K-House eNews For The Week Of December 20, 2005
**TABLE OF CONTENTS**
This Week's 66/40 Radio Broadcast
Articles and Commentary
- In The Beginning... - (Read)
- Tension Increases Over Iran Nukes - (Read)
Important News Headlines
Memory Verse of the Week
**THIS WEEK'S 66/40 RADIO BROADCAST**
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Revelation 2:11 - 2:19
Letters To The Seven Churches Part III
The Book of Revelationis 404 verseswith over 800 allusions to the Old Testament. Learn about the past, present and future of the Church and our ultimate destiny. This is an ideal "first study" and foundational for every Christian.
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The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement by Joseph Farah, George Escobar, and Jonathan Cahn
Is America under judgment for turning away from God as ancient Israel did?
That is the provocative question addressed by this video documentary produced by WND’s Joseph Farah, edited and directed by award-winning filmmaker George Escobar and featuring messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of the New York Times bestseller “The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future.”
Available in the following format:
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**ARTICLES AND COMMENTARY**
IN THE BEGINNING... -
(Print)
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." - John 1:1-3
After a six week trial, a federal judge has decided that a Pennsylvania school district cannot teach intelligent design in the classroom. US District Court Judge John Jones ruled that intelligent design violated the "establishment clause" of the First Amendment to the Constitution. In his 139-page ruling, the judge wrote that the school boards stated purpose – to improve science education – was simply a pretext for its real purpose: "To promote religion in the public classroom." He went on to say that "In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether intelligent design is science. We have concluded that it is not."
In October of 2004, the Dover school district agreed to a new policy to deal with the impassioned origins debate. At the beginning of class lessons on evolution, Dover biology teachers read a brief announcement stating that Darwin's theory is still being tested and is not a fact. "Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence." The statement then refers interested students to a book on Intelligent Design and encourages them to keep an open mind. The statement ends by saying that the school district simply wants to teach students the material that will enable them to pass standardized testing on evolution.
In September, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is in court determined to stop the educators in Dover, Pennsylvania from promoting Intelligent Design in their biology classrooms. Eight families are suing the school district, arguing that Dover's approach to presenting evolution violates the separation of church and state. The ACLU claims that Intelligent Design is simply religious creationism dressed in a lab coat. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that states may not require public schools to teach creationism. Intelligent Design theorists insist that their theory is based on the scientific evidence and is not religious in nature.
John West of the Discovery Institute, a proponent of intelligent design, called the decision "an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate".
The premise that we are all simply the accidental result of random chance underlies our entire culture, not just biology: the fields of psychology, our social and political sciences, our media, our entertainments, and, of course, the forced inculcation of our children in the government schools. The good news is that there is a rising awareness that Evolution is bad science. Science purports to follow the evidence, relying on empirical verification for its conjectures. And it is increasingly evident that the evidence is mercilessly denying randomness as an explanation for the elegant designs embodied in the machinery of the universe. An elegant design is more than the parts themselves: it involves information. It requires information input external to the design itself - and the deliberate involvement of a Designer.
Related Links:
Study Resources: Creation and Evolution - Koinonia House
Court Gives Landmark Evolution Ruling - AFP
Big Questions for a Small Town - BBC
Theory of Evolution vs. Theory of Intelligent Design - WorldNetDaily
TENSION INCREASES OVER IRAN NUKES -
(Print)
The controversy over Iran's nuclear program has escalated in recent weeks. The EU is attempting to reopen dialogue, but there is little hope of reaching an agreement. Meanwhile, exiles from the Islamic nation tell of secret tunnels being used to conceal Iran's clandestine activities. Some have suggested UN Security Council action, but both Russia and China have said they appose the use of sanctions. With UN sanctions unlikely, very few options remain. As the situation worsens, news reports have emerged indicating that Israel may be preparing a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Iran claims that under Article 4 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty they have the right to develop nuclear technology. Iran insists that it is pursuing nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes, but that leads to the obvious question: why would a nation with immense oil and gas reserves need nuclear energy? Iran claims it is building costly nuclear fuel cycle facilities to meet future electricity needs, while preserving oil and gas for export, but Iran's uranium reserves are miniscule, accounting for less than one percent of its vast oil reserves. Iran controls 11 percent of the worlds oil reserves and its natural gas reserves are the second largest in the world. Iran does not have enough indigenous uranium resources to fuel even one power-generating reactor over its lifetime, but it does have enough uranium to make several nuclear bombs.
Iran has said that its goal is not to make nuclear weapons, but to develop nuclear energy. Which leads us to another important question: if Iran does develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, how difficult would it be to use that technology to make nuclear weapons? Nuclear power plants need 3 to 4 percent enriched uranium for fuel, but natural uranium only contains 0.7 percent. Thus uranium must be processed in a uranium enrichment facility before it can be used as fuel for nuclear power. What most people don't realize is the exact same technology and equipment used to enrich uranium for fuel can be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, it simply requires more passes through the enrichment plant. A nuclear bomb requires about 90 percent enriched uranium, which is high compared to the percentage found in fuel, but according to experts it requires more energy to convert natural uranium to fuel than it takes to convert fuel into weapons-grade uranium.
According to a report by the US State Department on Irans nuclear program: "The costly infrastructure needed to perform all of these activities goes well beyond any conceivable peaceful nuclear program. No comparable oil-rich nation has ever engaged, or would be engaged, in this set of activities - or would pursue them for nearly two decades behind a continuing cloud of secrecy and lies to IAEA inspectors and the international community - unless it was dead set on building nuclear weapons."
Iran has openly admitted that it plans to convert 40 tons of raw uranium into fuel for nuclear centrifuges. That amount of enriched uranium would be enough material to create five nuclear weapons. The United States intelligence community has obtained Iranian plans which are part of a project to develop a nuclear warhead. The plans reportedly include over 1,000 pages of drawings and documents. Iran has already begun conducting tests of a nuclear triggering mechanism and recently acquired 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles. The cruise missiles have a range of 3,000 kilometers, well within range of Israel.
The State Department calls the Islamic Republic of Iran the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism." Iran continues to provide funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups based in the Middle East and elsewhere. Iran mostly backs Islamist groups, including the Lebanese Shiite militants of Hezbollah (which Iran helped found in the 1980s) and such Palestinian terrorist groups as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran is governed by Shiite Muslim clerics committed to a stern interpretation of Islamic law. Hatred of the United States has been a key component of Iranian foreign policy since the 1978 Islamic revolution, and Irans leaders often refer to the United States as the "Great Satan." Iran's distaste for the United States is surpassed only by their utter loathing of Israel. Iran's political and religious leaders have repeatedly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." They have also denounced any attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it. A nuclear-armed Iran would be a serious threat to Israel's security, however it remains to be seen if Israel with attempt a pre-emptive strike. If Israel does attack Iran it would undoubtedly bring about a firestorm in the Middle East.
Related Links:
EU-Iran Nuclear Dialogue to Resume but Hopes Dim - Reuters
Exiles say Iran Uses Tunnels to Hide Atomic Work - Reuters
Iran Obtained 12 Long-range Missiles - Jerusalem Post
Tehran: Playing For Time - Jane's Intelligence Digest
Iranian President Sticks by Anti-Israel Comments - Reuters
Israel Readies Forces for Strike on Nuclear Iran - The Times Online
Strategic Trends: Weapons Proliferation - Koinonia House
Strategic Trends: The Magog Invasion - Koinonia House
**IMPORTANT NEWS HEADLINES**
Court Approves Ten Commandments - December 20, 2005
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in favor of keeping the Ten Commandments in a display of historical documents at the courthouse in Mercer County, Ky.
CNS News
Cal State 2, Christianity 0 - December 20, 2005
For the second time in two weeks, Christianity is on the losing end of a decision made by officials from the California State University system. Some students from Cal State at San Bernardino have been told that forming a Christian group is "not permissible" at the university because it restricts membership based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation.
CNS News
Syria May Give Shaba Farms to Lebanon - December 20, 2005
Syria is considering a proposal to give Lebanon sovereignty over the Shaba Farms, on the slopes of Mount Hermon, by signing a new border deal with Lebanon, according to information that has reached Israel from several sources in the last few days. If the Shaba Farms are considered Lebanese territory, Israel will be asked to withdraw from the region. Failure to do so will provide Hezbollah with justification to act in South Lebanon and call the Israeli occupation ongoing.
Haaretz
**MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK**
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14 KJV
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