Brian Stern

You know, you might have heard your father, your grandfather say, there are no atheists in a foxhole.

The prospect of war, even one across the world, makes people reach for ancient stories and holy books, whether you're religious or not, it happens.

And there is something unsettling that is going on.

And something about this war in particular that makes us think about the ancient world and the beginning of everything, but also the end of everything.

Whether that's nuclear war or the apocalypse, things that none of us want to think about.

We don't want to think about those things.

Christians believe that upheaval, apostasy, calamity, a moral collapse are signs of the end.

But we don't know when that end is.

This has happened over and over again all throughout history.

Some Jews look at Israel restored in their land, surrounded by enemies, and asking whether, wow, is history moving to the place where the Messiah, as promised to the Jews, is coming?

Muslims, especially with the Shia eschatology, they hear this language of oppression and chaos and deception and war and ask whether, is Trump the Dajjal?

Is he the Antichrist?

They're actually saying that in parts of the Middle East.

He might be the Antichrist.

Is the Mahadi coming?

And their own tradition speaks of widespread injustice and the Mahadi being revealed.

Jesus comes back, but not as Jesus as, you know, anyway, the deceiver falling, the great Satan falling, and history rushing towards a reckoning.

So let me talk to you about

What's happening here?

What do you see happening?