News and Prophecy Staff

Last year, over 43,000 people died in Somalia as a direct result of its regional drought (Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2023). Nearly half of these deaths were among children age five and younger! Thousands more are expected to die in the first six months of 2023, at a rate of about 135 people per day, all due to the continued drought in the Horn of Africa and the rising cost of food.

For decades, those opposing the validity of the Bible have claimed that many key biblical characters were little more than fictional characters—including the Israelite King David. However, extrabiblical evidence continues to surface that demonstrates the very real existence of King David or “the House of David.” The Mesha Stele, or Moabite Stone, was discovered in fragments in 1868, about 15 miles east of the Dead Sea (Jerusalem Post, January 12, 2023).

China and Russia are growing closer. Last month, China proposed a 12-point plan to end the war in Ukraine. This week, Chinese President Xi was in Russia meeting with President Putin. President Xi commented that his country was prepared to work with Russia “to stand guard over the world order based on international law” (The Guardian, March 20, 2023).

On May 6, 2023, King Charles will be coronated with a detailed sequence of events steeped in history and tradition. The crown worn, the music played, the oil used—every element of pageantry has an important purpose, including the chair used for the ceremony (BBC, March 1, 2023). The 700-year-old gilded oak chair has been central to royal coronations for centuries.

According to a central tenet of the study of the universe, known as the cosmological principle, “on a large scale, the Universe should look roughly the same everywhere, no matter your position or the direction in which you are looking. There should be no giant structures, rather space should be smooth and uniform” (BBC, March 3, 2023).