and divine nature, have been clearlynseen, being understood through whatnhas been made.n— Clark CassellnAlexandria, VAnOn ‘Whose Wealthnof Whose Nation?’nWilliam Hawkins (January 1990) isnright on target when he states, “Americannsociety is far more interested innpresent consumption than futurengrowth.” I am not sure, however, thatn”intervention to curtail imports” (whatevernthat means) is necessarily the answer.nSurely dollar devaluation was anpolitical, not a market, “solution” —nand that didn’t work out very well.nMore recently, our legislators havenraised taxes on capital gains (read: inflation),na move that hardly makes savingsnmore attractive than consumption.nWhat inflation itself does to savingsnneeds no elaboration here. Tariflfe andnimport quotas merely invite manufacturersnto remain fat, dumb, and lazy —nat consumer expense.nIn short, I have no confidence innpoliticians’ ability to intervene in anynuseful or constructive manner. Theirnmain talent seems to be for doing thenwrong thing at the worst possible time.nThat being the case, I heartily applaudnHawkins’ call for tax cuts to encouragensavings and investment. To the extentnthat such a move would reduce thenpoliticians’ power and get them off ournbacks, it really could help.n— Charles ChandlernMaiden, MAnOn ‘Waiting for the End’nI could have died laughing when I sawnthe words on the cover of the Februaryn1990 issue oi Chronicles: “WAITINGnFOR THE END . . . only 3,619nshopping days until the Millennium.” Inappreciated the humor, and I’m certainnthe humor was intended to be extendednby the reader actually performingnthe calculation ([10 X 365] – 31) innhis mind. However, I, in my compulsivity,ncould not resist the temptation ofntaking the mathematics from its humorousnsimplicity to the full extent ofnits dismal complexity.nObviously, your cover was intendednto reflect the anxiety of a humanitynnearing the close of another Romannmillennium; just as occurred at thenclose of the last millennium (exceptnthat then the pervasive fear was thatnthe “Millennium” was ending). Butnshouldn’t have you added the two leapndays from years 1992 and 1996; thusnmaking 3,621 remaining shoppingndays?nWait a minute. There is no yearn”zero” in the Roman accounting ofntime. Thus, the present millenniumnends at the close of 2000, not 1999.nSo, another 365 days should benadded … I mean 366^ Or is it? Let’snsee — a leap year is any year evenlyndivided by 4, except for those yearsnevenly divisible by 100 . . . unless thenyear is evenly divisible by 400. Yup, it’sna leap year. That makes 3,987 shoppingndays.nHold on. This is all wrong. The ideanof a millennium is not a secular constructn(despite the attempts of socialnscience to create the Age of Peace bynviolence). We should be consideringnthe Holy Crusade, not the pagan Romanncalendar directed by Julius Caesarn(at the suggestion of the Egyptiannscientist Sosigenes) in 45 B.C. In lightnof the Scriptures regarding the Kingdomnof Man during the six millennialndays of work being replaced by thenKingdom of God during the millennialnday of rest (Gen. 2:2-3, Ex. 20:8-11,nRev. 20:2-4, II Pet. 3:8), and consideringnArchbishop James Usher’s 17thcenturynfixation of the creation ofnhuman life (as partof the re-creation ofnthe Earth’s surface after Satan’s failedncoup d’etat, as described in Ezek.n28:13-17, Rev. 12:3-4) at 4004 B.C.n(by biblical genealogy and history), wencan fix the end of the Kingdom ofnMan at 1997 (remember no yearn”zero”)! Incidentally, the Usher datenmay be given weight by the birth ofnChrist. It is commonly accepted that innA.D. 533, when Dionysius Exiguusnrelated the birth of Christ to the Romanncalendar, he should have fixed thendate four years earlier; that is, Christnwas born in 4 B.C. It is interesting thatnthe number 40 is employed in Scripturenmany times to represent maturityn(Gen. 7:4, Num. 14:34, Matt. 4:2,nActs 7:23), and that Christ was born, tonthe year, 40 centuries after the Usherndate. At any rate, what better day tonpick in 1997 than the Feast of Trum­npets (Lev. 23:24, Num. 29:1, Johnn5:1), which depicts the return of Christn(Is. 18:3-7, Rev. 11:15, Matt. 24:30-n31, I Cor. 15:52)? In 1997, Tishri 1n(the date upon which the Feast ofnTrumpets is celebrated) falls on Octobern2. So, that leaves 2,801 shoppingndays ’til Kingdom come.nOf course, Christ said that evennthough we can know the season of hisnreturn (Matt. 24:32-34 — this generationncan be described as, among othernthings, having the ability to commitncosmocide; as described in Matt.n24:21-22), we cannot know the exactntime (Mark 13:32-37, I Thes. 5:1-3).nWell, we could, at least, remove thenweekly and yearly Sabbaths from ournnumber of shopping days.n—Brian R. DunawaynMissouri City, TXnOn Teacenon Earth’nIt is not, as Thomas Fleming says in hisnFebruary Perspective, a “temptation” ton”construct the Kingdom of God in thenhere and now.” This is, for Christians,na command by our Lord who taughtnus, in His prayer, that His Kingdomncome will be done, on earth, as it is innHeaven.n—John LoftonniMurel, MDnMr. FlemingnReplies:nnnJohn Lofton’s Bible has a differentnLord’s prayer from mine, which readsn”Thy kingdom come, thy will be donenon earth as it is in heaven.” Textualnproblems aside. Brother Lofton apparentlynbelieves that to pray for the accomplishmentnof the Lord’s will is thensame thing as taking personal responsibilitynfor it. On this construction, wenshould forcibly convert heathens, killnhomosexuals, and enforce all Old Testamentnlaws, whether the affected populationnis Jewish, Christian, or pagan.nThe word “macrocosm” was inadvertentlynprinted as “microcosm” in thenlast line of Charlotte Low Allen’snJanuary review of George Gilder’s Microcosm.nThe editors regret the error.nAPRIL 1990/5n