Israel insight

Israel Insights

Israeli Schools Largely Avoid Teaching about Evolution by Kayla Koslosky The Times of Israel reports, the Education Ministry in Israel is largely avoiding the teaching of evolution in schools and is focusing on other areas of biology. The outlet reports that several teachers spoke to Channel 10 about the strategy saying the Education Ministry prefers them to teach as little as possible about evolution, some of the teachers said they received no training on the topic. Channel 10 reported that kindergarten and elementary school biology classes do not touch on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which claims that "all life evolved from common ancestors.” In middle school the theory is spoken about as part of general discussions, and in high school ‘the theory of evolution’ is offered as an optional class. According to The Times of Israel, the TV outlet’s report noted that the high school curriculum was revised four years ago. Before the change there was one unit on evolution in the matriculation exams, but the new curriculum has replaced the unit with one on species survival and genetic modifications and adaptations based on environmental factors. Though many creationists are supporting this change, that is not the case for everyone. Dr. Liat Ben David, the general director of the Davidson Institute for Science Education said, “Not teaching this is actually removing a very, very fundamental part of science and making it inaccessible to Israeli children.” The Education Ministry defended the change saying, “learning the principles of adaptation to the environment is compulsory in middle school.” They continued, “the theory of evolution itself is taught as an optional class in high schools.” Schools have gone back in session this week in Israel.

Scott Morrison Australia new PM

Australia’s New Prime Minister Is an Evangelical

By Bob Ditmer

The Telegraph recently ranked the least religious countries in the world. Australia came in 12th with just 34 percent saying they feel religious.

So it is notable that the mostly secular nation’s new prime minister is an evangelical.

Scott Morrison, who had previously been the country’s treasurer, was sworn in Friday as Australia’s sixth prime minister in 11 years after a political rift among conservative lawmakers led to the ouster of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The New York Times reports that Morrison, 50, is the first evangelical Christian to become prime minister and that church has always been a part of his life. He even sees Christianity as one of his motivations for public service.

“For me, faith is personal, but the implications are social—as personal and social responsibility are at the heart of the Christian message,” Morrison said in his first speech to the Australian parliament in 2008, according to the Times. He also cited a verse from the Book of Jeremiah as the encapsulation of the core of his beliefs: “I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on Earth; for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.”

“Australia is not a secular country,” he added. “It is a free country. This is a nation where you have the freedom to follow any belief system you choose.”

For the last 10 years, Morrison, his wife, Jenny, and their daughters have been active members of the Horizon Church, one of Sydney’s largest Pentecostal congregations.

“I think that people of faith around the nation are very much filled with hope that someone of Christian faith and principle is holding such a role in public life,” Kristy Mills, the executive pastor of the Horizon Church, told the Times. “I think there is a great hope that decision making will be influenced by godly principles.”

Morrison has called for stronger legal protections for religious freedom in the country whose population stands at more than 24 million. He told Fairfax Media that  discrimination against Christians is subtle, “It always starts innocently and it’s always said it is just a joke—just like most discrimination does. And I’m just going to call that out.”

A case in point is an article today in news.com.au with the headline, From talking in tongues to ‘divine faith,’ could Scott Morrison’s religion be a liability?

Reporter Shannon Molloy visited Morrison’s church “where worshippers can be so overcome they start to speak in tongues,” warning it “could become unpalatable for the mainstream public.” She also discloses a senior Liberal source told her, “Mr. Morrison would be encouraged to downplay his deeply religious beliefs.”

Morrison dismisses the advice saying his “personal faith in Jesus Christ is not a political agenda…for me, faith is personal, but the implications are social.”

Meanwhile, the Australian Christian Lobby calls Morrison’s deep faith “reassuring.”

“He doesn’t think he’s the biggest and most powerful person,” the group’s boss, Martyn Iles, told the New York Times. “He knows he’s under God.”

Bob Ditmer has worked in Christian media for more than 20 years including positions with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and Focus on the Family.

05 the harvest at pentecost

21-05 THE HARVEST OF PENTECOST…THE BEST IS YET TO COME
By: Wayne Hilsden

Charles Spurgeon was one of the most eloquent preachers of all time; yet Spurgeon said, "It would be better to speak six words in the power of the Holy Ghost than to preach seventy years of sermons without the Spirit." One of the world’s greatest evangelists was DL Moody. But Moody said, "There is not a better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit."

Spurgeon and Moody lived prior to the outpouring at Azusa Street. If these men confessed their need for the power of the Holy Spirit in their ministries, how much more should we, who claim to be Spirit-filled, be operating in the Spirit’s power!

What were Jesus' last words? They weren’t "Go and build a chain of bless-me clubs." No, He gave the Great Commission: "Go and make disciples." And what else did He say before He ascended into heaven? He told His followers that before they go, they should wait. Wait for the promise of the Father—the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Then you will “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses … to the ends of the earth.” World harvest and kingdom expansion were the chief purposes of Pentecost.

The picture of the harvest of souls that will be gathered into his Kingdom is not small, but very great indeed. John had a vision in Revelation 7:9 of “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:4‭-‬5

This promise is not limited to that one day of Pentecost two millennia ago. For Peter said in his sermon that day in Acts 2: “The promise is (not only) unto you and to your children, (but also) to all that are afar off (i.e. both in space and in time)” (JFB Commentary rendition). The promise of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon “ALL flesh” has not yet been fulfilled. The greatest harvest of all time is still ahead of us. The best is yet to come.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to me?

ACTIVATION

Evaluate how the Great Commission has made an impact on your life. Ask God to show you how you can take new steps in fulfilling Jesus’ last mandate to His disciples.

Read John’s account of his vision of heaven in Revelation 7, and ask God to increase your vision for the harvest in our lifetime.

Walk in the flow of the Spirit moment by moment so that you will not miss a God–ordained opportunity to introduce someone to Jesus.