"Deism is a very tenuous position, and deistic belief is a short-lived movement in the history of philosophy over the last few centuries," Habermas said. "One reason deism is a troubled position is that it usually moves one way or the other."

Flew could revert back to atheism, Habermas noted. "Still, he has made a number of statements to me indicating that he is open, even to revelation," Habermas said.

"Three weeks ago I received a letter from him where he said that he was rereading my arguments for the resurrection and was very impressed with them,'" he said.

Despite his interest in the resurrection, however, Flew remains far from belief in Christianity, Habermas said.

"He's told me on many occasions that he was impressed with the arguments for the resurrection ... and he says it's the best miracle claim in the history of religions," Habermas recounted. "So he's impressed with them. Enough to believe? I don't think so, certainly not right now."

The dialogue with Flew highlights the need for Christians to engage non-believers in meaningful, caring friendships, Habermas said. Christian scholars in particular should bear in mind the need to build relationships with non-believing scholars, he said.

There are "benefits of carrying on a genuine friendship with people who do not agree with you on things," Habermas said. "I mean a genuine friendship where you're there for them in season and out of season. You're there for them when they're having bad days. You can tell them things that are on your mind. ... It's not connected to whether the people convert or not."

Christians should rejoice that Flew has adopted a belief in God but remember that mere belief in God falls short of the belief in Jesus Christ that Scripture requires for eternal life, Habermas said.

"His deism provides no relief for dying because he doesn't believe in life after death," he said. "It's not ... an 81-year-old who is embracing God so that he can come out on the good side when he dies. If you said that to him, he would say, 'I'm just going where the evidence leads.'"

An interview conducted by Habermas exploring Flew's conversion to belief in God will be published in the winter 2004 issue of Philosophia Christi, the journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.

Evidence of Jesus: Siloam Pool Found In Jerusalem

2004-12-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

JERUSALEM - Archaeologists in Jerusalem have identified the remains of the Siloam Pool, where the Bible says Jesus miraculously cured a man's blindness, researchers said Thursday — underlining a stirring link between the works of Jesus and ancient Jewish rituals.
The archaeologists are slowly digging out the pool, where water still runs, tucked away in what is now the Arab neighborhood of Silwan. It was used by Jews for ritual immersions for about 120 years until the year 70, when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple.

Many of Jesus' acts are directly linked to Jewish rituals, and the miracle of the blind man is an example. According to the Bible, the man was undergoing ritual immersion in the Siloam Pool for entry into the Temple compound, and Jesus used the occasion to cure his blindness.

In the last four months, archaeologists have revealed the pool's 50-yard (50-meter) length and a channel that brought in water from the Silwan spring. In the past week, a section of stone road that led from the pool to the Jewish Temple was uncovered."The moment that we revealed and discovered this four months ago, we were 100 percent sure it was the Siloam Pool," said archaeologist Eli Shukron.
"We know today that the Siloam Pool is connected to the Temple Mount. There is a road that connects the two elements. The entire system is clearer today," Shukron said.

Stephen Pean, a Bible scholar, said the pool's waters were considered so pristine they could purify even a leper.
Pean said Jesus likely chose to cure the blind man using the purest water available, because people with any disabilities were barred from the temple.
"The whole point is that people will not only be healed physically but also healed spiritually," he said. "This discovery helps bring the Gospel alive in the context of Jewish practice."

The archaeologists excavating the site are with the Israeli government's Antiquities Authority. They found biblical-era coins marked with ancient Jewish writing, along with pottery shardsand a stone bottle cork — helping them confirm the area was the Siloam Pool. The stone-lined pool has steps leading into it from all sides, said Ronny Reich, a University of Haifa archaeologist. One side of the pool, two corners, a part of the esplanade around it and the water channel leading to it have been uncovered, he said.
Jesus, according to the New Testament, put clay on a blind man's eyes and then sent him to wash them out in the pool's purifying waters, giving him sight.
Jews, who traditionally made three pilgrimages a year to Jerusalem, would immerse themselves in the Siloam Pool before heading down the stone pathway to the temple. They also used the pool for drinking water and camped around it.
"Jesus was a pilgrim in Jerusalem ... so this would be a natural place for him to be ... enjoying the water supply," Reich said.

The Newest Qumran Theory

2004-12-20T08:50:00.000-08:00

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Will a couple of renegade archeologists make us rethink everything we know about Qumran? He squinted his eyes against the strong desert sun, trying to make out the shades of gold in the dusty, shadowy hills around him. A gazelle sprinted in the distance. As tourists around him snapped pictures, he tried to imagine what life had been like there 2,000 years earlier, on the seemingly desolate plateau. "It is magnificently hot on the mountainside and the view is unbelievable," said Alexander, a Ukrainian immigrant, remembering his numerous visits to the Qumran archeological site on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, between Jericho and Ein Gedi. "But I come for spiritual nourishment." Like scores of others before him who have longed to feel a connection to the spiritual roots of the historical Holy Land, he has found yet another site that fulfills his longing. Sitting in the area that was described to him as the scroll-writing room, during a guided tour with a Christian group, he imagines a sect of ancient Jews engaged in holy work. And crossing into the room described as a house of prayer, he says he can almost see the roots of Christian spirituality coming to life in the wilderness. Since the first discovery of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls nearby in 1947 and the subsequent digs, Qumran has risen to mythological status among Jews, Christians, archeologists and biblical scholars around the world. According to the popular theories, the site was home to the Essenes, a monastic sect of Jews from the Second Temple period who lived a life of poverty, celibacy, prayer and isolation, and who scribed and hid the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls, which comprise the oldest known copies of the Hebrew Bible, are widely considered the most - or at least among the most - important archeological finds of the 20th century. The site, the scrolls and the Essenes have always been linked. For Jews, the mythology of the site arises from the hunger for knowledge about Second Temple writings and lifestyles. For Christians, the monastic lifestyle of the Essenes at Qumran is believed to have influenced early Christianity. Christian scholars are also interested in discovering the Second Temple period Jewish lifestyle and beliefs that created space for their religion to develop. Visiting the site, it is portrayed as the ruins of a mystical desert spiritual center, where tourists can learn about the history of the obscure sect and their hidden library of scrolls. But in scholarly circles, a storm is brewing, raising questions about the spiritual past of the site and its connection to some of the legends that have risen on its ashes. Did Essenes live at and scribe the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran? No, says a soon-to-be-released report. IN THE 1,936 years since the Romans destroyed the Dead Sea area settlements, many of the Qumran structures, including a pool, remained obscured by three-meter-high mounds of golden desert dust and debris. In January, sifting through the dirt in knee-high rubber boots, archeologists Dr. Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg were feeling giddy, though it was the last season of their 10-year dig at Qumran and they had yet to fully confirm their suspicions that history wasn't as it seemed. While a few theories have questioned the Qumran-Essene connection in recent years, scholars have long argued that the strongest testaments to the inhabitants' monastic lifestyle are austere, communal dwellings and 16 pools, long believed to be mikvaot, ritual purification baths. Ten years after beginning their own study of the site's structures, under the auspices of the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration, Magen, staff officer of archeology, and Peleg, district archeologist for east Samaria and the Jordan Valley, and their crew excavated their way down the steps of the site's last and largest pool yet to be uncovered. State-sponsored archeologists, they are among the renegades in the world of archeology: they have long been skeptical of prevailing theories that most of the pools were mikvaot and that the site was ever home to a monastic sect who penned the Dead Sea Scrolls. But during the dig earlier this year, as they reached the pool's bottom, Magen and Peleg say they found the most convincing proof yet to challenge the established Qumran theories. Though none of their findings have been released, a few early news reports in the Israeli and American media have charged Magen and Peleg with trying to prove that the Essenes did not write the Dead Sea Scrolls and that the Essenes were not ascetic but affluent. An exclusive copy of the report's 22-page summary obtained by The Jerusalem Post shows that many rumors are off-base. The archeologists' work does not describe the Essene lifestyle nor disprove their relationship to the scrolls. Peleg and Magen sat with the Post to go through all the points of their 110-page research paper, to be published this spring by Brown University archeologist Katharina Galor with Brill Academic Publishers, as part of a compendium on Qumran theories. The report doesn't comment much on the Essenes, it turns out, because no ascetics, including the Essenes, lived at Qumran, it says. The report also proposes a new theory on the structures and activities of the Qumran inhabitants that does not include copying religious texts or observing religious ceremonial rites. The authors maintain that they have disproved the site's connection to the scrolls and to the Essenes; and that this finding will reflect on the scrolls and perhaps on Second Temple Jewish history itself. AFTER 10 years of work at Qumran, when Magen and Peleg's crew reached the bottom layer of the large pool, they were stunned to uncover a previously unseen white sediment. The powder has turned out to be the most significant clue yet to the Qumran mystery, they say. "It was the most important thing ever found at Qumran: the bottom of the pool has some three tons of high-quality clay," Peleg told the Post. "We started to understand the site - there were no Essenes." Qumran in the Second Temple period was not much more than a small, dusty, muddy, and smoky pottery-industry work station, devoid of spirituality, according to the clay sediment in conjunction with their other findings, he says. The finding of "buckets and buckets" of burned dates also led the archeologists to confirm that the only other activity going on at Qumran was the production of date honey, stored in small ceramic vessels made there. Initially, to check that the powder was indeed viable clay, the archeologists threw the fine chalk-colored residue into a vat and added water. Then they delivered the clay to a potter and asked her to fire away. The potter gave the clay a quick thumbs-up. Her first vase adorns Magen's Jerusalem office, together with dozens of handmade drawings of Qumran artifacts. They are still running tests of the clay against the ancient Qumran pottery. A member of the first archeological team to dig Qumran in 1951, Dominican monk and archeologist Roland deVaux had suspected that pottery was made there, but had never succeeded in determining from where they would have had a supply of clay. Others, in his footsteps, would suggest that some of the Essenes were also potters on the side, making their own vessels. Several years earlier, the Essenes and the scrolls were linked to Qumran before any excavation ever got under way. This was because of the proximity of Qumran to the caves where the scrolls were found, and because Israeli archeologist Eliezer Sukenik and his team decoding the Dead Sea Scrolls quickly concluded that they were Essene documents. Scholars found back-up for this theory by interpreting the writings of the major regional historians of the time - Flavius Josephus, Pliny the Elder and Philo of Alexandria - all of whom mentioned a fully or semi-monastic sect of Jews, though Pliny was the only one to place them in a settlement on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. DeVaux, studying Qumran rather than the scrolls, was the first to announce with assuredness that Qumran was an Essene settlement for monastic life and scroll-writing. But he died in 1971, before his final work was finished. Much of his research was never published or even seen, causing some archeologists to remain suspicious over what remains until today filed away. After finding artifacts such as jewelry and precious glass at Qumran, "objects that are not suited to monks," say Peleg and Magen, they joined a chorus of other archeologists who have charged that what deVaux did and didn't report was biased. Chapel Hill archeologist Jody Magness followed up on deVaux's theories in recent years by comparing the large number of pottery vessels found at Qumran to the vessels found holding the scrolls, and concluded they were of shared origin. Theories linking Qumran, the Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls are accepted as truth or as a most-likely scenario in many scholarly circles, and have been used as the basis for tangent theories on Second Temple period Jewish history and early Christianity. Sukenik's son, Yigael Yadin, became one of the most famous Israeli archeologists through the first decades of the state and his support helped to publicize the Qumran theory. Yadin was famous for hunting down the scrolls from dealers around the world. Today, it is estimated that there are over 900. Still, conflicting analyses of the scrolls, of the ancient historians' accounts and of certain findings at Qumran have led to at least a dozen other counter-arguments. Earlier this year, archeologist Magen Broshi, former curator of the Shrine of the Book (Dead Sea Scrolls Museum) at Jerusalem's Israel Museum from 1964 to 1994, together with Bar-Ilan University archeologist Hanan Eshel, published in the US a compendium of 12 Qumran Theories (see box). Broshi has been a strong proponent of the Essenes theory and was the first to dub Qumran as the oldest monastery in the world. Peleg and Magen argue that the new report will challenge earlier Qumran theories. Of all 16 pools, only two were mikvaot, and Jewish law backs them up, the report concludes: "According to Halacha, a mikve can purify only when water collects without human or mechanical help, not from trickling on the ground and not led through channels." According to aerial dating, the pools were added onto original structures built in the First Temple period, or Iron Age, circa 700 BCE. The paper also deduces that until it was destroyed in the Babylonian conquest in 586 BCE, the first site was a military post - not fort - as it was the only place on the northwest shore that was protected from floods, and so could maintain a safe lookout. Rather than Nabatean, they hold that the fort was built by the Hasmonean Jannai family who conquered Samaria and the Jerusalem environs and built other such fortresses along the eastern borders of Judea against invading Nabateans. Because of the Roman conquest, the Hasmonean leaders had no need for army posts and the site, says Peleg, was transformed for practical civilian purposes. "After the Roman conquest, they started building canals and built seven more pools - there was one purpose: to collect clay for the pottery industry," he explains. "It was no mikve, but a sophisticated water system to collect water and clay; and to filter stone and debris. We realized that the water that came from the aqueduct took clay from the whole region and it would sink in the pools." As for Qumran being chosen for a monastery because it was isolated, Qumran was for its time fairly accessible, the archeologists argue. There were two donkey-accessible main roads, one directly to Jerusalem, and another to Jericho and on to Jerusalem. This was true for all the Dead Sea military forts. Neither the structures nor the remains support the monastery theory either, adds Peleg: "Essenes were supposed to have 200-300 members at Qumran, according to scholars. But if 200-300 ate twice a day and one meal a week was meat, during the 170 years (from 100 BC-68 CE) we guessed we'd have to find at least 100,000 remains of sheep or goats. But we found only 100," he says. "And where did they cook? These were not ovens but kilns. And where did they live? There were no rooms. Some said they lived in tents but, because of the rain, that would not have been possible. And others said they lived in caves, but because of animals - hyenas, foxes, leopards, etc. - that would not be possible. Also, the caves were made from soft [limestone] sediment that was sinking all the time, not rock. So we're talking only 20-30 inhabitants at a time. It was just a factory. Maybe they slept there in certain seasons." Others, until recently at digs undertaken this year, have suggested that the animal bones found in pottery vessels were burnt offerings, proof of the ritualistic lifestyle and ceremonial activities. But "all the animal bones that have been analyzed were cooked and not burnt as offerings," concludes the report. "It's a desert area and if you throw bones away, the animals would come. It makes sense that they were buried in the pottery," adds Peleg. The last point of contention between archeologists is the Qumran cemetery, where graves are built in a north-south configuration and all the opened graves dated to that period were male. This helped promote the theory that the inhabitants were ritualistic and lived apart from some Judean Jewish burial practices. But the authors document that such graves have also been found in Jerusalem and on the other side of the Dead Sea. THOUGH THE paper analyzes Qumran and not the Dead Sea Scrolls, the findings may indeed reveal something new about the scrolls and Jewish history, say the authors. "After 10 years of excavations, we have a new theory about the site and it reflects on the scrolls, the inhabitants, and many aspects and issues in the research of Qumran," says Peleg. "If the site is not Essene and they couldn't have written the scrolls at Qumran, where are the scrolls from?" The answer is easy, says Magen. Archeological finds all over the Judean desert show that Jews throughout the Roman conquest were fleeing towards the Dead Sea area and were bringing and hiding their valuables there. The fact that the scrolls were hidden or protected inside pottery that was identical to those found at Qumran doesn't mean the scrolls were written at Qumran, but that there was an abundance of pottery at Qumran that was able to serve those fleeing the Romans, he says. Scrolls dated to the same period were also found hidden at Masada. "The scrolls are religious texts, and like today you have the prayers of Sephardim, the Ashkenazim, the haredim - but they are the same books for all Jews," says Magen, explaining that Jews from groups around the country were hiding their sacred and sectarian texts. Of some 900 scrolls, some 25 percent are biblical texts, the oldest ever found and the only ones surviving the Second Temple period. The rest of the scrolls comprise Jewish literature and legend, psalms, commentaries, and analyses of legal, government, lifestyle and warfare philosophy. "Why are there 40 different documents of psalms?" asks Peleg. "Probably because they are from different areas. They are all from the same period as those found at Masada." This hypothesis, that the scrolls were hidden - not written - at Qumran, builds on the earlier theories of University of Chicago archeologist Norman Golb, who has argued that the site was not Essene and that the scrolls were probably the remains of Second Temple Jerusalem libraries. Considering that the texts are so diverse, that there are often numerous copies of the same text written in different styles, that some texts contradict each other, and taking into account the regional migration patterns during that period, Magen and Peleg say the natural conclusion is that the scrolls didn't come from one library or even from Jerusalem libraries alone, but from synagogues and libraries all over. As such, they constitute the broadest possible representation of Second Temple Jewish thought, and not just the Judaism of the Essenes, or of any one sect or geographical area. Many scholars have long held that there were three main sects of Jews in the Second Temple period: the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Essenes. Reconsidering that the scrolls are a broad representation of Judaism could support a theory that there were actually dozens of streams, the authors add. "The Essenes may have been one of several groups that wrote the scrolls." ONE THING is certain: debates questioning Qumran's connection to the Essenes and the scrolls stir a lot of passion. Certainly, if the latest theory is proven correct, tour guides and academics will have to revise their educational materials and itineraries. And tour companies, and even the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, could lose money, if Qumran's mystical draw evaporates. According to the Ministry of Tourism, 46,000 visitors passed through the site in 2003, and the site was "marketed to everyone." "If the intention is to get Jewish or Christian visitors, they are going to highlight different things," said a ministry spokesperson. In other words, Christian tourists learn about Christian interests and Jewish tourists learn about Jewish interests. But what if the only interest is archeological and not sacred? Still, there are larger questions for Jews, Christians and scholars. Christian institutions have long supported the Essene theory. They were the holders and translators of many of the first scrolls, have often subsidized their own digs and research, and some have argued that the Essene site may have been home to the first followers of Jesus and represents, together with the scrolls, the first link between Judaism and early Christianity. Others argue it was the precursor of Christian monastic life. "Why are people so passionate about Qumran? There is something linked to Christian identity, Jewish identity, but that's not scholarly," explains Dr. Emmanuelle Main, a visiting French scholar at the Hebrew University, specializing in the history of Judaism and early Christianity, and currently teaching about Qumran. "The point with Qumran for Christians is that Qumran and the scrolls are a package since they were discovered and for the first time we have a [Jewish] document which is not from rabbinical Judaism. Jesus was a Jew; that poses an identity problem for some Christians. The tendency until today of a few Christian scholars to want Qumran to be Essene is because they want it to be a pre-Christian community that is not 'so Jewish' and others even believe the Essenes were not Jewish. Some want to prove who was the 'Teacher of Righteousness' [mentioned but unnamed in the scrolls]. It's a bit difficult for some Christians to recognize that Christianity went out from Judaism," she says, explaining her concern that American fundamentalist Christians are behind unauthorized digs at Qumran to promote such theories. "But aside from Christian scholars who want to show the Christian connection, most Christian and Jewish scholars would agree. The point is not am I Jewish or Christian - I am Catholic - but the point is about methodology. It is hard to prove with methodology what something 'isn't.' As a whole, I think the Essene connection is the most likely hypothesis, but it is just a hypothesis. I tell my students, 'first deal with the facts and after with the hypothesis.' Now you are telling about a new theory but it will surely not be the last." "Beyond the scholarly research," she adds, "there is something here approaching the problem of the Jewish-Christian relationship." From Jewish archeologists, there is also skepticism regarding suggestions that the site wasn't Essene or something similar, and a consensus that the site has no Christian connection. "There are many reasons to repudiate these [Christian] theories, the most important of which is chronological: both paleographical and physical evidence (i.e. carbon dating) place the principal scrolls much earlier than the entrance of Christianity," writes Israeli archeologist Broshi. Sipping a cup of coffee in Jerusalem recently, contemplating rumors of the new theory, Broshi shakes his head and rolls his eyes. Talk of new theories is "rubbish," he says. "This theory is new because you had the feeling everything was exhausted and now people say this was a factory for producing pottery. But that is preposterous because the raw materials come from the environs of Jerusalem and there was not enough fuel to heat ovens up to 1,000 Celsius," he says. "If someone wanted to make pottery, they would have done it in Motza, where there were enough trees to use as fuel." "Not only that," he adds. "The market was far from Qumran and pottery is fragile; you would want to produce near the doorsteps of the buyer." Precious glass, stones or cosmetic cases should be dated to after 67 CE, when Qumran may have been taken over by the Roman garrison, he says. "It was booty of the soldiers or that of some Beduin squatters." As for who wrote the scrolls, he is equally adamant. "The overwhelming majority of scholars and all who deciphered, read, published and commented on the Dead Sea Scrolls believe that the backbone of the library is Essene, even if not everything was written at Qumran." As long as there remain several interpretations of the ancient historians' descriptions, the scrolls and the findings at Qumran, together with the question mark of findings that have never been published, there may not be an easy consensus in sight. " Their [Magen and Peleg's] data is revolutionary," says Galor, the upcoming Qumran compendium's editor. "But there will be some scholars who will have difficulty with the data." Nevertheless, the Israeli archeologists remain unmoved by criticism that is coming their way from every side. As the field of research continues to grow, the conclusions, say Magen and Peleg, are just the latest reflections of history, staring up from the bottom of a pool. Twelve theories Summarized from a 2004 list published by archeologists Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel, before the latest theory came to bat.

1. Qumran was an Essene monastery; the scrolls belonged to the Essenes.

2. The residents of Qumran were the first followers of Jesus, or the first Christians.

3. The scrolls are forged or the scholarship on the scrolls is fiction.

4. The writers of the scrolls and Qumran residents were Pharisees.

5. The writers of the scrolls were Karaites.

6. The writers of the scrolls were Sadducees.

7. The scroll owners and Qumran residents were anti-Roman zealots.

8. Qumran was an agricultural establishment, growing balsam at a villa rustica.

9. Qumran was a commercial center on a major trade route.

10. Qumran was a military fort with no relation to the scrolls.

11. Qumran was a papyrus processing plant.

12. There is insufficient data to determine who wrote and owned the scrolls.

The newest theory by Dr. Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg, that Qumran was a small pottery factory, is slated to be published by Brown University professor Katharina Galor and Brill Academic Publishers in the spring, part of a compendium on new Qumran theories.

The Shroud of Turin's Second Image: Further Evidence of Jesus's Resurrection

2004-12-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

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The shroud of turin was widely dismissed as a medieval forgery after radiocarbon tests in 1988 dated it to the 13th or 14th century. Now a growing body of evidence is calling for reassessment of the shroud, which is kept in Turin, Italy.
The latest item comes from the London-based Journal of Optics, published by the Institute of Physics. Two scientists from the University of Padua, Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo, report in the journal's April edition the discovery of a heretofore-undetected reverse image on the shroud. They say the smaller, fainter image on the back of the cloth depicts just the face and hands. And it's a superficial image, adhering only to the outermost fibers, just like the image on the front. "It is extremely difficult to make a fake with these features," Fanti writes.
'There is only one person it could've wrapped, even though science could never prove who it wrapped.' —Barrie Schwortz
The fact that their study was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal is significant and "a step in the right direction", says Barrie Schwortz, editor of Shroud.com. This is one of the most comprehensive of the many websites devoted to the phenomenon.
Schwortz, who is Jewish, was a shroud skeptic until he served as a photographer for the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP). The five-day project was the most intensive investigation in the history of the image. Besides providing the first public viewing of the media age, the project reinforced the shroud's cachet as a truly unique religious icon.
But then, 10 years later, came the much-heralded carbon-14 tests, confirmed by three laboratories, dating the cloth to the Middle Ages. "It was like dropping an h-bomb, and seeing how long it takes life to come back," says Gary Habermas, chair of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University, who has coauthored two books on the shroud.
Science vs. ScienceWhile most people concluded the shroud had been discredited, some significant questions have been raised. One of the main questions was whether the samples chosen came from an area of the shroud that was repaired.
"What if we can prove that the carbon dating didn't sample the original shroud but a rewoven area?" Schwortz asks.
He is awaiting word from another scientific journal, which is currently reviewing a paper on a chemical analysis by a STURP colleague. That colleague, Raymond Rogers, a retired fellow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, claims the carbon-14 tests were done on a dyed piece of medieval-era linen and cotton. He theorizes the cloth came from an undocumented repair of the shroud. On April 9, 2004, National Geographic suggested that the test samples came from a patch repaired during the Middle Ages.
"It's a case of science vs. science, not faith vs. science," Habermas says. But until they're officially discredited, he says the carbon-14 tests are still the most powerful objection to the validity of the shroud.
Paul Maier, a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University and an expert on early Christianity, says, "The paper trail doesn't go back far enough." The specific history of the shroud goes back only to the 14th century. "I tend to think something as important as this would've had more attestation [because] the early church was interested in hard objects [connected to the faith]."
Habermas still has doubts about the shroud. But he counters that there are a half-dozen images of Jesus on coins and paintings dating to around the sixth century that bear a remarkable congruency to the face on the shroud.
Some researchers have linked the shroud with reports of an image of Christ discovered hidden in the city walls of the Turkish city of Edessa in the sixth century. The image reportedly was later taken to Constantinople, where it disappeared in 1204.
Pollen from plants native to Turkey and Israel turned up on pieces of sticky tape that the late Swiss criminologist Max Frei had pressed onto the shroud. In recent years two Israeli scientists, Hebrew University botanist Avinoam Danin and Israel Antiquities Authority pollenologist Uri Baruch, said they confirmed Frei's pollen evidence. Danin also claimed to have found images of flowers, unique to Israel, in the shroud.
Quality MaterialSince STURP, the closest examination of the shroud occurred in 2002. A Swiss textile expert, Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, remounted the shroud. She replaced a backing dating from 1534.
Flury-Lemberg said she discovered a stitching pattern on the shroud similar to the hem of a cloth found in first-century Jewish tombs at Masada. She said the weave's three-to-one herringbone pattern was authentic for a first-century cloth of unusually fine quality.
Two Israeli archaeologists announced in 1997 that they believed the shroud could not be 2,000 years old because a garment could not last intact for 20 centuries (ct, Oct. 27, 1997, p. 100). About three years later, however, archaeologist Shimon Gibson discovered shroud-wrapped remains in a tomb in Jerusalem's Hinnom Valley. Although this shroud was in tatters, it was submitted to one of the same laboratories that handled the Turin shroud. Scientists dated Gibson's shroud to the first half of the first century, making the tomb occupant a contemporary of Jesus.
Gibson's discovery was largely unheralded. But late last year Gibson released the results of the tests, which showed the tomb occupant had died of Hansen's disease. The shroud had covered the oldest confirmed remains of a leprosy victim.
Like Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, the shroud opens a window into the hearts of those who view it. "There is only one person it could've wrapped, even though science could never prove who it wrapped," Schwortz says. "The biggest irony of my life is that I spend most of my time trying to convince Christians that the shroud is authentic. God does have a great sense of humor."
Gordon Govier is the host and executive producer of The Book & the Spade, a weekly radio program focusing on biblical archaeology.

Mathematics bombshell: God 'confirmed in Bible'

2004-12-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

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For a lot of people, the Bible and mathematics are dry subjects, but not for Edwin Sherman – he believes he's found how the two fit together. Sherman, founder of the Isaac Newton Bible Code Research Society and a professional mathematician, is convinced that the Hebrew Bible contains coded messages that are evidence of God's authorship of the Bible. His book, "Bible Code Bombshell: Compelling Scientific Evidence that God Authored the Bible," describes numerous examples of encoded phrases and sentences that are both lengthy and relevant to the text where they were found. In 1997, Michael Drosnin, a reporter, wrote "The Bible Codes" a book based on the work of Israeli mathematician Eli Rips that attained popularity, in part, from Drosnin's claim that future events, such as the Holocaust, Yitzak Rabin's assassination and the Gulf War were encoded in the Bible. Such claims invited attacks from skeptics like mathematician and physicist Dave Thomas, who wrote in 1997, "Hidden messages can be found anywhere provided you're willing to invest time and effort to harvest the vast field of probability. He, Drosnin, underestimates the power of chance combined with the brute force of computers. He says these messages are beyond the power of chance, and I've proven they are not." Another skeptic who was convinced he could prove Drosnin's messages to be fakes or statistical artifacts was Edwin Sherman. Sherman says he found most of Drosnin's examples trivial. "They were the simple kinds of words and phrases you might find if you searched for encoded messages in the Jerusalem phone book," he tells the Southern Oregon News. But he was intrigued enough to develop his own software and begin analyzing the Masoretic text of the Old Testament. "I was very skeptical about the whole thing," he says. "I started a project to try and show the whole thing was bogus." Instead, he says he found many examples of messages that went beyond simple words and phrases – and they often were contextually similar to the Biblical passage in which they were found. "Finding dozens of lengthy encoded messages on the same topic in one short section of text is about as likely as winning a one-in-a-million jackpot ten times in a row," he says. "Basically, it cannot happen by chance." The process of searching for encoded messages involves analysis of the Biblical Hebrew text in digital form. The Scriptures are encoded by removing all spaces between words and creating long strings of letters. According to Sherman, vowels are inserted in the strings of letters – the Hebrew alphabet lacks vowels – according to standard rules based on the sequence of consonants. Software then analyzes the strings in search of patterns based on equidistant letter sequences. "The shorter an expression, the easier it is to find," Sherman notes, "but when we find longer statements that have a connection to the actual biblical passage, and we find those longer statements with frequency, it leads us to believe that those statements were purposely implanted in the Bible by God." Some of the most compelling evidence of a mathematical pattern in the Hebrew text comes from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, a passage most Bible scholars see as messianic and which Christians have traditionally seen as prophecy about Jesus. Sherman developed a baseline using non-encoded Hebrew texts as his standard of comparison for determining whether the number of messages he found in a Biblical passage were statistically significant. Isaiah 53 proved to be a rich cluster of hidden messages, containing 42 encoded statements relating to Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, far more than his baseline predicted. As evidence, Sherman points to statements such as "Gushing from above, my mighty name arose upon Jesus, and the clouds rejoiced," "Dreadful day for Mary," "In his name as he commanded, Jesus is the way," "Resurrection of Jesus, he is risen indeed," and others that echo Isaiah's prophecy. It is the coherence between the hidden messages and the Hebrew text from which they are drawn that excites Sherman, who has no interest in predicting the future or looking for new "truths." The messages plucked from the text are more like divine fingerprints. "The Bible itself claims to be written by God, and when the subject of the encoded messages ties in so closely with the subject of the literal text, it has to make you take notice," says Sherman. "I just want ... to capture the curiosity of skeptics and cause them to consider the possibility that the Bible is not written by men, but by God, and should therefore be taken very seriously."

Why is the ACLU so afraid of Christmas?

2004-12-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a few reasons:

Evidence the Bible is of Supernatural Origin
The Shroud of Turin
The Origin of Life and the Suppression of Truth
Contacted
The Unexpected King
The Crutches
Gematria
Josephus
Extra Biblical Sources I
Extra Biblical Sources II

Merry Christmas!

Coin of Jesus found in Ancient Tiberias Excavation

2004-12-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

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(Communicated by Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld, director of the archeological excavation)
An unusual and important find was discovered at the archaeological excavation of Ancient Tiberias being carried out at a site on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.
To their great surprise, a group of young people who were participating in the dig discovered a rare coin. On the front of the coin can be seen a somewhat blurred image of Jesus, while on the back, the words in Greek "Jesus the Messiah King of Kings" are engraved very clearly. This coin is one of a series of coins that were issued in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) in celebration of the First Millennium of Jesus' birth.
It is not uncommon to find this coin in neighboring countries of Israel, such as Turkey, but this is the first time that it has ever been discovered at an Israeli archaeological site.
Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld, Director of this excavation, which is sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Brown University, in association with the City of Tiberias and the Israel Antiquities Authority, explains that this coin was brought to Tiberias by Christian pilgrims. Tiberias and the other sites around the Sea of Galilee were the desired destination of Christian pilgrims during the time of Muslim rule in Israel from the 7th to 11th centuries CE.
The Ancient Tiberias Excavation receives financial support from the Avihai Fund of Jerusalem whose aim is the deepening of knowledge of history on the part of the youth participating in the dig and the residents of Tiberias and its environs.
Mr. Zohar Oved, Mayor of Tiberias, who stands behind the efforts of this excavation, has stated that the finding of the Jesus coin on the shores of the Sea of Galilee will be a drawing point for tourists from all over the world.

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The Sign of the Coming of the Son of Man?

2004-12-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

Sign of the coming of the Son of man

Quite by "accident", I have come across some History on Halloween that was at one time more well known. While doing some research on the Star of David, I ran across some talmudic references to the Pleiades and the Flood of Noah. When I looked further for other sources about this, I found that there is more ancient legend about this connection and the "missing" star of the Pleiades, than all other myths or legends of all the other constellations combined. Evidently, historians would agree that some kind of change occured in the Pleiades at the time of a worldwide catycismal event, for accounts of it are found in every culture, from native American to native Australian. The time of the flood is given in scripture as the 17th of the second month, which, in our calender year falls around the end of Oct/1st of Nov. ....The occurance of somekind of festival of the dead, or recognition of the Pleiades at this time of year, also goes back into ancient history, again, in nearly every culture.... thus the probable original source of Halloween. More reason that this is odd, is the extremely small size and dimness of this little cluster of stars, which is actually part of the constellation of Taurus the Bull, or "reem" as it is called in Hebrew. In several versions of the talmud, the Pleiades is additionally believed to be a possible location of God's sign in the future of the end times judgment. In the course of this research I found that the geographic position of six of the seven churches of Rev. are nearly identical with the six visible stars of the Pleiades. ...and they are located on the "shoulder" of the Taurus mountains of Turkey in the same position as they appear in the constellation of Taurus. The connection has also been made betweeen the two because of the ref. in Amos 5 of the Pleiades (Kimah) as the seven stars, and the seven stars in Rev. as the messengers of the seven churches. The Jewish sages, in some accounts believe that the change will be in the form of a Star of David. They are also the only ones who speak of the change associated with the flood as being TWO missing stars rather than one, as all the others. This is also interesting, in that now under a powerful telescope the very faint star named Estrope, which is generally not visible except under perfect conditions, is found to be a double star. In recent centuries, Egyptologists have concluded that the pyramids may be much older than we have first suspected and MAY HAVE BEEN EXISTENT AT THE TIME OF THE FLOOD OF NOACH. Here is where it gets interesting because the Constellation KIMAH is associated directly with the Flood of Noach in Talmudic and Midrashic literature! So we can begin to see why God quizzed Job with questions about the KIMAH and Orion contextually related to a "flood of waters" in verse 34: Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you? The Torah sages wrote that God "took two stars away from KIMAH and brought the flood!" This is alluded to in at least four places in Talmud Rosh HaShana, 11b and Talmud Baba M'tzia, 106b. It is also found in two other rabbinic writings: Ta'anith I bottom of 64a; and B'midbar Rabbah 10. The word KIMAH itself is found in more than a dozen places in the Jerusalem Talmud, 10 places in the Babylonian Talmud, 16 places in Rashi’s commentary to the Babylonian Talmud and 16 places in the Tosefta to the Babylonian Talmud. Every Orthodox rabbi and most non-Orthodox rabbis should be well familiar with this constellation and its relationship to the flood of Noah. Here are a few of the most specific references: Talmud Rosh Hashana 11b: It has been taught: ‘In the sixth hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month. R. Joshua said: That day was the seventeenth day of Iyar, when the constellation of KIMAH sets at daybreak and the fountains begin to dry up, and because they [mankind] perverted their ways, the Holy One, blessed be He, changed for them the work of creation and made the constellation of KIMAH rise at daybreak and took two stars from the KIMAH and brought a flood on the world. R. Eliezer said: That day was the seventeenth of Heshvan, a day on which the constellation of KIMAH rises at daybreak, and [the season] when the fountains begin to fill. FOOTNOTE TO THE TALMUD: There seems to be some confusion in the text here. To make it astronomically correct we should read (with the Seder Olam) in the dictum of R. Joshua, ‘When KIMAH rises at daybreak’, and in the dictum of R. Eliezer, ‘sets at daybreak’. In the month of Adar, corresponding to mid-February to March, the KIMAH appears to be overhead at the time the peasant finishes his work, viz., about four in the afternoon. Thus R. Papa states that seed time is governed by Adar (and KIMAH). Elsewhere in Talmudic literature, knowledge is compared to the KIMAH, which causes the ripening of fruits and gives them taste. Since taste is a function of smell (try holding your nose when something tastes bad ... it works for my son) and the attribute by which the Talmud states the Torah devout will recognize the Messiah is by his smell; there is an ancient opinion that when the time of the Messiah nears, the people will look for a sign in the constellation KIMAH. B’re**** Rabbah 10. Contextually the constellation may be related to the exiled House of Joseph, because it is alternatively called, Taurus or the constellation of the ox or bull. This is alluded to in B're**** (Genesis) 49:5-6 (where the rabbinim interpret the "ox" who is maimed by Simeon and Levi as Joseph); and again in the blessing of Moses on the House of Joseph, found in D'varim (Deutoronomy) 33:13-17, where Joseph is called by Moses, "the firstling of Hashem's bullock," who has the horns of the "re'eym." (verse 17). The constellation itself with its box-like head and two horns, reminds one of the head of a bullock. Deuteronomy 33:17 goes on to state that with the horns of the re'eym, HASHEM will "gore" nations together to the ends of the Land. And these nations are the myriads of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh -- the House of Joseph. Moses Ben-Maimon also known as Maimomides and the Rambam, states of this verse: "the two horns represent the two branches of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh." In Psalm 22:22, Hashem answers "from the horns of the Re'eym." The next verse, verse 23 states: "I will proclaim Your Name to my brethren." The Jewish sage Radak wrote that this meant when HASHEM raised the horn of the re'eym, that those who knew Hashem should tell what they know to their brothers, "the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who had been exiled to Chalach and Chabur." The Talmud, Tosefta and other rabbinic writings present this record of the KIMAH as the only constellation which has undergone any observable change since Creation. Consequently, if there were to be a sign in the Heavens that would be accepted by the rabbinim or leaders of Judah today, especially as it pertains to validating the Return of the House of Joseph, it might be an occurrence in KIMAH that would rectify the change recorded in the earlier rabbinic writings and alluded to in Scripture The second mention of the KIMAH in Scripture is found in Amos 5:8. Oseh KIMAH uchsil ve hofeych laboker tzalmavet veyom lailah hechshich Literally, "He who made the KIMAH and CHESIL (Orion) and turns darkness into morning and day He darkens as night." This alludes to the fact that the KIMAH traverses the pre-dawn sky "turning darkness into morning" ON THE SAME PLANE AS THE SUN, whose course through the sky turns day into night. Rabbinic exegesis of 5:8 "turning day to night and night to day," contains a profound spiritual truth. understanding will be turned upside down. Those who think they understand will be shown that they do not. And those whose understanding has been questioned or put down by the former will be exalted. More understanding will be added to them. But we can't lose sight of the fact that this reversal of understanding literally relates to a change in the heavens in the context of the Return of the House of Joseph. The natural conclusion to draw is that the change in KIMAH indicates a sign in the heavens that may SIGNAL the Return or some related event. And then there is the mystery which has puzzled humanity as long as mankind has gazed at the stars above. The mystery is why the KIMAH is called the Constellation of Seven Sisters, when only six stars are visible with the naked eye? Is it possible that one of the stars was a doubled star? Or, was it possible that before the flood, the constellation's six stars formed a seventh, the Cocav David or Star of David? If this Cocav David will again appear in the pre-dawn sky, what does it mean? The context in which Hashem has couched this "mystery of the Seven Sisters") is a lamentation over the House of Israel.Only such a heavenly sign may convince the House of Judah to recognize that Hashem’s plan to restore Tzion (Zion) includes the non-Jewish House of Joseph This may be conjecture, but let us propose that the secret of the Seventh Sister IS the rising again of the degel Tzion (a banner) to regather, recall and return the House of Israel. Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign(Strong's def.=flag or banner) of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign(flag) for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The modern Israeli flag, under which the Jewish population in the modern Jewish state has thus far reunited is such a banner. But the rabbinim are looking for such IN THE HEAVENLIES, as indicated by the Rambam, Radak and other sages quoted above. In the Last Days, followers of Y'shua also are told to look into the Heavens for specific signs. This raises the question of whether the sign the rabbinim expect is the same sign that Y'shua promised would be revealed to his followers and which would validate his mission as the shaliah (one sent) to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel. Earlier we mentioned that the KIMAH in Talmudic literature "causes the ripening of fruit." Ephraim in Hebrew means "double-fruitful." The blessings of fruitfulness associated with Joseph also are evident in Genesis 49 and again in Deuteronomy 33. But in Genesis 48:19, Ephraim is also called the "melo ha-goyim." This term is translated "multitude of nations" but its literal meaning is "the fullness of the goyim or Gentiles." The shaliah Paul in Romans 11 refers to this "fullness of the Gentiles" as triggering the "return or rescue" (Gr.. sothesetai) of ALL of (the House of) Israel.Here we submit that Y'shua could well be referring to the Assimilation of Israel among the Gentile church. Matthew 24:25 Behold, I have told you before.26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.27 For as the ASTRAPE cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the PAROUSIA of the Son of man be. ASTRAPE - Strongs 796 = Lightning or bright shining (Strongs), = the gleam of a lamp (Thayers) = a flash such as lightning (Liddell & Scott), illumination of the sky accompanying cosmic phenomenon; also a derivative form ASTRO pertains to any star or constellation (Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich) PAROUSIA - Strongs 3952 presence, arrival, advent. (Thayers) ASTRAPE is not necessarily a bolt of lightning, which strikes at random and does not necessarily light the sky from east to west. Rather this presence, arrival or advent, Y'shua describes is likened to a cosmic phenomenon that may directly refer to a specific star or constellation. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. The analogy to the sign of the coming of the Son of Man and the flood of Noach is again striking, especially because the change in the constellation Kimah is tied to the flood and by implication, this eschatological sign.

God and the Mystery of Evil: The Riddle of Epicurus and the Solution

2004-12-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

The Riddle of Epicurus

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?

The Solution:

-Evil has been permitted to exist for a finite amount of time.
-Goodness will continue for an infinite amount of time.
-By substitution, the proportion of evil/good = finitude/infinitude.
-Finitude/infinitude can be expressed as "an infinitely small number."
-An infinitely small number can be expressed as 1/infinity.-0.9 recurring = 1
- 1/infinity, or "a number which is less than 1 by an infinitely small amount."
-1/3 = 0.3 recurring.-Therefore, 1/3 x 3 = 0.9 recurring.-1/3 x 3 = 1.
-Therefore, 0.9 recurring = 1.-Therefore, 1 - 1/infinity = 1.
-Therefore, 1/infinity = 0.
-Therefore, the proportion of evil to good is equal to 0. This is, of course, given that we're speaking in terms of potentiality in regards to human life as opposed to actuality in terms of God's life--in other words, the conclusion is this: The proportion of evil to good is potentially 0% and is in an infinitely lengthy process of becoming closer to actually being 0%.

British archaeologist finds evidence of John the Baptist

2004-12-07T07:37:00.000-08:00

Source Article

KIBBUTZ TSUBA, Israel (AFP) - A British archaeologist has uncovered a cave in the mountains near Jerusalem which he believes conclusively proves that the Biblical figure of John the Baptist existed. "The first concrete evidence of the existence of John the Baptist has been found on site," 46-year-old Shimon Gibson told AFP. Gibson, who holds a degree from University College London and has written several works on Biblical archaeology, believes the discovery to be "the first archaeological proof of the historical veracity of the Gospels". Other archaeologists, however, believe Gibson's conclusions go too far, and that the discovery of an ancient place of worship linked to John the Baptist does not prove that he actually existed. According to the New Testament, John the Baptist was a prophet and fiery preacher who lived in the mountains between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. A contemporary of Jesus, John called on people to repent of their sins, after which he would baptize them in the Jordan River. The cave, which is located on the grounds of Kibbutz Tsuba just outside Jerusalem, is "about an hour's donkey ride from Ein Kerem, the village where Christian tradition says John was born," Gibson says. It is also on the edge of the Judean desert, where John was known to hold spiritual retreats. The cave is located on the side of a mountain in an area covered in pine forests, close to a riverbed in a steepsided valley where the kibbutz maintains an olive grove. It was the kibbutzniks themselves who in 1999 first alerted Gibson to the existence of the cave, which had been hidden behind a mass of vegetation for years. A field archaeologist with an air of Indiana Jones about him, Gibson crawled through a hole into the cave, which was filled with rocks and earth. He decided to start excavating after discovering a crudely-drawn picture of John the Baptist carved into the limestone walls "dressed in camel hair robes" as described in the Gospel of Matthew. Several crosses and a rough drawing of a severed head were also carved into the walls, illustrating John's death by beheading at the hands of Herod Antipas, ruler of the northern Galilee region at the time. Underneath the picture of John is a small niche "designed for a relic", Gibson explains. "These drawings are the work of Byzantine monks who used to gather in the cave to tell the history of John the Baptist," he said, pointing out an area around the eyes where vandals, or iconoclasts, had tried to destroy the pictures. Excavations, which took place between 2000 and 2003 in conjunction with a team from the University of North Carolina, revealed a space some 24 metres (yards) long, 4.5 metres wide and four metres high, with 18 huge steps leading down to a large rectangular pool. "Its use for baptism rituals dates back to the Iron Age, the era of the kings of Judea," he said. "We discovered tens of thousands of shards from clay pitchers with one handle, each about 30 centimetres tall, which dated back to the era of John the Baptist," he said. "Unlike the baptism rituals practised in the Jewish religion, which were individual and dealt with the purification of the body, those practised by the disciples of John were collective and dealt with the purification of the heart," he said. Just outside the entrance, further excavations revealed several huge pools for collecting rainwater which fed the main pool inside -- only water "from heaven" being suitable for the sacred baptism ritual. "Once the disciple came out of the ritual bath, he would place his right foot in a notch cut out of the rock, where they would pour oil on it, a ritual which sanctified his taking a new path," Gibson explains. John the Baptist's cave, which has been restored by Kibbutz Tsuba, will be opened to the public early next year.

The Declaration of Independence and Atheism

2004-12-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

Source Article

In California - where else? - a teacher has been prohibited by school authorities from giving students documents from American history that ... gasp ... refer to God - including that seditious document, the Declaration of Independence. Steven Williams, who teaches fifth-grade at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, has sued for discrimination claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian. Said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson, "It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful. "Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he added. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause [of the U.S. Constitution] that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence." Well it may not be mentioned in the Establishment Clause but the idea of allowing any mention of God in the presence of young students evokes panic in the minds of our secularist education establishment. It seems to be loaded with the sort of idiots who cringe at the thought that there might be a supreme being higher than themselves, or that the very mention of that supreme being in the company of young students is an outrage that must be prevented at all costs. In their intellectual egotism they echo Søren Kierkegaard's personal declaration of independence: that the thought of the existence of a Deity put a limit on his intelligence. Poor Søren, humbled by a higher being than himself. This absurdity which in more sober times would be a cause of great mirth is nothing more than a symptom of what ails this nation - a pandemic of militant atheism parading under the banner of civil liberty carried aloft by such enemies of religious freedom as the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) and kindred organizations. Their real target is Christianity which they recognize as a bulwark against their secularist agenda and their determination to drive God out of the public square. And they have good reason to recoil at the very mention of such documents as the Declaration of Independence which proclaims fealty to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," and concludes with the ringing declaration of the Founding Fathers' "firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence." If you read the statements of the Founding Fathers such as George Washington's that "To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian," or Patrick Henry's proclamation that "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists [pluralism], but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!" it becomes abundantly clear that the nation to which under Divine guidance they gave birth was, and was meant ever to be, a Christian nation that out of respect for the principles of Christianity respected and welcomed all religious creeds, Christian or otherwise. And that's what the A.C.L.U. wants obliterated from the national memory. In its place they want to establish an officially atheistic or agnostic regime that proclaims that mankind is on its own and doesn't need interference from any alleged supreme being. There is nothing new about this. In recent centuries atheists have been motivated by the idea that driving religion out of the public square would usher in an era of peace, moral righteousness and equality, as John Omicinsky put it in a Crisis magazine review of Alister McGrath's "The Twilight of Atheism." He quotes McGrath's conclusion of where this all led: "The reality of the situation is bloody, messy and brutal. The eradication of faith tends to involve firing squads and gas chambers." McGrath goes on to write that "The greatest intolerance and violence [in the 20th century] were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence." The midwife at the births of Nazi Germany, Red China and the Soviet Union was atheism. And this is where the zealots at the A.C.L.U. would ultimately lead us - to a godless paradise presided over by the legal arm of their organization and a host of incipient Hitlers and Stalins and their executioner goon squads. All across the nation we are being besieged by hordes of malcontents using our out-of-control courts to enforce limitations upon our freedom to proclaim and practice our religious and political freedoms. In the last election we saw the reaction of a huge number of Americans to what they recognize is a tyranny of a minority determined to trample on the rights of the majority. This is provoking a simmering anger among the "red state" majority, many of whom live in "blue" states. The A.C.L.U., the media and the academic elite, militant atheists and others of their sorry ilk need to recognize that more and more Americans have had it and are not going to take it much longer. They had better understand that they are playing with fire as they continue to mount their assaults against the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, and the God-given rights of their fellow Americans. In the end, it won't be God who will be driven from the public square, but they themselves.

Come to the Cross

2004-12-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

How is a Man Saved?

Who Are The Palestinians Really?

2004-12-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Source Article
By: Hal Lindsey

In my book, "The Everlasting Hatred, the Roots of Jihad," I trace the history of the people now being called the "Palestinians." The land of Israel became known as Palestine after the Roman destruction of Israel in A.D. 70. It was ruled by many different invaders for the following 19 centuries.
In the 7th century, the Muslims took control of Palestine for the first time. From A.D. 635 until 1917, the Muslims ruled it, with only a few interruptions by the European Crusaders. During that span of time, the land was reduced to total desolation. Many people who traveled the land in the 19th century remarked on the fact that Palestine was as desolate as the moon and very few people lived there.
In 1867, Mark Twain remarked about his visit to the Holy Land in his book, "The Innocents Abroad." He lamented, "Stirring scenes occur in the valley [of Jezreel] no more. There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent – not for 30 miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride 10 miles hereabouts and not see 10 human beings."
By all eyewitness accounts of that era, Palestine was a total desolation. There were virtually no trees and no people. Because of lack of trees, the weather changed and it rarely ever rained. The irrigation systems of the once fertile valleys were all destroyed, rendering most areas into malaria-ridden swamps. The terraces of the mountainsides were torn down, causing terrible erosion that left only barren rocks. This was the condition of Palestine by the beginning of the 19th century.
It was at this time that Jews began to flee severe persecutions in Russia and Eastern Europe. In the mid-1800s, some Jews came to Palestine and, with the generous aid of some successful Jews like the Rothschilds, began to buy property from Muslim Ottoman Turks. The Muslims thought the land was worthless anyway, so they sold it to the "dumb Jews" for extremely inflated prices.
To everyone's amazement, the Jews were very successful at reclaiming the land. Many of them died from malaria and the rigorous life the work demanded, but they performed an agricultural miracle that made the land very productive again. As a result of their success, poor migrant workers from the surrounding Muslim countries began to flood in to work for the Jews. The Jews literally became victims of their own success – almost all of the people calling themselves "Palestinians" today are the descendants of those migrant workers.
Much more is said and documented on this subject in my book. But the main point is this: The Muslims have repeatedly shown they understand these things. Since they know that the so-called "Palestinians" are not a homogeneous people, but rather a mixed conglomerate of workers with no cohesive organizational or political skills, they have repeatedly not given them a state.
When the Hashemite Tribe, who were rulers over Mecca and Medina for centuries, were driven out by the Saudis, the British gave them control over the vastly greater numbers of "migrant workers" in Trans Jordan. The British said this would be, in effect, "The State of Palestine." Instead, the Hashemites, who make up only about 20 percent of the population, turned it into their own kingdom and called it the Kingdom of Jordan.
When the Jordanians and Egyptians controlled the so-called West Bank and the Gaza Strip for 19 years (1948 to 1967), there was never a thought of giving the disorganized mass of "migrant workers" a state. Why? Because they knew there was no cohesive, homogeneous people known as "Palestinians."
The current efforts of Jordan and Egypt (and all the rest of the Muslim Middle East nations) to give these same people a state is clearly a ploy to get a foothold inside Israel. It is a strategic accommodation to establish a base from which the final assault against Israel can be made. What they couldn't do militarily is now being facilitated through the United States and the E.U.
Muslims will never accept a permanent presence of infidels in what they claim is sacred Islamic soil. Especially Jewish infidels for which the Koran reserves its most vehement condemnations. In their minds, the Koran and Allah will not let them accept Jews in what they view as their third holiest site.
The United States had better learn these things, or we will find ourselves guilty of facilitating the destruction of God's people, to whom the Word of God says the land belongs forever. God will not let that happen, but He will certainly judge those who have any part in trying to do it.
God warned: "Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom [Arabs], who took MY LAND to themselves as a possession, with whole-hearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country ... But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to MY PEOPLE ISRAEL, for they are about to come.'" (Ezekiel 36: 5, 8 NKJ)

The Testimony of Numbers

2004-11-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

I found this beautiful post. Go read it: here.

Evolution Is A Poor Theory

2004-11-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
117(2):213-239. 2004

The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories
By: Stephen C. Meyer

Introduction
In a recent volume of the Vienna Series in a Theoretical Biology (2003), Gerd B. Muller and Stuart Newman argue that what they call the “origination of organismal form” remains an unsolved problem. In making this claim, Muller and Newman (2003:3-10) distinguish two distinct issues, namely, (1) the causes of form generation in the individual organism during embryological development and (2) the causes responsible for the production of novel organismal forms in the first place during the history of life. To distinguish the latter case (phylogeny) from the former (ontogeny), Muller and Newman use the term “origination” to designate the causal processes by which biological form first arose during the evolution of life. They insist that “the molecular mechanisms that bring about biological form in modern day embryos should not be confused” with the causes responsible for the origin (or “origination”) of novel biological forms during the history of life (p.3). They further argue that we know more about the causes of ontogenesis, due to advances in molecular biology, molecular genetics and developmental biology, than we do about the causes of phylogenesis--the ultimate origination of new biological forms during the remote past.In making this claim, Muller and Newman are careful to affirm that evolutionary biology has succeeded in explaining how preexisting forms diversify under the twin influences of natural selection and variation of genetic traits. Sophisticated mathematically-based models of population genetics have proven adequate for mapping and understanding quantitative variability and populational changes in organisms. Yet Muller and Newman insist that population genetics, and thus evolutionary biology, has not identified a specifically causal explanation for the origin of true morphological novelty during the history of life. Central to their concern is what they see as the inadequacy of the variation of genetic traits as a source of new form and structure. They note, following Darwin himself, that the sources of new form and structure must precede the action of natural selection (2003:3)--that selection must act on what already exists. Yet, in their view, the “genocentricity” and “incrementalism” of the neo-Darwinian mechanism has meant that an adequate source of new form and structure has yet to be identified by theoretical biologists. Instead, Muller and Newman see the need to identify epigenetic sources of morphological innovation during the evolution of life. In the meantime, however, they insist neo-Darwinism lacks any “theory of the generative” (p. 7).As it happens, Muller and Newman are not alone in this judgment. In the last decade or so a host of scientific essays and books have questioned the efficacy of selection and mutation as a mechanism for generating morphological novelty, as even a brief literature survey will establish. Thomson (1992:107) expressed doubt that large-scale morphological changes could accumulate via minor phenotypic changes at the population genetic level. Miklos (1993:29) argued that neo-Darwinism fails to provide a mechanism that can produce large-scale innovations in form and complexity. Gilbert et al. (1996) attempted to develop a new theory of evolutionary mechanisms to supplement classical neo-Darwinism, which, they argued, could not adequately explain macroevolution. As they put it in a memorable summary of the situation: “starting in the 1970s, many biologists began questioning its (neo-Darwinism's) adequacy in explaining evolution. Genetics might be adequate for explaining microevolution, but microevolutionary changes in gene frequency were not seen as able to turn a reptile into a mammal or to convert a fish into an amphibian. Microevolution looks at adaptations that concern the survival of the fittest, not the arrival of the fittest. As Goodwin (1995) points out, 'the origin of species--Darwin's problem--remains unsolved'“ (p. 361). Though Gilbert et al. (1996) attempted to solve the problem of the origin of form by proposing a greater role for developmental genetics within an otherwise neo-Darwinian framework,1 numerous recent authors have continued to raise questions about the adequacy of that framework itself or about the problem of the origination of form generally (Webster & Goodwin 1996; Shubin & Marshall 2000; Erwin 2000; Conway Morris 2000, 2003b; Carroll 2000; Wagner 2001; Becker & Lonnig 2001; Stadler et al. 2001; Lonnig & Saedler 2002; Wagner & Stadler 2003; Valentine 2004:189-194).What lies behind this skepticism? Is it warranted? Is a new and specifically causal theory needed to explain the origination of biological form?This review will address these questions. It will do so by analyzing the problem of the origination of organismal form (and the corresponding emergence of higher taxa) from a particular theoretical standpoint. Specifically, it will treat the problem of the origination of the higher taxonomic groups as a manifestation of a deeper problem, namely, the problem of the origin of the information (whether genetic or epigenetic) that, as it will be argued, is necessary to generate morphological novelty.In order to perform this analysis, and to make it relevant and tractable to systematists and paleontologists, this paper will examine a paradigmatic example of the origin of biological form and information during the history of life: the Cambrian explosion. During the Cambrian, many novel animal forms and body plans (representing new phyla, subphyla and classes) arose in a geologically brief period of time. The following information-based analysis of the Cambrian explosion will support the claim of recent authors such as Muller and Newman that the mechanism of selection and genetic mutation does not constitute an adequate causal explanation of the origination of biological form in the higher taxonomic groups. It will also suggest the need to explore other possible causal factors for the origin of form and information during the evolution of life and will examine some other possibilities that have been proposed.The Cambrian ExplosionThe “Cambrian explosion” refers to the geologically sudden appearance of many new animal body plans about 530 million years ago. At this time, at least nineteen, and perhaps as many as thirty-five phyla of forty total (Meyer et al. 2003), made their first appearance on earth within a narrow five- to ten-million-year window of geologic time (Bowring et al. 1993, 1998a:1, 1998b:40; Kerr 1993; Monastersky 1993; Aris-Brosou & Yang 2003). Many new subphyla, between 32 and 48 of 56 total (Meyer et al. 2003), and classes of animals also arose at this time with representatives of these new higher taxa manifesting significant morphological innovations. The Cambrian explosion thus marked a major episode of morphogenesis in which many new and disparate organismal forms arose in a geologically brief period of time.To say that the fauna of the Cambrian period appeared in a geologically sudden manner also implies the absence of clear transitional intermediate forms connecting Cambrian animals with simpler pre-Cambrian forms. And, indeed, in almost all cases, the Cambrian animals have no clear morphological antecedents in earlier Vendian or Precambrian fauna (Miklos 1993, Erwin et al. 1997:132, Steiner & Reitner 2001, Conway Morris 2003b:510, Valentine et al. 2003:519-520). Further, several recent discoveries and analyses suggest that these morphological gaps may not be merely an artifact of incomplete sampling of the fossil record (Foote 1997, Foote et al. 1999, Benton & Ayala 2003, Meyer et al. 2003), suggesting that the fossil record is at least approximately reliable (Conway Morris 2003b:505).As a result, debate now exists about the extent to which this pattern of evidence comports with a strictly monophyletic view of evolution (Conway Morris 1998a, 2003a, 2003b:510; Willmer 1990, 2003). Further, among those who accept a monophyletic view of the history of life, debate exists about whether to privilege fossil or molecular data and analyses. Those who think the fossil data provide a more reliable picture of the origin of the Metazoan tend to think these animals arose relatively quickly--that the Cambrian explosion had a “short fuse.” (Conway Morris 2003b:505-506, Valentine & Jablonski 2003). Some (Wray et al. 1996), but not all (Ayala et al. 1998), who think that molecular phylogenies establish reliable divergence times from pre-Cambrian ancestors think that the Cambrian animals evolved over a very long period of time--that the Cambrian explosion had a “long fuse.” This review will not address these questions of historical pattern. Instead, it will analyze whether the neo-Darwinian process of mutation and selection, or other processes of evolutionary change, can generate the form and information necessary to produce the animals that arise in the Cambrian. This analysis will, for the most part, 2 therefore, not depend upon assumptions of either a long or short fuse for the Cambrian explosion, or upon a monophyletic or polyphyletic view of the early history of life.Defining Biological Form and InformationForm, like life itself, is easy to recognize but often hard to define precisely. Yet, a reasonable working definition of form will suffice for our present purposes. Form can be defined as the four-dimensional topological relations of anatomical parts. This means that one can understand form as a unified arrangement of body parts or material components in a distinct shape or pattern (topology)--one that exists in three spatial dimensions and which arises in time during ontogeny.Insofar as any particular biological form constitutes something like a distinct arrangement of constituent body parts, form can be seen as arising from constraints that limit the possible arrangements of matter. Specifically, organismal form arises (both in phylogeny and ontogeny) as possible arrangements of material parts are constrained to establish a specific or particular arrangement with an identifiable three dimensional topography--one that we would recognize as a particular protein, cell type, organ, body plan or organism. A particular “form,” therefore, represents a highly specific and constrained arrangement of material components (among a much larger set of possible arrangements). Understanding form in this way suggests a connection to the notion of information in its most theoretically general sense. When Shannon (1948) first developed a mathematical theory of information he equated the amount of information transmitted with the amount of uncertainty reduced or eliminated in a series of symbols or characters. Information, in Shannon's theory, is thus imparted as some options are excluded and others are actualized. The greater the number of options excluded, the greater the amount of information conveyed. Further, constraining a set of possible material arrangements by whatever process or means involves excluding some options and actualizing others. Thus, to constrain a set of possible material states is to generate information in Shannon's sense. It follows that the constraints that produce biological form also imparted information. Or conversely, one might say that producing organismal form by definition requires the generation of information.In classical Shannon information theory, the amount of information in a system is also inversely related to the probability of the arrangement of constituents in a system or the characters along a communication channel (Shannon 1948). The more improbable (or complex) the arrangement, the more Shannon information, or information-carrying capacity, a string or system possesses.Since the 1960s, mathematical biologists have realized that Shannon's theory could be applied to the analysis of DNA and proteins to measure the information-carrying capacity of these macromolecules. Since DNA contains the assembly instructions for building proteins, the information-processing system in the cell represents a kind of communication channel (Yockey 1992:110). Further, DNA conveys information via specifically arranged sequences of nucleotide bases. Since each of the four bases has a roughly equal chance of occurring at each site along the spine of the DNA molecule, biologists can calculate the probability, and thus the information-carrying capacity, of any particular sequence n bases long.The ease with which information theory applies to molecular biology has created confusion about the type of information that DNA and proteins possess. Sequences of nucleotide bases in DNA, or amino acids in a protein, are highly improbable and thus have large information-carrying capacities. But, like meaningful sentences or lines of computer code, genes and proteins are also specified with respect to function. Just as the meaning of a sentence depends upon the specific arrangement of the letters in a sentence, so too does the function of a gene sequence depend upon the specific arrangement of the nucleotide bases in a gene. Thus, molecular biologists beginning with Crick equated information not only with complexity but also with “specificity,” where “specificity” or “specified” has meant “necessary to function” (Crick 1958:144, 153; Sarkar, 1996:191).3 Molecular biologists such as Monod and Crick understood biological information--the information stored in DNA and proteins--as something more than mere complexity (or improbability). Their notion of information associated both biochemical contingency and combinatorial complexity with DNA sequences (allowing DNA's carrying capacity to be calculated), but it also affirmed that sequences of nucleotides and amino acids in functioning macromolecules possessed a high degree of specificity relative to the maintenance of cellular function.The ease with which information theory applies to molecular biology has also created confusion about the location of information in organisms. Perhaps because the information carrying capacity of the gene could be so easily measured, it has been easy to treat DNA, RNA and proteins as the sole repositories of biological information. Neo-Darwinists in particular have assumed that the origination of biological form could be explained by recourse to processes of genetic variation and mutation alone (Levinton 1988:485). Yet if one understands organismal form as resulting from constraints on the possible arrangements of matter at many levels in the biological hierarchy--from genes and proteins to cell types and tissues to organs and body plans--then clearly biological organisms exhibit many levels of information-rich structure.Thus, we can pose a question, not only about the origin of genetic information, but also about the origin of the information necessary to generate form and structure at levels higher than that present in individual proteins. We must also ask about the origin of the “specified complexity,” as opposed to mere complexity, that characterizes the new genes, proteins, cell types and body plans that arose in the Cambrian explosion. Dembski (2002) has used the term “complex specified information” (CSI) as a synonym for “specified complexity” to help distinguish functional biological information from mere Shannon information--that is, specified complexity from mere complexity. This review will use this term as well.The Cambrian Information ExplosionThe Cambrian explosion represents a remarkable jump in the specified complexity or “complex specified information” (CSI) of the biological world. For over three billions years, the biological realm included little more than bacteria and algae (Brocks et al. 1999). Then, beginning about 570-565 million years ago (mya), the first complex multicellular organisms appeared in the rock strata, including sponges, cnidarians, and the peculiar Ediacaran biota (Grotzinger et al. 1995). Forty million years later, the Cambrian explosion occurred (Bowring et al. 1993). The emergence of the Ediacaran biota (570 mya), and then to a much greater extent the Cambrian explosion (530 mya), represented steep climbs up the biological complexity gradient.One way to estimate the amount of new CSI that appeared with the Cambrian animals is to count the number of new cell types that emerged with them (Valentine 1995:91-93). Studies of modern animals suggest that the sponges that appeared in the late Precambrian, for example, would have required five cell types, whereas the more complex animals that appeared in the Cambrian (e.g., arthropods) would have required fifty or more cell types. Functionally more complex animals require more cell types to perform their more diverse functions. New cell types require many new and specialized proteins. New proteins, in turn, require new genetic information. Thus an increase in the number of cell types implies (at a minimum) a considerable increase in the amount of specified genetic information. Molecular biologists have recently estimated that a minimally complex single-celled organism would require between 318 and 562 kilobase pairs of DNA to produce the proteins necessary to maintain life (Koonin 2000). More complex single cells might require upward of a million base pairs. Yet to build the proteins necessary to sustain a complex arthropod such as a trilobite would require orders of magnitude more coding instructions. The genome size of a modern arthropod, the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, is approximately 180 million base pairs (Gerhart & Kirschner 1997:121, Adams et al. 2000). Transitions from a single cell to colonies of cells to complex animals represent significant (and, in principle, measurable) increases in CSI.Building a new animal from a single-celled organism requires a vast amount of new genetic information. It also requires a way of arranging gene products--proteins--into higher levels of organization. New proteins are required to service new cell types. But new proteins must be organized into new systems within the cell; new cell types must be organized into new tissues, organs, and body parts. These, in turn, must be organized to form body plans. New animals, therefore, embody hierarchically organized systems of lower-level parts within a functional whole. Such hierarchical organization itself represents a type of information, since body plans comprise both highly improbable and functionally specified arrangements of lower-level parts. The specified complexity of new body plans requires explanation in any account of the Cambrian explosion.Can neo-Darwinism explain the discontinuous increase in CSI that appears in the Cambrian explosion--either in the form of new genetic information or in the form of hierarchically organized systems of parts? We will now examine the two parts of this question.Novel Genes and ProteinsMany scientists and mathematicians have questioned the ability of mutation and selection to generate information in the form of novel genes and proteins. Such skepticism often derives from consideration of the extreme improbability (and specificity) of functional genes and proteins.A typical gene contains over one thousand precisely arranged bases. For any specific arrangement of four nucleotide bases of length n, there is a corresponding number of possible arrangements of bases, 4n. For any protein, there are 20n possible arrangements of protein-forming amino acids. A gene 999 bases in length represents one of 4999 possible nucleotide sequences; a protein of 333 amino acids is one of 20333 possibilities.Since the 1960s, some biologists have thought functional proteins to be rare among the set of possible amino acid sequences. Some have used an analogy with human language to illustrate why this should be the case. Denton (1986, 309-311), for example, has shown that meaningful words and sentences are extremely rare among the set of possible combinations of English letters, especially as sequence length grows. (The ratio of meaningful 12-letter words to 12-letter sequences is 1/1014, the ratio of 100-letter sentences to possible 100-letter strings is 1/10100.) Further, Denton shows that most meaningful sentences are highly isolated from one another in the space of possible combinations, so that random substitutions of letters will, after a very few changes, inevitably degrade meaning. Apart from a few closely clustered sentences accessible by random substitution, the overwhelming majority of meaningful sentences lie, probabilistically speaking, beyond the reach of random search.Denton (1986:301-324) and others have argued that similar constraints apply to genes and proteins. They have questioned whether an undirected search via mutation and selection would have a reasonable chance of locating new islands of function--representing fundamentally new genes or proteins--within the time available (Eden 1967, Shutzenberger 1967, Lovtrup 1979). Some have also argued that alterations in sequencing would likely result in loss of protein function before fundamentally new function could arise (Eden 1967, Denton 1986). Nevertheless, neither the extent to which genes and proteins are sensitive to functional loss as a result of sequence change, nor the extent to which functional proteins are isolated within sequence space, has been fully known.Recently, experiments in molecular biology have shed light on these questions. A variety of mutagenesis techniques have shown that proteins (and thus the genes that produce them) are indeed highly specified relative to biological function (Bowie & Sauer 1989, Reidhaar-Olson & Sauer 1990, Taylor et al. 2001). Mutagenesis research tests the sensitivity of proteins (and, by implication, DNA) to functional loss as a result of alterations in sequencing. Studies of proteins have long shown that amino acid residues at many active positions cannot vary without functional loss (Perutz & Lehmann 1968). More recent protein studies (often using mutagenesis experiments) have shown that functional requirements place significant constraints on sequencing even at non-active site positions (Bowie & Sauer 1989, Reidhaar-Olson & Sauer 1990, Chothia et al. 1998, Axe 2000, Taylor et al. 2001). In particular, Axe (2000) has shown that multiple as opposed to single position amino acid substitutions inevitably result in loss of protein function, even when these changes occur at sites that allow variation when altered in isolation. Cumulatively, these constraints imply that proteins are highly sensitive to functional loss as a result of alterations in sequencing, and that functional proteins represent highly isolated and improbable arrangements of amino acids -arrangements that are far more improbable, in fact, than would be likely to arise by chance alone in the time available (Reidhaar-Olson & Sauer 1990; Behe 1992; Kauffman 1995:44; Dembski 1998:175-223; Axe 2000, 2004). (See below the discussion of the neutral theory of evolution for a precise quantitative assessment.)Of course, neo-Darwinists do not envision a completely random search through the set of all possible nucleotide sequences--so-called “sequence space.” They envision natural selection acting to preserve small advantageous variations in genetic sequences and their corresponding protein products. Dawkins (1996), for example, likens an organism to a high mountain peak. He compares climbing the sheer precipice up the front side of the mountain to building a new organism by chance. He acknowledges that his approach up “Mount Improbable” will not succeed. Nevertheless, he suggests that there is a gradual slope up the backside of the mountain that could be climbed in small incremental steps. In his analogy, the backside climb up “Mount Improbable” corresponds to the process of natural selection acting on random changes in the genetic text. What chance alone cannot accomplish blindly or in one leap, selection (acting on mutations) can accomplish through the cumulative effect of many slight successive steps.Yet the extreme specificity and complexity of proteins presents a difficulty, not only for the chance origin of specified biological information (i.e., for random mutations acting alone), but also for selection and mutation acting in concert. Indeed, mutagenesis experiments cast doubt on each of the two scenarios by which neo-Darwinists envisioned new information arising from the mutation/selection mechanism (for review, see Lonnig 2001). For neo-Darwinism, new functional genes either arise from non-coding sections in the genome or from preexisting genes. Both scenarios are problematic. In the first scenario, neo-Darwinists envision new genetic information arising from those sections of the genetic text that can presumably vary freely without consequence to the organism. According to this scenario, non-coding sections of the genome, or duplicated sections of coding regions, can experience a protracted period of “neutral evolution” (Kimura 1983) during which alterations in nucleotide sequences have no discernible effect on the function of the organism. Eventually, however, a new gene sequence will arise that can code for a novel protein. At that point, natural selection can favor the new gene and its functional protein product, thus securing the preservation and heritability of both.This scenario has the advantage of allowing the genome to vary through many generations, as mutations “search” the space of possible base sequences. The scenario has an overriding problem, however: the size of the combinatorial space (i.e., the number of possible amino acid sequences) and the extreme rarity and isolation of the functional sequences within that space of possibilities. Since natural selection can do nothing to help generate new functional sequences, but rather can only preserve such sequences once they have arisen, chance alone--random variation--must do the work of information generation--that is, of finding the exceedingly rare functional sequences within the set of combinatorial possibilities. Yet the probability of randomly assembling (or “finding,” in the previous sense) a functional sequence is extremely small.Cassette mutagenesis experiments performed during the early 1990s suggest that the probability of attaining (at random) the correct sequencing for a short protein 100 amino acids long is about 1 in 1065 (Reidhaar-Olson & Sauer 1990, Behe 1992:65-69). This result agreed closely with earlier calculations that Yockey (1978) had performed based upon the known sequence variability of cytochrome c in different species and other theoretical considerations. More recent mutagenesis research has provided additional support for the conclusion that functional proteins are exceedingly rare among possible amino acid sequences (Axe 2000, 2004). Axe (2004) has performed site directed mutagenesis experiments on a 150-residue protein-folding domain within a B-lactamase enzyme. His experimental method improves upon earlier mutagenesis techniques and corrects for several sources of possible estimation error inherent in them. On the basis of these experiments, Axe has estimated the ratio of (a) proteins of typical size (150 residues) that perform a specified function via any folded structure to (b) the whole set of possible amino acids sequences of that size. Based on his experiments, Axe has estimated his ratio to be 1 to 1077. Thus, the probability of finding a functional protein among the possible amino acid sequences corresponding to a 150-residue protein is similarly 1 in 1077.Other considerations imply additional improbabilities. First, new Cambrian animals would require proteins much longer than 100 residues to perform many necessary specialized functions. Ohno (1996) has noted that Cambrian animals would have required complex proteins such as lysyl oxidase in order to support their stout body structures. Lysyl oxidase molecules in extant organisms comprise over 400 amino acids. These molecules are both highly complex (non-repetitive) and functionally specified. Reasonable extrapolation from mutagenesis experiments done on shorter protein molecules suggests that the probability of producing functionally sequenced proteins of this length at random is so small as to make appeals to chance absurd, even granting the duration of the entire universe. (See Dembski 1998:175-223 for a rigorous calculation of this “Universal Probability Bound”; See also Axe 2004.) Yet, second, fossil data (Bowring et al. 1993, 1998a:1, 1998b:40; Kerr 1993; Monatersky 1993), and even molecular analyses supporting deep divergence (Wray et al. 1996), suggest that the duration of the Cambrian explosion (between 5-10 x 106 and, at most, 7 x 107 years) is far smaller than that of the entire universe (1.3-2 x 1010 years). Third, DNA mutation rates are far too low to generate the novel genes and proteins necessary to building the Cambrian animals, given the most probable duration of the explosion as determined by fossil studies (Conway Morris 1998b). As Ohno (1996:8475) notes, even a mutation rate of 10-9 per base pair per year results in only a 1% change in the sequence of a given section of DNA in 10 million years. Thus, he argues that mutational divergence of preexisting genes cannot explain the origin of the Cambrian forms in that time.4The selection/mutation mechanism faces another probabilistic obstacle. The animals that arise in the Cambrian exhibit structures that would have required many new types of cells, each of which would have required many novel proteins to perform their specialized functions. Further, new cell types require Asystems of proteins that must, as a condition of functioning, act in close coordination with one another. The unit of selection in such systems ascends to the system as a whole. Natural selection selects for functional advantage. But new cell types require whole systems of proteins to perform their distinctive functions. In such cases, natural selection cannot contribute to the process of information generation until after the information necessary to build the requisite system of proteins has arisen. Thus random variations must, again, do the work of information generation--and now not simply for one protein, but for many proteins arising at nearly the same time. Yet the odds of this occurring by chance alone are, of course, far smaller than the odds of the chance origin of a single gene or protein--so small in fact as to render the chance origin of the genetic information necessary to build a new cell type (a necessary but not sufficient condition of building a new body plan) problematic given even the most optimistic estimates for the duration of the Cambrian explosion.Dawkins (1986:139) has noted that scientific theories can rely on only so much “luck” before they cease to be credible. The neutral theory of evolution, which, by its own logic, prevents natural selection from playing a role in generating genetic information until after the fact, relies on entirely too much luck. The sensitivity of proteins to functional loss, the need for long proteins to build new cell types and animals, the need for whole new systems of proteins to service new cell types, the probable brevity of the Cambrian explosion relative to mutation rates--all suggest the immense improbability (and implausibility) of any scenario for the origination of Cambrian genetic information that relies upon random variation alone unassisted by natural selection.Yet the neutral theory requires novel genes and proteins to arise--essentially--by random mutation alone. Adaptive advantage accrues after the generation of new functional genes and proteins. Thus, natural selection cannot play a role until new information-bearing molecules have independently arisen. Thus neutral theorists envisioned the need to scale the steep face of a Dawkins-style precipice of which there is no gradually sloping backside--a situation that, by Dawkins' own logic, is probabilistically untenable.In the second scenario, neo-Darwinists envisioned novel genes and proteins arising by numerous successive mutations in the preexisting genetic text that codes for proteins. To adapt Dawkins's metaphor, this scenario envisions gradually climbing down one functional peak and then ascending another. Yet mutagenesis experiments again suggest a difficulty. Recent experiments show that, even when exploring a region of sequence space populated by proteins of a single fold and function, most multiple-position changes quickly lead to loss of function (Axe 2000). Yet to turn one protein into another with a completely novel structure and function requires specified changes at many sites. Indeed, the number of changes necessary to produce a new protein greatly exceeds the number of changes that will typically produce functional losses. Given this, the probability of escaping total functional loss during a random search for the changes needed to produce a new function is extremely small--and this probability diminishes exponentially with each additional requisite change (Axe 2000). Thus, Axe's results imply that, in all probability, random searches for novel proteins (through sequence space) will result in functional loss long before any novel functional protein will emerge.Blanco et al. have come to a similar conclusion. Using directed mutagenesis, they have determined that residues in both the hydrophobic core and on the surface of the protein play essential roles in determining protein structure. By sampling intermediate sequences between two naturally occurring sequences that adopt different folds, they found that the intermediate sequences “lack a well defined three-dimensional structure.” Thus, they conclude that it is unlikely that a new protein fold via a series of folded intermediates sequences (Blanco et al. 1999:741).Thus, although this second neo-Darwinian scenario has the advantage of starting with functional genes and proteins, it also has a lethal disadvantage: any process of random mutation or rearrangement in the genome would in all probability generate nonfunctional intermediate sequences before fundamentally new functional genes or proteins would arise. Clearly, nonfunctional intermediate sequences confer no survival advantage on their host organisms. Natural selection favors only functional advantage. It cannot select or favor nucleotide sequences or polypeptide chains that do not yet perform biological functions, and still less will it favor sequences that efface or destroy preexisting function.Evolving genes and proteins will range through a series of nonfunctional intermediate sequences that natural selection will not favor or preserve but will, in all probability, eliminate (Blanco et al. 1999, Axe 2000). When this happens, selection-driven evolution will cease. At this point, neutral evolution of the genome (unhinged from selective pressure) may ensue, but, as we have seen, such a process must overcome immense probabilistic hurdles, even granting cosmic time.Thus, whether one envisions the evolutionary process beginning with a noncoding region of the genome or a preexisting functional gene, the functional specificity and complexity of proteins impose very stringent limitations on the efficacy of mutation and selection. In the first case, function must arise first, before natural selection can act to favor a novel variation. In the second case, function must be continuously maintained in order to prevent deleterious (or lethal) consequences to the organism and to allow further evolution. Yet the complexity and functional specificity of proteins implies that both these conditions will be extremely difficult to meet. Therefore, the neo-Darwinian mechanism appears to be inadequate to generate the new information present in the novel genes and proteins that arise with the Cambrian animals.Novel Body PlansThe problems with the neo-Darwinian mechanism run deeper still. In order to explain the origin of the Cambrian animals, one must account not only for new proteins and cell types, but also for the origin of new body plans. Within the past decade, developmental biology has dramatically advanced our understanding of how body plans are built during ontogeny. In the process, it has also uncovered a profound difficulty for neo-Darwinism.Significant morphological change in organisms requires attention to timing. Mutations in genes that are expressed late in the development of an organism will not affect the body plan. Mutations expressed early in development, however, could conceivably produce significant morphological change (Arthur 1997:21). Thus, events expressed early in the development of organisms have the only realistic chance of producing large-scale macroevolutionary change (Thomson 1992). As John and Miklos (1988:309) explain, macroevolutionary change requires alterations in the very early stages of ontogenesis.Yet recent studies in developmental biology make clear that mutations expressed early in development typically have deleterious effects (Arthur 1997:21). For example, when early-acting body plan molecules, or morphogens such as bicoid (which helps to set up the anterior-posterior head-to-tail axis in Drosophila), are perturbed, development shuts down (Nusslein-Volhard & Wieschaus 1980, Lawrence & Struhl 1996, Muller & Newman 2003).5 The resulting embryos die. Moreover, there is a good reason for this. If an engineer modifies the length of the piston rods in an internal combustion engine without modifying the crankshaft accordingly, the engine won't start. Similarly, processes of development are tightly integrated spatially and temporally such that changes early in development will require a host of other coordinated changes in separate but functionally interrelated developmental processes downstream. For this reason, mutations will be much more likely to be deadly if they disrupt a functionally deeply-embedded structure such as a spinal column than if they affect more isolated anatomical features such as fingers (Kauffman 1995:200).This problem has led to what McDonald (1983) has called “a great Darwinian paradox” (p. 93). McDonald notes that genes that are observed to vary within natural populations do not lead to major adaptive changes, while genes that could cause major changes--the very stuff of macroevolution--apparently do not vary. In other words, mutations of the kind that macroevolution doesn't need (namely, viable genetic mutations in DNA expressed late in development) do occur, but those that it does need (namely, beneficial body plan mutations expressed early in development) apparently don't occur.6 According to Darwin (1859:108) natural selection cannot act until favorable variations arise in a population. Yet there is no evidence from developmental genetics that the kind of variations required by neo-Darwinism--namely, favorable body plan mutations--ever occur.Developmental biology has raised another formidable problem for the mutation/selection mechanism. Embryological evidence has long shown that DNA does not wholly determine morphological form (Goodwin 1985, Nijhout 1990, Sapp 1987, Muller & Newman 2003), suggesting that mutations in DNA alone cannot account for the morphological changes required to build a new body plan.DNA helps direct protein synthesis.7 It also helps to regulate the timing and expression of the synthesis of various proteins within cells. Yet, DNA alone does not determine how individual proteins assemble themselves into larger systems of proteins; still less does it solely determine how cell types, tissue types, and organs arrange themselves into body plans (Harold 1995:2774, Moss 2004). Instead, other factors--such as the three-dimensional structure and organization of the cell membrane and cytoskeleton and the spatial architecture of the fertilized egg--play important roles in determining body plan formation during embryogenesis.For example, the structure and location of the cytoskeleton influence the patterning of embryos. Arrays of microtubules help to distribute the essential proteins used during development to their correct locations in the cell. Of course, microtubules themselves are made of many protein subunits. Nevertheless, like bricks that can be used to assemble many different structures, the tubulin subunits in the cell's microtubules are identical to one another. Thus, neither the tubulin subunits nor the genes that produce them account for the different shape of microtubule arrays that distinguish different kinds of embryos and developmental pathways. Instead, the structure of the microtubule array itself is determined by the location and arrangement of its subunits, not the properties of the subunits themselves. For this reason, it is not possible to predict the structure of the cytoskeleton of the cell from the characteristics of the protein constituents that form that structure (Harold 2001:125).Two analogies may help further clarify the point. At a building site, builders will make use of many materials: lumber, wires, nails, drywall, piping, and windows. Yet building materials do not determine the floor plan of the house, or the arrangement of houses in a neighborhood. Similarly, electronic circuits are composed of many components, such as resistors, capacitors, and transistors. But such lower-level components do not determine their own arrangement in an integrated circuit. Biological symptoms also depend on hierarchical arrangements of parts. Genes and proteins are made from simple building blocks--nucleotide bases and amino acids--arranged in specific ways. Cell types are made of, among other things, systems of specialized proteins. Organs are made of specialized arrangements of cell types and tissues. And body plans comprise specific arrangements of specialized organs. Yet, clearly, the properties of individual proteins (or, indeed, the lower-level parts in the hierarchy generally) do not fully determine the organization of the higher-level structures and organizational patterns (Harold 2001:125). It follows that the genetic information that codes for proteins does not determine these higher-level structures either.These considerations pose another challenge to the sufficiency of the neo-Darwinian mechanism. Neo-Darwinism seeks to explain the origin of new information, form, and structure as a result of selection acting on randomly arising variation at a very low level within the biological hierarchy, namely, within the genetic text. Yet major morphological innovations depend on a specificity of arrangement at a much higher level of the organizational hierarchy, a level that DNA alone does not determine. Yet if DNA is not wholly responsible for body plan morphogenesis, then DNA sequences can mutate indefinitely, without regard to realistic probabilistic limits, and still not produce a new body plan. Thus, the mechanism of natural selection acting on random mutations in DNA cannot in principle generate novel body plans, including those that first arose in the Cambrian explosion.Of course, it could be argued that, while many single proteins do not by themselves determine cellular structures and/or body plans, proteins acting in concert with other proteins or suites of proteins could determine such higher-level form. For example, it might be pointed out that the tubulin subunits (cited above) are assembled by other helper proteins--gene products--called Microtubule Associated Proteins (MAPS). This might seem to suggest that genes and gene products alone do suffice to determine the development of the three-dimensional structure of the cytoskeleton.Yet MAPS, and indeed many other necessary proteins, are only part of the story. The location of specified target sites on the interior of the cell membrane also helps to determine the shape of the cytoskeleton. Similarly, so does the position and structure of the centrosome which nucleates the microtubules that form the cytoskeleton. While both the membrane targets and the centrosomes are made of proteins, the location and form of these structures is not wholly determined by the proteins that form them. Indeed, centrosome structure and membrane patterns as a whole convey three-dimensional structural information that helps determine the structure of the cytoskeleton and the location of its subunits (McNiven & Porter 1992:313-329). Moreover, the centrioles that compose the centrosomes replicate independently of DNA replication (Lange et al. 2000:235-249, Marshall & Rosenbaum 2000:187-205). The daughter centriole receives its form from the overall structure of the mother centriole, not from the individual gene products that constitute it (Lange et al. 2000). In ciliates, microsurgery on cell membranes can produce heritable changes in membrane patterns, even though the DNA of the ciliates has not been altered (Sonneborn 1970:1-13, Frankel 1980:607-623; Nanney 1983:163-170). This suggests that membrane patterns (as opposed to membrane constituents) are impressed directly on daughter cells. In both cases, form is transmitted from parent three-dimensional structures to daughter three-dimensional structures directly and is not wholly contained in constituent proteins or genetic information (Moss 2004).Thus, in each new generation, the form and structure of the cell arises as the result of both gene products and preexisting three-dimensional structure and organization. Cellular structures are built from proteins, but proteins find their way to correct locations in part because of preexisting three-dimensional patterns and organization inherent in cellular structures. Preexisting three-dimensional form present in the preceding generation (whether inherent in the cell membrane, the centrosomes, the cytoskeleton or other features of the fertilized egg) contributes to the production of form in the next generation. Neither structural proteins alone, nor the genes that code for them, are sufficient to determine the three-dimensional shape and structure of the entities they form. Gene products provide necessary, but not sufficient conditions, for the development of three-dimensional structure within cells, organs and body plans (Harold 1995:2767). But if this is so, then natural selection acting on genetic variation alone cannot produce the new forms that arise in history of life.Self-Organizational ModelsOf course, neo-Darwinism is not the only evolutionary theory for explaining the origin of novel biological form. Kauffman (1995) doubts the efficacy of the mutation/selection mechanism. Nevertheless, he has advanced a self-organizational theory to account for the emergence of new form, and presumably the information necessary to generate it. Whereas neo-Darwinism attempts to explain new form as the consequence of selection acting on random mutation, Kauffman suggests that selection acts, not mainly on random variations, but on emergent patterns of order that self-organize via the laws of nature.Kauffman (1995:47-92) illustrates how this might work with various model systems in a computer environment. In one, he conceives a system of buttons connected by strings. Buttons represent novel genes or gene products; strings represent the law-like forces of interaction that obtain between gene products-i.e., proteins. Kauffman suggests that when the complexity of the system (as represented by the number of buttons and strings) reaches a critical threshold, new modes of organization can arise in the system “for free”--that is, naturally and spontaneously--after the manner of a phase transition in chemistry.Another model that Kauffman develops is a system of interconnected lights. Each light can flash in a variety of states--on, off, twinkling, etc. Since there is more than one possible state for each light, and many lights, there are a vast number of possible states that the system can adopt. Further, in his system, rules determine how past states will influence future states. Kauffman asserts that, as a result of these rules, the system will, if properly tuned, eventually produce a kind of order in which a few basic patterns of light activity recur with greater-than-random frequency. Since these actual patterns of light activity represent a small portion of the total number of possible states in which the system can reside, Kauffman seems to imply that self-organizational laws might similarly result in highly improbable biological outcomes--perhaps even sequences (of bases or amino acids) within a much larger sequence space of possibilities. Do these simulations of self-organizational processes accurately model the origin of novel genetic information? It is hard to think so.First, in both examples, Kauffman presupposes but does not explain significant sources of preexisting information. In his buttons-and-strings system, the buttons represent proteins, themselves packets of CSI, and the result of preexisting genetic information. Where does this information come from? Kauffman (1995) doesn't say, but the origin of such information is an essential part of what needs to be explained in the history of life. Similarly, in his light system, the order that allegedly arises for “for free” actually arises only if the programmer of the model system “tunes” it in such a way as to keep it from either (a) generating an excessively rigid order or (b) developing into chaos (pp. 86-88). Yet this necessary tuning involves an intelligent programmer selecting certain parameters and excluding others--that is, inputting information.Second, Kauffman's model systems are not constrained by functional considerations and thus are not analogous to biological systems. A system of interconnected lights governed by pre-programmed rules may well settle into a small number of patterns within a much larger space of possibilities. But because these patterns have no function, and need not meet any functional requirements, they have no specificity analogous to that present in actual organisms. Instead, examination of Kauffman's (1995) model systems shows that they do not produce sequences or systems characterized by specified complexity, but instead by large amounts of symmetrical order or internal redundancy interspersed with aperiodicity or (mere) complexity (pp. 53, 89, 102). Getting a law-governed system to generate repetitive patterns of flashing lights, even with a certain amount of variation, is clearly interesting, but not biologically relevant. On the other hand, a system of lights flashing the title of a Broadway play would model a biologically relevant self-organizational process, at least if such a meaningful or functionally specified sequence arose without intelligent agents previously programming the system with equivalent amounts of CSI. In any case, Kauffman's systems do not produce specified complexity, and thus do not offer promising models for explaining the new genes and proteins that arose in the Cambrian.Even so, Kauffman suggests that his self-organizational models can specifically elucidate aspects of the Cambrian explosion. According to Kauffman (1995:199-201), new Cambrian animals emerged as the result of “long jump” mutations that established new body plans in a discrete rather than gradual fashion. He also recognizes that mutations affecting early development are almost inevitably harmful. Thus, he concludes that body plans, once established, will not change, and that any subsequent evolution must occur within an established body plan (Kauffman 1995:201). And indeed, the fossil record does show a curious (from a neo-Darwinian point of view) top-down pattern of appearance, in which higher taxa (and the body plans they represent) appear first, only later to be followed by the multiplication of lower taxa representing variations within those original body designs (Erwin et al. 1987, Lewin 1988, Valentine & Jablonski 2003:518). Further, as Kauffman expects, body plans appear suddenly and persist without significant modification over time.But here, again, Kauffman begs the most important question, which is: what produces the new Cambrian body plans in the first place? Granted, he invokes “long jump mutations” to explain this, but he identifies no specific self-organizational process that can produce such mutations. Moreover, he concedes a principle that undermines the plausibility of his own proposal. Kauffman acknowledges that mutations that occur early in development are almost inevitably deleterious. Yet developmental biologists know that these are the only kind of mutations that have a realistic chance of producing large-scale evolutionary change--i.e., the big jumps that Kauffman invokes. Though Kauffman repudiates the neo-Darwinian reliance upon random mutations in favor of self-organizing order, in the end, he must invoke the most implausible kind of random mutation in order to provide a self-organizational account of the new Cambrian body plans. Clearly, his model is not sufficient.Punctuated EquilibriumOf course, still other causal explanations have been proposed. During the 1970s, the paleontologists Eldredge and Gould (1972) proposed the theory of evolution by punctuated equilibrium in order to account for a pervasive pattern of “sudden appearance” and “stasis” in the fossil record. Though advocates of punctuated equilibrium were mainly seeking to describe the fossil record more accurately than earlier gradualist neo-Darwinian models had done, they did also propose a mechanism--known as species selection--by which the large morphological jumps evident in fossil record might have been produced. According to punctuationalists, natural selection functions more as a mechanism for selecting the fittest species rather than the most-fit individual among a species. Accordingly, on this model, morphological change should occur in larger, more discrete intervals than it would given a traditional neo-Darwinian understanding.Despite its virtues as a descriptive model of the history of life, punctuated equilibrium has been widely criticized for failing to provide a mechanism sufficient to produce the novel form characteristic of higher taxonomic groups. For one thing, critics have noted that the proposed mechanism of punctuated evolutionary change simply lacked the raw material upon which to work. As Valentine and Erwin (1987) note, the fossil record fails to document a large pool of species prior to the Cambrian. Yet the proposed mechanism of species selection requires just such a pool of species upon which to act. Thus, they conclude that the mechanism of species selection probably does not resolve the problem of the origin of the higher taxonomic groups (p. 96).8 Further, punctuated equilibrium has not addressed the more specific and fundamental problem of explaining the origin of the new biological information (whether genetic or epigenetic) necessary to produce novel biological form. Advocates of punctuated equilibrium might assume that the new species (upon which natural selection acts) arise by known microevolutionary processes of speciation (such as founder effect, genetic drift or bottleneck effect) that do not necessarily depend upon mutations to produce adaptive changes. But, in that case, the theory lacks an account of how the specifically higher taxa arise. Species selection will only produce more fit species. On the other hand, if punctuationalists assume that processes of genetic mutation can produce more fundamental morphological changes and variations, then their model becomes subject to the same problems as neo-Darwinism (see above). This dilemma is evident in Gould (2002:710) insofar as his attempts to explain adaptive complexity inevitably employ classical neo-Darwinian modes of explanation.9StructuralismAnother attempt to explain the origin of form has been proposed by the structuralists such as Gerry Webster and Brian Goodwin (1984, 1996). These biologists, drawing on the earlier work of D'Arcy Thompson (1942), view biological form as the result of structural constraints imposed upon matter by morphogenetic rules or laws. For reasons similar to those discussed above, the structuralists have insisted that these generative or morphogenetic rules do not reside in the lower level building materials of organisms, whether in genes or proteins. Webster and Goodwin (1984:510-511) further envisioned morphogenetic rules or laws operating ahistorically, similar to the way in which gravitational or electromagnetic laws operate. For this reason, structuralists see phylogeny as of secondary importance in understanding the origin of the higher taxa, though they think that transformations of form can occur. For structuralists, constraints on the arrangement of matter arise not mainly as the result of historical contingencies--such as environmental changes or genetic mutations--but instead because of the continuous ahistorical operation of fundamental laws of form--laws that organize or inform matter.While this approach avoids many of the difficulties currently afflicting neo-Darwinism (in particular those associated with its “genocentricity”), critics (such as Maynard Smith 1986) of structuralism have argued that the structuralist explanation of form lacks specificity. They note that structuralists have been unable to say just where laws of form reside--whether in the universe, or in every possible world, or in organisms as a whole, or in just some part of organisms. Further, according to structuralists, morphogenetic laws are mathematical in character. Yet, structuralists have yet to specify the mathematical formulae that determine biological forms.Others (Yockey 1992; Polanyi 1967, 1968; Meyer 2003) have questioned whether physical laws could in principle generate the kind of complexity that characterizes biological systems. Structuralists envision the existence of biological laws that produce form in much the same way that physical laws produce form. Yet the forms that physicists regard as manifestations of underlying laws are characterized by large amounts of symmetric or redundant order, by relatively simple patterns such as vortices or gravitational fields or magnetic lines of force. Indeed, physical laws are typically expressed as differential equations (or algorithms) that almost by definition describe recurring phenomena--patterns of compressible “order” not “complexity” as defined by algorithmic information theory (Yockey 1992:77-83). Biological forms, by contrast, manifest greater complexity and derive in ontogeny from highly complex initial conditions--i.e., non-redundant sequences of nucleotide bases in the genome and other forms of information expressed in the complex and irregular three-dimensional topography of the organism or the fertilized egg. Thus, the kind of form that physical laws produce is not analogous to biological form--at least not when compared from the standpoint of (algorithmic) complexity. Further, physical laws lack the information content to specify biology systems. As Polyanyi (1967, 1968) and Yockey (1992:290) have shown, the laws of physics and chemistry allow, but do not determine, distinctively biological modes of organization. In other words, living systems are consistent with, but not deducible, from physical-chemical laws (1992:290).Of course, biological systems do manifest some reoccurring patterns, processes and behaviors. The same type of organism develops repeatedly from similar ontogenetic processes in the same species. Similar processes of cell division reoccur in many organisms. Thus, one might describe certain biological processes as law-governed. Even so, the existence of such biological regularities does not solve the problem of the origin of form and information, since the recurring processes described by such biological laws (if there be such laws) only occur as the result of preexisting stores of (genetic and/or epigenetic) information and these information-rich initial conditions impose the constraints that produce the recurring behavior in biological systems. (For example, processes of cell division recur with great frequency in organisms, but depend upon information-rich DNA and proteins molecules.) In other words, distinctively biological regularities depend upon preexisting biological information. Thus, appeals to higher-level biological laws presuppose, but do not explain, the origination of the information necessary to morphogenesis.Thus, structuralism faces a difficult in principle dilemma. On the one hand, physical laws produce very simple redundant patterns that lack the complexity characteristic of biological systems. On the other hand, distinctively biological laws--if there are such laws--depend upon preexisting information-rich structures. In either case, laws are not good candidates for explaining the origination of biological form or the information necessary to produce it.Cladism: An Artifact of Classification?Some cladists have advanced another approach to the problem of the origin of form, specifically as it arises in the Cambrian. They have argued that the problem of the origin of the phyla is an artifact of the classification system, and therefore, does not require explanation. Budd and Jensen (2000), for example, argue that the problem of the Cambrian explosion resolves itself if one keeps in mind the cladistic distinction between “stem” and “crown” groups. Since crown groups arise whenever new characters are added to simpler more ancestral stem groups during the evolutionary process, new phyla will inevitably arise once a new stem group has arisen. Thus, for Budd and Jensen what requires explanation is not the crown groups corresponding to the new Cambrian phyla, but the earlier more primitive stem groups that presumably arose deep in the Proterozoic. Yet since these earlier stem groups are by definition less derived, explaining them will be considerably easier than explaining the origin of the Cambrian animals de novo. In any case, for Budd and Jensen the explosion of new phyla in the Cambrian does not require explanation. As they put it, “given that the early branching points of major clades is an inevitable result of clade diversification, the alleged phenomenon of the phyla appearing early and remaining morphologically static is not seen to require particular explanation” (Budd & Jensen 2000:253).While superficially plausible, perhaps, Budd and Jensen's attempt to explain away the Cambrian explosion begs crucial questions. Granted, as new characters are added to existing forms, novels morphology and greater morphological disparity will likely result. But what causes new characters to arise? And how does the information necessary to produce new characters originate? Budd and Jensen do not specify. Nor can they say how derived the ancestral forms are likely to have been, and what processes, might have been sufficient to produce them. Instead, they simply assume the sufficiency of known neo-Darwinian mechanisms (Budd & Jensen 2000:288). Yet, as shown above, this assumption is now problematic. In any case, Budd and Jensen do not explain what causes the origination of biological form and information.Convergence and Teleological EvolutionMore recently, Conway Morris (2000, 2003c) has suggested another possible explanation based on the tendency for evolution to converge on the same structural forms during the history of life. Conway Morris cites numerous examples of organisms that possess very similar forms and structures, even though such structures are often built from different material substrates and arise (in ontogeny) by the expression of very different genes. Given the extreme improbability of the same structures arising by random mutation and selection in disparate phylogenies, Conway Morris argues that the pervasiveness of convergent structures suggests that evolution may be in some way “channeled” toward similar functional and/or structural endpoints. Such an end-directed understanding of evolution, he admits, raises the controversial prospect of a teleological or purposive element in the history of life. For this reason, he argues that the phenomenon of convergence has received less attention than it might have otherwise. Nevertheless, he argues that just as physicists have reopened the question of design in their discussions of anthropic fine-tuning, the ubiquity of convergent structures in the history of life has led some biologists (Denton 1998) to consider extending teleological thinking to biology. And, indeed, Conway Morris himself intimates that the evolutionary process might be “underpinned by a purpose” (2000:8, 2003b:511).Conway Morris, of course, considers this possibility in relation to a very specific aspect of the problem of organismal form, namely, the problem of explaining why the same forms arise repeatedly in so many disparate lines of decent. But this raises a question. Could a similar approach shed explanatory light on the more general causal question that has been addressed in this review? Could the notion of purposive design help provide a more adequate explanation for the origin of organismal form generally? Are there reasons to consider design as an explanation for the origin of the biological information necessary to produce the higher taxa and their corresponding morphological novelty?The remainder of this review will suggest that there are such reasons. In so doing, it may also help explain why the issue of teleology or design has reemerged within the scientific discussion of biological origins (Denton 1986, 1998; Thaxton et al. 1992; Kenyon & Mills 1996: Behe 1996, 2004; Dembski 1998, 2002, 2004; Conway Morris 2000, 2003a, 2003b, Lonnig 2001; Lonnig & Saedler 2002; Nelson & Wells 2003; Meyer 2003, 2004; Bradley 2004) and why some scientists and philosophers of science have considered teleological explanations for the origin of form and information despite strong methodological prohibitions against design as a scientific hypothesis (Gillespie 1979, Lenior 1982:4).First, the possibility of design as an explanation follows logically from a consideration of the deficiencies of neo-Darwinism and other current theories as explanations for some of the more striking “appearances of design” in biological systems. Neo-Darwinists such as Ayala (1994:5), Dawkins (1986:1), Mayr (1982:xi-xii) and Lewontin (1978) have long acknowledged that organisms appear to have been designed. Of course, neo-Darwinists assert that what Ayala (1994:5) calls the “obvious design” of living things is only apparent since the selection/mutation mechanism can explain the origin of complex form and organization in living systems without an appeal to a designing agent. Indeed, neo-Darwinists affirm that mutation and selection--and perhaps other similarly undirected mechanisms--are fully sufficient to explain the appearance of design in biology. Self-organizational theorists and punctuationalists modify this claim, but affirm its essential tenet. Self-organization theorists argue that natural selection acting on self organizing order can explain the complexity of living things--again, without any appeal to design. Punctuationalists similarly envision natural selection acting on newly arising species with no actual design involved.And clearly, the neo-Darwinian mechanism does explain many appearances of design, such as the adaptation of organisms to specialized environments that attracted the interest of 19th century biologists. More specifically, known microevolutionary processes appear quite sufficient to account for changes in the size of Galapagos finch beaks that have occurred in response to variations in annual rainfall and available food supplies (Weiner 1994, Grant 1999).But does neo-Darwinism, or any other fully materialistic model, explain all appearances of design in biology, including the body plans and information that characterize living systems? Arguably, biological forms--such as the structure of a chambered nautilus, the organization of a trilobite, the functional integration of parts in an eye or molecular machine--attract our attention in part because the organized complexity of such systems seems reminiscent of our own designs. Yet, this review has argued that neo-Darwinism does not adequately account for the origin of all appearances of design, especially if one considers animal body plans, and the information necessary to construct them, as especially striking examples of the appearance of design in living systems. Indeed, Dawkins (1995:11) and Gates (1996:228) have noted that genetic information bears an uncanny resemblance to computer software or machine code. For this reason, the presence of CSI in living organisms, and the discontinuous increases of CSI that occurred during events such as the Cambrian explosion, appears at least suggestive of design.Does neo-Darwinism or any other purely materialistic model of morphogenesis account for the origin of the genetic and other forms of CSI necessary to produce novel organismal form? If not, as this review has argued, could the emergence of novel information-rich genes, proteins, cell types and body plans have resulted from actual design, rather than a purposeless process that merely mimics the powers of a designing intelligence? The logic of neo-Darwinism, with its specific claim to have accounted for the appearance of design, would itself seem to open the door to this possibility. Indeed, the historical formulation of Darwinism in dialectical opposition to the design hypothesis (Gillespie 1979), coupled with the neo-Darwinism's inability to account for many salient appearances of design including the emergence of form and information, would seem logically to reopen the possibility of actual (as opposed to apparent) design in the history of life.A second reason for considering design as an explanation for these phenomena follows from the importance of explanatory power to scientific theory evaluation and from a consideration of the potential explanatory power of the design hypothesis. Studies in the methodology and philosophy of science have shown that many scientific theories, particularly in the historical sciences, are formulated and justified as inferences to the best explanation (Lipton 1991:32-88, Brush 1989:1124-1129, Sober 2000:44). Historical scientists, in particular, assess or test competing hypotheses by evaluating which hypothesis would, if true, provide the best explanation for some set of relevant data (Meyer 1991, 2002; Cleland 2001:987-989, 2002:474-496).10 Those with greater explanatory power are typically judged to be better, more probably true, theories. Darwin (1896:437) used this method of reasoning in defending his theory of universal common descent. Moreover, contemporary studies on the method of “inference to the best explanation” have shown that determining which among a set of competing possible explanations constitutes the best depends upon judgments about the causal adequacy, or “causal powers,” of competing explanatory entities (Lipton 1991:32-88). In the historical sciences, uniformitarian and/or actualistic (Gould 1965, Simpson 1970, Rutten 1971, Hooykaas 1975) canons of method suggest that judgments about causal adequacy should derive from our present knowledge of cause and effect relationships. For historical scientists, “the present is the key to the past” means that present experience-based knowledge of cause and effect relationships typically guides the assessment of the plausibility of proposed causes of past events.Yet it is precisely for this reason that current advocates of the design hypothesis want to reconsider design as an explanation for the origin of biological form and information. This review, and much of the literature it has surveyed, suggests that four of the most prominent models for explaining the origin of biological form fail to provide adequate causal explanations for the discontinuous increases of CSI that are required to produce novel morphologies. Yet, we have repeated experience of rational and conscious agents--in particular ourselves--generating or causing increases in complex specified information, both in the form of sequence-specific lines of code and in the form of hierarchically arranged systems of parts.In the first place, intelligent human agents--in virtue of their rationality and consciousness--have demonstrated the power to produce information in the form of linear sequence-specific arrangements of characters. Indeed, experience affirms that information of this type routinely arises from the activity of intelligent agents. A computer user who traces the information on a screen back to its source invariably comes to a mind--that of a software engineer or programmer. The information in a book or inscriptions ultimately derives from a writer or scribe--from a mental, rather than a strictly material, cause. Our experience-based knowledge of information-flow confirms that systems with large amounts of specified complexity (especially codes and languages) invariably originate from an intelligent source from a mind or personal agent. As Quastler (1964) put it, the “creation of new information is habitually associated with conscious activity” (p. 16). Experience teaches this obvious truth.Further, the highly specified hierarchical arrangements of parts in animal body plans also suggest design, again because of our experience of the kinds of features and systems that designers can and do produce. At every level of the biological hierarchy, organisms require specified and highly improbable arrangements of lower-level constituents in order to maintain their form and function. Genes require specified arrangements of nucleotide bases; proteins require specified arrangements of amino acids; new cell types require specified arrangements of systems of proteins; body plans require specialized arrangements of cell types and organs. Organisms not only contain information-rich components (such as proteins and genes), but they comprise information-rich arrangements of those components and the systems that comprise them. Yet we know, based on our present experience of cause and effect relationships, that design engineers--possessing purposive intelligence and rationality--have the ability to produce information-rich hierarchies in which both individual modules and the arrangements of those modules exhibit complexity and specificity--information so defined. Individual transistors, resistors, and capacitors exhibit considerable complexity and specificity of design; at a higher level of organization, their specific arrangement within an integrated circuit represents additional information and reflects further design. Conscious and rational agents have, as part of their powers of purposive intelligence, the capacity to design information-rich parts and to organize those parts into functional information-rich systems and hierarchies. Further, we know of no other causal entity or process that has this capacity. Clearly, we have good reason to doubt that mutation and selection, self-organizational processes or laws of nature, can produce the information-rich components, systems, and body plans necessary to explain the origination of morphological novelty such as that which arises in the Cambrian period.There is a third reason to consider purpose or design as an explanation for the origin of biological form and information: purposive agents have just those necessary powers that natural selection lacks as a condition of its causal adequacy. At several points in the previous analysis, we saw that natural selection lacked the ability to generate novel information precisely because it can only act after new functional CSI has arisen. Natural selection can favor new proteins, and genes, but only after they perform some function. The job of generating new functional genes, proteins and systems of proteins therefore falls entirely to random mutations. Yet without functional criteria to guide a search through the space of possible sequences, random variation is probabilistically doomed. What is needed is not just a source of variation (i.e., the freedom to search a space of possibilities) or a mode of selection that can operate after the fact of a successful search, but instead a means of selection that (a) operates during a search--before success--and that (b) is guided by information about, or knowledge of, a functional target.Demonstration of this requirement has come from an unlikely quarter: genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms are programs that allegedly simulate the creative power of mutation and selection. Dawkins and Kuppers, for example, have developed computer programs that putatively simulate the production of genetic information by mutation and natural selection (Dawkins 1986:47-49, Kuppers 1987:355-369). Nevertheless, as shown elsewhere (Meyer 1998:127-128, 2003:247-248), these programs only succeed by the illicit expedient of providing the computer with a “target sequence” and then treating relatively greater proximity to future function (i.e., the target sequence), not actual present function, as a selection criterion. As Berlinski (2000) has argued, genetic algorithms need something akin to a “forward looking memory” in order to succeed. Yet such foresighted selection has no analogue in nature. In biology, where differential survival depends upon maintaining function, selection cannot occur before new functional sequences arise. Natural selection lacks foresight.What natural selection lacks, intelligent selection--purposive or goal-directed design--provides. Rational agents can arrange both matter and symbols with distant goals in mind. In using language, the human mind routinely “finds” or generates highly improbable linguistic sequences to convey an intended or preconceived idea. In the process of thought, functional objectives precede and constrain the selection of words, sounds and symbols to generate functional (and indeed meaningful) sequences from among a vast ensemble of meaningless alternative combinations of sound or symbol (Denton 1986:309-311). Similarly, the construction of complex technological objects and products, such as bridges, circuit boards, engines and software, result from the application of goal-directed constraints (Polanyi 1967, 1968). Indeed, in all functionally integrated complex systems where the cause is known by experience or observation, design engineers or other intelligent agents applied boundary constraints to limit possibilities in order to produce improbable forms, sequences or structures. Rational agents have repeatedly demonstrated the capacity to constrain the possible to actualize improbable but initially unrealized future functions. Repeated experience affirms that intelligent agents (minds) uniquely possess such causal powers.Analysis of the problem of the origin of biological information, therefore, exposes a deficiency in the causal powers of natural selection that corresponds precisely to powers that agents are uniquely known to possess. Intelligent agents have foresight. Such agents can select functional goals before they exist. They can devise or select material means to accomplish those ends from among an array of possibilities and then actualize those goals in accord with a preconceived design plan or set of functional requirements. Rational agents can constrain combinatorial space with distant outcomes in mind. The causal powers that natural selection lacks--almost by definition--are associated with the attributes of consciousness and rationality--with purposive intelligence. Thus, by invoking design to explain the origin of new biological information, contemporary design theorists are not positing an arbitrary explanatory element unmotivated by a consideration of the evidence. Instead, they are positing an entity possessing precisely the attributes and causal powers that the phenomenon in question requires as a condition of its production and explanation.ConclusionAn experience-based analysis of the causal powers of various explanatory hypotheses suggests purposive or intelligent design as a causally adequate--and perhaps the most causally adequate--explanation for the origin of the complex specified information required to build the Cambrian animals and the novel forms they represent. For this reason, recent scientific interest in the design hypothesis is unlikely to abate as biologists continue to wrestle with the problem of the origination of biological form and the higher taxa.

Evolution's Shortcomings

2004-11-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

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Standard Evolutionary Theory
Has Shortcomings
By: Henry Schaefer
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
September 28, 2002
See at: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As a theorist who uses quantum mechanics to solve problems ranging from biochemistry to astrophysics, the subject of this essay is of great interest to me. It is a question that is discussed in depth in my University of Georgia freshman seminar entitled “Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence?” This autumn 18 gifted UGA students and I are spending six weeks examining Stephen Hawking’s best-selling book “A Brief History of Time.” Therein Hawking states, “A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements. It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements. And it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations.”I consider Hawking’s statement to be an excellent definition of a good theory. How does evolution stack up to the two demands of a good theory? By the term “evolution,” I mean the claim that random mutations and natural selection can fully account for the complexity of life, and particularly macroscopic living things.I think that the standard evolutionary model does a good job of categorizing and systematizing the fossil record. It serves as an effective umbrella or big tent under which to collect a large number of observations. If evolution has a weakness in this regard, it is that the tent is too big. Thus the 20th century witnessed a series of hoaxes, beginning in 1908 with Piltdown Man and continuing to recent fabricated fossil “discoveries” in China, that have been embraced as missing links by distinguished paleontologists.Nevertheless, I give evolution a B grade with respect to Hawking’s first category.The second requirement for a good theory is far more problematical for the standard evolutionary model, sometimes called the modern synthesis. Over the past 150 years evolutionary theorists have made countless predictions about fossil specimens to be observed in the future.Unfortunately for these seers, many new fossils have been discovered, and the interesting ones almost always seem to be contrary to the “best” predictions. This is sometimes true even when the predictions are rather vague, as seen by the continuing controversies associated with the purported relationships between dinosaurs and birds.Is the expectation that a good theory be predictive unrealistic? Let us consider two theories to which evolution is often favorably compared. The theory of gravity precisely predicted the appearances of Halley’s comet in 1910 and 1986. On the latter occasion I was on sabbatical from Berkeley at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. The newspaper (informed by classical mechanics and the law of gravity) told me exactly when I had to wake up in the middle of the night to enjoy the wonder of Halley’s Comet. And in fact, the theory of gravity never fails for the macroscopic objects to which it is applicable.A second successful theory, the atomic theory, is grounded in Schroedinger’s Equation and the Dirac Equation. Atomic theory is able to make many predictions of the spectra of the hydrogen molecule and the helium atom to more significant figures that may be currently measured in the laboratory. We are utterly confident that these predictions will be confirmed by future experiments.By any reasonable standard the theory of gravity and the atomic theory are good theories, well deserving of A grades. In comparison with these quantitative theories of the physical sciences, when it comes to Hawking’s second requirement for a good theory, the standard evolutionary model fails, and should be given a D grade at best. Might I be more detailed in stating my reservations concerning the standard evolutionary model? Sure. Let me preface these brief remarks by noting that I think the scientific evidence that God created the universe 13-15 billion years ago is good.My first concern is that, with the collapse of the Miller-Urey model, there is no plausible scientific mechanism for the origin of life, i.e., the appearance of the first self-replicating biochemical system. The staggeringly high information content of the simplest living thing is not readily explained by evolutionists.Second, the time frame for speciation events seems all wrong to me. The major feature of the fossil record is stasis, long periods in which new species do not appear. When new developments occur, they come rapidly, not gradually.My third area of reservation is that I find no satisfactory mechanism for macroevolutionary changes. Analogies between a few inches of change in the beaks of a Galapagos finch species and a purported transition from dinosaur to bird (or vice versa) appear to me inappropriate.

The High Cost of Ignorance

2004-11-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

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Watching a well-known television news—commentary program recently, I was quite surprised at an exchange between the host and his guest. Although the host openly professes to be Christian and belongs to a major mainline denomination, he utterly rejected his guest's reference to the Old Testament to support his point. "That's all just allegorical," the host snorted. "It doesn't mean anything for us today." When the guest then tried to quote from one of Paul's epistles, the host interrupted again. "That's not the gospel," he snapped.
How sad, I thought, that such a nationally known and respected figure can so casually dismiss the Old Testament—about three quarters of the entire Bible—as "just allegorical" and irrelevant and then turn around and dismiss more than half of what's left over with "that's not the gospel."
It's this kind of thinking that prompted the theme of this issue—that the Bible is always relevant and a book for all mankind, for all ages.
Few people have ever considered the Bible a reliable guide for proper diet and good physical and mental health. Yet scattered throughout its pages are priceless laws and principles that would literally save millions of lives every year—if people would only pay attention to them.
Consider, for a moment, one of today's deadliest killers, AIDS. Probably a week doesn't go by that you don't see the disease mentioned in the headlines or referred to on the evening news. It is the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide. Yet AIDS is entirely preventable and wouldn't even exist if people only lived according to the laws revealed in the Bible.
How did the AIDS epidemic begin? No one knows for sure, but now we know that African green monkeys carry a related virus naturally in their blood. Several decades ago the virus jumped to human beings, apparently when hunters killed and butchered infected monkeys for food. Once it entered the human bloodstream, the virus proved deadly and unstoppable.
But it need not have started there, and wouldn't have, if people obeyed God's laws that forbid eating the flesh of apes—a biblically designated "unclean" animal. God's Word clearly states that the flesh of some animals should never be eaten (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14).
So AIDS could have ended there. But it didn't. Those who were initially infected had sexual relations with their spouses—but also with others. In violating God's laws forbidding adultery (Exodus 20:14), those who were infected unknowingly passed on a death sentence to their unsuspecting sexual partners. Some of them, in turn, passed it on to others.
In the Western world the disease—still unnamed and unidentified—was first noticed in homosexual men, among whom it was spreading like wildfire. Researchers soon discovered that common homosexual practices were highly effective ways to spread the deadly virus. Such behavior is condemned in the Bible (Leviticus 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
In most other countries AIDS spread as a heterosexual disease (between men and women). Prostitution, extramarital and premarital sex—all violations of God's commands—saw to it that the epidemic would continue its grim march around the globe. Another factor—sharing syringes to inject illegal drugs—also played a significant role.
Now, because of all of these factors, AIDS is firmly entrenched throughout the world. At any of these stages along the way, the disease could have been confined so that it would have died out within a generation—had not people persisted in disobeying God's laws. The sins of others have affected many innocent people as well, including babies, spouses, and hemophiliacs who received tainted blood transfusions.
The world spends some $60 billion a year treating AIDS, educating people about it and trying to slow its advance. It has already taken some 20 million lives; another 36 million live under its death sentence.
That's a terribly costly price to pay for ignorance. Isn't it about time we paid attention to what God says?
—Scott Ashley

Did God Create Evil People?

2004-11-16T13:02:00.000-08:00

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Viewing the suffering around the globe caused by evil leaders is discouraging. Some countries are run by outright drug lords. Others are ruled by leaders who abuse their own people. Saddam Hussein has become a poster boy of the evil tyrant in the 21st century just as Hitler and Stalin were in the 20th. Why would a good God create such evil people?
by Gary Petty
Just over a century ago the Wright brothers got the first airplane off the ground. Could they have ever imagined that someday men would stand on the moon?
Medical science has made enormous strides in dealing with human diseases and injuries. In economically advanced nations we take for granted the automobile, television, electricity, air travel and computers.
In spite of all this scientific wonder, the last century witnessed the evil of Auschwitz, communist totalitarianism, the rise of terrorism in the name of religion and the use of technology as a tool of despotism.
Christianity rightly claims that each person has value and is a special creation of the Creator. Then why do people commit heinous crimes? Did God create people evil?
Over the millennia many thinking people have struggled with this dilemma. There's a wonder and beauty to human life, but there is also a terrible evil that plagues mankind.
When we look at what makes us different from animals, the gulf is enormous. Prairie dogs burrow, human beings construct skyscrapers. Sparrows chirp simple musical notes, human beings compose symphonies. Horses learn to answer what is two plus two by pounding a hoof four times, human beings calculate the distance between galaxies in light years.
At the same time, prairie dogs, sparrows and horses don't manufacture nerve gas and use it to murder their own kind. The irony is that our uniqueness of consciousness, creativity and ability to think in abstracts are the same abilities that give us the capability for unimaginable evil.
Did God plan to make people evil?
The biblical account of creation shows that the first human beings originally displayed no evil thoughts or actions. They lived in harmony with their Creator and with each other.
The Bible reveals that human beings were made in the image and likeness of God. This is why we have the ability to love, to reason and to feel and express complex emotions.
God also gave us something else. Along with reasoning—and the capacity to look at facts and come to conclusions—comes the power to choose. We make hundreds of reasoned choices each day. We decide what to wear and pick what we'll have for lunch. We determine which projects get priority. We also choose which thoughts we'll consider and which ones we'll discard, how we'll deal with our emotions and what actions we'll take in treating others.
In this way human beings have the capacity to choose between good and evil. We can choose to control our anger or we can choose to burn down our neighbor's house in revenge. The issue of choice is a complex human activity, but freedom of choice explains why human beings can be both good and evil.
Why would anyone choose evil?
We are born with a few inherent instincts. One is self-preservation. If we didn't have a will to survive, the entire race would've died off millennia ago. We also want to avoid unpleasant experiences. No one wants to feel physical pain or the discomfort of being cold or hungry. No one wants to feel emotionally rejected or made to feel worthless by others. We also want to feel good. We desire to please our five senses.
The instinct for self-preservation, need for food and shelter, and desire to please the senses aren't evil. But how we choose to fulfill those desires can be good or evil.
It really comes down to how much we're motivated by selfishness. It's hard to accept that all the evil in the world comes down to something so simple. Selfishness is the root of evil.
Because of the intensity of our instinct for self-preservation and our desire for fulfillment of the senses, each person tends to see himself or herself as the center of the universe. Yet the more a person is motivated by unbridled selfishness, the more hurtful his or her choices will be.
It's easy to see evil in people like Saddam Hussein, who on a national scale exerted selfishness on others through force and violence. It's much more difficult to come to grips with the selfishness that lies within each of us.
The more we focus on our selfish desires, the less we are able to recognize or understand our own faults and to experience concern for the welfare of others. The more a person is controlled by selfishness, the more that person shifts responsibility for his or her actions to others.
The introduction of evil
In our supposedly enlightened society we've relegated Satan to the status of myth. According to the Bible, however, Satan the devil most assuredly is a real being. He is a created angel who rebelled against God and became His—and mankind's—adversary.
When Satan chose to reject God, his character became the opposite of the Creator's. Where God's focus is love and peace, Satan's is hate and violence. Where God is outward in His concern for others, the devil is inward and selfish in every thought and action.
In the Genesis account, Satan tempts Eve with the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:6 says that Eve "saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise . . ." Eve was motivated by three human drives that have the capacity to produce evil.
She was motivated by the fact that the fruit was "good for food"—appealing to her need for self-preservation. It "was pleasant to the eyes"—pleasing to the senses. And it was "desirable to make one wise." Human beings are designed with a wonderful sense of curiosity—a desire to know and acquire understanding.
Eve knew God had forbidden them to eat of the fruit of this particular tree. Satan lied and told her that God was holding back something good. Her natural, morally neutral tendencies were now twisted into selfishness. Eve now wanted to satisfy her self-centered need for pleasure and intellectual superiority. Adam was motivated by the same selfishness. Once they disobeyed God, they immediately began to experience life on Satan's level.
Their human nature became a mixture of good and evil. The evil in them, and in all of us, is a reflection of the devil's evil nature and is the opposite of what God intended for us.
Biblical clarification of human nature
The apostle John, writing near the end of the first century, writes about three human motivations—"the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). John sees the evil in human beings as rooted in the motivations of self-preservation, fulfillment of the five senses and this need to feel superior to others. This is just another way of stating Eve's motivations as recorded in Genesis.
We find another revealing passage in chapter 2 of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. There he describes Satan as "the prince of the power of the air" (verse 2).
Paul recognized Satan's ability to "broadcast" attitudes of anger, hatred, greed and lust—influencing human beings with all the negative, destructive aspects of his nature. Human minds are like radios that are tuned into his thoughts and emotions. Satan appeals to our desire for self-preservation and self-fulfillment, and every person takes on some of his nature.
Can a person change?
Much of human history is bleak. Sadly, all too often it is a chronicle of man's inhumanity to man, war, crime, racism and waste of human life.
Many people spend their lives making money and never have enough. Others have countless sexual encounters only to end up feeling empty and dying from a sexually transmitted disease. The world is dotted with grand cathedrals and megachurches where people go to be entertained and feel good about themselves, but their nature of lust and greed stays the same. Unless human nature is changed, religion is nothing more than a show.
People can undergo behavioral modification, but changing their essential nature requires an added spiritual dimension. Only God can change the core of our being. The central message of Jesus Christ is that wayward human beings can be forgiven of their sins and can have their nature changed.
The apostle Paul writes to members of the Church in Ephesians 2:1-3: "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."
Paul says that these Christians were going through a dramatic change of life and were no longer "by nature children of wrath." In verse 10 Paul explains that "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Human beings are the only physical creatures still unfinished. Dogs are dogs. Birds are birds. They are complete creations that can only adapt to a new environment in limited ways. On the other hand, human beings are searching for meaning. We can and do grow emotionally, mentally and socially.
One of the most incredible concepts revealed in the Bible is that salvation is creation. Although it is the foundational first step in our salvation, the Messiah didn't come to earth just to die for the forgiveness of sins. God's forgiveness opens the door for human beings to have a relationship with their Creator and begin the growth process to become what God intended us to be.
The world of violence, poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, drive-by shootings and broken marriages isn't the world God created for us. We've done this to ourselves, with Satan's help. It will never get better until each of us is willing to recognize the evil of our own selfishness.
Remember that self-preservation, desire to fulfill the senses and curiosity to acquire knowledge aren't evil. But these aspects of our nature have been twisted into self-centeredness. The driving force in so much of what people say and do is in the pursuit of things, feeling good and claiming superiority to others.
What we're missing
The great irony is that selfishness is amazingly self-destructive. The more we obsess on satisfying self through possessions, status, sex or any other purely physical means, the more unsatisfied we become. Human beings can never experience real happiness without dealing with the spiritual side of our nature.
Once Satan awakens selfishness in us, we are unable to fully control our own desires and emotions. We need help from outside ourselves. We can never come into a close relationship with the Creator until we recognize our moral helplessness.
There's a fascinating passage in 1 Corinthians 2 where the apostle Paul writes about the uniqueness of the human spirit. Today we would call this spirit the mind, which is the capacity for conscious thought and emotions. Paul then makes a remarkable statement in verse 11: "For what man knows the things of a man except [by] the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except [by] the Spirit of God."
God wants to transform our corrupted nature into divine nature. When we repent and sincerely want to change, God takes a "piece" of Himself, His Spirit—His unselfish nature, His mind, His pure love—and places that inside our minds to change how we think and feel.
Baptism symbolizes major change
It is a travesty that in so much of Christianity today baptism has become an unimportant and often-ignored doctrine. Yet Jesus clearly commanded His followers to be baptized as a symbol of God's washing away of their sins. Paul also explained that baptism represented putting to death the old man and being raised to a new life, empowered to become like Christ through the help of God's Spirit (Romans 6, 8).
Another New Testament symbol that has been all but forgotten is the laying on of hands. In the early Church a person was baptized and then the elders of the Church laid hands on him or her so that through them God would then place His Holy Spirit within the newly baptized persons (Acts 8:17). The New Testament is filled with instructions about how a Spirit-led Christian then becomes a "new man" (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10).
Many people profess Christ, but afterwards remain the same person. The "come to Jesus just as you are" message may have appeal, but if a person truly accepts Christ then he knows he must make changes to become a "new man." Corrupted human nature is unfit to spend eternity in God's Kingdom. This physical life is the preparation ground for eternity.
All of us experience good and evil, and in the process we become a mixture of good and evil. We can be saved from the evil only by what God is doing through Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins and as the model for our character. We Christians struggle with selfishness as long as we possess elements of human nature, but if we submit to God's creative process then we can literally be His children forever in His Kingdom.
The hardest thing to admit
The notorious gangster Al Capone once said: "I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man."
People who are totally controlled by their own selfishness don't realize that their actions are morally wrong. They believe they deserve to please their senses no matter what the cost is to others. The reality is that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
But God didn't create the evil world we live in. Nor did He create the devil, the unrealized and unseen evil influence that affects us all. God is the only solution to our problems. The sickness of selfishness lies within mankind and can only be solved through a miraculous change in human nature.
But that change can begin with you! If you're tired of the struggle for meaning and purpose, then it's time you asked God to start His creative process of salvation within you.
Jesus Christ promised His disciples that He was leaving to prepare a place for them, but that He would return to establish His Father's Kingdom on earth. This is a call to those who wish to be citizens of that Kingdom. God wants you to be His child. Are you willing to come to Him as your Father? GN

....and if we should fail?

2004-11-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

Dhimmitude is the ultimate fate of any people who fall to the terrorists. It is the reason we need to take this war seriously. Apparently 51% of Americans do understand. Do you?

Rich Terrorists or Poor Terrorists?

2004-11-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

So do these guys become Jihadists because of poverty or is it something else?

Many left-liberal critics postulate that Islamist terror is a backlash against economic inequality and social injustice.

In other words, if Osama and al-Zarqawi had had a dream mansion in their youth, with a large screen TV, a remote control, a play station and an indoor swimming pool, then neither of them would have become very interested in a holy jihad against the West. Right?

The only problem with this picture is that, as the empirical evidence suggests, when it comes to a significant number of the Islamist jihadists, poverty is something that eluded them all of their lives. These terrorists come from wealthy, educated, and privileged backgrounds. They have been the beneficiaries of all the luxuries of modernization and Westernization. . .which they ultimately despise and reject.

What do you make of this phenomenon? Prof. Mansur why don’t we begin with you?

Go read the rest here.

Gospels tell of true Jesus, says Canadian scholar

2004-11-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

Mainstream academics are increasingly confident about the historical portrait of Jesus in the gospels, says a prominent Canadian scholar -- despite the skeptical headlines generated by a few celebrity theologians. "If you bracket off the Jesus Seminar -- and they grab all the headlines -- the work of the last 30 years has given us much greater confidence that the gospels can yield a coherent, historically accurate portrait of Jesus," said Craig Evans, Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S. "The half-dozen leaders and three-dozen members of the Jesus Seminar create the impression the scholarship is seriously divided. But I've been at annual meetings of the Institute for Biblical Research, with hundreds of scholars, and no one can take their outrageous claims seriously any more. "The trend -- from archeology, new literary discoveries and reassessing the cultural context -- is to see the gospel as essentially reliable. Our understanding of Jesus is more nuanced, more Jewish and more unpredictable." Evans, the author of 14 books (including the Dictionary of New Testament Background), was delivering the University of Calgary's annual Bental Lecture on Education and Theology, Monday, at Northmount Baptist Church. Before a packed house of over 250 academics, students and laymen, he addressed on the topic, "What Are They Saying About the Historical Jesus?" -- the "They" being scholars. Evans began his lecture with a slap at Dan Brown's blockbuster The Da Vinci Code; for all Brown purports to use modern scholarship, "some of his facts are at best dubious and some are demonstrably mistaken," Evans said. However, Brown can be credited with stirring up renewed interest in the historical Jesus -- including the 10 new books refuting him. Scholars' new confidence in the historical accuracy of the gospels has resulted largely from a new appreciation of Jesus' Jewishness, said Evans. This came initially from Jewish scholars like Geza Vermes, with his trilogy, Jesus the Jew. Jesus' Jewishness discredits the theory of celebrity academics John Dominic Crossan and Burton Mack, that he was a cynic philosopher. Though few of the Dead Sea Scrolls are devoted to First century Jewish messianic hopes, the scrolls have clarified those expectations, said Evans, who helped found Trinity Western University's Dead Sea Scrolls Institute in the mid-1990s. And Jesus clearly expressed those hopes. Scroll 4Q521 (fourth Qumran cave, fragment 521), from 100 BC, prophesizes, "when the messiah comes, the good news will be preached to the poor, the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the dead will be raised" -- exactly the message the gospel says Jesus sent to John the Baptist in prison to confirm his messianic identity (Matt 11:3-5). Seeing Jesus as the Jewish messiah must influence how Christians see their saviour, Evans said in a later interview with the Herald: "He wasn't saying, 'Come on, fellows, it's time to go to heaven.' He was saying, 'God's reign is breaking into the world. And God can't abide sin, so it's time to return to the ways of righteousness.' " Both archeology and an appreciation of Jewish culture also discredit Crossan's theory that a crucified criminal would never have been buried -- that Jesus' body would have been thrown to the dogs. The preserved remains of a crucified Jew proves Jewish burial laws applied to criminals. There is cultural credibility in the gospel stories of Jesus' use of Passover imagery for his impending execution, the interaction of Roman and Jewish officials, the Jewish council taking charge of the body, and the women finding the empty tomb -- "careful attention to the tomb would have been exactly what we expected." Addressing the controversy over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ -- particularly the issue, who killed Jesus? -- Evans said the consensus is, "Roman and Jewish authorities working together" in standard imperial procedure. Gibson, however, was "too soft on Pilate," whose hesitation to condemn the troublemaker was simply cynical political caution. The full text of Evan's lecture will be available by mid-November at the website of the Chair of Christian Thought, www.christchair.ucalgary.ca

Source Article

Eroding Evolution's Believability

2004-11-08T11:48:00.000-08:00

Once again, evolutionists strike when the iron is hot in an attempt to affirm the same bogus evolutionary dogma they have crammed down our throats for 150 years. Once again, they've got it wrong. The recent discovery of a dwarf skeleton on the remote Indonesian island of Flores has scientists anxious to create another sub-class of humans. This one is called Homo floresiensis, which implies that they belong to a different species of people than those living today, we Homo sapiens. Researchers found the skull and part of the skeleton of an adult female, plus bones and teeth from seven other individuals. These remains have many features similar to Homo erectus, another so-called human species claimed to be the ape-man of Africa and our subhuman ancestor. Now researchers suggest the Flores bones are dwarfed descendants of Homo erectus. At least with this much I would be willing to agree. According to many experts, "there is so little evidence in Homo erectus specimens outside the range of human variation that they are likely just another type of human resulting from genetic diversification." But the showstopper in the recent discovery of Homo flores came when the 3-foot-tall adult female skeleton was dated as only 18,000 years old. That means this hobbit-like dwarf of a human shatters the long-held scientific belief that Homo sapiens systematically crowded out other upright walking human cousins some 160,000 years ago and took over the human population tens of thousands of years ago. But wait, there's more. This "would-be missing link" between us and the original missing link also happens to have the brain size of a grapefruit, which is 2/3 smaller than ours. It is actually closer to the brain size of a modern day monkey and other pre-human ancestors who purportedly became extinct 2 million years ago. According to authorities, this is what makes the dwarf skeleton the most extreme figure to be included in the extended human family. Chris Stringer, the director of human origins studies at the Natural History Museum in London, said this finding "rewrites our knowledge of human history." In other words, this finding suggests recent evolution was (just had to be) more complex than previously thought. (Now that's an understatement.) Think about the rather recent results from mapping the human genome. They revealed the instructions for creating human life are packed into roughly 35,000 genes, only 15,000 more genes than certain worms and about twice as many as a fruit fly. This discovery alone dramatically increased the complexity of function in DNA necessary to sustain increasingly complex life forms and account for the spontaneous creation and diversification of all species according to traditional notions of evolution. Now add the recent finding of Flores man. He contains a jumble of features that appear borrowed from extinct primitive man. Yet he lived crossing timelines with both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. If previous timelines are to be believed, this indicates dramatic changes in DNA and creation of a new species rather recently – not millions of years ago. It also suggests a lengthy coexistence of two different species of man based on geologic evidence that a massive volcano caused the extinction of Homo flores as recently as 12,000 years ago. None of these possibilities are consistent with traditional evolutionary theory. Confounding evolutionists further, the Flores man had to migrate to the Indonesian island by boat. Yet building a boat to sail on the open sea is traditionally thought to be beyond the intellectual abilities of Homo erectus. Remember, Homo flores has a brain size smaller than even Homo erectus. Additionally, the site of the find gives evidence of controlled use of fire and sophisticated stone tools. All together, these new findings shatter another long-held belief by evolutionists: that you need a particular brain size to do anything intelligent. As for their small body size of the recently found species, it adds no support to evolutionary theory. Nature is full of examples such as deer, elephants and pigs living in marginal, isolated environments that gradually dwarf when food and resources are limited. Dwarfism also exists in the current human population worldwide. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, some of the more famous modern-day dwarfs include actress Tamara de Treaux, who at 2 feet 7 inches tall played ET in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster film. There is also Filipino paratrooper and black-belt martial arts exponent Weng Wang, who measures just 2 feet 9 inches tall. And the shortest married couple was the Brazilian pair Douglas da Silva and Claudia Rocha. When they married in 1998, they were 35 inches and 36 inches, respectively. All contradictions of the traditional theory ignored, evolutionary dogma continues to be shoveled with the dirt that uncovered Homo flores. Yet there is good news. The bones of Homo flores found are apparently not fossilized. That means scientists are hopeful they might yield DNA that could shed the truth on evolutionary theory and the absurdity of human descent from apes by proving Homo flores is genetically human. Just don't look for the retraction of their present claims on the evening news.

Source Article

The World Situation

2004-11-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

This is an anonymous letter. Not sent to me, but it was sent to Hal Lindsey. I'm copying it off of his site and posting it here. Everyone needs to be aware of this.

Dear Tom, Kevin, Kirby and Ted,
As your father, I believe I owe it to you to share some thoughts on the present world situation. We have over the years discussed a lot of important things, like going to college, jobs and so forth. But this really takes precedence over any of those discussions. I hope this might give you a longer term perspective that fewer and fewer of my generation are left to speak to.
To be sure you understand that this is not politically flavored, I will tell you that since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led us through pre and WWII (1933 - 1945) up to and including our present President, I have without exception, supported our presidents on all matters of international conflict.
This would include just naming a few in addition to;
President Roosevelt (D) - WWII:
President Truman (D) - Korean War 1950;
President Kennedy (D) - Bay of Pigs (1961);
President Kennedy (D) - Vietnam (1961);
Eight presidents (5 Republican &4 Democrat) during the cold war (1945 - 1991);
President Clinton's (D) strikes on Bosnia (1995) and on Iraq (1998).
So be sure you read this as completely non-political or otherwise you will miss the point.
Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).
The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.
First, let's examine a few basics:
1. When did the threat to us start?
Many will say September 11th, 2001. The answer as far as the United States is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us: Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979; Beirut, Lebanon Embassy 1983; Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983; Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988; First New York World Trade Center attack 1993; Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996; Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania US Embassy 1998; Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000; New York World Trade Center 2001; Pentagon 2001. (Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide).
2. Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success and our freedoms. The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush #1, Clinton and Bush #2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.
4. Who were the attackers?
In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.
5. What is the Muslim population of the World?
25%
6. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?
Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also a professed Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests).
Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world – German, Christian or any others. Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way – their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else.5 The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing – by their own pronouncements – killing all of us infidels. I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?
6. So who are we at war with?
There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.
So with that background, now to the two major questions;
Can we lose this war?
What does losing really mean?
If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions.
We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question – What does losing mean? It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get. What losing really means is:
We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly to terrorist attack us until we were neutered and submissive to them.
We would of course have no future support from other nations for fear of reprisals. Why? Because if the greatest world-power surrenders to Islamic terrorism, they would realize there is no one else to help them.
They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage.
It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do, will be done. Spain is finished.
The next will probably be France. Our one hope for France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast. See the attached article on the French condition by Tom Segel. 6
If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us if they were threatened by the Muslims. If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else? The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war and therefore are completely committed to winning at any cost. We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.
Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.
So, how can we lose the war? Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by imploding. That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win.
Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation.
President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation.
Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously? This is war. For the duration we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently.
And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII and immediately restored them after the victory and, in fact, added many more since then. Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him? No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.
Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening, it concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause.
Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying.
We have recently had an issue involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war by a small group of our military police. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein. And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason.They are also the same type enemy fighters who recently were burning Americans and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq. And still more recently the same type enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of an American prisoner they held.
Compare this with some of our press and politicians who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the “humiliating” of some Muslim prisoners – not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but “humiliating” them. Can this be for real?
The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can.
To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned – totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world. Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife.
Again I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they absolutely oblivious to the magnitude of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us for many years. Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels. That translates into all non-Muslims – not just in the United States, but throughout the world. We are the last bastion of defense.
We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant'. That charge is valid in at least one respect. We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world.
We can't. If we don't recognize this, our nation as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the World will survive if we are defeated.
And finally, name any Muslim country throughout the world that allows freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for, let alone allowing everyone to have equal status – especially for women, or that has been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the World.
This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire. If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.
If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little on the established French traditions.
The French will be fighting among themselves over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?
Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece. And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.
They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the “peaceful Muslims”?
I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. I believe that after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talking about.
Do whatever you can to preserve it.

The Other Side

2004-11-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

There is always more than one way to look at things! So to be totally fair and balanced, I decided to present you with a different point of view.

I am a senior citizen. During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well-paying job. I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes. Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change for the worse. I lost my job. I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War. I lost my homes. I lost my health insurance. As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless. Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an animal, instead of helping me, they arrested me. I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants to insure that a Democrat is back in the White House come next year. Bush has to go.

Sincerely,

Saddam Hussein

What Some People Say...

2004-10-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

'.... What some people say on earth is that the final loss of one soul gives the lie to all the joy of those who are saved.' 'Ye see it does not.' 'I feel in a way that it ought to.' 'That sounds very merciful: but see what lurks behind it.' 'What?' 'The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs' should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.' 'I don't know what I want, Sir.' 'Son, son, it must be one way or the other. Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves. I know it has a grand sound to say ye'll accept no salvation which leaves even one creature in the dark outside. But watch that sophistry or ye'll make a Dog in a Manger the tyrant of the universe.' 'But dare one say—it is horrible to say—that Pity must ever die?' 'Ye must distinguish. The action of Pity will live for ever: but the passion of Pity will not. The passion of pity, the pity we merely suffer, the ache that draws men to concede what should not be conceded and to flatter when they should speak truth, the pity that has cheated many a woman out of her virginity and many a statesman out of his honesty—that will die. It was used as a weapon by bad men against good ones: their weapon will be broken.' 'And what is the other kind—the action?' 'It's a weapon on the other side. It leaps quicker than light from the highest place to the lowest to bring healing and joy, whatever the cost to itself. It changes darkness into light and evil into good. But it will not, at the cunning tears of Hell, impose on good the tyranny of evil. Every disease that submits to a cure shall be cured: but we will not call blue yellow to please those who insist on still having jaundice, nor make a midden of the world's garden for the sake of some who cannot abide the smell of roses.'

an excerpt from The Great Divorce
by C.S. Lewis

"It's a Continuum"

2004-10-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

I found this excellent post from another blog and I think it's worth a read. Go read it now!

Jesus and Abortion

2004-10-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a few days. It's been pretty busy at work and I haven't had the time. There isn't really much new to talk about. I mainly comment on Jesus and politics. I'm kind of tired of hearing about the election. I'll be glad when it's over with. If you're new here here's what you should be reading:

Evidence the Bible is of Supernatural Origin
The Shroud of Turin
The Origin of Life and the Suppression of Truth
Contacted
The Unexpected King
The Crutches
Gematria
Josephus
Extra Biblical Sources I
Extra Biblical Sources II

If you're interesting in stopping abortion you should look at this. And if you were ever a fetus you should want to stop abortion. The only reason we still have abortion is because the largest unregulated industry in this country is abortion. That money base gives them alot of power over politicians. Just think about it: how much money do you think they give politicians who support abortion? Consider this:

Finally, the Planned Parenthood empire has been built and sustained in large part by money from the U.S. taxpayers. Planned Parenthood's own annual reports indicate that it received $2.2 billion of taxpayer money between 1987 and 2001. Thirty percent ($202.7 million) of Planned Parenthood's income ($672.6 million) in its 2000/01 fiscal year came from government grants or contracts. Incredibly, PPFA made $454 million of profit from 1987 to 2001!

It makes me sick to think they use my tax dollars to pay for genocide. The Democrats are firmly in the pocket of Planned Parenthood so I'm voting straight Republican. Whether you call it karma or sin I don't think you want the weight of that much slaughter for money on your soul.

The Legacy of Vietnam and John Kerry

2004-10-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just read this one.

In 2001 the Vietnam Human Rights Act was introduced in Congress. It tied future U.S. aid to Vietnam to the Hanoi government improving its abysmal human rights record, including persecution of the Montagnards.
It passed the House 410 to 1. But in the Senate, Senator John Kerry locked the bill up in committee and refused to allow it to go the floor for debate and a vote. In effect, Kerry killed the human rights bill, and with it, uncounted more of our most loyal former allies.

Go ahead and read the source story. If you paid any attention to all of the stuff about Bush not showing up for guard duty you should at least know a little about Mr. Kerry.

Kerry: U.S. deaths justified only if on U.N. mission

2004-10-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

I can't even think of a way to comment on this that doesn't involve profanity. Look at what Kerry said:

“If you mean dying in the course of the United Nations effort, yes, it is worth that. If you mean dying American troops unilaterally going in with some false presumption that we can affect the outcome, the answer is unequivocally no.”

So the only use for American troops should be groveling before the UNELECTED U.N. bureaucrats? A vote for Kerry is a vote for weakness and a slap in the face to every soldier, sailor, airman, and marine. It might just result in irrevocable damage to this nation.

Here's the whole article.

Peter Jennings: No Fair!

2004-10-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Peter Jennings doesn't think he should have to be objective. It wouldn't be fair to be objective. Huh?

"I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective," Jennings said.
Jennings said that everyone -- even journalists -- have points of view through which they filter their perception of the news. It could be race, sex or income. But, he said, reporters are ideally trained to be as objective as possible.
"And when we don't think we can be fully objective, to be fair," the anchorman said.

What a sorry excuse. Here's the source.

America and France

2004-10-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

I was looking around today and I found a little gem. Do you want to understand our old 'friends'? What mistake did Mr. Bush make exactly? Hmm....good questions. Well here's the answer. Kerry's talk of alliances is pretty unrealistic considering the French were one of the biggest supporters of Saddam. Let's not forget how the frog talked about the 30 allies we already have helping us in Iraq, "a coalition of the bribed and the coerced".

I support John Kerry for President of France.

Until next time.

Adieu.

Can You Trust Your Reason?

2004-10-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

God In The Dock
Philosophy Opinion (Published)
Keywords: C.S. LEWIS; BULVERISM; REASON; WILL
Source: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI
Published: 1970; 1994
Author: C. S. Lewis

“Bulverism” is a term coined by C.S. Lewis to describe the state of public discourse and debate in the 20th century, or, as he also meant to convey by the term, the foundation of 20th century thought. “Bulverism” is a malady, if you will, which is alive and well, even rampant, here among we denizens of Free Republic. I personally can think of only a very few FReepers who have never succumbed to its blandishments, and I ain’t one of them. Enter here at your own risk.
“Bulverism”
It is a disastrous discovery, as Emerson says somewhere, that we exist. I mean, it is disastrous when instead of merely attending to a rose we are forced to think of ourselves looking at the rose, with a certain type of mind and a certain type of eyes. It is disastrous because, if you are not very careful, the color of the rose gets attributed to our optic nerves and its scent to our noses, and in the end there is no rose left. The professional philosophers have been bothered about this universal black-out for over two hundred years, and the world has not much listened to them. But the same disaster is now occurring on a level we can all understand.
We have recently “discovered that we exist” in two new senses. The Freudians have discovered that we exist as bundles of complexes. The Marxians have discovered that we exist as members of some economic class. In the old days it was supposed that if a thing seemed obviously true to a hundred men, then it was probably true in fact. Nowadays the Freudian will tell you to go and analyze the hundred: you will find that they all think Elizabeth [I] a great queen because they all have a mother-complex. Their thoughts are psychologically tainted at the source. And the Marxist will tell you to go and examine the economic interests of the hundred; you will find that they all think freedom a good thing because they are all members of the bourgeoisie whose prosperity is increased by a policy of laissez-faire. Their thoughts are “ideologically tainted” at the source.
Now this is obviously great fun; but it has not always been noticed that there is a bill to pay for it. There are two questions that people who say this kind of thing ought to be asked. The first is, are all thoughts thus tainted at the source, or only some? The second is, does the taint invalidate the tainted thought - in the sense of making it untrue - or not?
If they say that all thoughts are thus tainted, then, of course, we must remind them that Freudianism and Marxism are as much systems of thought as Christian theology or philosophical idealism. The Freudian and Marxian are in the same boat with all the rest of us, and cannot criticize us from outside. They have sawn off the branch they were sitting on. If, on the other hand, they say that the taint need not invalidate their thinking, then neither need it invalidate ours. In which case they have saved their own branch, but also saved ours along with it.
The only line they can really take is to say that some thoughts are tainted and others are not - which has the advantage (if Freudians and Marxians regard it as an advantage) of being what every sane man has always believed. But if that is so, we must then ask how you find out which are tainted and which are not. It is no earthly use saying that those are tainted which agree with the secret wishes of the thinker. Some of the things I should like to believe must in fact be true; it is impossible to arrange a universe which contradicts everyone’s wishes, in every respect, at every moment. Suppose I think, after doing my accounts, that I have a large balance at the bank. And suppose you want to find out whether this belief of mine is “wishful thinking.” You can never come to any conclusion by examining my psychological condition. Your only chance of finding out is to sit down and work through the sum yourself. When you have checked my figures, then, and then only, will you know whether I have that balance or not. If you find my arithmetic correct, then no amount of vapouring about my psychological condition can be anything but a waste of time. If you find my arithmetic wrong, then it may be relevant to explain psychologically how I came to be so bad at my arithmetic, and the doctrine of the concealed wish will become relevant - but only after you have yourself done the sum and discovered me to be wrong on purely arithmetical grounds. It is the same with all thinking and all systems of thought. If you try to find out which are tainted by speculating about the wishes of the thinkers, you are merely making a fool of yourself. You must find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error.
In other words, you must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. The modern method [Note: This essay was written in 1941.] is to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became to be so silly. In the course of the last fifteen years I have found this vice so common that I have had to invent a name for it. I call it “Bulverism.” Some day I am going the write the biography of its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel Bulver, whose destiny was determined at the age of five when he heard his mother say to his father - who had been maintaining that two sides of a triangle were together greater than the third - “Oh, you say that because you are a man.” “At that moment,” E. Bulver assures us, “there flashed across my opening mind the great truth that refutation is no necessary part of argument. Assume your opponent is wrong, and then explain his error, and the world will be at your feet. Attempt to prove that he is wrong or (worse still) try to find out whether he is wrong or right, and the national dynamism of our age will thrust you to the wall.” That is how Bulver became one of the makers of the Twentieth Century.
I find the fruits of his discovery almost everywhere. Thus I see my religion dismissed on the grounds that “the comfortable parson had every reason for assuring the nineteenth century worker that poverty would be rewarded in another world.” Well, no doubt he had. On the assumption that Christianity is an error, I can see clearly enough that some people would still have a motive for inculcating it. I see it so easily that I can, of course, play the game the other way round, by saying that “the modern man has every reason for trying to convince himself that there are no eternal sanctions behind the morality he is rejecting.” For Bulverism is a truly democratic game in the sense that all can play it all day long, and that it give no unfair advantage to the small and offensive minority who reason. But of course it gets us not one inch nearer to deciding whether, as a matter of fact, the Christian religion is true or false. That question remains to be discussed on quite different grounds - a matter of philosophical and historical argument. However it were decided, the improper motives of some people, both for believing it and for disbelieving it, would remain just as they are.
I see Bulverism at work in every political argument. The capitalists must be bad economists because we know why they want capitalism, and equally Communists must be bad economists because we know why they want Communism. Thus, the Bulverists on both sides. In reality, of course, either the doctrines of the capitalists are false, or the doctrines of the Communists, or both; but you can only find out the rights and wrongs by reasoning - never by being rude about your opponent’s psychology.
Until Bulverism is crushed, reason can play no effective part in human affairs. Each side snatches it early as a weapon against the other; but between the two reason itself is discredited. And why should reason not be discredited? It would be easy, in answer, to point to the present state of the world, but the real answer is even more immediate. The forces discrediting reason, themselves depend of reasoning. You must reason even to Bulverize. You are trying to prove that all proofs are invalid. If you fail, you fail. If you succeed, then you fail even more - for the proof that all proofs are invalid must be invalid itself.
The alternative then is either sheer self-contradicting idiocy or else some tenacious belief in our power of reasoning, held in the teeth of all the evidence that Bulverists can bring for a “taint” in this or that human reasoner. I am ready to admit, if you like, that this tenacious belief has something transcendental or mystical about it. What then? Would you rather be a lunatic than a mystic?
So we see there is justification for holding on to our belief in Reason. But can this be done without theism? Does “I know” involve that God exists? Everything I know is an inference from sensation (except the present moment). All our knowledge of the universe beyond our immediate experiences depends on inferences from these experiences. If our inferences do not give a genuine insight into reality, then we can know nothing. A theory cannot be accepted if it does not allow our thinking to be a genuine insight, nor if the fact of our knowledge is not explicable in terms of that theory.
But our thoughts can only be accepted as a genuine insight under certain conditions. All beliefs have causes but a distinction must be drawn between (1) ordinary causes and (2) a special kind of cause called “a reason.” Causes are mindless events which can produce other results than belief. Reasons arise from axioms and inferences and affect only beliefs. Bulverism tries to show that the other man has causes and not reasons and that we have reasons and not causes. A belief which can be accounted for entirely in terms of causes is worthless. This principle must not be abandoned when we consider the beliefs which are the basis of others. Our knowledge depends on our certainty about axioms and inferences. If these are the results of causes, then there is no possibility of knowledge. Either we can know nothing or thought has reasons only, and no causes.
[The remainder of this essay, which was originally read to the Socratic Club before publication in the Socratic Digest, continues in the form of notes taken down by the Secretary of the Club. This explains why it is not all in the first-person, as is the text-proper.]
One might argue, Mr. Lewis continued, that reason had developed by natural selection, only those methods of thought which had proved useful surviving. But the theory depends on an inference from usefulness to truth, of which the validity would have to be assumed. All attempts to treat thought as a natural event involve the fallacy of excluding the thought of the man making the attempt.
It is admitted that the mind is affected by physical events; a wireless set is influenced by atmospherics, but it does not originate its deliverances - we’d take no notice of it if we thought it did. Natural events we can relate one to another until we can trace them finally to the space-time continuum. But thought has no father but thought. It is conditioned, yes, not caused. My knowledge that I have nerves in inferential.
The same argument applies to our values, which are affected by social factors, but if they are caused by them we cannot know that they are right. One can reject morality as an illusion, but the man who does so often tacitly excepts his own ethical motive: for instance the duty of freeing morality from superstition and of spreading enlightenment.
Neither Will nor Reason is the product of Nature. Therefore either I am self-existent (a belief which no one can accept) or I am a colony of some Thought and Will that are self-derived from a self-existent Reason and Goodness outside ourselves, in fact, a Supernatural.
Mr. Lewis went on to say that it was often objected that the existence of the Supernatural is too important to be discernible only by abstract argument, and thus only by the leisured few. But in all other ages the plain man has accepted the findings of the mystics and the philosophers for his initial belief in the existence of the Supernatural. Today the ordinary man is forced to carry that burden himself. Either mankind has made a ghastly mistake in rejecting authority, or the power or powers ruling his destiny are making a daring experiment, and all are to become sages. A society consisting solely of plain men must end in disaster. If we are to survive we must either believe the seers or scale those heights ourselves.
Evidently, then, something beyond Nature exists. Man is on the border line between the Natural and the Supernatural. Material events cannot produce spiritual activity, but the latter can be responsible for many of our actions in Nature. Will and Reason cannot depend on anything but themselves, but Nature can depend on Will and Reason, or, in other words, God created Nature.
The relation between Nature and Supernature, which is not a relation in space and time, becomes intelligible if the Supernatural made the Natural. We even have an idea of this making, since we know the power of imagination, though we can create nothing new, but can only rearrange our material provided through sense data. It is not inconceivable that the universe was created by an Imagination strong enough to impose phenomena on other minds.

You can trust your reason as long as it is based on fact. Evaluate the evidence of God for yourself:

Evidence the Bible is of Supernatural Origin
The Shroud of Turin
The Origin of Life and the Suppression of Truth
Contacted
The Unexpected King
The Crutches
Gematria
Josephus
Extra Biblical Sources I
Extra Biblical Sources II

Global Warming Gets Smacked Down By Science

2004-10-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Source Article

Progress in science is sometimes made by great discoveries. But science also advances when we learn that something we believed to be true isn’t. When solving a jigsaw puzzle, the solution can sometimes be stymied by the fact that a wrong piece has been wedged in a key place.
In the scientific and political debate over global warming, the latest wrong piece may be the “hockey stick,” the famous plot (shown below), published by University of Massachusetts geoscientist Michael Mann and colleagues. This plot purports to show that we are now experiencing the warmest climate in a millennium, and that the earth, after remaining cool for centuries during the medieval era, suddenly began to heat up about 100 years ago--just at the time that the burning of coal and oil led to an increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.
But now a shock: Canadian scientists Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick have uncovered a fundamental mathematical flaw in the computer program that was used to produce the hockey stick. In his original publications of the stick, Mann purported to use a standard method known as principal component analysis, or PCA, to find the dominant features in a set of more than 70 different climate records.
But it wasn’t so. McIntyre and McKitrick obtained part of the program that Mann used, and they found serious problems. Not only does the program not do conventional PCA, but it handles data normalization in a way that can only be described as mistaken.
Now comes the real shocker. This improper normalization procedure tends to emphasize any data that do have the hockey stick shape, and to suppress all data that do not. To demonstrate this effect, McIntyre and McKitrick created some meaningless test data that had, on average, no trends. This method of generating random data is called “Monte Carlo” analysis, after the famous casino, and it is widely used in statistical analysis to test procedures. When McIntyre and McKitrick fed these random data into the Mann procedure, out popped a hockey stick shape!
That discovery hit me like a bombshell, and I suspect it is having the same effect on many others. Suddenly the hockey stick, the poster-child of the global warming community, turns out to be an artifact of poor mathematics. How could it happen? What is going on? Let me digress into a short technical discussion of how this incredible error took place.

Make sure you read the rest of the article. This is good news, but I'm not holding my breath that scientists will suddenly become objective. Scientists still have faith in an impossible scenario. Evolution just doesn't seem plausible and here's why.

More Democrat Deception

2004-10-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

DEMS URGE 'PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE' ON VOTER INTIMIDATION
Manual advises stirring up talk about GOP tactics even without evidence
Posted: October 14, 200411:59 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

An election-day manual issued by the Democratic National Committee urges local operatives to stir up talk about potential voter intimidation even if there is no evidence.A section of the 66-page manual [pdf file, obtained by the Drudge Report, says, "If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a 'pre-emptive strike.'"The Democrats' plan will be distributed in dozens of states, according to Drudge, who says a top DNC official confirmed the manual's authenticity.The official claimed, however, that the notion of crying wolf on any voter intimidation is "absurd.""We all know the Republicans are going to try to steal the election by scaring people and confusing people," the top DNC source explained.The manual advises local Democrats to: Issue a press release i. Reviewing Republican tactic [sic] used in the past in your area ii. Quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; providing talking points Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics Warn local newspapers not to accept advertising that is not properly disclaimed or that contains false warnings about voting requirements and/or about what happens at the polls.

An Age of Miracles

2004-10-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Source: The Omega Letter

According to a report issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Center for Public Research, it is "important to improve relations with Europe since a European Union growing in power and influence would mean that Israel's main political partner, the United States, would probably diminish in international stature."Hmmm. Where have I heard that before? (We'll get to that in a minute) According to Reuters, Israel could end up on a collision course with the European Union and face sanctions like apartheid-era South Africa unless the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.The document presents a ten-year forecast that predicts that, "Jewish state could become increasingly isolated internationally as the EU grows more influential."'It is a prognosis of the general outline of the international environment in the future... it is us looking into the crystal ball,' the report's author said. 'Everyone is aware of the importance of the relations with Europe.'It says that if the recently expanded 25-nation bloc can set aside internal differences and forge a unified foreign policy, it could "harm Israeli interests" by cutting into the clout wielded by the United States, Israel's chief ally."This could put Israel on a collision course with the European Union," the report says. "Such a collision course holds the risk of Israel losing international legitimacy and could lead to its isolation in the manner of South Africa."The report was drawn up primarily for use within government circles and shows how worried the Israelis are about the prospect of having to stand alone against the assembled nations of the world, led by Europe.(As I read the words on this page so far, it literally takes my breath away . . . now, to continue, following along with the report published by that bastion of Christian evangelical thought, REUTERS News Service!)"Israel's relations with the EU have long been strained over what it sees as favoritism toward the Palestinians in their conflict with the Jewish state. But the situation has deteriorated further in the face of European criticism of Israel's military crackdown in Palestinian areas and the vast barrier it is building largely inside the occupied West Bank. For its part, Israel has complained of what it sees as growing anti-Semitism in Europe and inadequate efforts to combat it. Israel prefers to deal almost exclusively with Washington on Middle East diplomacy. President Bush is seen as the most pro-Israel U.S. leader ever, having agreed the Jewish state should be allowed to keep swathes of occupied land and bar the return of Palestinian refugees under any final peace deal. But Palestinians have always insisted on a European role, seeing them as more sympathetic to their cause than Washington."On Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana unveiled a four-point plan to revive Middle East talks, offering new assistance to the Palestinians and warning Israel its aid was at risk if it did not cooperate."Regarding the Middle East peace process and our relations with Israel and the Palestinians, there is no doubt that the role of the EU has increased," said Christina Gallach, a spokeswoman for Solana.She said the EU insists Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 must be followed by major troop withdrawals in the West Bank, and pave the way for Palestinian statehood."None of this is exactly what the Israelis want to hear, but we have to say it," Ms. Gallach said.Assessment:The above reads as if it had been paraphrased from a sermon on Bible prophecy. And the focus of the report is, in the words of its authors, the result of Israeli gazing 'into a crystal ball'.Now, to the Bible's outline of history, as seen across multiplied millennia, emanating from the distant past and describing a single generation, somewhere in time.According to the ancient prophets, the Jews would one day be restored to her ancient homeland, which they would call "Israel" in a manner that would be nothing short of miraculous."Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isaiah 66:8)The working language of Israel is Hebrew, a language already dead when Latin was still the working language of Rome. It was restored to common use when a scholar named Ben Yehuda introduced a working model of Hebrew for use by Israel in 1948."For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name of the LORD, to serve Him with one consent." (Zephaniah 3:9)Scripture says that Israel, once restored, would earn the enmity of the world over the issue of control over Judea and Samaria, (the West Bank) and ultimately, would find itself locked in conflict over the issue of control over Jerusalem."Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. . . The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah." (Zechariah 12:2-3,7)The prophet Daniel and Apostle John both outline the rise of a coming superstate that will seemingly solve the Arab/Israeli conflict by using an existing seven-year covenant, which entails a literal 'land for peace' formula.(The failed Oslo Agreement (drawn up by Norwegian Europeans) was originally scheduled to have concluded with a peace agreement by September 13, 2000. Oslo was signed in the White House Rose Garden on September 13, 1993. The math works)"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease . . ." (Daniel 9:27a)"Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall DIVIDE THE LAND FOR GAIN." (Daniel 11:39)Daniel further identifies the superstate that that will be the leading superpower of the last days:"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary . . ." (Daniel 9:26)The 'city and sanctuary' are Jerusalem and the Temple. Both were destroyed in AD 70 by the Roman general Titus, (who eventually assumed the Roman throne as Caesar).Daniel describes that final government as being like ten 'toes' of iron mixed with clay, partly strong and partly weak, (a democracy, such as Rome was in its final days) attached to the two legs of iron that symbolized the divided Eastern and Western Roman Empire that finally collapsed (but was never destroyed) in the 5th century."And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.” (Daniel 2:41)The European Union consists of 28 states, but only the original ten are full members.(From an official EU website: http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/cig/g4000w.htm -- cut and pasted verbatim :)"Set up in 1948 by the Treaty of Brussels, the WEU is a European organisation for the purposes of cooperation on defence and security. It consists of 28 countries with four different statuses: Member States, Associate Members, Observers and Associate Partners. All EU countries are full Member States except Denmark, Ireland Austria, Finland and Sweden, which have observer status. The six Associate Members are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Turkey, and there are seven Associate Partners: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia."Look at the table of organization carefully. "All EU countries are full Member States except . . ." followed by a listing of the eighteen countries who are NOT.Here's a math quiz. Subtract 18 non full members from the 28 total members and tell me how many full members of the European Union there actually are.(Time's up. The answer is TEN. Did you get it?)Take a deep breath; think about this all carefully, while I summarize the whole thing.The document at the center of this story - a 10-year forecast drawn up in August by Foreign Ministry analysts and meant for use within government circles - predicts that the Jewish state could become increasingly isolated internationally as the EU grows more influential.The report warns that if the recently expanded 28-nation bloc manages to set aside its differences and forge a unified foreign policy, it could "harm Israeli interests" by 'cutting into the clout' wielded by the United States, Israel's chief ally. (Interestingly, the Israeli report, like the Bible, doesn't give any hint about how America loses its place on the world stage)"This could put Israel on a collision course with the European Union," the report says. "Such a collision course holds the risk of Israel losing international legitimacy and could lead to its isolation in the manner of [apartheid] South Africa."There are still people who think Bible prophecy is an interesting intellectual exercise, but fail to grasp its true importance in these last days. Scripture says that God is not 'willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.' (2nd Peter 3:9)One could easily characterize this generation as an 'Age of Miracles' in a world without God. Technology has made the miraculous seem mundane.From the first time I saw a hot dog cook in 15 seconds in an impossibly expensive device called a 'microwave' -- to the ability to communicate instantly, and essentially, for free, with OL Members Anton in South Africa, Nicole in Texas, Lou in California and Angela in Great Britain -- not to mention nearly every other country in the world -- in a single generation! The 'miraculous' just isn't what it used to be.God has a lot of competition for the hearts and minds of men in the last days. Miracles aren't as miraculous as they once were. The enemy can ALSO counterfeit 'miracles' -- and technology has only made that even easier.But the one miracle that cannot be approximated by either the satanic hordes or the God-hating secularists is the miracle of Bible prophecy.As it unfolds in this generation, it constitutes proof positive that God remains on the Throne, intimately involved in the affairs of men, as He has been since Adam and Eve were first expelled from the Garden.A world seemingly in chaos, spinning out of control into oblivion, is put back into perfect perspective by the knowledge that God has everything exactly where He wants it. And He gives us the reason for the Promise held out to mankind by Bible prophecy:"The Lord is not slack concerning His Promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2nd Peter 3:9)Bible prophecy is not an interesting, 'gee whiz' form of entertainment inserted in the Bible to keep it from getting dull. It is a tool, given to the one-on-one evangelists of the last days, to prove to the lost that there is hope, no matter what the world, or their experiences, tells them to the contrary.God said certain things would happen, and they are happening exactly as He said they would, expressly so that the sin-sick, miracle-weary world to whom end-time prophecy is addressed could still find Him through the miracle of unfolding Bible prophecy."Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way." (Luke 10:2-4)A Personal Note. . .It is the mission of your Omega Letter to fulfill this Great Commission in the last days by giving you -- the saved Christian -- the ammunition necessary to do battle against the 'prince and power of the air' and his minions and their 'miracles'. Since 2Checkout.com arbitrarily stopped processing donations, income has dropped precipitously, and the Omega Letter is starting to fall behind. Subscriptions are rising slowly, but too slowly to fully meet our expenses.Many of you receive your Omega Letter for free from friends and mailing lists. If you believe our mission is important and worthy of your support, I pray the Spirit of God will give you witness to that fact and inspire you to help us out?(I hate asking, but sometimes, it can't be helped. This is one of those times.)PayPal still accepts donations, or you can still help us out the old-fashioned way. Our mailing address is:

Jack Kinsella
4915-J Arendell Street
PMB #148, Morehead City
North Carolina, USA, 28557

I thank you in Jesus' Name and pray His blessing upon you and yours. Until He comes

History Revisited

2004-10-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

HISTORY REVISITED

The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 37 Issue: 13 - Wednesday, October 13, 2004

While in prison, Adolph Hitler wrote volume one of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) , which was published in 1925. This work detailed Hitler's radical ideas of German nationalism, antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. The Nazi campaign for power in 1932 was violent and bloody and contained few characteristics of a democracy. Members of the German Worker's Party stormed the campaign headquarters of their opponents, smashing windows, tearing up offices and intimidating opposition campaign workers. Hitler blamed the terrorism of his supporters on his political enemies and pointed to the violence as evidence of how badly the country needed him in order to restore order. The Nazis were confident of winning a majority in the Reichstag by using the large sums of money donated to them by leading industrialists and Goebbels' expert manipulation of the media. The Nazis' position was strengthened by a strange incident, which occurred on the night of 27th February 1933 five days before the election. The Reichstag building was set on fire by a Dutch Communist named der Lubbe. Many believed this to be a Nazi plot but it has never been proved either way. Hitler did however exploit the incident to his advantage. The next day he persuaded Hindenburg the German President to sign the "Decree for the Protection of People and State." This document suspended most civil and political liberties and strengthened the power of central government over that of local authorities. This meant that the last week of the election campaign saw an increase in violence with hundreds of the Nazis' political opponents arrested. Hitler's next step towards full control of Germany was to control the media. He decided that the best way to do this was to create a Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. This ministry was lead by Joseph Goebbels whose "cynical understanding of mass psychology" made him a formidable figure. The aim of the ministry was to control and censor all the sources of mass media and use them to work for the Nazis. In this way the Nazis eradicated freedom of speech on a wide scale legally.

Assessment: Last week, Gov. Mark Racicot (pronounced 'Roscoe') sent a letter to John Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO, a copy of which managed to find its way onto a Spanish news site, but somehow, has been pretty much ignored by the mainstream media in the United States, although it was issued as a formal press release by the GOP National Committee. This morning, I 'googled' the web again, and at the time of this writing, there are only TWO places where you can read this letter. The Spanish site, 'Noticias' and in your Omega Letter. Dear Mr. Sweeney: Over the past several weeks, acts of violence and vandalism have occurred at Republican and Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters across the country. In addition to the injuries, property damage and disruption associated with these acts, these events have created a threatening and intimidating atmosphere abhorrent to our democratic process. On October 5th, according to news reports, witnesses, police reports and admissions of your members, the AFL-CIO, as part of a national strategy, protested at more than a dozen of our campaign and party headquarters across the country. In many locations, the protestors attempted to enter, or entered, campaign or party facilities. As one protestor said, "Actually, we're storming into an office." In Orlando, Florida, injuries and damage were sustained. Protestors forced their way into the facility, fracturing the arm of one staffer, and vandalized the office. In Michigan, protestors entered a headquarters and engaged in activities apparently intended to disrupt volunteers trying to make phone calls. Protests by your organization come on the heels of several other incidents at Bush-Cheney '04 offices around the country, including a break-in at our Seattle office where laptop computers were stolen from the Washington State Bush-Cheney ’04 executive director and the state Republican Party 72-hour director. Just last night in Canton, Ohio, a Bush-Cheney '04 staffer was forced to lock herself in an office while another break-in was in progress. The facility was seriously damaged and property was stolen. Additionally, gun shots have been fired into Bush-Cheney '04 offices in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee, windows broken in West Virginia and campaign staffers threatened. In Wisconsin, a supporter of the President had a swastika burned into his front yard simply because he had a Bush-Cheney '04 lawn sign. We urge your support in helping us ensure the safety of all individuals working on our campaign and others as we are making every effort to secure the safety of all participants in the political process. I hope you will put an end to protest activities that have led to injuries, property damage, vandalism and voter intimidation. We will hold you and your organization accountable for the actions of your members and urge you to immediately discontinue any coordinated protest efforts that result in damage to our facilities, or injury to people who may hold different political views than your members, but who share an equal right to be involved in the political process without suffering violence, intimidation and threats. Respectfully, Gov. Marc Racicot, Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman The violence has forced the GOP to set up a voter intimidation hotline (888/303-7125) in an effort to stem the violence against political campaign workers and GOP supporters. AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham said incidents of break-ins or vandalism were "completely unrelated" to the Oct. 5 demonstrations and called the Racicot letter "the height of dirty politics during an election year." But according to the Washington Times, "A recent search of archived news reports nationwide indicated a higher number of reports during the past few months compared with the same periods during the 2000 and 1996 campaigns." I'm not sure that any of you even need me to connect the dots for you.Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter member features can be found at: www.omegaletter.com The Omega Letter is published daily by Jack Kinsella and exists through subscriptions and free will contributions.

Whose Fault Is It?

2004-10-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Whose Fault Is It?

A preacher and an atheist barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the atheist barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."
The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister, "You cannot be a very good barber or you would not permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut or a shave."
Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition. I cannot help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!"
Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then do not blame God for allowing these people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved. The reason these people are slaves to sin and evil habits is that they refuse the One who died to save and deliver them."

Source: 2000+ Bible Illustrations

More Extra Biblical Evidence

2004-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 AD), "the greatest historian" of ancient Rome:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed."

Acts of Pontius Pilate, reports sent from Pilate to Tiberius, referred to by Justin Martyr (150 AD):
"And the expression, 'They pierced my hands and my feet,' was used in reference to the nails of the cross which were fixed in His hands and feet. And after he was crucified, they cast lots upon His vesture, and they that crucified Him parted it among them. And that these things did happen you can ascertain the 'Acts' of Pontius Pilate." Later Justin lists several healing miracles and asserts, "And that He did those things, you can learn from the Acts of Pontius Pilate."

Julius Africanus, writing around 221 AD, found a reference in the writings of Thallus, who wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean around 52 AD, which dealt with the darkness that covered the land during Jesus's crucifixion:
"Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun--unreasonably, as it seems to me." [A solar eclipse could not take place during a full moon, as was the case during Passover season.]

Here is a more complete list and another list which sites more of Josephus's referrals and others.

More Evidence of Christ: Josephus's Testimony

2004-10-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, (9) those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; (10) as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

This was written between AD 66-101 by a Jewish historian. For more on Josephus and his work check out this entry.

The Shepherd Doesn't Lose and the Evidence for Jesus

2004-10-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

(Joh 6:37 MKJV) All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out.
(Joh 6:38 MKJV) For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.
(Joh 6:39 MKJV) And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day.
(Joh 6:40 MKJV) And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.
(Joh 10:27 MKJV) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
(Joh 10:28 MKJV) And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never ever perish, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.
(Joh 10:29 MKJV) My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.
(Joh 10:30 MKJV) I and the Father are one!
(Heb 7:25 MKJV) Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.
(Eph 1:13 MKJV) in whom also you, hearing the Word of Truth, the gospel of our salvation, in whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
(Eph 1:14 MKJV) who is the earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
(1Pe 1:3 MKJV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
(1Pe 1:4 MKJV) to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in Heaven for you
(1Pe 1:5 MKJV) by the power of God, having been kept through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time;
(Jud 1:24 MKJV) Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy;
(Jud 1:25 MKJV) to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and might and authority, even now and forever. Amen.
(2Ti 1:12 MKJV) For this cause I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard My deposit unto that Day.

We're saved through God's grace through faith. Faith in Christ. It's nice to know that He's looking out for us in this fallen world.

How do we become saved?

"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple."-- Luk_14:33.
THREE TIMES over in this chapter, our Lord says these solemn words: "he cannot be My disciple." There are three conditions of discipleship. First, we must be prepared to put first things first; second, we must be willing to suffer daily crucifixion; third, we must be detached from all things, because attached to Christ. The conditions seem severe, but they must be fulfilled, if we would enter Christ's School.
Disciple stands for learner. Our Lord is prepared to teach us the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; but it is useless to enter His class unless we have resolved to do as He says. Put first things first. When our Lord uses the word hate, He clearly means that the love we are to have for Him is to be so much greater, that comparatively our natural affection will be as if it were hate. No one could have loved His Mother more than our Lord did. In His dying agony His special thought and care was for her, but on three different occasions He put her aside. We are sometimes called to put aside those who are nearest and dearest, if their demands conflict with the claims of Christ.
The daily cross. In each of us there is the self-principle, and for each of us there is a perpetual necessity to deny self. Some talk about bearing the cross in a glib fashion, but its true meaning is shame, suffering, and sorrow, which no one realizes but God, and which perhaps strikes deeper down into the roots of our being as we grow older. There is an opportunity in your life, in respect to some person or circumstance, for an ever-deepening appreciation of union with Christ in His death, and for which you must be daily prepared to surrender your own way and will.
Renunciation. It may be necessary to surrender all we have for Christ, or it may be that He will ask us to hold all as a steward or trustee for Himself and others. No one can lay down the rule for another. The main point to decide is this: "Am I willing to do what Christ wants me to do; to yield my will for Him to mould it, and my life for Him to work through it?" If so, all else will adjust itself.
PRAYER
O Lord, save me in spite of myself. May I be Thine; wholly Thine, and, at all costs, Thine. In humiliation, in poverty, in self abnegation, Thine. Thine in the way Thou knowest to be most fitting, in order that Thou mightest be now and ever mine. AMEN.

Still not sure? What if God could prove it to you? Here you go:

Evidence the Bible is of Supernatural Origin
The Shroud of Turin
The Origin of Life and the Suppression of Truth
Contacted
The Unexpected King
The Crutches
Gematria

An Honest Man Alters His Ideas To Fit The Truth.
A Dishonest Man Alters The Truth To Fit His Ideas.

The Traitor, the Liar, and His Diabolical Minions

2004-10-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

You won't see this in our socialist media:

Nothing appears to be above exploitation. John Kerry even dedicated a speech he delivered on Monday to the late actor Christopher Reeve. Kerry said he knew the "Superman" actor for about 15 years through family and dedication to the same causes, and said Reeve left him a long voice-mail on Saturday thanking him for campaigning on the possibilities of a cure for conditions like his.
It had been originally reported that Reeve died on Sunday after slipping into a coma on Thursday following complications from treatment for a bed sore. After John Kerry's speech, reports of Reeve's death were changed to remove the reference to Thursday in order to make it possible for Reeve to call John Kerry and leave a long message for him on his answering machine on Saturday night. Evidently, Kerry didn't know about the "coma" part until after the speech, but his well-oiled damage-control team was already on it.

Here's the source article. Funny how many times Bush has been called a liar by Kerry. I guess it really does take one to know one. It just sickens me that he'd exploit death for political gain. He supports abortion though so if you're him.....why not? Big bad John doesn't have morals to get in the way. It doesn't surprise me after he sold out and betrayed his own country to communists. Nothing Kerry does surprises me. Traitor. But what would the American Fuerer be without his loyal brownshirts?

A coordinated labor protest at more than a dozen campaign and party headquarters across the country. In one protest in Orlando, the office was vandalized and one campaign worker had their arm broken in the melee. In Canton, Ohio, a Bush-Cheney '04 staffer was forced to lock herself in an office while another break-in was in progress. Gunshots were fired into Bush-Cheney '04 offices in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee, windows broken in West Virginia and campaign staffers threatened. In Wisconsin, a supporter of the president had a swastika burned into his front yard simply because he had a Bush-Cheney '04 lawn sign.
Disinformation, voter fraud, organized violence, outright lies, exploitation and media manipulation. Those were the principle tools used by the Nazis to bring Hitler to power in 1933 Germany. But this isn't 1933, and this isn't Germany. That stuff doesn't work here. This is AMERICA!

Or, it used to be.

Bush don't fail; I'm praying for you.

EU to Become UN's Military Arm; UN Plans to Disable US Veto Power

2004-10-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

Source Article
Globalism - Ecumenism Friday,
October 15, 2004 Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan gave an interview in the Irish Times in which he told the paper he was 'excited' at the prospect of a possible deal that would make the EU military the defacto military arm of the United Nations.
Annan said of the proposal, "You may not necessarily even have to fight." Speaking from the rarified atmosphere of the UN's Ivory Tower, Annan explained how THAT works, inadvertently giving away a clue as to why the UN prefers John Kerry.
"You sometimes have to show force in order not to use force." Aha! SCARE the enemy to death? No, no,the paper explained helpfully. In some crisis areas, the inhabitants were intimidated by "local bullies" who would not stand up to an international force.
Let's see if I am understanding this correctly. "Local bullies" will ignore the United States, (whose military power dwarfs the EU), but if confronted by an 'international force' (whose default position is to announce in advance it's a bluff), well, they'd just be so terrified they'd flee at the mere prospect of an EU-backed UN intervention threat.
According to the paper, the UN proposed EU battlegroups or "hit squad" concept is in line with 'new thinking on international military action to prevent genocide, avoiding a repetition of the Rwanda tragedy ten years ago.'
Too late. The Rwanda tragedy is being repeated -- right now -- while the Islamic-dominated UN continues to stonewall until the Islamic forces of the Sudan are finished wiping out the mainly Christian black population in the south.
(On the other hand, it will give the UN ANOTHER tragedy it can avoid repeating later. After all, there are 525,948 minutes in a year. That leaves room for 525,947 more 'moments of silence' for the victims of UN imcompetence)
Kofi Annan has already declared the U.S. invasion of Iraq to be "illegal." Panel member Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of Australia, told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:
"A central reason for our appointment was concern that the U.N., and indeed the whole multilateral security system, was really at a crossroads with the resurgence of unilateralism from You Know Whom, and increasing willingness to bypass the Security Council."
(Note to the uninitiated: 'You Know Whom' is the United States. Evans presumably believed only international scholars like himself would be able to decipher his clever code and figure it out)
To combat the 'unilateralism' of 'you know who', Annan has appointed a 16-member "High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change" to make recommendations for restructuring the UN Security Council.
The ultimate goal is to expand the U.N. Security Council, and to eliminate P-5 - the permanent member status of the five nations that hold veto power over Security Council actions. Annan's High Level Panel isn't expected to recommend the elimination of the veto system immediately -- instead, they will push for the expansion of the Security Council, first.
Originally, the Security Council consisted of 11 members, five of which were permanent, each with veto power. The remaining six members served two-year terms, rotated among the member nations. The Council was expanded to 15 members in 1965, with no change in the status of the permanent members.
Four nations - Brazil, Germany, India and Japan - have formed a group to lobby for permanent member status. Germany and Japan were denied permanent status in 1945, since the UN was created by the Allies specifically to prevent a repeat of the Axis aggression that spawned the war in the first place.
Annan's High Level Panel has been deliberating in relative secrecy for nearly a year. Their report may also be kept secret - at Kofi Annan's discretion.
In any case, whatever Kofi's Panel recommends, it can't be implemented without US approval. The US still has its veto until it agrees to repeal the P-5 veto status at the Security Council.
That fact could be the United Nations' undoing. Annan's High Level Panel is expected to draft the rules of engagement which will prevent, or at least provide the basis for international condemnation of 'unilateral' action (by 'you know who') in the future.
The rest of the world has drawn a line in the sand over US willingness to circumvent the United Nations when it is in America's best interests.
If the UN can't implement the reforms, then it will be obvious that the UN cannot contain and control the United States. In that case, there is little to be gained by UN membership for smaller states, and therefore, little reason to allow the UN a role in their own internal affairs.
On the other hand, if the United States allows the reform measures to go forward, it is a signal that the US is willing to be governed by the United Nations -- and its proposed EU military force.
Annan's High Panel will not issue its recommendations until after the US general elections, and probably not until early next year.
All concerned recognize the restructuring proposal is a 'make or break' deal. Depending on how the US votes, the restructuring proposal will either empower the UN to the degree it will have true global governing status, (shared with the European Union) or it will mean its impending demise.
The Bible says that, in the last days, a global government will come to power, headed by the antichrist and made up from the nations of the revived Roman Empire.
According to Scripture, it will govern the Western world directly, and will indirectly influence the other three spheres of global power that will exist during that time -- Gog Magog, (Russian alliance) the Kings of the East (China, etc.) and the Kings of the South (mainly Islamic North Africa)
(That the government of antichrist exerts only 'indirect' influence (in a similar matter to the UN, for example) is implied by the fact that eventually, each of these entities goes to war against him.)
Which is pretty much EXACTLY what Annan's High Level Panel is setting the stage for.
The UN may well collapse, but politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The UN's multifaceted global institutions are critical to maintaining the smooth operation of the global economy, human rights, global health issues, international dispute arbitration and so on.
The World Bank, IMF, International Court, etc., etc. just can't disappear without having a devastating effect on international politics. Somebody will have to pick up the pieces.
In inviting the EU 'battlegroups' to take on the role of United Nations' policy enforcer, Kofi Annan has inadvertently (or calculatingly, who knows?) named the UN's successor. The EU already has some 25 individual votes at the UN, plus two vetoes, compared to Russia, China and America's single vote and single veto.
The EU enjoys the confidence of the Arab world, is mending fences with a subdued Russian Federation, has good relations with China and is heavily entrenched, both politically and economically, with Africa.
The United States, with its single vote and single veto, has practically no friends at all in any of these regions. At best, it has 'allies of the moment' -- like Pakistan or some of the Gulf emirates -- allies that would turn on Washington in a heartbeat if it better served their own interests.
America does have important allies and genuine friends, like Australia, or Great Britain -- but these alliances flow through Europe and our shared heritage, much more than through a shared ideology.
America's closest friend and ally, Canada, has already proved that its UN membership trumps US friendship when it comes to the hard questions.
Ideologically, America's only genuine ally is Israel, itself the target of global envy and hatred.
Of America's role in the global government during the Tribulation Period, the Bible is silent. If America does play any role, it will be as a subordinate part of a greater European government, not as an overarching superpower.
Of Israel, the Bible says it will be the target of global genocidal hatred during the Tribulation, and there is no mention of Israel having any allies at all, apart from the Lord God of Israel.
The United Nations is preparing a restructuring system that will stand or fall based on the decisions of whoever is in the White House when Annan's High Level Panel issues its recommendations early next year.
That president will have a full term to decide whether to subordinate America to the UN -- giving the UN a temporary reprieve from self-destruction -- or whether to veto the restructuring effort, which will strip away any illusion of UN relevancy and ultimately result in its collapse as a viable institution, and paving the way for the rise of the antichrist.
It is no coincidence that in this election, to the exclusion of all presidential races in living memory, the two positions of the two sides on the issue of globalism could not be more profound.
In one corner is John Kerry, who is running on the platform that George Bush is a unilateralist who should have subordinated US interests to UN oversight and who pledges that, if elected, he will do so in the future.
In the other corner is George W. Bush, who most certainly will not cede US sovereignty to the UN, no matter how it may be restructured.
Waiting in the wings to see how it all turns out is the European Union.
Buckle up!

Note: If Kerry gets elected freedom is truly dead.

The Election, Bible Study Helps, Abortion, and Miscellaneous Thoughts

2004-10-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't been sleeping very well for a few weeks but thankfully I was finally to get a little bit of sleep last night. Pondering the mysteries of the universe all the time isn't healthy. Today I'm going to post about a few different things and tomorrow I may not even post at all. We'll see. All I know is I've asked enough theological questions for the time being. I believe Jesus Christ is the way. If you want any more detail I can point you to some tools so you can make your own decision. That's way better than reading the near infinite variations on Christian theology and then trying to make up your mind. I highly recommend e-Sword. It's free and includes numerous extra references you can download. You can get the works of Josephus, Paul Bunyan, Luther, and many others. Strong's is included and you can get many Bible dictionaries, illustrations, Bible translations, and the list goes on. Did I mention it's free? Blue Letter Bible is a great resource as well.

I had been trying to avoid commenting on the election too much but I found a really good commentary on it and I think it's worth a read. I also recently came upon this site about abortion. You should definitely read about the origins of abortion and especially about Margaret Sanger. These are abominations all moral peoples should unite against. The Democratic party is solidly behind abortion, against the 2nd amendment, and they despise President Bush's tax cuts. It goes without saying that I won't be voting for them. The Democrat's are firmly in the pocket of the UN's New Age agenda. It all sounds crazy and nightmarish but when we have people comparing our President to Hitler and believing it there is seriously something wrong with the soul of America. If our people don't learn a little discernment soon; there's no telling what our future might hold.

I'll leave you with this slogan:

The Black didn't choose slavery.
The Jew didn't choose genocide.
The baby didn't choose to die.

So much for choices. Pro-death I dub them.