News and Prophecy Staff

In his 2012 Christmas speech, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the long-standing Catholic view that heterosexual marriage is the only godly union. “When such commitment [heterosexual marriage] is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child—essential elements of the experience of being human are lost” (Reuters UK, December 21, 2012).

2012 was a year of dramatic predictions that failed!  On December 21, expectations based on the Mayan calendar that the world would end were dashed when that prediction failed. One source stated,  “Apparently, doomsday theorists have been prepping for a fiery comet hitting the earth, ice storms destroying our power grids and other heinous catastrophes in vain” (emphasis ours) (ABC Action News, December 21, 2012).

Raging wildfires burning brush and farmland have broken out all across Australia and Tasmania, fed by widespread drought, high winds and months of record-breaking temperatures.

The U.S. Secretary of State was recently hospitalized due to a blood clot in her head. “The U.S. secretary of state, who has not been seen in public since December 7, was revealed on Sunday evening to be in a New York hospital under treatment for a blood clot that stemmed from a concussion she suffered in mid-December” (Reuters, December, 31 2012).

In the middle of winter few people, other than farmers, worry about precipitation. Most would prefer not to have any, as most of it comes as snow or ice. Few realize how vital and important winter precipitation is in recharging our soils with moisture and protecting our perennial crops.