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?

The First of Tishri on the Hebrew calendar, which begins the Jewish New Year, is the celebration of Rosh Hashana ("The Head of the Year") and also the Feast of Trumpets. This day begins Israel's civil year and is celebrated for two days (the second day was added by the rabbis around 500 b.c.).

It should come as no surprise that the current state-run public school system in the United States is both morally and academically bankrupt.

How does one reconcile the "One God" of the Old Testament with the three "Persons" of the New Testament Trinity? The Sh'ma of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 clearly emphasizes the singularity of God, which is also reconfirmed in the ten commandments (Exodus 20:3), etc.

The Book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible that promises a special blessing to the reader. (Many verses in the Bible encourage reading God's Word--in general--but only one book has the "audacity" to claim, in effect, "Read me, I'm special.")

Seldom a week goes by without the discovery of a gene for yet another disease. Genetic explanations are touted for everything from cancer and heart disease to more diffuse conditions like alcoholism, homosexuality, and crime.

This month (June 1995) we celebrate the Feast of Shavout, or Pentecost. In Peter's famous speech on this day in Acts Chapter 2, he referred to both "Jews" and "Israel", which brings up an ubiquitous myth concerning the "Ten Lost Tribes" of Israel.

April is the month which includes, this year, the first three of the seven Feasts of Moses. The seven feasts instituted in the Torah are not only historically commemorative, they also have a prophetic role.

The observances of Good Friday and Easter Sunday have perpetuated the traditional chronology that the crucifixion took place on a Friday, that the Lord's body was buried on that day about 6 p.m., and that he rose from the dead early on Sunday.

Each year, the Jerusalem Temple Conference proves to be one of the best ways to keep up-to-date on the progress being made in preparing to rebuild the coming Temple.

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."

We continue to receive mail concerning various schemes that attempt to establish the date for the Rapture of the Church or the Second Coming of Christ.

In earlier articles, we discussed the nature of time and the fallacy of linear and absolute time concepts. We now know that time is a physical property and varies with respect to mass, acceleration, and gravity.

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.

The numerical structure of the Bible has been studied closely, being the subject of numerous volumes in the past.1 But none are more provocative than the works of Dr. Ivan Panin.

The mystery of the "missing mass" of the universe, one of the most fundamental riddles of modern astronomy and physics, continues to elude scientists as the new Hubble Space Telescope images have ruled out the simplest proposed explanation of "dark matter"--the unseen material whose gravitational influence on stars and galaxies can be measured.

Many of us who have enjoyed the creative writings of Michael Crichton over the years were also intrigued by his book (or the blockbuster movie) Jurassic Park, which explored the feasibility of cloning prehistoric animals from the DNA captured, in this case, by a prehistoric mosquito encapsulated in amber. Provocative entertainment, indeed!

This is the final article in a series on what it means to love God practically. In our previous articles we covered the first two parts of the Inner Court Ritual--steps I believe God has laid out for us in Scripture to help us love Him the way He desires. In review, these steps are: