I would like to thank the Creator God and am grateful for how He inspired you to provide a very detailed answer to the question about "spiritual communism" in the "Questions and Answers" section of your July-August 2015 issue. You have expounded the truth about the matter with scriptural links to support your explanations. I also appreciate Richard F. Ames' article on "The Truth About Hell" in the same issue. It is well written and presented, very clear. Thank you to all writers and editors of the TW. May God bless this work right to the return of Christ and beyond!

There is a weekly test that is not just for schoolchildren!

How many years begin with lofty hopes for world peace, prosperity and cooperation among nations? Yet it was historians Will and Ariel Durant who famously pointed out that in 3,400 years of recorded human history, only 268 found the civilized world entirely without conflicts between nations, kingdoms and governments.  For 92 percent of human history, some part of the world has been at war. In the 20th century alone, more than 100 million people died as a direct result of war, and estimates of war deaths throughout human history rise as high as 1 billion.

Have you ever seen a child at play with blocks or other building toys? Many a little boy and girl have spent an afternoon stacking and combining building blocks—sometimes made of plastic and sometimes of wood—creating whatever shapes and structures strike their fancy. Perhaps in their imaginary world they are constructing the buildings of a busy city street, or crafting the walls and towers of a castle, ready for adventure.

Why do we think and believe the way we do? What has molded and shaped our perspectives over the centuries? What has made the world the way it is? In this series, we are going to focus on individuals, ideas and events that have had a major impact on the world and changed the course of history. While many today assume the flow of history is random—that things just happen—others suspect there is evidence of purpose and direction, and that an outside force is guiding history. In spite of what critics believe, the Bible makes numerous claims that God determines the rise and fall of nations, and guides the course of history (Job 12:23; Daniel 2:21; 4:17).