TBC NewsWatch

Jerusalem Synagogue Desecrated

WorldIsraelNews.com, 1/29/19, “Jerusalem synagogue desecrated: ‘Recalls dark periods of Jewish history’” [Excerpts]: A synagogue serving the French community in Kiryat Yoval, a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, was vandalized [January 28]. The synagogue’s Torah ark was smashed and the Torah scrolls thrown on the ground.

Police have already set up a special investigation team and the synagogue was closed this morning to allow forensic investigators to work, Israel’s Channel 20 reports. The neighborhood has a history of friction between religious and secular Jews, according to Israel Hayom.

Bezalel Smotrich, recently appointed head of the religious-Zionist National Union party, said: “These harsh scenes remind us of the dark periods in the history of our people … I call on the enforcement authorities to do everything necessary to locate the perpetrators immediately and put them on trial.”

The synagogue is named after Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, who was killed together with two of his children on March 19, 2012, in a terrorist attack in Toulouse, France.

The Jerusalem vandalism follows another that was discovered in the seaside city of Netanya on Sunday. A house of worship  was struck by vandals who scrawled praise for “Satan” and burned holy books. A pentagram was also spray painted on a wall.

(https://goo.gl/pf3fbq)

Dinosaurs With or Without Feathers?

ICR.org, 12/28/18, “Did Dinosaurs Come with or without Feathers?” [Excerpts]: Many secular scientists consider so-called “feathered dinosaurs” to be evidence of dinosaurs evolving into birds. Clearly defined anatomy-based categories exist for both “bird” and “dinosaur,” but evolution requires a bird-to-dinosaur transition. In living creatures, only birds—not mammals or reptiles—have feathers. Furthermore, with a few controversial exceptions, all extinct feathered animals are acknowledged as birds. Even bird-feather proteins called keratins are unique. 

The use of feathers to fly “affects virtually every aspect of feather design and construction.” A flight feather has a long, slender central shaft called a rachis. From this extend the barbs, and from these extend the even smaller barbules. The barbules on one side of the barb are smooth, but, like Velcro, they link to tiny hook-shaped barbules on the opposite side.

Assuming hypothetical feathers on dinosaurs functioned as modern feathers do, they must consist of all the required working parts. Even the angle, thickness, shape, and construction of the parts must all exist and be assembled within narrow tolerances. So far, Darwinists have only impressions of “protofeathers” they assume were structures on the way to becoming modern feathers. But until they became functional feathers, it appears they would have decreased a creature’s fitness, making them less likely to persist in future generations.

A biblical creation worldview rejects the supposition that protofeathers were structures on the way to evolving into flight feathers. So, what were they? Possibly skin collagen fibers, not feathers. Some resemble fossil preparation marks, which are caused by tools used to uncover and excavate fossils. For these reasons, many researchers are “skeptical of inferring feathers when there are no feathers preserved” with bonafide dinosaurs in the fossil record.

(https://goo.gl/fTcFZU)

We Can Kill Our Children At Nine Months

ChristianHeadlines.com, 1/23/19, “Thun-derous Applause: We Can Kill Our Children at Nine Months” [Excerpts]: The so-called Reproductive Health Act in New York passed with thunderous applause in the state Senate chamber.

I could not believe what I was reading: People actually applauded the slaughtering of children. Was I having a dream . . . a nightmare? Was this real?

Some time ago, I sat speechless as I listened to a man recount his trip to a Holocaust museum with his young daughter. As they walked by photos of the death camps and gas chambers, his daughter silently contemplated the horrors that were unfolding before her eyes.

When the tour ended, they drove home without saying a word. The father wondered if she truly understood the significance of the event....His questions were answered nearly two hours later when his daughter finally spoke. She looked at her father and asked, “Daddy, why didn’t someone do something?”                    —Shane Idleman

(https://goo.gl/pMexij)