Although the canon of Scripture closed with the apostles, God continues to speak not only through
that written Word but in actions that are in full accordance with it. Every heart must mourn the
violent death meted out to the late President, John F. Kennedy, which is one of the crowning
tragedies of the immediate past. It is not the only event which seems to be rapidly reshaping this
present scene ripening for judgment and making ready to receive the man of Sin.

It is striking when we realize how many of the heads of government attending Mr. Kennedy’s
funeral have been in office for only a short time. Writing before the assassination of President
Kennedy, the Editor of Christian Truth magazine cried out in almost prophetic utterance:"When
we consider the upheavals internationally, let us note that a severe pain, a doctor’s visit, and then
an operation, brought the prompt and unexpected removal of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
from the British government. The same week, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (the man who helped
rebuild war-stricken Germany into a powerful and prosperous nation) resigned. How suddenly
great changes take place! When President Kennedy arrived in Italy late in June the government
of Premier Amintore Fanfani had fallen, and the Pope was dead. Dare anyone predict who will
head the major world governments a year from today? With elections due in the United States,
Germany, and Britain in another year, and only a heartbeat separating any man from removal
from office at any time, who can predict? In fact, every major power could have a new ruler
within a short time. We ‘know not what shall be on the morrow,’ but we know Him who does,
and who keeps His own counsel. He will do according to His own will, and work out all His
purposes, the major part of which is that His Son will be honored here where He was cast out and
is still despised. He is going to rule with a rod of iron and subject all under His feet. At the
present He sits at God’s right hand until that moment when God will ‘make His enemies His
footstool’ (Psa. 110)." November 1963.

Is there nothing behind the events we are considering? God’s hand, unseen by many, may begin
to take shape when we recall the internal scandal of moral degradation which shook the British
government. This may have been one of the contributing factors responsible for the changes we
see there.

In this country a great deal of similarity between the assassination of Presidents Abraham Lincoln
and Kennedy were noticed. There is, however, a striking contrast of which very few are aware.
Father Charles Chiniquy, an ex-priest of the Roman Catholic Church, in his book, Fifty Years In
the Church of Rome, writes in greatest detail of unsuccessful plots of Jesuit priests to kill Lincoln,
and finally of the assassination plotted and executed by instruments of Rome. He writes how
Professor Morse, famous for Morse code and telegraphy, when in Rome discovered plots to kill
Lincoln. How striking is the contrast of Rome’s plotted assassination of Abraham Lincoln and now
the recent assassination of the first man in Rome’s Church to have ascended to that position in this
country. Solemn beyond words is the fact that the caisson prepared for Abraham Lincoln a century
ago should be the very vehicle to carry our late president to his grave. "God requireth that which
is past," says Solomon in Ecclesiastes when writing of the things he observed under the sun. Have
not we observed the same?

Christian, may God give you a sense of the nearness of our Saviour’s return, which is our hope,
and the urgency to speak to many, seeking to bring brands from the burning. May each moment
be more lived for Him while He tarries, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.