Biblical Heritage Center Blog

Prasch routinely travels and meets with members of the Christian body worldwide. A recent trip took him to Vietnam, where a large number of the Hmong tribal peoples of the nation's Central Highlands are Christian. They are referred to in the West as Montagnards. They had heard of Camping's prophecy and not having sophisticated methods for evaluating its validity, took it literally, he explained. The result, for many, was death, Prasch reported in an email to supporters: After listening to a translation of Camping's prediction 7,000 of these people (known in the West as Montagnards) gathered on a mountain praising God their suffering at the hands of the communist regime was about to end because Jesus was returning that day in May to establish a new kingdom. The police and military police slaughtered many of them at gunpoint – beheading two pastors. Others were arrested. I am told by Hmong pastors that so many were shot dead that they were buried in mass graves bulldozed o...

I just finished reading "Popes & Bankers: A cultural history of credit & debt, from Aristotle to AIG" by Jack Cashill. It is a very good book that I highly recommend. Below are some of quotes from it, which reveal a great deal about the origin of the financial crisis our nation (and the world) is now facing. "On October 6, 1979, Paul Volcker announced that the money supply would no longer fluctuate with the business cycle. The Fed would fix the money supply and allow interest rates to float. Just three years nearly 25 percent of the nation’s four thousand Savings & Loans Associations had collapsed. [i] On Wall Street bond traders raked in profits, because the Fed’s efforts to get the money supply under control helped turn credit into the world’s greatest growth industry. Between 1977 and 1985, the combined indebtedness of American governments, corporations, and consumers increased by an incredible factor of twenty. [ii] The young guys coming out of g...

Wealth Distribution in US 1947-1979: Bottom 20 percent of the income distribution : 118 percent increase Second-to-bottom 20 percent : 100 percent increase Middle 20 percent : 111 percent increase Second-to-highest 20 percent : 114 percent increase Highest 20 percent : 99 percent increase Highest 5 percent : 86 percent increase 1979-2008: Bottom 20 percent of the income distribution : 7 percent  decrease Second-to-bottom 20 percent : 6 percent increase Middle 20 percent : 11 percent increase Second-to-highest 20 percent : 23 percent increase Highest 20 percent : 49 percent increase Highest 5 percent : 73 percent increase Highest 1 percent : 224 percent increase Read complete article at -- http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/05/united-fair-economy/liberal-group-says-family-incomes-grew-equally-pri/

Nikolay Gunko, a Ukrainian lawyer and statesman offered the priests, who hold worships on Sunday, to prove by a text from the Holy Scriptures that Sunday is a holy day. In order to attract more ministers to the research, he promised to pay a reward worth 100 000 euro for finding a text.      Nikolay says that daily studies of the Holy Scriptures caused him to make such a statement. Neither in the Old, nor in the New Testament had he found a verse giving grounds for the holiness of Sunday which is the first day of the week.      "If the Bible tells us about the holiness of the Sabbath day, God himself calls Sabbath the day of the Lord, holly and honored, then why should people, who profess to be Christians, keep Sunday holly, which has never been sanctified by the Lord?"  --  asks Nikolay. "Many people argue that by keeping Sunday holly they honor the resurrection of the Lord. Truly Jesus had risen on the first day of the week, but He did not c...

I was doing research today on the word "timocracy" and found an interesting paper -- The Five Stages of Government: Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Tyranny. It is a discussion about book VIII of "The Republic," Plato has Socrates describe the five stages. Below are a few quotes. In an aristocracy, the good and wise leaders, being human, will fail. The intelligence of the senses will seduce them into producing children and future leaders unworthy to be guardians of the state, people who are chained by their senses. . . Philosophers will lose their power to warriors, who are cruder and less knowledgeable about philosophy, leading to Timocracy. Timocracy is pattered after Sparta. Here the warriors will rule, but the moneyed class will be empowered. . . Property will eventually be coveted more than the good on the state. Personal ambition will replace ambition for the state. Citizens will become overly obedient to the state. Timocracy will give way to ...

How important is it to have the correct meanings   of the words of your Bible? Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor   has added a new study in the "Meaning of Hebrew   Words" series -- The Hebrew Meanings of Sin.   The Hebrew Bible and the Jewish Jesus share   the culture, which makes it essential to discover   the Hebrew meanings of the most important   words.   Download the handout (PDF) and then view the short video (about 9 minutes).  For handout click on - http://www.biblicalheritage.org/BHC_Handouts/Hebrew_Meaning_of_Sin.pdf   To view the video click on -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWL45ctVolY   View all of Rabbi Leynor's teaching series at -- http://www.biblicalheritage.org/rabbi_leynor.htm  

The Indian website 'I Paid a Bribe' asks people to post their encounters with corrupt officials. Now reformers in other countries are following its lead. It puts a spotlight on government corruption – may become a model for rooting out corruption around the world. It began last August and invites people to post anonymous reports on instances in which they have had to bribe an official. They can also share ways that they have been able to avoid paying a bribe. The site has recorded more than 10,000 incidences of bribery. In Transparency International's 2010 survey of perceived corruption, India ranked 87th among 178 nations on the list and China ranked 78th. Denmark, New Zealand, and Singapore were listed as the least-corrupt countries. The United States ranked 22nd. Read entire article at –  'Rapture' real aftermath: Beheadings, shootings, mass graves http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=321837#ixzz1S5QcxiSL