plain truth 1974 (prelim no 05) may_w

7/28/2019 Plain Truth 1974 (Prelim No 05) May_w

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THE REAL CAUSE OFALLTHE WORLD'S EVILSANDHOW PEACE IS SOON COMING!

M OST NATIONS on earth are inreal trouble right now!Recently, revolutionarytrouble struck Ethiopia and almostoverthrew the government. The attackers had all roads in Addis Ababa blockaded and were at EmperorHaile Selassie's palace. It was onlywhen they realized they would haveto kill the palace guards, and Emperor Haile Selassie too, that theygave up .. Their emperor is held inmuch affection.The British government was recently turned over - by an election- to the former Labour government

of Harold Wilson. Britain has beenin deep trouble.You'll remember how I havementioned that, a year ago at NewDelhi , I was invited by the ambassador from Afghanistan to visit his

king and his country. Before I couldarrange to do so, the governmentwas overthrown, and the king fled inexile.In August I was in Santiago,Chile , to see President Allende.Three weeks later, while I was having a meeting with President Suleiman Franjieh in Lebanon, Chile'sgovernment was overthrown andPresident Allende shot to death.Three weeks after that I was speak

Personal from

have mounted up to high heaven!Why? Never in all recorded historyha s there been such worldwidetrouble! I cannot look at this mountain of human woe, suffering andevils and just shrug it off as if it werenot happening.There is a prophecy in the Bible Ido not feel like ignoring right now.If that prophecy is not now comingto pass , we are surely in the preliminary forerunner of it.It is in the book of Matthew,

ever understood it. Like the book ofDaniel, it is cloaked in symbol andhas been almost totall y misunderstood until now.Thi s book of Revelation is, chapter I: I, "The Revelation [whichmeans the revealing, not the hidingor concealing] of Jesus Christ, whichGod gave unto him, to SHOW untohis servants things which mustshortly come to pass." So, althoughit is written largely in symbols, theBible explains its own symbols, and


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FAMIIESON OUR DOORSTEPI

1

Farm Practices Hinge on" Perfect Conditions"

grainbe t as expenence a virtual lyunbroken weather boom.When stacked up against U.S.Weather Service records coveringthe last 75 years, the experts assembled concluded that the past twodecades have been, in their analyses, "abnormally good.""We've been spared the bad yearsrecently," meteorologist DonaldGillman told newsmen. Gillman,the long-range weather predictor forthe U.S. National Weather Service,further stressed that "some kind ofclimatic jolt seems almost certain"to restore more normal conditions by sheer logic if nothing else!While it is still too early to provethat such a climate reversal is indeed taking place, Dr. Gillmanvoiced concern over three unfavorable climatic changes which occurred abruptly in the last two yearsin world temperate zones: (1) thehot, dry, once-in-a-century Russiansummer of 1972 (2) the cold, wetAmerican fall of 1972 and (3) thewet spring that followed in 1973. Allthree represented departures from"abnormally good" weather patterns and could portend a definiteshift into a new climate regime.

Do With Changing Climate." Thesession was held during the annualmeeting of the renowned AmericanAssociation for the Advancement ofScience. The meeting should havereceived far wider publicity in thenews media than it did.One after another, weather specialists warned that the world todayismore sensitive to climate variationthan ever before. The simple fact isthat over the past 40 years, production of the critical "staff of life"grains has been concentrated infewer and fewer areas around the

......!'111.................. world. Therefore, as sympo-sium chairman George J.Kukla emphasized, "theworld economy is moredependent on localweather variables."One has to be here tounderstand just how impor

Nearly two decades of "abnor-mally" good weather in Amer-ica's Midwest breadbasket areabout over. Elsewhere in theworld, ominous shifts in criti-cal monsoon patterns couldmean historically unprece-dented hunger and starvationfor up to half the human race!San Francisco, California

N EVER HAS mankind been socritically dependent uponthe weather - continuousgood weather. It means the differ-


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withstand a grea te r varie ty ofweather conditions. However, manyof these original strains have eitherdisappeared or are in extremelyshort supply. Also, these st ra inscould not be easily and quickly multiplied for emergency use in case ofwholesale crop failures.In light of the above, Dr. Gi llman .

sugges ted that contemporary planting practices, as well as the choice ofgrain varieties, should now begeared toward protecting the worldfrom the coming bad years - instead of always shooting for the"maximum yield in the good yearsthat luck might still provide." It isnot likely such precautions will betaken, however. Present governmental policies actually encouragethe opposite - "planting to the hil t"on every available acre with thehighest yielding varieties available.

Monsoon Collapse -Biggest Threat of All?

While some scientists voiced concern about negative weather trendsin "the granary" countries, others atthe symposium, such as Dr. ReidBryson, director of the Insti tute forEnvi ronmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, were troubledover climatic alterat ions affecting

ample of this is in the portion ofWest Africa which has recently beenin the grips of a prolonged drought.The area's traditional summer monsoons have not been able to rangenorthward as deep into the arid subSa haran region as in the past.Scores of thousands of the area' snomadic tribesmen have perishedfrom the searing dry spells over thepast five or six years.Moreover - and with far greater

consequences for the world foodpicture - something appears to behappening to the monsoons uponwhich the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the India, Pakistan and Bangladesh area depend.The vast Indian subcontinent area isundergoing a marked cooling tren d.Here, too, life-giving monsoons areapparently being thrown off course.

The frequency of "severedroughts per decade" in India ispicking up again, after a "graceperiod" of over four decades - atime in which, incidenta lly, India'spopulation has doubled. Thus, Indiatoo seems to be settling back intomore "normal" patterns,

If the monsoons of the world aresuppressed, stressed Bryson, the results could be catastrophic, for "it islargely in the monsoon lands that

able in the amounts that would beneeded. The sale of U.S. wheat toRussia almost wiped out U.S. reserves with one neat stroke!Worse yet, what if droughts occur

in the granary na tions - accompanied by the collapse of key lifesupporting grai n crops? Should tha tcalamity str ike, the populations inboth the prod ucing as well as theimporting countries would then bein peril!Such is the critical nature and

balance of world agriculture today.Mass famines could indeed be righton our doors tep!" Th e Big Drought of 1975 "As far back as the early-to-mid1950's - when the United Stateswas in the midst of a severe droughtsituation - the editor of this magazine warned of the coming worldfood crisis. Herbert W. Armstrongquoted the late assistant chiefof theU.S. Weather Bureau (now. theWeather Service), I. R. Tannehill.who warned in 1954 in the middleof the previous U.S. drought cycle:"What will we do when the greatdrought of 1975 settles down uponus?" Tannehil l. at that time. accurately foretold the good years wehave since experienced. as well as


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INTHEMIDDLE EASTSoviet foreign policy is opp ortunistic and therefore is subject toseem ing reversals. In reality, the overall goal remains th e same:


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lem was to have an internationalstatus under the direction of theU.N. Trusteeship Council.But war broke out by the endof 1947. The Arabs were armed by

the British. Moscow sided with theJews.It doesn't take very much to see 'that the Soviet Union saw the opportunity to oust a major Westernpower from the Middle East , andperhaps replace Britain in the areaherself.Soviet policy overestimated its influence an d penetrability in theMiddle East at that time. Misinter

pretations of Communist party successes and strength in the West(France, Italy and Greece) . up toMay 1947, coupled with Communistsuccesses in East Europe, gave a distorted picture to Soviet decisionmakers . The temptation to grasp anopportunity to establish a toehold inthe Middle East, at a time whenclear lines were drawn between proBritish Arabs an d the anti-BritishJews, seemed too great to pass up,even if it meant "accept ing" ZionIsm.Full Soviet support of Jews inPalestine to establish an d maintainthe state of Israel continued during

that there would be no immigrationto Israel from Communist countries.Russian Jewry demonstrated againstthis policy during Rosh Hashanahof that year. And therein lay a critical miscalculation in Soviet thinking. T he Soviets thought thatfriendly relationships with Israelwere compatible with the keeping ofthree million Russian Jews in Russia. Obviously, the Russian bear wasnot wearing the Star of David.Progressively, in Soviet eyes ,Israeli neutrality began to waver. AsRussia watched, events came alongwhich drew the state of Israel westward.One of those events was the Tripartite Declaration issued by theUnited States, Britain an d France,w it ho ut p ri or c on su lt at io n withIsrael or the Arab states.A critical section of. the Declara-'tion stated a need to "recognize thatthe Arab states and Israel all needto maintain a certain level of armedforces for the purpose of assuringtheir international security and theirlegitimate self-defense an d to permit them to playa partin the defense of the area as a whole ;""Defense of the area as a whole,"but against whom? From the Soviet

an d thereby supported U.N. intervention.Thus the stand taken by Israel putIsrael, according to some Sovietpublications, on the same side as the"American aggressors."

Why the Soviets BecamePro-Arab

By 1950, the Russian bear hadhad its nose tweaked by the Israelisan d was a bit disgruntled. The Soviets were no longer considered proIsraeli, nor yet pro-Arab. But as theArabs grew more anti-West, the Soviet Union came closer. By 1952,following the revolution oustingKing Farouk, Egypt's refusal to jointhe proposed Middle East Command, initiated by the three Wester n powers an d Turkey - waswarmly welcomed by Moscow.The difference between East andWest over the Middle East becamethe focal point of Soviet concernthroughout 1952. Toward the end ofthe year, thistles were being borneof the seeds sown in 1948.Another fissure developed in Sov ie t- Israe li relat ions in January1953, when the so-called Doctor'sPlot was reported in the Sovietpress. Allegedly, Jewish doctors had


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rejection of an offer to bui ld the Aswan Dam, which Moscow later accepted. The overthrow of MiddleEast monarchies pleased Moscowbecause Communism and monarchies do not mix.But the pr ime mover of Soviet

alignment with the Arabs came,perhaps not so surprisingly, whenthe Egyptians nationalized the SuezCanal Company on July 26, 1956.Now it was the Arabs' turn to oustthe British. Moscow was consistent.She supported the Arabs in theirstruggle to oust Britain. Then, withIsrael's launching of Operation Kadesh on October 29, against Suez, acomplete turnabout had beenachieved in a nine-year per iod: the. Soviet Union was now supportingthe Arabs against Britain and Israel.

The fact that the Soviet Unionchanged sides, but not objectives,clearly shows that Soviet intentionsin the Middle East are not pro-Arabbut geopolitical in nature.

Opening SuezIf the Soviets were to gain a pre

ponderant influence in the area,they could conceivably bring pressure to bear on Israel's allies, particularly the United States, to

Russian Frontier onthe Nile?

Soviet exclusion has not been bychoice. The Middle East is the onehoney tree the Russian bear hassought for qui te some time.In 1848, ex-diplomat Fedor Tiut

chev wrote a poem titled "RussianGeography." In this poem, he designated seven rivers as God-chosenRussian frontiers . The seven riverswere the .Neva, Volga , Euphrates,Ganges, Elbe, Danube and the Nile.His ideas of a Russian empirereaching into Egypt were cer tainlynot new.

Under Catherine the Great (176296), Russia's activities in Egypt weredictated by its desire to speed thefall of the Turkish empi re (whichextended from Eastern Europe tothe Middle East and included muchof North Africa).

The empress rendered military assistance to the Mameluke Ali-Bey, alocal governor who succeeded inmaking Egypt independent of Turkish rule for a few years. In 1784, itwas rum ored tha t Russia hadagreed to support the independenceof Egypt in the next war with theTurks. The price was permission to

sought to defend them on thegrounds tha t they were under theprotection of the empress of Russia.Russia gave direct military adviceto Egypt in the nineteenth century.Rostislav Fadeev, a retired general,served as military advisor to theKhedive (the viceroy of Egypt) inthe years 1875-76. He was evenslated to become the commander inchief of the Egyptian army. Hisrefusal to wear the tunic of an Egyptian officer blocked the plan.

The Kreml in has always recognized both the strategic position andvulnerability of Egypt. Russia's position in the nineteenth century wasreflected in the words of czarist Foreign Affairs Minister Giers: "Theproclaimed principle of Egypt forthe Egyptians is a Utopia. Egypt because of its geographical position isof such political importance that itsindependence is impossible. Itwould become a bat tle field for European rivalries."This view is still valid today. Russian nationalism is just as potent aforce today as in czarist times.

Russia Comes FirstAn important fact to remember inviewing Soviet diplomacy in theMiddle East : Moscow is first pro


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rILL DI

Divorce ' has become an ac-cepted solution to unhappymarriages. But is divorce theright solut ion?by Patr ick A . Parnell,ALL A KANURI ' man of Bornu.f""\.. province in northeastern Nigeria must do to divorce his

wife is say, "I divorce you ," in frontof witnesses.

A couple withou t chi ld ren incommunist Russia need only visitthe local registry office to undo the connubial knot and sign away theirmarriage. After payment of fiftyrubles, an immediate divorce decreeis granted.

It's not that easy to get a divorcein the Western world. Not yet, anyway. But the ever increasing rise indivorce in the affluent West is ampleevidence of how acceptable divorcehas become. Couples are divorcingmore than ever before. And in whatseems to be an almost concerted effort to make divorce the accepted

years ahead. Divorce can neverreally be final.How can fathers or mothers really

divorce themselves from their ownflesh and blood children? How canhusbands or wives divorce themselves from the days or weeks ormonths or years of memories andshared experiences which have become part of their very personalities?Even when divorce is a mutualchoice, it rarely occurs without immense emotional, psychological, social and financial upheaval.Alienation, bitterness, disruption,and frustration between a divorcingcouple and among their children,

friends and ' relatives often result.The readjustment trauma follow

ing divorce is such a shock thatsome divorcees 'are never able tocome to grips with life. Suicide andinsanity, two to three times as highfor divorcees as for married persons,may become their out.In addit ion, d ivorced persons

It is an unquest ionable fact thatchildren are more likely to grow uphealthy and happy if they live theirentire childhood in a happy homewith both p ~ r e n t s than if their family is split by divorce.Studies show that children of divorce are all too often the victims ofdivorcing parents. They have ahigher rate of delinquency thanchildren from a normal two-parentfamily . Children of divorce haveless self-confidence and less abilit y

to establish normal relationshipswith members of the opposite sex.And when relationships with members of the opposite sex are devel


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or mistakes they may be making.And they can teach their childrennot to make the same mistakes. Halfthe battle is understanding what theproblems are. Most of the ot her ha lfis a willingness to work at changingand overcoming them.

o W hat, then, causes divorce?Counselors on marriage an d thefamily find it difficult to pin downthe exact causes of divorce.

There is a high correlation bet we en d iv or ce and th e bu sinesscycle. More divorces are gran teddu ring times of prosperity than du ring times of depression. City families have a highe r rate of divo rce

/

than do rura l farm families. Theworking class suffers more divorcethan the professional class.

The feminist m ovem ent , in creas ed modern mobility, mixedmarriages (ethnic as well as racial) ,longer lifetimes, en d of parenthood,

There's a higher probability of divo rce among couples who haveshort acquaintanceships and shortor no engagement periods than forcouples who have longer acquaintances hips an d longer engagementperiods prior to marriage. Th e reason? It takes time to get to know afutu re mate an d have importantqu estions answered.

If you're thinking about marriage,ask yourself: Do we have similareducational backgrounds? Are werelatively equal mentally? Do weshare similar values, religion , aspirations, an d goals? Do we want children? Do we agree on how moneyshould be spent? Can we be open

an d frank with each other? Are wein good hea lth? Are we emotionallystable? Will ou r social backgroundsbe compatible?

A serious cause of divorce thatyoung couples should be especiallyobjective in weighing is marrying attoo early an age.

Couples marrying too young generally lack sufficient financial resources to pr operly maintain amarriage and family. Th e husban dmay not ye t have proved himsel f tobe a capable provider.More often than not , a youngcouple has not reall y gotten to knoweach other well enough . Their dating pattern has been limited to movies an d necking in the back sea t of acar or van . Th ey haven't really gotten into the nitty gri tty questionsmentioned earlier.

Finally, th ose who marry tooyoung usually have unrealistic expectations of what mar riage is. Unrealistic expectations of marriage

are . in fact. a common reason whymany marriages fail. regardless ofhow old each mate is when he or shemarries.

A l ook at Unreal isticExpectations

L. M. Terman conducted a studyo f 792 mar ried couples to discover


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come, has no backbone, dislikes going out with the wife, pays attentionto other women.These are the complaints husbands had against their wives: nags,not affectionate, selfish and inconsiderate, complains too much, slov-'enly in appearance, q uick-tempered, interferes with husband'sdiscipline, feelings .too easily hurt,criticizes, narrow-minded, neglectsthe children, a poor housekeeper,argumentative, has annoying habits,interferes in husband's business,spoils the children, poor manager ofincome, emotional, jealous, lazy,gossips indiscreetly.Other studies indicate that lack ofcommunication is a complaint thatmay supersede most others. Opencommunication between husbandand wife is a must. A willingness.totalk things over could iron out manyof the complaints wives and husbands have against each other. Howelse can problems be solved ifthey're not brought into the openand aired in an intelligent, tactfulmanner? Critical, too, is the willingness of each mate to open-mindedlylisten to the other.What do all of these complaintshave to do with unrealistic ex

Marriage takes sacrifice and giving. It takes a 100 percent effort in. giving on the part of both the husband and the wife. This is true love.A well-known American psychiatristexplained: "When the satisfactionor the security of another person becomes as significant to one as ifone's own satisfaction and security,then the state of love exists" (Con-ceptions of Modern Psychiatry,Harry Stack Sullivan, pp. 42-43).

Why Infidelity HarmsMarriage '

Another major cause of maritalbreakup and unhappiness is infidelity.We live in an age often referredto as the "new morality." Groupmarriages, swinging, three somes,foursomes, and sex any way, is in.Whatever sexual imaginations themind can conjure up have becomechic and accepted. Some social scientists favor this new attitude. Somego so far as to say that extramaritalsex can put life back into an otherwise dull marriage and make thatmarriage happier and more fulfilling.Said one author who favors extramarital sex: "Evidence cited in the

doesn't stay that way. It soon becomes old hat. The thrill subsides.Normal sex relations between amarital couple are never the sameafterwards.William J. Linehan, assistant director of the Family CounselingService, Conciliation Court, Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles , is a recognized marriagecounseling authority. He has counseled hundreds of troubled marriages. In an exclusive PLAIN TRUTH

interview, marriage counselor Linehan was asked if swinging and extramarital sex relations can helpmake a marriage happy and keep amarriage stable . His answer: "Weget the aftermaths of the swingerclubs in here. I don't think I coulddisagree more. It's pretty deadly to amarriage. As far as keeping a marriage stable, I don 't think anythingcould be deadlier, either. A criticalpart of marriage is the relationshipbetween two people. When you startmaking it three and four:v , that's apretty complicated relationship."The Major Cause of

Modern DivorceOne author touched on anothercause of modern divorce when he


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would not be divorce an d its attendant unhappiness.Marital partners can learn how tohave a workable, hap py marriagerelationship based on sound marriage principles from the Bible. Acouple would then enter into marriage, knowing from the start thattheir marriage was bound for life.Divorce would not even be a considered alternative when marital difficulties arise.

Don't Divorce!If you are thinking about divorce,con sider th is: Per h ap s you did.marry too young. Also, perhaps a

baby soon came along, tying youdown before you wanted to be.Maybe you've mad e other regretfulmistakes. Whatever the reason, divorce is not worth the frustrationan d hear tache you' ll have to gothrough.Maybe divorced friends say divorce is not all that ba d, an d you'rewilling to try it. Even so, there is amore serious reason why divorce isnot the solution. To casually divorceor sunder a marriage Go d hasjo ined and then remarry is to commit sin (Ma tthew 5:31-32). So saysthe Holy Bible. For those marriages

They hoped he would compromiseGo d 's standard for the more popular idea that it's all right to divorce.So they asked him, "Is it lawful for aman to pu t away his wife for everycause? And he answered and saidunto them, Have ye not read , thathe which mad e them at the beginning made them mal e and femal e,and said, Fo r this cause shall a manleave father and mother, and shallcleave to his wife: an d they twainsha ll be one flesh? . . . What therefore Go d hath jo ined together, letnot man pu t asunder" (Matthew19:3-6).But the religious leaders of that

the basic cause of di-vorce is not knowing ; notunderstanding, and notbelieving that marriageis God-ordained for life.day were not going to let it go justlike that. "They say un to him, Whydid Moses then comm an d to give awrit ing of divorcement, and to pu ther away? He saith unto them,Moses be cau se of the hardness[stubbornness] of your hear ts suf

the world, particularly those nationsclaiming to be Christian, yet practicing wha t the exper ts call serialmonogamy - marrying, divorcing,remarrying. Go d thunders: "H owshall I pardon thee for this? Thychildren have forsaken me . . . whenI had fed them to the full, they thencommitted adultery, and assembledthemselves by troops in the harlots'houses."They were as fed horses in themorning: every one neighed afterhis neighbou r's wife."Sha ll I not visit for these things?saith the Lord: and sha ll not mysoul be avenged on such a nation asthis?" (Jeremiah 5:7-9.)Any nation that deliberately an dcontinually flaunts God's laws, particularly a nati on that calls itselfChristian, is flirting with disaster.How long can a people continueto disregard the laws and values ofGo d in something as important asmarriage an d get by with it?Marriage is a covenant. Marriageis God-ordained . Two of the tencommandments, the backbone ofthe law of Go d, deal directly withpreserving the sanctity of mar riage:"Thou sha lt not commit adultery . . . . Thou sha lt not covet thy


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lPART llll

by Christop her J . Patton(Bar Kochba) and Rabbi Akiva. It tookthree whole years for the Romans to suppress that revolt. In A.D. 135, the Romansexpelled the Jews from Palestine, and anew era began. Aelia Capitolina was builtand guarded by Roman legions until aboutA.D. 300.Jerusalem's written history from thattime on is, at best, sketchy. Happily, current archaeological research is beginning tofill in the gaps. In particular, the excavations at the Southern Wall of the TempleMount, directed by Prof. Binyamin Mazar

of Hebrew University, are contributing significan tly toward a lively understanding of ,Jerusalem's later history.Jerusalem Under the

Christians

This article on the Temple Mountexcavations in J er us al em b ri ng s us a

look a t th e city's little known, b ut impressiveLate Roman, Christian and Early Arabic remain s.

TIN THE days of Jesus and the apostles,Jerusalem was a city of remarkablebeauty . Its Herodian bui lders imprinted their archi tectural genius onremains that can be seen to this day . But

Rome's devastating response to the Jewishrevolt brought a cruel and final end to thisglorious era.In A.D. 70, Rome's soldiers leveled Jerusalem. Only the three mass ive towersguarding the western entrance to the citywere spared - as a monument to herformer greatness and to the magnitude ofthe Roman victory (Josephus, Wars, 6:9 :1).The base of those towers is the foundationof what is today called David's Citadel, bythe Jaffa Gate .

Roman Mil itary Occupation


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Temple MounlDuring Omayyad PeriodAtop Temple Mount is the Dome of the Rock (fa r left)and AI Aq sa Mosque (silver dome, righ t) . Along' west-ern edge of Temple Moun t wall is f ragment of" archfrom Herodlan : period. Caliph 's palace, pictured inreconstruction along southern wall of Temple Mount ,was linked to the moun t by a small pr ivate br idge.Other buildings in art ist' s rec onstruction we re prob-abl y fo r ser vants. Onl y fragmentary architecturalremains of the Omayyad Period have been uncoveredby archaeologists. .

Th er e a re two archaeologicalphases in Jerusalem 's Byzantine cated near Robinson's Arch wasremodeled and used as a private under Robinson's Arch. It is a quotefrom Isa iah 66:14: ". . . and when


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"

One exceptionally well-preservedthree-story house was uncoveredjust south of the "Triple Gate" atthe Southern Wall of the TempleMount. It was well built and full ofinteresting artifacts, such as thestraps and lock of a chest, an oillamp and a tool. All were made ofbronze. From the available evidence , it appears to have been builtas a private home when EmpressEudoxia (444-460) resided in Jerusalem.Later, the three-story house wasrepaired and modified for some sort

of public use. This conversion topublic use can probably be dated tothe 530's, when Emperor Justiniancontinued the construction of thethen New Church of St. Mary ,which was located on the site nowoccupied by the Al Aqsa Mosque.From written records, we learn thatJustinian added an hospice to thechurch for the poor and the pilgrims(Breviarius de Hierosolyma, A.D.530). Therefore , the excavatedbuilding's location - just outsidethe main entrance to the church would suggest a similar function (aguesthouse for wealthier pilgrims,perhaps, or a monastery).Jerusalem conquered and de

tians who continued to worship inthe church of St. Mary.Jerusalem, from then on, becamea holy city for Islam as well, due tothe tradition that Mohammed ascended to heaven from the rock located in the middle of the Haramesh Sharif (the Temple Mount toJews and Christians). Thus the citybecame an important stopover forMoslem pilgrims making the Hai lWhen Caliph Marwan I (684-685)of the Omayyad family came topower, the two Moslem holy citiesof Mecca and Medina supported arival caliph. To counteract theirprestigious support for his rival,Marwan and his successors exaltedJerusalem by lifting her out of therubble left over from the Neo-Persian conquest in 614.Abdalmalik, Marwan's son andsuccessor to the Caliphate, devotedhis attention to erecting Jerusalem'smost beautiful monument, theDome of the Rock (687-691). Thisshrine was built in the most strikingfashion possible. The result is amarble and glazed tile octagongraced with a dome overlaid withgold leaf. Thus the Caliph protectedand enhanced the rock to whichMoslems attach such importance.

vation, a new, more complete reconstruction of Jerusalem can bemade for this often neglected periodof her history,Many parallels may be drawn between the Herodian and Early Arabic periods , Both were times ofextended public building; in both ,

the quality of workmanship wasoutstanding. Although the mainprojects were the ' construction ofmagnificent holy places on top ofthe Haram, the area around theSouthern and Western walls of theenclosure was not ignored . Its character was radically changed in bothperiods to one of monumental nature and proportions.

Jerusalem in theArabic Period

Built later chronologically, thestructures of the Arabic period werethe first to be found. Three largeand three smaller buildings havebeen discovered. Most of them areof a single story, but the largeststructure, located along the west endof the Southern Wall, had two stories. Because of its tremendous size,covering an area of 84 by 96 meters(almost 88,000 square feet), this oneis called "the palace."


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MOSAIC from a guest room in the palace of Omayyad Caliph HishamIbn Abdul Mal ik (A.D. 724-743) depicts a well-eared-for guestsymbolized by the l ion. Garo

dicates they were built at the sametime - probably by Walid I in theea rly eighth cen tu ry . Th eywere rectangular and hadlong rooms opening off acentral courtyard .Foundations for theexterior walls weresunk to depths of 9m. (nearly 30 ft.),a nd a g rea tamount of fill wasdumped into thecell-like holes. Ontop of the leveledfill, a floor was laidwith flat, whitepaving stones ofequal size. Largestones, finelydressed, were usedin wall construct ion - amongthem many Herodian stones in secondary usage.The palace wallsare preserved upto a height of 2meters in some places. The positionsof many windows and doors areconsequently known. The main gateon the eastern side was 5 m. (over

consisting of geometric, floral, animal and hum an figures that date tothe same period. Thi s is one morereason for supposing the excavated

the Hararn esh Sharif became a garbage dump and a burial ground.When the Crusaders ruledJerusalem in the twelfthand thirteenth centuries,

this part of the city was"without the gate."In the sixtee nthcentury, Sule imanthe Magnificent(1520-1566), considered the greatest sultan of theTurkish OttomanEmpire, built thewa lls o f th epresent Old Cityof Jerusalem. Heincluded with inthe walls much oft h is a rea so u than d wes t of th eTemple Mount forno apparent reason. Neither writt en record s norexcava tio ns hav eproduced any in-dication of strucLures in the Ha ram area in the

Turkish period.Much Left to Be


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whal YOU can dO ..timely tips andhelpful suggestions foryouand your family A Father's Greatest Gift

Fathers sometimes wonder, "What would be thebest gift a fa ther could give a son or daughte r? Lots oftoys when little? A savings fund for a college education?A modern home? Financial security for life?"

Th e greatest gift a father can give his childrendoesn 't come with a price tag. Th e greatest gift a fathercan give his son or daughter is himself.

Extensive research reveals what should have beenknown all a long - that a father's presence is importantin the lives of his children. This is particularly truedur ing crucial preschool years when sex-role identification, personality, motor skills, creativity an d abilityto achieve, among other things, are being molded.

In general, tests show that boys deprived of afather's presence have less chances of growing up tob e co m e w e ll -a dj us te d, happy, p ro du ct iv e a du lt s.Father-deprived boys have less self-control an d tend tolack social responsibility. They tend to be less independent an d to have more feminine pa tte rns of interestsan d play. Such boys suffer more emotional disturbances

down an d flicks on the TV set or goes about doing hisown thing, to the exclusion of his children, might as wellnot be home as far as the children are concerned. Th equality of fatherly time spent with children is as important as the quantity.

A study of 172 undergraduate males by psychologists Mark Reuter and Henry Biller discoveredthat the most well adjusted were those whose fatherswere very loving an d spent a good deal of time withthem. Those whose fathers were unloving. thoughpresent, grew up undependable an d immature. Thosewhose fathers were loving, but seldom home, were notwell adjusted either.

Another study by Dr. Biller, to determine the importance of father-presence, involved four groups ofthird-grade boys. Th e four groupings were these: earlyfather absence before age five. late father absence beginning after age five. low father presence (less than sixhours pe r week). an d high father presence (more thantwo hours of father-child interaction per day). Th e boysin the high father presence group tested an d gradedmeaningfully higher in academic performance on


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What kind ofman was Jesus Christ?How didhe spend the thirty-six hoursbefore his crucifixion?

THEMANWHO DIEDTOMAKEMENFREEby Paul S. Royer

an d then went to the Mount ofOlives to pray .The day ha d been long . Perhapsnineteen hours had gone by since

arising. Th e disciples couldn't holdout any longer. They fell asleep.Three times Jesus Christ prayedfervently to his Father. Beads ofperspiration stood out on his forehead . The perspiration mingled withblood as he thought an d prayed,knowing what the next hours wouldbring.Near midnight, Judas came with

some soldiers. Then began the mostdemanding, horrifying fifteen hoursin history. Never has a man beencalled upon voluntarily to suffer asJesus Christ did. No man couldhave . No man was as perfect inmind and body as was Jesus Christ!

The TrialA small mob, armed with swords

and clubs , took Jesus and marchedhim off to Annas an d then to thehouse of Caiaphas, the high priest.[In this article, several translationsare paraphrased in order to give a 'clearer picture of what took place onthat last day. In a few cases, life an dpersonality ar e given to certaincharacter witnesses who wouldotherwise remain anonymous.]


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are the Christ, the son of God.""Yes," replied Christ, "I am , and

in the future you will see me , theson of mankind , sit ting at the righthand of God and returning in theclouds of heaven."Caiaphas ripped his own clothing,shouting at the top of his voice,"Blasphemy, blasphemy!" In thisearly morning kangaroo court, JesusChrist was charged with blasphemy- of bringing from heaven the goodnews of the Kingdom of God (seeMatthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22,John 18).

The Mob SceneA few of the priest s , with

Ca ia phas, be gan to cu rse JesusChrist. Then a fat , ruddy-looking individual spit in Jesus' face. Othersbegan heaping verbal abuse on him.Another struck him. The leaders ofthe court soon t ired of this sport andretired to an inner room.Others came to see the man who

had turned Jerusalem upside down.They wanted to see this man in the. flesh.Caut iou sly, they a pp r o a che dChrist. Would he shoot fire out at

them or perform a miracle? "A reyou the Messiah ? Are you real ly theking over all those beggars you

The merciless beating continued.Then someone shouted , "Hey, whynot blindfold him? He's a prophet.Let's test him! " So blindfold himthey did. They laughed at him,crying out derisively, "Who hit youthat time, prophet - come onprophet, you can tell! "Obscene names were a din in his

ea rs. Bleeding and bruised, he fellon the floor time and again, only tobe pulled back to his feet for thenext onslaught. Would it never end?Hour aft er hour it went on , with alittl e rest now and then as they tiredof their new-found sport. Th e son ofGod uttered not a word - only anoccasional groan escaped his lips.

A Visit to PilateEarly in the morning, Christ was

tak en to Pilate for the official Roman verdict. Perhaps twen ty-sevenhours had gone by since he beganhis day on the previous morning!Pilate asked Christ, "Are you the

king of the Jews?" Jesu s answered,"Yes." Aft er many qu estions, Pilateturned to the chief priests and themultitude and sa id, "I find no faultwith this man."Someon e in d ig n antly as ke d , ""Wha t does he mean he can find no

fault with this man?" Another sa id,

ci fy him! Crucify! Crucify! We demand the dea th penal ty!"A messenger arrived with a notefrom Pilat e's wife. The note read ,

"Do not become involved with thedeath of this man. I ha ve had terrible nightmares concerning himlast night. "Pilat e offered to release either Ba

rabbas or Christ (Matthew 27:1518). The mob grew more restless,screaming all the more , "Le t him becrucified , let him be crucifi ed!"Fearful of a riot , Pilate asked for

a basin of water. Standing beforethe crowd, he washed his handssaying, "I am innocent of the bloodof this person. The responsibility isyours!" (Matt hew 27:23-24.)Th e mob ye lled back , "His bloodbe on us and on our children!" :Pilate then gave the order to pro

ceed with the scourging. Two menpush ed Ch rist to the center of thecourtyard . Pulling him over to abent posit ion, they tied his hands toa ring imbedded in a post.

Two Kinds of ScourgingTwo methods of scourging existed

at the time of Christ - the Jewishand the Roman! The Jewish scourging amounted to forty stripes minusone, administered with three leather


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cords with chunks of bone andpieces of chain affixed to the tips.The tough-looking, heavy-set Roman strode boldly across the courtyard, passing directly in front ofChrist. He hesitated a moment.Bending over, he looked into hispain-wracked face. It was swollenand bruised.Again he hesitated - but only fora moment - and then carefullypaced off a number of steps andturned .Back over his shoulder whistledthe scourge. Then with a sudden,powerful movement of his arm anda snap of his wrist, the lictor beganthe punishment.Steel, ' leather and bone rippedinto Christ 's body. Lacerated fleshbled profusely. Lash after lash con

tinued to fall, ripping and tearing,until "his appearance was somarred, beyond human semblance"(Isaiah 52:14, RSV).Never had a man voluntarilytaken so much - given so much!Those who looked into the eyes ofJesus Christ saw a burning desireand a determined look that said, "Igive this life totally and completelyfor all of mankind."The scourging finished, they cut

shouted, "Get up, king. Are youtired?" Christ struggled, but it wasno use. His strength was nearlygone. The soldier looked and beckoned to Simon of Cyrene, "Comehere you peasant; Get this on yourshoulder and follow me." Slowly,they trudged the last weary steps toGolgotha, the "place of a skull"(Matthew 27:32-33).

The CrucifixionThe crucifixion by which Christ

was to die was devised and perfected by the Phoenicians, whopassed on their knowledge to theRomans.It took centuries to develop this"special crucifixion." They had trieddeath by boiling, spearing, impalement , drowning, burning, s tran-gulation, and yes, even stoning.They were all too quick!What they wanted was a punishment that was excruciatingly painfuland slow, preferably one that wouldlast for several days. Death by crucifixion was the answer.Simon dropped the stake to the

ground beside the hole dug for itssupport. Four soldiers took hold ofChrist and placed him on the stake. ...They turned and walked back.to the

a slightly bent position, the crucifiedperson was able to lean on the nailsand prolong his agony.In perfecting the crucifixion, theRomans encountered a problem.When they erected the cross, theweight of the body often caused theflesh to tear , allowing the body tofall to the ground. When this happened, they had to lift the subjectinto position for renailing, a rathermessy affair. Experience proved itdifficult to get the nails to hold in'the torn flesh. Then someone hit ona bright idea: Why not add a peg forthe crucified to catch his weight onas a partial rel ief from the nailing?The weight on the peg would keepthe nails from tearing out of theflesh, and it would help keep thecriminal alive a little longer.The soldier with the hammer positioned Christ's right foot, insuringthe right bend in the leg. Nails hadto be just the right length and size.Spikes opened too large a hole. Selecting a nail , he pushed it into theflesh, and hammered until both feetwere securely nailed.Up stepped a squad of soldiers .They raised the cross into an upright position. The weight ofChrist 's body caught on the peg and


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heat of the morning sun - humiliated, scourged and crucified.They offered him vinegar mixedwith gall. Christ refused it (Matthew27:34).The Final Cursings and

MockingsThey continued to revile him,

wagging their heads and shoutingepithets . The people jeered, "Lookat you now! If you are so wonde rful,save yourself and come down fromthe cross!" The chief priests and thereligious leaders also mocked . "He'squite clever about saving others,"they remarked to each other, "buthe can't save himself ' (Mark 15:2932)."Hey there, Messiah! Hey there,King! Come down from the cross,

and we'll believe you!"One of the criminals crucified beside him scoffed, "So you're the

Messiah, are you? Prove it by savingyourself - and us, too, while you 'reat it!"But the other criminal protested,"Don't you even fear God when youare dying? We deserve to die for ourdeeds, but this man hasn't done onething wrong."It was now about thirty-threehours since early Tuesday morning.

said , "Let him alone . Let's seewhether Elijah will come and savehim."Then, a young, impetuous Romansoldier seized a spear. Ra ising it to

shoulder heigh t, he plunged it intoJesus ' side. (See Moffatt's renderingof Ma tthew 27:49 .) Th e spearpenetrated the bladder and outcame blood and water.Jesus Chris t cried out in pain, andthen he died.The Father Looked Away

As Christ gasped out his finalbreath, God the Father looked awayfromhis beloved Son. Only God theFather would have the total controland love it took to keep from convert ing this earth into a cinder,along with all the wretched menwho cursed their Savior.When the soldier took up thespear and pierced his side , the lifewent out of the one who activelycreated this world (Hebrews 1:2).He yielded up his physical life with

W as Jesus three days andthree nights in th e gra ve, ashe said in Matthew 12 :40?

a loud cry after thirty-six horrifyinghours - the most excruciatingthirty-six hours in all history!Yes - this is the vivid truth aboutthe man who was the all-powerful. ,

living Word of God, who sufferedand died to make all men free of sin.And this same man - now alivebecause of the resurrection - will

soon re turn in power with a shoutand with the sound of the trumpetof God. When he comes, he will beheard around the world in a tremendous , ear-splitting roar. Every eyewill see him. Every tongue will confess and know the true God, theSavior of this world. The Mount ofOlives east of Jerusalem will splitap art in his presence in an earthshatter ing quake of unbelievablemagnitude (Zechariah 14:4). Then" the Lord shall be king over all theearth: in that day shall there be oneLord, and his name one" (Zechariah14:9).That God , the living Word of

God, is alive forever more! 0

ing no r di d he die on "GoodFriday."Few professing Ch ristia ns


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EUROPE: CATASTROPHE AND R E V I V A L ? / T ~ ~

Pa r t 5:

C b ~ 6 r ~ a t Error Of t b ~ m i a a l ~ J l g ~ sby Paul W . KrollDuring the Middle Ages, Euro-peans expected the appear-ance of An tichrist . And th isexpectation filled them w ithterror. Antichrist was thoughtto be a great antagonist ofChris t and was expected tospread universal evil acrossthe earth. Only one power, Eu-ropeans though t, was holdingback Antichrist: the Holy Ro-man Empire .

I T WAS God , no t men , who calledGermany to the imperial officeof the revived Roman Empire- at least this was the claim of Jordan of Osnabrueck.

During the reign of Rudolph ofHabsburg (1273-1291), Jordan ofOsnabrueck wrote a book about the" translation" of the old Roman Empire to the care of Germany. Thenew empire was the Holy RomanEmpire of the German nati on . Jor dan was not the only one to advancethis idea ; it was common in theMiddle Ages.

inally begun by the Franks underCharlemagne, was considered anoffshoot of the old Roman Empire.Otto of Freising, a mystic writing inhi s twelfth century Chroni ca,summed up the thinking of his day:" Tem pora l power pa ssed fromBabylon to the Medes, 'then to thePersians, afterwards to the Greeks,lastly to the Romans and in thename of the Romans transmitted tothe Franks. Fi na lly the Franks. . . we re di vid ed among th emselves . . . and had a presentimentthat the kingdom . . . would be de


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,.

The Holy Roman Empire wasGod's empire, it was thought. Andwere the empire to be crushed, theend of the world would be usheredin. Antichrist - a great antagonist ofChrist - would appear and enslavethe nations.

The Germans, then, had the stupendous task of rul ing the empireand keeping it from disintegrating.

The Fear of the End TimeThe coronation of Charlemagnein A.D . 800 became the symbol of

renovatio - the renewal of the Roman Empire. This newRoman Empire, a Christian empire, was viewedas the offshoot of the last of fourpowerful empires described by Daniel in the Old Testament .Whenever the Holy Roman Empire seemed to be teetering on theprecipice of annihilation - as afterthe days of Charlemagne, duringthe Investi ture Controversy in thetwelfth century and in the "terr ibletime without an emperor" afterFrederick II died in 1250 - fearsabout the end of the world becamewidespread. Since the empire continually oscillated between renewaland decay, fears about the end timebeing near were recurrent throughout the Middle Ages.

exist before the end time did notoriginate in the Middle Ages. Manycenturies before, when the old Roman Empire still existed in theWest, it was generally believed byJews and Christians to be the fourthand last world-rul ing kingdom asdescribed in the book of Daniel.Something was preventing theworld's collapse. According to John

Chrysostom, Patriarch of Con-stant inople in the fourth century,that something was the Roman Empire. Chrysostom was one of the firstto expound this idea. He was followed by such theological notablesas Tertullian, Ambrose and Augustine .A tenth-century abbot by thename of Adso took up this theoryand stated it in a new form for theMiddle Ages. According to him, Antichrist would come, then the revivedHoly Roman Empire would fall,and the k ingdom of Antichristwould begin. Thus, the collapse ofth e empire into separate andsquabbling kingdoms could be a signal that Antichrist was coming orwas already present.

It is no wonder that the men ofthe Middle Ages periodically lookedout on their world and confidentlyasserted that the end was near.

mood of collapse and Jhe terrors ofAntichrist were especially nurturedby the wars and chaos under thereigns of Henry V (1106-1125),Lothair II (1125-1137), Conrad III(1138-1152) and later, Frederick II(1211-1250).

For men like Otto of Freising(1114-1158), the emperor FrederickI (1152-1190) seemed like the saviorof the world. Frederick would healthe breach in the empire caused bythe investiture struggle of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Hewould be the world-redeeming emperor, saving the world from Antichrist. But it did not quite workout as Otto thought.Succeeding emperors took uponthemselves the duty of preserving

and strengthening the empireagainst the impending evil of Antichrist. This idea was, at least inpart, a driving motivation for maintaining a strong Holy Roman Empire. Frederick II based his programpartly upon this fundamental role ofthe empire.During the final struggle betweenempire and papacy under FrederickII , many contemporaries felt thatboth Christ and Antichrist werephysically alive. Both pope and emperor were viewed as Christ and


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dom was destroyed. Daniel hadsomething quite different to state.The story in the book of Daniel isboth intriguing and little understood. It begins with Nebuchadnezzar's plan to have Daniel and all thesages of the Babylonian Empire executed. The reason was that none ofthe Babylonians had been able toreveal the content and interpret thedetails of a certain dream Nebuchadnezzar had had . Daniel approaches his God in prayer and asksthat the content and meaning of thedream be revealed. God answersDaniel. Daniel, in turn, comes before Nebuchadnezzar and tells himwhat his dream represented: "Yousaw, 0 king, and behold, a greatimage .. .. The head of this imagewas of fine gold, its breast and armsof silver, its belly and thighs ofbronze, its legs of iron, its feet partlyof iron and partly of clay."Daniel goes on to tell the king,"As you looked, a stone was cut outby no human hand, and it smote theimage on its feet of iron and clay,and broke them in pieces" (Daniel2:31-34, RSY).Daniel points out to Nebuchad

nezzar the part in this visionarydrama that the king played: "Youare the head of gold," he tells the

tells us which ones they are . He hasalready made it clear that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire represented the first kingdom the head of gold.What is the second kingdom, theone of silver?A number of years later, a de

scendant of Nebuchadnezzar is onthe throne. His name is Belshazzar.Daniel has a message from his Godto Belshazzar; it is the famous"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"prophecy. Daniel tells Belshazzar,"Your kingdom is divided and givento the Medes and Persians" (Daniel5:28, RSY). That very night, Belshazzar is killed and Darius theMede takes the kingdom. Thestrong and clear implication, then,points to the Medo-Persian Empireas the second empire of Daniel 's visions - the kingdoms of the silverbreast and arms.What, then, is the third kingdom

of bronze, sometimes translated"brass"?Daniel tells us this also. In theeighth chapter of Daniel, another ofhis visions is recorded. He sees aram which has two horns. This ramis pushing westward, northward andsouthward. Then suddenly, a "hegoat came from the west across the

face of the whole earth . . . the goathad a conspicuous horn between hiseyes" (Daniel 8:5, RSY). This hegoat smashes the ram and shattershis two horns (verses 6-7).In the same chapter, Daniel givesus the meaning of all this: "As forthe ram which you saw with the twohorns , these are the kings of Media

and Persia . And the he-goat is theking of Greece; and the great hornbetween his eyes is the first king"(verses 20-21). The empire ofGreece, then, according to Daniel,succeeds the Medo-Persian Empire.The explanation is unmistakable.Greece is the third kingdom, theempire of the bronze belly andthighs. The great horn representsAlexander the Great. When Alexander was at the pinnacle of power, hedied and his empire was dividedamong his generals. Daniel says," . . . when he was strong, the greathorn was broken, and instead of itcame up four conspicuous hornstoward the four winds of heaven"(Daniel 8:8).

And Now . . . the RomanEmpire

Years after the fragmentation ofthe Greek Empire, the Roman Empire begins to emerge, the kingdom


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of iron. It is the last kingdom ofDaniel. Though the original RomanEmpire died, it was said to be successively resurrected. On this point,Dani el gives us more details withanother visionary image.He sees four creatures rise out ofthe sea: the first is like a lion, thesecond like a bear, the third like aleopard and the fourth is "dreadfula n d terrible , a n d s t ro ng exceedingly; and it had great ironteeth" (see Daniel 7:1-7).Interestingly enough, here arefour crea tures, corresponding to the

number of parts in Daniel's imagein the second chapter. The last creature is the kingdom of iron in chapter two. The fourth creature has ironteeth in chapter seven. The implication that both visions represent thesame four powerful emp ires is toostrong to be disregarded.This is especially so since Danielmakes it clear that he is talkingabout four powerful empires in hisseventh chapter. "These four greatbeasts are four kings who shall ariseout of th e ea rth . . . . the fourthbeast . . . sha ll be a fo urth kingdomon earth . . ." (verses 17, 23, RSY).This fourth kingdom is so powerfulthat it appears to devour the whole

ing of the same sequence of empires.One of the heads of this remarka ble bea st which John saw is"wounded to death ; and his deadlywound was heal ed: and all theworld wondered after the beast"(Revel a tio n 13:3). Could th is"death-wound" be on the fourthkingdom, the Roman Empire whichoffic ially died in the West in 476,only to be resurrected or "healed"by Justinian in 554 and by Charlemagne in 800?The theologian s and scholars ofthe Middle Ages, such as Otto ofFreising, understood it in some suchfashion as this. So did the emperors

and men of government. The Roman Empire which had "died" wasthought to have been revived bysuch outstanding lum inaries asCharlemagne, Otto the Great andFrederick I.But what of the stark fear that theage of Antichrist would be usheredin upon the final collapse of thisresurrected Roman Empire? Thatfear was one of the most tragic misunde rstandings in the thought of theMiddle Ages.

God or Antichrist?Both Daniel and John (in Revela

Messiah and is, ther efore, Antichrist.Later, Daniel says, "The kingdomand domin ion . . . sha ll be given tothe people of the saints of the mostHigh " (Daniel 7:27). Here aga in,the Messiah, not Antichrist, reignsonce the four empires under question have been destroyed.In Daniel 2. we find him stressingthe same thing; it is God who rulesafter the successive revivals of theRoman Empire end: "And in thedays of these kings" - not after "sha ll the God of heaven set up akingdom. which sha ll never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall notbe left to other people, but it shallbreak in pieces and consume allthese kingdoms. and it shall standfor ever" (Daniel 2:44).But why did the thinkers of the

Middle Ages make such a gross error in their understanding of whatDaniel had written? Why. besidesmisinterpreting when the resurrectedempire was to be obliterated. didth ey also grossly misunderstandwho would take over rule of theearth?It was fund am entally becausethey assumed that the Holy RomanEmpire was really holy in the sense


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(Continued (rom p a ~ e 1)ment times, to the Church, beingpersecuted and having "fled into thewilderness," where she was protected from persecution and martyrdom for 1,260 years. That carriesthe time sequence past the MiddleAges and into modern times.Then, either referring to now orthe very near future, "there was warin heaven" - speaking of futureprophesied events in the past tense,as is often done in prophecy - "Michael [see Daniel 12:1] and his angels fought against the dragon; andthe dragon fought and his angels,and prevailed not; neither was theirplace found any more in heaven.And the great dragon was cast out,tha t old serpent, called the Devil,and Satan , which deceiveth thewhole world, he was cast out intothe earth, and his angels [now demons] were cast out with him. And Iheard a loud voice saying in heaven,Now is come . .. the kingdom of ourGod . . . for the accuser of our breth

It uses the term Devil in 34 places inthe New Testament (in 16 places itspeaks of "devils" in the King Jamesversion, where it should be translated "demons").Perhaps if we understood whatthis book does say, we might cometo understand why we on earth cannot solve our problems.In the book of Ephesians, it iswritten, "For we wrestle not againstflesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the

rulers of the darkness [evils] of thisworld, against spiritual wickednessin high places" (Ephesians 6:12). Abetter translation is, "against wickedSPIRITS in high places."All our troubles on earth todayare linked up with the mind of man.In 1972 The PLAIN TRUTH carried aseries of articles for several months

on the DIFFERENCE between animalbrain and human mind.Robert Kuhn, who earned hisPh.D. in the field of brain research,contributed a series of articles fromthe science viewpoint, and I contributed a series on the biblical revelations on the subject.Dr. Kuhn's inevitable conclusionwas simply that, of necessity, therehas to be a nonphysical component

one simply cannot UNDERSTAND thespiritual things of God.How does knowledge enter the

human mind? Mostly through theeye, or the ear, and beyond that onlyby the sense of taste , feel, or smell.You cannot SEE spirit or spiritualknowledge. Neither can you hearspirit, nor taste it, nor smell it, norfeel it.And right there is the explanationof why man has the intellectualpower to learn to fly to the moonand back , or to produce the computer, yet he cannot solve his problems on earth. His real problems are-SPIRITUAL , 'and he simply does notUNDERSTAND spiritual problems. Inproducing the computer or in flyingto the moon, he is dealing withPHYSICAL matters, which he CAN understand.In the second chapter of I Corinthians, this is explained. Paul says,"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,

neither have entered into the heart[mind] of man, the things whichGod hath prepared for them thatlove him" (verse 9). God has purposed a transcendent destiny that ispossible for man that cannot enterthe human mind through the eye,the ear, or any natural sense.


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comprehend human-level knowl-:edge , such as animals cannot comprehend, except by the presence ofthe spirit of man , which is IN him .This spirit that is in every humanimparts to the human brain thepower of physical intellect.The spirit cannot see. The human

brain sees, through the eye. Thebrain hears through the ear. Thebrain even does the thinking, th ereasoning, by power imp arted bythe spirit that is in man.

When the Bible speaks of a manreceiving the gift of God's HolySpirit, it says, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that weare the chi ldren of God" (Romans8:16). That is, the Spiri t from Godimpregnates, imp arts divine Spiritlife, in the same manner that ahuman sperm cell imparts humanlife to a female human egg cell(ovum).Now I want you to understand

the connection. The Bible revealsthat Satan is ' an immortal spiritbeing. Originally he was the archangel cherub whose name meantlight-bringer (Lucifer in Latin)(Isaiah 14:12), who was perfect fromthe time he was CREATED (Ezekiel28: 15) until he was found to be law

others equ al to self-concern - theway of helping, sharing, giving, co.operation .Satan turned to the way of vanity,

self-centeredness, greed, lust, competition, strife, jealousy, envy, ha-tred. .Thi s world is Satan 's world. It isgeared to self-concern, competition,

strife, taking, getting, criticizing, accusing, injuring.And Satan , a super-p owerfulspirit being, is god of this world!But HOW does Satan work in -

inside of - the people of this world?How does he deceive them? This isimportant! Not ice carefully!Sat an is the prince of the power of

the air. He works in people bybroadcasting! Satan goes ON TH EAIR.Le t me explain. When God

wanted to move King Cyrus of Persia to send Jews back to Jerusalemto build the second Temple, noticehow he did it! He "s tirred up thespirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that hemade a proclamation thoughout allhis kingdom" (I I Chronicles 36:22,23; Ezra 1:1-2).God did not talk directly to thisGentile king. He did not give him avision. Cyrus did not hear any voice.

self-love, which , of itself, is not necessarily evil. They are NOT born , onthe other hand , with any real outgo ing concern for the good ofothers. That must come from teaching and from the Spirit of God. Butneither are they born with envy,jealousy or hat e. Those attitudes areinjected into them by Satan as theygrow up .Yes, Sat an works IN the peopl e of

this world. By the time a young manbecomes about age 16, with a bodythat has been growing more rapidlyth an hi s mind, he can, with ou tproper teaching and self-control. become a very destructive indi vidu al.But babies? They are ju st as innocent and sweet as their parentshave thought they were.What , now, is the CAUSE of all the

escal ating troubles in this world ?Our first parents disbelieved theteaching of the ir Creator. They took

to themselves the decision - theproduction of the knowledge - ofwhat is right and wha t is wrong.Their offspring have been doing itever since. Revelation - truth revealed from God - has been REJECTE D . A nd Satan ha s b eenBROADCASTI NG his a tt itude . Th ishas caused every wail of human woe


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Diplomatic forces nowat workgive the Vatican anopportunity to play an important new role in an Arab-Israeli settlement and, simultaneously , increase RomanCatholic influence in the Holy Land. by Jeff Calkins

NEW VATICAN ROLE IN THE MIDEAST?ONE OF the long-festering issuesof the Middle East is theproblem of who governs Jerusalem and its religious sites.Jeru salem is a city of paramountreligious and emotional significanceto the world's three great mono-

on Palestine proposed an internationalized Jerusalem. The sameidea was echoed again in 1967, afterIsrael captured the Old City .Just prior to the outbreak of theOctober war, U.S. Secretary of StateKissinger reportedly presented Arab

maintains his claim to the city aspolitical ruler.An indication of outside interestin Jerusalem was the decision of

several world leaders to visit theVatican in late 1973. Emperor HaileSelassie of Ethiopia and President


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A Roman Catholic administration of Jerusalem'sChristian holy places would be much more than amere caretaker operation. It would represent thesymbolic introduction of a third party into the MiddleEast and would promise some of the same resultsas a superpower-imposed solution but with noneof the trappings of Soviet involvement.

Minister Abba Eban has stated that"on the quest ion of Jerusalem an dthe holy places . .. the principle ofinternational control must be maintained."The Arabs probably can go alongwith joint administration of Jerusalem's holy places by Jordan an d theVatican an d still not have to recognize Israeli control over the city.Such joint administration wouldbenefit both the Moslems andChristian Arabs.Also, it could reasonably be con

strued as weakening the Israeli holdon Jerusalem. The presence of theCatholic Church in Jerusalemwould tend to underscore the Arabposition that Jerusalem is not an exclusively Jewish city. Furthermore, abroad segment of "world opinion"- influential leaders - an d much of. the news media in the Western

larly the Roman Catholic Church,gets more jittery about the safety ofChristian holy places in Jerusalem.Early in the life of modern Israel,the Vatican issued papal encyclicalssaying that the status of Jerusalemmust ensure the safety and protection of the holy places.Direct Vatican administration ofreligious sites in Jerusalem can be ahighly visible step toward a Mideastsettlement - a step which does notnecessarily trample on the interestsof either Arab or Israeli. It wouldprovide the symbolic presence of areligious power, as well as a representation of the outside world 's interest.Rome, significantly, was the firststop of U.S. Assistant Secretary ofState Joseph Sisco, after a recent

M iddle Ea ste rn tour. H avingworked with Henry Kissinger in ar-

mean any change in Rome's position concerning the Holy Land.Clearly, Rome has kept itself freeto have a strong hand in its relationswith the Arabs.And that may also be what Israelneeds . Israel finds herself increasingly isolated in world geopolitics. Itoften seems that she has only theUnited States an d a few other reluctant nations behind her. By invitinga Vatican administration of Christian holy places, Israel could be put

ting her best diplomatic footforward in a bid to neutralize theEuropean "tilt" toward the Arabs .Also, the gesture could very well influence the whole Christian world totake a beneficent view of the Israeliposition. Most Israelis feel Israelneeds all the friends she can get.

A Victory for RomeThe Catholic Church has important stakes in the Mideast. It hasover 210 churches and chapels, 54schools, six hospitals an d several orphanages an d pilgrim hospices inIsrael alone. Her Franciscan monkshave been traditional custodians of

many o f Israel 's Christian holyplaces. Those sites are some of themost sacred places of worship in allof Christendom. Wars have been


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sible for the holy places, it must dowhat it can to keep at bay anypower (such as the Soviet Union)that would conceivably cut off holyplaces from Christians.Hence the Vatican is currently engaged in a vigorous "Ostpolitik."Large Roman Catholic populationsexist in the Communist world. A detente between Communism andCatholicism could strengthen itseastern ties at the same time.Of course the Vatican cannot, ofitself, guarantee the safety of those

holy places. However, a "papal protectorate" would be a powerfulmoral deterrent against any powerthreatening to disrupt the flow ofpilgrim traffic to the holy land . TheChristian world simply could nottolerate such an event.The Vatican also seeks a longterm rapprochement with the Orthodox churches. The Greek Orthodox Church is one of the strongestChristian churches (numerically) inthe ent ire Middle East. Greek Orthodox agreement to let the Catholic Church sa feguard Christianpla ces of worship in Jerusalemwould greatly aid the ecumenicalmovement.And there can be no denying thatJeru salem it self, a ci ty so in

the Greek Orthodox clergy as thecrusade progressed. He planned touse the war to facilitate an II th century brand of ecumenism.In calling for a Christian holywar, Urban saw a chance to subordinate the unruly secular powers ofWestern Europe to a larger papalpurpose. Urban hoped he could regain ground lost to worldly influences and to control theirenergies for the good of the Church.At the time of the crusades, theChurch suffered bitter disputeswithin itself. Political control of thepapacy loomed as a major disputeof the day. The popes had to con- .tend with Roman city potentates,

to protest the exclusion of Jews fromtheir holy places from 1947 to 1967,when Old Jerusalem was in Jordanian hands. The Catholic Church willhave to overcome this obstacle if itis to gain good relations with Israel.But there are those in Israel whohope that Rome can play a role.Considering the Vatican's contactswith the Arabs, any friendship TelAviv can cultivate with Rome appears desirable. The Vatican's foreign contacts are extensive; itspresence ostensibly benign . It wouldseem to be the ideal medi ator forse tt ling the problem of the holyplaces. The Vatican is perhaps theonly power involved that can afford

Many RomanCatholics aroundthe world feel astrong emotionalattachment toPalestine's Christianholy places.


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article on the Rom an Catholic Church ofwhich I am a life-time member. The articleis scholarly. unbiased and surely fac tua l.We of the Fa ith too are apprehensive of theturn of even ts. realizing that the MotherChurch ha s always been a bul wark ofhuman decency an d tha t this wave of soca lled free dom of tho ught and actio n canbe the debilitating age nt that will br ingupon us all another age of darkness.Earl S..Lak e Oswego, OregonTo Be or Not to Be a MinisterI have one more problem and I hop e thatyou ca n help me out. I've been repeatedlyasked to jo in the ministry, or to go in forth e Bachelor of Divinity degree by my par ents and the Bishop of our diocese. I tellyou clearl y - I'm ent irely relu ctant to go in

for this degree. The reason is very plain.When one has been revealed true Christianity by having contact with Ambassad orCo llege - then how can one feed a congregat ion with the false teachings of professingChristianity? So in order to avoid the ministry, I am at pre sent teaching zoology at apost graduate college. But there too . I'mfacing the same type of situation. I'm supposed to teach the false theory of evolution .I am completely helpless, bu t at the sametime I'm very ac tively hunt ing some moretechnical jo b. I look forward to your con structive suggestions and sp iri tua l help inthi s regard . Ivan 1. D.,

Umrnedpur, Ind iaSecond ThoughtsSeveral mon ths ago I cancelled a subscri p tion to The Plain Truth magazin e beca use of a di sagreement wi th certainconclusions and opinions drawn in somear ticles . Yet I find myself in agreement withmost of th e opinio ns and regret missing a

very useful and controversial magazine. Iwish to have the subscription ren ewed .Matthew S..

Sunnyside . New York

could lead us in the ways of truth, as he didwhen he wrote his "Common Sen se" du ring the Am erican revolution. Th e need forsuch truth is ep itomized by the nine milli onpeople who have alrea dy subsc ri bed toyour publication . Lon g may you carry onwith you r crusad e.0.1. T..Stam ford , Co nnecticut

Earliest Reader?I am 84 years young and am thankful Ihave my hearing. eyesight and even, for anelderly body, fairly good health .I have fol lowed the Ambassador Collegecareer from its conception. You see, duringthe depression years we were living in Ar cadia, California as we had los t our Pasa

dena home and in Arcadia we received thatfirst little - sha ll I ca ll it a "flyer"? The firste dit ion, a mimeographed paper, of ThePlain Truth. I think it was in 1934. Ha vebeen getting The Plain Truth ever s ince,and would feel lost without it now.Mrs . Dean C.West Branch , Iowa 1934 is right. The fi rst issue began with theFebruary number that year.Crisis in ReligionAs a Cath olic religion educa tor and recip ie nt of your magazine for a few yearsnow , I am very excited by your publication .

The same day that I received the Novemberissue with an analysis of the con t inuingcrisis in the Catholic Church, an article appeared in our diocesan newspaper . . . . Ifind the two articles very per tinent! As I amenrolling in your Bible CorrespondenceCourse, I would appreciate any of yours on th

Rock MusicI am writing this let ter in refe rence to the

September " Personal from the Edit or. " Iam compelled to take issue with your reference seemingly condemning rock music as" a destructive noise with an evil beat." Ina ll cando r may I ask is thi s not a gro tesquegeneralization??? Please restore my faith

O. V. L.,Worthington, Indian a

Deep in the Heart of AfricaFell ow missionaries appreciate receivingyour magazine and we wou ld like you to

add our names to the list. We are sta tionedabout 400 miles over the mountains fromBukavu in the interior and would greatlyappreciate having The Plain Truth to read.I have been in educational work foryea rs, heading up our Kama SecondarySchool. Now that Zairois have taken overthe runn ing of the schoo l, I am concentrating on Bible subjects (as well asEnglish) as we are desirous of reaching theyo uth for Christ.

FamineI enjoy the magazine very much, and the

articles are so timely and worthwhile. Itmight interest yo u to know that at the timeyou we re pr inting articles on African countries , our Federated Study Club was studying Africa and the various countries so yourmagazine was a wealth of informationabout the countries and its leaders and peoples.I like The Plain Truth as it is all interesting and not taken up with a lot of advertising.

William B.,Ki vu. Zaire


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