The Sounding of the Seven Trumpets: Dr. Eckman leads as we discuss the first 5 Trumpets & the earthly catastrophe that will come with each.

Life is about choices, both individual choices and institutional choices. Government is the most significant institution in most of our lives. It sets policy and then organizes resources, usually through taxation, to fund those policy choices. Throughout much of the world, governmental institutions and their political leaders believe that climate change is the result of human choices. Therefore, we must alter those individual choices so that climate warming will slow. Those governmental policy choices to effect individual, personal change will necessitate an enormous transfer of wealth and national treasure.

The opening of the Seven Seals in John’s vision describe the events that will come upon God’s people immediately prior to the Second Coming. We also discuss the Tribulation Saints: 144,000 from the tribes of Israel who will be God’s witnesses in a post-Tribulation world.

Bernie Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has declared himself a democratic socialist, which means that he rejects capitalism. Sanders manifests a troubling development within the Democratic Party?a skepticism about or an outright rejection of capitalism. In socialism, generally, the means of production are owned by the public (i.e., the state) or by the workers, so that the state can provide a wide range of basic services (e.g., health care, education, child care, housing, energy, etc.) to its citizens free of charge or at a significant discount. This necessitates a redistribution of national income and wealth via the power of the state.

Dr. Eckman leads discussion of the scroll & Seven Seals: John’s vision focuses on why we should worship Jesus, the One worthy to open the Seals.

We live in a technological age in which science dominates our thinking and offers solutions to many of our fundamental problems. We depend on science and hold this discipline of human knowledge higher than we hold others (e.g., history, literature). At the end of the Scientific Revolution (the 17th century), Sir Isaac Newton synthesized the work of others with his own original thinking, and produced a compressive understanding of the laws of the physical world. We owe him much [. . .]

Jesus’ shares his message to the church at Laodicea, and John’s writings turns to his vision of the Throne of Heaven.

Jesus speaks in John’s vision to the churches at Sardis, condemning them for being a ‘dead’ church & confronting them with a process to renew their hearts. He also tells the church at Philadelphia that He will vindicate & protect them. We are encouraged today by both to renew our own spiritual passion & trust in God in all situations.

The events unfolding in the Middle East are of immense significance, but, with presidential politics, same-sex marriage debates and the news-as-entertainment phenomenon, most Americans are ignorant of these developments. For that reason, I am adding a second part to the Issues of a few weeks ago, ?What is Vladimir Putin doing in the Middle East??

In the early days of December in 1983, I received a call in my office from my father in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He shared with me the tragedy of my 23-year-old brother?s suicide. My brother knew Jesus as His Savior, but struggled much of his life with severe depression. At the low point in one of those cycles of depression, he took his life. As a family, we asked the typical questions: ?Why? What could we have done to prevent this? Why did we not see the signs? Why did we miss them?? Guilt, questioning, doubt in God?s goodness and grace naturally followed. These were some of the most difficult days of my life. But those days drove me to a deeper exploration of God?s goodness and His grace.