Current Event & Trends: Outlook for the year ahead

Jan 16, 2013
2 minutes read time
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Current Event & Trends: Outlook for the year ahead
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What will the year 2013 bring mankind? Present trends indicate that we may be locked into a period of prolonged uncertainty, along with increasing social unrest and intensified conflicts.

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In The World in 2013, published by the British magazine The Economist, editor Daniel Franklin writes in his editorial: "From a showdown with Iran over its nuclear plans to a catastrophic break-up of the euro zone, it is not hard to think of disasters that could strike the world in 2013" (Nov. 21, 2012).

A Financial Times article at the beginning of 2012 carried the drophead "Peaceful acceptance of deep differentials is coming to an end" (Moisés Naím, "Economic Inequality," Jan. 2, 2012). The author predicted, "In 2012 peaceful co-existence with inequality will end and demands and promises to fight it will become fiercer and more widespread than they have since the end of the Cold War." This secular prophecy may well apply much more to 2013 and beyond than to last year.

Still, in 2012 European protestors took to the streets in various locations to voice their grievances. The following were some of the newspaper headlines in October and November: "Leftists March in Paris Against Austerity Plans"; "Dealers [in stock exchanges] Run for Cover in the Face of Europe's Angry Marching Millions"; "Europe's Day of Anarchy"; "Violence That Proves Euro Shouldn't Survive."

The last article, from the Daily Mail, began with: "Rubber bullets fired in Madrid . . . violent protests in Milan . . . armoured police cars guarding the Athens parliament . . ." (Nov. 14, 2012).

Besides economic distress, we'll turn attention in our overview to a number of leadership, geopolitical and even religious issues confronting our global life today.

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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.