Recent News Articles from 1997 regarding Revelation

From The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Eight
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved "Recent News Articles from 1997 regarding Revelation"

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1997

1/14/97 Israel, Palestine ready to strike a deal. Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat were prepared to close a deal withdrawing troops from most of the West Bank city of Hebron, and committing Israel to surrendering large areas of the West Bank by 1998.
2/13/97 Clinton meeting Netanyahu on Middle East peace. Washington - The U.S.-backed quest for a Middle East peace agreement enters a new phase as President Bill Clinton and Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explore the future in the peace process. Talks with Syria, seen as the cornerstone to an overall Middle East peace, have long been stuck over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights.
2/15/97 Australian farmer unearths ancient fossil. Sydney, Australia - On the coastal town of Gosford, 62 miles north of Sydney, an Australian farmer while landscaping discovered 6.5 foot-long brachyopid temnospondyl amphibian dated to 220-million-years-old according to paleontologist Alex Ritchie.
2/18/97 NATO-Russia brigade proposed. Brussels, Belgium - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright proposed that the 16-member NATO form a joint military brigade with Russia to link it to the alliance as NATO expands eastward for a democratic Europe. In talks with the 15-nation EU, which is 40 years old next month, she stressed the importance of adding as many as a dozen new members over the next decade.
2/25/97 1987 supernova still a bright spot for modern-day scientists. Supernova 1987A (a star known as Sanduleak -69 202) that died 166,000 years ago in a nearby galaxy, but the first of its kind in modern astronomy, as of 4:35 a.m. Chilean time on Feb. 23, 1987 was detected by tiny particles known as neutrinos. This proved the theory that exploding stars emit a burst of neutrinos as they collapse. Could this mean that neutrinos is what makes a unified field of space- time?
2/23/97 Scientists clone first adult mammal. Say process could be applied to humans. London - Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh working with biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, have cloned an adult female sheep, named Dolly, the first animal from a cell of an adult animal. The goal is to make more efficient production of genetically engineered animals used to make health products. Their main product is AAT, a sheep’s milk now in clinical trials for use in treating cystic fibrosis. Any technique that can be done with a mammal can be done with a human.
3/2/97 Ethical debates swirls around cloning.
Decades from now: If you clone yourself, will DNA clone share your soul also. The soul was created in the image of God, a clone was created in the image of man. Although the technology is remote and may never be mastered, the fear of it occurring is evident. The most likely issue is the future use of obtaining immortality through successive cloning or even a brain transplant. Also is the use of your clone as medical replacement parts.
3/5/97 Netanyahu may be waging war on peace. Jerusalem - Under the Israeli-Palestinian autonomy accords, Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority may only operate in self-rule areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but not in east Jerusalem where the Palestinians hope to establish a future capital. Israel closed four Palestinian offices in Jerusalem 10 days before the talks on a permanent peace agreement are to begin.
3/10/97 Report says Gulf War illness is contagious. Los Angeles - Some medical professionals treating sick Persian Gulf War veterans claim they have contracted symptoms (fatigue, fever, aches, rashes, respiratory problems) of Gulf War illness and say the mysterious disease could pose a public health threat. Garth Nicolson, a biochemist at the nonprofit Institute for Molecular Medicine claims to have found a genetically altered version of mycoplasma, a microorganism known to sometimes cause disease, in the blood of half of the several hundred sick veterans he has tested. He says antibiotics have successfully treated some of them.
3/30/97 False Messiahs of the New Age trappings of UFO spirituality. Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. - Thirty-nine members were led by 40 year-old Marshall Herff Applewhite into a ritualized mass suicide by Heaven’s Gate (a monastic life) to prepare themselves to board a spaceship that they believed was hovering behind comet Hale-Bopp and waiting to take them to heaven (a higher plane of existence).
All I can say to the suicide victims as if it matters, "April Fools, there was no UFO behind the comet!!!" Suicide is a grave sin, to be judged by God. Comet Hale-Bopp will be visible through April.
The story of cults fearing the end of the world continues the legacy of: Jonestown, Guyana - Jim Jones and the 900 followers commit mass suicide in 1978; 1993 Waco, Texas 78 Branch Davidians perished in fire; in the last three years 74 members of the Order of the Solar Temple in Europe (France) and Canada, who believed that suicide would transport them to a new life on a planet called Sirius, to avoid Armageddon.
5/2/97 Pentagon appoints adviser former Sen. Warren Rudman to review its work and advise on ways to improve the military’s cooperation with the CIA, specifically on the chemical warfare agents used in the Gulf War.
5/7/97 Divers may have found 6,000-year-old ship timbers off the south coast of England, in The Solent between the mainland and the Isle of Wight.
5/25/97 Iranian moderate wins presidential elections. Tehran, Iran - A moderate cleric has won Iran’s presidential election, the former culture minister Mohammad Khatami, will succeed Hashemi Rafsanjani. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a brief statement endorsing Khatami’s victory, which was a showdown between hard-liners and moderate factions inside the ruling Muslim clergy.
6/20/97 Southern Baptists adopt resolutions against cloning, same-sex benefits. Dallas - The nation’s largest Protestant group the Southern Baptists after its three day convention is urging its 15 million members to boycott Disney, for its promotion of homosexual relationships as moral. Also rejected is the International Bible Society and their gender-neutral Bible translations a product of feminism and political correctness. And regarding the cloning of human beings in genetic technology be made illegal around the world.
6/20/97 First of four churches Oks unification of Protestants. Milwaukee - A plan to unify four Protestant denominations after a 450-year rift survived a heated debate over homo-sexuality and gay clergy was approved. The Reformed Church in America overwhelmingly urged "full communion" with the 5.2-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the 1.5 million member United Church of Christ and the 2.7 million member Presbyterian Church USA, allowing joint congregations, minister exchanges and shared sacraments for the first time since the 16th century. This unity plan to be voted on this summer would unite nearly 10 million Protestants. The rift stemmed from disagreements among leaders of the Reformation, when the Protestant denomination split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.
On 8/19/97 Lutheran Church voted for Holy Communion with three major Reformed churches but voted against establishing closer ties with the Episcopalian Church, but vowed to continue work on pact.
7/5/97 World health report shows AIDS cases up 20% a year. Geneva - The number of people with full-blown AIDS has hit 1.64 million and is growing at nearly 20% a year, the U.N. health agency reported.
7/5/97 The Pathfinder spacecraft lands and the 22-pound robot Sojourner begins exploration of Mars with its 3-D camera and an instrument designed to help geologists identify minerals in the Martian rocks and soil. It also beamed strikingly clear images of Mars back to Earth. Pathfinder finds more signs of ancient Martian flooding that would have had to cover hundreds of miles.
8/26/97 Christian Coalition sets legislative agenda. Washington - Hoping to influence Congress’ fall agenda, the Christian Coalition urged law-makers to cut taxes for American families and fight religious persecution worldwide.
9/1/97 Off The Wire, PC Today, Israel Becomes World Internet Power by Dan Perry, Associated Press - Jerusalem. Cyberspace is proving to be the great equalizer for Israel, enabling the nation to overcome distance and politics and carve itself a niche as an Internet superpower. Network security? An industry leader is Israel’s Check Point. Internet telephony? One of the first was VocalTec, operating out of the Tel Aviv area. Video transmissions and multimedia on the World Wide Web? Look up VDONNet, Geo, and other Israeli firms. "There ar more startups in Israel in Internet technology than anywhere but Silicon Valley," says Ed Zander, president of Sun Microsystems’ computer unit. Israel’s high-tech success is a godsend at a time of declining fortunes overall for the state; A five-year economic boom is grinding to a halt and the government’s tough policies have resurrected Arab-Israeli animosities. High-tech is the reason why exports and foreign investment are continuing to grow - although at a more modest pace than in recent years. David Rubin, Israel’s economic representative in North America, says high-tech exports are approaching $5 billion annually, a quarter of Israel’s overall world sales. Opinions differ on why the nation of 5.8 million has been so successful with the Internet. Many note that the recent influx of Soviet immigrants (800,000 since 1990) – included many who were highly trained. Israel now leads the world with 135 engineers per every 10,000 citizens. Rubin believes the reason for Israel’s Internet prowess is psychological – a deep-seated drive to find a "virtual" niche that neutralizes the isolation Israelis have suffered in the real world.
9/5/97 Israel to freeze West Bank handover after triple suicide bombing in the heart of Jerusalem.
9/25/97 Pentagon loses credibility over Gulf War illness probe with veterans.
9/28/97 Iran launches final stage of exercises. Tehran, Iran - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, inspected troops in the largest exercise by any Mideast country.
10/8/97 Prime players in Mideast peace talks back at table after eight months.
10/26/97 Widely and long misunderstood, Latter-Day Saints enjoy rebirth. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations have plagued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since its founding in 1830, but its emergence as one of the fastest-growing churches in the world today has won over many of its detractors. Worldwide membership is expected to reach 10 million in November. Doctrinal misinterpretations deal with the Holy Trinity and God’s grace. Mormons believe in the trinity, consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Ghost, as separate beings. Other faiths believe in the trinity as three expressions of one God. Also he Mormon doctrine promotes reincarnation.
11/2/97 Gulf War illness plan gets president’s attention. President Clinton is expected to endorse a permanent system to establish which of a host of respiratory, neurological and other unexplained ailments reported by thousands of U.S. veterans are related to their service in the 1991 war, and to set a basis for compensation.
11/26/97 U.N. says AIDS much more widespread than first thought. More than 30 million people worldwide are living with the virus; 16,000 infected daily. It is estimated that 2.3 million people died of AIDS in 1997 - a 50% increase over 1996. One in every 100 sexually active adults worldwide is infected with HIV, and only one in 10 knows they are infected. They project this to be 40 million by the year 2000.
12/1/97 Sensar Inc., a New Jersey-based company, is preparing to offer eye-scanning to ATM manufacturers as an alternative to passwords and PINs for automatic teller machines. The biometric identification system works like this: when a customer puts in a bank card, a stereo camera locates the face, finds the eye and takes a digital image of the iris at a distance of up to three feet, in less than two seconds, and compares the image with one the customer supplied to the bank. It works well even with glasses, contacts and a dark environment.
12/3/97 Planets planning heavenly alignment. Miami - A rare display that won’t be visible again for 100 years, appearing after dusk the planets will line up from west to east through Dec. 8. The line will begin with Pluto (visible by telescope), followed by Mercury, Mars, Venus, Neptune (seen with binoculars), Uranus (seen with binoculars), Jupiter and Saturn, with a crescent moon alongside. A similar display will occur in May 2000, but so close to the Sun that they will not be visible from Earth.
One astrologer states that at the beginning of 1998, there will be a major planetary conjunction when six planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus) converge in Aquarius. This conjunction complements a 1962 preparatory cycle that sets forces in motion with a similar alignment.
12/7/97 Israel urged to decide on ‘credible’ withdraw. Geneva - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged Israel to decide on a more swift withdrawal on the West Bank than Netanyahu has proposed (five month testing period). Yasser Arafat is asking for only what was in the agreements.
12/7/97 Foreign ministers call for Islamic meeting. Tehran, Iran - 35 Muslim foreign ministers from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia are searching for common ground to assist in Islamic unity.
12/7/97 U.S. alone in its policy of trying to isolate Iran. Tehran, Iran - American efforts to isolate Iran are failing because of the country’s oil wealth and the Muslim faith it shares with its Arab neighbors. Even European allies are sitting down with Islamic Republic’s mullahs, and Iran’s new President Mohammad Khatami believes it shows the power and stability of Iran.

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