Pastoral Bible Institute News

PBI News

"The Keys of Revelation"

The commentary on the book of Revelation written by R. E. Streeter, one of the first editors of The Herald, is of course not the only book on this subject of interest to Bible Students. Frank Shallieu, a Bible scholar with a life-long interest in Revelation, has a carefully reasoned alternate point of view on a number of things found in this book of the Bible. Since some of our readers may not know of this book, for a limited time we are making it available at its usual price of $20, postpaid anywhere in the world. Use the insert found in this issue to order.

Letters

I’m inquiring about talks that Bro. Paul Thomson gave to different groups of brethren at conventions. I would like to acquire a few of them if possible as recordings or in written form. —A reader in Rhode Island

Note: Bro. Thomson was a former editor of The Herald. Please call us at our toll-free number if you know where to obtain copies of his discourses. We will forward that information to this inquirer.

Around the World

On October 12, 1999, in theory, the planet’s 6 billionth person was born. Most experts greet this milestone with anxiety. In just 12 years, they note, humans have increased their number by 1 billion. During the 20th century, the world’s population has tripled. And by 2100, ecologist David Pimentel of Cornell University warned in a recent paper, "12 billion miserable humans will suffer a difficult life on earth." Not everybody agrees that it is a cause for doom and gloom. Economist Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. says, "A lot of these prophecies [about overpopulation] have really proven to be false." The United Nations has found reason for encouragement in population growth because the boom is proof of increased agricultural production, decreased infant mortality andprolonged life expectancy. There are really two demographic worlds. One is poor, young and growing. In countries like Uganda and Niger, the median age is 15 and the growth rate is fast enough to double the population in 23 years. The other demographic world is wealthy, old and shrinking. The median age in Italy and Japan is 40 and the population growth in those countries has fallen to zero or below.

—Associated Press, 10/10/99

Israel

Alarmed by the possibility of violence by extreme Christian groups in the countdown to 2000, Israeli police have detained foreign Christians, many of them Americans, who settled near the Mount of Olives in recent years in hopes of witnessing Christ’s return. A police spokeswoman said those in custody were suspected of plotting to harm public safety in Israel and they will be deported. Israeli officials have warned previously that Christian extremists could be planning to carry out acts aimed at precipitating the Second Coming, including destroying the mosques on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount or committing mass suicide nearby.

—Los Angeles Times, 10/26/99

Israel has recently exported one thousand queen bees, which produce honey on a much larger scale than ordinary bees, to the Arab countries of Jordan, Lebanon, and several others, including some with which Israel has no trade relations. Following the success of this unique type of export, a second shipment, containing hundreds of queen bees and ordinary bees will be made in upcoming months to neighboring countries.

—Israel Wire, The Friends of Israel, 10/99

Ehud Barak, Israeli prime minister, wants to build a security fence along any future border between Israel and a Palestinian state. He also favors economic separation between the two states. Western intelligence experts described the ideas as shortsighted and potentially dangerous. A strip of "no man’s land" would run parallel to the fence. Mr. Barak’s support for such a rigid division between the two states stems partly from his belief in absolute separation of Palestinians from Israelis. Intelligence officials said it also reflected his obsession with security. The total economic separation between the two states would result in job losses for the 100,000 Palestinians who currently work in Israel. Such a decision would lead to greater unemployment in the Palestinian-controlled areas which is already as high as 40 percent in some cities in the West Bank and Gaza.

—Financial Times, 10/25/99

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned Nelson Mandela for calling on the Palestinian Arabs to "use violence" against Israel if the Jewish State does not retreat to the pre-1967 borders. Speaking to members of Yasser Arafat’s Legislative Council in Gaza on October 20, 1999, Mandela said, "A `regional peace’ must include a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. If taking up arms is the only solution, that is what should be done," according to Ha’Aretz. ZOA National President

Morton A. Klein said: "Why is the world silent when Nelson Mandela helps encourage violence against Israelis by telling Palestinian Arab leaders that they would be justified to take up arms against Israel? It is deplorable that the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize is undermining the hopes for peace by encouraging violence."

—Israel Wire, 10/25/99

Izzadin Kassam, the armed wing of Hamas, pledged to renew attacks against Israel, while Israeli security sources confirmed that Hamas is trying to mount operations that could leave hundreds dead and thousands injured, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to Ha’Aretz, Izzadin Kassam on Thursday disseminated leaflets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip stating that the members of the military wing are prepared to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to carry out a "holy war." Similar slogans have been scrawled on West Bank buildings in the past few days. The threat of a new wave of terrorist attacks isconsistent with some of the situation appraisals voiced recently in discussions held at senior levels inthe defense establishment, including some discussions held with Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The appraisals suggest that Hamas will attempt to perpetrate terrorist attacks within Israel’s pre-1967 borders as soon as tangible progress is made in contacts between the Palestinian Authority.

—Government Press Office (Israel), 10/26/99

Islam

An Israeli minister said his country must be ready to fight peace partner Egypt and defend itself against Egyptian missiles, especially if Islamists come to power in Cairo. Science Minister Matan Vilnai, a retired major general and former deputy chief of staff, listed Egypt as a potential source of long-range threat to Israel, along with Iran, Iraq and Libya. "I read this morning a quotation of General Tantawi that maybe they might be ready to fight us. I don’t know why he said it but he said it, so we must be ready to fight them if they would like to," he said. An Egyptian diplomat said he had seen Tantawi’s alleged remark only in the Israeli press. But Vilnai said Israel had reason to be wary because of the strength of the Islamic movement in Egypt. "We remember who killed Sadat and their power," he said. Sadat had signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and was assassinated by militant Islamists in 1981.

—Reuters, 10/27/99

Over 100,000 Muslims in Nigeria’s northern Zamfara state attended a mass celebration marking the state’s historic adoption of Islamic law. The outdoor ceremony held in the state capital ushers in sharia—fundamentalist Islamic law—for the first time in a Nigerian state. The new measures put in place by Zamfara’s Governor Ahmed Sani included segregating men and women on public transport throughout the state. Sani said he hoped the new system would eliminate moral decadence. The system includes proposals for strict penal measures including flogging, beheading and amputating hands for crimes such as adultery and theft. Many Christians in the majority-Muslim state fear the measures will lead to the closure of churches, enforced dress codes and Islamic morality laws. The issue threatens to inflame religious tensions throughout the country and several other states said they may also introduce sharia. Nigeria, a country of 120 million people, is sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines. Muslims and Christians each make up about 45 percent of Nigeria’s population.

—Associated Press, 10/28/99

Christendom

Distraught over school violence and chronic discipline problems, educators nationwide are looking for ways to improve children’s moral education. By identifying those qualities Americans value and hope to instill in their children, a wave called "character education" is sweeping the nation’s schools. Character First! is a joint venture between the public schools in Oklahoma and a Christian organization. Another organization, Character Counts! is a popular character-education program with no religious affiliation that is based in Marina Del Rey, California. The program has exploded to about 600 schools nationwide from the original eight in Oklahoma City. For some, the religious affiliation presents a dilemma. They wonder whether a religious organization should be in charge of teaching it.

—Wall Street Journal, 10/25/99

Pope John Paul II shook up the theological world when he mused on the nature of heaven, hell and purgatory for the audience of 7,000 tourists who gather at the Vatican every Wednesday afternoon. Hetold them to forget the popular notion of actual physical places—fluffy clouds above, an inky inferno below. Think of hell as a state of mind, a self-willed exile from God. The pope’s discourse reflected his tendency toward philosophical abstraction rather than traditional Catholic thinking. Protestant fundamentalists prefer a physical burning pit. They said that any suggestion that hell is simply an abstraction is a dangerous, even blasphemous notion. "My concern is the temptation to make hell a state of mind, to psychologize hell," said R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptists’ Theological Seminary in Louisville. "As attractive as that might be to the modern mind, that is not the hell of the Bible. Jesus himself spoke of hell as a lake of fire, where the worms would not die and the fire would not be quenched. It’s all very graphic."

—Washington Post, 8/17/99

Economics

Singapore is seeking to conceive what it calls E-citizens. The government is attempting to jump start its computer-based economy by rewiring its citizenry and transforming the island nation of about four million people from an economy built on trade and services to one built upon information technology. To achieve that goal, Singapore has embarked on one of the most far-reaching technology-promotion efforts in the world. All new births must be registered through a computer system or parents are fined $100. After nearly a decade of planning, Singapore officials have launched a host of electronic services to make the government more efficient and more omniscient. Central databases allow bureaucrats to track everything from immigrant work permits to detailed information on the population.

—Wall Street Journal, 10/27/99

Canada would probably face the highest economic costs of any industrialized country if it met agreed targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions as set out in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a study prepared for Canada’s oil and gas industry. Charles River Associates conducted the study. It predicts that the cost of meeting the targets would be from C$8.4 to C$17 billion annually by 2010. Canada faces a battle between business and environmental groups over the development of a national strategy for meeting the commitments. If Canada were to meet its target entirely through domestic action, it would mean adding about 24¢ a liter to retail gasoline prices and doubling consumer prices for natural gas.

—Financial Times, 10/26/99

Science

A study performed in Israel has revealed, for the first time, the biological and molecular mechanism that lends garlic its unique medical properties. In the course of the study, the scientists created the main active agent in garlic by means of a semi-artificial process—and took out a world patent on it. The reason: this substance may serve as a basis for innovative pharmaceuticals that may eventually replace antibiotics. The study, carried out by Professor David Mirelman, vice president of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Professor Meir Wilcak, dean of the Institute’s faculty of biochemistry, revealed the molecular mechanism of the active agent in garlic, allicin, which enables garlic to fight infectious and vascular diseases. Using a special and original biotechnological system that they had developed, the researchers produced large quantities of allicin through a semi-synthetic process, thus paving the way to the use of this substance as the basis for pharmaceuticals. One of the severe problems overcome by the Israeli scholars is that natural allicin remains active for a very short time—a matter of minutes—from the moment it is extracted from the garlic to the time its volatility causes it to disappear.

—Israel in the News Website, 10/26/99

Hebrew University researchers have discovered that the introduction of a particular gene into trees and plants can produce greatly accelerated growth, reducing normal growing time by one-third to as much as half the span now required. Among other things, this discovery could provide the means to rapidly restore forests that have been depleted to supply the world’s growing demand for wood and paper. The process can also speed up growth of a number of everyday agricultural products.

—Arutz-7, 10/99

Book Review

AD 1000, A World on the Brink of Apocalypse, Richard Erdoes, Seastone Publishing, Berkeley, California, 1998, 256 pages.

The tenth century has been called the Century of Lead and Iron. The Saracens, the Spanish Moors, the Vikings, the Bulgars and the Magyar horsemen all invaded Europe. Land barons slaugh-tered each other over pieces of property, killing rival barons’ serfs, burning villages and crops in order to weaken enemies. In Rome, rival popes imprisoned, starved, mutilated and assassinated each other. Recurrent famines produced starvation in region after region, resulting in widespread cannibalism. Famines were followed by epidemics caused by eating infected grain. Medicine was still a matter of magic and illness was looked upon as divine punishment. Life was so difficult and so challenging that men believed the orderly laws of nature had been suspended, that the natural flow of seasons had fallen into utter disorder, foretelling the end of all mankind.

Thus it was in the year 999 that an epidemic terror of the end of the world spread throughout the earth. The author Raoul Glaber wrote, "Though the people quarreled about the exact day and hour, they all agreed that Satan will soon be unleashed because the thousand years have been completed." Buildings, edifices, churches, all were allowed to deteriorate as people from all walks of life made their way towards Jerusalem with their "eyes on the sky, expecting the Son of God to descend in glory at any moment."

On the last day of 999 in Rome, a mass of weeping and trembling worshippers waited for the dreaded Day of Wrath. Many poor entered the church of St.Peter’s in sackcloth and ashes, having spent months doing penance and mortifying the flesh. Their fears were only heightened as they looked at the new pope celebrating the mass. He was Sylvester II, also known as Gerbert, who many worshippers believed to be Antichrist (!) appearing in the shape of a pontiff. Gerbert had risen from humble beginnings to the papacy through the influence of his pupil, Emperor Otto III. The first French pope had learned much in Spain as a young man that was as yet unknown in the superstitious west. He had invented a steam-powered organ, a new system of writing music and even Arabic numerals. Accusations abounded that he had sold his soul to the devil at an early age in order to get this magical ability. Now he was head of the church.

This chilling historical account of the days leading up to and just after the year 1000 holds up a dark mirror to our own society and gives an interesting and early perspective on how the Roman Catholic church rose to such power during a mysterious time in history. Told through the perspective of Gerbert of Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II in February, 999, the book recounts a time of almost unbelievable ignorance and superstition. Gerbert was a prolific letter writer and left a great legacy that author Erdoes analyzes and describes in a fascinating account of the early medieval world. The account of Gerbert’s attempts to reform the abusive powers of the church may not be as interesting to Bible Students as the understanding that comes from Erdoes’ description of the environment of inequity, injustice and ignorance that allowed such power to develop. As a sideline, Bible Students will find it interesting that the only pope to attempt some reform to the papal system was eventually disowned and buried without note. Later that century the church would show its total corruption with the most horrendous of all its activities—the Crusades.

—Len Griehs