Pastoral Bible Institute News

Date of  Annual PBI Meeting

The annual meeting of PBI Members and Directors will be held on Friday, July 23 on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in Pennsylvania. The General Convention of Bible Students will begin on Saturday, July 24, at the same location and end the evening of July 29. Those who are interested in the Pastoral Bible Institute, whether members or not, are encouraged to attend this meeting. Contact the Institute’s secretary for details concerning accommodations.

The Robert Seklemian Discourses

Our friends in Chicago just published a book containing the discourses of Robert Seklemian. Bro. Robert was a skilled story teller who made the events of the Bible come alive. We have occasionally reprinted some of his thoughts in the pages of this journal and we think our readers would enjoy having this book. It contains over 500 pages, is illustrated, and costs just $15, postpaid anywhere in the world. We will fill orders during the next few months but will not stock the book after that.

Letters

Warm Christian greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Redeemer. We are definitely seeing the prophecies being fulfilled in our day as indicated both by the Herald and also the Dawn and all the brethren. I feel this year 1999 will bring drastic changes. Man seems to be losing control and everything seems to be falling apart with no sign of peace. How grateful we are to know our Lord will soon stop the trouble (else man would destroy himself) and bring peace, joy and life to all humanity. May we continue to pray "Thy Kingdom Come."

Ruth Colvin, Louisiana

Around the World

India indicated that it would develop missiles and atomic weapons. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India told both houses of parliament that the Government had shunned a proposed moratorium on producing weapons-grade nuclear material and would continue to develop an intermediate-range missile system. Mr. Vajpayee reiterated that India’s objective for 50 years had been a world free of nuclear weapons. But "regrettably," he added, "the international community, particularly countries that have based their security on nuclear weapons or a nuclear umbrella, have been reluctant to embrace this objective."

—New York Times, 12/16/98

Using Chinese supplied blueprints and technology, Pakistan is nearing completion of a center to produce a home-grown version of Beijing’s M-11 ballistic missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to a target 185 miles away. China’s help on the factory is part of a secret contract the two nations signed in early 1988. A close examination of the 10-year record shows that China now is a calculating, strategic proliferator of nuclear weapons. Russia often sells weapons technology and the U.S. can’t contain the technology know-how.

—Wall Street Journal, 12/15/98

Angola, one of Africa’s poorest countries is back atwar. Intense fighting between government forces andrebels of the National Union of the Total Independence of Angola has erupted, involving heavy artillery, tanks, missiles and warplanes. Since 1975, more than 600,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the struggle between the former government and the modern one. Angola’s bloody slide back to war is matched by an escalation of the war in neighboring Congo. Only a year ago peace seemed to be returning. The prospects for peace were welcomed as Angola has turned out to be one of the world’s hottest oil properties, expected to be capable of pumping two million barrels a day. A peaceful Angola could be one of the richest countries per capita in Africa.

—Wall Street Journal, 12/17/98

Israel

Editor’s note: In January, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) voted to dissolve itself and hold new elections on May 17, 1999. While there are many articles that could have appeared here concerning this move in Israel, we include only the following excerpt which we believe captures the essence of the situation.

What led to the collapse of Israel’s current coalition? Binyamin Netanyahu is Israel’s first directly-elected prime minister, an electoral reform that was supposed to stabilize government but has failed miserably. In two-and-a-half years in office, Netanyahu tried to satisfy both the Right and the Left, and in doing so lost the support and confidence of his core constituency. Netanyahu was torn between the parliamentary politics of the Knesset and the presidential politics of the directly-elected prime minister. Netanyahu, moreover, found that he could not jettison an inherited policy which he found distasteful. He could not undo what the Knesset had already done—agree to share the Land of Israel with the Palestinians. No matter how he tried to obfuscate, delay, or find fault with the Palestinians, he could not reverse a democratically endorsed parliamentary decision that continues to be supported by a majority of the Israeli population. By signing the Wye Memorandum, Netanyahu alienated his core constituency. Israel’s new political system is inherently flawed.

—Jerusalem Post, 1/5/99

Israeli police on Sunday detained eight adults and six children belonging to a Denver-based apocalyptic Christian cult and said the group intended to carry out violent acts here to hasten the second coming of Christ. Israeli officials, who are increasingly concerned that the countdown to 2000 will bring a number of Christian extremists to the Holy Land, identified those in custody as members of an American cult known as Concerned Christians. "They intended to carry out extreme acts of violence in the streets of Jerusalem toward the end of 1999 in order to begin a process that would bring about the second coming of Jesus," Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said. Two months ago Israeli police formed a task force to deal with the possibility of violence here by doomsday cults and messianic groups as the turn of the century approaches.

—Los Angeles Times, 1/4/99

Israel’s population passed six million at the end ofSeptember, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced Wednesday. Some 4.76 million Israelis are Jewish. Over the last seven years the population has increased by 1 million. About 59% of this is natural increase, with the remainder the result of the immigration of some 520,000 people, with 110,000 emigrating. When Israel was established 50 years ago, there were an estimated 800,000 people living here. Within a year, that figure had risen to more than 1 million. By the end of the first decade, the total had climbed to 2 million. That had doubled by 1982; and the 5 million mark was passed in 1991.

—Jerusalem Post, 11/5/98

In three successive weeks, the courts have handed down precedent-setting rulings that contain the seedsfor fundamental change in the way the country looks and feels. The first was the November decision by the High Court of Justice to force the religious councils in Jerusalem and Kiryat Tivon to seat representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements, a small victory by these movements in their struggle to gain recognition and legitimacy in the eyes of the state. The second decision came two weeks ago, when the Jerusalem Labor Court ruled that kibbutz shopping centers could remain open tothe public on Shabbat. This ruling drastically changed a situation in which only selected places of "cultural activity" such as theaters and cinemas were permitted to operate on Shabbat. The third and most significant decision was last week’s High Court of Justice ruling rendering "illegal" the current situation where yeshiva students receive wholesale draft deferments. The court gave the Knesset a year to draw up legislation determining whether and how many yeshiva students can continue to receive deferments.

—Jerusalem Post, 12/17/98

The last few months have been the driest in Israel in more than 58 years with some parts of the country receiving only a third of an inch of rainfall since April, according to the Tel Aviv weather bureau. The Sea of Galilee, the country’s main reservoir, is dangerously low and only has two months water supply left. Officials are considering stringent water-rationing measures.

—Los Angeles Times, 12/17/98

Islam

Six people died and 30 were wounded in Jakarta when riots in Indonesia took on a religious dimension. Crowds of Moslems killed and mutilated five Catholics from the Indonesian island of Ambon, after accusing them of killing one Moslem. Mobs tore through the town, torching churches, attacking Christian schools, and looting shops. The bloody strife reflects long simmering ethnic and religious tensions in Indonesia. The tensions had been largely suppressed during the iron-fisted 32-year rule of former president Suharto who quit in May during rioting that killed more than 1200 people. Today there are almost daily protests and frequent clashes, fuelled by popular frustration and economic hardship. The religious violence raises fears of continuing unrest preceding parliamentary elections. More than 100 parties have registered, of which at least 20 are running on an exclusively Islamic platform.

—Financial Times, 11/23/98

Iran said over 10 million of its 60 million population are illiterate, with another 16 million barely able to read and write. Iran will have to build an estimated 200,000 more classrooms over the next few years to deal with rising school rolls. Iran depends on oil exports for more than 80 percent of its foreign currency revenue and a 41 percent fall in oil prices in the last year has contributed to a $6.3 billion budget deficit in 1998.

—IRNA (Iran’s official news agency) press release, 12/27/98

Christendom

Some young people today are rebelling in a whole new way—by seeking religion. Ministers and rabbis say they are seeing an increasing number of teens walking into houses of worship without their parents, looking for an intense experience, a close encounter with a higher power. To grab them, religions are reviving the ancient practices, exploring Gregorian chants, cabala, the Latin Mass. Yet churches and syn-agogues must walk a fine line: while rituals attract kids, they can often put off adults, who find the practices too weird. "Some worry that teens are taking an `X-files’ approach to religion" says Rick Lawrence, editor of a Loveland, Colorado, magazine for Christian youth leaders. Rabbi Richard Jacobs of Scarsdale, New York, says that Jewish mysticism has become trendy in certain circles. "All these people in the fashion industry gathering to study cabala," he laments. While the teens remain devoted, many have no qualms about switching to other faiths. Meghan Springer, a 17-year-old in Seattle, said, "I could be a Christian for two years and say, `You know, this doesn’t work for me,’ and become a Buddhist."

—Wall Street Journal 12/18/98

A small movement of Pakistan’s minority Christian community, calling itself the "Christian Taliban," hopes to bring significant changes to the lives of thepoorest members of the population, tackling drug abuse and alcoholism. There is little regret over a symbolic association with Afghanistan’s Moslem Taliban, notorious for its draconian justice system. Amputating limbs as a punishment for theft—even when motivated by extreme hunger in harsh winter months—is one of the chief policies of the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan’s Christian Taliban show little concern about Moslem Taliban’s reputation. Javie Piyara, the movement’s leader, says, "there are some 200 Christian organizations already working here forwelfare activities, but none attracted so much attention. It’s like we’ve shocked everybody." Mainstream Christian leaders consider the new movement provocative and fear it could break their ties with the country’s liberals, who have been supportive of minority rights. Mr. Sadiq says that unlike the Moslem Taliban with its tough methods, the Christian movement would be in no position to dictate to the population and would shy away from using force to achieve results.

—Financial Times, 12/24/98

Thirty-three percent of Danes say they want to separate the church of Denmark from the state, in asurvey conducted by a Copenhagen newspaper. Many want the same arrangement as in Sweden, where the church will be independent from the government by 2000. Currently 86.1 percent of all Danes are members of the Protestant-Lutheran church, which is funded by a combination of a tax paid by members through national income taxation as well as by direct support from the government. The Danish constitution states that the Protestant-Lutheran church is the state religion under parliamentary supervision and financial support and although there is freedom of religion, the head of state, currently Queen Margrethe II, must be a practicing member of the church.

—Bloomberg News Service, 12/28/98

$ Economics

Russia’s poor have been able to survive in spite of high levels of poverty because they grow their own food in family-owned "dachas" (wooden country cottages) that ring the country’s cities. At a recent conference in Moscow, Greg Thain, head of the Russian Market Research Company, said: "Dacha owners are starting to dig up their lawns to grow vegetables." Researchers at a seminar sponsored by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions claimed the widespread belief that Russians have returned to their peasant roots to survive is a myth. The researchers argued that the government must encourage the reform of commercial agriculture and provide more effective social assistance to the poor rather than encourage and subsidize petty agricultural production.

—Financial Times, 12/11/98

Ostentatious displays of wealth masked unpleasant realities when the regional monarchs convened in Abu Dhabi for the annual meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an economic and security group. The GCC states—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—own collectively almost 45 percent of proven global oil reserves and 15 percent of natural gas reserves. It has left the Gulf States at the mercy of oil revenues, which provide 75 percent of annual income. Sixty percent of the GCC’s 25 million nationals are under the age of 30 and many are still being encouraged by over-indulgent rulers to have inflated expectations for future security, employment, and welfare handouts. Even where young nationals are told to stand on their own feet, many look askance at the imbalance of national wealth, where oligarchies numbering less than 1.5 percent of national populations keep up to $800 billion of private wealth.

—Financial Times, 12/6/98

Developing countries face a precarious short-term outlook to avert a slump, the World Bank warned. In its annual report on Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries, the institution said that per capita income in developing world countries would on average increase just 0.4 percent this year. The financial crises that have swept emerging markets over the last 18 months mean that incomes will fall in Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and 33 other developing former communist countries. "There are substantial risks that the world economy will fall into recession in 1999 rather than merely enduring the period of sluggish growth expected," the report said. "These risks are strongly interconnected and potentially mutually reinforcing."

—Wall Street Journal, 12/3/98

Science

A new genetic material containing instructions for making a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor-2 will begin to be tested on humans. The substance may encourage blood-starved limbs to repair themselves by growing new blood vessels. A study published in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation, said early research showed the direct injections of DNA into the heart could help it grow new blood vessels and ease chest pain that can’t be treated in any other way.

—Washington Post, 12/23/98

Book Review

Pontius Pilate (second edition), Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1990. 370 pp.

The man who condemned Jesus to death on the cross must intrigue any serious student of the New Testament. For example, why do the gospel writers go to such lengths to show Pilate’s hesitation? Why do they mention the dream of Pilate’s wife? Certainly Herod is not portrayed in such a favorable light. Pilate tried five times to rid himself of the situation, only to be confronted repeatedly by those he despised who wanted Jesus executed for crimes not punishable under Roman law. What hold did these people have over Pilate that made him accede to their wishes?

According to Maier Pilate’s actions may have resulted from pressures of the moment, but it was conditioned by the turbulent politics of the Mediterranean world at the time. Although there is little source material on Pontius Pilate, there is enough to speculate beyond mere fiction. This treatise melds fact and fiction in what some might call a historical novel. The account differs from typical historical fiction in that Maier takes no liberties with the facts. They areused without alteration as he discovered them. A valuable part of this book are the notes which provide source information to the serious student who wants to conduct original research. Some of these sources provide recent (pre-1990) historical and archaeological data that this reviewer has not seen discussed elsewhere.

While the book purports to reconstruct the entire career of Pilate, Bible Students will likely be more interested in the discussion of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Maier follows the New Testament version of the trial. (Talmudic sources generally agree with it.) This portrayal of the crucifixion adds an important perspective generally missing from most discussions—the Roman perspective. What happened in Palestine in the first century is usually viewed from a Jewish perspective. Yet the events in Judea were linked to the largess of the Roman Empire that controlled the province. Pontius Pilate tells this part of the story and provides good background for a Memorial study.

—Len Griehs