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The all-important question is whether the soul and spirit of man, which resided in the body, continue to exist even after the body is dead. If we don’t know how life arose, can we be sure what happens to it when it abandons the body in death? That is the most important question we face. The answer to it all hangs on the question of origins.

Young radicals trashed campuses in 2024 as part of their campaign against the Jewish state. For months, the nation’s colleges and universities saw day to day life disrupted by the anti-Israel activists who harassed and attacked Jewish students, spread anti-Semitic propaganda, glorified terrorism, and assaulted police officers. 

Now, the recently published Young Zionist Voices presents the views of those on the other side of the campus divide: Jewish students and alumni steadfastly opposing the anti-Semitic “Campus Tentifada” and “classic schoolyard bully dynamics,” as Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson for the Israeli government, states in the Foreword to the book. 

The young Jewish activists featured in the book are not a monolith. They represent voices from across the political and religious spectrums within Judaism, and, as Hazony points out, many of the essays “contradict each other” in certain points. Yet their differences bring into focus what unites them: a strong Jewish identity, a burning love of Israel, and a desire to stand up to anti-Semitic bullies, all part of a mission that transcends their political and theological disagreements. 

A common theme across the stories in the collection is how pervasive and virulent anti-Semitism is on campuses. Shabbos Kestenbaum, the Harvard University student who sued his school for its atmosphere of unchecked anti-Semitism, draws parallels between the current campus climate and Kristallnacht–the massive 1938 Nazi pogrom that murdered Jews and burned their businesses, homes, and synagogues to the ground. 

Kestenbaum warns that the anti-Semitism in higher education is “how a Kristallnacht begins.” He writes: “In my time at Harvard, swastikas were drawn in undergraduate dorms, a Jewish student was spat on, an Israeli student was asked to leave class because her nationality made classmates ‘uncomfortable,’ another Israeli was assaulted at the business school, a staff member taunted me with a machete and challenged me to debate the Jewish involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, our hostage posters were defaced almost daily, and professors published antisemitic cartoons without facing discipline.”

A common refrain heard from many anti-Israel activists is that Israelis are “settler-colonialists.” They deny Jews’ historic connection to Eretz Yisrael–the land of Israel–by portraying Zionists as imperialists coming from abroad to dispossess indigenous natives. 

A University of Michigan Diversity, Equity, and inclusion (DEI) staffer named Rachel Dawson, for example, was recently fired after it was discovered she allegedly made comments that Jews–whom she apparently called “wealthy and privileged” people who “control” the university–have “no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel.”

But Bella Ingber, a New York University Psychology student, would beg to differ. 

Ingber states that Zionism and Judaism are inextricably connected. She mentions a trip to Israel in which she visited Biblical sites: “It seemed that no matter where I walked, where I looked, where I stood, the Jewish historical presence–both physical and spiritual–was there, irrefutable, supported by centuries of evidence.”

https://www.campusreform.org/article/book-review-young-zionist-voices-/27255

[TBC: History, Archeology, and most important of all, Scripture reports the presence of Israel in what is known as Israel. And, it is correctly pointed out that, “While the Romans expelled the majority of Jews in 70 CE, the Jewish people have always had a remnant in the land of Israel. A portion of the Jewish population remained in Israel throughout the years of Jewish exile while the rest settled around the world and became the Jewish diaspora. In particular, Jewish communities existed throughout much of this period in what is known as the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed (Tzfat), and Tiberias.]

That being the case, it is quite clear that to understand what a man or woman really is, we must look beyond the physical body. The body is temporary. But what about the life, which is clearly not part of that body but gives it consciousness and meaning? Consciousness exists in a nonphysical dimension. The body did not create its own consciousness. A dead body cannot give life to itself. Life must come from another dimension, and when it leaves the body, there is no medical or scientific way to call it back.

Back to the question of life. What is it? Is it found in the chemical composition of the body? Obviously not. Chemicals, no matter what form they take, do not have any life in themselves nor can they give life to anything. How do we know this? Even if medical science reached the point where it could gather together, and in the right order, the exact chemicals of which the body is composed, it would take more than such incredible engineering to give life to these chemicals. Left on their own, no matter how lifelike when first sculpted, they would obviously deteriorate into a lifeless pile of what this “body” was made of—mere chemicals.

Uncovering animal tracks and trackways in sedimentary rocks is a testament to the Genesis Flood.1–4 Fascinating discoveries continue to be made with the latest trackway (200 footprints) being unearthed in Oxfordshire, England.5 The longest trackway is estimated to be 492 ft (150 m) in length and is probably longer. And therein lies the problem.

Many who are involved with uncovering these incredibly old footprints do not realize this remarkable physical evidence is a two-edged sword. Yes, they are beautifully preserved prints of extinct animals, but they cannot be as old as evolutionary theory states due to multiple catastrophic agents of erosion. If the earth is 4.6 billion years old, virtually every square inch of the Earth’s surface would experience a host of erosive events.

Earthquake and tectonic activity…no doubt would have occurred [on dinosaur trackways] many millions of times. Earthquakes of all magnitude on the Richter scale would have happened over and over again. In addition, there would also be many millions of years’ worth of meteorites, tsunamis, bitter cold, hail, volcanoes, climate change patterns, Ice Ages, tornadoes, flooding, windstorms, drought, lightning, hurricanes and meteorological activity of all sorts.6

In addition, English paleobiologist Richard Butler made an interesting statement regarding the formation of this trackway, “We don’t know exactly what, but it might be that there was a storm event that came in, deposited a load of sediments on top of the footprints, and meant that they were preserved rather than just being washed away.”5 Storm event? A load of sediments? This observation certainly supports the Flood as described in the early chapters of Genesis. The article also stated,

The prints are so beautifully preserved that the team have been able to work out which animal passed through first - they believe it was the sauropod, because the front edge of its large, round footprint is slightly squashed down by the three-toed megalosaurus walking on top of it.5

The footprints are so pristine that even after the supposed 166 million years scientists were able to identify which dinosaurs the prints belonged to. Evolutionist Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist from Oxford University, said the three toes “are very, very clear in the print.”5 Perhaps it’s because they were made only 4,500 years ago.

The creatures making these fascinating tracks were 100% dinosaurs created on Day 6. The tracks are well-preserved like one would expect from catastrophic flood deposits. And finally, their amazing preservation rather than being totally destroyed isn’t what one would expect after supposedly 166 million years of nonstop erosive forces.

References

1. Thomas, B. and T. Clarey. 2018. Dinosaur Tracks Back Noah’s Flood. Acts & Facts. 47 (2): 11–14.
2. Clarey, T. Dinosaur “Superhighway” Explained by Global Flood. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org August 28, 2018.
3. Sherwin, F. Fossil Amphibian Footprints. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org April 13, 2023.
4. Thomas, B. Pterosaur Tracks Show Traces of the Great Flood. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org September 2, 2009.
5. Morelle, R. UK’s Biggest Ever Dinosaur Footprint Site Unearthed. BBC. Posted on bbc.com January 2, 2025.
6. Sherwin, F. Another Arch Collapse at a National Park. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org September 26, 2024.

https://www.icr.org/article/dino-trackway-leads-to-young-earth/

A friend had been in a bit of a debate about the teaching on Hell. Someone he knows had taken a departure from the biblical teaching on Hell and in the process redefines terminology and purpose. He doesn't like Hell and frankly, neither do I BUT my likes or dislikes do not really matter. One of the objections is that God tormenting someone eternally does not demonstrate God's justice or serve any "redemptive" purpose. He really misses the point on those and many other issues. There is nothing in Scripture that states or implies that God is doing the tormenting. Torment is the result of being separated from God. Second, Hell was not intended to have a "redemptive purpose." That is what the sacrifical death, burial and resurrection were for and any who call on His Name are redeemed. In "Apologetics Short-Takes, #2," Dr. Donald Williams poses the question a bit differently, "If God only creates what is good, what can we say of Hell?" : 

“MY ANSWER: Is it good that God’s justice be given ultimate expression? Is it good that the finally unrepentant not be able to shake their fists in God’s face and get away with their rebellion with no consequences forever? Is it good that evil be finally quarantined so that it cannot mess up the rest of the universe forever? [Heads nod “Yes” after each question.] Hell in itself then is not an evil thing (though it is regrettable that some people will insist on being there); it is in fact a positive good.”

Dr. Williams then goes on to address various issues that are very important in the discussion of God, Hell and humans.

https://mailchi.mp/d39be91900d9/the-art-of-deception-selling-the-narrative?e=169825fd77

Remember what turned Mortimer J. Adler from agnosticism to belief in God: he discovered the difference between humans and all animals, a chasm that no evolutionary leap can span. What makes a human being? Not his skeletal structure or the capacity of his brain. It is the ability, said Adler, to form conceptual ideas and express them in words. Neither conceptual ideas nor the words that express them occupy physical space or have physical substance—but they are real nonetheless. Right here, in this simple truth, the atheist materialist is dealt a death blow.

“But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” (Romans 16:26)

This revelation was written by Paul the apostle as a conclusion to his great doctrinal epistle to the Romans. That which “now is made manifest...to all nations” had been “kept secret since the world began” and was essentially the simple truth revealed in “my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ” (Romans 16:25), offering to people from every nation (not just Israel!) the wonderful gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ.

And note that this was being made manifest not just by the preachers and Scriptures of the New Testament but also “by the scriptures of the prophets”—that is, by the Old Testament Scriptures. There are some today who think the Old Testament is no longer significant to Christians. But they are wrong! Remember that Jesus after His resurrection rebuked two of His disciples, saying, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:...And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25, 27).

Furthermore, the Old Testament abounds with wonderful promises and precepts and examples that are supremely practical and profitable for the Christian life. As Paul said, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4). In fact, every Old Testament Scripture is “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

—Dr. Henry Morris (October 6, 1918 – February 25, 2006, American young Earth creationist, Christian apologist, engineer, and one of the founders of the Creation Research Society

The Little Country That Could, the embattled state of Israel, which so many in the media (the BBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times), love to libel, turns out to have a solid base of public support in the United States. Even as outside the media, many — the UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the UN’s Special Rapporteur On the Condition of Palestinians In The Occupied Territories Francesca Albanese, the EU’s Josep Borrell, Pope Francis, and others — insist on accusing the Jewish state of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide,” that support is particularly strong among the 18-to-24 year olds, the very people who we have been led to believe have been preoccupied with marching around on campuses yelling “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” and “Intifada Forever.”

More on this heartwarming news, including graphical displays of the opinion poll results, can be found here: “Israel is seen more favorably than CNN and the EU by Americans – and young Americans now support Israel more than most other age groups!,” Elder of Ziyon, January 20, 2025:

“Israel is seen more favorably by Americans than the European Union, CNN. MSNBC and X. The gap of favorable over unfavorable is better for Israel than the US Supreme Court, the Department of Justice and Fox News. (If you calculate the percentage of favorable answers over all people who held an opinion, Israel also edges Facebook.)

Given the huge amount of anti-Israel reporting and coverage of anti-Israel events for the past 15 months, this is pretty remarkable….A higher percentage of US voters 18-24 say they support Israel than any other age group under 55.”

Haven’t we all been told that Israel is “losing support,” and that the most anti-Israel cohort consists of the youngest voters? Well, this opinion poll begs — in a big way — to differ. 80% of young people — the 18-to-24 year olds — support Israel, while only 20% support Hamas. Israel has a higher favorability rating among Americans than the European Union, CNN, MSNBC, and X. The gap of favorable over unfavorable is better for Israel than the US Supreme Court, the Department of Justice and Fox News.

https://jihadwatch.org/2025/01/good-news-on-how-americans-see-israel