Below are this week's Articles of Interest as compiled by Mr. Van Baker. This collection of articles is cultivated by Mr. Baker with the goal of highlighting some of the trends, upheavals, and things to watch for in our society. These articles are not necessarily the express views of the United Church of God, Mr. Baker, or me as the pastor, but they are informative of what is occurring in our nation and culture. In accordance with Christ's warning to correctly discern the times (Matthew 16:1-4), it is wise to be aware of what is going on around us.

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Burnt beams from First Temple’s destruction found in City of David – Charred beams pulled from the earth in Jerusalem’s City of David are forcing archaeologists to rewrite their timeline of the First Temple’s destruction — and offering the most tangible physical evidence yet of the catastrophe the Bible describes in stark, unflinching detail.
https://israel365news.com/419806/burnt-beams-from-first-temples-destruction-uncovered-in-city-of-david/

Why is 'Do Not Covet' in the Decalogue? The Decalogue forbids patently reprehensible acts; but the prohibition against coveting is a potentially victimless offense and is the only one that exclusively addresses men. Moreover, this tenth commandment has no clear parallels in ancient Near Eastern law. [some speculation]
https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-is-do-not-covet-in-the-decalogue

Canadians push back against intrusive gov’t census asking for personal information – One of Canada’s top constitutional freedom groups is gearing up for a legal fight against the Canadian federal government for what it said was an intrusive census that “forced” people to disclose to authorities their personal religious beliefs. Canada’s most recent census was mailed to Canadians in May. About 25 percent of census recipients were sent what is known as a “long-form” census that asked questions such as “What is your gender (defined as your ‘personal and social identity’ as a man, woman, non-binary, agender, gender fluid, queer or Two-Spirit)?” The census also asked people’s religion, if they had any mental health or emotional or psychological issues, their rent or mortgage payment, and “What was your sex at birth?” Many Canadians who refused to answer the census faced fines of $500 as well as in-person visits from officials asking why the census was not completed.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canadians-push-back-against-intrusive-govt-census-asking-for-personal-information/

French evangelicals express ‘deep sadness’ after parliament approves assisted suicide law – France’s leading evangelical body has expressed “deep sadness” after the country’s parliament approved legislation legalising assisted suicide, describing the move as a significant ethical turning point and renewing calls for greater investment in palliative care.
https://www.christiantoday.com/news/french-evangelicals-express-deep-sadness-after-parliament-approves-assisted-suicide-law

Nearly 30,000 Nigerian Christians Killed in 6 Years – There is no "genocide" in Gaza, but Nigeria is certainly the scene of genocide. But because the victims of the real genocide are Christians, much of the West does not care.
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/07/19/genocide-nearly-30000-nigerian-christians-killed-in-6-years-n4955223

[England] The step-by-step murder of marriage – Over the past week the meaning of marriage has been attacked from two directions at once, and neither attacker troubled to hide it. The first came from the therapist’s chair. On July 10 the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the largest body of its kind in the country, directed its members back to its guidance on gender, sexuality and relationships. Open that guidance and you find infidelity quietly rebranded. ‘Secret non-monogamy’ – ‘affairs or infidelity’, in plainer words – is called ‘a relationship model’, one the document rates ‘at least as common as monogamy, if not more so’. The counsellor is told that ‘the goal of therapy is not to stop the non-monogamous person’, and is encouraged to help clients ‘normalise how incredibly difficult lifelong monogamy is‘.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/does-anyone-still-believe-fidelity-matters-in-marriage/

Making Sense of Polls About Religion – Reports about religion in America often seem to tell different stories. Gallup, for example, within the past year or so, has reported studies headlined Americans' Religious Engagement Holds at Lower Levels, More Americans See Religion Increasing Its Influence in U.S. and Drop in U.S. Religiosity Among Largest in World. A research report I coauthored with Lydia Saad earlier this year, Rise in Young Men's Religiosity Realigns Gender Gaps, prompted questions from journalists and others about how its findings compared with other reports that appeared to show different results. In many cases, the differences don’t reflect conflicting realities, but rather significant dissimilarities in how researchers measure and report religion in America today. This, in turn, leads to confusion and can create difficulties in understanding what’s really going on.
https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/712901/making-sense-polls-religion.aspx

If DNA is the Code of Life, Who Wrote It? What we know from our uniform and repeated experience, which is the basis of all scientific reasoning, is that information always arises from an intelligent source, whether we’re talking about computer code or a paragraph in a book or a hieroglyphic inscription or the information transmitted as we’re talking or across a radio signal, information is in our experience a product of intelligence. [video]
https://www.hillfaith.org/consider-this/consider-this-if-dna-is-the-code-of-life-who-wrote-it/