Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," urged Israel's King David 3,000 years ago (Psalm 122:6). Seeking a peaceful solution to the Mideast problem is the concern, if not the prayer, of many world leaders. But peace in the Holy Land has, over the centuries, been in remarkably short supply.
The Balfour Declaration (1917), the British document that formed the basis for an upsurge of Jewish immigration to Palestine, stated that nothing should be done with regard to a (potential) Jewish national home that might be detrimental to ethnic communities in the area.
Israel's former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, draws attention to a major cause of the conflict in the Mideast in his book A Place Among the Nations.
Recent fighting in and around Jerusalem is only the latest in centuries of invasions, sieges, conquests and destruction. Bible prophecy tells us that Jerusalem will continue to play a major role in end-time world events.
Forty years ago few could have forseen how a medical innovation would so dramatically reshape soceity.
Are we witnessing the end of the nation whose people, "relative to their numbers, contributed more to civilization than any other people since the ancient Greeks and Romans"?
Why, after political leaders' perennial promises to fix all our problems, are the obstacles still with us? Why, when so many hope and labor for positive change, does it remain tantalizingly out of reach?
"Political uncertainty over the presidency is to be expected in some of the poorer, less political stable nations. People do not expect to see the same in the richest nation in the world."
The next four years could bring thorny problems for America's leadership role in the world. The next president will face the consequences of missed opportunities in the 1990's.
Thanks to the modern tools of archaeology, researchers have found much cultural, historical and geographical background material that supports the biblical account of Paul's trips through the Mediterranean world.
Luke was thorough and comprehensive, unwavering in his commitment to the truth. He didn't assume things. He carefully checked things out. We, too, should be sure that our beliefs are firmly grounded in the Scriptures.
The Netherlands' parliament approved a bill legalizing mercy killing and doctor-assisted suicide in some circumstances.
Sales of illicit sex in the form of pornography are a $10 billion industry in the United States, according to Forrester Research of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A disease that peaked as a minor British epidemic in 1992 and 1993 recently spread to France, then to Germany.
While Americans focused their attention on two men's struggle for the presidency, an old problem resurfaced.
Stockpiles of arms and bomb-making equipment are stirring fears that neo-Nazi groups will mount a large-scale terrorist campaign.
"The risk of a missile attack against the United States involving chemical, biological or nuclear warheads is greater today than during most of the Cold War and will continue to grow in the next 15 years, says a new global threat assessment by the National Intelligence Council," writes Vernon Loeb in a Washington Post article.
The archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Church, describes British religious leanings as "tacit atheism."
