Weekly Prophecy Review

News from around the world...

• Saudi Arabia's royal family has financed a dozen mosques in the United States.

• A jury has awarded a $37.8 million dollar judgment against the KKK to an African-American church in rural South Carolina. The award was because the Klan and its leaders incited members to burn down the Macedonia Baptist Church.

• Pedro Martinez, a star pitcher for the Boston Redsox, paid for the construction of a church in his hometown in the Dominican Republic.

• To date, more than 160,000 videos of the "Jesus" film have been produced. Worldwide, it is estimated that 1.28 billion people have watched the film which is described as an accurate portrayal of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke.

News from Israel...

• Next year's Miss Universe contest will be held in the resort town of Eilat, Israel.

• Coca Cola of Israel won't be providing the popular beverage to the West Bank much longer. Coca Cola Worldwide has entered into an agreement in which a Palestinian company which will supply the drinks in the future.

• If the Lord were to return to the Mount of Olives at this time, He would find the site in a state of woeful disrepair. Head stones are broken and there is trash all about. The Israeli government has twice announced plans to refurbish the area, but to date nothing has been done. This has led the deputy Mayor of Jerusalem to file a petition with the Supreme Court which would force the government to begin the promised renovations of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount.

• Globe Magazine reports that 1,300 U.S. Jewish households buy property in Israel each year. The magazine did a survey to determine the purpose behind these purchases. The foremost reason was to live in Israel within ten years; the second reason was to immigrate within a year; the third was to acquire a second home for vacations or children.

• The British government has informed the Palestinian Authority it will support the establishment of a Palestinian state.

• Yassar Arafat has invited Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafy to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—after the Palestinians become a sovereign state in May of 1999. Arafat insists he will make a "unilateral declaration of independence" in May of next year.

• An American archaeologist, Vendyl Jones, says he is close to discovering where the ark of the covenant is buried. The ark, which contained the tables of the Ten Commandments, has been lost since 566 B.C. But, based on information contained in what is known as the Copper Scroll (a mysterious scroll discovered among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls), Jones believes the ark will soon be located—in the Jordan Valley near Qumran.

Feature Article

Israel is winning the Mideast Arms race hands down.

Israel is moving swiftly to counter the threat posed by Iran, now that it has evidenced medium range missile capability. The Israelis are putting the finishing touches on its new "Arrow" missile which incorporates the world's most advanced anti-tactical ballistic missile technology. The missile system is based on U.S. Star Wars technology. Ironically, the U.S. Congress refuses to vote funding to develop an anti-missile system to protect North America, yet it foots 80% of the Arrow's $1.6 billion dollar cost to protect Israel.

Israel has also revealed it has the capability to detect a hostile missile launch anywhere in the Middle East within minutes. This is because it is directly downlinked to top-secret U.S. satellite warning systems. In addition, Israel is developing its own submarine-launched cruise missiles.

In the words of foreign correspondent, Eric Margolis, "Israel's leading-edge technology is racing into the 21st century while Iran and Syria are laboriously trying to reinvent the V-2 rocket of WW II."

Till He Returns...