The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 and the subsequent Land Ordinance organized the territory the United States gained by the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. Among other things, these acts organized the territories into townships and set aside one section in each township for a public school. In the early decades of the new republic called the United States, it was understood that public schools would be a cooperative effort between the parents, the church and the school itself. Indeed, in these early decades well into the 19th century, schools were often held in the churches.

As Jesus eats the Passover meal, He institutes the Lord’s Supper, foretells Peter’s denial and then goes to Gethsemane to pray to His Father, preparing for His arrest.

In 2017, Yair Rosenberg, an American journalist and an authority on anti-Semitism, cogently summarized five myths about anti-Semitism. Anti-Jewish bigotry is alive and well in 2021—and it must be dealt with frankly and conclusively.

As the Jewish leadership plots Jesus’ death when Judas offers to betray Him, Jesus completes His discourse on end times by challenging us to be ready, to be faithful and to not try to figure out when all this will occur.

In the 1992 Supreme Court case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Justice Anthony Kennedy penned his famous “mystery passage”: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” Robert Bork called the phrase indicative of “New Age jurisprudence”; William Bennett derided it as an “open-ended validation of subjectivism” that paves the way for drug abuse, assisted suicide, prostitution, and “virtually anything else”; George Will said it was “gaseously” written; Michael Uhlman labeled it a “thing of almost infinite plasticity”; the editors of First Things called it the “notorious mystery passage.” What seems clear is Kennedy’s underlying conception of human beings as autonomous individuals, choosing their own values and mapping out their own life courses.

Jesus answers his disciples’ questions about end-time events.

With the end of the Cold War, many assumed the world would enter a period of stability and relative peace. With the growth of Islamic terrorism and the rise of China as a formidable economic and military power these assumptions died. The US remains a world power and is the only power that has the ability to check both the growth of Iran and China. Both are genuine threats to the US and to the world. Permit me an overview of these two alarming powers threating the stability and peace of the world.

Jesus responds to His opponents and then goes on the offensive, silencing His enemies.

In 1923 German historian and philosopher, Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), published his famous two-volume historical analysis in one volume, entitled The Decline of the West. Spengler analyzed the various civilizations of world history, arguing that each went through a time of flourishing followed by a period of decline. His central argument was that Western civilization was in a period of decline. [He wrote in German and the term translated “decline” could actually be translated “downfall.”] As civilizations decline, they gravitate to dictatorial power that preserves what they cherish (e.g., stability, order, security). What once marked the core defining elements of the civilization (e.g., religious beliefs, ethical standards) are abandoned as the civilization embraces raw rationalism, skepticism and power.

Jesus neutralizes the threats from the Pharisees, the Herodians and the Sadducees.