Each year at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. After the New Year, we struggle to remember to add a year as we date our checks, which should remind us that the entire Western World reckons its calendar from the birth of the One who changed the world more than any other before or since.

This month, with our celebration of Thanksgiving, we initiate our holiday season: a time for families and a time of reflection. This unique day reflects - perhaps more than any other - our national religious character.

The European Commission has recommended "opening talks" on the admission of Turkey to the European Union-but Ankara must yet meet stiff conditions. The final decision on opening talks with Turkey rests with the leaders of all 25 EU member states in December, with ultimate accession years away.

In our series of articles reviewing some of the background behind Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code, we have explored his deceitful presentation of the so-called "Facts" precedent to the novel itself, the blasphemous heresies regarding Mary Magdalene and the related Merovingian legends, as well as the false representations from the spurious "Gnostic Gospels."

As we've said in our previous two issues, the popular but shamefully blasphemous novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, has raised many troubling questions, particularly among the less informed, and with a major motion picture in the works, this subject will be a popular topic of conversation for months to come.

A partial list of the sites scheduled this year:

Did you realize that there are at least three prophets in the Old Testament that were called specifically to prophesy regarding the Gentiles? Obviously, most of the Bible deals with history - both past and future - through the "lens" of Israel.

The Fall Feasts of Israel take place during the first 15 days of Tishri on the Jewish calendar.1 This year, they all occur in the month of September.

The popular but shamefully blasphemous novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, has raised many troubling questions, particularly among the less informed.

On August 3, 1492, due to the Edict of Expulsion, all Jews were required to leave Spain. Boarding their vessels before midnight, and sailing one-half hour before sunrise, Columbus and his crew set out on their now-famous voyage.

The Book of Genesis presents a disturbing problem for many Bible-believing Christians. Sooner or later, every Christian needs to acquire a firm foundation from this Book of Books, and we have received rave reviews for our latest series on this most basic study.

We continue to get many questions which derive from the popular but shamefully blasphemous novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code. Despite the fact that it is a work of fiction, it has raised many troubling questions, especially among the less informed. Because of our widely distributed text, Cosmic Codes, many continue to turn to us for a response.

The most important city in Iraq is not Baghdad, and you probably have never heard it mentioned on the 10 o'clock news. It is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible (and it is even found three times in the family tree of our Lord Jesus Christ). This is, of course, the fabled Babylon.

So often in the Bible we encounter genealogies which, to most of us, aren't particularly exciting reading. And yet they often contain hidden treasures to reward the diligent.

Over the last few years we have watched closely as the European Union has emerged as a growing world power. The value of the Euro has surpassed that of the dollar, and in May the EU will welcome 10 new members, increasing its influence in the UN and expanding its potential for growth.

Last month many of us availed ourselves of the opportunity to celebrate our loved ones with a traditional remembrance. As I did so, it occurred to me that this should be an appropriate time to remind ourselves that we are the recipients of the ultimate "valentine."

There are many Christians who do not take the record of the Flood in Genesis seriously. They consign the account to a moral lesson without regarding the narrative as actual fact.

Whose sermons are quoted most in the Bible? The answer may surprise you. Just as the New Testament epistles are our primary interpretive commentary on the historical narratives (the Gospels and Acts), the most venerated portion of the Old Testament - the Torah - has, within it, its primary commentary in the form of three sermons by its principal author, Moses.

If you examine the continuing articles in the vanguard of the "new sciences," it is interesting to recognize how much of our current understanding of the nature of our universe is built on disturbingly small glimpses of actual data. It appears that many writers consistently draw vast conclusions from half-vast information.

Three Things God Can't Do:

Geneology Table

The ancient pagans worshiped idols of wood, brass, or stone. Modern society has invented an even weaker idol - clearly the most insulting of all. It is ironic that it has become fashionable to attribute the creation of this universe - and of ourselves - to randomness.

Most of us take our physical world for granted. To many, our physical world is all that is truly "real." But the more we learn from modern science, the more illusive and intangible our "reality" becomes.

Each year as we approach the holiday season, our preparations for Christmas include revisiting the events surrounding the birth of Our Lord. Bethlehem,1 the shepherds, and the angels are all familiar to us. But not much is generally known about the mysterious "Magi" who came to worship the infant Jesus.

We don't like to think about death. It's not a pleasant subject, and we avoid even discussing it seriously or giving it any diligent study. If our career plans involved a foreign assignment, our desk would be littered with brochures and travel folders as we would try learn all we could about our forthcoming destination.

The Book of Genesis presents a disturbing problem for many Bible-believing Christians. Did God really create the heaven and the earth in just six 24-hour days? How does a serious student of the Torah - the five books of Moses - reconcile the Genesis account with the "billions of years" encountered in the dictums of astronomy, geology, et al?

This is always a difficult time for Christians, especially those with children. It has been suggested that for a Christian to be asked to celebrate Halloween is like asking a Holocaust survivor to celebrate Hitler's birthday! It is also a dangerous time for some, since many of the seemingly "harmless" involvements associated with Halloween can also be "entries" for the occult, and can prove very tragic for the unwary.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Esther) cover about 100 years, closing the Old Testament historical books. The books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles closed with the Southern Kingdom ("Judah") going into captivity.

There are some surprises - and some very serious concerns - lying behind the meaning of "a name." (Hebrew: shem; Greek: onoma; Latin: nomen.) A "name" is that by which a person, place or thing is marked and known.

In previous articles we reviewed the Biblical basis which led scholars to anticipate, over the many centuries, a reemergence of the Roman Empire. Clearly portrayed in Daniel's several prophecies, the sequence of conquering empires from Babylon, to Persia, to the Greeks, and ultimately to Rome have each followed the Biblical scenario.