Scarcely anything from the Jewish Temple has been found, but a few items have been unearthed that pertain to the Temple. These finds include the Wailing Wall, a limestone sundial and an ivory pomegranate from the top of a priestly scepter. Another discovery pertaining to the Temple is a simple stone sign on which is engraved a serious warning. Formerly, the sign and others like it were affixed to a short wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Court of the (Jewish) Women on the Temple Mount. The sign threatened death to any Gentile who went beyond that wall. It read, "No stranger is to enter within the partition wall and enclosure around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue."

Aside from the physical barrier that it represented to prevent non-Jews from trespassing in the Jewish sanctuary, the apostle Paul referred to that four and a half foot high wall for an illustration in a spiritual lesson (Ephesians 2:11-22). That little wall was a fitting representation of Judaism, which was the actual distinction between Gentiles who lived under Patriarchy and the Israelites to whom God gave the Law of Moses (Judaism).

At the time Paul penned the Ephesians epistle (between A.D. 60-65), that little wall still stood. Earlier, Paul was accused of taking a Gentile past that wall in A.D. 59 (Acts 21:27-29). This false accusation was the catalyst for the aroused mob seizing the apostle, after which he was rescued by the Romans and imprisoned for a number of years. The little wall, along with the Temple compound and the rest of the city of Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.

However, when Paul penned Ephesians Two, that for which he used the illustration of the four-foot wall no longer separated between Gentiles and Jews. Judaism was removed effectively at the cross of Christ and practically at the establishment of the church on the Pentecost of Acts Two (Romans 7:1-6; 2 Corinthians 3:6-11; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 8:6-7). Judaism was decisively and clearly removed when Jerusalem was destroyed.

Not only did the apostle Paul teach that Judaism was removed, but that both Patriarchy and Judaism were replaced with Christianity. Therefore, the Gospel is to be preached to every creature in all the world (Mark 16:15-16).

Moving my residence to another city and changing our Internet Service Provider contributed to the delay in production of the December 2002 issue of Gospel Gazette Online. In addition to the busy schedule we already maintain, necessarily we busied ourselves with all of the details of setting up our household anew. We are still putting things away or in order and have fallen behind in some of our responsibilities. We hope to meet all our obligations respecting demands on our time in the near future. Thank you for your patience.

With the December 2002 issue of Gospel Gazette Online, we have completed four years of publication on the Internet. Each month, GGO has provided 20 pages of sound biblical articles. Hundreds of these articles are available through the Archive of GGO and can be accessed at will from anywhere in the world.

Readers from around the globe often pose questions or offer some word of encouragement. While we hope that this effort proves useful to God and glorifies his name, we are emboldened to continue the rigorous pace of the ongoing demands of producing a 20-page monthly ezine whenever we receive kind notes. Some correspondents have advised us that they have little or no other resources in their localities to which they can turn for the type of edification derived from the pages of GGO.

Please pray for the ongoing efforts of Gospel Gazette Online and tell as many others as possible about the free subscriptions available. Presently, hundreds have requested the free subscriptions and many, many more avail themselves of GGO. Hundreds of thousands of Archive searches have provided students of God's Word with much study material from these articles on GGO.

Beside myself, remember the efforts of others connected with the success of GGO, including my wife, Bonnie, our daughter Rebecca (who proofs GGO), Paul Mobley (who proofs GGO), our associate editor, Steve Smithbauer, and the eldership of the Weirton Heights church of Christ (which oversees and finances GGO -- this past year). Of course, we could not have a publication without the many writers who permit us to use their articles in the pages of GGO. We look forward to another (and we hope many) year of Gospel Gazette Online. Drop us a line (email).

Yours in Christ,

Louis Rushmore