Hadrian's Curse & Balfour's Error

“The land of Israel was promised to the Jews by the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things which the universe and this earth contain. Israel and the city of Jerusalem will never be extinct because of God’s promise to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people,” the American missionary Reverend Kent Hutcheson told the students who composed the All-Men Bible Study Group.

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The Great White Throne Judgment

“Sir, is it alright to ask a question? I just want to clarify something,” Nathan Ong asked the American missionary who had been conducting the Bible Study series on End-Time Prophecy.
“Yes, Nathan. What’s your question?” Reverend Hutcheson asked the newcomer.
“Sir, isn’t it true that a person who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as his God, Savior, and Lord, goes to Hell right after he dies. Why is it that he will still be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment? Do the inhabitants of Hell still have a chance to go to Heaven after the Great White Throne Judgment?” Nathan asked the missionary.

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The Fourth Temple

“The Fourth Temple which will be built on the same site where the First Temple was built, will be called the Millennial Temple. It will be the temple of worship during the 1,000 years reign of the Lord Jesus Christ all over the world,” Reverend Kent Hutcheson told the members of the All-Men Bible Study Group composed of UP students and one male student from the University of the East.
The All-Men Bible Study Group met every Saturday, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. near the front lobby of the Institute of Mass Communications (IMC) building located at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City. Since the group was becoming bigger, some of the students now sat at the steps of the stairway of the IMC building, located before the lobby.
Reverend Kent Hutcheson, an American missionary teacher in the Philippines, served as the Bible teacher. He requested Rey de los Reyes, a third year student of the IMC to serve as the coordinator of the group. Rey requested Edgar Hao, a third year student in the College of Engineering, also of the University of the Philippines, to serve as the assistant coordinator of the group. Edgar Hao accepted the position so he could help Rey.

 

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Hell And The Lake Of Fire

“Rudy, you’re smiling. Did you once think of wanting to go to Hell?” Reverend Hutcheson asked.
Rudy’s smile faded. He shook his head.
“Never, Sir! I never thought of wanting to go to Hell. Not even once,” Rudy said.
The American missionary turned his sight to Philip Tarroja.
“And what about you, Philip? Did you ever want to go to Hell at one point in your past?” the missionary asked.
Philip also shook his head.
“Never, Sir! I never thought of that,” Philip Tarroja replied.
“But did you believe, even when you were not yet a born again Christian, that there is a literal place called Hell?” Reverend Hutcheson asked Philip.

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The Grand Archon

“A Sigma Rhoan should believe in the existence of the Almighty God who created this earth and the whole universe. If he does not believe in God, to me, he is not a true Sigma Rhoan,” Attorney George Briones firmly stressed to his brothers, or brods for short, with his oratorical voice his conviction of what a true Sigma Rhoan is.
The founders of the UP Sigma Rho Fraternity were patriotic students of the University of the Philippines in Manila. They were also deeply religious, and their faith in God, coupled with their patriotic spirit, served as their guiding principles in organizing the UP Sigma Rho in 1938 – three years before the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The founders of the fraternity were all students of the UP College of Law which was then based in Padre Faura in Manila.

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The Death Of Emperor Augustus Caesar

Emperor Augustus Caesar looked to the dark southern sky on the balcony of his palace in Rome one early evening, as he had done in two nights before. He was spending the past two nights simply gazing at the dark southern sky.
His wife, who had accompanied him at their palace balcony for the past five nights, wondered why the emperor had been constantly gazing at the southern sky. The palace balcony faced the southern section of the imperial city of Rome.
“What’s on your mind?” his wife Drusilla asked.
The emperor looked at his wife.
“What do you mean?” he asked her.
“You have been gazing at the sky during the past nights. And now, you are doing the same thing. What’s on your mind?” the emperor’s wife asked him again.

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Saints And Angels In The Second Coming

“The Lord Jesus Christ will be accompanied by His army composed of the saints and the angels when He will return to earth from Heaven,” Reverend Kent
Hutcheson told the students of the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City during their Bible study in the front lobby of the Institute of Mass Communications (IMC) building.
All the members of the Bible study group were male students from UP Diliman.
Only one of them came from the University of the East (UE) in Manila – Rodolfo Rudy Bucsit.
The initial members of the Bible study group were Rey de los Reyes, Edgar Hao, Larry Yap, Art Guina, Philip Tarroja, Bert Mercado, Mar Santos, Gerry Argosino,
and Rudy Bucsit.
Then, Tony Gacad and Bryan Manongdo joined them.
The latest additions to the group were Adonis Gorospe, Ven Aduana, Rene Saquing, and Nathan Ong.
The Bible study group met regularly at the front lobby of the IMC building every Saturday, from four to six in the afternoon.

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One Autumn Night In Rhine Falls

It was one autumn night in 1984 when Carl proposed marriage to his beloved Linda.
“Let’s get married in December,” Carl appealed to her.
They were looking at the exhilarating sight of the Rhine Falls, with resplendent lights beaming on the rushing noisy waterfalls.
“What did you say? I can’t understand you. Why should we get worried in December?” Linda said with a laugh. Of course, she was just joking.
“I said, let’s get married in December,” Carl stressed.

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Miracles Never Stop

Jerusalem Angela Mercado was not so sure if she was prepared to take the 2016 Medical Board Examinations in Manila, Philippines after her classes in a review center in Manila ended in January 2015.
When her father, Norberto, asked her if she would take the physician’s examination the following month, she couldn’t readily reply to the former’s query. She was, in fact, speechless.
“How did you fare in your review class?” her father asked her. It was breakfast time in their house.
She squirmed. “Very bad, Papa. Some of the lectures were poorly given, and the lecturers were sometimes absent. I don’t think I’m prepared to take the exam this coming month. If I do, I may flunk it,” Jerusalem said.
“That’s bad. If you fail in your first try of the medical board, it will be a poor record on your medical career, even if you land in the top ten on your second try,” her father said.
Jerusalem was silent. She realized that what her father said really counted.

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Seeds In San Manuel

“Good morning, Maestro,” a mother who wanted to enroll her ten-year old son in grade five in San Manuel Elementary School greeted the teacher, Aurelio Mercado.
It was enrollment day in the largest public school in the town of San Manuel, the northernmost town of Tarlac bordering the barrio of Carmen in the town of Rosales, in the province of Pangasinan.
Maestro is the title given to a teacher...

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A Lady From Saint Lucia

Nadine Joseph, a lady from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, was one of the more than 200 students and speakers of English as a second language who were listening to the speaker in the conference in Baguio City. It was held in a big hotel in the summer capital of the Philippines.
Nadine used to work in the United States before she came to the Philippines to study in a school in Silang, Cavite. She was tall, had beautiful eyes, a well-proportioned nose, and a dark tanned complexion. She was intelligent and witty.

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The Towns I Love So Well

There is an adage which states most aptly that home is where the heart is. This is true for me.
An American president also once said, “I love them more whom I loved first.”
I say this is true, even for places. San Manuel and Moncada are towns I loved first because these are the towns where I grew up.

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Destroy The Bandits

Andrea Gonzales has been a newscaster and program host in DWRD Radio Davao for five years.
The first news item she was to read that day in August 2016 stirred her emotions, for it was about the beheading of a local teenage boy by the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic bandit group in the island province of Sulu.
The Islamic bandit group had kidnapped both foreign nationals and locals for ransom. They had built a reputation for terror by beheading their victims whose families would not pay the ransom demanded by the bandit group.
It had never been the policy of the Philippine government to pay ransom for kidnap victims. The Philippine government states that paying the ransom money demanded by kidnap-for-ransom groups will only encourage more kidnappings, giving more headache and shame to the President and his cabinet, as well as to
the Armed Forces of the Philippines or AFP and the Philippine National Police or PNP.

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Sink Altalena!

The French government wanted to have influence in the British-controlled Palestine after the United Nations’ 1947 partition of the ancient land to the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs. The French government of Charles de Gaulle donated 5,000 rifles, 250 Bren guns, 5 million bullets, 50 bazookas, and 10 Bren carriers. These arms and ammunitions were carried by the ship Altalena when it left the seaport of Marseille, France on June 11, 1948 and sailed to the port of Tel Aviv, Israel.
The first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, wanted the Irgun to relinquish ownership of all the arms and ammunitions in the ship to the Israel Defense Forces. The Irgun, however, wanted the weapons and the ammos to be of their safekeeping and use. Two negotiations on the ownership and disposal of the weapons were held between the Israel Defense Forces and the Irgun, but the negotiations failed because the Irgun insisted that the weapons and ammunitions which the French donated to them should be at their disposal and ownership.

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Catherine's Homecoming

“I have always longed to come back to the Philippines. It is my home. Everything in my life started in my country,” Catherine told her seatmate, Laura Khristenson, in the plane on a long flight from Denmark to Manila.
Laura was surprised.
Her seatmate, a Caucasian from Denmark, was visiting the Philippines for the first time. She was with five other tourists from Denmark. They would visit the
Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, before heading to Sydney, Australia.
“How long have you been away from home?” her seatmate asked her.
Catherine smiled and briefly looked through the window of the commercial plane.
“More than a decade,” Catherine said...

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Ricardo Sapelino, USM, And The Vietnam War

Ricardo Sapelino of the United States Marines, or USM, was a Filipino combat soldier during the Vietnam War. He joined the United States Navy or USN in 1965, during the middle period of the Vietnam conflict. He received training as a member of the Marine Corps, which was under the USN during the long American involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

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Peace Talk

Josephine Marquez watched on television the live nationwide media coverage of the announcement of the government’s response to the massacre of thirty-six soldiers under the command of General Teodolfo Bautista on October 10, 1977 by Muslim rebels in Patikul, Sulu.
The Muslim rebels led by the bandit Usman Sali, who tricked General Bautista by pretending that he wanted to have a peace talk with the army general with the intention of surrendering himself and his one hundred fifty men.

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The Silk Trade

Menachem was a young Jew who had been engaged in the silk and spice business for almost two years. The silk came from China, and the spices from India.
Menachem and his friends bought the silk and the spices from Parthian businessmen in the city of Petra. Parthians bought these goods from China and from India, and sold these to enterprising Jews who traveled in caravans using camels, donkeys and horses. Menachem and his business associates had already made seven business travels since they began their trade.

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Strangers In Egypt

The town of Rhinocolura had a seaport called Al Arish. Passengers from the town of Raphia in Judah travelled to Egypt by crossing the river using the boats operated by Egyptian entrepreneurs. This is the town where Joseph, Mary and the Child Jesus first entered when they escaped from the town of Bethlehem in Judah.

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Escape To Egypt

“Why would King Herod look for my Child to kill Him?” she asked Joseph.
“I don’t know…” Joseph replied.
Mary asked him where they would go.
“The angel told me to go to Egypt with you and our Child, and stay there until he tells us to leave,” Joseph replied.
Mary felt a certain joy when Joseph stated “our Child” to her even though he knew that the Child Jesus was miraculously born of the Holy Spirit, and not by natural means. She appreciated Joseph for his kind gesture, and told him so.
“The Child is the Lord. It is our duty to take care of Him and to protect Him. I will be a father to Him…” he told Mary.

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