Recently, I completed reading one of the most important books I have read in some time: George Marsden?s The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief. Marsden is arguably one of the most significant evangelical Christian historians writing today. I have read all of his books, which have profoundly shaped my understanding of both American history and of American evangelicalism. This most recent of Marsden?s books helps us immensely in understanding the crisis currently unfolding in American civilization. I would like to summarize the major arguments of Marsden?s book and then offer some implications about where we as the church of Jesus Christ go from here.

Continued discussion of Daniel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, and the beginnings of the Final Vision of Daniel.

In 1947 C. S. Lewis published The Abolition of Man, in which he charted the ?negation of human dignity in the name of progress, or compassion, or humanity, or science.? He lived long enough to see the accuracy of his assessment: ?For the power of Man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please.? Planned Parenthood, in its harvesting of fetal body parts and in its view of the human being, manifests ?the negation of human dignity? and an effort to ?make men what they please.?

Daniel’s Prayer & the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks – Dr. Eckman leads discussion of this powerful prayer to restore his people & his nation.

Quite amazingly, a ?vaccine doubter? movement is growing in America. Those who adhere to this elixir believe that the risks of vaccination are much greater than the risk of the diseases vaccines are supposed to prevent. This is especially stunning because, in the words of columnist Daniel Henninger, ?Life without serious disease for the majority is now taken for granted as the natural order. The young don?t sign up for health insurance because they don?t need it. Forgotten over time is the extraordinary human effort and intelligence that produced the good life today. . .? As a result of the anti-vaccination movement, US measles cases have jumped 300% from 2013 to 2014. Others have made vaccinations an ethical issue out of concern over the source of some vaccination serums. According to a Pew Foundation poll, today about 9% of Americans consider vaccinations unsafe!

The Vision of the Ram & He-Goat: we discuss this dream of Daniel’s, and the detailed view it provides of future events as they pertains to Israel.

In the nation states that comprise today?s Middle East, only one nation offers protection and civil rights to Christians?Israel. Within Israel, Christians (many of them Arab in ethnicity), Jews and Muslims coexist under the protection of the state. There is no other nation in today?s Middle East offering such protection. In fact, today?s Middle East is witnessing the obliteration of Christianity in most of the region. This is astonishing because Christianity predates Islam by 600 years. It is in the Middle East where Christianity itself was born. Jesus Christ lived His entire earthly life in the Middle East and His apostles took the Christian faith throughout the Middle East.

Dr. Eckman leads discussion of Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts, a dream with striking similarities to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2: Both outline the 4 great kingdoms of the world, and the 5th kingdom-to-come which is far superior.

The deep-seated commitment to the pursuit of personal autonomy, the vital center of the Postmodern, Postchristian American culture, has produced several effects. The Millennials, who passionately have bought into this commitment, have no loyalty to institutions. For that reason the local church, even if they are Christians, is not that important to them. Technology has enhanced this pursuit of autonomy, enabling millennials to create and fashion their own digital reality. . . But, embracing the pursuit of autonomy as the chief goal of life has also produced dysfunction, disorientation and confusion. Many millennials are experiencing an identity crisis. In this Perspective, I want to focus on two major illustrations of the growing evidence of this identity crisis in early 21st-century American culture.

Dr. Eckman leads in-depth discussion of Daniel & the Lion’s Den.