What do we call a government where a single individual has the power to create laws merely by uttering a few words or issuing some sort of written decree? Most of us would respond that this describes a monarchy. The founders of our nation clearly wanted to depart from the kind of despotic control that can be imposed by a royal ruling class and established a republic to achieve that.

Intelligence experts are warning that 1999 is likely to be a year of serious upheaval in the Middle East. King Hussein of Jordan is suffering from lymph cancer, and a major conflict between Turkey and Cyprus over the issue of the delivery of S-300 missiles has been postponed only temporarily until the end of the year.

"This is America. That can't happen here." It's a popular phrase among Christians who have been warned about the rapidly deteriorating protections in this country and the possibility of oncoming persecution. In Jeremiah's time, the Israelites chanted a similar mantra: "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord."

As of January 1, 1998 over 350,000 Americans will be dead; another 200,000 will be in terminal stages and an additional six hundred thousand to a million more will be HIV infected. Barring the possibility that protease inhibitors can permanently block HIV-induced immunosuppression, almost all those currently infected will progress to terminal stage illness and death.

The most recent 1997 Los Angeles Times Poll finds that a wide majority of Americans believes that TV language, sex and violence is getting worse. Four of every five parents think popular culture such as music, television and movies negatively affects children.

The influence of population control advocates can be seen in the Tuskegee Study, a scientific research program in which 400 syphilis-infected black men were recruited by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1932. The participants were told that they would be treated for their infections but instead had all effective medicine withheld.

Planned population control including genocide is a difficult concept for Americans to accept. Even though the U.S. government helps finance the Red Chinese program of forced abortion, sterilization and infanticide, and helps finance the United Nations "family planning program," most people find it impossible to believe that such programs are really part of a larger plan to kill off large segments of the world's population.

It has been some time since our last Russian update. Tensions have been increasing as Russia grapples with its strategic dilemmas and prepares for the presidential elections in the year 2000.

As we take stock of our Republic on this 4th of July, I'm indebted to some recent discussions I enjoyed with Jack Wheeler, the well-known adventurer, columnist, and insightful commentator on the "District of Corruption" headquartered on the Potomac.

Much excitement has been generated by the arrival of a "Red Heifer"1 in Israel. The birth of a red heifer (cow) on a farm in the religious youth village of Kfar Hasidim (near Haifa) has excited sectors in the Israeli religious community.

Czechoslovakia was strategically placed in the heart of Europe, and its conquest was central to Hitler's plans for overrunning Europe. Though small, Czechoslovakia could field over 800,000 men (one of the strongest armies in Europe), and it had a highly efficient arms industry.

The battle of the decade is upon us and the majority of Christian parents are snoozing through it. The outcome will determine whether or not your children or grandchildren will be raised in the Christian faith. Such language is alarmist but for one thing: it's true.

It appears that an intelligence coup has been scored against the United States by the First Bureau of the Military Intelligence Department in China, responsible for gathering intelligence abroad.

In the mainline media, those who adhere to the position that there is some kind of "conspiracy" pushing us towards a world government are virulently ridiculed.

Many consider the survival of Saddam Hussein from the Persian Gulf War a serious miscalculation.1 With Warren Christopher and William Perry departing the Clinton Administration, it appears that Saddam Hussein is now bolder than ever, buoyed by his humiliating defeat of the CIA in northern Iraq in September.

One voter in each precinct of the United States will determine the next president of the United States. One vote. Thats a big weapon you have there, Mister. In 1948, just one additional vote in each precinct would have elected Dewey. In 1960, one vote in each precinct in Illinois would have elected Nixon. One vote.

Whether it's Bosnia, Chechnya, or the Kurds, we all are becoming increasingly aware of conflicts involving the Muslim world. There is much going on in the Islamic world that bears prophetic implications.

At press time, it looks as if Boris Yeltsin will win the election in Russia. While this appears to be the least threatening of the alternatives from a U.S. viewpoint, it is significant to recognize that the nuclear threat to the United States has never been greater.

Recently, the State of Colorado has been attempting to entirely rewrite its children's code. As a part of the proposed changes, language was introduced by pro-family legislators to protect parents' rights and prevent unwarranted state intrusion into family life. This legislation was killed in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Near the town of Tarhunah, Muammar El Gaddafi is again building a nerve-gas plant just like the one at Rabta.

"...the world's preeminent nuclear power is now Moscow."

In addition to the destabilizing "Peace Process" being forced upon Israel, there are other forces unsettling the volatile Middle East. Rulers who have ruled the Muslim world for decades are growing old, embattled, and in poor health--and the experts are unclear as to who the likely candidates are that will replace them.

After Turkey has spent 75 years attempting to join the West, and having been spurned by the European Union, they appear to have little choice but to attempt to rejoin the Islamic Middle East. The strategic implications are immense and are destined to dramatically affect the balance of power in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe.

The notion that a free press is essential for a free society was one of the basic beliefs of our founding fathers. Truth and accuracy in the reporting of facts was a long-standing tradition of journalists in our country for many years. Has that tradition changed?

We have frequently discussed the impending disaster which will inevitably come home to roost from our Federal debt, continually made ever worse by the annual federal deficits (be sure to distinguish between the two!). But there are other aspects on the global horizon of which we must be aware.

Israel will celebrate her Independence Day on the Fourth of Iyar, which is May 4th on our calendar (May 1995). (The modern state of Israel was born on May 14, 1948 on our calendar, but it was the Fourth of Iyar on hers.) The celebrations this year, however, are likely to be a bit muted with an atmosphere of "sell-out," which has resulted from the so-called "Peace Negotiations."

The Bible instructs us not to be ignorant of Satan's devices and it predicts that, as the Second Coming of Christ draws near, the world will be drawn into a One World Government, ultimately to be taken over by a Coming World Leader. The forces setting the stage for this final climactic chapter may have proceeded farther than most people realize.