Science must ultimately destroy organized religion, according to some of the leading atheist writers and intellectuals who spoke at a recent atheist conference in Northern Virginia. God is a myth, and children must not be schooled in any faith, they said, at the "Crystal Clear Atheism" event, sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has slammed a ruling by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which has labelled creationism as a potential threat to democracy and human rights. The Council of Europe, which represents 47 nations of the European continent, published a report on creationism cautioning member states to do everything in their power to prohibit this teaching from making inroads into the European education system. On October 4th the Council voted in support of the resolution, although this ruling is not legally binding on member states. The document itself contains many factual errors, stating in the opening paragraph that "Creationism in any of its forms, such as "intelligent design", is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are pathetically inadequate for science classes". The document also stated that evolution was built upon established facts, a claim which many evolutionists themselves would dispute. Like creation, the theory of evolution is based upon the "interpretation" of facts - not the facts themselves, and many of those evolutionary "interpretations" have been thrown out by the evolutionists following further analysis. But what is most damning about the Council of Europe's document is its assumption that creationists are right-wing extremists who are involved in some sort of political movement bent on overthrowing democracy and establishing a theocracy...

Quote: "12. The war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements. The creationist movements possess real political power. The fact of the matter, and this has been exposed on several occasions, is that the advocates of strict creationism are out to replace democracy by theocracy.

The document even claims that the very Council of Europe may be threatened, if creationism is permitted to flourish in European schools. If the belief in a God who created all men and holds all men to account for the deeds they have committed causes the Council of Europe to feel threatened, then they ought to be. Mohler said that the reason the Council of Europe was so vehement in its defence of evolution was because this secular society could not survive without a naturalistic world view. As we have witnessed with Christianity, throw out the foundation of creation and the structure of the Gospel will come crashing down. But the same holds true in reverse, throw out the foundation of evolution and structure of secularism will come crashing down...

Quote: ""The Council of Europe's resolution is clear evidence of the fact that a secularised society desperately needs naturalistic evolution as the metaphysical foundation of its worldview," he stated. "Any threat to evolution is seen as a threat to democracy and human rights - and democracy and human rights are understood in an entirely secular framework as well."

I was watching Revelation TV with my friend Cliff last night, and I was very encouraged to hear John Mackay speaking on this topic. He said that the person who coined the phrase "dinosaur", Sir Richard Owen, was a Christian and a creationist at that. He founded the Natural History Museum in London, which originally espoused a creationist world view. He told Charles Darwin that he wouldn't get his theory into his museum while he was still alive. No mention of Richard Owen's faith in Christ on the Natural History Museum website of course, only the fact that he rejected Darwin's theory of evolution. It seems Owen's faith in a Creator God might be a bit of an embarrassment to the present "scientific establishment".

Quote: "Highly regarded for his science, Owen was also feared and even hated by some contemporaries such as Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). This conflict was brought to a head when Owen rejected the theory of evolution by natural selection as proposed by Charles Darwin (1809-1882). This created much bitterness towards Owen and alienated a younger generation of naturalists. 'But, as we have before been led to remark, most of Mr Darwin's statements elude, by their vagueness and incompleteness, the test of Natural History facts.'

Praise God that the truth of God's wonderful creation is making inroads into this secularist culture. Perhaps through this witness, many will come to salvation through knowing their Creator, Jesus Christ.

John 1:3 
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Source Christian Post, Natural History Museum

Two Jewish bloggers who had written extensively about Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) on their website have been targeted by anti-missionaries from the Yad L'Achim organization. On their website, entitled Blog HaBesorah (the Blog of the Gospel), the pair listed Old Testament verses which prove the claims of Yeshua to be Israel's long awaited Messiah. One of the individuals, known only as "Fighting Princess" on her weblog, was tracked down by the anti-missionaries to her home in Beersheba. The organization promptly sent three anti-missionaries to her home. An eight hour interrogation followed, after which she was forced to accept that what she had previously written on the site was not true, and that the New Testament was full of lies. After a discussion with her boyfriend the following day, who was also supposedly having doubts about the Divinity of Yeshua, the pair published a retraction on their weblog apologizing for deceiving their readers.

Quote: ""Dear readers, "For a good number of months, I believed wholeheartedly in Jesus as god. But about a week ago, I started to have doubts and to search for the truth, the historical facts, and the veracity of the New Testament... I reached the conclusion that the entire New Testament is simply full of lies that were made up by human beings... for political reasons... The gospels are not reliable! Various parts were continually added to them, and they were then organized anew... mainly by the Romans who defined the New Testament according to their needs. This is the conclusion I reached - and now I am sure of it as well. The sign is that yesterday the Fighting Princess received a visit from Yad L'Achim. They came to her home, explained and proved to her time after time after time why the New Testament and Jesus' divinity are not true and are full of lies. I apologize to you, dear readers, but most of what you read here on this blog was simply lies. Judaism is the only right way. Proofs of this will come soon, from the Fighting Princess."

I find this whole ordeal particularly heartbreaking. For Jewish believers in Yeshua living in Israel face extreme persecution from Orthodox Jews. And with Jewish leaders coming to your house interrogating you for eight hours, and not leaving until 1AM the next morning, who wouldn't feel under pressure to renounce what they had previously held as the truth? Especially if your family was threatened with continued harassment if you refuse to comply. A number of years ago a man sent a booklet to my church, which claimed that the New Testament was corrupt and that Jesus Christ was not the true Messiah. The main evidence for this cited in the booklet was the so-called "Da Vinci code", the conspiracy theory now widely known to be based upon a fraud. The booklet had a Star of David on the cover, giving a semblance of religion, and only gave a email address for contacting the author. The man also refused to give his real name, preferring to be known only as A. Teacher. We deducted that he lived in Newtownards by the postage mark on the envelope. I emailed him a number of times, refuting the claims made in his document, and trying to prove the veracity of the New Testament. I seemed to be getting nowhere, so I challenged him to prove to me from the Old Testament that Jesus Christ was not the Messiah, and if He couldn't prove it, I would prove that He was the Messiah. I never heard back from him.

It has been said that the proof of the Divinity of Yeshua in the Old Testament is so sound, it would stand up in any court. Let's look at some of those proofs. Daniel 9:26 states that the Messiah had to be born before the destruction of the Second Temple. He must also have been born after the proclamation to rebuild Jerusalem following the captivity in Babylon. Micah 5:2 states that the Messiah would be born King in Bethlehem, and that His goings forth have been from everlasting. If the Messiah was born at any time within the last 1900 years, he would be a Palestinian Arab and not a Son of David. Isaiah 7:14 and Jeremiah 31:22 state that the Messiah would be born to a woman, a virgin, and His name would be called Immanuel - God with us. Isaiah 9:6 tells us that not only would this Messiah be born of a virgin, but that He would be a Son given by God. Isaiah also says that the titles given to this Son include "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father". Isaiah 9:1-2 state that the Messiah would live in the Galilee. Isaiah 61:1-2 proclaims the message the Messiah would bring, the year of jubilee release for those that are held captive by sin. Isaiah 35:5-6 tell us some of the miracles that the Messiah would perform, opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, and causing the dumb to speak and the lame to walk. Zechariah 9:9 predicted his entry into Jerusalem on the donkey, while Zechariah 11:13 predicts his betrayal by Judas, the price that Christ was sold for and Judas' subsequent suicide. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 describe in great detail the Messiah's crucifixion and atonement for sin, while Zechariah 12:10 predicts a coming day when the nation of Israel will recognize their Messiah by the nail wounds in His hands. I could go on and on... I firmly believe that if we all we had was the Old Testament, we would still know that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.

The following paragraph in this Arutz 7 article greatly encouraged me, to know that there are more young Jewish people living in Israel who believe in Yeshua. How can we withhold the Gospel from these dear Jewish people, and how can we not pray for our fellow believers who are facing such unrelenting persecution from the modern day Pharisees?

Quote: "Arutz-7 also spoke with Rabbi Meir Cohen, who led the drive to locate the bloggers' identities and also took part in the fateful meeting. Asked if it is true, as the blog and the talkbacks indicate, that there is an entire community of young Hebrew-speaking Jews who claim to believe in Jesus, Rabbi Cohen said, "It most certainly is! I personally know dozens of them, and I know that there are hundreds of them... We have already made contact with some of their blogging friends, and I have an appointment to meet one of them in the next few days."

Romans 1:16 
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Source Arutz 7

This link from my friend Jim. Rami Ayyad, the director of The Teacher's Bookshop, the only Christian bookshop in the Gaza Strip, was stabbed and shot during the weekend. His body was discovered in the early hours of this morning. The previous day he had had told his family that he had been followed by an unmarked car. Ayyad was abducted by an Islamic group as he closed up shop on Saturday. His family received two phone calls stating that he had been taken by a group of people and would return home later that night, but he never did.

Quote: "At 6:25 this morning, news was received that Rami's body had been found at a location near the Teachers' Bookshop in Gaza were he had spent most of his time running the bookshop. Signs of bullets and knife stabs could be clearly seen on his body. Rami 26, leaves behind two young children, and a pregnant wife. The funeral is expected to take place at 16:00 today. No group or party has claimed responsibility.

Reuters reports that relations between Christians and Muslims have not deteriorated since the Hamas take-over of the Gaza Strip. But very few Christians actually live in the region, and those that remain face persecution whether it is Hamas or Fatah in power. In June 2006, an Islamic group told the YMCA to close their offices in Gaza or face violence. The Muslim group opposed missionary work being carried out by the YMCA, and said that their city had no need for the facility seeing there were so few Christians living in Gaza. The building was firebombed several times by Palestinian terrorists, most recently by those associated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The attacks followed sermons in dozens of mosques in Friday prayers, inciting Muslims to revolt against the Christian organization.

John 16:2-3
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

Source Palestinian Bible Society, Reuters