Truth Is Life!

Experiencing how God’s truth energizes life!

INTRO

(under construction)
This website is made to help people understand truths, esp. truths of God confirmed by science, that shows us how we can beat the worst oppressors.

If you want to contact me, you can send a message to bryan@truth-is-life.org. I will try to reply as I have time…but I get a lot of messages and some go to spam. So I apologize if I don’t respond quickly.

God bless,
Bryan Bissell

P.S. Below is a short summary of some of the problems our world is facing, but which God has solutions for.  Look esp. at articles under the heading of freedom as well as the documentary “The Economics of Happiness” under the docu heading for some of the best solutions.

What are the biggest causes of death, injustice and abuse in the world and the best and simplest solutions? That knowledge is the most important truth for life in this world and it is knowledge that God has given to His people and which 1000s of scientific studies are confirming. I will give a brief overview of this here, but I encourage you to follow and read the many links that are on this page for more in depth information, starting with other pages on this site, but also many others that have very solid research that is useful.

If you look at the news, you would think it was terrorism and war probably. But here is what the research says are factors in deaths (note that some factors contribute to multiple causes of death and most deaths involve several factors). And of course, none of these deaths or crimes would occur if people following the Bible and it’s golden rule, 10 commandments and other laws which are the practical applications of law. Sin and esp. greed and pride are the root causes of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). The Old Testament principles of human rights and health and economics are especially important in protecting life, but most churches ignore these, using the tragic principle of anti-nomianism. The SDA denomination is one of the very few that understands that Jesus did not come to abolish the law in even a jot or tittle (Matt. 5:18-20), since it is the foundation of freedom (Psalms 119:44-5,James 1:25), love (Romans 13:8-10), wisdom (Deut. 4:1-8), and peace/stability (Leviticus 25:18-19, 1 Kings 4:25, Nehemiah 5, etc.).

Dr. Homer Dixon wrote in his 2006 book “The Upside of Down” about 5 very serious threats that are damaging/destroying millions of lives every year now and could cause the collapse of nations/civilization in the near future: energy stress, economic stress, demographic stress/disease, environmental stress and climate stress. They are interlocking crises, so if one gets worse it can easily make others worse too.[1] A few specifics examples are below, many related to the above research as well as Bible predictions. These illustrate how a decline in spirituality results in greed and much injustice:
These are the best estimates of which habits are factors in deaths worldwide. Sometimes a death may have multiple factors. One problem is that many people die and the cause is not recorded. Finally, we are at the point where about 1/2 of all deaths are documented and cause(s) reported.[2] So that can help us identify the biggest dangers and work to reduce/stop them

  1. Abortion: ~40,000,000+ fetuses/year[3]
  2. Bad health habits ~41,000,000 people/year[4] (many due to corporate drugs/junk food)
  3. Poverty:                         ~18,000,000 people/year (some of these are connected to other causes) [5]
  4. Pollution:                         ~12,000,000 people/year[6]
  5. Work accidents:             ~2.78 million people/year[7]
  6. Violence (Murder, War, etc): ~1,600,000 people/year[8]
  7. Road accidents:             ~1,200,000 people/year[9]
  8. Suicide:             ~1,000,000 people/year[10]
  9. Racism: ~1,000,000 people/year* (more of this is in history, but some now too)
  10. Dangerous Animals: ~800,000/year[11]
  11. Drug use: ~450,000/year[12]
  12. Dementia/mental diseases: ~150,000 (US/UK alone)
  13. War:             ~300,000 people/year
  14. Lack of sanitation(diarrhea): ~280,000 deaths
  15. Persecution of Christians: ~90,000 people/year(+other religious people killed)
  16. Natural disasters ~68,000 people a year
  17. Terrorism:                         ~20,000 people/year
  18. Land mines:                         ~15-20,0000 people/year
  19. Police killings ~1,000+/year (USA only)

A few specifics examples are below, many related to the above research as well as Bible predictions. These illustrate how a decline in spirituality results in greed and much injustice:

  • SPIRITUALITY: Barna has told churches that “statistically a very small amount of younger people have what he called a ‘biblical worldview’—only 4% of 18-30 year-olds and 7% of 30-49 year-olds. ‘We are in a crisis,’ Barna said. ‘If the church does not wake up and solve it, biblical Christianity in the United States is in jeopardy.’”[13] But Dr. William Craig points out Christianity has always had waves, some regress, and then more expansion and that while some churches are declining, others are growing, “Evangelical Christianity is growing more than 3 times as fast as the world’s population…We have the numbers, the financial resources, and the technology to evangelize the whole world in our generation…the best is yet to come.”[14] SDAs have been one of the fastest growing churches, and we baptize ~3,000 a day, but we also tragically lose ~2 out of 5 new members and most are not for theological reasons, but due to life crises. More seriously, we only have ~3 million members in the 10/40 window which is the most unreached area of the world and where 40% of the world’s population lives. We only have ~4,000 missionaries, intra division volunteers and global mission pioneers.[15]SDAs have the most valuable truths on the planet, even according to science. But new challenges and deceptions keep coming up and “Every species of deception will take the lead to divert the mind from God through Satan’s devices.” (SM3, p. 387) we need to keep progressing as Jesus wants (John 16:12), and as Ellen White instruct says, “let no one for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light. “BLJ p. 111 We just need to help our members understand the incredible power and value of the truths that we have been given. How well we identify the best solutions that God has to each of these crises will determine how well our church will survive and thrive through them.
  • EDUCATION: “All over the world, there’s a growing consensus that our education systems are broken.”[16]
  • ECONOMIC INJUSTICE: Poverty is a factor in ~18,000,000 deaths a year.[17] The Christian aid agency Oxfam and others have shown that the 1% richest own more wealth than the 99% combined[18] and that just the 100 richest could solve poverty worldwide 7 times.[19] This is “a symptom of a failing economic system” according to the Christian aid agency Oxfam’s Winnie Byanyima. “Eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world.”[20]Economic researchers have found that ~737 stock holders and 147 transnational corporations [TNCs] have gained enormous control over nearly all the transnational corporations in the world. The “control over the economic value of [~43,060] TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control over itself.”[21] Some experts such as Coffey Brenden at Forbes think it is even more concentrated and wrote, “The Four Companies That Control the 147 Companies That Own Everything.”[22] As God said greed is the root of most problems/evil in the world (1 Tim. 6:10)**. Most/all deaths could be prevented if people followed the warnings of the Bible against greed. Confucius put it this way, “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
  • “The trend in stagnating or declining incomes for middle class workers is not just confined to the United States, but is a global phenomenon hurting workers across the wealthy world.”[23]
  • “…productivity has risen while the median wage has barely changed…Since the early 1970s, the hourly inflation-adjusted wages received by the typical worker have barely risen, growing only 0.2% per year.”[24] Inflation reduces the value of money by ~50% every 10-15 years and the benefits and pensions of many jobs have been reduced or disappeared. Many companies have let full time workers go and hired part time workers to skirt paying benefits.
  • Many economic experts say that we are facing the mother of all bubble markets with the worst bubbles in modern or even all history in the bond market, fiat currency bubble, the debt bubble, the credit bubble, and the derivative bubble, the stock bubble, the real estate bubble, the student debt bubble, etc. When these crash it will make the 2008 crash and probably even the 1929 crash look like child’s play.[25]
  • “The worst [economic] crash in our lifetime is coming…it’s going to be serious stuff.”[26] Jim Rogers
  • PREJUDICE/INEQUALITY/RACISM/CLASSISM: Dr. David Williams, professor of African and African American studies at Harvard spoke at Southern Adventist University recently and said, “Researchers have calculated how many black people die prematurely every day, who wouldn’t die if there were no black/white differences in health. It’s 220 black people die each and every day in America who wouldn’t die if there were no racial differences in health…Low income Americans (less than $25,000/year income) have a death rate 3 times larger than those of high income Americans…Globally, socio-economic status in every country where we have data is the largest predictor of variations in health. It’s even a greater predictor than race.”[27] High levels of inequality have killed ~500,000 Caucasians in America between 1998 and 2013 or ~90 per day and these rates are increasing.[28]***
  • HEALTH: Bad health habits are the #1 cause of bankruptcy.** ~20% of American kids live in conditions where they don’t get the nutritious food they need or are even malnourished[29]. “Scientists are warning that we will need more food to feed the world in the next 50 years than all history combined.[30] Good health habits*** extend life, improve brain function dramatically, double people’s money by their 50s, solve many environmental problems and more**.
  • These are causing toxic chemicals that now poison the blood of ~99% of the people on earth, plastics that are entering the food supply and will cause more disease, higher levels of debt, abuse, crime, violence, family breakdown, at least 40,000,000 slaves around the world and more and more in America, including over 100,000 young children being forced into sexual slavery in the USA (https://www.globalslaveryindex.org, https://ourrescue.org)**, endless wars and more. These and all other evils derive from greed the Bible says (1 Tim. 6:10) and an incredible amount of scientific research agrees (http://blog.truth-is-life.org/rights/equality/). A few live in relative peace and comfort while the majority is exploited. This is the essence of Sodom (Ez. 16:49) and anti-God powers throughout the Bible.
  • FOOD: “Scientists are warning that we will need more food to feed the world in the next 50 years than all history combined.[31]~
  • JOBS/VIOLENCE: “According to the McKinsey Global Institute, robots could replace 800 million jobs by 2030.”[32] The Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset (ACLED) shows that since 1997, violence/terrorism has gone up ~7 times in Africa and one major factor is joblessness. If the McKinsey report is correct, future violence will dwarf that.
  • HOMICIDE: Inequality predicts homicide rates “better than any other variable”, says Martin Daly, professor emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at McMaster University in Ontario and author of Killing the Competition: Economic Inequality and Homicide.[33]
    Ichiro Kawachi from Harvard did research in all 50 states and said, “The results were unambiguous: when income inequality was higher, so was the rate of homicide. Income inequality alone explained 74% of the variance in murder rates and half of the aggravated assaults…. A World Bank sponsored study subsequently confirmed these results on income inequality concluding that, worldwide, homicide and the unequal distribution of resources are inextricably tied.” 07/31/2012 On the Origin of American Gun Violence headshot By Eric Michael Johnson  https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-gun-violence_b_1710573
  • WAR: We have had more war in the 20th century than all human history combined. In recent years there has been more and more war. This seems due to some powerful people doing research and finding that nothing can change societies as much as war (Rockefeller quote).
  • FAMILY BREAKDOWN: The Bible says that greed ruins families. “Arguments about money is by far the top predictor of divorce,” said Sonya Britt, assistant professor of family studies and human services and program director of personal financial planning. “Results revealed it didn’t matter how much you made or how much you were worth. Arguments about money are the top predictor for divorce because it happens at all levels…If the money is not being treated fairly in the household, then the relationship satisfaction is going to be lower,” she said. k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jul13/predictingdivorce71113.html
  • SLAVERY (many kinds): When families are ruined, it’s much more difficult for parents to protect children from exploitation. This makes children and especially girls, vulnerable to exploitation and slavery. There are over 40 million slaves of different kinds in nearly all countries around the world, including the USA. Trafficking of children is a terrible problem in many countries. Even in America, over 100,000 children have been subjected to sex trafficking and “The average age of those being trafficked is 13.” Why? “Young girls have been sexualized for years now in music videos, on billboards, in television ads. Marketers have created a demand for young flesh and a ready supply of over-sexualized children…In other words, the culture is grooming these young people to be preyed upon by sexual predators.[34]
  • PERSECUTION: The persecution and genocide of Christians across the world is worse today “than at any time in history,” and Western governments are failing to stop it.[35]

Einstein and other scientists have said that simple valuable solutions are the highest form of genius. And throughout history, that is exactly what God has given to His people and when followed they also attract many people to belief in God. My favorite verses say:

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 1 Tim. 4:8 (NLT)
“The rules of the Lord can be trusted; they make plain people wise.” Psalm 19:7 (NCV)
Our church has made a lot of progress in many areas, but we need to keep progressing as fast as possible.

“Whatever may be humanity’s intellectual advancement, let no one for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light…It is His will that they should be ever moving forward to receive the increased and ever – increasing light which is shining for them.” BLJ p. 111  
We live in a time of enormous challenges, many deceptions, exploitation and crises for the majority of people in the world and more and more in America as well. This confirms Dr. King’s principle that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Thucydides long ago said that when powerful people impose tyranny on foreigners, soon they will have no problem imposing it on their own citizens. That is happening now in many countries. Many scientists such as Dr. Homer Dixon are very concerned about very serious threats to lives and civilization because of energy crises, economic injustice, increasing population, disease, environmental pollution and climate dangers that have throughout history caused many disasters, financial loss, loss of life, and societal collapse.[36] According to Bible principles, all of these problems and every other evil that we hear about frequently in the news originates from Satan, greed and pride and the Bible says greed will be the special evil of the time before Jesus comes.

But times of crises have throughout history been also times of great opportunity for God’s people because they can show that when man’s best ideas fail, God has answers. Shawn Boonstra said that we are seeing a great increase in interest in God’s answers for man’s troubles now. I have also experienced this and probably 80% of non-Christians I talk to are open to hearing more about the Bible and how it solves modern problems. The Bible and Ellen White share many principles that can help us defeat God’s enemies. One important one unity across nations:

“There is no person, no nation, that is perfect in every habit and thought. One must learn of another. Therefore, God wants the different nationalities to mingle together, to be one in judgment, one in purpose. (E.G.W. Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, p. 137).

“The home missionary work will be farther advanced in every way when a more liberal, self-denying, self-sacrificing spirit is manifested for the prosperity of foreign missions; for the prosperity of the home work depends largely, under God, upon the reflex influence of the evangelical work in countries afar off.”  6T p. 27
I learned some incredible things overseas and there are some very valuable principles of God that Koreans and Chinese have discovered that can benefit SDA members in America, as well as students and missionaries that are being sent from the USA to other countries in the world. Because of what I learned, I plan to spend much of the rest of my life in China if God wills. But I am in the USA for a few years in (for my daughter’s education) and I hope I can share and learn as much as possible before I go back overseas. A few of many things I learned are explained below.

The exploitation/crises/opportunities we see have many secondary causes. But the Bible, science and history indicate that there 3 basic roots and these help illuminate a more effective way to defeat Satan’s plans. God says that sin is slavery (Romans 6:16), but righteousness/godliness show us the best benefits/solutions for for this life and eternity (1 Tim. 4:8, Ps. 119:45, James 1:25, Prov. 14:34,). Falsehoods exploit people, but clear understandings of how to distinguish truth from deceptions frees people (John 8:32, 1 Thess. 21,15). Greed (and it’s twin, pride) are the root of all evil, but Bible economics is the best solution by far (1 Kings 4:25, Lev. 25:18, WM p. 195, MB p. 136+). My experience in Korea gives me unique insights on how Bible economics works practically now and it was churches that led the way there and can do so here too. We can and should work against every sin, abuse and evil. But the most effective way to combat evils is by focusing a lot on opposing greed and that is done with Bible economics as the Korean church did. Without this, we can do some good for sure, but we will be kind of playing whack-a-mole or pulling up the top of a weed but not dealing with the root, since once one deception is discovered, greed will cause others to pop up in all sorts of other ways.

1) GODLINESS: BARNA research shows we have a spiritual crisis where only ~4-10% of Americans have a biblical worldview in even bare bones areas (references here: http://blog.truth-is-life.org/rights/jubilee-economics/). This is at the root of all other crises. I learned this more decisively in China from documentaries by a Chinese dissident, Yuan Zhiming, especially China’s Confession 神州忏悔录 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh5cBIZscSA). This film covers ~5,000 years of Chinese history and show that it’s extremely difficult or impossible to get large numbers of people to live in altruistic ways if they don’t believe in God/have confidence in eternal life. Similar to Israel’s history, China got stronger and more peaceful when people believed in God and weaker, more corrupt, had more crime, violence and war when they didn’t. This fulfills the Bible’s claim that righteousness makes nations great (Prov. 14:34). Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson pointed out that at the individual level, people can sometimes get rich by being selfish. But history shows that at the group level “A group of altruists will beat a society of selfish individuals every time.”[37] Many historians and legal experts have agreed that Jesus’ resurrection is about the most proven event in history and we even have evidence for it from ancient Chinese classics. (http://blog.truth-is-life.org/missions/china-vision/chinese-evidence-for-jesus/). These facts illustrate why it is crucial for SDAS to boldly state as the apostles did that Jesus resurrection is based on infallible proofs (Acts 1:3 KJV).


Chinese Christians also have evidence corroborating the Bible through Chinese characters, powerful independent evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, 5,000 years of history of how nations become stronger when they follow God’s principles and weaker when they don’t, experience with how to thrive under persecution and more. Many Chinese pastors and Christians have also had visions saying that China is the most important country to evangelize to conquer the Middle East and 10/40 window and finish the commission. There are many things churches can do to help this effort, both abroad and also in America and it can benefit churches here too. (see: blog.truth-is-life.org/missions/china-vision/china-sdas/).

Ellen White tells us a very important concept of how we can have the same power of the early church.

“The standard of the golden rule is the true standard of Christianity; anything short of it is a deception. When those who profess the name of Christ shall practice the principles of the golden rule, the same power will attend the gospel as in apostolic times.” Ellen White, Mount of Blessing, p. 136-7 https://m.egwwritings.org/es/book/150.681
In the context of the quote above, she specifically cites Acts 4:32, 34, 33; 2:46, 47 and an interesting order. She first says that the early church emphasized Bible economics so that there was no poverty (she emphasizes Bible economics and treating the needs of all as equal in many other places in her writings, saying that she is straining every power to do this herself). Second, they testified of the resurrection and experienced God’s grace. Third, they had a health spiritual community, eating together happily and praising God. This brought favor from all people and many were saved daily. Since she says that following the policies of the early church will give us the same power they had, this seems to indicate an order that we should follow as well. And it’s quite a logical order too since confidence in eternal life and economic justice are throughout all history what have been most convincing to unbelievers that Christianity is true and valuable. Many academics state that the reason the early Christians turned the world upside down and converted so many (Acts 17:6) was their concern for equality, economic and social justice.[38]

When there are high levels of inequality in society which also cause massive injustice, Christians/SDAs have 3 options.
A) CHRIST-LIKE ACTION: We can follow God’s principles and show real solutions to the crises of the world. We SDAs showed people God’s the answers in the area of health and even secular scientists credit SDAs with improving the health of the whole world (https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/what-adventists-mean-to-you). Many joined our church and came to faith in God. I have been involved in Christian/SDA human rights/justice campaigns such as the Jubilee2000 and ONE campaigns that saved millions of lives and helped ~1 billion get out of poverty for decades. Many have been inspired to trust God by the work of Christian activists for justice. In recent decades, Korea rocketed from the poorest nation in the world to top 15 richest and top rankings in dozens of areas. More importantly, it went from 1% to 30% Christian and is in the top 5 countries in sending missionaries to other countries, including the first creation science missionary (http://blog.truth-is-life.org/rights/thrive/koreas-rise/). This is called the “Miracle on the Han” river.

Many Korean leaders, politicians and researchers have given credit to Christian revivals/confession, Christian education, following Bible economics at all levels of society (including the government), living in healthy communities where everyone’s needs were considered equal, Bible health principles (and others such as environmental care, warning against addictions, diligence/hard work, and certain other things helped) first at the church level, then in local communities and then at the government level. You can see the factors and evidence of the Bible based miracle here: http://blog.truth-is-life.org/rights/thrive/koreas-rise/

B) COMPLACENCY: Sometimes non-Christian/non-SDA activists will find some solutions, but only partial ones that are not as good as God’s solutions. Unfortunately though, they get the credit, not God and His principles revealed to SDAs. An SDA pastor friend of mine, Jasper St. Bernard, points out that we could have been the pioneers of racial equality 75 years before Martin Luther King and drawn people to God and the SDA church in that way.[39] But we made some tragic misstep and lost our advantage.

C) COMPLICITY: A new book with evidence from Russian archives, “Young Stalin”, shows that it was largely because the church in Russia was complicit in injustice and did nothing to stop it that people like Stalin began looking elsewhere for solutions. He found Darwinism and atheism. ~35 million people died, including many Christians, because the churches the Bible’s huge emphasis on human rights in over 2000 verses such as “The godly care about the rights of the poor; the wicked don’t care at all.” Proverbs 29:7  My former professor at Walla Walla, Dr. Maynard-Reid, and others have shown that justice is the #2 most common topic in the Bible (and the #1, idolatry, is heavily connected to injustice). This fulfills Hosea 8:2-4 that says that when people ignore God’s laws, he allows enemies to harass them. See:
http://blog.truth-is-life.org/rights/thrive/causesofcommunism/

The lessons of China, Korea and Russia are very crucial now. The experience of many nations and vast amounts of research show that when people of God demonstrate that love and investing in people’s lives is more important to them than being wealthy, they can beat injustice and many will turn to God and put their faith in Him. Ellen White stated:
“Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose and denounce God’s law; but the results of their influence prove that the
   well-being of man is bound up with his obedience of the divine statutes. Those who will not read the lesson from
   the book of God, are bidden to read it in the history of nations. GC p. 285 (1888)

We as SDAs have by far the simplest but most valuable advanced truths on the planet. Many can be taught and understood even by low level English students:

  • HEALTH: Over 1600 scientific studies show that the simple health habits that we teach in NEWSTART such as not smoking, exercising, reducing/avoiding alcohol use and eating healthier food (especially vegetarian) bring enormous benefits. The World Health Organization says that up to 41 million people die every year just because they don’t know or follow these 4 simple habits.[40] Following them can add up to 14 years to life.[41] These habits alone can also improve grades ~25% or more.[42] They also are crucial solutions to environmental destruction which is already causing enormous harm and millions of deaths around the world.[43] In addition, these habits can contribute to solving poverty since bad health habits cost the world ~$6.5 trillion a year.[44]
  • ECONOMICS: God said that nations will thrive if they follow God’s principles (Lev. 25:18-19, Prov. 14:34). Many researchers like Dr. Woodberry have confirmed that the Bible and missionaries teaching its principles have been the #1 factor in the development of nations.[45] Bible principles transformed South Korea and brought it from the devastation of war in the 1950s to being ranked #1 worldwide or very highly in dozens of areas now (disciplenations.org/media/Transformation-from-Poor-to-Blessed-a-Korean-Case-Study_Bush.pdf). Loren Cunningham, founder of the YWAM movement (which inspired the SM movement) wrote about this too in his book, “The Book That Transforms Nations: The Power of the Bible to Change Any Country” (Listen to him here: https://vimeo.com/52370572). An atheist researcher, Dr. Cnaan, found that for every $1 that is invested in churches, ~$4.77 in benefits comes to the community (http://www.haloproject.ca/phase-1-toronto). Campaigns that focused on Bible principles of cancelling debts, making fair trade and aid for the suffering have saved millions of lives and been significant factors in helping ~1 billion escape poverty.[46] When prophets, Ellen White and many missionaries like the Stahls worked to oppose economic injustice, it met a major felt need and influenced many for Christ.

[1] A review of Dr. Dixon’s work is here: www.theupsideofdown.com/theargument.html. A more recent paper is here: “Synchronous failure: the emerging causal architecture of global crisis“. Homer Dixon. www.homerdixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Homer-Dixon-et-al.-Synchronous-Failure-the-architecture-of-global-crisis-ES-2015-7681.pdf.

[2] “Almost half of all deaths now have a recorded cause, WHO data show”, www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/half-deaths-recorded/en/.

[3] “Number of Abortions – Abortion Counters”, www.numberofabortions.com
www.numberofabortions.com.

[4] “Noncommunicable diseases” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs355/en/.

[5] “The World Health Report 2004”, http://www.who.int/whr/2004/annex/topic/en/annex_2_en.pdf, http://www.heartsandminds.org/poverty/hungerfacts.htm,

[6] www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/,

[7] Safety and health at work – International Labour Organization
www.ilo.org/global/topics/safety-and-health-at-work/lang–en/index.htm
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/workplace-death-health-safety-ilo-fluor/

[8] World report on violence and health, www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/abstract_en.pdf

[9] www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/,

[10] http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/

[11] ***

[12] Roughly 450,000 people died as a result of drug use in 2015. Information sheet on opioid overdose www.who.int/substance_abuse/information-sheet/en/

[13] “George Barna Tells Adventist Delegates, ‘We are in a Crisis’”. Costin Jordache. www.adventistreview.org/church-news/story5101-george-barna-tells-adventist-delegates-we-are-in-a-crisis MAY 17, 2017

www.homerdixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Homer-Dixon-et-al.-Synchronous-Failure-the-architecture-of-global-crisis-ES-2015-7681.pdf).

[14] “On Being a World Christian”. William Craig. https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/christianity-other-faiths/on-being-a-world-christian/.

[15] Oct 09, 2017 https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2017-10-09/adventist-membership-grows-substantially-but-challenges-remain/  Adventist membership grows substantially but challenges remain  Adventist Review Staff

[16] “Re-imagining school”. https://www.ted.com/playlists/24/re_imagining_school.

[17] “The World Health Report 2004”, http://www.who.int/whr/2004/annex/topic/en/annex_2_en.pdf; http://www.heartsandminds.org/poverty/hungerfacts.htm.

[18] Ratcliff, Anna. “Just 8 Men Own Same Wealth as Half the World”. 16 Jan. 2018, www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world.

[19] Hagan, Shelly. “Billionaires Made So Much Money Last Year They Could End Extreme Poverty Seven Times”. January 22, 2018. time.com/money/5112462/billionaires-made-so-much-money-last-year-they-could-end-extreme-poverty-seven-times/.

[20] “Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world”. https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world. January 16, 2017.

[21] Vitali, Stefania, et al. “The Network of Global Corporate Control.” PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025995.

[22] Coffey, Brendan. “The Four Companies That Control the 147 Companies That Own Everything.” . Forbes Magazine, 12 June 2012. www.forbes.com/sites/brendancoffey/2011/10/26/the-four-companies-that-control-the-147-companies-that-own-everything/#3fa3ab2c685b.

[23] “The Death of the Middle Class Is Worse Than You Think”. Chris Matthews. fortune.com/2016/07/13/middle-class-death/. July 13, 2016.

[24] “Why Wages Aren’t Growing in America”. Jay Shambaugh, Ryan Nunn. https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-wages-arent-growing-in-america. October 24, 2017.

[25] “30 Charts Proving We’re In The Mother of All Financial Bubbles”. https://dailyreckoning.com/charts-prove-financial-bubbles/. “Top 10 Reasons I Buy Gold & Silver”. Mike Maloney”.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI7NnOg2rxo.

[26] “The worst crash in our lifetime is coming”. Jacqui Frank, Kara Chin. uk.businessinsider.com/jim-rogers-worst-crash-lifetime-coming-2017-6 Jun. 9, 2017.

[27] “The House that Racism Built and It’s Consequences for Health“. David Williams

https://livestream.com/collegedalesdachurch/events/8305584/videos/185998211. Jan. 17, 2019.

[28] “Why poor white Americans are dying of despair“. Ryan Cooper. https://theweek.com/articles/587242/why-poor-white-americans-are-dying-despair. November 6, 2015. Belluz, Julia. “Why the white middle class is dying faster, explained in 6 charts”, Mar 23, 2017 https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/23/14988084/white-middle-class-dying-faster-explained-case-deaton

[29] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/21/3429174/feeding-america-hungry-kids/

[30] “Where will we find enough food for 9 billion?”, Jim Foley, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/.  “Can We Grow More Food in 50 Years Than in All of History?”. Ned Potter. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/world-hunger-50-years-food-history/story?id=8736358, Oct. 5, 2009.

[31] “Where will we find enough food for 9 billion?”, Jim Foley, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/.  “Can We Grow More Food in 50 Years Than in All of History?”. Ned Potter. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/world-hunger-50-years-food-history/story?id=8736358, Oct. 5, 2009.

[32] “The future of education, according to experts at Davos”. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/top-quotes-from-davos-on-the-future-of-education/.

[33] Szalavitz, Maia. “Why Inequality Predicts Homicide Rates Better Than Any Other Variable.” December 11, 2017. evonomics.com/inequality-predicts-homicide-rates-better-variable/

[34]  Global Slavery Index. https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/; Whitehead, John W. “The Essence of Evil: Sex with Children Has Become Big Business in America.” April 24, 2019, https://www.globalresearch.ca/essence-evil-sex-children-become-big-business-america. https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-human-trafficking

[35] Maza, Cristina. “Christian Persecution and Genocide Is Worse Now than ‘Any Time in History’ Report Says.” January 4, 2018. https://www.newsweek.com/christian-persecution-genocide-worse-ever-770462

[36] A review of Dr. Dixon’s work is here: www.theupsideofdown.com/theargument.html. A more recent paper is here: “Synchronous failure: the emerging causal architecture of global crisis“. Homer Dixon. www.homerdixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Homer-Dixon-et-al.-Synchronous-Failure-the-architecture-of-global-crisis-ES-2015-7681.pdf.

[37] “#3: E.O. Wilson’s Theory of Altruism Shakes Up Understanding of Evolution”. Pamela Weintraub. discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/03. Thursday, April 28, 2011.

[38] “Why Did Christianity Succeed—The Great Appeal”. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/why/appeal.html.

[39] “The Third Angel’s Message for my people” (esp. the 3rd talk), Jasper St. Bernard. https://soundcloud.com/witnesstotherealist/sets/the-third-angels-message-for.
[40] Noncommunicable diseases. www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs355/en.

[41] Khaw K-T, Wareham N, Bingham S, Welch A, Luben R, Day N . 2008. Combined Impact of Health Behaviours and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study”. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050012.

[42] Bohling, Annie. 2014. “Stress, lack of sleep can lower your grades and hurt your health”. www.dailynebraskan.com/news/stress-lack-of-sleep-can-lower-your-grades-and-hurt/article_0643a742-4d0d-11e4-8ca2-001a4bcf6878.html.

[43] 7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution, www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/; Orlov, Alex. 2016. The World Would Not Exist If Everyone Ate like Americans, https://mic.com/articles/143621/american-diet-is-so-disastrous-it-would-have-wreck-the-planet-in-year-2000.

[44] Spending on health: A global overview. 2012. www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs319/en/.

[45] **The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy, Robert D. Woodberry, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic965299.files/Woodberry%20APSR%202011.pdf.

[46] Make Poverty History, and G8 promises – was it all really worth it?. 2013. www.oxfam.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2013/05/make-poverty-history-and-g8-promises-was-it-all-really-worth-it.