The World and Everything in It: September 30, 2025

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MARY REICHARD, HOST:  Good morning!

Former FBI Director James Comey—now facing federal charges. We’ll talk with a former prosecutor about the substance.

And ending the special option for LGBT callers on the suicide hotline.

WONING: It's reinforcing a falsehood that LGBT identifying youth who experience depression are facing greater challenges.

NICK EICHER, HOST:Also today, the legacy of Pastor Voddie Baucham…

BAUCHAM: My flesh wants to be the center of attention, and I can't make much of me and make much of Christ simultaneously.

And a profile of Britain’s strictest headmistress.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, September 30th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time now for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

AUDIO: Ladies and gentleman, the president of the United States and the prime minister of the state of Israel.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump-Netanyahu meeting / Qatar regret » The introduction at the White House Monday as President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed reporters in the State Dining Room after a closed door meeting.

TRUMP: This afternoon after extensive consultation with our friends and partners throughout the region, I'm formally releasing our principles for peace.

The 20-point Gaza peace proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all Israeli hostages within days, and the creation of a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump to oversee a postwar Gaza government.

Under the framework, Israel would slowly withdraw while preserving a security perimeter.

Netanyahu said he’s on board with the plan. But he added that the war in Gaza will end, one way or the other.

NETANYAHU:  This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done.

The White House is awaiting a response from Hamas.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, welcomed the announcement and pledged to implement reforms. But the Palestinian Authority does not speak for Hamas.

Israel latest » Meanwhile in Tel-Aviv, demonstrators gathered last night to call for an end to the war. WORLD's Travis Kircher reports from just outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

SOUND: [Demonstrators in Tel Aviv]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Hundreds of demonstrators protested outside the embassy last night, waiting to hear the results of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with President Trump.

Activists waved Israeli and U.S. flags and called for an end to the war in Gaza. As the two-year anniversary of the October 7 attack approaches, participant Temar Bermam said she blames both Hamas and Netanyahu for the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement.

BERMAM: Most of the people in the country want to live in peace. It's just a very few ministers and prime minister -- stupid prime minister -- that doesn't do it.

With Trump and Netanyahu now on the same page for a ceasefire plan, all eyes are on Hamas to see if the terror group will agree to the terms.

Demonstrator Tzipy Dudai Frank is calling on Trump to pressure the government of Qatar to force Hamas to cooperate.

DUDAI: Qatar is the fuel of this war. Qatar give the money for the weapon. So if they stop it—no Hamas! Finished!

Reporting for WORLD from Tel Aviv, I’m Travis Kircher.

Government funding » Back in Washington, the deadline to avert a government shutdown is now just hours away.

Lawmakers gathered at the White House Monday in a last-ditch effort to strike a deal. But the two sides left just as far apart as they were when they arrived.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER:  It is up to the Republicans whether they want to shut down or not. We've made to the president some proposals. Our, our Republican leaders will have to talk to them about them,

House Speaker Mike Johnson says, yes, Democrats did make a proposal, but in his view, not a serious one.

JOHNSON:  You should go take a look at what they requested, $1.5 trillion in new spending that is unrelated to the ongoing appropriations process.

Republicans insist on a clean stopgap spending bill — with no policy add-ons. Democrats refuse to cooperate unless the GOP negotiates on healthcare, including on Obamacare tax credits.

The deadline to pass funding and avoid a shutdown is midnight.

There is no bill on the table right now that would be able to pass in both chambers. And the House is out of session this week, making a shutdown increasingly likely.

Trump tariff on movies » President Trump says he wants to make Hollywood great again, using tariffs. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher explains.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Major studios are making more and more of their movies outside of Hollywood and the United States as a whole. They’re finding lower costs and tax incentives overseas.

Disney just moved most of its big Marvel productions from Atlanta to the UK, continuing that trend.

And President Trump has announced a proposed 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States

He says the move is designed to protect Hollywood from unfair foreign competition.

The directive is still vague. The White House hasn’t explained how the tariffs would be applied or when.

Supporters say the move could revive U.S. jobs in the film industry. Critics warn it could invite retaliation and add new costs for audiences.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Mormon shooting update » The FBI is investigating Sunday’s deadly attack at a Mormon chapel in Southern Michigan.

Special agent Ruben Coleman:

COLEMAN:  I can confirm at this time that the FBI is now leading the investigation and is investigating this as an act of targeted violence.

At least four people were found dead at the scene, after a 40-year-old suspect killed at least four people after he drove a truck into the building, began shooting at parishioners, and then set the chapel on fire.

ATF Special Agent James Deir added:

DEIR:  I will confirm that there were some suspected explosive devices that were located. Um, but as far as using them to initiate the blaze, I can't say that.

The FBI said they’re still working to understand the attacker’s motives before labeling the incident as religiously motivated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Danic of the Henry Ford Genesys Hospital gave an update on the injured:

DANIC: We had a total of eight patients…from the ages of six to 78. Five were gunshot wounds, and three were smoke inhalations. Two of the smoke inhalation have been discharged. One is still intubated at this time. For the gunshot wounds….One of the victims did die in the emergency department.

Danic said two more gunshot victims were in critical condition.

Tropical Storm Imelda » Some residents in Georgia and other coastal communities in the southeast are breathing a sigh of relief. That after forecasters said Tropical Storm Imelda was tracking to the east, away from the U.S. shoreline.

But as one lifeguard on Georgia’s Tybee Island noted, rough surf and dangerous rip currents remain a threat.

AUDIO:  We're trying to keep people out of the water. We just keep them knee deep so that nobody has the opportunity to get swept into a rip.

But the Bahamas were bracing Monday for tropical storm conditions, with powerful winds and driving rain.

Imelda was forecast to start pulling away from the Bahamas this morning while strengthening into a hurricane.

Imelda already triggered flooding in the northern Caribbean and was blamed for at least one death in Cuba.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: an indictment for former FBI director James Comey. Plus, making education meaningful, and challenging.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 30th of September.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up: Former FBI Director James Comey—indicted on allegations he lied to Congress about the Trump–Russia investigation.

Here’s Texas Senator Ted Cruz asking Comey about allegations of leaks to the media:

CRUZ: Who's telling the truth?

COMEY: I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.

CRUZ: So your testimony is you've never authorized anyone to leak. And Mr. McCabe, if he says contrary, is not telling the truth. Is that correct?

COMEY: Again, I'm not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today.

Is that enough to put the former FBI director behind bars?

Joining us now is veteran prosecutor Bobby Higdon, he was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and served 24 years as Assistant U.S. Attorney before that.

REICHARD: Bobby, good morning.

BOBBY HIGDON: Good morning.

REICHARD: This is the just latest chapter in a long saga, can you briefly remind us how we got here, and why this indictment is coming now?

HIGDON: Well, as you will recall, over the last number of years, Mr. Comey, as Director of the FBI, was involved in a number of very high profile investigations that the current president believes were handled wrongly. Those included the investigation into Hillary Clinton and her abuse of her position, as well as her meddling or being involved with the investigation into Russian, alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. And so time has passed, there have been additional investigations around that, and now with the Trump administration in charge of the Justice Department, they've taken that opportunity to look back at Mr. Comey behavior and the statements he's made to Congress and have brought charges against him that arise out of questioning that was conducted by Senator Ted Cruz during that hearing back on September 30 of 2020, which means the statute of limitations on the matter runs today.

REICHARD: I think it's good to remind ourselves that an indictment is not proof of guilt, but do remind us what an indictment is. And what does this one say?

HIGDON: Well, an indictment is the means by which a grand jury notifies an individual or an entity that they've been charged with a crime, and it lays out, usually in the language that is based upon what's in the statute, the criminal statute, it lays out in that language exactly what the charge is. In this case, it informs Mr. Comey and all of us about the specific exchange that he had with Senator Cruz in terms of the counts that are moving forward, and it refers to what was actually said. Now, it doesn't provide the entire context, but it refers to the specific question and the specific response. And so that provides Mr. Comey with notice of the crime with which he's been charged. And then, of course, the government will provide him with the evidence as part of the discovery process, so that he'll know the details of those but this is really just a notice document, and it's the formal means that the Constitution requires us to use to initiate criminal charges and get the criminal proceeding underway.

REICHARD: How about the charge of obstructing a Congressional proceeding?

HIGDON: Well, that's the that's sort of the follow -on that their count two in the indictment is based upon the specific exchange between Mr. Comey and Senator Cruz and then count three with the count that you refer to is Based upon the idea that when you lie to a congressional committee or to to Congress that you have obstructed justice You've obstructed the the course and scope of their investigation by providing false testimony. So it's another way of charging the same type of act.

REICHARD: Bobby, how does the Justice department’s case against Comey compare to cases the previous DOJ launched against President Trump…over handling classified documents and response to the 2020 election results? Is this lawfare or something else?

HIGDON: Well, I think it depends on how you see the process that's underway. I mean, many would say this is law fair. Many would say this is a fair response to improper proceedings against President Trump in the past. So I think it's a matter of perspective, but it certainly is, and we've talked about this in prior interviews, it certainly is another one of those instances where a line is crossed. No FBI director has ever been indicted before. It is very difficult to prove perjury charges, because you have to get into the mind of the individual that made the statements. You do that through the circumstantial evidence and what other people can tell you about what they knew or should have known, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to prove that the statements were made falsely and corruptly, and that's what is going to be very difficult, as it is in any perjury case. So I think it's a matter of where you sit. But there is no question that this is a hard type of case to prove.

REICHARD: What happens next?

HIGDON: Well, what happens next is Mr. Comey is scheduled to make an initial appearance in US District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, I think, sometime next week, and he will have the charges formally read to him. He'll enter a plea, I'm sure, of not guilty, and then the case will get underway. Things move fairly rapidly in the Eastern District of Virginia, which prides itself on referring to its docket as the rocket docket. But there will have to be an exchange of discovery information, which means the government has to show its evidence. Mr. Comey may have to show certain types of evidence if he's going to offer any, and of course, he doesn't have to. But there'll be that exchange of evidence and information. There'll be pre trial motions filed, I'm sure, motions to dismiss the indictment, motions to narrow the scope, motions to narrow the type of information that can be used as evidence in trial. So there'll be a motions practice that goes on, and then, unless the case is dismissed or Mr. Comey pleads guilty, there'll be a trial in the future. And as I said, given the history and the practice of this district, it may move fairly fast.

REICHARD: Bobby Higdon is a former Assistant U.S. now in private practice in North Carolina. Thanks so much.

HIGDON: Thank you, Mary.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the suicide hotline change that dropped an LGBTQ option—and sparked debate over why it was ever there in the first place.

WORLD marriage and family reporter Juliana Chan Erikson reports.

MESSAGE: Dial tone followed by automated 988 voice greeting “You have reached the 988 Suicide and crisis lifeline. We are here to help.”

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: This is what you hear when you dial 988. It’s an automated female voice. If you call it today, you will hear two options.

MESSAGE: If you are a U.S. veteran or service member or calling about one, press one.

Until recently, there used to be a third option. It would have asked you to press 3 if you are an LGBTQ youth and want to be connected to a counselor who specializes in LGBTQ youth issues. That option, which began as a pilot program in 2022, ended abruptly on July 17th. A spokesperson for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration—which runs the 988 service—said the 33 million dollars allocated for the LGBTQ youth service had all been spent. The White House did not announce any plans to renew the program.

Plenty of youth pressed 3. When it began in late 2022, fewer than 25,000 callers pressed 3 per month. But shortly before the option ended, that had nearly tripled, with nearly 70,000 contacts in June, its last full month of operation.

Since the option ended, some states have stepped in to fill the perceived gap. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $700,000 partnership with the Trevor Project to provide what he called “LGBTQ+ affirming crisis care” for youth in the state. Illinois said it also would increase the amount of counselor training.

BEHRENS: On average, about 9% of the kids that were reaching out were talking about LGBTQ related subjects.

Patricia Behrens is the co-director of 2NDFLOOR, a 24-hour anonymous helpline for youth in New Jersey. She said the percentage of youth contacting their helpline to talk about homosexuality and transgender concerns has doubled since the Press 3 option ended.

BEHRENS: August went up to 10.8 and then now in September, we're seeing 18.3% and our reviews on our message board, where we had seen a pretty steady number of LGBTQ views on the subjects that's posted on the message board, we now seen that that number has tripled, almost quadrupled,

Everyone I spoke with emphasized that the 988 suicide and crisis hotline is still open to youth, even those who have sexual or gender identity issues. They may not be able to press 3, but they will still get help.

But Behrens says more youth who identify as LGBTQ are probably reaching out to state hotlines like hers because they assume they have to go elsewhere to get help.

BEHRENS: It's a matter of you have it, and then when it's gone, it's. Where do you go? Who am I going to talk to and find that out?

But some people don’t think suicide hotlines need a separate option for LGBTQ youth. Elizabeth Woning is the co-founder of the CHANGED Movement, a Christian support group for people who formerly identified as LGBTQ.

WONING: By doing that, saying, oh, we need a youth hotline that is specific for LGBT identifying youth, it's reinforcing a falsehood that somehow LGBT identifying youth who experience depression are facing greater or different challenges than their peers.

Still, LGBTQ advocates say this particular group is four times more likely to contemplate or commit suicide than average youth.

Woning acknowledges the elevated risks, but argues that the care for suicidal young people looks the same, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.

She says she knows this firsthand. Back in 1998 she faced a crisis of her own.

WONING: I was estranged from my parents, and I had come out as lesbian, moved to a metropolitan area. I was living on the opposite side of the nation from my parents, and found myself struggling with self harm.

So Woning called the local suicide hotline from her apartment in Sacramento, California.

WONING: So I know the feeling of despair, and I'd say hopelessness, but also desperation that goes on when you're when you need to call

Woning said she required multiple hospitalizations and psychiatric treatment. Sexual orientation, she says, was the least of her concerns.

WONING: When you're calling a suicide hotline, you're calling for suicide issues. You know, when I was calling the crisis hotline, I was concerned about surviving my moment. I wasn't concerned whether they knew that I was a lesbian.

Calling the suicide hotline saved Elizabeth Woning’s life, but she says it took years of personal reflection and a renewed understanding of God to heal her completely.

WONING: As I explored experiential Christianity and began to have a spiritual awakening, then a lot of the ideological commitments that I had began to be questioned, and and ultimately I repented of lesbianism and feminism and began moving away from that culture.

She stopped identifying as a lesbian and is now married to a man.

WONING: I had struggled so deeply with bipolar disorder, and during the course of my kind of discovery journey, a lot of the oppressive mental illness that I had experienced fell away. I truly have been changed by the grace of God.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Reformed Baptist pastor and author Voddie Baucham Jr. died last week at the age of 56. Here now with a reflection on his life and legacy is WORLD’s Myrna Brown.

MYRNA BROWN: Voddie Baucham loved to tell how God changed his life…

VODDIE BAUCHAM: I was raised in the projects. In gang infested, drug infested, South Central Los Angeles. Raised by a single teenage Buddhist mother. The first time I ever heard the gospel was my freshman year in college. I didn’t know Jesus from the Man in the Moon.

A Campus Crusade staffer introduced Baucham to Christ. Baucham excelled in college football and earned a master’s degree and doctorate from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was that combination that first struck Delano Squires.

DELANO SQUIRES: When a man who looks like he can start at middle linebacker on any NFL team, talks to you about strength, you sit up and listen.

Squires is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

DELANO SQUIRES: But when he talks to you about tenderness and when he we weeps when he delivers a Gospel message behind the pulpit, no part of you says this guy’s weak, he’s soft. That would never cross anybody’s mind. He actually embodied that aspect of manhood that is equal parts tough and tender. And I think a lot of men were drawn to that.

Squires says people also admired Baucham’s courage and how he boldly stood for his faith. An excerpt from a 2021 interview with a Black Lives Matter supporter.

REPORTER: If Jesus was here, do you think He would say black lives matter?

VODDIE BAUCHAM: Well, if Jesus was here, He would say lives matter. I know for example He would say the black lives that are being obliterated in the womb matter and as a Christian I believe that lives matter from the moment of conception, all the way to the moment of natural death.

Squires say Baucham’s steady voice was important in those heated debates.

DELANO SQUIRES: I think it was important because he represented a perspective that was not often heard, particularly with respect to debates around race and faith.

Squires calls Baucham a “race” man.

DELANO SQUIRES: Many people may not understand why I bring that up, but that’s actually important to people like me. At times in conservative evangelicalism and in mainstream Christianity, blackness is set up as an opposing theological construct in some ways to Biblical Christianity. So, in order to be Biblically Christian, you have to be less black. I never saw him as someone who buckled in that tension, either from the left or from the right, so to speak.

Squires says he was most influenced by Bauchman’s commitment to marriage, Biblical manhood and home education.

BAUCHAM: I was 20 years old. Had just turned 20. I met her January 21st 1989. We got married 6 months later. June 30th. Oh I knew what I wanted…

Baucham met and married his wife Bridget while in college. Despite the high divorce rate in their families, they remained married for more than 30 years. Seven of their nine children were adopted and they were all homeschooled.

DELANO SQUIRES: I grew up in New York City. I went to public schools almost my entire life. I didn’t know anyone who was homeschooled. When I thought about home education, like most people I said, how are they going to be socialized? I thought like…weirdo, crunchy kids.

But Squires says Baucham’s clarity on the need for Christian parents to give their children a Christian education and pass on their faith convicted him.

DELANO SQUIRES: And my wife and I we’ve been homeschooling for about five years now largely because of the work that he did.

In 20-15 Baucham took that work and his family to Zambia, Africa. For nine years he served as the dean of the School of Divinity at African Christian University. That’s where Lennox Kalifungwa met Voddie Baucham 18 years ago.

LENNOX KALIFUNGWA: And it’s been an amazing 18 years. Your family is like family to me. You very much are my uncle…

Kalifungwa, originally from South Africa, is a writer, speaker and podcast host. Baucham’s interview with Kalifungwa is one of the last recorded conversations Baucham gave before his death. It was recorded the same week Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Kalifunga asked Baucham for his take on the need for our Christians to be willing to suffer for their faith, like Kirk.

VODDIE BAUCHAM: What I worry about is the individual who is not willing to be persecuted in smaller ways. Almost nobody is going to face an assassin’s bullet as a consequence of being faithful. But there are a lot of people who are going to face the consequences of negative comments online, negative reviews from their boss, negative opinions from co-workers. I don’t look at this and say, yeah, you need to be able to be willing to go out there and face an assassin’s bullet. No. Just be willing to face your family members.

Voddie Baucham is survived by his wife Bridget, their nine children and three grandchildren.

For WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 30th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Britain’s strictest headmistress. Fed up with failing schools, she launched her own—and now she’s showing the world why it works. WORLD’s Lindsay Mast reports.

LINDSAY MAST: Fifteen years ago, a deputy head teacher of a British school stood before England’s Conservative Party with harsh words about the educational system:

BIRBALSINGH: I am fighting a generation of thinking that has left our education system in pieces, where all must have prizes and all must have a place at University. We have a situation where standards have been so dumbed down that even the children themselves know it.

She warned of dire consequences:

BIRBALSINGH: My experience of teaching for over a decade in five different schools has convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system is broken because it keeps poor children poor.

That speech changed Katharine Birbalsingh’s life.

She got a standing ovation afterward. And then lost her job. That’s when she decided to start a school of her own. It’s called a free school—kind of like a charter school in the U.S.

BIRBALSINGH: There was so much opposition against us, trying to stop us from opening.

She says outsiders came into the city to protest at her parent meetings. It took three years, but in 2014, she was back, determined to educate students differently.

BIRBALSINGH: We teach them, old fashioned, I call them small c, conservative values, traditional values of personal responsibility.

Birbalsingh opened the Michaela Community School in a diverse area of northwest London. Many children are not from native English-speaking families. Some are low-income. And the more than 700 students span a wide range of other demographics:

BIRBALSINGH: We've got Muslim children, Hindu children, Sikh children, we've got Christian children, we've got black kids, brown kids, white kids.”

It is a secular community school. But it emphasizes Judeo-Christian values and traditional academics–think deep foundational knowledge in the basics like math, history, science, and English.

AUDIO: [Sound from Julius Caesar play]

Audio from a performance of Julius Caesar the year after the school opened.

AUDIO: [Sound from Julius Caesar play]

The differences go far beyond academics. The children practice showing kindness and gratitude. They abide by a strict dress and discipline code. No talking in the halls. No gathering in groups of more than four.

TEACHER: Tripping somebody up in the corridor, okay, or interfering with someone else is a bad thing to do…

Audio of a teacher and student, from a 2022 documentary released by the school.

TEACHER: Because you know, you know that the most important thing is that you get into your lesson quickly so that you can so that you can learn as much as possible. Okay, now Ms. Jones cares a lot about your progress, so Ms. Jones is going to pull you up on that. She's going to give you a detention because it means that next time, you won't make that mistake again. Do you understand?

Birbalsingh also holds Michaela students to high academic standards and emphasizes self-discipline.

BIRBALSINGH: You know, there's an expression, which is you take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. It's the same thing at Michaela, your ties need to be up to the top, and your uniform, your shirts need to be tucked in. You need to be on time. You need to turn up with your homework.

All of that has earned her the reputation of Britain’s Strictest Headmistress.

BIRBALSINGH: It’s funny, people think I march up and down the corridors with whips and chains. Of course that’s not true.

What is true: the school gets Outstanding ratings from the Office of Standards in Education. The majority of students get top-tier scores on exams.

But it faces stiff criticism.

ADAMS: Yeah the school sounds absolutely dreadful.

That’s British parenting blogger John Adams on GB News in 2021.

ADAMS: It sounds like a soulless place that sucks the life out of the kids, frankly. I would hate my kids to go there. We are trying to get children prepared for the outside world and that’s not just about getting 9 A-star GCSEs. It's about producing well rounded individuals and I don’t think walking down silent corridors or getting an after school detention for forgetting a paper is the way to go.

One major challenge came from within the school community itself. In 2023, a Muslim student took the school to court over a ban on prayers in the schoolyard. Birbalsingh says allowing prayers would have been divisive.

BIRBALSINGH: I'm not going to divide children according to race and religion. So I refused to do it, and I went to the high court to defend our belief in multiculturalism being able to succeed.

The student lost the challenge.

Birbalsingh remains unapologetic about Michaela’s exacting standards.

BIRBALSINGH: Everybody is treated in exactly the same way. You never hear children saying, that's unfair, because everybody has the same strict discipline.

She also stands by its traditional educational practices:

BIRBALSINGH: We believe that the adults should be the authority in the room. They're standing at the front. They are in charge, not the children.

The school says over 1000 people a year come to see the school firsthand.

BIRBALSINGH: One of the things people come to the school and they say, my goodness, the children are so kind and grateful, the kids are so interested and polite and that they're so ambitious and they're so resilient. I'm very proud of how the kids do academically, but I'm even more proud of who they are as people.”

Birbalsingh says that’s the outcome she wants for students: the character traits that no school exam can quantify.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast.

REICHARD:  On Saturday, we’ll release Lindsay’s full interview with Katharine Birbalsingh. You can find it on The World and Everything in It feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 30th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming up next, the end of the world.

With pandemics, wars, and turmoil abroad, many are wondering whether we’re in the last days.

WORLD Opinions contributor Daniel Darling says Christians ought to face the future with confidence—and hope.

DANIEL DARLING: Christians are not immune to fear. We see the same images and hear the same headlines…

NEWS HEADLING MONTAGE

Bad news abounds. It leads many Christians to wonder if we are living in the last days predicted by Jesus.

Believers throughout the church age have held differing views on exactly how the end times will unfold. The latter half of the 20th century was a high-water mark for pre-tribulation dispensationalism, with bestselling book series, movies, and prophecy conferences. While belief in this strand of eschatology has waned somewhat in the 21st century, believers look at world events and wonder where they fit into God’s plan.

This is a good instinct. Every believer, regardless of his or her eschatology, has a hope that a fearful world lacks. We have the promise of Jesus’s coming. We have confidence that God is gathering history to Himself. Scripture tells us to eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus, who said in Luke 21:28 to “look up, for your redemption is near.” Christians aren’t to be asleep and adrift amid the cultural tides, but to be watchful, alert, and sober.

For Christians, war, rumors of war, and Orwellian technology should not provoke us to fear, but faith. The sovereign Lord of the universe is not wringing His hands at any of this. In fact, Psalm 2 says that God sits in the heavens and laughs at human machinations.

Trust in God doesn’t imply naivete or a quietist withdrawal from the world. Rather, we are told in Scripture that anticipating the end should motivate us to double down on Christian faithfulness. Writing just after World War II and at the dawn of the Cold War, C.S. Lewis wrote of Christ’s Second Coming in an essay, “The World’s Last Night.” He urged Christians, “Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments.”

The Apostle Paul urged the first century church toward a holy urgency, “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11-12). In one of his final letters, Paul urges Christians “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13). The writer of Hebrews says the end of days should find us gathering more, not less, with the people of God.

So while believers will differ on the exact timing and details of Jesus’s coming, we are united by a hope that He is indeed returning, victoriously, to finish His work of making all things new. We can state with confidence that we are in the final stages of God’s redemptive plan not because of a headline, but because we have God’s sure word. And so, with the Apostle John, we watch and say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

I’m Daniel Darling. 

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: another potential government shutdown looms. We’ll talk about that and other DC stories on Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker. And, a conversation with Jefferson Fisher, how he became the internet’s go-to communication coach. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” —Psalm 84:10

Go now in grace and peace.

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