Greetings from Charlotte,
The prophecy given by Jacob in Genesis 49 for the Israelite tribes at the end of the age describes the Jews as a lion that is best not provoked. Could what we currently see in the Middle East be any greater proof of the accuracy of Scripture? The State of Israel is tiny, much smaller than people who have never been there may imagine. Her neighbors are gargantuan in comparison, and their populations are far greater. We literally have a modern, geopolitical David and Goliath situation with Israel and Iran, and just as David slew the giant, so Judah is devastating Iran.
Where this will end is yet to be seen. If the United States takes out the Iranians’ Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, buried 300 feet below ground, it may spark a different kind of response from Iran. How many Middle Eastern sleeper cells may have infiltrated the U.S. from among the millions who illegally crossed an open border for four years?
One thing is certain: Whatever peace may be experienced in the wake of this ongoing conflict, further conflict is a certainty for that part of the world. If God through Jacob could foretell the lion-like character of a Jewish state 3,500 years in advance, so could He accurately inform us of where this will end, as shown in Zechariah 12 and 14. Let us not become complacent as these sobering events take place.
Mrs. Carol Norris, wife of longtime elder Mr. Mike Norris, died on May 21. Over the years, Mr. and Mrs. Norris have served the brethren in California, southern Oregon, and Nevada. Please remember her husband and their family in your prayers.
—Gerald E. Weston
Church Administration
Tomorrow’s World Presentations
Last week, we held two Tomorrow’s World Presentations that drew a total of 13 guests. This week, we will hold ten total TWPs, listed below:
- Helena, Montana
- Great Falls, Montana
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Alexandria, Louisiana
- Framingham, Massachusetts
- Mansfield, Massachusetts
- Roanoke, Virginia
- Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Midrand, Gauteng Provence, South Africa
- French-Speaking Online
This is quite the full slate of Tomorrow’s World Presentations. We would especially appreciate prayers for the success of the French-speaking online presentation, which will take place this Sunday, to which we have invited nearly all our French-speaking subscribers across Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. Please pray for the success of this and all our TWPs happening around the globe.
Living Youth Program
TrainRight Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training – Repeat Announcement
All Living Youth Camp staff members who are 18 years of age or older are required to participate in an online training program for awareness and prevention of child abuse: TrainRight Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training Program. It is an online training course that takes about one hour to complete. Once you have been accepted as a staff member at one of the LYP camps, you will receive an email from [email protected] titled “Invite - Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training Program” with a link through which you must register for and complete the training online.
Note: The Certification for this TrainRight course is good for two years—the year it is taken plus the next year. For example, if you took the course in 2023, the Certification was valid in 2023 and 2024—therefore, you would have to retake the course in 2025 to receive Certification for 2025–2026.
If you have any questions, please contact Jill Ewers ([email protected]).
First Aid/Lifeguard Certificates – Repeat Announcement
If you have a current Certificate in First Aid, Lifeguarding, etc. and will be serving in this capacity at any of the U.S.A. camps in 2025, please send a copy of your Certification to Jill Ewers ([email protected]). Your Certification must be current and valid through the entirety of the camp(s) where it will be used.
Food Handler Training Program – Repeat Announcement
If you have received certification through an ANSI-accredited food safety program for the State of Texas as a Food Handler or Food Manager and will be attending the Texas Teen Camp or Texas Preteen Camp in 2025, please send your certificate to Jill Ewers ([email protected]), copied to Joshua Penman ([email protected]).
Comments
Is the Old Testament Obsolete? Many professing Christians have been told that the Old Testament is only for the Jews and Christians now have the New Testament. However, Jesus taught that we should live “by every word of God” (Luke 4:4), and the Apostle Paul wrote, “AllScripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Paul even told New Testament Christians in Corinth that Old Testament examples “were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:1–11). In other words, the Old Testament is also for us today! We need to prepare ourselves so that we can explain these inspired Scriptures to the world in the coming Millennial reign of Christ.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
News and Prophecy – June 19, 2025
Will the “Space Race” Ever End? In the aftermath of Tokyo-based company ispace’s second failed attempt to land an exploration vehicle on the moon, National Public Radio reported, “Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way” (June 6, 2025). Although the press has sensationalized these failures, companies like ispace, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are confidently poised to continue their efforts to privatize space exploration. Elon Musk has expressed unabated optimism in the face of what are seen as momentary setbacks, viewing the loss of multi-million-dollar machines as all part of the learning process (Reuters, March 7, 2025). “Rockets are hard,” Musk remarked after his own program’s second Mars rocket failure this year (NewsWeek, March 7, 2025).
Although failures like these occur, such tremendous advances and efforts cannot help but inspire us. God has created man with remarkable capacity to design, build, and explore! Still, many have also wondered about the feasibility of humanity’s quest to dominate space and colonize what are, for all intents and purposes, wastelands like the Moon and Mars, where it seems as though life could never thrive.
The Bible speaks of a time when “all things” will be given to the faithful as an inheritance (Revelation 21:7) and the entirety of creation will be liberated from futility by the revealing of the children of God (Romans 8:20–21). Perhaps this holds a key to understanding God’s true purpose for a universe. To learn more about the purpose of man and future of creation, be sure to order your free copy of What Is the Meaning of Life?
Dead Sea Scrolls May Be Older than Once Thought: The Dead Sea Scrolls hold major significance when it comes to Bible manuscripts. While the Dead Sea Scrolls contain various types of information, some also contain parts of biblical books. Many of these scrolls have traditionally been understood to date to the first and second centuries AD. However, new and exciting research dates some of these scrolls even earlier (The Guardian, June 4, 2025).
Decades ago, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were dated using handwriting analysis, while others were dated using radiocarbon dating. However, castor oil applied to the scrolls to assist in deciphering them was thought to have prevented accurate dating. In recent research completed by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, technicians cleaned the castor oil from the documents and then radiocarbon dated them again. They also trained an AI model to read the documents and redate them using several different parameters. The new AI-derived dates closely correlated with the results of the new carbon dating. Of particular interest is that while two scrolls were dated as newer than once thought, many were dated older. One scroll containing verses from the book of Daniel was redated to a time closer to Daniel’s original writing.
Why does this matter to Christians? A key factor in determining the validity of original ancient manuscripts is how far away from the life of the author they are dated. The longer the time between the author’s life and the recording of the manuscript, the less credible it is considered. However, if there is little time between the life of the author and the writing of the manuscript, it greatly supports the validity of the document—in this case, it supports the validity of the Book of Daniel and, by extension, the validity of the Bible itself. To learn more about the reliability of the Bible, you can read or listen to The Bible: Fact or Fiction? —Scott Winnail, William Williams, and Francine Prater