As former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he served as the principal military adviser to the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council. The delivery was an address on "Management of Crisis and Change."

Thirty-five years of military service gave General Powell a unique perspective on crisis and change in the political arena of the world. For 28 years of his career, the enemy was known. Powell's assignment was simple: contain communism. Containing the communists at the Berlin Wall, at the DMZ in Korea, at the border of Vietnam and again at the Berlin wall was his commission through 1986.

However the communist crisis changed when USSR President Gorbachev in a meeting in 1987 with then U.S. Secretary George Schultz and Colin Powell stated, "I'm ending the Cold War. You'll have to find another enemy." How does the world manage such a change?

No longer would there be "Red against Blue." Words of peace and reconciliation would gradually kiss the lips of most political leaders. Israel would strive to reconcile with Palestine. Apartheid in South Africa would disappear. Vietnam would seek a democratic government. China would begin sending 40% of its exports to the United States, thereby becoming an economic pillar in U.S. relations. Technology would establish a new political environment diminishing our world into a small, controllable political-economic unit with no one yet at the controls.

As I was listening to General Powell's address, my thoughts reverted back almost 40 years to a time when no one would have imagined that such a message would ever be delivered. The USSR no longer a threat! For a moment, I became lost in time.

"If our neighbors try to take our food, we'll have to kill them."

These were shocking words to the ears of a 15 year old. But dad was serious. The Cold War matched the frigid climate of Montana where I lived in 1958. My home town along the Canadian border was on alert. In order to observe low-flying Russian bombers, which could fly below radar detection, daytime sentries were posted in a lookout tower at our small airport. Talk of building cement underground bunkers and storing food was normal supper conversation. Even the movies were portraying cowboys dropping out of the bays of B-52's, riding on the backs of nuclear warheads towards a critical target in Russia. World annihilation seemed imminent.

However, one lone voice totally contradicted the threatening scenario of the times. The Church of God proclaimed to the world that a United States of Europe would continue to rise from the destructive ashes of WWII and become the dominant economic and military threat against the Anglo-Saxon nations. Russia would be paled into insignificance by this new European power. This would be a final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire ushering in end-time events leading to the return of Jesus Christ. I can tell you personally that no one believed me when I repeated those predictions. I wonder what they think now?

The Church of God understood the framework of prophecy because it kept God's Holy Days which outline salvation's sequence. Within that framework God placed some details which we find in the books of Daniel and Revelation -- details which spotlight historical and future events.

This year, two very significant Holy Days fall in the month of September. Each Fall the United Church of God keeps the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. The latter foretells final at-one-ment (unity) because of Satan's demise. The former engages us in chilling episodes of the greatest battles ever to transpire, involving the end-time powers of this world and culminating in a victorious war by Jesus Christ.

As I recollected my thoughts and focused once again on the topic under discussion, everything began to fit in place. Certainly our world was becoming a small, controllable political-economic unit with no one yet at the controls. But that will change. Time will see temporary control by a pieced-together European power, followed by worldwide conflict and then Christ's return to promote and establish world unity and peace.

No storing food. No flying cowboys. No nuclear warheads.

Let's all pray for God's kingdom to come soon (Matthew 6:10).