This blog page is a digest of our thoughts on world events as they relate to the coming of the Kingdom of God. We try to update it regularly, particularly when things happen that seem significant in the light of Bible prophecy.
In 1947 a group of atomic scientists, realising the dangers threatening continued human existence on this planet after the invention and use of atomic weapons, devised a warning system called The Doomsday Clock. It currently displays 100 seconds to midnight, and the supporting headline for this shortening of the time is a link to information on the coronavirus.
Eugene Rabinowitch, one of the founders of The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists, which features the Clock, explained...
The Bulletin's Clock is not a gauge to register the ups and downs of the international power struggle; it is intended to reflect basic changes in the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age.
Now it seems that uncontrolled spread of disease is a contributing factor in the determination of how close humankind is to catastrophe.
Scripture states the Most High rules in the kingdom of men [Daniel4:17] declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done [Isaiah 46:10], so we should expect its pages to reveal detailed foreknowledge of World Events, and this has proven to be the case - for example, Bible students as far back as Joseph Mede [1586-1639] and Sir Isaac Newton [1643-1727] wrote that the rebirth of the nation of Israel was foretold in the writings of the Hebrew prophets.
“Grandma, can you do cartwheels?” asked my young daughter with typical childish innocence, after demonstrating her own acrobatic abilities across the lawn. Grandma, though pretty spry for her age at that time, found the notion of doing cartwheels in her mid-seventies so amusing that she remembered this incident for the rest of her days. She eventually attained the age of 93 with some help from modern medicine and surgery, but during the last months of her life even walking had become impossible. As for myself, I don’t do cartwheels now, and one day my daughter will experience the same decline in strength. Such is the curse of mortality inherited from Adam.
In spite of declining belief in God and falling church attendance figures, Christmas continues to be celebrated in one form or another by huge numbers of people throughout the world. Probably only a small proportion of these do so for religious reasons, and far more simply look forward to its material pleasures – time off work, an excuse for abundant food and drink shared with family and friends, the excitement acquired from earliest childhood of giving and receiving presents. And in case anyone should waver in their enthusiasm for these things, the commercial world does its best to convince everyone that the more one buys the better Christmas will be.