Current Events & Trends: Extreme building security
A prophecy in Zechariah 8:4-5 foretells: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there’” (New International Version.)
This is such a hopeful passage. A society where children are playing in the streets, where grandparents are joyfully watching as they walk by or sit in rocking chairs, seems like a lost dream—particularly in Jerusalem, which has suffered from random terror attacks. This prophecy reveals the beautiful future God has planned for us—a future the world so desperately needs. The word “again” here shows that the world has left a time of peace it once enjoyed.
A recent Financial Times article concerning militarized building security reminds us that the time of peace God has in store for us is certainly not here yet. The article reports: “The new US embassy [in London] is ‘like a Norman castle,’ says Stephen Graham, professor of cities and society at Newcastle University. ‘It even has a moat and is set back, with empty space to protect it from truck bombs or blast,’ he adds. ‘This is the logic of what an antiterrorist city would look like’” (Lucy Killgren, “Safety Obsession Creates Risk of ‘Fortress’ Cities,” May 26, 2015).
The designers have done what they can to hide the security features and make it feel like a peaceful environment—moat and all. The state of the world leads us to protect ourselves in ways not imagined to be necessary not too long ago. This is not what the God of peace wants for His creation.
Thankfully, the time is coming when Jesus will return to put an end to war and fear. We so look forward to that wonderful time when the children can once again play in the streets. (Source: Financial Times.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: July - August 2015
Course Content
Rudolph Rangel III
Rudy Rangel attends the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation along with his wife Judy and two children.
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.
