Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Turning a Blind Eye to Murdered Christians
Aug 22nd, 2009
Daily NewsFrontpagemag
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

In June, North Korean's beastly communist dictatorship executed a 33 year old Christian woman for distributing Bibles, while also imprisoning her 3 little children, husband and parents, in conditions undoubtedly ghastly.

Several weeks ago, mobs involving hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of enraged radical Islamists destroyed several Christian villages in Pakistan, responding to incendiary rumors about Christians supposedly desecrating the Koran.   Hundreds of homes were destroyed, and at least 14 Christians were murdered, including three Christian women and a child who were burned alive as the radicals torched houses and shops.

U.S. church groups largely have been stunningly silent about these atrocities.  At least the Geneva-based World Council of Churches and the Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury denounced the Pakistani outrages.

But U.S. church groups like to reserve their fire for what's really important, such as denouncing Israel for evicting two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.   On August 2, Israeli police, executing a court order, evicted 50 Palestinians from their houses in the Sheikh Jarrah section of East Jerusalem.  Apparently the Palestinian tenants were refusing to pay rent to the Jewish owners, claiming that the homes were rightfully theirs.  The Jewish landlords sought the court order against the tenants.  The legal history behind the properties, across decades of Israeli, Jordanian, British and Ottoman control, is naturally messy.

This messiness did not hinder Churches for Middle East Peace almost immediately to contact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to demand that the U.S. "insist on the immediate reversal of this ill-considered eviction and on the restoration of these houses to their former residents."   The signers include the Catholic Bishop who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, the President of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the General Minister of the United Church of Christ, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the National Council of Churches, and several left-leaning Catholic orders, among others.

Lutherans to Allow Gay Clergy in Committed Relationships
Aug 22nd, 2009
Daily NewsAP
Categories: Today's Headlines;Apostasy

Gays and lesbians are currently allowed to serve as ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America only if they remain celibate. The proposal to change that passed with 68% approval.

At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA is one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy.

Art's Commentary......When you take the Bible out of the Church, the Church is a Church in name only, it is no longer the Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "He that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me".

Artificial Life will be Created 'within Months' As Genome Experts Claim Vital Breakthrough Read Mo
Aug 22nd, 2009
Daily NewsMailonline
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Scientists are only months away from  creating artificial life, it was claimed yesterday.

Dr Craig Venter – one of the world’s most famous and controversial biologists – said his U.S. researchers have overcome one of the last big hurdles to making a synthetic organism.

The first artificial lifeform is likely to be a simple man-made bacterium that proves that the technology can work.

But it will be followed by more complex bacteria that turn coal into cleaner natural gas, or algae that can soak up carbon dioxide and convert it into fuels.

They could also be used to create new vaccines and antibiotics.

The prediction came after a breakthrough by the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland.

Researchers successfully transferred
the DNA of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it and then transferred it into another bacterial cell.

The pioneering 'gene swap' was performed on a simple species of bacteria called Mycoplasma mycoides.

Carole Lartigue and colleagues removed the bacteria's entire genome and inserted it into the yeast - an organism that is distant from bacteria on the tree of life.

Yeast is easier to manipulate in the lab and this process allowed the team to alter the genes - in this case, deleting one gene not necessary for bacteria to live.

The cell went on to divide normally, producing a new healthy strain of the modified bacteria.

In January, the team created the entire genetic code of a new bacterium. They now hope to transfer such artificial DNA into a host cell to create a new species, the journal Science reported.

Yesterday Dr Venter said: ‘Assuming we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year.’

The team successfully transplanted the genome of one bacteria into another for the first time in 2007.

They then created the first entirely man-made genome. But previous attempts to introduce the synthetic genome into another organism and take control of the new bacteria all failed.

Art's Commentary.......Is this a further sign that the end of the age is near? Is man about to eat of the tree of life and live forever. God did not allow Adam to do that, is He about to intervene on todays world to termiate man's attempt to do the same?