Current Events & Trends
Beyond Today Magazine
Good News Magazine: January - February 2012
Course Content
China is pursuing an enormous military buildup on both land and sea.
"There has been much discussion and speculation in recent commentary over China's rapid maritime rise and strategy for dominating large swaths of the Pacific...China's naval buildup will soon give Beijing the means to use military force to back up its expansive territorial claims to essentially the entire Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea" (Robert O'Brien, "Ensuring China's Peaceful Rise," The Diplomat, Nov. 18, 2011).
A Financial Times piece titled "A Show of Force" was summarized in the table of contents in these words: "Beijing's assertive policing of its sphere of influence is fuelling fears of a growing hold over foreign policy of a hawkish and increasingly well-equipped army" (Sept. 29, 2011). A few months earlier, another Financial Times piece addressed increasing military and infrastructural cooperation between China and Pakistan. As the drophead stated, "Concerns are growing about the extent of Beijing's influence on Islamabad" ("China and Pakistan: An Alliance Is Built," June 30, 2011). This development comes at a time when America's influence on Pakistan is sharply declining.
How will these events play out in the end time? The "beast" power and ruler (mentioned earlier in this feature), supported by 10 European nations or groups of nations, is also referred to in Scripture as the "king of the North" (Daniel 11:40). After vanquishing the "king of the South," "news from the east and the north" troubles the king of the North.
Revelation 9:13-16 depicts an eastern army of 200 million people that unleashes great devastation on mankind. Later we read of "the kings [leaders] from the east" crossing the Euphrates River en route to Armageddon (the area of Megiddo) in the land of Israel (Revelation 16:12, 16). The greater part of this massive army may come from the Far East, most likely from China, India and other Asian nations.
These end-time prophecies are all part of the climactic events leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. (Sources: The Diplomat [Tokyo], Financial Times [London].)
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Tom is an elder in the United Church of God who works from his home near St. Louis, Missouri, as a senior writer and editor for the Beyond Today magazine and church booklets. He is also the editor of the UCG Bible Commentary. He also served as a copy editor for Vertical Thought and managing editor for World News and Prophecy.
Tom began attending God's Church at the age of 16 in 1985 and was baptized a year later. He attended Ambassador College in both Texas and California and served for a year as a history teacher at the college's overseas project in Sri Lanka. He graduated from the Texas campus in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in theology along with minors in English and mass communications. Since 1994, he has been employed as an editor and writer for church publications and has served in local congregations through the regular preaching of sermons.
Tom was ordained to the ministry in 2012 and attends with his wife Donna and their young children.
