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PBI News The annual meeting of the Pastoral Bible Institute was held on July 20, 2012, at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Approximately 25 members were present to discuss the activities of the Institute. There was also a phone connection for members to participate. In accordance with the by-laws, new editors were appointed by the Board of Directors for the Herald of Christ’s Kingdom for the 2013 fiscal year. The names of these editors appear on the inside cover of the magazine. All articles appearing in the magazine must be approved by a majority of the five editors. The annual report for the Institute appeared in the May-June 2012 issue. Religious The Greek Orthodox Church has long been not just a religious force but also an economic one, with a stake in the Greek National Bank, landholdings second only to the Greek government and a clergy bankrolled by the state. But critics say the church’s tax breaks and its tangled relationship with the political leadership are starving the country of revenue at a moment when time and money are running short. A major new property tax levy announced last year as an emergency revenue measure exempted church possessions. The tight identification between the Greek nation and the Greek Church dates back to the country’s declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, scholars say. — Washington Post, 5/30/2012 The Southern Baptist Convention, that at one time supported slavery, elected its first African-American president, a huge stride toward racial reconciliation. When the 55-year-old Rev. Fred Luter, a pastor from New Orleans, was elected recently at a meeting of Southern Baptists in Orlando, he was greeted by a standing ovation. It’s a big step for a denomination formed out of a pre-Civil War split with northern Baptists over slavery, with a reputation for supporting segregation for much of the last century. — AP, 6/29/2012 The Vatican released 29 previously unpublished works from the 3rd Century theologian Origen of Alexandria. Few of Origen’s original texts remain because he was condemned by the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553 AD, for among other things, his view that Jesus Christ was inferior to God rather than a co-equal part of the Trinity and that souls pre-existed. — AP, 6/12/2012
Iranian archaeologists recently exposed over 60 feet of ancient sewer systems at Persepolis, the capital of ancient Persia under the Achaemenid dynasty. This revealed that the drainage branches off into several canals which ran to the south before turning east. The palatial city of Persepolis became the capital of Ancient Persia under the Achaemenid dynasty in the 6th century BC, shortly after Cyrus the Great allowed the return of Jews to their homeland. — Bible History Daily, 6/11/2012 Social Northern Italy was rocked by an earthquake twice in ten days. The first quake killed seven and displaced several thousand more from their homes in the Emilia Romagna region. The second quake, 5.8 magnitude, left at least 15 dead. Eyewitnesses said that roughly 70 percent of Cavezzo, one of the town’s closest to the epicenter, was destroyed. — The Slatest, 5/29/2012 NASA’s newest satellite, a $170-million telescope with the power to observe the high-energy X-ray happenings of the cosmos, entered orbit after a successful launch from a Pacific island. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, nicknamed NuStar, will capture images of high energy x-rays with ten times better resolution and a hundred times more sensitivity than current technology already up there. Scientists expect the device will allow them to peer into the hearts of black holes, to look at galaxies through clouds of space debris like dust and gas, and to study the ancient remnants of exploded stars. — National Geographic, 6/13/2012 For the first time, the influx of Asians moving to the US surpassed that of Hispanics, reflecting a slowdown in illegal immigration while American employers increase their demand for high-skilled workers. An expansive study by the Pew Research Center details what it describes as “the rise of Asian-Americans,” a highly diverse and fast-growing group making up nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population. Mostly foreign-born and naturalized citizens, their numbers have been boosted by increases in visas granted to specialized workers and to wealthy investors as the US economy becomes driven less by manufacturing and more by technology. About 430,000 Asians, or 36 percent of all new immigrants, arrived in the US in 2010, compared to about 370,000, or 31 percent, who were Hispanic. — AP, 6/19/2012 Millions of economically pressed Americans cushioned themselves against the recession by doubling up in houses and apartments, according to a Census Bureau report. The number of adults sharing households with family members or other individuals jumped 11.4 percent between 2007 and 2010, the report said. Overall, such living arrangements accounted for 22 million households in 2010 — or 18.7 percent of all U.S. households, compared with 17 percent in 2007. — Washington Post, 6/21/2012 A gunman opened fire at moviegoers during a midnight premiere of the new “Batman” movie in Aurora, Colo., on July 20, killing 12 and injuring 58 others. James Holmes, a 24-year-old former graduate student, is being held in solitary confinement, accused of perpetrating one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history. — AP, 7/20/2012 The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda, Ugandan health officials said, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many people fleeing their homes. The officials and a World Health Organization representative told a news conference in Kampala that there is “an outbreak of Ebola” in Uganda. There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola. In Uganda, in 2000, the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized. — AP, 7/28/2012 Syria’s conflict has already left 19,000 dead. The Syrian regime appears to have absorbed the shock it suffered in the heaviest blow against it yet in Syria’s 17-month-old upheaval — a bombing that killed four top aides. The blast raised opponents’ hopes President Bashar Assad could fall soon. Instead he is back on the offensive and has reshuffled his inner circle of loyalists to brace for a long battle in what has become an outright civil war. — AP, 7/28/2012 AIDS is graying. By the end of the decade, the government estimates, more than half of Americans living with HIV will be over 50. There is growing evidence that people who have spent decades battling the virus may be aging prematurely. Numerous studies indicate heart disease, thinning bones and other health problems hit many people with HIV when they are only in their 50s. — AP, 7/27/2012 Political Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment for arming and supporting murderous rebels in Sierra Leone in return for “blood diamonds,” a landmark sentence activists hope will send a clear message to despots around the world that they will be held to account for sponsoring atrocities. The sentence came a month after Taylor became the first former head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international court. — AP, 5/30/2012 European Central Bank head Mario Draghi promised to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. The German and French leaders then said that they were “determined to do everything to protect the eurozone.” Neither mentioned any specific action. But those comments raised expectations that the ECB, or the European Financial Stability Facility, might step in to buy Spanish government bonds which have been at worryingly high levels in recent weeks. — AP, 7/28/2012 Residents of Middleborough, MA (pop. 20,000) voted to impose a $20 fine on vulgarities uttered 18 in public. The town’s police chief first proposed the ordinance to cut down on belligerent, antisocial cussing in public places. The proposal passed 183 votes to 50 at a town meeting, as several residents and business owners expressed their exasperation with ribaldry that they said was keeping delicate-eared customers inside and away from local businesses. — AP, 6/11/2012 Security experts said a highly sophisticated computer virus is infecting computers in Iran and other Middle East countries and may have been deployed at least five years ago to engage in state-sponsored cyber espionage. Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections. — Reuter’s, 5/28/2012 (The following day, this appeared in the Jerusalem Post — Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon said “whoever sees the Iranian threat as a serious threat would be likely to take different steps, including these, in order to hurt them.” He hinted that Jerusalem was behind the cyber attack. “Israel is blessed to be a nation possessing superior technology. These achievements of ours open up all kinds of possibilities for us.” — Editor) The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party defied predictions and won nearly 7 percent of the vote in the Greek national elections. The conservative New Democracy Party, which supports Greece staying in the European Union and honoring its commitments under bailouts it received, will form the new government. Golden Dawn, with its Nazi swastika-like flag and Holocaust-denying leader, picked up 6.92 percent of the vote, which will give the party 19 lawmakers in the 300-member parliament. Golden Dawn campaigned on an anti-austerity, anti-immigrant platform, preying on the fears of ordinary Greeks who have seen their neighborhoods overrun by the nearly 1 million immigrants who have flooded the country from Asia and Africa hoping to use it as a gateway to the European Union. — JTA, 6/18/2012 Egyptians picked a conservative Islamist as their first freely elected president, giving the Muslim Brotherhood a platform to challenge entrenched military authority and electrifying the Arab world’s most populous nation with one of the most concrete signs of democratic change since the revolution last year. Mohamed Morsi’s victory represented a watershed moment for Egyptian Islamists, who were tortured and repressed during decades of autocratic regimes. Morsi vows to implement a strict version of Islamic law. Egypt was regarded as a linchpin of Middle East peace through their 35-year-old treaty. The new government faces lawlessness, a flagging economy, and public frustration. Hospitals have come under attack by angry Egyptians, while demonstrators block roads in frustration over frequent power outages and a lack of running water. Labor strikes are widespread. — Washington Post, 6/25/2012 Financial The White House predicts this year’s federal budget deficit will end up at $1.2 trillion, marking the fourth consecutive year of trillion dollar-plus deficits during President Barack Obama’s administration. — AP, 7/27/2012 A debt crisis in the 17-country eurozone has raised doubts about the future of the currency and threatened global growth. The prospect of bailing out Spain is worrisome because the potential cost far exceeds existing emergency funds. Financial markets are also uneasy about Italy, a major European economy with large debts and a feeble economy. The European Central Bank with its virtually unlimited ability to print money and ease the financial pressure on indebted nations has been using that power as leverage in pushing the leaders of individual countries to accept an increasingly regional approach to economic challenges. — Washington Post, 6/5/2012 $86 millions per day—the amount of taxes, royalties, and lease payments collected by U.S. government entities from oil and gas companies. — Industry statistics, 6/12/2012 Home equity in the first quarter rose to $6.7 trillion, the highest level since 2008, as homeowners taking advantage of record-low borrowing costs to refinance their loans brought cash to the table to pay down principal. The 7.3 percent gain was the biggest jump in more than 60 years, according to Federal Reserve data. — Washington Post, 6/18/2012 International financier R. Allen Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison for orchestrating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme that spanned 20 years. Stanford duped an estimated 28,000 people, selling fraudulent high-interest certificates of deposit at the Stanford International Bank on Antigua. He assured investors that their money was safe as he funneled funds into a Swiss bank account and financed his own extravagant lifestyle, which included owning a cricket team. — New York Times, 6/14/2012 A new global survey from Pew found that for the first time China has surpassed the United States as the world’s economic engine in the eyes of the global public. The poll questioned respondents in 21 different nations, finding that 41 percent named China as the world’s leading economic superpower to 40 percent who selected the United States. The new global perception of China’s economic dominance may not be accurate. But the findings “highlight China’s steadily rising public image amid rapid growth, as well as the erosion of the United States’ status as the global superpower.” — AP, 6/13/2012 Israel The first ancient artifact constituting tangible evidence of the existence of the city of Bethlehem, which is mentioned in the Bible, was recently discovered in Jerusalem. A bulla [an official seal] measuring 1.5 cm was found during the sifting of soil from archaeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David. — Ynet News, 5/24/2012 The Palestinian Authority (PA) does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Accordingly, the introduction to the PA Ministry of Information’s book stresses that correct Palestinian language must be chosen in order to avoid language that recognizes Israel’s existence as “natural.” Palestinians are encouraged to use terms that indicate that Israel is the result of “a racist, colonialist endeavor.” The book instructs Palestinians never to use the name “Israel” alone but instead to use the term “Israeli colonialism.” — Palestinian Media Watch, 6/19/2012 According to the Gospel of Matthew, an earthquake shook Jerusalem on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. A new study of cores and seismic activity near the Dead Sea in the latest issue of International Geology Review may provide scientific data relating to the event described in Matthew 27. Moreover, a recent report by Discovery News suggested that the new research on sediment disturbances can be combined with Biblical, astronomical and calendrical information to give a precise date of the crucifixion: Friday, April 3, 33 C.E. — Bible History Daily, 6/11/2012 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to raise Iran’s profile in Egypt with a post-election visit. The Iranian President is trying to exploit Egypt’s rejection of its former regime in the interests of his own country, in a populist manner, whereby he wants to say to the Egyptians that Iran was wronged by Mubarak, just like you. According to Egyptian delegates, Ahmadinejad spoke about what he called a Western conspiracy to break up the Arab and Muslim world, striking its military and strategic strength.” — Israel Daily News Stream, 6/12/2012 Excavations at Akko (Acre) have exposed archaeological evidence of Israel’s largest Hellenistic harbor, according to an Israel Antiquities Authority press release from July 17, 2012. Named Ptolemais in the Hellensitic period, the UNESCO World Heritage Site had diverse affiliations in its millennia-long occupation. Throughout its history, Akko has served as a major emporium for the ancient world. Bronze and Iron Age Akko appears prominently in ancient Egyptian, Ugaritic, Assyrian, Classical and Biblical accounts. Known locally as Tell Napoleon or Tell el-Fukhar, excavations at this ancient city uncovered remains of Canaanite, “Sea Peoples,” Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, Hasmonean, Herodian, Roman, Ottoman and Crusader cultures. — Bible History Daily, 7/17/2012 The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Israel employs highly sophisticated, professional spy services that rival American agencies in technical capability and recruiting human sources. The U.S. relationship with Israel features close cooperation on intelligence programs that reportedly included the Stuxnet computer virus that attacked computers in Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities. — AP, 7/23/2012 The Jewish birthrate in Jerusalem exceeds the Arab birthrate, reversing a trend from 1999. Jews are a solid majority in Jerusalem. Arabs constitute 36 percent, almost all are in areas restored to the capital in the 1967 Six Day War. The Jerusalem population in 2011 was 801,000. — Arutz 7, 6/20/2012 |
A new analysis and new evidence suggests that the controversial “Brother of
Jesus” inscription on an ancient bone box, or ossuary, is authentic. A judge in
Jerusalem, Aharon Farkash, recently aquitted defendants of all charges of
forgery. His verdict does not mean the Aramaic inscription on the bone box,
“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,” actually describes who was inside the
box. It only means that the prosecution failed to show, beyond a reasonable
doubt, that the inscription is a forgery. Two world-acclaimed paleographers
analyzed the inscription and pronounced it authentic. Whether the name “Jesus”
on the bone box refers to the founder of Christianity is a separate question.
Jesus, James, and Joseph were all common names at the time. — Biblical
Archaeology Review, July/August 2012