Philadelphia Bible Church, Bucharest, Romania

By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer

Wed Aug 27, 11:46 am ET

JERUSALEM – Scientists using American space technology have started a huge project to digitally photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known version of the Hebrew Bible, and post it on the Internet for all to see, Israeli authorities said Wednesday.

High-tech cameras using infrared photography are being used to uncover sections of the 2,000-year-old scrolls that have faded over the centuries and become indecipherable, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said.

The project is expected to take about five years and the goal is to make the scrolls accessible to scientists and the general public, Antiquities Authority official Pnina Shor said. Continue Reading »

An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image. Continue Reading »

An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image. Continue Reading »

An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image. Continue Reading »

An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.

“Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life,” Rungi told The Associated Press after Italian media carried reports of the idea. “This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible.”

Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, said that visitors to his site will have a month to “vote for the nun they consider a model.”

Nuns will fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation as well as a photograph. It will be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

“We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits,” Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone. “But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn’t hide it.”

Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. He hopes there will be dozens of submissions once the Web site is started.

The contest drew criticism from the association of Catholic teachers.

“It’s an initiative that belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God,” the group’s president, Alberto Giannino, told Italy’s ANSA news agency on Sunday.

http://blog.luciolepress.com

The “great tribulation” refers to the time of crisis at the close of the age of man. Jesus spoke of “great tribulation” in Matthew 24:21 and told John to write of it in Revelation 7:14.

Several events are prophesied to occur during the crucial last days:

• The area outside of the temple in Jerusalem will be controlled by non-Israelite powers (Revelation 11:2).
• The two witnesses of God will fulfill their commission (verse 3).
• The beast power, a counterfeit of the Kingdom of God, will dominate world politics, religion and economics (Revelation 13:5).

An unparalleled “time of great trouble” will come on the people of Israel, affecting also “the holy people” (Daniel 12:1, 7).

Notice that a common time-period is mentioned in conjunction with these events:

• 42 months.
• 1,260 days.
• “A time, times, and half a time.”

These are variations of the same period - 3 1/2 years (not seven years, as commonly suggested by many rapture-believers for the time of the great tribulation).

Note Wycliffe Commentary’s notes on Daniel 12:7:

“The consummation is to take place when the three and one-half times (3 1/2 years; 1,260 days; 42 months) so frequently mentioned in Daniel’s previous prophecies and in the Revelation are run out.”

Rapture theorists base their idea of a seven-year tribulation on a single reference, Daniel 9:27, which tells of a covenant made “for a week” by a “prince who is to come.” This prince will cut off sacrifices “in the midst of the week,” an act that will herald the beginning of the crisis at the end. A week in prophecy, goes the reasoning, represents a year and hence refers to a seven-year period.

(Some believe the prince to be the Antichrist, while others believe it is Christ. The Messiah was cut off in the midst of a week, or after 3 1/2 years of His earthly ministry, as well as on a Wednesday, the middle of a literal week.)

If this is a prophecy of the Antichrist, the crisis begins “in the middle,” or after 3 1/2 years, leaving another 3 1/2 years remaining for the fulfillment of the close-of-the-age events mentioned above. Note as well that the period would also be the same as prophesied in the above references to the main events of the end.

Clearly the Bible does not support the idea of a seven-year tribulation.

www.gnmagazine.org

Consumers worried about salad safety may soon be able to buy fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce zapped with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and a few other germs.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday will issue a regulation allowing spinach and lettuce sellers to take that extra step, a long-awaited move amid increasing outbreaks from raw produce.

It doesn’t excuse dirty produce, warned Dr. Laura Tarantino, FDA’s chief of food additive safety. Farms and processors still must follow standard rules to keep the greens as clean as possible — and consumers, too, should wash the leaves before eating.

“What this does is give producers and processors one more tool in the toolbox to make these commodities safer and protect public health,” Tarantino said.

Irradiated meat has been around for years, particularly ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. Spices also can be irradiated.

www.abcnews.go.com

Israeli parents forget daughter at airport It sounds like an Israeli remake of Home Alone. A family rushed through Israel’s largest airport on the busiest day of the year to catch a flight to Paris for their … their hands too full to notice that a fifth had been left alone in the airport ’s duty free. Ben-Gurion Airport police found the four-year-old girl wandering among the bustling crowds on her own, and calmed her down so she could … and four siblings on board was already in the air. Incredibly, the girl ’s parents only realised that they had left their daughter at their airport when a flight attendant quizzed them about the missing passenger. The four-year-old …

August 4, 2008

www.russiatoday.com

A Muslim man in Egypt killed his wife and then buried her with their infant baby and 8-year old daughter. The girls were buried alive! He then reported to the police that an uncle killed the kids. 15 days later, another family member died. When they went to bury him, they found the 2 little girls under the sand - ALIVE !

The country is outraged over the incident, and the man will be executed. The older girl was asked how she had survived. ‘A man wearing shiny white clothes, with bleeding wounds in his hands, came every day to feed us. He woke up my mom so she could nurse my sister,’ she said.

She was interviewed on Egyptian national TV, by a veiled Muslim woman news anchor. She said on public TV, ‘This was none other than Jesus, because nobody else does things like this!’

Muslims believe Isa (Jesus) would do this, but ‘the wounds’ means He really was crucified, and it’s clear also that He is alive! BUT, it’s also clear that the child could not make up a story like this, AND there is no way these children could have survived without a true miracle.

www.michemaylee.com

August 1, 2008
ISRAELI archeologists in Jerusalem have found the imprint of a seal that belonged to an 6th century BC official in the court of the last king of Judah who was mentioned in the Old Testament. Continue Reading »

John McCain’s wife has needed hospital treatment for a sprained wrist - caused by an enthusiastic supporter’s vigorous handshake. Continue Reading »

John McCain’s wife has needed hospital treatment for a sprained wrist - caused by an enthusiastic supporter’s vigorous handshake. Continue Reading »

John McCain’s wife has needed hospital treatment for a sprained wrist - caused by an enthusiastic supporter’s vigorous handshake. Continue Reading »

John McCain’s wife has needed hospital treatment for a sprained wrist - caused by an enthusiastic supporter’s vigorous handshake.

Cindy McCain was touring with her husband, the Republican presidential nominee, in Michigan when she sustained the injury.

But with an existing wrist condition, the supporter’s excitement proved too much and Mrs McCain had to be taken to hospital.

Mrs McCain, who suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome, later rejoined her husband seemingly unfazed and sporting a cast that was glammed up with a sparkly broach.

The Republican nominee for the White House race called it her “new attire” as his wife told reporters: “I’m absolutely fine.”

Handshake strain is an occupational hazard for politicans and their spouses.

A spokesman for RSI Awareness told Sky News Online that the Queen shakes more people’s hands than anyone else in the UK - and has developed a special technique to cope with the strain.

He said: “You don’t get a regular handshake but a handshake with lighter contact… Mrs McCain’s handshake technique needs attention. She should get tips from the Queen.”

Sky News

British scientists have created a biological robot which is controlled by a section of rat’s brain.
The robot is linked wirelessly to a bundle of neurons which are kept at body temperature in a sterile cabinet.

Signals from the brain, a pot of 300,000 rat neurons, allow the robot to Continue Reading »

British scientists have created a biological robot which is controlled by a section of rat’s brain.

The robot is linked wirelessly to a bundle of neurons which are kept at body temperature in a sterile cabinet.

Signals from the brain, a pot of 300,000 rat neurons, allow the robot to steer left or right to avoid objects in its path.

The research is led by Professor Kevin Warwick, who is pioneering the merging of biology and robotics by conducting bizarre experiments on himself.

One of his cyborg experiments involved embedding a microchip in the nerves of his left arm which allowed him to control an electric wheelchair and artificial hand.

His research team at the University of Reading are now trying to teach the ‘rat’ robot to become familiar with its surroundings.

They hope the experiment will show how memories are captured in nerve connections as the robot revisits territory is has been to before.

Prof Warwick said: “This new research is tremendously exciting as firstly the biological brain controls its own moving robot body and secondly it will enable us to investigate how the brain learns and memorises its experiences.

“This research will move our understanding forward of how brains work and could have a profound effect on many areas of science and medicine.”

Another aspect of the research is achieving a better understanding of conditions that affect the brain such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and strokes.

Sky News

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Italian animal rights campaigners are urging Pope Benedict to stop wearing ermine on his hats and robes, appealing to his reputation as a cat lover.

The Italian Association for Defense of Animals and the Environment, which has a white bunny logo, has started an online petition signed by nearly 1,900 people asking the German-born pontiff to stop wearing fur. Corriere della Sera newspaper had photos Benedict and one of his predecessors, Pope John XIII, wearing an ermine-trimmed hat and cape. It put the shots next to a picture of a live stoat.

Ermine is the white winter fur of the stoat, which has been used to trim the crowns, ceremonial hats and robes of European royalty, aristocrats, judges and popes for centuries.

The pope wore the fur-trimmed hat and cape before pilgrims around Christmas in 2005, giving him the look of Santa Claus and delighting well-wishers and photographers alike.

But the petition appealed not to the pope’s fashion sense, but to his reputation as an animal lover, which has even prompted an authorized biography of the pope narrated by a cat.

Published last year, “Chico and Joseph” is based on a real cat called Chico who took up with the pope in his native Germany when he was plain Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The cat belongs to the caretakers of the house where Ratzinger lived before moving to Rome in 1981. As a cardinal in Rome, the future pope befriended another cat he found on the street and kept it in his apartment until being elected pope.

www.reuters.com

Branson, Mo. — It’s a long way to go to church, especially for a congregation used to watching its pastor on television. But the flock of Shepherd’s Chapel is like no other. Twice a year, almost 4,000 of its members will fly or drive from points across the country to this Ozarks tourist destination, best known for the neon kitsch and wholesome family entertainment of the Highway 76 Country Music Boulevard, to see Pastor Arnold Murray, host of the long-running TV Bible study program, “Shepherd’s Chapel.”

The strapping, 6-foot-4-inch octogenarian, known as “The Sarge” to his followers, has gained an audience that numbers in the millions. “Shepherd’s Chapel” has been on the air for at least three decades and is broadcast in nearly every major and mid-size U.S. city.

At Passover this April 5 (Murray calculates the date for Passover according to his own interpretation of the Jewish calendar), the 81-year-old Arkansas pastor is all smiles as the packed audience in the Grand Palace country music hall rises to give him a long standing ovation before he’s even said a word. His son Dennis introduces him as a man who is “taking names and kicking dragons.” One woman can’t contain herself. “We love you, Pastor Murray,” she yells out. Murray jokes that he should get her number before pushing back his sleeves and opening his King James Bible. “Let’s get to work,” he commands. And they do. The audience is so rapt that throughout the 45-minute sermon the only sound they make is the onionskin rustle of thousands of Bible pages turning. But there are some things they’re not being taught.

One of them is the fact that Murray’s 1958 minister’s license was signed by the late white supremacists Roy Gillaspie and Kenneth Goff, two early ideologues of Christian Identity, a racist theology that’s been popular among Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other white nationalists for several decades. Most Identity adherents believe the Bible is the history of the white race, who are seen as the real “chosen people.”

Gillaspie was the pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ, a seminal Christian Identity operation — headquartered at Gillaspie’s Bellflower, Calif., church — with a handful of congregations in California and Arkansas, one of which was led by Murray. (Murray’s Church of Jesus Christ in Gravette, Ark., was the precursor to his Shepherd’s Chapel, in the same location.) The Intelligence Report has obtained Church of Jesus Christ newsletters dated 1978 that are signed by Murray.

Goff, for his part, was the founder of the Colorado-based Soldiers of the Cross Training Institute, a school that trained Christian Identity leaders including Dan Gayman, a well-known anti-Semitic leader during the 1980s. In 1958, Goff’s pamphlet, “Reds Promote Racial War,” claimed the Bible supported racial segregation. A 1969 Soldiers of the Cross newsletter penned by Goff describes black civil rights protesters as seeking “to submerge our culture and religious heritage under a flood of cannibalism, voodooism and beastly jungle sex orgies.”

Arnold Murray is still connected to something called Soldiers of the Cross. According to Arkansas public records, a corporation by that name is doing business as Shepherd’s Chapel in Arkansas, and Murray is registered as the corporation’s agent. Murray’s home, his church property where the TV studio and satellites are located, and several parcels of land in Gravette, Ark., are all listed as the property of Soldiers of the Cross.

www.splcenter.org