This Week in the News

by Norbert Link

We begin with a stunning revelation about Saudi Arabia’s long-time brutal methods of crushing dissidents through a special barbaric team… under the direct supervision and command of the Crown Prince. We report on violence in the Netherlands and New Zealand through deranged killers under demonic influence; and focus our attention on the ever-growing Brexit debacle with absolutely no deal or solution in sight. We also publish an insightful article about Europe and especially Germany for the time after Brexit.

We report on another Russian step toward autocracy and censorship; speak on the obscure and changing celebration of the Purim festival; speak on anti-Semitic occurrences in Poland and the fragile relationship between Poland and Israel; and address the cowardly and hypocritical conduct of the vast majority of German Parliamentarians towards the Jewish state.

We publish articles which allege anticipated further alienation between Merkel and Trump; which discuss whether Trump really wants to cut Medicare (while pointing out the incredible hypocrisy in politics); and which raise concern that Trump, if cornered, might propagate violence against his opponents.

We conclude with articles about the poisoning of American citizens; contemplated measures by Democrats to make vaccinations mandatory in Oregon; and a lawsuit by a church against Washington state officials, raising the unconstitutionality of a law, enacted by Democrats, forcing churches to provide “health” insurance for those of their employees who may choose to have an abortion.

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

God specifies the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. It consists of a number of components which, considered as a whole, make up this fruit, and actually are characteristics that everyone who has God’s Spirit will display in their lives to one degree or another.

The second component of this fruit is joy. So, what is joy? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” This implies that when things are going well, or expected to go well, we can be joyful.

There are many examples in the Bible of people expressing joy. Two of them are in the book of Ezra. This was a time when the temple had finally been finished after a great amount of local opposition and around twenty years since King Cyrus had made his decree that the temple was to be rebuilt. It was also a time between a little over a month before the Passover, and just after the Passover. Ezra 6:16 states: “Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house…

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As a standard, we commonly use the New King James Version of the Bible, which presents current English usage along with some modified points of translation as compared to the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible (1611 edition and 1769 revision). In some instances, we may refer to other translations for better clarity of a particular word or verse in the Bible. Our ultimate goal for Bible translations we use is to convey the most accurate meaning of the truest translations available to us.

Quoting from the 1996 edition of the New King James Bible (Holman Bible Publishers):

“There is more manuscript support for the New Testament than for any other body of ancient literature. Over five thousand Greek, eight thousand Latin, and many more manuscripts in other languages attest the integrity of the New Testament. There is only one basic New Testament used by Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox, by conservatives and liberals. Minor variations in hand copying have appeared through the centuries, before mechanical printing began about A.D. 1450” (Preface, page v)…

“In light of these facts, and also because the New King James Version is the fifth revision of a historic document translated from specific Greek texts, the editors decided to retain the traditional text in…

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