Have you ever made a bad purchase? Perhaps you bought a defective appliance or an automobile that turned out to be a “lemon.” The product or service did not turn out to be what you thought you were buying. In such cases, we may say that we “bought a pig in a poke.”

I remember fondly an old children's story called The Blind Men and the Elephant. This profound yet simple story is a great illustration of the limitations of human perception.

One version of the story describes six blind men living in a village. One day, a caravan of travelers came bringing an elephant. The blind men had no idea what an elephant was, and together they went to "see" it for themselves! Each of them unknowingly inspected by touch only part of the elephant and then reported his conclusion to the other men.

Editor's Note: This article, originally published on September 29, 2014, has been republished in its entirety. In the wake of the past two years, we believe this content still has incredible relevance for future events based on Bible prophecy.

By the early light of Friday morning the result of the Scottish Referendum had become clear. By a decisive majority—55 percent to 45 percent—the citizens of Scotland rejected the prospect of independence from the United Kingdom. Why did they do so, and what will come next?

As EU leaders met in Brussels earlier this month, former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, thrashing the Europeans for their grandiose ideas and their chronic inattention and inaction. He noted, “One hundred years ago, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, setting in motion a swirl of events that brought decades of devastation to the entire continent.