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Pastoral Bible Institute News Financial Statement of the Pastoral Bible Institute, Inc.
Respectfully submitted by Len Griehs, Treasurer
Now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.—Romans 13:11, ASV As year quickly follows year, we all continue to look longingly for the fruition of our hopes. Certainly none of those who established the Pastoral Bible Institute in 1918 would have imagined that this service organization would still be in existence some eighty-eight years later and still actively proclaiming Christ’s kingdom as the answer to all the world’s problems. The Herald magazine continues to be our main activity. Circulation remains about the same at 2,400, including complimentary copies used in witness activities and by brethren in India and Africa. Our Polish friends continue to produce a bimonthly edition of The Herald in Polish, and a German translation appears in electronic format on the Herald web page (www.heraldmag.org). Our web page has been redesigned for easier navigation and continues to contain, in addition to a complete archive of The Herald, all the Bible study aids of the On-Line version of the Bible Students library. A recent popular addition to the page is the Emphatic Diaglott translation of the New Testament in interlinear Greek and English, complete with footnotes. Also added this year is a direct link to another Bible Student web page containing an illustrated Divine Plan of the Ages in thirty-seven languages. The Photo-Drama of Creation provided the inspiration for Adam to Zion, a children’s book that has been useful in discussing God’s plan. The Institute just republished it in soft cover and is offering it at a reduced, subsidized price. A CD-ROM version for computers including activity worksheets for children is also available. The Institute now pays the shipping for both Adam to Zion and Illustrated Divine Plan of the Ages. The special Bible Student History issue of The Herald is being revised and enlarged to include more information on the ministry of Pastor Charles Taze Russell during the years of 1879-1916. A new booklet comparing three views of the Passover and its relationship to the Last Supper is in production and will be distributed free to requesters and on our web site. The directors and editors continued to enjoy a good spirit of co-operation in their efforts to manage the affairs of the Institute. We thank our subscribers for their continued support and prayers, and sincerely ask that these be continued during the coming year. Directors and Editors of the Pastoral Bible Institute New Publications In the March/April 2004 issue of The Herald, an article expressed the view that our Lord’s last supper was a day prior to the Jewish Passover meal. Some who view the subject differently expressed a desire for airing an alternate view. The editors have met this request by presenting three different views on the subject in a new booklet titled The Last Supper. Also new is an updated Bible Student History issue distributed for the first time two years ago. Use the insert within this magazine to order The Last Supper and/or the updated History issue. Both are free.
World News Religious The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston opened its books, releasing what experts and church officials say is the most detailed financial accounting any diocese has made available. The reports show that the archdiocese has a $46 million deficit, the largest any diocese has ever had, according to two national experts on church finances. The archdiocese has paid out more than $150 million in legal settlements related to accusations of sexual abuse by priests. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and other officials made it clear that they also hoped that the frankness of the report would inspire parishioners to increase donations, which have fallen off by several million dollars since the abuse crisis began in 2002. —New York Times, 4/19/2006 Israel’s Shimon Peres met with Pope Benedict XVI and submitted an invitation to visit Israel from Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The two met for 40 minutes in the Vatican, and the Pope said he hopes to visit Israel sometime in the first half of next year. They said afterwards that they had discussed Middle East matters. “I definitely believe that a visit by the Pope can influence the peace process,” Peres told reporters. Peres is reported, in 1994, to have promised the Vatican official status in Jerusalem. —Jerusalem Post, 4/7/2006 A crunch on open space in many rejuvenated cities has developers courting churches with multi-million dollar offers to buy their property and sometimes even the air above their heads. From New York to Seattle, downtown congregations are striking deals worth up to tens of millions of dollars. Those willing to sell are often mainline Protestant churches saddled by aging buildings, growing deficits and shrinking memberships. —Religious News Service [undated] Europe was the central battleground of World Wars I and II and the Cold War. What U.S. official thinking reflects is Europe’s unwitting emergence again at the beginning of the 21st century as a decisive stage for a new historic battle with global consequences. Muslim minorities have grown to 5 percent of the West European population, triple what it was 30 years ago. That number is likely to double again by 2025. One senior U.S. policy maker believes that over the next 20 to 30 years, Europe will either become a much more dangerous and divided place or it will see the emergence of “Modern Islam” that is compatible with democracy and Western values. —Wall Street Journal, 4/11/2006 Always wary of religion, the communist government has sought to rein in Christianity’s rapid spread in China, targeting activist preachers for arrest and intimidation. Preachers have been jailed or driven into exile or deeper underground. In a China where free-market reforms have upended lives once tightly circumscribed by the state and sent people searching for answers, religious belief of all kinds is exploding. While Buddhism is the most popular religion, Christians now number a conservatively estimated 35 million, up from less than 1 million 50 years ago, according to religious scholars. Most worship in private homes rather than in churches monitored by state-backed religious organizations. —Salt Lake Tribune, 4/20/2006 Social Restricting an animal’s calorie intake is the most [successful technique] known to extend life span. Discovered more than 70 years ago, it is still the only one absolutely proven to work. The restricted regime typically involves reducing an individual’s food consumption by 30 to 40 percent compared with what is considered normal for its species. [The animals] on this diet not only live longer but are far healthier during their prolonged lives. Most diseases ... are forestalled. The organism seems to be supercharged for survival. —Scientific American, March 2006 In a country where every tenth person depends on food aid, a small village in western Kenya is the subject of an experiment, partly American-funded, which its authors say can show rich countries how to do better at helping poor ones feed themselves. With a scientific blitzkrieg approach that tackles everything from seed quality to school lunches, the 5,100 villagers of impoverished Sauri have doubled farm output and gone from depending on handouts to donating food to the needy. Sauri is the first beneficiary of the Millennium Village Project begun 18 months ago. With funding of just $70 per person and taking an overall, long-term approach, the project managers reopened the Sauri health clinic and rehabilitated contaminated water wells. The primary school’s performance in standardized tests has gone from 198th out of 350 district schools to consistently scoring in the top 10, headmaster Joseph Lanyo said. —Associated Press, 4/3/2006 What percentage of kids who start at a high school finish? ... [Only] anywhere from 64% to 71%. It’s a rate that most researchers say has remained fairly static since the 1970s, despite increased attention on the plight of public schools. Virtually no community, small or large, rural or urban, has escaped the problem. —Time, 4/17/2006 According to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics, the life expectancy at birth continued its crawl upward to a high of 77.9 years in 2004. [American] women can expect to live 80.4 years, men 75.2 years. Steady improvements in healthcare drove down death rates for heart disease, cancer and stroke—the leading causes of death in the U.S. —Los Angeles Times, 4/20/2006 Life in Zimbabwe is shorter than anywhere else in the world, with neither men nor women expected to live to 40, World Health Organization statistics show. The average life expectancy in [Zimbabwe] is 36 years, less than half the 82 years for Japan, which tops the list. —Los Angeles Times, 4/8/2006 The U.S. is experiencing its sharpest decline in teenage crime since the 1960s. Arrest rates for aggravated assault, robbery, and rape have fallen by a third among children ages 10-18. Juvenile homicide arrests are down to fewer than 1,000 annually from a high of 3,800. Authorities say more aggressive policing and the decline of crack cocaine are the chief factors behind the drop. —The Week, 3/24/2006 Political Venezuela is becoming the leading transit country through which the bulk of the world’s cocaine is smuggled to the US and Europe, according to foreign law enforcement officers. The US State Department’s 2006 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, released in March, said of Venezuela: “Two key factors have contributed to an increase in trafficking during 2005: rampant corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement and a weak judicial system.” In April, a seizure in Mexico of 5.2 tons of cocaine aboard an aircraft that arrived from Caracas International airport was one of the largest hauls ever seized. —Financial Times, 4/19/2006 Babylon, the mud-brick city with the million-dollar name, has paid the price of war. It has been ransacked, looted, torn up, paved over, neglected and roughly occupied. Archaeologists said American soldiers even used soil thick with priceless artifacts to stuff sandbags. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is pumping millions of dollars into protecting and restoring Babylon and a handful of other ancient ruins in Iraq. Saddam Hussein started the restoration in 1985 with intent to build an ancient-looking palace right on top of Nebuchadnezzar’s original one. Elizabeth Stone, an archaeologist at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, is helping to restore Babylon. The plan is to completely restore Babylon and turn it into a shining gem of Iraqi tourism. —New York Times, 4/18/2006
Financial The world market for ethanol has grown from 28 million liters in 2000 to 49 million liters in 2005 as a result of a shift in the world’s fuel use. If ethanol continues to grow, the geopolitics of fuels will change completely. There are currently moves in the EU to increase the proportion of ethanol in petrol from 5 to 10 percent. Moves to increase the proportion of ethanol would generate a surge in world demand for sugar, which is heavily produced in South America. —Financial Times, 3/9/2006 A 10-year battle to give the capital of unified Germany an airport worthy of this position ended with a victory for Berlin when the country’s highest administrative court awarded two billion euros for the project. The new hub is scheduled to open in 2011 on the site of Schonefeld airport in the south-east of Berlin. —Financial Times, 3/17/2006 Russia, Iran and Qatar have 58 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves. The United States has 3 percent. —Chevron Advertisement, 4/11/2006 Exxon Mobil regained the 2005 Fortune 500 No. 1 spot for the first time since 2001, riding a wave of gushing oil prices that lifted its sales to $340 billion —a record for any U.S. company. With $36 billion in profits, Exxon also earned more than any other company in U.S. history, and more than the combined profits of the next four Fortune 500 companies, Wal-Mart, General Motors, Chevron, and Ford Motor. In total, Fortune 500 companies earned a record-breaking $9.1 trillion in sales and $610 billion in profits in 2005. —Fortune, 4/3/2006 A tiny chemical reactor that can convert vegetable oil directly into bio-diesel could help farmers turn some of their crops into homegrown fuel to operate agricultural equipment instead of relying on costly imported oil. The device about the size of a credit card pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into bio-diesel almost instantly. —Associated Press, 4/19/2006 President Bush signed a bill pushing the ceiling on the U.S. national debt to nearly $9 trillion. The measure allows the government to borrow an additional $781 billion and ... lets the government pay for the war in Iraq without raising taxes or cutting popular domestic programs. The debt limit increase was the fourth of Bush’s presidency, totaling $3 trillion. —Associated Press, 3/20/2006 Israel The main road that ran from Jerusalem’s City of David to the Temple Mount during the time of the Second Temple has been uncovered by Israeli archeologists. The road connected the Shiloah pool to the Temple Mount compound. The 2,000-year-old road was discovered adjacent to the Shiloah pool during ongoing excavations at the site. The archeologists have also found large stones and boulders from the destruction of the second Temple, burnt ashes, and an assortment of coins from the failed Jewish rebellion against the Romans. —Jerusalem Post, 3/31/2006 Syria has agreed to store Iran’s nuclear material, and Iran will grant asylum to Syrian officials implicated in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harriiri. The two countries signed a strategic accord to help each other resist international pressure regarding their weapons programs and misdeeds. As part of the agreement, Syria committed itself to continue to supply the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah terror group with weapons, ammunition and other equipment. Hizbullah currently has 15,000 missiles and rockets that it received from Iran, deployed on Lebanon’s border with Israel. —Jane’s Defense Weekly, reported by Arutz 7, 3/6/2006 In 1992, when India opened its embassy in Israel, trade between the two countries amounted to $2 million. Today, said India’s ambassador to Israel, it stands at $2.7 billion. He predicted that bilateral trade between the two would jump to $7 billion in two to three years. —Arutz 7, March 2006 In honor of World Water Day on March 29, Waterfronts Israel Water Alliance presented its strategy to turn Israel into a world water technology superpower. Uri Yogev, chairman of the Alliance, estimated that within 10 years Israel’s water industry would be exporting $10 billion and be considered a world center of developing advanced water industries and technologies. Within 15 years, the world’s water shortage is predicted to total 35% of consumption, Yogev said. —Jerusalem Post, 3/23/2006 After much hard work and research, the techelet, (azure blue) robe of the high priest has been completed by the Temple Institute and is ready to be worn in a Third Temple. The coat sports 72 golden bells alternating with pomegranates attached around its hem, woven of blue, purple and scarlet wool. It will join the already completed ephod and choshen (breastplate), featuring the 12 precious stones associated with the 12 tribes of Israel. “This is the first robe woven entirely out of techelet in nearly 2,000 years,” Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute said. —Arutz 7, March 2006 The alliyah (immigration) rate from North America is the highest it has been since 1983, according to the Jewish Agency. More than 3,100 North Americans moved to Israel by the end of 2005. Michel Landsberg, the executive director of the Jewish Agency’s North American Alliyah Delegation, said that 2005 is the third year running that has seen a consistent increase in the number of North American immigrants to Israel. —Dispatch from Jerusalem, March/April 2006 |
