2026 Annual Report to Members
The Directors of the Pastoral Bible Institute, Inc. (PBI), and the Editors of our publication, The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom, rejoice in having served another year in the harvest work (Matthew 20). Our work will continue until the Lord indicates otherwise.
It was a year of momentous changes in our operations. During the year, our Assistant Secretary, Joanna Christiansen, entered into rest. Sr. Joanna handled many responsibilities for the PBI from her location in Washington, so it became necessary to reorganize many aspects of our operations and redistribute those responsibilities. We no longer maintain a physical office. Responsibilities have been reassigned to individuals across North America. Our official mailing office is now in Arizona, although all subscriptions continue to be processed under our mailing permit in Chicago. As a result of these changes, all booklet orders are now directed to the Chicago Bible Students website (www.chicagobible.org). These changes also mean that we no longer maintain a toll-free number for the PBI. Written correspondence should be directed to the address on the inside front cover of the magazine.
We wish to thank the Berean Bible Students of Australia for their generous donation to the PBI’s work. After decades of publishing The People’s Paper, the brethren in Australia decided to discontinue their work and dissolve the Institute. At the annual meeting on June 10 (as of this writing), one of our major considerations will be how to use these funds, along with several other large donations received during the year.
PBI Directors Elected
The annual election of the Board of Directors resulted in the following members to serve through April 30, 2027 — Todd Alexander, Jeff Earl, Len Griehs, Ernie Kuenzli, Tom Ruggirello, David Stein, Dan Wesol. At the annual meeting on June 10, the new directors appointed five editors for the new fiscal year. PBI bylaws specify that no more than three directors may also serve as editors. Those wishing to attend the meeting via ZOOM should contact the PBI office.
Len Griehs, Treasurer and Chairman, July 2026
Consolidated Financial Statement of the Pastoral Bible Institute, Inc. for the Fiscal Year Ended April 30, 2026
*The PBI received a significant donation from the Berean Bible Students of Australia, which ceased operations during the fiscal year as noted in the Annual Report above. All contributions above $5,000 must be listed annually on the Institute’s Form 990 (a public document) filed after the end of the fiscal year.
**All funds are held at Wells Fargo Bank, including currently allocated investments.
Religious
The Tokyo High Court has upheld an order dissolving the Unification Church’s Japanese branch, clearing the way for its liquidation and the revocation of its status as a religious corporation and its tax benefits. Under Japan’s Religious Corporations Act, a court-appointed lawyer will now take control of the group’s assets and oversee compensation for those harmed by its activities. The church can still appeal the decision to Japan’s Supreme Court. The organization was suspected of unlawfully soliciting donations that left members financially devastated, and it argued that it could not be expected to police itself. — Quill News, 3/4/2026
The U.S. sent 200 troops to Nigeria to train the country’s military to fight Islamist militants, weeks after President Trump accused the West African government of failing to protect Christians from terrorist attacks, according to an American military official. The troops supplement a small number of U.S. military personnel already in Nigeria who assist local forces in using intelligence to identify targets for military strikes, according to U.S. and Nigerian officials. — Wall Street Journal, 2/10/2026
On February 13, 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome to face heresy charges for supporting the Copernican theory that the Earth orbits the Sun. Galileo officially appeared before the Roman Inquisition in April of that year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Pope Urban VIII placed him under indefinite house arrest, and he spent the rest of his life at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before passing away on January 8, 1642. — History Daily, 2/13/2026
Social
Engineers at Northwestern University have developed printed artificial neurons that go beyond simple imitation and can directly interact with real brain cells. These devices are flexible, inexpensive, and capable of generating electrical signals that closely resemble those of living neurons. In laboratory tests using slices of mouse brain tissue, the artificial neurons successfully stimulated real neurons, producing measurable responses. This research represents an important step toward electronics capable of communicating with the nervous system. Such technology could support brain-machine interfaces and neuroprosthetic devices, including implants designed to restore hearing, vision, or movement. — Sci-Tech Daily, 4/15/2026
The Earth is the only known astronomical object to harbor life, giving rise to billions of species of stunning diversity, including Homo sapiens. At 5.97 septillion kilograms and 40,000 kilometers in circumference, the Earth lies in the “Goldilocks zone,” providing the conditions needed to sustain liquid surface water. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. It is theorized to contain a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core of iron and nickel, above which sits a slow-moving rocky mantle that drives the crust’s tectonic plates. The Earth’s five-layer atmosphere traps solar energy and maintains an average global surface temperature of 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). Roughly 21% is oxygen, which is crucial for respiration but highly flammable. Nitrogen (78%) dilutes the oxygen and prevents rapid combustion. — Science and Technology, 4/20/2026
A new study has overcome a long-standing challenge-how to isolate and examine elusive HIV-infected cells called authentic reservoir clones (ARCs) that evade the immune system, making the disease difficult to cure. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and collaborating institutions offer a detailed look at these hidden HIV-harboring cells and show that some may be more vulnerable to immune destruction than previously believed. The findings, published in Nature, describe how the researchers collected these rare cells from study participants with HIV and successfully grew them in the lab, yielding insights that could eventually lead to a cure. — Well Cornell Medicine, 2/24/2026
A new study from an interdisciplinary German research team, led by the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, uncovers the secret behind the elephant trunk’s gentle dexterity. The 1000 whiskers covering the elephant trunk have unusual material properties that highlight contact points along each whisker, giving elephants an incredible sense of touch that compensates for their thick skin and poor eyesight. — Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 2/8/2026
Pain is something most people experience after an injury. Usually, pain diminishes as the body heals. For years, differences in pain between men and women have often been attributed to psychological, emotional, or social factors. Recent studies indicate that immune cells may also play a crucial role in resolving pain, and that differences in how these cells function between men and women might affect how quickly pain subsides. The research focused on a specific molecule, interleukin-10, which helps reduce inflammation, by measuring its levels in both mice after skin injury and in people in the emergency room after a car accident. IL-10 not only calms inflammation but also directly signals to pain-sensing nerve cells to turn off. Importantly, the study also found that testosterone influences the amount of IL-10 these immune cells produce. Higher testosterone levels in males promote greater IL-10 production by monocytes. This suggests that hormonal signals may impact the body’s ability to naturally diminish pain after an injury. — The Conversation, 2/24/2026
Political
The British Empire, once the largest on Earth, was the world’s first modern superpower. At its height in the early 1900s, it governed nearly one-quarter of the world’s population — about 500 million people and spanned every inhabited continent. Its first colony was founded in 1585 off the coast of present-day North Carolina. World War II weakened Britain’s ability to maintain its holdings, and public support for colonial rule faded. India gained independence in 1947, and by the 1960s, Britain signaled it would not resist African independence movements. The empire effectively ended in 1997 with the handover of Hong Kong to China. — 1440 News, 4/20/2026
In the battle against illegal immigration, the U.S. is spending hundreds of millions to give federal agents easy access to citizens’ addresses, social media accounts, vehicle information, flight history, law enforcement records, and other data, including information to track their daily comings and goings. This expanded surveillance system allows agents to peruse data belonging to more than 300 million people. The government’s tracking system relies on an amalgam of public and private information sifted, sorted and packaged by contractors that include Palantir Technologies, Deloitte, Japanese conglomerate NEC and smaller spyware specialists. — Wall Street Journal, 4/30/2026
Mexico’s capital city is sinking by nearly 10 inches every year — a shift so dramatic it’s visible from space. NASA says the city has subsided more than 39 feet in less than a century. The city was built on an ancient lake bed, and decades of intensive groundwater pumping to supply its roughly 22 million residents have caused the underlying aquifer to collapse. — NASA, 4/29/2026
China has enacted an “ethnic unity” law. Supporters say the law will strengthen national identity, but critics warn it could weaken the rights of 55 minority groups, which make up about 9% of the population. Han Chinese make up the remaining 91%. The measure authorizes authorities to promote a shared culture and discourage customs deemed outdated. It also requires parents to teach their children loyalty to the Communist Party and mandates that children now mainly study in Mandarin, China’s official language. — 1440 News, 2/13/2026
Financial
OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon are among the top AI firms whose systems the US military will now use for classified work. The Pentagon touted the deals as a step toward making the military an “AI-first fighting force.” Anthropic, which the government labeled a supply chain risk earlier this year over reservations about AI use in warfare, was notably excluded from the list. — The Hill, 5/1/2026
Self-driving cars are autonomous vehicles that operate without human input. They safely navigate from one location to another, following traffic laws and adapting to changing road conditions. These vehicles rely on sensors — including radar, lidar (which uses lasers), and cameras — to perceive their environment. The data collected by these sensors is used to build a map of the surroundings, identifying everything from street signs and traffic lights to other vehicles and pedestrians. This map is continuously updated, allowing an artificial intelligence system to decide when to accelerate, brake, or turn to ensure safe travel. As of the fourth quarter of 2025, no fully autonomous self-driving cars are available for consumer purchase. However, some companies, such as Waymo and Mercedes-Benz, are testing self-driving vehicles on public roads. — 1440 Digest, 2/25/2026
Americans owe more than $1T to credit card companies. And with rising interest rates that prevent cardholders from paying down debt (not to mention the rising cost of living), that number is likely to keep growing. — Business and Finance, 4/20/2026
Generating a five-second AI video can use as much energy as running a microwave for over an hour and that’s before accounting for what we can’t see. — 1440 News, 5/1/2026
Israel and the Middle East
It is believed there are about 12,000 Jewish Iranians in the country. It is one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East outside of Israel, if not the largest. That is a significantly smaller number than the estimated 100,000 or more who lived in the country before the Islamic Republic came to power in the 1979 revolution. Since then, the community has shrunk for various reasons, including anxiety over unequal treatment — which the government denies, insisting that Jews are allowed to practice their religion openly and without fear of persecution. — CBS, 4/20/2026
Approximately 21,900 to 24,600 new immigrants (Olim) made aliyah to Israel in 2025, according to various reports. While overall numbers declined, North American immigration increased by over 12% to 4,150, the highest in four years. Major sources included Russia (~8,300), North America (~4,150), and France (~3,300). — JNS, 12/30/2025
According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, emigration from Israel over the past two years has been exceptional. Even after excluding those not born here, these past few years have seen a historic number of native-born Israelis leaving. More detailed data show disproportionately high emigration rates among people in sought-after professions, such as doctors and workers in technological fields. Many see a future that portends a change in Israel’s character, especially among the young, leading them to believe that a drastic transformation is in the offing. Already today, the haredi birth rate far exceeds that of the secular. Before long, a third of Israelis will be haredi. This community is not only religiously extreme and anti-liberal but also does not share in shouldering Israel’s economic and security burden. The haredim constitute about 15% of Israel’s population, alongside a productive non-haredi majority willing to fight for the state. — Jerusalem Post Opinion Page, 4/20/2026
In a move that has triggered negative reactions from eight Arab countries in the region as well as from the European Union, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved measures that will substantially alter the status quo in Judea and Samaria. In a joint statement, foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan accuse Israel of “illegal decisions and steps aimed at imposing illegitimate Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlements, and establishing a new legal and administrative reality in the West Bank.” Although Israel defeated Jordan nearly 50 years ago and reclaimed its biblical inheritance west of the Jordan River, the Israeli government(s) has consistently chosen not to formally annex the territory. — Bridges for Peace, 2/13/2026
The Berlin Film Festival responded to separate claims by German politicians that pro-Palestinian speeches at its closing ceremony were “unacceptable,” “antisemitic,” and “malicious” in tone. “Everything that was said on Saturday was within the bounds of free speech laws in Germany,” the festival stated in response … about the backlash. The festival found itself at the center of yet another political storm after a politically charged closing ceremony, where several award winners used their acceptance speeches to voice support for Palestine and the people of Gaza. German Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider walked out of the ceremony after Palestinian director Abdallah Al-Khatib, whose film Chronicles From The Siege won the top prize in the Perspectives section, accused the German government of “being partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel.” — Deadline, 2/25/2026