It's Thursday, April 6, 2023.

I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from

a Christian worldview.

There's plenty for us to talk about today, but in recent days, we've had to look at

some very heavy stories.

Now today we're going to take up a few headline stories that are of lasting consequence,

but they also come with an enormously interesting historical background.

There is a lot to consider in all of this, just in worldview analysis, but the history

itself is a fascinating tale, and I hope that today will be really, really interesting

as we take a break somewhat from some of the most pressing headlines and look at others

that have that very deep history that compels us to take another look.

My guess is that history will prove to have some twists and turns you did not expect,

and yet they are behind what we see in the headlines every single day.

The big headline in the international context this week is that Finland is now officially

a part of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

That's huge news, and it's huge news for several reasons.

First of all, the question why now, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the main alliance

of the Western democracies, a mutual defense and strategy organization, was put together

in the aftermath of World War II.

It was put together in the face of what became known as the Cold War.

The great struggle between the Western democracies and the totalitarian governments mostly

allied with the Soviet Union.

...