Back in the July issue of The Prophetic Expositor, we carried a news item from the Toronto Globe and Mail, 15 June, 1999 under the heading "Crumbling monuments" which explained the danger of collapse of a portion of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple, stating that restorations carried out a century ago, when techniques were in their infancy, are blamed now for dangerous splits in the ... marble blocks, the culprits being about 15,000 iron spikes inserted in the blocks as reinforcements. "The iron would rust and expand, cracking the marble yet more... ." As our follow-up comment has drawn a response from a reader, we should, perhaps, add some further information.

Greece and Rome, Builders of Our World, by The National Geographic Society, on page 146, mentions that "Gunpowder stored by Turks and exploded by Venetians' cannon shattered the temple in 1687." That, we understand, was the chief cause of the damage which necessitated attempts at restoration.

Iron clamps have been used for many centuries in an attempt to hold stone together. Nelson's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts, page 138, tells us, under a photograph of the Tomb of Cyrus who ordered the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, that the vault is "built in limestone blocks tied together by iron clamps."

A sharp-eyed Michigan reader has contacted us, on reading our follow-up comment that "Typically, it reminds one of the planning by human minds for a world drawn together under the clamp of iron fisted rulership by the humanist elitist elements in the EU (read "Roman"), and the New World Order (One-World Government) planning. No iron was to be used in building the Tabernacle or Temple. Gold would not rust as does iron!"

Noting the last statement, the reader pointed out that I Chronicles 22:3 states "And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;" and in II Chronicles 24:12 we read "And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also such as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the LORD." We should point out that Exodus 20:25 states "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it", parallel to Deuteronomy 27:5, in the spirit of which Joshua 8:30-32 explains how the commandments were written on stones at Mount Gerizim. 1 Kings 6:7 says "And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building."

2 Chronicles 3:9 mentions of the gold overlay in the sanctuary: "And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold." If King David gathered iron for the purpose, and later King Joash did use iron within the inner precincts of the Temple, rather than only for the gates, they would appear to have transgressed the spirit and letter of that Exodus 20:25 commandment.

The Hebrew word translated "iron" is barzel, a word which, Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament notes, is from an unused root "to transfix, to pierce through", and "It is often used to denote hardness and firmness."

From the Weekly Telegraph, No. 417, July 21-27, 1999:
"General synod Bishops are 'shattered' by findings of a survey among churchgoers, while a Lawrence inquiry member condemns the white, educated elite English norm'" A two-page spread, under the above heading carries articles headed "Church has priorities wrong, say worshippers", "Atheists will be offered a 'baby blessing' service", "Bishop claims Church is guilty of 'institutional racism'", "investing in breweries ban is lifted" and "heresy trials restored for priests who defy doctrine".

The article regarding the Church priorities, a report by Victoria Combe, Religion Correspondent, says:
THE CHURCH is good at conducting weddings but fails to "spread Jesus' message", according to a new survey among worshippers.

Clergy attending the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting in York, were told that focus groups in 17 of the 43 dioceses found that churchgoers believed the Church failed to stand up adequately for its beliefs, to make its voice heard and to spread the Gospel.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, said the bishops were "shattered" by the findings, which showed how poorly the Church was perceived by its own worshippers. "There is a huge chasm between what is happening centrally and what people think is happening," said Dr. Carey. "This is our problem with communication." The 150 men and women interviewed variously compared the Church to a camel, an ostrich with its head in the sand, and a chameleon changing colour to suit the background.

Those who took part in the survey, of which 42 per cent were aged over 55 and 67 per cent were women, to reflect the average congregation, thought the most important issue was "spreading Jesus's message" and "giving a moral lead".

They rated the church's performance as "poor" on both issues and said it was best at conducting weddings and looking after its historic buildings.

Dr. Carey said he wanted the Church to be like Aslan, the character of the lion in C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. "The Church should be strong and courageous and willing to fight. Maybe it is too much like a sheep at the moment: docile and too often slaughtered," he said.

The focus groups were part of a national research programme initiated by the new Archbishops' Council in January and run by Jayne Ozanne, one of the nominated lay members. She said she intended to extend the research.

Miss Ozanne told a fringe meeting of the General Synod that she had included a question in the 400 hours of interviews asking people what animal they associated with the Church. Worshippers in groups from the dioceses of Winchester, Chelmsford and Southwell compared it to a camel - using the joking definition, "a horse designed by committee". Those in Southwark described it as a chameleon and in Ripon and Oxford as like an elephant - "large, cumbersome and slow".

The report urged the Church to reduce its "in-fighting", to promote its work with Government and speak out clearly on important moral issues.

From the Weekly Telegraph, No. 418, July 28-August 3, 1999:
Scouts in crisis over leaders
SCOUT groups are closing at the rate of four a week, even though an estimated 80,000 boys are waiting to join, new figures show. A shortage of adult volunteer leaders has created one of the worst membership crises in the history of the Scout Association. Fear of being misjudged and branded a paedophile has been suggested as one reason for the lack of volunteers. The Guide Association has commissioned research to discover ways of attracting new leaders and bringing it into the 21st century.

From the Toronto Globe and Mail, 28 July, 1999:
ARCHEOLOGY: Rome built in earlier day, dig suggests.
ROME. Archeologists have unearthed four tombs in central Rome dating from the ninth century BC, suggesting that the Eternal City could be more than a century older than previously thought.

"The tombs could belong to a settlement and this would imply a new revision of the presumed date of the foundation of Rome," Silvana Rizzi, director of the dig that found them, told Reuters Television. "We should go back at least a century." Legend has it that Rome was founded in 753 BC.

"Who would have thought that there was a settlement at our feet that predates the historic founding of the city," Mayor Francesco Rutelli told reporters after the tombs were uncovered in Caesar's Forum, a stone's throw from the ancient Coliseum. Only about two-thirds of it has so far been uncovered - the rest lies beneath a main road called the Via dei Fori Imperiali. Archeologists found the four tombs and a well in an area of the forum previously covered by asphalt. Reuters

From the Weekly Telegraph, No. 418, July 28-August 3, 1999:
Hunt for King Alfred's grave
ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they are on the brink of uncovering the final resting place of King Alfred the Great - under the car park of a city leisure centre.

Experts have begun an eight-week excavation at River Park in Winchester, Hants. The site is believed to contain the high altar of an abbey where the monarch's remains were interred.

From the Weekly Telegraph, No. 418, July 28-August 3, 1999:
Manchester targets gays
TOURISM chiefs have defended a decision to promote Manchester among homosexuals in the US.

They said the campaign, which includes posters featuring drag queens, men in sailors' outfits and photographs of lesbians kissing, would generate wealth for the city.

From the Toronto Globe and Mail, 28 July, 1999:
Schools to banish Lord's Prayer - Saskatoon board forfeits 1901 right
JOHN SAUNDERS - The Globe and Mail
The Lord's Prayer, once recited daily by schoolchildren across Canada, has been banished from public-school classrooms in at least part of Saskatchewan.

In a 33-page ruling, retired judge Ken Halvorson yesterday ordered the Saskatoon Board of education to end a practice of giving teachers the option of conducting prayers in classrooms and assemblies.

Mr. Halvorson, acting as head of a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission inquiry, ruled that the Saskatoon board has forfeited a special right, dating from before Saskatchewan became a province, to impose the Lord's Prayer on children.

Because of the "weasel words" of its policy (encouraging and supporting, but not requiring, the use of the prayer), the board cannot rely on a 1901 statute permitting any Saskatchewan board "to direct that the school be opened by the recitation of the Lord's Prayer," he said.

It was not immediately clear how the ruling would affect children outside the province's largest city, but Mr. Halvorson said it was not intended to change practices in separate schools, where "religious dogma is expected."

The question of school prayer, settled by court decisions based on individual freedom and other principles in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, raises special constitutional and historical questions in some parts of the country, including Saskatchewan. the Saskatoon inquiry was sparked on a complaint filed six years ago by nine parents, including Muslims, Jews, Unitarians and atheists. The issue has bounced between the human-rights commission and the courts ever since in a quarrel over jurisdiction, and may again be the subject of a court appeal.

Complainant Carl von Baeyer, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Saskatchewan and father of two girls, said the decision "brings us into the 20th century [and] reflects a new, more diverse reality. The basis for the present policy was developed more than 100 years ago at a time when there were very few non-Christian people except for native people, whose religion didn't count."

Mr. von Baeyer, a Unitarian, said his congregation believes in tolerance and religious freedom and has advocated dropping the Lord's Prayer in schools since the early 1980's. Only about 20 per cent of the 550 public-school classrooms in Saskatoon currently say prayers.

With a report from Canadian Press

From the Weekly Telegraph, No. 418, July 28-August 3, 1999:
King plea: hush Tsar's murder
GEORGE V asked his government to suppress a grisly report on the murder of the last Tsar of Russia and his family, according to documents handed by Britain to Russia.

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