[Darris McNeely] There's a phrase called, "A holiday from history." It was coined a few decades ago in the early 1990s, when the Cold War ended between the Soviet Union and the West, in particular, the United States. The world entered into what some called, "A holiday from history." In other words, the big battles had been won. From this point forward, we would glide into a period of prosperity and global peace and unity and institutions working together to end war and to create better conditions for all of mankind. It was thought that world conflicts would come to an end and a benign global world order would emerge. Guess what? That false dream ended on 9/11 when the attacks upon New York City and Washington by Arab terrorists took place and cascaded into other events in the Middle East, and that holiday from history was all over.

In other words, as some have said about this, the world doesn't get a holiday from history. We would tie that into a thought when it comes to the Bible and prophecy. We don't get a holiday from prophecy, Bible prophecy. No matter what we feel about the topic, no matter what we understand or don't understand, the world doesn't get a holiday from prophecy and especially the church of God, a disciple of Christ. Two years ago, COVID-19 unleashed a global pandemic. And we have been dealing with the results of that ever since. As well as a number of other upheavals in the world scene, China's bid for a global supremacy, technological upheavals, censorship, cultural changes that have taken place, the historic role of America among the nations has changed as well. And we are seeing a great deal of activity.

And as I've talked, again, recently, Russia is on the verge of invading the nation of Ukraine, which is huge. Bigger than what most people do realize, it could change Europe's balance of relationships, something that has existed there since 1945, the end of World War II. In other words, the European map would be redrawn. Just as we don't get a holiday from history, we don't get a holiday from prophecy. Any number of these events that I've mentioned, Russia invading Ukraine, China's rise, events in the Middle East, these could spark prophetic events that would begin to roll quicker than what we could even imagine.

A nation invades another. Thousands, tens of thousands of people die because of greed, and evil human nature run rampant translated into national policy and people die. That's war, that's murder, that's death, that's sin. And that brings it down to something we should be interested in. And we should seek to understand the whys, what God's word says about that. Any Christian who does follow the Bible and the teachings of Jesus is well familiar with the question that the disciples put to Jesus in Matthew 24, what is called the Olivet prophecy when, "As they looked upon the mountain, they settled on the Mount of Olives and looked upon the scene of Jerusalem and the temple. And the disciples asked Jesus, 'What will be the signs of your coming and of the end of the age?'" And he began to unroll a prophetic scenario in Chapter 24 of extreme importance that ties in even with the book of Revelation.

But at the very start of that sermon, Jesus said, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrow," as Matthew 24: 6-8. Jesus had a lot to say in that prophecy about the condition of mankind. Wars and rumors of wars. That's been the condition of humanity from the very beginning, but Christ said it would increase in the period in the run-up to the close of the age, and one of the signs to be watching to understand.

We don't get a holiday from history in the world affairs, nor do we as students of the Bible, as disciples of Christ, get a holiday from prophecy.

That's BT daily. Join us next time.