Perhaps you have noticed that many people on social media are talking about the fact that we are living in the “Fourth Turning.” If you aren’t familiar with the term, you might want to read my booklet, A Biblical View on Historical Cycles.

The term was coined by William Strauss and Neil Howe who wrote the bestselling book, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy. They argued that history could be understood as coming in turnings, which have cycles of four. Each cycle spans a length longer than human life, roughly 80 to 100 years. That unit of time was what the ancients called the saeculum. These four turnings of the saeculum comprise the historical rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and destruction. The authors predicted that political, economic, and social upheavals would rattle the United States in and around the 2020s.

Three years ago, Neil Howe wrote The Fourth Turning Is Here. The title tells it all. We are in crisis as illustrated by a government that does not seem to function, low public trust in just about any institution, political polarization, moral and legal chaos, and a collapse of families. He reminds us of the Abraham Lincoln quote that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and that the government “will become all one thing, or all the other.”

In his book, he reminds us of the other fourth turning crises in America. That would be World War II, the Civil War, and the American Revolution. Perhaps you can see why some social commentators argue that we are living in the fourth turning. We see a crisis in government and the economy. We see moral and social chaos.