Current Events & Trends: Catastrophic conditions presage the end of an age
Scriptural prophecies of a time of unparalleled severity have gone unfulfilled for around 2,000 and more years. Deeply troubling world events now require us to face them squarely.
• "Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it, and it is the time of Jacob's [Israel's] trouble..." (Jeremiah 30:7, emphasis added throughout; compare Ezekiel 5, especially verse 9).
• "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time..." (Daniel 12:1).
• "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be..." (Matthew 24:21; see also Mark 13:19).
While we're not there yet, current events should remind us this time is coming. The news of just this past year reflected frightening trends. These disturbing developments should cause us the soberest contemplation. Events like the radical reshaping of Europe, German domination of the European Union (EU), the clash between Western and Islamic civilizations, Islamic hatred of Israel, the Iranian nuclear threat, the rapid rise of China and the continuing decline of American influence demand the deepest introspection.
Above all, we desperately need to keep our heads out of the sand, for we live in a unique time of signs that herald the end of the age (see Matthew 16:2-3; Luke 12:54-56; 21:11, 25). Truly, Christians are duty bound to watch world events in the light of Bible prophecy (see Luke 21:24-36; Mark 13:32-37).
Where are the events of 2012 leading the world? Will the year ahead simply bring a further intensifying of political forces already well in motion?
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: January - February 2012
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Tom Robinson
Tom is an elder in the United Church of God who works from his home near St. Louis, Missouri as managing editor and senior writer for Beyond Today magazine, church study guides and the UCG Bible Commentary. He is a visiting instructor at Ambassador Bible College. And he serves as chairman of the church's Prophecy Advisory Committee and a member of the Fundamental Beliefs Amendment Committee.
Tom began attending God's Church at the age of 16 in 1985 and was baptized a year later. He attended Ambassador College in both Texas and California and served for a year as a history teacher at the college's overseas project in Sri Lanka. He graduated from the Texas campus in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in theology along with minors in English and mass communications. Since 1994, he has been employed as an editor and writer for church publications and has served in local congregations through regular preaching of sermons.
Tom was ordained to the ministry in 2012 and attends the Columbia-Fulton, Missouri congregation with his wife Donna and their two teen children.
