Once again, Jerusalem has taken center-stage before the eyes of an onlooking world. Yes, the international spotlight is again focusing world attention upon Jerusalem and Israel and even though the recent peace talks have been temporarily suspended or at least delayed, it surely couldn't be long before another round of negotiations are initiated. And that by leaders who continue to naively believe that they will be able to bring to pass this elusive dream of peace that the world so desperately wants to believe is possible.

The main point of contention continues to be Jerusalem itself. According to an article in the July 24th issue of Newsweek, Arafat and the PLO have continued to demand that Jerusalem be given to the Palestinian Arabs and be designated as the undivided capital of a heretofore non-existent Palestinian state. Of course, the Jews have emphatically stated—and rightly so—that Jerusalem shall remain the “eternal and undivided” capital of Israel. A word of warning to the principal players in this drama is in order. It is absolutely imperative that they be reminded of what God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah. In Chapter Twelve, verses 1-3, God states that He will make Jerusalem a “cup of trembling” in the hands of the surrounding nations and “a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces.” Surely we see this prophecy beginning to be fulfilled before our very eyes! Another warning is found in Zechariah 2:8, where the Lord says, in speaking of Jerusalem and Israel, that “he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

Those who burden themselves with Israel will have to answer to Israel's God and it makes no difference who they are or claim to be. Woe to that person or nation who would dare to lift a finger against God's chosen people. Perhaps we should again read the Book of Zechariah.We have available a study that you will find to be of interest. May we suggest our 3-part study on “The Book of Zechariah” which is available in audios ($5 each) or videos ($20 each) along with free study guides?

From the land “where thinking is just too much trouble” comes a very disturbing headline: “Activists seeking 'legal personhood' for great apes.” The article goes on to say, “sometime in the next decade, a chimpanzee will have its day in court, and on that day it will be decided if chimps are people too.” Lawyers in what is called the Great Ape Legal Project hope, through a series of legal precedents, to “raise the status of great apes from property to people” and secure for them the same basic legal rights and protections under the law that humans enjoy. However ludicrous and absurd this may sound to those of us who have not dispensed with our basic logical and moral sensibilities, many culture watchers believe that our country's social and intellectual climate is ripe for just such a thing to occur in the next few years. This, my friend, is just where unquestioning loyalty to and belief in the unproven and unprovable—and by the way, untrue—theory of evolution has taken us as a society and culture after a century and a half of its unholy and illogical influence. At first, we were told that “humans are just animals.” Now the next “logical” step is for them to try to tell us that “animals are people too.”

Howls of indignation have been emanating from the evolution camps in Kansas and throughout the nation over the decision of the Kansas Board of Education to rewrite science standards for Kansas school children and return to local control all decisions regarding the teaching of evolution. The main stream media isn't telling the public the underlying reason behind the B.O.E.'s decision. It had been the hope and intention of the proponents of evolution to force—in a “coup de grace” against all rival theories of origin—the mandatory teaching of evolution as absolute scientific fact, not just theory. (They call it the “Unifying Principal of Science.”) The B.O.E. wisely rejected this move, realizing it would not be in the realm of good science and for this have been pilloried in the press. Incidentally, the teaching of evolution has not been outlawed in Kansas.