Religion Corner

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I try to keep up on some major religious topics, including those involving Israel. So, I wanted to let you know several things that fall into that category, as well as some other religious odds and ends.

Many people have a hard time believing the history of Israel as the chosen people of God. Any number of things serve as evidence -- aside from the Bible itself, of course -- and more are always turning up. Some items in recent months include a tablet containing financial records from Assyria that confirm a name found in the Bible. This is important because it's an outside source that precisely agrees with the Bible. The next item is a stone seal found in Jerusalem that bears the name of one of the families serving in the First Temple. Again, this represents an outside source, as the seal was purchased in Babylon (Iraq). The third newly discovered item is a portion of the wall mentioned in the book of Nehemiah. It was a timely discovery, as some scholars had been arguing the wall didn't exist.

Other news from Israel include a prediction that current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government is on the verge of falling apart. He is facing serious opposition from almost all sides over issues like splitting Jerusalem with Palestinians. Check out Joel C. Rosenberg's blog for up to date news on the Middle East, especially Israel.

Some other religious items I find interesting...

Greenpeace activists built a model of Noah's Ark on the top of Mount Ararat as a protest for global warming. I haven't found a follow up to this story from last spring, but I assume they completed it. The thing that irks me about this is that Christian researchers have been petitioning Turkey's leaders for permission to search for the Ark on Mt. Ararat for years, and have been denied. Apparently, if you're a fruity environmentalist wacko, you're good to go, but if you're a serious researcher looking to confirm or deny a real piece of history, you're out of luck. [Hat tip to my dad for pointing this one out to me.]

Missing link? Not really. Creation and evolution is one of my favorite topics, so I'm going to mention it here. Every time a new 'link' supposedly proving evolution is publicized, the scientific community goes ga-ga over it. Then, when Christian organizations finally have a chance to examine it and determine (with factual evidence) that it is either a hoax or somehow not the 'proof' it was hailed as being, there's never any retraction made, so the public thinks that every one of these erroneous 'proofs' is legitimate. Last spring, it happened again. Scientists found a jaw fragment that supposedly linked Lucy -- which is known to NOT be the 'missing link' -- to humans, but Dr. David Menton from Answers in Genesis (a leading creation/evolution ministry loaded with PhDs, and one of my favorite organizations) thoroughly debunked the find. When you hear about these sorts of things in the MSM, don't buy it without checking out the real story. AIG is a fantastic group with lots of resources and brilliant minds, completely capable of defending the Bible in any of today's evolutionary scientific fields.

Finally, a bit of an emotional tug. My church showed this video a couple weeks ago, and I thought it was a great metaphor of the life we as Christians face, and what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ does for us. It's a skit by a youth group in some big church (I never figured out exactly where) set to Lifehouse's song Everything. I've watched this any number of times since seeing it a couple weeks ago, and it gets me every time. Very powerful.

Hope you have a great and blessed week!