To be or not to be fulfilled—that is the question regarding whether or not Bible prophecies have been fulfilled or are yet to be fulfilled. It is a fair question, to be sure, despite my apologies to William Shakespeare for appropriating from his play “Hamlet” the famous soliloquy spoken by Prince Hamlet.

With growing tensions in Europe related to Ukraine and the threat of nuclear devices being used in the war, European nations are expressing interest in arming with nuclear weapons. Recently, German politician Wolfgang Schaeuble commented, “Now that Putin’s accomplices are threatening a nuclear strike every day, one thing is clear to me: we need nuclear deterrence at the European level as well” (Reuters, July 23, 2022). Mr.

Europe is in the midst of an unprecedented drought. “Spanish farmers are grappling with heat waves and water scarcity. Grains and olives are going dry” (Deutsche Welle, August 10, 2022). Many farmers are facing drastic harvest losses this year as reservoirs dry up.

In 1951, a psychologist by the name of Solomon Asch conducted a rather unnerving experiment. He had a group of eight people look at four drawn lines—three “comparison” lines and one “target” line. Each member of the group had to say, out loud, which of the comparison lines they thought matched the target one in length, and this was repeated with eighteen sets of lines. It wasn’t hard; the right answers were intended to be completely obvious.

For centuries, historians have studied why empires, nations, or societies collapsed. Various reasons are proposed, just as there are reasons for the collapse of a building or other structure. But, the destruction of the foundation is the central reason.

One rainy, windy day when I was a child, we drove past a drive-in theater just as a strong gust of wind toppled the big wooden screen. The screen’s support pillars had decayed, no longer able to withstand the wind. I watched the collapse in amazement, and I had an exciting story to tell my friends the next day.