It's Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024. I'm Albert Mueller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Well, today we're going to talk about foreign policy. We're going to talk about the FBI, and we're going to talk about cal flagellants.

Yes, all three of those are big international

headline news stories. This just might be every middle school boy's favorite edition of the

briefing so far. First, we start with foreign policy, and the big issue we need to talk about

is the distinction between order and disorder. And as you look at the civilizational pattern,

you understand that the very pattern of civilization means the presence of an otherwise inexplicable order where disorder had been.

And so as you look at the history of how human beings have related to one another, and you

even see this, of course, in the Old Testament in particular, you see that bringing order out

of disorder is the very sign of the presence of civilization. And that civilization can be like

the ancient Egyptian civilization. Look at the pyramids, still a testimony in stone to the presence

and the power of that civilization. And you look at others as well. And of course, you have the 19th century,

in terms particularly of those who were then head of the British Empire looking around the world

and recognizing how many empires had risen only to fall. Of course, that also happened to the

British Empire. And so the rising and falling of empires, the rising and falling of

nations, it is a testimony to the fact that order out of disorder brings civilization, but the danger

is that that order will fall back into disorder. And that explains much of what's going on around the

globe right now.

It is either order coming out of disorder or it is disorder showing itself again in a victory over order.

The disorder of leading headlines right now has to do with civil war in Syria.

And that might seem like it's a story far, far away, with very little impact on the United States. But let me just put this into context. Syria has been a troubled part of the Middle

East now for decades. And in more recent years, it has been because of the influence of the

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