BPR Mailing List Digest: 09/08/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
September 8, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | September, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Barak sets October 6 deadline
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 08:31:03 -0400

Thursday, September 7 2000 19:38 8 Elul 5760

(08:08) Barak sets October 6 deadline

Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said that, if there is no progress in the talks with the Palestinians by October 6, the peace process will be derailed for a long time. Congress is due to dissolve on that date and the Americans will be busy with new presidential elections. Yom Kippur also falls immediately after that.

Meanwhile, a member of Barak's delegation has said the PM has not made any new concessions or offers to the Palestinians over Jerusalem.

One Israel MK Colette Avital, a member of the delegation, said today that in the current talks in New York, several of which she had attended, the ideas raised previously by Israel and the US were being discussed.

These include enlarging the capital by the addition of Jewish suburbs, handing over some peripheral areas to the PA and giving the Arabs local-government powers in certain neighborhoods.

Barak met South African President Thabo Mbecki yesterday and heard of his willingness to help further the peace process. Mbecki has close ties with the PLO from his days in the African National Congress.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/09/07/LatestNews/LatestNews.11867.ht ml

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Interview with Gershon Salomon, Founder of Temple Mount Faithful
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Khazneh")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 08:36:49 -0400

Gershon Salomon, Founder Of
"Temple Mount Faithful" Group, Warns Of Coming War In Israel
By Christopher Knight, The Tribune

As negotiators attempt to make peace in the Middle East and as Yassar Arafat mulls declaring a Palestinian state before the end of the year, the major issue of the conflict arrived locally as hundreds of people came to Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville last Thursday to hear a man who many believers hold is fulfilling biblical prophecy.

Gershon Salomon, founder and leader of the Temple Mount Faithful, came to the church to speak about his group's mission and activities in Jerusalem. Salomon, in the midst of a U.S. speaking tour, came as a guest of longtime friend and Trinity pastor Ralph Sexton. And while the two made some casual banter during the evening, the weight of the discussion was gravely notable. "You're number one on the death list," Sexton said at one point.

"Such a great honor!" retorted Salomon, to laughs from the audience. "I'm not a prime minister. This list has the prime minister and members of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), and they take a simple man from Jerusalem and put him number one on this list. and I want to share with you that never before have I felt so safe."

Salomon's notoriety in some quarters, indeed his being what a few have considered the most potentially dangerous man alive, stems from a mission he has labored 33 years for: the removal of everything the Jewish faith considers sacrilege from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the re-establishment of the Jewish Temple.

The original temple, built by King Solomon, stood until being destroyed by the Babylonians. After the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland by the Persians they rebuilt the temple. The second was then destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE during the insurrection of the Jewish people. Today the last remnant of the temple still standing is the "Wailing Wall", the foundation of the western wall.

Muslim armies conquered Palestine in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries. On the Temple Mount they built the Al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. "It was an imperialistic occupation," Salomon told the crowd at Trinity. "They destroyed other holy places like churches of Christians and built mosques over them."

Salomon elaborated on Muslim claims to Jerusalem, citing that nowhere in Islamic texts is Israel considered a holy city to Muslims. "In the Islamic holy books and their history, Jerusalem is not even mentioned one time," said Salomon, noting that the Quran did not reference Jerusalem

Why then the clamor over Jerusalem, if none but the Jewish people have the right to its name? "To the pope in the last 2,000, to the Muslims in the last 1,300 years, I believe G-d showed them that Jerusalem has no meaning for them," Salomon said. "Even in the years when Jordan controlled, they could have made Jerusalem a Palestinian capital but they did not. I believe Jerusalem has no meaning for them except they understand the great meaning of this city to Jews, to Christians, to the people of the book and all the world, and they want to use it."

But at the same time he asserted Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount and all of Jerusalem, Salomon offered warning. "When the Israeli nation and army were not in the land to protect Jerusalem, G-d did not allow them to make Jerusalem their own capital, and He will not allow it now. They will come to Jerusalem, but G-d will make it a cup of poison to them," he said. "As long as this desecration and abomination will continue on the Temple Mount, the Temple Mount will be a volcanic mount that will shake all the earth. As long as the Temple Mount is not under Israeli control, as long as on the Temple Mount exists such a terrible situation with the pagan houses of worship which the Muslims built, there can never be peace in Israel, not in the Middle-East, not in any other place in the world."

Salomon's quest to see the temple rebuilt began in 1967, when at the conclusion of the Six- Day War that saw the liberation of East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Moshe Dyan, the leader of Israeli's military, gave the Temple Mount back to the Muslims. It was especially hard for Salomon, who was one of the soldiers who liberated the Temple Mount.

"He made this terrible, sinful mistake," Salomon told the Tribune. "Everything that's happened to us since has been because of it and now, we must make up for it. Dyan didn't make peace with the G-d of Israel, but a false peace with the enemies of Israel. The Bible speaks of 'a covenant with death', and this is what Dyan made. It made the way for all the others: Camp David and Oslo and the others."

Why did Dyan give the mount to Islamic authority? "This is a great question that almost every Israeli asks," Salomon said. "He was not a man who's ideas were based on biblical ideals and the coming of the Messiah. He was most secular, a political leader. He thought if they appeased the Muslim side there could be peace."

Dyan's mistake has perpetuated into current leadership, Salomon said. "Dyan forbid Jews to pray there! He was afraid that it would make an Arab reaction of violence. The government from the time of Dyan has tried to appease the Muslims, who don't want to see the cornerstone laid, to start the building of the temple. There is a weakness in the leadership." Salomon did not reserve words regarding the current prime minister: (Ehud) Barak has not a government or a nation behind him. And maybe the G-d of Israel is not behind him. Sooner than later he will no longer be the prime minister, because he dared to negotiate with the enemies of G-d and Israel with the Temple Mount."

The Israelis shouldn't fear Arafat's pending declaration of statehood, which is expected to be recognized by many nations of the world. "Arafat declared so many times a Palestinian state, so he'll declare it another time. It will not work," Salomon said. "If they will dare to make violence, they will meet a general, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And He's ready," to applause from the crowd.

It was such leadership that prompted Salomon and others to begin the movement to rebuild the temple. "When Moshe Dyan took the flag from the mount after the occupation, that's when we gathered together a group of faithful, to reclaim the temple mount. It's been a long time. When we started we were young, but we dedicated our lives to establishing the temple on the mount. 33 years later, we feel we succeeded in bringing this close. This is no more an issue in the corner, but in the midst of the world."

Even before the liberation, Salomon says God was affecting his life. In 1958, as an officer in the Israeli army, he was run over by a tank in the Golan Heights, becoming the only man ever known to have lived through such an attack. While wounded on the field he was approached by Syrian soldiers who, under orders to shoot again all Israeli dead and wounded, ran away from Salomon. Later, Salomon heard from United Nations observers that the Syrians spoke of seeing angels guarding Salomon.

While recovering, Salomon said God began moving his life towards the establishing of the land promised his people, something which began in his family nearly 200 years before when his ancestor, a rabbi, entered Jerusalem to begin re-gathering the lost tribes. "The Arabs did not allow him to enter. So he changed his clothes and came in the night and started a revolution, to rebuild the land, to replant the trees and vegetables. They started building houses and villages and brought to Jerusalem industry. They wanted to build a state not just for modern Israel, but a state for the Messiah to come to."

The modern Israeli state has been established, and now, Salomon believes, is time to retake the Temple Mount and build the temple. "Moshe Dyan made a terrible mistake when he called back the Arabs, he thought he would make peace. But he got violence and hatred because he did not make peace with the G-d of Israel. I promise you, maybe they delayed the coming of Messiah for 33 years or more, but it is soon to come." Speaking with boldness not heard from the table of conventional diplomacy, he said "I think that G-d gave us 33 years time to do it, quite enough. He expected Israel to do it. The greatest test of Israel today was on the temple mount: is Israel going to trust G-d to free her from a billion Muslims and all the nations on the world? Don't be afraid of all of them!"

While awaiting the retaking of the mount, preparations are underway. The priestly garments have been made. The vessels, musical instruments and other instruments for worship have been crafted. Descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses whose family made up the priests of Israel, have been tracked down and have begun being instructed on their duties in the temple. A red heifer, required for sacrifice and its ashes used to dedicate the temple, has been found. The cornerstone, which Salomon's group has tried repeatedly to lay, is ready. When it is placed, so many believers hold, that will signal the beginning of the new temple.

"People ask me how is Messiah coming, they ask me how will it be on a cloud and in glory. My answer is, and I am sure that is the answer of G-d, he will come on an Israeli tank with this flag," holding up the Temple Mouth Faithful flag, a variation of the Israeli one with the promised boundaries at its center.

It's something Salomon believes will happen, and soon. According to him and many believers, the end times are upon the earth. "One day, the prophets called them the last days, Jerusalem would be the capital of all the earth, under one condition: that Israel would be the capital of all Israel." He also spoke of conflict to come. "When I read the word of G-d, I see my eyes the coming terrible war, maybe the end-time war spoken by the prophet Ezekiel," the war called the "Gog-Magog War" by students of the Torah.

But in the end, Salomon believes, and holds that his work at the Temple Mount Faithful is building to, there would be a time of peace. "Israel was dedicated by G-d to be a kingdom of peace. This is the task of Israel: to serve the nations, to deliver the holy word of G-d to the nations, and to serve G-d at the same time. Israel cannot run from this mission, and it's connected deeply with Jerusalem. David dedicated this city to be the capital of both G-d and the people of Israel."

"We are one family, with the same roots, we believe in the same G-d, we believe in the same book, and the same land is our homeland," Salomon said. We pray and we act together, and the Israeli nation will never forget. Come to Israel. Come to be with this nation and this land, with the G-d of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Come there, even for a short time. You will see the marvelous things that G-d is doing in this land."

http://www.ashevilletribune.com/salomon.htm

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Vermont legislators fighting for political lives
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 09:43:52 -0500

Extracted from Current News Summary
September 8, 2000
http://www.ReligionToday.com

Vermont legislators who supported civil unions for gay couples are
fighting for their political lives. State House and Senate races are
heating up as candidates face a primary election Sept. 12, The
Associated Press (see link #2 below) reported.
..Legislators in 12 districts face challenges because they voted in
favor of civil unions for homosexuals, news reports said. Most are
Republicans who crossed party lines to support the bill, which passed
by just 11 votes, according to AP. "I feel like the rug was pulled
out from under every one of us," said Sylvia Kennedy, who is
challenging Rep. Marion Milne, a Republican, because she voted for
the bill. Kennedy, a Christian, said the issue is morality, not civil
rights.
..Fifty-four percent of Vermont voters polled said they opposed the
law and 49 percent said it will have a major effect on how they vote,
according to AP. The approval rating of Democratic Gov. Howard Dean,
who supported the law, has dropped more than 20 points since it was
passed, the poll showed. The legislature passed the law last year.

2: http://www.ap.org

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Re: Russian children to train for war
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("B.W.")
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 11:33:54 EDT

No difference. America has numerous ROTC Programs, and Military
Schools/Academys have always been "popular". Be all you can be? Aim High?
Recruiting via television commericals is at a high now with depictions of
youth stereo-types standing tall, with proud parents, and crusing on the
beaches and getting that "college education money"...

The reality is that the number who make it into a class room and stay there
long enough to get an education is very limited. Between duty schedules and
massive deployements on non-military actions or Peacekeeper Missions,
combined with manning shortages most active duty types get burned out and
get out.....

Throughout history a military career has been away for members of our
society to improve their financial standing and their lives...(Even the
Roman had recruiting programs) Not eveyone can afford college and not
everyone is cut out for a degree... It sure beats the food service industry
(Wendy's Rules the Night?)

B.W. Goff
Retired MSgt USAF (24 Yrs of it)

>From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Stephen")
>Reply-To: bpr-list@philologos.org
>To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
>Subject: [BPR] - Re: Russian children to train for war
>Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 10:13:22 -0400 (EDT)
>
>This is in regard to the newsletter about the Russian children training
>for arm services. We in the U.S. tend to criticize other countries for
>doing such a thing to their youth. Do we not do it here? Take for
>example here one sees ads with the Army---" Be all you can be" They
>show the soldiers training for comupter hi-tech. But read the small
>prints they have " if you qualify". They decieve young people to join
>only to find themselves as foot soldiers in the battlefields. So what is
>the difference between here and these other countries? None! I hate to
>admit it at least these countries come right out with saying the youth
>are going to the arm services and not being decieved like here. I had
>alot of friends who felt they had no choice but to join one of the
>services because they were not intellctual enough or wealthy enough to
>attend colleges. It's ahame we all can't turn our weapons into plows.
>Steven:)

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Kmart, Wal-Mart take stand on video games
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 12:36:11 -0400

*** Kmart, Wal-Mart take stand on video games

WASHINGTON (AP) - Young people itching to wreak havoc with an Uzi on
their PlayStation will have to bring along a parent if they want to
buy a violent video game from some major retailers. Kmart announced
Thursday it will refuse sale of mature-rated games to anyone under
17, using a barcode scanner that will prompt cashiers to ask for
identification from young people. After Kmart's news conference in
Washington, Wal-Mart announced it would enact the same policy. In a
letter last month to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the president of
Toys R Us said the practice is already in place at his company's
stores. Sessions applauded the move, but said he would prefer that
retailers stop selling mature-rated games, as Montgomery Ward and
Sears, Roebuck and Co. already have done.

"Common sense should tell us that positively reinforcing sadistic
behavior, as these games do, cannot be good for our children," said
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. "We cannot expect that the hours spent in
school will moldand instruct a child's mind but that hours spent
playing violent games will not." Kmart executives said they believe
their policy lets parents make decisions about video games. "A step
of responsibility that gets the parents involved is a smart step,
rather than just walking away from the issue and letting someone else
deal with it," said Shawn Kahle, Kmart's VP of corporate affairs. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2569552575-40c

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel honored ahead of Sydney Olympics
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 13:00:42 -0400

ISRAEL HONORED AHEAD OF SYDNEY OLYMPICS

ICEJ NEWS - 09/06/2000

The Israeli flag was hoisted on Wednesday at Sydney's Olympic Village in
honor of not only of the arrival of Israel's team this year, but also to
remember those eleven Israeli athletes who lost their lives at the Munich
Games 28 years ago yesterday.

In 1972, eleven Israeli athletes and officials were killed when Palestinian
terrorists invaded the Munich Olympics village, taking over the dormitory
housing the Israeli delegation and shooting two of its members. After a 20-
hour standoff, the other nine Israelis died in a botched rescue attempt by
German police at a nearby airport. Five of the terrorists and a German
policeman also died. Earlier this year, German federal prosecutors, faced
with clear evidence linking PLO leader Yasser Arafat to the terrorist
operation, decided not to indict him for fear of harming the Oslo peace
process.

As the Israeli Olympic team arrived today in Sydney, they were also able to
view a commemorative plaque, funded by four members of Sydney's Jewish
community, on one of 16 light towers along plaza outside the Olympic
stadium. The other towers stand for previous Olympic sites, but number 14 is
different. Below a blue glass panel with a Hebrew inscription, a stainless
steel panel is marked with the names of the eleven Israelis killed in Munich.
The inscription is translated below the panel: "God of compassion, let them
find shelter in the shadow of your wings and may their souls be bound up in
the bond of everlasting life."

The Palestine Olympic Committee made a last minute bid to block any
commemoration of the slain Israeli athletes, the first permanent memorial to
the massacre outside Germany. The Palestinians contend it was unfair that
Sydney should have a commemorative plaque to the Munich massacres,
without also acknowledging Palestinians killed by Israelis.

But Efraim Zinger, secretary general of Israel Olympic committee, said that
the sole incident of political killings at the games should be remembered:
"We must remember not only the festivities and the Olympic medal winners,
but the victims." Zinger added, "We want to bring the memory of the 11
athletes and officials to the Israeli public, and the younger generation and the
Olympic community."

The 2000 Summer Games are due to open on September 15 and run through
October 1. A request for observing a moment of silence for the Israelis killed
at Munich during this year's closing ceremony was rejected by Olympic
organizers.

Meanwhile, Sydney officials are concerned with the possibility of a "lone
wolf" assailant staging a terrorist incident similar to the unidentified pipe-
bomber at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in 1996, which killed one
woman and injured more than 100 people. As a consequence, the security
operation here will include a more intense focus than at previous Games on
screening spectators.

Security concerns were heightened last month after a New Zealand
newspaper reported that police in Auckland stumbled across a possible plot
to blow up a nuclear research reactor near Sydney's Olympic venues.
According to law enforcement officials in New Zealand, police found a map of
Sydney with the entrance points to the reactor highlighted during a raid in
March on a suspected organized crime ring with links to Afghanistan. A
subsequent investigation by Australian and New Zealand authorities revealed
that the group lacked the means to carry out the attack, but officials in
Sydney nevertheless have beefed up security at the reactor.

http://www.icej.org/cgi-
local/icej_goto.pl?type=NEWS&artid=20000906ObaejdimhMIAAGs09qo

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Re: Russian children to train for war
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Hank")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 13:34:15 -0400

Apples and oranges. You can't begin to compare the ROTC programs with what
they're doing in Russia. The youth organization in the old Soviet Union was
called "The Young Pioneers" and the age range of the members was roughly
equivalent to that of the Cub Scouts. The group has recently been
re-instituted as part of the Russian civil preparedness program. In
addition to normal youth-centered activities, they practice close-order
drilling with mock rifles, throwing objects having the same weight and feel
as hand grenades, and learning to field strip automatic weapons. In the
past, the youth group would participate in the annual "Tsarnitza" (sp?) a
massive excercise conducted using civilian and paramilitary units of the
home forces (equivalent of the National Guard).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bpr-list@philologos.org [SMTP:bpr-list@philologos.org]
> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 8:34 AM
> To: bpr-list@philologos.org
> Subject: [BPR] - Re: Russian children to train for war
>
> No difference. America has numerous ROTC Programs, and Military
> Schools/Academys have always been "popular". Be all you can be? Aim High?
>
> Recruiting via television commericals is at a high now with depictions of
> youth stereo-types standing tall, with proud parents, and crusing on the
> beaches and getting that "college education money"...

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - If the Jews were to rebuild the Temple today would it be an abomination?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 17:36:46 -0400

If the Jews were to rebuild the Temple today would it be an abomination?

I think we shouldn't discount Paul's actions in the book of Acts when trying
to come to terms with exactly what the Temple is for. We Christians have
never been in a world where there was both the belief in Jesus and a physical
Temple present. Paul, however, had that luxury and what did he do?

1. Acts 20:6 "And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened
bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven
days." I guess I question why he mentions the days of unleavened bread
unless it still had some significance to him; he was probably still observing it
as the feasts are to be forever, throughout all generations: Exodus 12:14
"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast
to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an
ordinance for ever." You can't very well observe some of these feasts without
the Temple. The Temple was the ultimate physical conduit between God and
the people and is why Jesus refers to himself as such. Without that Temple
his analogy would have no meaning--his referring to it shows how important it
was and that it was legitimate. After all, it was God who decided that was
where he would meet with his people (starting with the tabernacle in the
wilderness). God wasn't the building itself, but was in it and Jesus came to
shake the Jews up because they had forgotten that fact--they thought just
because they had the physical Temple and went through the motions of
Temple life that they were "safe." But you need more than that--you need the
indwelling presence of the Lord.

2. Acts 20:16 "For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he
would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to
be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost." Here he seems to be planning his
trip around the feast of Pentecost. He probably wanted to be there to comply
with the need of all Jewish males to be in Jerusalem on three set times
during the year (which included Pentecost). Some people say that Paul was
just there because he knew there would be a big crowd and he could get his
message out. But this fails to take into account that Paul seems to have
been destined to witness to Gentiles: Gal 2:7-9 "But contrariwise, when
they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as
the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (For he that wrought
effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was
mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) And when James, Cephas, and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they
gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go
unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." If Paul wanted to show
the Gentiles that all Temple ritual had been abolished he would have stayed
away especially during the three prescribed times that all Jewish males were
to be present in Jerusalem.

Another curious event:

3. Acts 21:26 "Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself
with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days
of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them."
Here, Paul is going through the mikveh purification rites and also taking part
in offerings [study Acts 21:23-26] as if these had not somehow been
suspended with the coming of Jesus. If this was part of a practice that was
connected to an abominable temple, he would've run far, far away.

Along the same lines: Acts 24:17,18 "Now after many years I came to bring
alms to my nation, and offerings. Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found
me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult."

Acts 25:8 seems to sum everything up quite nicely: "...Neither against the
law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I
offended any thing at all."

4. Further in the book of Acts he is in another situation where he has to
defend himself against false accusations. He had been accused of bringing a
Gentile further into the Temple than was allowed (there was a certain
boundary where this was not permissible) and in his defense states: "I have
committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I
delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans" (Acts
28:17). The customs of our fathers incorporates all the Temple dealings
spelled out in the OT.

All these examples, to me, doesn't show a Christian who views the Temple
in Jerusalem as an abominable/dirty thing. Somehow the church has gotten
the mistaken idea that the physical Temple building is no longer needed and
I would probably tend to agree with this view if it had been destroyed at
Christ's death. But it wasn't. Another 40 years passed. What a cursed
generation THAT was to be in this sort of limbo. But they weren't cursed, for
they (the unique generation that had both Jesus and the Temple) would see
him returning in glory.

They're talking of rebuilding the Temple now. And it'll have to be a
"legitimate" Temple or the antichrist won't bother going in and sitting on
God's throne. (How could it possibly stroke the antichrist's ego unless it is
THE place where he could set himself up as God?) The Temple was the
setting for the feasts and when Jesus first came he fulfilled all the spring
feasts down to the last jot and tittle. But the Fall feasts (with their themes of
judgment and redemption) have yet to be fully realized.

Moza

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Weekend News Today items (9/7/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 17:44:05 -0400

Security Council expansion is first U.N. priority, five new members may be
added to permanent council

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: AP

Thu Sep 7,2000 -- With all the talk this week about making the United
Nations better able to meet the challenges of the 21st century, Japan has a
fairly concrete proposal: Give it a permanent seat on the Security Council.
The problem is the Africans want one, too. And the Arabs. And the Latin
Americans. Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar told the summit on
Thursday that any discussion of council reform must take into account the
existing use of the veto to prevent countries like Russia from blocking or
threatening to block council intervention in humanitarian crises.

Palestinian media hints of imminent war

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Arutz-7

Thu Sep 7,2000 -- Equally expected, following the failure to obtain an Israeli-
Palestinian agreement, were the Palestinian threats of violence - and they
came. "If the thieving Israelis continue holding on to our lands, another
intifada awaits them - and worse things as well," said PA secretary Abed El-
Rahman today in a symposium in Gaza. So reports Arutz-7 correspondent
Haggai Huberman. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports that the
atmosphere in the Palestinian media hints of imminent war. Incitement to
violence and hatred against Israel and Israelis is becoming increasingly
common, and IDF soldiers are portrayed as murderers and rapists.

Israel continues to appear on children's television shows only as "Greater
Palestine" - a woman announcer points to a map featuring cities such as
Jaffa, Haifa, and Tiberias, and says, "Look how beautiful is our land of
Palestine" - and settlers are termed "dogs." Old clips encouraging street
uprisings have been rebroadcast. PMW also reports that Arab Knesset
Member Abdel Malek Dahamshe appeared on PA television several days ago
to say that between the Israelis and Palestinians now reigns a "cease-fire
agreement," and not "peace."

Israel must now prepare for confrontation in absence of peace breakthrough

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Jerusalem Post

Thu Sep 7,2000 -- In the absence of a breakthrough even after Wednesday's
meeting between US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat in New York, Israel must now prepare itself for a
possible confrontation with the Palestinians, Internal Security and Acting
Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said yesterday. "The doubts over the
Palestinian willingness to make a brave decision of leadership have not been
removed," Ben-Ami told a ceremony of the Israel Police bomb squad.

"I am not a bearer of good tidings today," he told the audience. "Our ability to
stand by our national and unique interests require us today more than ever
before to show strength and preparedness for the hour of confrontation as
well, something which we do not want." Earlier yesterday, Ben-Ami said that
Israel will not give up more West Bank territory in exchange for Palestinian
flexibility on Jerusalem. The Security Council is made up of the five veto-
weilding permanent members and 10 non-permanent members whose seats
rotate every two years. For the past seven years, the General Assembly has
been negotiating an increase in both the permanent and non-permanent
members but has been stymied by disputes over who to put on and whether
to extend veto power to them. The United States, Britain and France favor
adding five new permanent seats - Japan, Germany, and one member from
Asia, Africa and Latin America, to be selected by their
regional groups.

Europeans seek land for Jerusalem embassies

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Jerusalem Post

Thu Sep 7,2000 -- Even as Israeli, Palestinian, and American officials were
sounding downbeat about reaching a compromise on Jerusalem, some
European countries have begun looking for plots of land to build embassies
in Jerusalem in the eventuality of an accord, an Israeli government source
said yesterday. In at least two cases, land deals have been finalized. "The
Europeans are looking, and in some cases have signed deals," the source
said.

He said the British have found a plot of land near the UN compound in East
Talpiot, and that a "southern European country," which he did not want to
name, has acquired a plot of land in the Valley of the Cross area. He said no
similar search for land for embassies is under way in east Jerusalem. The
expectation is that consulates now operating in east Jerusalem will, in case
of an agreement, become embassies for their respective
countries in a new Palestinian state, the source said.

http://www.upway.com/cgi/readnews.cgi?day=00_09_7&item=#968393434

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Scholars welcome Jewish statement on Christianity
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 17:51:10 -0400

Scholars welcome Jewish statement on Christianity

Thursday, 7 September 2000 21:27 (ET)

Scholars welcome Jewish statement on Christianity
By LOU MARANO

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Scholars and churchmen on Thursday welcomed an unprecedented report by a panel of Jewish thinkers which refutes the notion that Nazism was an excrescence of Christianity.

In its Thursday editions, the Washington Times reported the release of "The Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity," to be published Sunday in the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun. The document is an unusual expression of agreement among representatives from the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist denominations. The four scholars began their work in the mid-1990s under the auspices of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies, the newspaper said. More than 160 Jewish leaders of all backgrounds have signed on to the statement.

The document is titled "Dabru Emet," Hebrew for "Speak the Truth."

Its eight points are: � �Jews and Christians worship the same God. � �They both seek authority from the Hebrew Bible. � �Christians can respect the claim of the Jewish people on the land of Israel. � �Both faiths accept morals from the Torah, or the five books of Moses. � �Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon. � �The humanly irreconcilable differences between Jews and Christians will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in scripture. � �A new relationship between Jews and Christians will not weaken Jewish practice. � �Jews and Christians must work together for justice and peace.

"This is a very important statement -- the first of its kind," Eugene Fisher, director of Catholic-Jewish relations for the U.S. Catholic bishops, told United Press International on Thursday. "It is not something to be presumed for the Jewish community to acknowledge that we worship the same God, because questions of the Incarnation (of Jesus as the son of God) and the Trinity are serious issues. And they're saying that despite those major differences, they will accept the Christian claim that we pray to the God of Israel," Fisher said.

Fisher explained that individual rabbis and thinkers have been saying such things for centuries, but never as a formal, theological statement addressed to the Jewish community. He said the statement is "a seriously helpful thing, and I'm grateful to have it on the table. I hope that the report will spark constructive dialogue in the Jewish community," Fisher said.

Marc Saperstein, director of Judaic Studies at George Washington University, endorsed and agreed with the statement. "It makes more sense to emphasize the radical innovation of the Nazi program to destroy the Jewish people and not to see it as the outcome, either direct or indirect, of the Christian anti-Jewish teachings," he said.

"Church doctrine since early times has been that it is a sin - a violation of God's will -- to kill Jews," the professor said. "Jews should be allowed to live and to observe their religion even in a Christian realm. This doctrine was reiterated time and again throughout the Middle Ages by the highest leadership levels of the church, including the popes, during outbreaks of violence against Jews that emerged from lower levels of Christian society," Saperstein told UPI.

"And therefore a (Nazi) policy that was intended to bring about the annihilation of the Jewish people should not be viewed as a natural consequence of Christian teachings. The 'final solution' was a fundamental break from a very important aspect of Christian doctrine," he said.

Saperstein said the racial aspect of Nazi anti-Semitism was unique. "During earlier times, Jews could escape both persecution and second-class status by accepting the majority religion," he said, "whereas under the Nazis, there was nothing Jews do to escape the persecution -- and, eventually, the consignment to death -- because the definition of a Jew was not a matter of religious belief but of birth."

Adam Pruzan, program director of Toward Tradition, also welcomed the statement. "I encourage all Jews and Christians of good faith to join together in promoting our shared cultural and ethical agenda," he said. Pruzan described his organization, which is based in the state of Washington, as "a coalition of Jews and Christians united to restore traditional American values that derive from biblical morality.

Richard John Neuhaus is a highly respected figure in contemporary U.S. Catholicism. The priest, a former Lutheran pastor, is editor of First Things, the monthly publication of the Institute on Religion and Public Life. In a phone interview Thursday, he said the statement "represents a genuinely new phase and a very promising step forward in Jewish-Christian relations."

Neuhaus said that in the Jewish-Christian dialogue that has been going on for 30 years or more, especially in the United States, "it has been assumed that the moral high ground has been occupied by the Jewish participants by virtue of being the victims of Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism and, of course, particularly of the Holocaust.

"That, in my judgment -- and in the judgment of a lot of Jewish scholars, including those involved in this statement -- has tended to skew the dialogue," Neuhaus said, "because it tended to create a circumstance in which the Christian participants are always required to be on the defensive, morally speaking, and always required to be trying to make Christian sense of Judaism. And there has not been a real reciprocity," he said.

"But this statement represents a new and promising move toward a genuine reciprocity in which we recognize that the dialogue also must involve a candid and open and honest and scholarly discussion of the Jewish understanding of Christianity -- not simply the Christian understanding of Judaism. And so I think this is altogether a development to be warmly welcomed," Neuhaus said.

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=115814

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Biblical Archaeology Review articles
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 18:19:40 -0400

Three articles on the destruction to the Temple Mount (with pictures):

Jerusalem Update More Temple Mount Antiquities Destroyed
A Personal View
http://www.bib-arch.org/barso00/destroyed.html

What started as...
http://www.bib-arch.org/barso00/destroyed-a.html

Reckles Progress
http://www.bib-arch.org/barso00/destroyed-b.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - (Fwd) AstroAlert: Fast-mover 2000 RD53
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 21:00:43 -0400

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 10:10:47 -0400
To: asteroid@skypub.com
From: "Roger W. Sinnott" <rsinnott@skypub.com>
Subject: AstroAlert: Fast-mover 2000 RD53

Minor Planet AstroAlert: 2000 RD53

For the second time in two weeks, a relatively bright near-Earth asteroid has been discovered. Early on September 6, 2000 (Universal Time), Lincoln Laboratory's 1.0-meter LINEAR robotic telescope in New Mexico, operated by M. Blythe, F. Shelly, and colleagues, captured three images of a 16th-
magnitude speck of light moving swiftly eastward across Vulpecula, not far from the Veil Nebula in Cygnus. Gareth V. Williams posted details of the find on the Minor Planet Center's Web site ( http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html ), alerting astrometric observatories around the world.

Since no orbit was yet available, the object's extrapolated position was at first uncertain. So, as soon as darkness fell on Wednesday evening, the undersigned at Drum Hill Station (northern Massachusetts) took two CCD images of the predicted location and blinked them on the computer screen,
looking for anything that moved. At first I saw nothing but fixed stars, but then I noticed the "hopper" at the extreme edge of the 23-arcminute-wide field! Upon reaiming the telescope, I got four more images and quickly sent the measurements to the Minor Planet Center.

As the day-night terminator advanced westward around the Earth, other observers secured more images: Larry Robinson (Sunflower Observatory, Kansas), D. D. Balam (Canada), LINEAR again, then Y. Ikari (Japan), M. Tichy and Z. Moravec (Czech Republic), and G. Lombardi and A. Toso (Italy). With 33
positions in hand, Timothy B. Spahr of the Minor Planet Center issued the first electronic circular on the new object last night, giving it the temporary designation 2000 RD53. Spahr also computed the following preliminary orbital elements:

  Epoch 2000 Aug. 24.0 TT
  Mean anomaly, M 344.82817
  Semimajor axis, a 1.7634946
  Eccentricity, e 0.4203196
  Arg. of perihelion 192.58887
  Long. of ascending node 176.06394 (equinox 2000.0)
  Inclination, i 9.16128

These elements show that 2000 RD53 goes around the Sun once every 2.34 years, its distance ranging from 2.5 astronomical units (beyond the orbit of Mars) to as close as 1.02 a.u. (vicinity of the Earth's orbit). Spahr also assigned it a PHA (Potentially Hazardous Object) rating of 0.030D, meaning
that each time 2000 RD53 reaches the descending node of its orbit it comes within about 0.03 a.u. of Earth's orbit.

There is no current danger of a collision with Earth, but 2000 RD53 will make a fairly close flyby on September 17th, passing only 0.028 a.u. (4.2 million kilometers, or 11 Earth-Moon distances) from our planet. At that time it will be about as bright as the planet Pluto, so that to see it
visually may require at least an 8- or 10-inch telescope. However, obtaining CCD images should be a piece of cake, even with a much smaller telescope.

2000 RD53 has already been identified as a very good radar opportunity for the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Radio astronomer Jean-Luc Margot notes that the round-trip light time will be only about 28 seconds during the upcoming close approach.

The following ephemeris, calculated at Sky & Telescope from the above elements, gives the object's right ascension and declination at 6-hour intervals for the next two weeks. Also listed is its distance from the Earth (Delta) and the Sun (r) in a.u., expected visual magnitude, and the
constellation through which it is passing. When searching for the asteroid, keep in mind the parallax effect. Because the object is so close to the Earth around midmonth, it can appear displaced up to about 5 arcminutes from the geocentric positions tabulated below.

Roger W. Sinnott

Associate Editor
Sky & Telescope

------- End of forwarded message -------

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Your Lips to God's Ear
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 21:04:03 -0400

Your Lips to God's Ear
by Elisa Batista

3:00 a.m. Sep. 8, 2000 PDT

Heed Christians, your faith is about to be put to the test.

Universalis, a Roman Catholic publishing house in Britain, has
expanded its Mass from desktop Internet to wireless application
protocol phones.

The church services, which Universalis officials say are accessed by
members of all Christian denominations, are now available 24 hours a
day, seven days a week on your Web-enabled phones. In other words, the
week-long wait before Sunday Mass can no longer become an excuse not
to worship the Supreme Being whenever you like.

WAP prayer services "can break down the barrier between the time you
spend in church each week and the rest of the time," said Martin
Kochanski, director of Universalis Publishing. "We all have good
intentions ... so we want to make it easier for people in this hurried
age to have a certain closeness to God even when they're not in
church."

Kochanski envisions pious bus rides home from work in which people
access psalms on their WAP phones and meditate. Perhaps Catholics will
begin to pray as frequently as their Muslim counterparts, he said.

"The point is, going to Mass doesn't require the presence of a
priest," he said.

While other devout Catholics and religion scholars are intrigued with
Universalis' wireless offering, they are quick to note that it could
never replace a real-life church service.

The Universalis website currently offers all the daily Mass scripture
passages as approved by the Vatican, but it does not include the
integral Eucharist or priests' homilies. While the group plans to
someday compile priests' sermons, how could it possibly feed WAP users
the host -- the Eucharist wafer that symbolizes the body of Christ?

"How can you substitute the Internet for the Eucharist?" said Drew
Star, CEO of Psybercore.com and the creator of another Roman Catholic
venue, Rosary.com. "The Catholic viewpoint is, 'you have no life in
you.'"

Star, who doesn't rule out creating a wireless markup language site
for Rosary.com, says technology can only strengthen the beliefs of the
already faithful. He was a nominal Methodist growing up and converted
to Catholicism seven years ago to follow in the footsteps of an
ex-girlfriend.

"What I'm trying to do with technology is create a community of people
who are devoted to the rosary, and provide a resource for people (who
are) interested or might be interested to talk to each other," he
said. "Rosary.com is not the rosary, it's a place for people to meet."

One religion expert compared Universalis' service to that of Gideons
International providing bibles to occupants of every hotel room -=E2=80=93=
not
exactly the hook for a mass conversion.

"If you receive it (prayer service) on your cellular phone it would be
attractive for someone who believes or it may be attractive for
someone who once was active in the church, but no longer is active,"
said Roger Finke, a professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State
University.

"This will not be a way to convert people to a religion because for
someone to believe in new religious beliefs, they rely on tight social
networks," Finke said. "It's simply because religion, like many things
that are important, rely on verification by someone you know."

Kochanski denies the site is trying to replace the traditional
practices of organized religion. But after praying with his WAP phone,
he is convinced many folks will be hooked after trying.

"I must say, that sounded absurd to me because the phone's screen is
tiny," Kochanski said. "But having a tiny screen, I've discovered from
trying -- this ... concentrates the mind very much and you actually
read every word as you are scrolling down."

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,38550,00.html

via: Third_Watch@egroups.com

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - User friendly alternative to urls due soon
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 21:05:46 -0400

USER-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE TO URLS DUE SOON
Technology that permits users to access Internet sites, locate
information, and send emails using simple and easily remembered
names instead of URLs is coming close to completion and is
entering the market. Engineers at Network Solutions, RealNames,
Netword, and AT&T have developed the Common Names Resolution
Protocol (CNRP). A beta version of NSI's CNRP software is being
released for Web users, and later this fall RealNames and Netword
will offer commercial CNRP versions. CNRP will likely be useful
in the wireless environment due to its use of short and simple
phrases and names, and network managers at corporations could
utilize CNRP services to access employee and customer information
or to share corporate documents. This month a final version of
the CNRP protocol specification will be published and this fall
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) will probably approve
CNRP as a standards-track protocol. Internationalized domain
names are the final technical obstacle CNRP faces, says Leslie
Daigle, chair of the IETF working group on CNRP. The current
CNRP pilot project will run for approximately six months.
(Network World, September 4 2000)

via: EDUPAGE@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

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