World News and Prophecy, Part 2

Or about right now, they'd be hearing something and they know to get that creamer into coffee and stop the conversation and get in and sit down. So, okay. We are ready to go. I've got a lot of material in this one, and I don't know that I'll get it all done anyway. Another reason I don't like to go overtime, because that takes your time away and you've got other classes coming on. I've got a full day here, so... Alright, let's talk here at this point about something. As I was developing this class here last year or two, I realized, again, before you jump into the Middle East and the beast and the false prophet and all this stuff, really what we are talking about in discerning the time and understanding our world and the world we live in, one big key to me is that we all understand what this concept called a worldview. Alright? For those of you that are listening in, I've got a picture of a big eyeball. Everybody's looking at a big eyeball right now. Okay? We all have a view of the world as we look out every morning, every evening, as we filter information that comes into us, as we watch the news, as we read about what's happening, or as we talk to our neighbor about the state of the local school, what's happening in local politics. We all filter this information through a worldview. Alright? I grew up... My mother was a daughter of the South. Her grandparents fought on the southern side of the Civil War. And I heard that growing up. I heard a different history than my wife was taught in Ohio about the Civil War. Okay? My mother would take me to Shiloh Battlefield, southern Tennessee, two or three times when I was a kid, and she would cry as she walked across the battlefield about all those poor boys that got killed. And she had a worldview, is my point. And it was designed by growing up in a world, in a culture and environment that was southern, if you will, and rural and poor. She grew up in the Depression. She had a worldview. And that, you know, with everything that caused her then, she looked at the world and events. She had a different view about the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s than other people did. And I heard about that. Okay? It took me a number of years to, you know, kind of correct that. And I have a different view than what she would have taught me about Martin Luther King and other things. But I've developed that with a more balanced approach to history, God's spirit, and everything else. We all have a worldview, is my point, based on our race, our gender, and how we were raised, where we were raised. And we need to understand that. And as you know, there are people with a completely different view of the world than you and I have. And we can't understand why they can't think like we do. Of course, they think they look and say, why can't they understand like we do? That same-sex marriage is okay. That's their worldview. I have a different worldview, so do you, on that subject and many others. What is your worldview? It's important that we understand how this is developed, and especially what ours might be. I like this picture that I have.

This is a gentleman standing in a very, very small room with a very low ceiling, very narrow constricted. He's standing in this room, and he's touching the ceiling without even having to be on his tiptoes. This is what I describe as a low ceiling room.

Sometimes we grow up in a world with a very low ceiling, very narrow space. But that's all we see. In one sense, my mother grew up in a very narrow room, very low ceiling room. And yet, in other ways, she had a bigger vision, too.

She was called into the church, and there are other parts of her life where she had a bigger vision. But sometimes we get very narrow in how we view the world. We just view it from our point of view. Fundamentalist Christians who have a particular view of the world may not understand someone else's point of view. And then you tailor your life based on that view about God or the Bible that may or may not be true. Some people do. And you know other religious people who have maybe a much different view of the Bible even than you do. What kind of a room did you grow up in?

What kind of a house? How big were the ceilings in your house? That all determined the view of the world that we have. You see, there's no windows in this room. The person growing up in this type of room is not going to see beyond their walls.

And this is his world, and it's a very narrow world. What's your worldview? How big is your worldview? Let's talk about this concept for a few minutes. Here's a large quote, and we'll just focus on a part of it. It's taken from a book called The Universe Next Door. A basic worldview catalog. A man named James Sire wrote this book, and it's a very interesting book. This lecture, this talk, is based on his book. But Mr. Sire says that a worldview is a commitment or a fundamental orientation of the heart that can be expressed as a story or a set of presuppositions, or assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false.

There are some people today who do not believe that Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. They think that he was in a warehouse somewhere near Columbus, Ohio. And they still believe that. That is their assumption of the world. Is it true, partially true, or is it false? Everybody has assumptions, okay? You may know some other people with some outlandish views as well about history, things, people. But that sets up our worldview.

We hold these consciously or subconsciously. We hold them consistently or inconsistently. And all of these form a basic constitution of reality. It is our reality. And he concludes here. He says, that worldview, that basic reality we have based on our assumptions, provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being. You ever heard that phrase before? How many of you know where that phrase is adapted from? Book of Acts. It comes out of a sermon by the Apostle Paul in Acts 17.

We'll touch on that later. We live and move and have our being based on our belief structure and what we view reality of being. You believe in God. Some people don't believe there is a God. That's a different worldview, okay? Just to kind of see where we're going.

Let's step through a few things. A worldview will answer seven basic questions, according to this book by Mr. Sire. It will deal with seven basic questions or realities of life, okay? First of all, whatever one's view of the world is, it will determine what their prime reality is. It is their basic basis of reality. What is really real? Now, I've got a picture here of a movie that came out about 20 years ago called The Matrix. I don't know how many of you ever saw The Matrix? More than I've thought. Okay, good. I watched it and it kind of blew me away, to be honest.

It was a fascinating movie. It's a science fiction movie. The basic premise is that the world we see is not the real world. That there's a matrix behind it manipulating everything. This small little group of rebels were trying to get to their one chosen person and expose all of this while they were being pursued by the agents of The Matrix to keep that knowledge of what really is from being exposed.

It's kind of like The Wizard of Oz. He didn't want that curtain pulled back, but Toto pulled it back. A worldview is your view of reality. It's going to set what is your basic view of reality. The Matrix was a very interesting, fascinating story.

I think I saw the second one and it was not as good in my mind. I never saw the third one. Was there ever a fourth one? Fourth Matrix? Okay, just three, right? The first one was pretty good. Anyway, worldview is also going to answer a second question, which is, what is the nature of external reality? That is, the world around us. Is it created by a God, or did it just come into existence by natural forces?

Your worldview will answer this question and it will help you explain the nature of the things that we see around us. The trees, the rocks, the oceans, the various forms of life. Your worldview will explain that to you. I would think everybody in this room, our worldview is that it was created by a supreme being of supreme intelligence, God.

Others have different ideas about that based on their study of the world and they have a different view. But that, again, is what your worldview will do. A worldview is going to determine what is a human being.

What is man? We know that question from the scriptures, the Psalms. What is man that you are mindful of him? We know we have an answer to that question based on the Word of God. Man is created in the image of God.

That is our view. However, others feel that man is just the highest evolved form of life on this planet. And it came about as a result of natural selection and certain other favorable conditions through the aeons of time. Man stood upright, walked out of the slime, and has become what he has. That's an evolutionary view of what man is. And at death, there is nothing beyond that. So we have one worldview. Others have a different view of what a human being is. We believe man is created in the image of God and that endows us with certain other approaches as well as we answer that. Our worldview answers that question. And other people's worldviews answer that too. Some people will go on. Which leads to the fourth question that a worldview will answer and that is what happens to a person at death.

What happens at death? Your view of the world that you've come to will answer that question.

Some feel that nothing happens at death, that that's it. There is nothing beyond. That's it. Period.

Others believe that the soul goes to heaven or the soul goes to a burning hell fire. Others believe that their soul might migrate into and come back in a reincarnated form of life. That's a different worldview. A Hindu will believe that.

And so on it goes. And then you've got everything in between. Everything in between.

We have our view that the Bible teaches us that at death, dust to dust, we go back to the dust, but God knows who we are. That there is a spirit in man and it's not a soul that has consciousness apart from life, the body. But God knows who we were and are and He will bring that back in a resurrected body.

So we have that view based on Scripture teaches us. But a worldview is going to answer that question for a person to whatever degree so that they can get on with their life.

Another question that will be answered is, is it even possible to know anything at all?

This kind of gets back to, again, reality. But we'll also get into what is the nature of the mind.

Why is it possible that man even knows that he is?

When a monkey, most of us feel, don't know. Some feel that they do.

I mean, we're moving into a new world, folks, where people are going to start marrying their chimps.

And I mean, there are people already that, as we know, that feel that man is an animal. And just because he may be the smartest, most intelligent animal, he cannot and should not deal with other animals in any less of a fashion than he is dealt with. We all know that.

I couldn't believe it. I'll just take a little aside here. When I flew over to Europe here a few weeks ago, we flew to Amsterdam, then had to take a flight from Amsterdam down to Rome at midday, and they served us a chicken sandwich on the plane.

This is Europe.

So it was a little cardboard box, a nice little neat whole grain chicken sandwich. And I said, okay, I can eat that. But I started reading what was on the box.

And it was put together by a food processing company, but they wanted to tell me that the chickens that they used had been treated humanely.

They lived in clean quarters. They got out every day and they scratched around. They had clean water.

And that they lived a good life.

Oh, I'm serious. I brought the box home. I've got it in my office.

And that you can... basically the subtext was, as you're eating this dead chicken that we killed, you can know that he had a good life.

I'm reading this while I'm munching away on my chicken sandwich.

I'm thinking, only in Europe.

We're heading that direction, folks.

We're heading in that direction.

But I said, I save that when I've got it on my shelf.

If you ever come by the office, I'll show it to you.

Why does man know that he is, as opposed to a cow out here, doesn't know that he's a cow?

Because there is a spirit in man, the Bible tells us.

And that's why we know that. Now, scientists have a different view, but they know that man is far superior, obviously.

But again, your worldview will tell you that.

Alright? Your worldview will also help you know what is right and wrong.

How do you know what's right and what's wrong?

Here we've got Homer Simpson with a devil Homer on his left shoulder, and an angel Homer on his right shoulder, for those of you that are listening in. You know, Homer Simpson.

And how do we know what's right and wrong?

You've got the devil on one shoulder, you've got an angel on the other shoulder.

You know, what's the basis of your morality? Of your law?

Some people feel that, well, man just normally, by reason, comes up with ethical, moral behavior.

Others believe that it's rooted in a biblical foundation of God's law. And others would throw that out and say, well, man has come to believe that certain ethics and instincts and behavior is moral just by virtue of natural selection, by virtue of experience, and not because of any external, spiritual foundation.

That's their worldview. And there are people who believe that way. And you can change that if you want.

You're 85 years old, you need a pacemaker, you need a heart operation, sorry, you're too old.

Our resources need to be reserved for the young.

You go into the left. It's called euthanasia.

There are schools of thought that that's where we should go.

Okay? I'm speaking to an older group. We don't think that way. I'm moving in on that direction, too.

I told you I'll be 64 next month. My new theme song is, Will You Still Need Me? Will You Still Feed Me? When I'm 64.

The old Beatles song that I grew up listening to.

I remind Debbie, I said, Will you still need me, honey? Will you still feed me when I'm 64?

So check with me on August 25th if I'm still alive.

Alright. That's the sixth question that a worldview will answer.

And then Mr. Sires says that a worldview will answer, What's the meaning of human history?

Why did Egypt rise and fall? Why did Babylon come and go? Why did Rome rise and fall? Why did the Soviet Union come and go?

What's the meaning of human history? Why suffering? Why evil?

Why did this group of white English-speaking people from Europe land on the shores of North America and be the recipients of the choicest blessings of the planet Earth and develop into what's called the United States of America?

I hate you. Die. Death to America, some say.

You know, it's unfair. And we had this guilt deal going on even in American politics and society today, where there's a guilt because America has had too much. We need to share. It's called socialism in another term.

But why us and not people in other parts of the world? Why do we have cheap gas and others don't? And plentiful food.

Well, what's the meaning? Your worldview will answer that. Now, you can read a textbook. Some of the modern ones are going to be completely different than the ones I studied from 40-50 years ago, as to even how and what America is, the European experience.

But others... Look, I've had people in the Church of God stand in the middle of a church setting and argue with me over, let's say, our teaching about the United States and Britain and Bible prophecy. I'm not going to be talking about that today, but I've had people who feel that's racist. And it's because it has been used in racist ways by groups.

Yes, I understand why one would feel that way. And they don't believe it. And I challenge me on that, as I've talked about it in a church setting.

I've had on another occasion, I was up in Canada doing one of these talks, and I had a person come up and tell me that he didn't believe the Holocaust, the six million Jews killed during World War II, ever happened. He didn't believe it happened. I said, you're kidding. He said, no. He said that was all Jewish propaganda. And there's a school of thought on history like that that's completely different than what my father saw when he was over there, what I see on the newsreels I wasn't there, and what I've read in the history. And I've heard eyewitnesses testify to what happened there.

And yet there are people who feel that didn't happen. I told this guy, I said, you know what? I just came back from Berlin, because at that time I just made a trip to Germany.

And I said, you know, I was in Berlin, heart of Nazi Germany. And you know what's in the center of Berlin? I said, right over the spot where Hitler's bunker was, where Hitler and his mistress committed suicide.

You know what they built there today? Their Holocaust Museum in Berlin. The Germans have a Holocaust Museum, too.

Remembering that. I said, do you think they would do that in the middle of their capital if it was a fabrication? No, I don't think they would.

You know, I wanted to tell them, go so crazy someplace else.

Because I don't have time for it, but these are people have a different worldview. That's my point.

And we have to be careful about that even in the church, because sometimes we, you know, people in the, you know, all different kinds of people come into the church. And I've heard all kinds of ideas, as I just said, from people standing in the church aisle.

Conspiracy theories about world history. Illuminati. I give a talk about that, but I won't today.

So, the meaning of history, human history, is part of what is a, what a worldview will answer. All right, now, our worldview has a different one than perhaps the history professor that I had when I was at the university I attended before I went to Ambassador College.

But again, these seven steps are things that a worldview will teach you.

There are different types of worldviews that people have. There is something called Christian theism, which your Church of Christ and Baptist Church around the corner here largely will fall into a Christian theist.

They have a Christian view believing in God. Deism is another worldview. There's a first cause. There's a Creator.

You have to watch language sometimes. When you're reading something, people talk about nature with a capital N.

They might believe in naturalism. Nature, Mother Earth, okay?

Neolism is another worldview. There's, you know, just a total nothingness. Anti-law. Existentialism. Eastern pantheistic monism. These are, you know, big words, big names.

The bottom one I have here on the list is Islamic theism. We've heard a lot about that in recent years.

An Islamic theist, they believe in Allah. They have a view of history and the world based on Islam.

Again, totally different than Christian theism, even, as we know. This is just a selection of different worldviews that are out there.

Atheism. Agnosticism would fit into that as well.

We might think that ours, certainly our worldview, yours and mine, in the Church of God, is closest to a Christian theist.

Okay? Let me ask you a question. I've got a picture here of the front office of the United Church of God Home Office Building over here in Milford, Ohio.

There's a church seal up there, and you see it. Many of you have been there and know what the building looks like.

The United Church of God. Part of the greater Church of God. Okay?

Part of what had been the worldwide Church of God.

Herbert Armstrong. The larger Church of God movement that includes the Church of God Seventh Day. And, you know, other groups going back even toward Seventh Day Adventism. When you get it all, understand certain long-gone connections back there.

We're Sabbath-keeping, Holy Day-keeping Christian Church. Where do we fit in our worldview?

Are we Christian theists? Just like your friends around the corner here?

Is our worldview exactly like that of your Baptist, Nazarene, Church of Christ, Community Church, Grace Brethren, Neighbor, Relative, Friend, Coworker? Is it?

You might have certain values in common.

You're homeschooled. You have a homeschool network.

You all have certain values. Are yours theirs? Are theirs all yours? Is your worldview exactly like theirs? Because you like organic gardening?

You don't... People used to come in the Church because we were organic gardeners. That was their first connection, maybe. Or maybe it was prophecy.

And we ate Roman meal bread back then.

The people you've known that have come and gone through the years, and I've known a lot of them like you have, they came in for some interesting reasons. That was their connection.

John did right, and he said, they went out from you because they were not of you.

And so when it comes back to what is our unique worldview in the Church, we need to understand that and where it fits into everything else, especially with a larger Christian world. I'm not knocking or trying to slam anybody, because there are a lot of good people who are Christians, there are a lot of good people that are atheists.

I don't share all their total worldview, though.

And what I teach and what we believe doesn't. But where do we fit? Let's examine this question for a minute so we understand what is our worldview, or what it should be.

Number one, our worldview is based on the Bible. A lot of people... theirs is based on the Bible, too. We believe the Word of God, we believe both the Old and the New Testament, are a way of life, are a source of doctrine and inspiration, teaching and righteousness.

We have a set of fundamental beliefs in the United Church of God. We have 20 of them.

I teach those every year at Ambassador Bible College. The Sabbath, the Holy Days, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the nature of God, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the resurrections.

You go right down the list, there's 20 of them that define our fundamentals of belief.

Taken as a package, that begins to winnow us out from, let's say, the larger Christian community, because we keep the Sabbath.

Many of them don't. Now, there are many Sabbath keepers out there we know, a lot more than us. Jews, Adventists, others.

Thirdly, on the list here, we observe the biblical festivals, the Holy Days.

That gives us a very, very, even more unique worldview.

Can I say that? Even more unique worldview by keeping the Holy Days.

When we walk through the meaning of each of the Holy Days, from Unleavened Bread all the way to the 8th day, we develop not only a view of God and of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, but also a view of really history that shows us that God has a plan that He's bringing to pass.

That one of the big ticket items tells us that today is not the only day of salvation.

The Holy Days teaches that as we keep Pentecost, first fruits. And by the time we get to the 8th day, we understand that there will be a time of the resurrection of the dead, small and great, will stand before God. That is unique.

That separates us from the Baptists, the Church of Christ, Adventists, right on down the list.

That's big, the Holy Days. That's a big part of our defining worldview.

When you have that understanding, you understand we're not going to Pakistan and set up Christian missions.

Thinking that we have to convert them now.

It doesn't mean we don't preach the Gospel. It just means that we don't feel that we have to save souls now. It defines not only what we believe, but also what we do, and how we conduct the work of God. Bible prophecy is the fourth worldview, the unique view of Bible prophecy.

Now again, our view of Bible prophecy is shared by many others beyond our walls.

But taken as a package here, you see these four things. The Bible, our fundamentals of belief. Thirdly, the Holy Days. And fourth, Bible prophecy. Shape a worldview within the United Church of God that is quite unique.

Quite unique among religions, and even among Sabbath-keeping peoples.

And that begins to shape our worldview.

To give us quite a unique worldview. So again, what's your worldview?

Is it a small room? Or is it a big room? I've got a picture here of a huge study, den area of what would be a very nice home. And a big desk, I guess a big screen television, huge, probably 25-foot ceiling. Big windows looking out.

What's your worldview? This, to me, represents something more than what this one represents, the small one of a room that I want to live in.

I want to live in a room like this. While I believe all the things that I do about the Bible, our fundamental beliefs, God's Holy Days, and Bible prophecy, I don't ever want to let it take me down to a room like this. As I view people, as I view the world, and become so exclusivist, cultish, narrow-minded, bigoted, in my thinking about people.

John 3, 16 tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Christ said, I've come to call sinners to repentance. That doesn't mean we tolerate sin and we let it just wallow in our midst. But we also recognize that we've got to be bold and strong while at the same time we extend grace and mercy and certainly understanding.

I like to tell people that they're dying off in my family, but some of my dad's sisters and brothers, very, very good Nazarene folk. They treated me better through the years than some people who I used to pastor who a few years ago decided that I was a liar and wanted to not only stick the knife in, but twist it.

I could go and have dinner with my aunts and uncles and they watched me on television. They treated me better than some people who at one point got stirred up and didn't act too Christian while they were trying to rip the church apart and go out and do the performing of the church.

That same uncle that I had, I always like to tell this story, that same uncle, he was a good Nazarene, he died last year, my Uncle Roy. My Uncle Roy was a very good Nazarene and his wife still is, although she's losing it.

But in his early years, my Uncle Roy went to his Nazarene church retreat and they were still developing that church retreat. They wanted pledges from the people to build it up. He was a truck driver, drove a propane gas truck. He didn't make a lot of money in the early 50s. He said, Carrie, his wife, we've got to help this for our kids, build this place for our kids. So he pledged to tithe or give a portion of it. He said, I don't know how I'm going to make next week's rent, but I'm going to give him some money tonight. I'm going to make a pledge. He went home and he got a raise. So he kept giving. And through the years, his funds and his work and his efforts and that of his other fellow Nazarenes helped develop this little church retreat camp into a bigger camp. You know what the name of that camp is? Pinecrest.

Any of you been to Pinecrest here? Out in Missouri. My Uncle Roy helped finance and build it with his hands. But he's a Nazarene. He was just a nominal Christian. So called. You get my point? He died a year ago and he'll come up one day in the resurrection and he'll have a fuller knowledge of the truth and he'll do all right. He'll do fine. He thinks he died and gone to heaven with his daughter who preceded him. But what I'm saying is, let's not be too quick to judge people. We're going out and renting their camps for our kids to go to learn about God's way of life. And that's a good thing. I've been a camp director. But we're having to go hand in hand to these places and to these groups. Don't live in a narrow room like this as we approach even other people. I don't want to become a Nazarene. If my mother had wanted to do that, she would have gone to church with them 50 years ago instead of coming into the Church of God. I don't want to become a Trinitarian and I don't want to keep Sunday and I don't want to start keeping Christmas. But I don't need to point fingers and label them with something that makes me feel better. I know what defines me as a Christian, as a Son of God. I know what defines me and it's God's Spirit, it's God's grace and relationship. And I know what I should do in terms of worshiping God and when. I'm here today.

I won't be here tomorrow, literally. Somebody else will be here, you'll be meeting on Sunday. You pagans.

We all do that every year on Pentecost, don't we? I'm just saying, look, don't raise your kids in a room like this. Those of you that are going to yet raise kids. Don't think of the world like this. Think opportunity. Think big. Think that, like God said through Jeremiah to Israel, I've got big plans for you to bless you.

And don't talk about people and denigrate others just because they're not in God's church or they don't go to the feast like us or whatever. We've come a long way toward from that personality, but I still see it at times and I don't like it. I kind of grew up in it like that. I grew up in a church sometimes that was a small ceiling room.

And I actually had a very good pastor in my youth in the church of God. The pastor I had really helped me stay around in the church and sent me off to college and whatever. But I also am a child of that era and that time. And I think we ought to grow up in a and we ought to look at the world through big windows and from a high ceiling, airy room with the circulation, the oxygen circulating and it's pretty good and not pent up because it can warp our view of people.

I hope everybody understands where I'm coming from and what I'm saying on this. A true biblical worldview, then, will have seven concepts. This is actually lecture number three. I'm going to try to get it in in 10 minutes. Let me get your pencils and papers ready and we'll step through it. This is the third Friday of class, but a true biblical worldview will have seven concepts. Okay. Number one, and this is my design here. This is what I put together. Number one, a biblical worldview will show that there is a God whose purpose is coming to pass through history. Revelation 17 verse 17, for God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose.

In Revelation 17, 17, He's talking about the beast and the false prophet and the kings that are stirring up the world. And there's a little statement there. God's put it into their heart to fulfill His purpose. Even the bad things of the tribulation and the prophetic ending of the age are according to God's purpose.

God's controlling everything. Your worldview is going to give you that, that there is a God whose purpose is coming to pass through history. This is what Paul says. Number two, a proper biblical worldview is going to show you the Bible is an accurate revelation from God to man. 2 Timothy 3, 16, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness.

All Scripture. We look at all Scripture. We look at it as God's accurate revelation. Accurate in terms of the original transmission of it. We know that the Bible has had certain inaccuracies added in and or omitted, and we know where they are. And none of them detract from any of the basic biblical doctrines about salvation and our knowledge of God. But as it was originally given, the Bible is an accurate revelation from God to man. It is profitable for doctrine, instruction, and righteousness. Number three, a biblical worldview is going to understand that God determines where men dwell on earth and has determined their role and the timing of their role in all of history. This is what Paul said to the Athenian philosophers in Acts 17.

In verse 26, Paul says, He, God, has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed time and the boundaries of their dwellings. God placed the Egyptians down in Egypt. And when they were the dominant power in the world, that was by God's design. When their time had passed, he turned out the lights.

Babylon came and went. Rome came and went. And you could go right down through history. But the general areas of where people live, even the boundaries of the nations, has all been determined by God in the timing of their role in history. This is what Paul is telling us. A Bible worldview will tell you that.

Fourthly, you will know God appoints leaders in nations according to His purpose. Daniel 2.21. Daniel 2.21, where he was giving Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of that dream. He said, God changes the times and the seasons. God removes kings and raises up kings.

God gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. God appoints leaders in nations according to His purpose, to work His purpose out. Does He determine who is going to be the mayor of Portsmouth, Ohio? My opinion, no. And I don't know that He really cares whether John Kasich remains as governor of Ohio or what, that he was elected. I do think He is involved in who is the president of the United States and other key leaders in the world.

But in balanced understanding that God does appoint leaders. Number five. A Bible worldview is going to tell you that there is an unseen spiritual dimension in world affairs. And the key passage to look at in this is Daniel chapter 10, verses 13 and 20. Daniel 10, verses 13 and 20. It's where Daniel was in one of his times where he wanted more understanding and he was fasting and praying. And finally, after three weeks, the angel comes to him and says, I was sent three weeks ago when you started fasting and praying.

And of course, by that time, Daniel was saying, man, how much weight I've lost? Why did he get here sooner? But he said, the angel says, I was withstood by the prince of Persia. I believe it's Persia right there. But in these two passages, that's when the curtain is peeled back and we get a glimpse into the spirit world that there is an unseen spiritual dimension in world affairs.

There's a prince of Persia and a prince of Greece that are mentioned in Daniel 10 that withstand him from coming and giving a message to Daniel. Then he says, I've got to go, but I'm going to have to deal with these two again. It shows us that there is a spiritual struggle that goes on at that level among nations in history. As we determine and use the word history, they're dealing in a spiritual dimension that's outside of time and space. But it affects human history. To me, it's one of the most fascinating concepts in all the Bible that I wish God gave us more information about.

Persia and Greece. What you've got there is a powerful spirit being over Persia, which is modern Iran, but I think can be extended to the entire Middle Eastern region. Greece, which is Europe. Not only was Greece one of the parts of Daniel, the image of Daniel 2, that empire of Alexander the Great, but Greece is a key... it's Europe. It is what Europe became and is, which opens up another area of understanding. There's a struggle between these two realms that impact the events on the earth. That's where you really begin to get certain insights into world history, especially, and things that are going on in our world today.

And, particularly, in Daniel 11, we talk about the king of the north and the king of the south. That will eventually ignite events at the time of the end. So, anyway, that goes beyond what I have here. But there is an unseen spiritual dimension in world affairs, and when you understand that, then, again, that gives you a unique worldview. Number six, worldview will give you key... understand that key events of history and prophecy are directly related to God's purpose that are all in His hand. Key events of history and prophecy directly related to God's purpose are in His hand. In Galatians 4 and verse 4, it talks about Christ, when He came into the world, was at the time when the fullness of times had come.

And it's referring to the time of Christ's birth and coming in the flesh. Which, at that particular point in time of the height of the Roman Empire, the fourth part of the image of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2, that was the time. And that, certainly with Christ's coming, was a key event for mankind because of His life, death, and resurrection in the process of salvation. Also, the beginning of the church. It was not set to happen during the time of Greece or Persia or even Babylon.

It was set to happen during the time of Rome at that point in time. Key events happen when God's ready for them to happen. There's a fullness of time. Number seven, God's love for mankind provides all who have lived to have opportunity for salvation through Christ. A proper worldview is going to do that. John 3, 16. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And whosoever would believe on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. So a proper worldview is going to show God's love for mankind, and all who have ever lived.

Again, the meaning of the eighth day, what we have called the last great day as well. That whole matter opens up a fantastic worldview. And that piece of doctoral, holy day, festival information is unique for us. I've never read anyone else believing anything like that. So, go back through these. Number six, key events in history and prophecy directly relate to God's purpose or in His hand.

Galatians 4, 4. Number five, that there are unseen spiritual dimensions in world affairs. Daniel 10, verses 13 and 20. Number four, worldview is going to know that God appoints leaders and nations according to His purpose. Daniel 2, 21. Number three, that your view of the world helps you to understand God determines where men dwell on earth and has determined their role in timing. Again, you look through these and you begin to extrapolate them out. And when you understand that, then you have answers for a lot of things about why is America what it is?

Why us and not Nigerians? Why us and not Vietnamese living on the height of the world's blessings? There's a reason for that, and it's not because we're better. It's because God is better and His promises are better and His promises will endure. But that gets off into another topic there. So your worldview is going to help you know that the Bible is an accurate revelation from God to man. Did I go back over to this one again?

Yeah, I know we've got to get to one. Did I cover this one again? Okay, Bible is an accurate revelation from God to man, and that there is a God whose purpose is coming to pass through history. Just want to be sure that you kind of got all those down by way of review here. All right. It's 10-10. So thank you for your time. What time does church start? Kevin? 1 o'clock. Church is at 1 o'clock. I sure hope Steve Meyers shows up.