Paul concludes his second missionary journey with a visit to Corinth. The Lord protects Paul, as local Jews bring him before the courts.

For civilization to work, it needs a foundation, a set of moorings that provide an anchor for it to function reasonably, justly and fairly. American civilization gives every indication that it has no foundation, no underpinning. The selfish, self-centered, self-indulgent individual has replaced the community-minded, other-centered virtuous citizen—the glue that held American society together. Our politics, our universities and our economy are all driven by an ideology that stresses identity politics, grievance-focused protests and an economy with no ethical foundation.

Paul creates an alternative way for the Gentiles of Athens to think about the spiritual world. Today, this still challenges the thinking & views of a non-theological society.

Consider the amazing national trend of accommodating American culture to the legalization of marijuana. In 2014, the editorial page of the New York Times argued intensely (on the front page) for the legalization of marijuana and the removal of all penalties against the manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, let alone the possession of marijuana in its many forms. Ten states (soon to be joined by New York and New Jersey) have voted to legalize marijuana for recreational and medicinal use. Licensed shops in Colorado and Washington now sell it to anyone who wants it. Numerous states have recently legalized the drug for medicinal use, bringing the total to 23; this number will undoubtedly grow.

One of the major developments of 2018 was the growing worldwide influence of Vladimir Putin. He has made no secret of his desire to restore the grandeur and power of Russia, not as a communist state, but as the restored Russia of the czarist mold: The Russian Orthodox Church supporting a corrupt, authoritarian state. Two recent developments buttress his vision to make Russia a global superpower.

Paul’s visits to Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens are powerful & fruitful in bringing more Greeks to faith.

Basic to any understanding of physics is the concept of mass. Why do particles of nature have mass? This is obviously a fundamental question of physics but one that is inscrutably difficult to answer. For four decades now, physics has worked from what is known as the Standard Model of physics—an explanation that relies on 17 fundamental particles of matter and three physical forces. But this model requires the existence of a force that, so to speak, keeps everything together. That is the importance of the “God particle,” the so-called Higgs Boson, named after an Edinburgh University physicist of 50 years ago—Peter Higgs.