For the last several years, oil prices have dropped right around the time of the fall Holy Days (fall in the northern hemisphere, that is).  This year appears to be the same.  Gasoline (petrol) prices have been dropping for the last several weeks now.  Monday, oil reached its lowest price since September 2010.  It ended trading in New York at $78 per barrel.  Experts believe it will stay low to year’s end (Associated Press, October 3, 2011).

Last week President Barack Obama “rebuked EU leaders for failing to recapitalize banks and allowing the debt crisis to escalate to the point where it is scaring the world.”  Reaction from the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, was one of scorn, “I don’t understand how anyone in the European Commission can have such a stupid idea [spending one’s way out of a debt crisis].  The result would be to endanger the AAA sovereign debt ratings of other member states.  It makes no sense.”  Mr. Schäuble basically told Washington to “mind its own business” following Mr.

Many professing Christians were disappointed when claims of a “rapture” on May 21, 2011 were proved false. Afterward, some said “Oops!” and looked instead to October 21, 2011.  Well, “Oops!” again!  Meanwhile, “New Agers” are looking to December 21, 2012. Some see it as “Doomsday” while others expect the dawn of a new spiritual breakthrough. Of course, both views will soon be proved wrong and their followers disappointed.

Another rapture prediction is making news headlines. Will we soon witness those who are not “presently saved” being “annihilated together with the whole physical world” (familyradio.com, “What Happened on May 21?”)? Some believe that Christ’s return and the rapture will occur on October 21, 2011. Others speculate about December 21, 2012.

In his 1951 farewell address to the United States Congress, General Douglas MacArthur grimly stated his thoughts about the global conflicts in which he had played a major role. Speaking as a life-long military man—a commander in some of modern history’s fiercest battles—he put the entire weight of his experience into his observation that, although mankind has from the beginning of time sought peace, all efforts for international peace have ultimately failed. Chillingly, he warned: “If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”