There’s no shortage of news sites and news commentators. You could be reading articles by an ex-president, a former United Nations diplomat or a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist right now.

Instead, you’re on a news website run by a church. Why look to us?

The truth is, we can give you something that none of those others can. It doesn’t matter how many Ph.D.s an expert may have; he simply cannot understand world news.

That’s a big claim, but consider the testimony of Stephen M. Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University. In 2018, he wrote an article titled “America’s IR Schools Are Broken.” For most of its history, America has been led by people unschooled in international relations. But for the last 50 years, America’s diplomats and leaders have been rigorously trained, as many of the best universities have devoted themselves to the subject of war and peace. What’s the result of all this mental effort? Nothing.

Walt concluded that “the vast expansion of professional expertise does not seem to translate reliably into more sensible and effective policies.”

Think about what this would mean in another field. Imagine if our universities produced no scientific advancements for 50 years. Or if a rocket scientist were no better at putting a probe on Mars than the average guy off the street.

Educated people today discuss how to end the war in Afghanistan, solve America’s division, or deal with China. But none of them have any real answers.

An international relations graduate would be able to give you much more detail about the inner workings of the United Nations. But there’s no evidence he’s any better at preventing a war or bringing peace. They simply don’t understand world news the way we do.

Here’s why they fail, and why we don’t.

Herbert W. Armstrong often talked about this failure in man’s civilization. He asked how you can explain “the astonishing paradox, a world of human minds that can send astronauts to the moon and back, produce the marvels of science and technology, transplant human hearts—yet cannot solve simple human problems of family life and group relationships, or peace between nations?”

The Bible gives a clear and simple reason for this paradox. 1 Corinthians 2:11 asks, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” This verse tells us that every human being has a spirit within him. This spirit allows him to know “the things of a man.” Physically, a man’s brain looks very similar to an animal’s. But it is this spirit that makes all the difference—that allows man to understand art, literature, music, etc.

When two human beings—with this spirit—are unable to get along, that is a spiritual problem. When two nations, full of people with this spirit, are unable to make peace, that is a spiritual problem. For human beings to get along, it takes spiritual knowledge.

“The system of modern education has become entirely materialistic,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. “The modern scientific concept denies the invisible and the spiritual as having existence. Yet all our seemingly unsolvable problems and the evils in this world are spiritual in nature.”

How do you come to spiritual knowledge? It takes another spirit—the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11 states in full: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” It takes the Spirit of God to understand the Bible—and only the Bible has the spiritual answers.

How to bring peace between nations, how to understand the interaction of these nations—these are “things of God.” Man, on his own, cannot understand them. In fact, verse 14 tells us that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

This is why America’s best universities have spent the last 50 years studying international relations, to no effect. They could keep studying them for another 500 years, and America’s foreign policy wouldn’t improve. This spiritual truth cannot be found through their methods of study.

A church teaching about world news based on the Bible would sound like foolishness to those academics. But it is the only way to get answers.

The Bible tells us that man apart from God has not known “the way of peace” (Romans 3:17). They don’t know the answer to the biggest and most pressing question in world news: How do we not blow up humanity?

Of course, there is still some value in experts in the world. There are some we quote often. Some have a better understanding than others. Jeremiah 17:9, for example, reveals that man’s “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” You can study world history and see that man’s nature is selfish. Experts who are well grounded in history have often come to this conclusion. These men can have some good insights.

But Jeremiah 17:9 also asks, “[W]ho can know it?” Without God’s revelation and God’s Spirit, we cannot truly understand the human heart. Those experts who have a better picture than others still don’t have the truth only God can reveal.

This failure of man’s efforts at peace-making and diplomacy shows us something very practical. To understand world news, the Bible is the only place you can go. To bring peace between nations, the Bible is the only place to go. And to bring peace between people, to have a happy marriage and family, to be a happy individual, the Bible is also the only place you can go.

And so we bring the Bible’s answers to world news, to social problems, to individual problems.

This is one of the most important lessons God teaches through the Bible. Isaiah 2:22 states, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” As individuals, as a society, as a world, we need to stop looking to men and start looking to God.

“Trusting sick human minds is why we live in such a sick, sick, sick world!” writes Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry. “The frightening evidence is all around us. Avoiding human annihilation is our number one problem! (Matthew 24:21-22). That one problem should reveal how sick the human mind is.”

The experts in the world don’t have any solutions. But the Bible is full of them. Which is why our news watching has real hope. Man can live at peace. He can have a happy family. But it will only happen when we stop looking to man and start looking to God.

If you want to turn to the Bible for answers in your own life, a great place to start is our Bible correspondence course. It will help you understand world news, the way of peace, and God’s plan for the world. This course is designed to take you through the basic truths of the Bible. It will help you prove each truth for yourself from the Bible. It includes 36 lessons and 9 tests—which you can take online or on paper. If you’re interested, you can enroll online to receive your first set of lessons. You can then proceed at your own pace—we won’t hassle you or pass your details on to anyone. And as with everything we offer, it’s completely free.