Pastoral Bible Institute News

Date of Annual PBI Meeting

The annual meeting of PBI Members and Directors will be held on Friday, July 13, at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The General Convention of Bible Students will begin on Saturday, July 14, at the same location and end the evening of July 19. Those who are interested in the Pastoral Bible Institute, whether members or not, are welcome to attend this meeting. Contact the ­Institute’s secretary for accommodation details.

World News

Religious

Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life” has spawned an industry advising churches to become “purpose-driven” by attracting nonbelievers with lively worship services, classes and sermons that discuss Jesus’ impact on their lives, and invitations to volunteer. The purpose-driven movement is dividing the country’s more than 50 million evangelicals. Some say it’s inappropriate for churches to use growth tactics akin to modern management tools. Others say it ­encourages simplistic Bible teaching. One Baptist woman who left her church as a result of the minister adopting the purpose driven approach and eliminating sermons about God’s wrath or redemption said, “He didn’t preach on somebody going to hell.”

—Wall Street Journal, 9/5/2006

A new survey conducted by the research division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention looks at reasons why adults leave evangelical Christian churches. LifeWay Research polled 469 adults who once attended church regularly in an effort to find out why they stopped ­going—and also to discover what it would take to bring them back. According to the study, 59 ­percent of formerly churched adults say they left ­because of changes in their life situation. The top two specific life situations cited were schedules that ­became too hectic to allow for church attendance, and family responsibilities at home that prevented church attendance.

—Agape Press, 10/24/2006

Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves. Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation. The phenomenon may not be that young evangelicals are abandoning their faith, but that they are abandoning the institutional church, said Lauren Sandler, author of “Righteous Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement” (Viking, 2006).

—New York Times, 10/7/2006

Rabbis were ordained in Germany for the first time since World War II. Three graduates of the Abraham Geiger training college in Berlin, which opened (in 2000), received ordination at a ceremony in Dresden. Germany’s Jewish population has quadrupled to about 100,000 since 1990, mostly because of immigration from the former ­Soviet Union.

—The Week, 9/22/2006

The Bible, in whole and in part, has been translated into approximately 2,300 languages or dialects, with at least that many remaining.

—Biblical Archaeology Review, Nov./Dec. 2006

Social

Americans are watching more television than ever, according to a report released by Nielsen Media Research. The average amount of television watched by an individual viewer was a record four hours and 35 minutes a day [during the yearlong 2005-06 TV season that ended last week]. The average amount of time that U.S. households had a television set on each day was eight hours and 14 minutes.

—Los Angeles Times, 9/22/2006

Russia is rapidly losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of the world’s fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and the lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution. Abortions outpaced births last year by more than 100,000. An estimated 10 million Russians of reproductive age are sterile because of botched abortions or poor health. The public healthcare system is collapsing. “Russia has a huge territory, the largest territory in the world,” [President Vladimir] Putin said. “If the situation remains unchanged, there will simply be no one to protect it.”

—Los Angeles Times, 10/8/2006

The average number of annual [American] fatalities [in commercial airline accidents] for the past ten years is 82, including the 265 people who died on airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001. The number of Americans who died in motor-vehicle accidents in 2003 was 44,757.

—TIME, 12/4/2006

In a recent survey, over four in five global executives said they’re always connected to their jobs through mobile devices—all day, every day. Thirty-eight percent of those polled believe they’re spending too much time on their cell phones, laptop computers, PDAs and pagers. An informal survey by the Impact Group, a team of psychologists who consult on business management, showed that high-level executive clients spent more than three hours per day on e-mail tasks, yet less than 20% of those emails offered any real business or social value. Accidents, anxiety, fistfights and wrecked marriages are being blamed on excessive cell phone and PDA use.

—Investor’s Business Daily, 10/23/2006

The Josephson Institute’s new national Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth [found] nearly one in three admitted they stole from a store during the past year … and 61 percent confessed they had cheated on a test. … 97% agreed that “It’s important to me that people trust me.” (36,000 teens participated in the biennial report.)

—Josephson Institute of Ethics, October 2006

On October 17, 2006, at the Census Bureau headquarters in Suitland, Md., a crowd broke into cheers at 7:46 when the digital population clock—calculating that an American is born every 7 seconds, one dies every 13 seconds and the nation gains an immigrant from abroad every 31 seconds —flashed 300,000,000. The United States is now one of three countries with more than 300 million people, ranking behind China and India.

—The New York Times, 10/18/2006

Political

By the end of October, travelers entering the U.S. from a number of countries will, for the first time, be required to have electronic passports. The global move toward ePassports has been underway since 9/11. EPassports feature embedded radio frequency identification chips that carry the holder’s personal data and a digital photo. U.S. residents traveling outside the country could be required to have ePassports by the end of 2007. Passport readers ­already are being used in many foreign airports. Since January 2004, they have processed more than 62 million visitors.

—Investor’s Business Daily, 10/20/2006

Venezuela has ceased [granting] tourist visas to Israelis, its embassy in Israel said Monday accenting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s harsh criticism of Israel. However, a Venezuelan official said the halt was probably technical in nature.

—Jerusalem Post, 10/24/2006

North Korea may be a starving, friendless, authoritarian nation of 23 million people, but its apparently successful explosion of a small nuclear device in the mountains above the town of Kilju on Monday represents a defiant bid for survival and respect. North Korea is more than just another nation joining the nuclear club. It has never developed a weapons system it did not ultimately sell on the world market, and it has periodically threatened to sell its nuclear technology.

—New York Times, 10/9/2006

China executes more prisoners than any other country in the world. In 2005, at least 1,770 people were executed, although true figures were believed to be much higher, a report by human rights group Amnesty International said. Organs from death row inmates are sold to foreigners who need transplants. Spokesman Qin Gang said that the organs were not taken forcibly, but only with the express permission of the convict. The No 1 Central Hospital in Tianjin carried out 600 liver transplants last year, [BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes] says, and the organ transplant industry has become big business.

—BBC News, 9/27/2006

Bulgaria and Romania were cleared to join the European Union on January 1, 2007 but only under the toughest conditions ever imposed and amid signs that this could be the EU’s last expansion for many years. It is unlikely the EU will handle future membership negotiations in the way it dealt with Bulgaria and Romania: the two countries were guaranteed an entry date of 2007 or 2008 regardless of whether they completed reforms.

—Financial Times, 9/27/2006

The demand for soldiers to man peacekeeping and other stabilization operations has multiplied in ­recent years at a pace that has left many of the world’s most capable military forces struggling to meet it. In United Nations operations alone, the number of military and police peacekeepers has trebled in 10 years to almost 75,000 at the end of August. Additionally a lack of assets such as transport aircraft and helicopters to get troops into the right places is “the single greatest problem we face,” ­according to Bruce Jones, co-director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York Univer­sity.

—Financial Times, 9/28/2006

Saudi Arabia disclosed plans to build a multi­billion-dollar electrified fence along its 560 mile border with Iraq. The move angered U.S. and Iraqi officials, but Saudi officials said Iraq’s instability left them little choice. They said they were concerned about militants infiltrating from Iraq to carry out attacks aimed at either toppling the ruling family or inciting Saudi Arabia’s restive Shiite minority to seek independence.

—Wall Street Journal, 9/13/2006

Financial

Economic fundamentals across Eastern Europe are increasingly shaky, two years after Hungary and seven other European nations joined the European Union. Slovakia and Croatia have big budget deficits that are getting worse. Several nations, including Hungary, have foreign-currency debt coming due that exceed their reserves of hard currency.

—Wall Street Journal, 9/21/2006

Thanks to four straight years of robust earnings growth, corporate America is awash in cash like never before. Industrial companies included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index held a record $633 billion in cash as of June 30, according to S&P. That’s up from $500 billion in 2003, and just $155 billion a decade ago. Money is piling up faster than companies can spend it on acquisitions, expansion, stock buybacks and dividends.

—Institutional Investor, September 2006

Tobacco is responsible for bringing modernity to much of rural China. Tobacco money has built highways, railroads, and hydroelectric dams. It has provided capital for startup firms. But now China is in the early stages of a health epidemic caused by rising rates of smoking-related diseases. More than a million Chinese die each year of smoking-related diseases compared to 400,000 in the U.S. China has more smokers than the U.S. has people.

—Wall Street Journal, 1/3/2007

Institutional investment in Asian real estate has climbed so high it has reached what one real-estate executive in a recent survey called “nosebleed levels,” with each dollar of available property attracting $5 in capital in some cases, according to the report. “It’s the beginning of a deeper and wider flow of international money that will be moving into Asia over the next (few) years,” says Tony Horrell, chief executive of European capital markets for Jones Lang LaSalle. Investors are looking at properties ranging from industrial parks in China to “health-care tourism” facilities in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for patients requiring everything from cosmetic surgery to hip replacements, the institute report says.

—Wall Street Journal, 9/13/2006

Israel

The population of the State of Israel at the end of 2005 was comprised of 6,990,700 people, of which 5,313,800 were Jewish (76% of the entire population), and 1,377,100 were Arab (19.7%) according to data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The data also showed that since 2000, the Jewish population has decreased by 1.8%, while the Muslim population has increased by 1.1% to 1,140,600.

—Ynetnews.com, 9/19/2006

An Israeli biotech company has developed banana plants that are completely resistant to pathogenic nematodes, which are parasitic organisms that normally damage the plants and their fruit. Nematodes, commonly called roundworms, are some of the most destructive pathogens damaging banana and plantain crops across the globe. Chemical nema­cides have been banned in most of the world due to their dangerous toxic and carcinogenic nature. Israel’s Rahan Meristem biotechnology company has now developed banana plants resistant to nema­todes—a development that will save banana growers the world over millions of dollars in lost crops.

—Arutz Sheva, 9/7/2006

A growing number of Palestinians are openly saying they’d like to leave the West Bank and Gaza if given the chance, yet another indication of the deepening despair since Hamas was elected to run the government. Birzeit University pollster Nader Said, who has monitored emigration attitudes for 12 years, says the percentage of Palestinians willing to relocate once hovered just below 20%. That figure jumped to 32% in a September survey, surging to 44% among Palestinians in their 20s and 30s, and beyond 50% among young men.

—Daily Alert, 10/24/2006

After five years of diplomatic wrangling, the State of Israel has been admitted as a full member of the European division of the international police organization, Interpol. Until now, Israel has participated as part of the Asian division, despite the fact that 70% of its international police operations take place in Europe. This year, the increasing need for Israel’s cooperation on international terrorism and other crimes finally outweighed European worries about angering Arab countries. Israel’s wide-ranging experience with terrorism, he added, will be a valuable addition to the international crime-fighting organization.

 —Arutz Sheva, 9/25/2006

One in every three American tourists is an Evangelical Christian, Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said. “The Evangelical Christian community is a major pillar of the tourism industry in Israel, and they are true friends of Israel wherever they are.” Nearly 5,000 Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel from around the world were in Jerusalem for the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebrations in what has been billed as the single largest tourism event of the year. Herzog said American Jews make up about 40% of the United States tourism market, with Evangelical Christians a close second.

Jerusalem Post, 10/9/2006

Knesset member Uri Ariel is drawing up plans to construct a synagogue on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. Jordan’s king plans to build a fifth minaret on the site as well. The synagogue would be built upon the Temple Mount, but in an area that is indisputably not within the areas that require immersion and other preparations according to Jewish law. Ariel says that the synagogue would not change the Muslim status quo on the mount, which is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Ariel points out that every ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court regarding the matter of the Temple Mount has recognized the right of every Jew to pray on the Temple Mount.

 —Arutz Sheva, 10/10/2006

81% of American Jews believe that the real goal of the Arabs is the destruction of Israel and not the return of land, according to the annual survey of the American Jewish Committee. Only 38% said Israel and the Arabs could solve the conflict peacefully, while 56% said the conflict could not be resolved.

—Ha’Aretz, 10/24/2006

Book Review

Theology Simplified: God, His Son, and His Spirit, A refutation of all Trinitarian arguments by Lonzo Pribble, 2001. Published by the author (13801 W. 67th Court, Arvada CO, 80004).

Lonzo Pribble was a Church of Christ minister and one of the founders of the Restoration Movement. The book opens with the words of Jesus: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Further testimony is cited from a number of biblical sources including the apostle Paul: “. ‘For us there is but one God–the ­Father from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live’ (1 Corinthians 8:6). Had Paul been either a Trinitarian or Unitarian theologian, he should have said, ‘There is but one God—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ But he didn’t.”

He observes: “ ‘Son of God’ no more makes Jesus God (ho Theos) than ‘Son of David’ makes him David.” He cites 326 New Testament references which clearly distinguish Jesus from God including “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18), yet thousands had seen Jesus and continued to see him daily.

 He also says, “Out of the approximately 374 Scripture references to the spirit, not once does the spirit ever refer to itself using a first-person pronoun, which should tell us something about the non-personal nature of the holy spirit as contrasted with the personal nature of both God and Christ.”

He lists 56 times God is declared to be the Father, 77 times Jesus Christ is declared to be the Son of God, and 326 other times Jesus is distinguished from God. One appendix gives 105 Old Testament references and 269 New Testament references to God’s spirit. These lists alone would be useful to any serious Bible student.

This book succeeds in simplifying theology, as it endeavors to restore the simplicity that is in Christ. There are few if any apparent contradictions to be glossed over as “mysteries.”

It is refreshing to see a book on the nature of God making Scripture paramount, and without recourse to dogma. More than fifty Trinitarian arguments are considered and found wanting. Further discussion seems warranted as to the nature of Christ, particularly before and during his first ­advent. But the Trinitarian theologian will have difficulty rebutting his arguments without appeal to post-apostolic theology. 

—J. Parkinson