This Week In The News

Current Events

We begin with Australia’s highly controversial and ill-conceived plan to ban children under 16 from social media.

We address Trump’s intent to nominate Kash Patel as FBI Director and Joe Biden’s controversial move to pardon his son Hunter.

We speak on Germany’s “new vision”; the country’s and Europe’s preparation for war; and the German main parties fight for leadership, while attacking each other. We also address the collapsing government of France and France’s refusal to arrest Netanyahu.

We speak on Pope Francis’ departure from traditional Catholicism; the false depictions of Jesus Christ [please view our new StandingWatch program, “What Jesus REALLY Looked Like”]; contemplations on how to end the Ukraine war; Trump’s demand to free the hostages in Gaza; the ongoing war in Syria; and the crisis in South Korea.

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

Read the Update this week

Editorial

What the Two Trees Mean to Us

When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in a beautiful garden with many different trees. Two of them were special—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them that they could eat from every tree—this would have included the tree of life—but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was very specific: He said that if you eat from that tree, you will surely die.

Of course, Adam and Eve disobeyed, ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and were driven out of the garden. They had NOT eaten from the tree of life, and God prevented them now from doing so, lest they “eat, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22).

We have long understood that the tree of life—even though a literal tree—was also symbolic for the gift of the Holy Spirit. If they had eaten from the tree of life, they would have received the Holy Spirit and, after a life of overcoming sin, they would have been able to inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Now, they were cut off from access to the Holy Spirit, and that included all their descendants, with a few exceptions, until the time when Christ will open up the possibility of salvation for everyone, beginning with His Second Coming.

Continue reading "What the Two Trees Mean to Us"

Q&A

Is Superstition condemned in the Word of God? (Part 1)

In answering this question, let us first of all define what superstition is. Wordnik defines this as follows:

“1. An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.

“2. A belief, practice, or rite irrationally maintained by ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance.

“3. A fearful or abject state of mind resulting from such ignorance or irrationality.”

“Therefore, a superstitious person is one who relates to, or is swayed by superstition.

“Superstition is irrational as can be worked out when reviewing some of these actions that are taken by superstitious people:

“… crossing fingers for luck; touching [or knocking on] wood; not walking under a ladder (although it would be sensible if doing that to check that it was safe to do so); throwing salt over your shoulder; a black cat crossing your path; a broken mirror bringing seven years of bad luck; Friday the 13th being an unlucky day. Some countries won’t have a 13th level on an apartment block. Don’t open an umbrella inside a house. Finding a horseshoe is good luck.”

Continue reading "Is Superstition condemned in the Word of God? (Part 1)"
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