Terror Incorporated Goes Legit

Terror Incorporated Goes Legit
Vol: 54 Issue: 31 Friday, March 31, 2006

The tenth session of the Palestinian Parliament opened with the parliament granting the new leadership (Hamas) a vote of confidence.

The Legislative Council’s opening session was televised on al Jazeera TV and broadcast throughout the Arab world.

The Middle East Research Institute published a transcript of the session translated into English.

The session opened with remarks by the Speaker of Parliament, Aziz Dweik: “The tenth Palestinian government, headed by the Palestinian prime minister, brother Ismai’l Haniya, has gained the absolute majority of the votes of the Legislative Council members.”

This was followed by a vote of confidence among the members. This is their legislative mission statement, as broadcast throughout the Middle East and translated by MEMRI:

Hamas MP: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.

Other MPs: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.

MP: Allah is our goal.

Other MPs: Allah is our goal.

MP: The Koran is our constitution.

Other MPs: The Koran is our constitution.

MP: The Prophet Muhammad is our model.

Other MPs: The Prophet Muhammad is our model.

MP: Jihad is our path.

Other MPs: Jihad is our path.

MP: Death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.

Other MPs: Death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.

MP: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.

Other MPs: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.

Assessment:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his disappointment as Western governments began cutting off aid to the Palestinians.

The latest offering from the other side of the looking-glass, the Islamic world, is that the Palestinians are being ‘punished’ for ‘choosing democracy.’

al Jazeera carried both stories; Hamas’ rededicating the Palestinian ‘government’ to jihad and Mahmoud Abbas claiming the Palestinians are being punished for choosing ‘democracy’.

That is what I mean by the ‘other side of the looking glass’. Abbas complained to the Arab world, “There is no logic in the United States and some Western countries cutting off and stopping funding to the Palestinian people.”

No logic? The Palestinians have, by their expressed vote, chosen the path of Islamic terrorism.

Under the Bush Doctrine governing the global war on terrorism, the Palestinian electorate’s vote was a declaration of war. Bush summed up the doctrine in a single sentence; “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

In the case of the Palestinians, it is even more cut-and-dried than that; they voted FOR the terrorists in, as the PA Speaker noted, ‘an absolute majority.’

It is as cut-and-dried as if Switzerland had voted in an absolute majority of Nazis during World War II and then complained about losing its ‘neutral state’ status.

By its vote, the Palestinian PEOPLE, and not just its government, joined the other side. Where is the logic in funding an openly-belligerent government that enjoys an absolute democratic majority of openly-belligerent people officially dedicated to the war on terror? Remember the vote of confidence for the new government of the Palestinian people:

“MP: Jihad is our path.

Other MPs: Jihad is our path.

MP: Death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.

Other MPs: Death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.”

As long as the West keeps up the funding, that is.

Oh the Blue Water . . .

There is no sensation I enjoy more than that of passing the old Civil War Fort Macon as one heads out of the Beaufort Inlet toward the open sea.

It was a beautiful, crisp morning, calms seas and warm Carolina spring sunshine.

The east wind usually means the fish aren’t biting, but that’s because not everybody is Captain Rick.

We had the ocean to ourselves and Rick knows where the fish live that don’t know about the east wind.

(We filled two coolers with fat sea bass and four very nice flounders in about three hours of fishing spread over several spots in the Atlantic that Rick can find as if there were a big ‘X’ marked on the water’s surface.)

As we fished, I thought of you all, and wished that you could share those few hours when earthquakes, famines, wars, pestilences, al-Qaeda, Hamas and Iran faded to insignificance in comparison to whether or not I was smarter than a fish.

Thank you all for the day off. It was wonderfully refreshing. – Jack

It is Well With My Soul

It is Well With My Soul
Vol: 54 Issue: 30 Thursday, March 30, 2006

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when storm clouds like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.” (Horatio G Spafford, 1873)

I can understand why Jesus loved fishermen and why Jesus loved fishing. Fishing is like chicken soup for the soul — stress melts away like ice cubes in June; slowly, almost imperceptibly, until you suddenly notice you’re drinking a warm soda.

My friend Rick called me the other night to ‘chase some tuna around the ocean’. Rick owns a commercial fishing boat that he generally sends out with a crew while he stays ashore to manage his small manufacturing business.

But I suspect that he got into the commercial fishing business so that he could do what we did Monday — give the crew the day off, go out to sea and leave his worries on the shoreline.

It was a beautiful morning. Dawn was just breaking when we began transferring tackle and supplies from Rick’s pickup to the ‘Scarlet Lady’ in preparation for the trip. Although I’ve known Rick two years now, it was the first time I had been aboard his vessel.

The ‘Scarlet Lady’ is a thirty foot fishing boat manufactured in New England and designed to handle the rough North Atlantic. I think Rick mentioned its origins and seaworthiness to prepare me for a rough ride out — and it was.

I’ve never been prone to seasickness, and, guys being guys, I knew that if I started getting green, I’d never hear the end of it. As the deck pitched under me as we left the Beaufort Inlet and hit the unprotected open ocean, I wasn’t too sure I’d make it.

I breathed a silent prayer while I was working on the boat, rigging the lines, preparing tackle, that kind of thing. The next thing I knew, we were passing Cape Lookout, the last land between us and England, and I knew I could accept the cold turkey sandwich on toast Rick offered me for breakfast without having to make a break for the stern.

It took about three hours to get out to the ‘blue water’ of the Gulf Stream, some forty miles offshore. If you have never seen it, it is quite a sight. For hours, all one can see are waves and sea swells. The water is a beautiful aqua-marine green until you hit the Gulf Stream.

Then, like somebody took a ruler and drew a line across the surface of the ocean, the water turns a beautiful blue. So distinct is that line that, while Rick was setting the rigs, he had me steer the boat along that line, staying twenty yards inside the green water side.

We began trolling that line, which Rick told me, was just outside the ‘temperature break’. The ‘green water’ was about 60 degrees, but inside the Gulf Stream, it shot to 74.

It was awesome. I couldn’t help but marvel at how carefully God has constructed this planet for our use.

The warm water of the Gulf Stream is what provides us with our temperate climate — without that ‘pathway in the sea’ of warm water, our winters would be much colder, and our summers much hotter.

It was out on the Gulf Stream that I began to dwell on the mysteries and magnificence of God and His handiwork that we call Planet Earth.

The Book of Job, is chronologically, the oldest book in the Bible, believed by many scholars to predate Moses. Job lived somewhere in the land-locked Middle East, probably around the time of Abraham, some fourteen hundred years before Moses.

The Book of Job is amazing on many levels, not the least of which was Job’s inexplicable knowledge of science. The Book of Job refers to the permanent polar icecaps; “The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.” (Job 38:30).

God told Job that light is in motion, something modern science didn’t discover until Einstein calculated the speed of light. “Where is the way light dwelleth?” (Job 38:19) Note that Job doesn’t speak of the “PLACE where light dwelleth” but the “WAY” — since light is always in motion.

The Bible is filled with scientific references that are similarly inexplicable, apart from the Divine revelation of God.

Ecclesiastes (1:6) makes reference to wind moving in a cyclonic pattern, rather than in a straight line, as was believed until early in the 20th century, but Job, centuries before, noted that in addition to not blowing in a straight line, air also has weight. “To make the weight for the winds. . .” (Job 28:25)

Job also knew that the ‘earth hangs on nothing’ – contrary to the popular ‘scientific’ explanations of his day that the earth was supported on the shoulders of Atlas, or that it rode on the back of a giant turtle.

In addition to Job, the prophet Isaiah knew, somehow, that the earth is round, although mariners in his day believed the earth was flat and if one went too far out to sea, one would fall off the edge.

“It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth . . . (Isaiah 40:22)

As I maintained our course, twenty yards outside the blue water of the Gulf Stream, I thought of another impossible bit of scientific knowledge revealed in the Book of Psalms; . “. . . whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. . .”

How could Job, living as he did, in the land-locked Middle East, have knowledge of the polar ice caps? How did he know that light was in motion? Who told Isaiah the world was round 2000 years before Columbus, counting on the Psalmist’s description of the ‘paths in the sea’ made his way across the Atlantic Ocean to discover the New World?

One need only troll along the blue water/green water line for Romans 1:20 to make perfect sense: “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

As we fished, that old hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul” kept playing in my mind. Indeed, out there along the edge of that critical path in the sea, the Gulf Stream, things were VERY well with my soul.

We caught five tuna. I say ‘we’ because we were trolling — it was the boat that ‘caught’ the fish, but Rick made me fight and land them. The first three were nice fish — about 10-12 pounds — not big as yellowfin tuna go, but big enough to be legal.

As I was sitting there fishing, admiring God’s bounty and His provision, surrounded by His creation and little else, we hit our first big one — it felt like I had snagged a freight train going the other way. It was magnificent! I fought that fish for what seemed like hours — probably less than twenty minutes — before Rick was able to gaff it and bring it aboard.

What nobody knew but me was that if that fish had fought five more seconds, or if he had taken an extra couple of feet of line, he probably would have won the fight.

When the next one hit, I actually tried to get Rick to fight that one, but he wouldn’t hear of it. So the battle was on. After another epic battle (one that I am sure someone will one day write a song about), there was a forty-seven pound tuna flopping on the deck (right beside a fifty-two year old writer with muscle cramps).

At dark, we headed back to shore and cleaned the tuna on the boat dockside. Rick divided up the catch between us. Gayle and I packaged up our bounty into individual freezer bags, hosed me down with Ben-Gay and I crawled gingerly into bed, falling asleep before my head hit the pillow.

It is well with my soul.

Note:

This column first published in April ’05. Captain Rick called me about an hour ago and asked me if I wanted to go chase some tuna around the ocean again this morning. I couldn’t say no.

Confronting “Islamophobia”

Confronting “Islamophobia”
Vol: 54 Issue: 29 Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Kofi Annan has figured out the solution for global ‘Islamophobia’. Annan believes the best way is to set up a new UN without borders called the “Alliance of Civilizations,” or AOC.

The new body is intended, says Annan, to promote “inter-cultural dialogue” — provided whatever dialogue that takes place is presented from Islam’s perspective.

Annan’s favorite new expression is “Islamophobia” which he believes is at the heart of the civilizational clash that made necessary his “alliance of cultures” in the first place.

Among the members are former Iranian president Mohamed Khatami, Marxist-Socialist Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Turkish Minister of State Mehmet Aydin, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, wife of the Emir of Qatar and Chair of the Qatar Foundation, and former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.

Annan appointed his long-time Pakistani deputy, Iqbal Riza, as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General for the Alliance of Civilizations.

(Riza’s last job was Head Document Shredder in the Oil For Food Coverup.)

Notice, too, who ISN’T represented among the Alliance of Civilizations: America, Canada, Europe, Australia, and, most revealing of all, Israel.

It would seem the UN’s Alliance of Cultures is concerned with representing just one of them.

This all began with a UN seminar last June, entitled, “Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding.”

I had to look up ‘phobia’ again in the dictionary to make sure I understand the meaning of the word. It means, “an uncontrollable, irrational, and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity.”

I tried to put that into the context of ‘Islamophobia’ and I couldn’t make the stretch necessary to include the rest of the seminar’s title, “Education for Tolerance and Understanding.”

Speaking personally, I don’t find fear of being murdered by an Islamic terrorist ‘irrational’, although at times, I suppose the fear is uncontrollable, (as it probably was for the passengers on Flight 93 just before they hit the ground at 500 mph, for example.)

And if my fear of being murdered by Islamic terrorists is persistent, well, its because Islamic terrorists keep murdering people.

Applied directly to Islam and its teachings, I fear a religion that teaches that infidels and Jews should be converted to Islam or killed as a matter of religious policy. The more I understand about Islam, the more rational that fear seems to me.

In his attempt at confronting Islamophobia with tolerance and understanding, Annan told his Islamic audience;

Islam s tenets are frequently distorted and taken out of context, with particular acts or practices being taken to represent or to symbolize a rich and complex faith.

“Distorted and taken out of context” by whom? The terrorists who kill in Islam’s name? The ‘moderate majority’ who support and shelter them in Islam’s name throughout the Islamic world?

The Western world, aghast to hear the clerics of a ‘rich and complex faith’ calling for the execution of an guy for converting to Christ?

Which ‘acts’ are being ‘taken to represent’ Islam? The massacres of civilians by the devoutly religious al-Qaeda fighters whose final words are the Islamic religious expression, “Allahu Akbar?”

The wholesale murder of Jews by Islamic terrorists following the fatwa of Islamic sage Sahih Bukhari?

“The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until the Moslems make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: ‘Oh Moslem, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'”

While it is true that the entire world complement of 1.3 billion Muslims are not engaged in jihad against the west, it is equally true that those who are inspired to that jihad are inspired by the tenets and texts of what Annan calls that “rich and complex faith.

It must be a very complex faith indeed. But it seems unlikely that tolerance and understanding will do as much to comfort my “Islamophobia” as would a direct Islamic effort to confront terror.

There were a handful of Christian whackos, like Eric Rudolf, for example, who committed acts of religious-inspired terrorism.

But it inspired no ‘Christophobia’ — Rudolf was a whacko, as were the handful of other inspired to kill an abortionist for Christ. There is zero acceptance for terrorism among Christians.

There have been a handful of Jewish whackos, like Bernard Goldstein, who opened fire in a mosque in Israel some years back. But he was a whacko. The civilized world is not currently fighting a global war with Jews to oppose forced conversion to Judaism.

The world IS fighting a global war against an enemy seeking Islamic domination of the world’s religious systems and governments.

So the UN’s plan to confront ‘Islamophobia’ with ‘understanding and tolerance’ via an ‘Alliance of Civilizations” in which only one civilization is represented reveals much about the UN’s own ambitions.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Assessment:

Annan can’t really believe that Islam is the victim of Western stereotyping, can he? There is no Islamophobic tradition or history among the modern Western democracies.

The first introduction most Americans had to Islam came on September 11, 2001. Before that, ‘Islam’ was the religion practiced by most people in the Middle East, but that was about as much as anybody knew or cared.

Since then, we’ve all learned a lot about Islam. We’ve learned that it claims to be a religion of peace and love that permits one to kill people that don’t agree.

Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies.

Kofi Annan’s ‘Alliance of Civilizations’ is a UN-sponsored alliance with Islam in the coming clash between Islam and Western culture.

As the hours count down toward the end of this age, the once-unthinkable is now business as usual. In a single generation, the world has flipped completely on its head.

The United Nations is among America’s most dedicated ideological opponents. The 21st century Western world is under siege by sword-wielding Islamic barbarians as the West debates how best to confront its ‘Islamophobia’.

America is in a virtual Cold War with much of Europe; the UN is allying with the forces of Islam. Islam is already the dominant religion in Europe. All in a single generation. This generation.

“Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.” (Mark 13:30)

Tick. . . Tick . . . Tick . . .

Sharia Europe

Sharia Europe
Vol: 54 Issue: 28 Tuesday, March 28, 2006

“But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.” (Daniel 11:38)

Conventional wisdom generally sees the coming antichrist as being both the leader of a revived form of the Roman Empire who is of Jewish extraction.

It is out of this understanding that some have come to see Javier Solana as the best candidate for the antichrist. I tend to disagree, but mainly because it is still a bit too early on the timeline, Europe is too weak, and Solana is too old.

Daniel notes that in his official capacity, the coming prince will ‘honor’ the ‘God of forces.’ Note that the KJV capitalizes this reference to God. The ‘god’ whom his fathers knew not is rendered in lower-case.

The growing clash of civilizations, as we’ve discussed many times, is both temporal and spiritual, pitting the forces of Islam against the followers of Judaism and Christianity.

In context, Daniel’s antichrist pays lip service to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, while privately heaping honor on a god (small ‘g’) “whom his fathers knew not.”

However, Daniel tells us, the antichrist doesn’t have much use for either one of them.

“Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” (Daniel 11:37)

Daniel does make it clear that, whoever he is, religion will play a major part in his administration. And he will use religion to seemingly solve the intractable religious division between Israel and Islam over final possession of the Holy Land.

That seems to disqualify Solana and the EU, at least for the near future. They may not have regard for any god, but they also don’t have a clue what the fuss is all about.

And even less about what it will take to fix it.

Assessment:

A FrontPage magazine column entitled “Goodbye, Europe” pulled together some stunning evidence that suggests Europe is rapidly falling under Islamic rule.

“Europe s botched civilization, perverted by socialism and lost faith, seems to have lost the will, the passion to sustain itself,” argues Lowell Ponte.

“If it continues to practice today s multiculturalist leftism, Europe s demographic doom will be sealed.”

“If Europe continues as it is now, the rising Muslim tide will, one at a time, transform the members of the European Union into Islamic Republics under Islamic Shari a law as Muslims become the majority population.”

It is that last observation that is worthy of further exploration. The Arabs have been attempting to use that exact formula to bring about the destruction of Israel.

Arafat’s insistence on the ‘Right of Return’ for those who abandoned their homes in 1948 — including their descendants — was aimed at creating an Arab majority who could then vote Israel out of existence and replace it with an Islamic republic.

It has been quietly doing, with much more success, the same thing in Europe for decades. In Europe, Muslims families are more than double the size of European families.

The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to 3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe. Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into Muslim families.

Germany s birth rate in 2005 fell to a level lower than at the end of World War II, now fifty percent lower than those of France and Great Britain.

France is at least 12 percent Muslim. If present birth trends continue, by 2030 a quarter of France s people will be Muslim, more than enough to determine who controls the national parliament and executive.

The nuclear-armed French military is already 15 percent Muslim. Adjacent Switzerland is now 20 percent Muslim.

Muslim populations are largely concentrated in and around big cities, where big city politics gives them plenty of clout.

In the Netherlands the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam nearly have Muslim majorities now.

In some of Europe’s growing Islamic neighborhoods, European law has already been replaced locally with sharia law. Forty percent of Great Britain’s Muslims favor the introduction of sharia law into England.

Under sharia law, the Koran is the ultimate law book and constitution, and the Islamic Mullah is the magistrate who punishes violators of this law. Under Shari a, as practiced in much of the Islamic world, equality exists only among Muslim men; women are inferior to men, and Jews and Christians are inferior to all Muslims.

The roots of the global conflict are spiritual and any efforts to solve it using purely secular means is doomed to failure. Daniel forecasts the rise of a global leader who will pay lip service to the spiritual forces behind the conflict itself, one acceptable to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Leaving the prophecies of Scripture aside, speculate with me for a moment about what kind of credentials that would require. A European leader of Jewish extraction who was an Islamic convert with ‘moderate’ credentials would be the perfect candidate.

Israel would accept any honest peace broker. Especially one who appeared sympathetic to Jews and was respected by a Muslim dominated European Union.

Such a scenario doesn’t take much of a stretch to envision. On the other hand, a white European of Christian extraction like Javier Solana presiding over the current European establishment being able to fulfill Daniel’s vision does.

Europe is not yet ready for the rider on the white horse of Revelation 6:2. It is rapidly moving in that direction, but it isn’t quite there yet.

The Rapture doctrine often-overlooked key element is that of imminency. The Rapture could have happened in the first century, (as the Thessalonians believed) or it could take place five seconds before the revelation of the antichrist.

The Rapture doesn’t necessarily take place in conjunction with the rise of antichrist. It takes place at some point BEFORE the resumption of Temple worship signals the final seven year resumption of the Mosaic Law during the Tribulation Period.

Daniel notes the resumption of Temple worship, whereas Paul legitimizes the Third Temple as “the Temple of God” — not the Temple of antichrist.

“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2nd Thessalonians 2:4)

Legitimate Temple worship ended with the Birth of the Church at Pentecost, but there was almost forty years between the birth of the Church and the destruction of the Temple.

There is no Scriptural reason to doubt there could be a similar span of time between the Rapture of the Church and the resumption of the Age of the Law. In fact, such a scenario seems probable.

The point is this. We are watching Daniel’s scenario unfold, but much of the process could take place well after the Rapture of the Church. Islam continues to grow in power and influence across Europe, and is expected to dominate that nation within a generation.

During the Tribulation, Europe is a player, so is the Islamic world, the Russians, the Asian world, etc., but there is no mention of the Church, or of any geopolitical power corresponding to America.

By the time the world catches up to the Bible’s timeline for the rise of the antichrist, the Rapture could have easily made American Christianity nothing but a distant memory.

The Rapture occurs, according to the Apostle Paul, to remove the Restraining influence of the Holy Spirit and unleash the floodgates of evil on a Christ-rejecting world.

Without the restraining influence of majority-Christian America, Islam’s evil would do just that. Not overnight, as would be necessary for someone like Javier Solana to fit the bill, but a lot faster than it has been able to so far.

And, as we’ve seen, its already so strong it is almost impossible to restrain.

It isn’t the antichrist that the Church awaits, however. It is the Christ.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1st Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Abbas to Israel: “What About Oslo?”

Abbas to Israel: “What About Oslo?”
Vol: 54 Issue: 27 Monday, March 27, 2006

Israel has refused to continue negotiations with the Palestinian Authority now that it is dominated by Hamas, a reasonable move, given Hamas’ singular political goal of Israel’s destruction.

Even Russia and the EU are uncharacteristically sympathetic to Israel’s predicament, which has Mahmoud Abbas sweating bullets.

Nobody is pressuring Israel, and Abbas is finding himself increasingly irrelevant, both at home and abroad.

On Friday, he admitted in an interview that he has proposed secret “back channel” talks, saying he believes there is a chance he can negotiate a final peace deal with Israel.

Of course, there’s the Hamas problem, but Abbas has a solution. Abbas said that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians could be carried out through the PLO, which signed the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993. (Abbas is also head of the PLO)

The Oslo accords created the Palestinian Authority in the first place and Abbas’ proposal would turn the clock back, essentially restarting the Oslo process from the beginning.

“We are in a historic period, in which we must decide whether we will move toward peace and a better future for our children. I can promise that you have a partner for this peace,” Abbas told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz in an interview that was published Friday.

There is political will on the Israeli side, although not much. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he wants to establish Israel’s borders within four years, preferably through negotiations with the Palestinians.

But if there is no possibility for reaching an agreement, Israel would establish its borders unilaterally. And Olmert appears well on his way to an electoral victory, according to Israeli polling estimates.

According to Abbas, he made a proposal to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and to Washington that Israel and the Palestinians open “a back channel of talks, far from the spotlight.”

He said he was convinced that an agreement could be signed between Israel and the Palestinians within a year.

Assessment:

I was initially amused at Abbas’ attempt to grab the spotlight. What caught my attention, I suppose, was reading all about Abbas’ ‘secret’ plan in a newspaper.

Hamas is completely devoted to its goal of Israel’s destruction, which makes any effort on the part of Abbas laughable, despite his contentions. Hamas was elected by a majority of voters.

Abbas essentially got his job in the typical Middle Eastern manner — he inherited it first and then got himself elected afterwards.

It is Hamas, and not Abbas, who has all the power in the Palestinian Authority. Whatever deal Abbas might work out would require the approval of the Hamas-dominated legislature. That isn’t gonna happen, so why waste time negotiating with the PA?

Upon further reflection, however, there is more to this than Mahmoud Abbas simply trying to re-establish his relevance on the world stage. Much more.

I have been waiting for the process to come full circle and revisit the Oslo framework once again.

I have a private formula I use as a kind of temperature gauge for where I believe we are on the Bible’s timeline. Something along the lines of, “If we are as far along as I think we are, then this is what should be coming next.”

If it comes together the way Scripture says it will, then I can put a checkmark beside that. If not, then we’re a bit further behind than I thought.

For example, I never expected Oslo to work. It was too early on the Bible’s timeline. Daniel predicted,

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people OF THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26)

Daniel’s prediction is in two parts and covers two distinct periods in history. The Messiah was ‘cut off’ at the end of the sixty-ninth week of Daniel. (See Daniel’s 70th Week in today’s ‘deja vu’ section of the website)

Forty years later the Romans destroyed the Temple, massacred most of the Jews in Jerusalem and exiled the rest.

The secular historian Flavius Josephus wrote an eyewitness account in which he said the blood flooded the streets, in some places to the depth of a horse’s bridle.

Daniel also alludes in this verse to the Seventieth Week, which takes place at the other end of history, culminating with the Second Coming of Christ.

The ‘prince that shall come’ is the antichrist, and Daniel identifies him with the Roman Empire. The EU’s revived Roman Empire was in its infancy in 1993 when Oslo was signed. We weren’t that far along the timeline yet in 1993.

Of the Seventieth Week, Daniel predicted;

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (Daniel 9:27)

Daniel doesn’t say the antichrist negotiates or brokers a covenant between Israel and her enemies. Daniel says he CONFIRMS it. To confirm anything, it must first be in place, or the word ‘confirm’ is meaningless.

You must first have a dentist’s appointment before you can confirm it.

Daniel identifies the covenant as being of seven year’s duration. Oslo’s terms called for a series of steps to culminate in Palestinian statehood and an agreed-upon final status for Jerusalem, setting a deadline of September 13, 2000, seven years to the day from the Rose Garden signing ceremony.

Since the antichrist didn’t negotiate the deal (and the Church was still here), the Oslo deal didn’t qualify, exactly. But it sure was close.

Oslo was predicated on a formula of ‘land for peace.’ Daniel predicted the antichrist’s covenant would ‘divide the land for gain’. (Daniel 11:39)

But it was too early, so, based on my private ‘if we are as far along as I think’ formula, Oslo had to fail the first time around. And it did.

But, following the same formula, the next relevant development would come once people started talking about reviving the Oslo framework.

I’ve been out on that limb alone for some time now, writing of a revival of Oslo as a major piece of the puzzle that HAD to come — if we were as far along the Big Picture timeline as I believed then. And if I was understanding the Scriptures correctly insofar as Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 Weeks was concerned.

Conventional wisdom said Oslo was as dead as Yasser Arafat. Now we’re talking about Israel, Oslo and the PLO all over again. It confirms that I am barking up the right tree.

This development, I believe, sets the stage for the ‘prince that shall come’. Not today, or tomorrow. (We’re not that far along the timeline yet.)

Reviving the Oslo framework between Israel and the PLO just starts the negotiation process anew — it is a long way from being ready to ‘confirm’ — but it does set the clock to ticking.

There are still a lot of missing puzzle pieces, but the Big Picture is getting clearer.

And, before the last piece falls into place, we’re outta here. That’s pretty close.

“And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:2)

Kind of takes your breath away, don’t it?

“Have You Considered the Jew?”

“Have You Considered the Jew?”
Vol: 54 Issue: 25 Saturday, March 25, 2006

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

There is a legendary story concerning an agitated Frederick the Great, who, in frustration, demanded from his cabinet that somebody provide him with proof of the existence of God. There was a momentary silence, before one of his counsellors spoke up; “Have you considered the Jew, your Majesty?’, he asked.

The continuing existence of the Jew is proof positive of God’s existence, just as the existence of a Jewish State is proof positive that we are living in the last days of human government as foretold by the Bible prophets of antiquity.

There are three distinct statements made within the Divine promise of blessing given to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The first is that God will bless those who bless the Jews.

When the United States wrested its seat at the council of nations from England, it became the first nation on earth to grant full citizenship to Jews.

It was the first nation to allow the Jews an unrestricted vote. It was the first nation to recognize the incomparable blessing the Jewish people have been to humanity.

America’s second president, John Adams, said of the Jews, “The Jews have done more to civilize men than any other Nation. They are the most glorious Nation that ever inhabited the earth. The Romans and their Empire were but a bauble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of Mankind more, and more happily than any other Nation, ancient or modern.”

And no nation on the face of the planet today, or at any time in recorded history, has been more greatly blessed than the United States of America.

The second is that God promised that in the Jews ‘shall all families of the earth be blessed’.

Without the Jews, there would be no Bible. Jesus came to earth as a Jew. Without the Jewish Jesus, there would be no Christianity.

Apart from the theoligical argument, a quick look at the last hundred years or so proves the promise isn’t confined to religious blessings alone.

From 1901 to 2001, the world’s six billion people competed for the scarce 844 Nobel Prizes that have been awarded. Among those six billion people are nearly two billion Muslims — roughly 20 percent of the global population.

Of those two billion Muslims, 8 have been singled out to receive the Nobel Prize – (seven if you consider that one of them was a politically-motivated award mistakenly given unrepentant terrorist Yasser Arafat)

In any case, Muslims account for less than one percent of the total Nobel Prizes awarded in the last hundred years.

In the middle of the 20th century, the Nazis exterminated some six million Jews, more than half the world’s Jewish population. There are today about fourteen million Jews left.

Even with half their number exterminated at the century’s midpoint, 159 of the remaining 836 Nobel Prizes were awarded to Jews, or roughly 18.8% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded in Nobel’s history.

(If you’re keeping track, that is about twenty times as many prizes divided among fourteen million Jews than were shared by the 2 billion Muslims world-wide)

In America, the influence of American Jews is hugely disproportionate to their numbers. Conspiracists point darkly to the ‘Jewish influence’ in education, banking, law, medicine, government, media and entertainment as evidence of a Jewish conspiracy to control the world.

They accurately point out that American Jewry accounts for less than 2% of America’s general population, but then draw their conclusions without the benefit of Scriptural discernment.

The ‘Jewish influence’ in American life is part of God’s blessing on America — the ‘Jewish conspiracy’ canard given them in reward is part of God’s curse on Israel.

“Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of My land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for My Name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. ” (2nd Chronicles 7:20)

The curse was partially lifted, beginning in 1948, but will not be entirely lifted until the close of the Tribulation Period.

“And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.” (Zechariah 8:13)

The Jews have returned to the Land, but they remain a ‘proverb and a byword among all nations’ to this day.

Finally, God promised that He would ‘curse them that curse you’. The precision with which God kept this promise is nothing less than astonishing.

During the Crusades from 1095 to 1270, Jews in Southern Europe fled to Spain, England, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe as the result of severe persecution and wholesale massacres of the Jews.

England turned out to be the wrong place to go, because in 1290 King Edward I expelled the Jews. King Charles II did the same thing in 1394 in France by forcing all Jews from France. Interestingly, Spanish Jews found peace and security in Spain and Portugal while those countries were under Muslim rule.

At that point in history, Europe was fractured, ignorant and in constant turmoil, while that same period of time is known to history as the Golden Age of Islam.

The Moors were world-renowned for their knowledge of astronomy, medicine and science and the Islamic world boasted the most extensive libraries that had ever existed to that time.

In the 1400s, the Moors were kicked out of Spain by the Papal forces of Europe. In 1492, on the same day Columbus set sail for the New World, Spain expelled any uncoverted Jews who had survived the Spanish Inquisition. This time they fled back to England where the Protestant reformation now welcomed them.

Spain’s global empire lasted less than a century after it expelled its Jews, to be replaced by the Jew-friendly British Empire whose reach extended to every corner of the globe. In 1917, the British captured Palestine from the Muslims. The British Crown offered the Jews a homeland via the Balfour Declaration, and a year later, England won the First World War.

After the war, the British broke most of their promises to the Jews, restricted Jewish immigration to the Holy Land, and in the years since, have increasingly turned their backs on the Jews that brought them such great blessings for more than three hundred years.

The British Empire upon which ‘the sun never set’ in 1900, had, by 1948, lost its last colony when Burma declared independence, and the British Empire was no more.

In 1933, Germany was among the most cultured and sophisticated nations in Europe. Old Berlin was Europe’s Crown Jewel. The Nazis turned on the Jews, together with most of Eastern Europe, and twelve years later, Europe’s Crown Jewel was pile of burning rubble.

The Arab world, which had been so blessed during its Golden Age, collapsed into its present state of affairs, with most of it still operating as if electricity had never been harnessed.

The Arab Muslims supported Hitler, opposed Jewish immigration, waged repeated wars against Israel, deny Israel its rightful territory, and now mount a global jihad to finish Hitler s goal of total extermination. The backward nature of modern Islamic culture and society are the fruits of those efforts.

Historically, wherever the Jews were welcomed, that nation flourished and prospered. Where the Jew was persecuted, those nations floundered.

It is more than just coincidence, it is an identifiable historical pattern that has continued, without deviation, since the days of the Babylonian captivity.

Babylon prospered when its Jews prospered, it fell to Persia when Neboplasser turned against them. Persia prospered until it turned on the Jews, whereupon it fell to Alexander’s Greece. And so on, throughout history, up to and including the impending collapse of the rabidly anti-Semitic United Nations.

God’s Word is true, and Bible prophecy is always 100% accurate. Jesus said that, before He returned, ALL Bible prophecy would be fulfilled — to the tiniest ‘jot and tittle’ — (the two most insignificant characters in the Hebrew alphabet)

In tracing Israel’s history from Babylon to the present, we see the incredible detail with which God keeps His Word. Although America continues to be Israel’s principle protector, and continues to enjoy the comcomitant blessings that come with it, America’s good fortunes began to wane about the same time the White House forced Israeli into the Oslo Agreement.

The ‘land for peace’ formula called for Israel to give up some of the land of Promise in exchange for peace. In other words, it was a form of blackmail whose terms were drawn up in Washington and forced upon Israel for the express purpose of undoing what God had already done, including dividing Jerusalem and taking part of it from the Jews.

“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)

People can certainly deny any Biblical connection but the hard reality marches on with the growing shadow now falling across global society. Now it is America’s turn to discover just how serious God was about the whole ‘blessing and cursing’ thing.

And by the time circumstances force America to recognize the danger it faces, it will be too late to do anything to affect the outcome.

“So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My Mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. ” (Isaiah 55:11)

Peace, Love, Tolerance and Execution

Peace, Love, Tolerance and Execution
Vol: 54 Issue: 24 Friday, March 24, 2006

The headlines say it all; “Clerics Demand Death for Christian Convert”, screamed the Toronto Star.

Once again, the search for that moderate ‘religion of peace and love that was hijacked by a few terrorists’ goes into high gear as the White House looks for ways to shore up the myth of the moderate Muslim in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary.

Marking the end of the month of Ramadan last year, Condoleeza Rice remarked that, We in America know the benevolence that is at the heart of Islam, Rice remarked. We’ve seen it in many ways.

Madame Secretary Rice did not expound on the ‘many ways’ Islam has demonstrated its benevolent heart –to my great disappointment.

I have been looking for evidence of that fact since the administration broke the news of the existence of moderate Islam following the Islamic-inspired murder of three thousand Americans on September 11.

I have had about as much luck finding peace and love in the Koran as I have finding kosher dietary rules in Mein Kampf, but I keep looking. There MUST be some evidence, somewhere, that gave rise to the rumor of Islamic ‘benevolence’ in the first place.

Or there must be another working definition for the words ‘peace’ and ‘love’ that I am unfamiliar with.

At the moment, Condi Rice is trying to convince the Afghani adherents of moderate, benevolent Islam not to execute an Afghani guy for the offense of not wanting to share in Islam’s bountiful legacy of peace and love.

Abdur Rahman converted to Christianity some sixteen years ago and has been working as an aid worker — a rare occupation in the Islamic world. Still, he managed to stay under the radar until his wife turned him in to Islamic authorities as an apostate.

When word got back to the States, the reaction was predictable. Americans began asking if this is what we were expending our blood and treasure to advance in Afghanistan.

“How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by Islamists who kill Christians?” asked Family Research Council president Tony Perkins.

How, indeed? So the administration started putting pressure on the Afghan government. Condi Rice called Afghani president Hamid Karzai. Karzai IS Afghanistan’s president because of the United States.

Plus, Karzai was the administration’s test case for what can happen when ‘moderate’ Islam is handed the reins of government.

Assessment:

Karzai immediately sprang into action, eager to prove the administration’s faith in moderate Islam was well-placed.

He called the minister of justice in to help him sort it out. After all, Islam is a religion dedicated to peace and love.

According to Islamic apologists, Islam is extremely tolerant of other religions, pointing out that there are tiny enclaves of Jews and Christians in a number of Islamic countries.

(So far, I’ve found Islam’s tolerance for non-Muslims is about as evident as the KKK’s ‘tolerance’ of American blacks. “They exist, we haven’t killed them, therefore, we are tolerant.”)

Nevertheless, in the interest of peace, love and tolerance, the justice minister figured out a way to rescue Abdur Rahman from Islamic love. All Rahman would have to do is renounce his faith in Jesus Christ, convert back to Islam and he could live out his life under the creed of Islamic peace, love and tolerance.

But Rahman refused the generous offer. The only other way the justice minister could think of to save Rahman was to declare him insane. Since Rahman was nuts, his conversion to Christianity wasn’t legitimate, and neither, therefore, is his apostasy to Islam. (Sounds pretty tolerant to me)

The administration was initially pleased to hear the Rahman was nuts and therefore not facing execution. (“See how tolerant the Islamic religion of peace and love is? I told ya so!”)

But then the clerics of peaceful, loving and tolerant Islam heard about the face-saving compromise effort.

Announced one such religious leader, “We respect all religions,” Therefore, cleric Enayatullah Baligh reasoned, “We won’t let anyone interfere with our religion and he should be punished.” The majority of peaceful tolerant

Afghani Islamists agree.

Currently, the United States has 15,000 American troops on the ground, in Afghanistan, protecting the moderate Afghan government from the Taliban fundamentalists who are even LESS tolerant than the moderate Afghani Muslims who want to kill Abdur Rahman for converting to Christ.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:40

It’s coming, folks. For Abdur Rahman, it is already here.

“And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:2)

The Whole Armour of God

The Whole Armour of God
Vol: 54 Issue: 23 Thursday, March 23, 2006

One of the most hotly debated points of doctrine (apart from the timing of the Rapture) among Christians of different denominations is the question of eternal security. Specifically, can a believer who was saved fall away and lose his salvation? Is there an unforgiveable sin for which a believer can be condemned?

Those who would argue yes are just as sincere in their doctrinal view as those who take the other side, and both sides have Scripture to support their view.

I thought it might be good to take another look at those Scriptures used by those say the Bible teaches that a believer can lose his salvation.

In 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 Paul writes, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” Is this referring to the falling away of part of the True Church?

First, let’s look at what falling away means in the context of the believer. The term ‘fall away’ was used by the Lord Jesus of His 11 disciples at the time of His arrest. The disciples deserted Jesus as was predicted and Peter obviously denied Jesus three times. This was said to be a ‘falling away’. (see Matt 26:31-35) Obviously, this is not a loss of salvation.

For the true believer it may involve a temporary period of ‘backsliding’ (an OT term not found in the New) or time of being out of fellowship with God.

There ARE times when for one reason or another, the believer is having difficulty in his Christian walk.

But a true believer would not however deny what they believe in their heart, even though their walk at that moment might not reflect what they believe.

But note that even though Jesus said they would ‘fall away’, in the very same context, he also said to Peter that he had prayed that his faith would not fail and when he returned, to strengthen his brethren. (Luke 22:32)

In other words, true believers may fall at times but their faith does not fail because Jesus intercedes for them.

Concerning this intercession we are told, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 11:2)

We need that intercession most when we are struggling, yet some believers will argue that it is when we need the Lord most that He abandons us to our sin.

See also John 17:6-12 concerning this intercession by Jesus for His believers. In this High Priestly prayer, Jesus makes it clear that the ones that God has given Him he keeps safe.

And Romans 8:32-34 cites Jesus’ intercession as proof we cannot be separated from the love of Christ.

The ‘great apostasy’ of the last days is not referring to saved believers, but is instead referencing the kind of doctrinal dumbing down that would allow an openly homosexual Episcopalian priest to be elevated to the bishopric, or the attack on the Boy Scouts for not admitting homosexuals.

Jesus said this time would be like the days of Noah and Lot – “every imagination of the thoughts of [men’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) with rampant homosexuality (Genesis 19:8).

Hebrews 6:4-6 is often used to ‘prove’ a believer can lose salvation. It says, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

It appears on the surface to say that a believer can lose his salvation, but if you read it closely, it teaches the exact opposite.

It teaches that the believer cannot be renewed to repentance (born again – again!) because it would require crucifying the Lord again, and ‘putting Him to an open shame’.

If this passage teaches that a believer could lose his salvation, then it also teaches that believer is forever damned and beyond repentance. You cannot interpret ‘impossible’ in this passage to mean anything except ‘impossible’.

And the ‘open shame’ Paul says it would expose the Lord to is that He failed to keep all that God had given Him, as He said in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Then there is the passage in Hebrews 10:26-27 which says, “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”

First, the book of Hebrews was written TO the Hebrews (1st century Jewish believers). That doesn’t mean it is irrelevant to the Church, but there is a context here.

For a Jew to become a Christian in the first century was a death sentence as far as their relationship with their family was concerned. They lost any right to an inheritance and came under extreme pressure (including physical persecution) to leave Christ and go back to Judaism. And that is what many did, even though for a while they looked like true believers.

The ‘wilful sin” mentioned in verse 26 is linked to the verse before it because it starts with for if.. .

The verse before it is speaking of leaving the assembly of believers. The ‘wilful sin’ that this passage talks about is leaving Christ and going back to Judaism.

Under the Judaism they were going back to, there no longer remained a sacrifice for sin (vs 26) (because God didn t accept animal sacrifices anymore after Jesus had died for all sin, for all time.)

Another commonly misinterpeted Scripture refers to ‘a branch that doesn t bare fruit will be cast into the fire.’

1 Corinthians 1 Cor 3:15 clearly states that for a true believer, even if their work is burned up (ie no fruit) they are still saved, but as one who escapes ‘as by fire’. They are in Heaven, but they have no rewards.

Scripture never contradicts Scripture.

Another proof text used to prove salvation is dependent on doing good works is James 2:26; “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

This is another verse that is purported to prove one thing, but in fact, proves the opposite.

By definition, one who is saved cannot have ‘dead’ faith, since it is their faith that has saved them in the first place. Someone may have a belief, or head knowledge that certain facts are true without giving themselves over to that belief.

James 2:19 says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” Believing in God is not the same has having faith in Christ.

Dead faith is simply a head knowledge that cannot save.

Consider this; I know all about George Bush, but he doesn’t know me — that is to say, I have no personal relationship with George Bush, but I believe he is the president.

There are many who know all about Jesus, and might even profess to believe He is God, but have no personal relationship with Him. Works arising from that kind of relationship is by definition, dead, since it bears no eternal fruit.

The Scriptures clearly establish that a genuine conversion will stand no matter how great the adversity. “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down” (Psalms 37:24)

The Apostle Paul told believers to put on the whole armor of God.

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:13-17).

On the battlefield, the most effective way to dispatch an opponent is to go for a head shot.

Paul refers to the ‘helmet of salvation’ — if you know you are saved, eternally, the enemy can never take you out of the game.

He can’t use guilt to stop you from witnessing. He can’t convince you that aren’t really saved. He can’t convince you that you are unworthy to carry the Gospel to the lost. In short, he can’t take that ‘head shot’ that would render a believer useless to the cause of Christ.

In these last days, the Scripture says that Satan will pull out all the stops, ‘because he knows he hath but a short time’.

Those of us who are properly equipped with the truth, the knowledge that we are covered by the righteousness of Christ, are prepared with a knowledge of the Gospel, which we are prepared to share in peace, secure in our faith and certain of our standing before Him are formidable opponents in the battle for the souls of men.

“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27)

The battle has been joined. And our victory is assured.

Don’t let anyone rob you of your weapons.

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

If God is Love, Where Does Evil Come From?

If God is Love, Where Does Evil Come From?
Vol: 54 Issue: 22 Wednesday, March 22, 2006

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)

“All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3)

If God is the Creator of all things, then where does evil come from? And why is it that God simply doesn’t banish its existence from the universe? If God is omni-everything, how can it be that He must BATTLE against it?

These are seemingly unanswerable questions, giving rise to the atheist’s creed; “If your God is love, I see no evidence of that attribute in creation. All the death, disease, pain and suffering seems to be out of place if this God of yours is love. Surely an all-powerful God could, and a loving God would, eliminate all evil. Since evil exists, then no such God exists.”

When someone states that they do not believe in God because a good God would not allow evil, they make a fatal error in logic. The recognition of ‘evil’ arises from the logical conclusion some acts are ‘right’ and some are ‘wrong’.

How do we know which acts are morally right or wrong? It is discerned on the basis of a moral law: a universal sense that certain states of affairs are right and others are wrong.

For example, no one could seriously argue with the statement that it is better to love a child than to torture it. What is the basis of this moral sense? Some would argue that it is based on cultural customs or traditions.

In some Islamic cultures, it is acceptable to wantonly kill infidels, or murder women for violating Islamic honor. Under the Taliban, Afghan women were routinely taken to the soccer stadium and publicly executed for ‘crimes’ like failing to wear a burkha. Yet Islam has a strict moral code, nonetheless.

The point is that social customs, attitudes, traditions or feelings cannot determine a universal sense of right and wrong. A universal sense of right and wrong can only come from a source outside ourselves. The recognition of a universal moral law is by default a recognition of a moral Lawgiver.

Logically, using the existence of evil to prove there is no God is like using a Dell computer to prove there is no such thing as a computer.

C.S. Lewis said that, “… evil is God’s megaphone to a non-believing world. Evil speaks of moral law. Moral law demands a moral Lawgiver, and it is He that we call God!”

Human beings confuse ‘good’ and ‘evil’ with ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ all the time. It is that confusion that fuels the ‘a good God wouldn’t create evil’ argument.

‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ are human moral issues. ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ are OUTCOMES, and are entirely in the Hands of God.

“And we know that ALL things work together for GOOD to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Consider the most ‘evil’ events to befall the earth during the 20th century. World War One was certainly evil. (But it put Jerusalem in British hands after 400 years of Ottoman rule)

World War II was even more incomprehensibly evil. Adolph Hitler’s madness resulted in the attempted genocide of the Jewish race and the deliberate destruction of more than twelve million innocent people in the gas chambers.

(But the subsequent cry of ‘never again!’ by the Holocaust’s survivors resulted in the restoration of Israel to the Land of Promise just in time for it to reclaim Jerusalem in this generation)

As Joseph stood before his brothers who had sold him into slavery in Egypt, he comforted them by saying, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis 45:5)

What Joseph’s brothers did was SELL THEIR OWN BROTHER INTO SLAVERY. Does that qualify as an ‘evil’ act? They MEANT it for evil, but God used it for good.

A knife, used to stab a man in the stomach in a barfight, would be an instrument of evil. The SAME knife, used to remove an appendix and save a life in an operating theater, would be an instrument of good. It is the OUTCOME of its use that characterizes it as ‘good’ or evil’. In either case, it remains a knife.

God created the universe to function according to the laws of physics. It is so delicately balanced that one of those laws demands that ‘every action must result in an equal and opposite reaction’, for example.

God created us to have a personal relationship with Him. But in order for this to be possible, we have to be able to choose NOT to want one back, or the choice would be meaningless.

I cannot experience love from you unless you have the capacity to do otherwise. If you have the capacity to not love me, and you choose instead to love me, then that choice has validity.

On the other hand, I can program my computer to greet me by telling me it loves me. Of course, I haven’t done so because it would be meaningless. My computer cannot love me. It has no choice — it would ‘love’ Saddam Hussein if I programmed it to.

And I cannot love it because it cannot love me back.

That makes the capacity for evil — to choose NOT to love, necessary to that choice TO love. And without the choice to love, our existence would have no meaning — secular OR spiritual.

Suppose God did eliminate evil from creation? For God to eliminate evil, He would have to eliminate our capacity of choice and thus our capacity to do both evil and good. And such a world is inferior to the one we have: one where love is possible, despite its inherent evil. What kind of God would do this? Only one kind. A God of love.

In order that we might not suffer the penalty of our evil choices (sin), He, like a loving Father, paid the penalty for our sins. He allowed his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be murdered on a Roman cross — arguably the most evil act in the history of the universe.

But this act of great evil gave rise to the greatest act of love in the universe: paying the penalty for the wrong choices we make, which are the result of the way He created us in the first place!

Right and wrong are human moral choices arising out of our human moral code. Whether they result in good or evil outcomes is up to God according to His plan. Our job as Christians is to trust Him. God knows what He is doing!

The greatest evil in the history of the universe resulted in the greatest Gift ever bestowed on mankind.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“A ‘Practical’ Fellow” In Impractical Times

“A ‘Practical’ Fellow” In Impractical Times
Vol: 54 Issue: 21 Tuesday, March 21, 2006

President Bush broke away from routine on Monday to take questions from the public in what became a lively and entertaining bit of political theater.

For the most part, the president’s one-liners revealed the man behind the office as a guy with a great sense of humor completely comfortable in his own skin, revealing some of the George Bush his pre-presidential handlers portrayed as ‘a guy you’d sit and have a beer with.’

(To be fair, however, it needs to be remembered that the choice was between Bush and Al Gore.)

It is usually fun to watch the president use humor to handle difficult questions. It was also interesting to watch George Bush the Texas yarn-spinner morph into President George Bush and back again, depending on the question.

It gave the distinct impression one was hearing two entirely different people.

One guy invited Bush to an ethnic social gathering in Cleveland in October, to which Bush deadpanned, “I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in October. Put me down as a definite maybe.”

When asked a question about Iran, Bush straightened noticeably. His face set, his easy Texas demeanor evaporated, and he became George Bush, the Warrior President.

But the unguarded, easy nature of the Q&A session revealed yet a third George Bush, in response to this question from an unidentified woman in the audience:

“My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips, in his latest book, ‘American Theocracy,’ discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the apocalypse? And if not, why not?””

Assessment:

Ever since George Bush took office, there have been rumors flying that Bush is an ardent student of Bible prophecy who takes those prophecies into consideration when formulating national policy.

The rumors began during Campaign 2000 by the Gore team in an effort to build some momentum on Bush’s campaign profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The effort back-fired, since Gore’s team underestimated the number of Christian voters that DO take Bible prophecy literally.

Gore’s effort to portray Bush as a Christian fundamentalist cost Gore more votes than it cost Bush.

Indeed, after Election 2000, the rumor that Bush was a student of Bible prophecy was picked up by the Christian right. Not as a pejorative, but as a hopeful sign that America was returning to its Christian roots.

Now, let’s return to the question about George Bush’s understanding of Bible prophecy.

“Here’s how I think of it. The first I’ve heard of that, by the way. I guess I’m more of a practical fellow. . . ” before morphing back into George Bush the Warrior President and launching a mini-speech about his duty to protect America from the terrorist threat.

“The first I’ve heard of . . ” the APOCALYPSE? THAT made me shake my head for a minute.

In the early years of the Bush administration, I got a lot of emails expressing disappointment in Bush’s policies, particularly those that seemed to display such a complete ignorance of Bible prophecy that some began to question whether or not Bush was even truly saved.

I argued then that Bush was a Methodist and that the Methodists adhere to ‘replacement theology’ which teaches that Israel forfeited its covenant relationship with God and it was passed on to the Church.

Under the doctrine of replacement theology, modern Israel is just a Western secular democracy with no special relationship in the Plan of God. All Bible prophecy was fulfilled with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 at which time God’s covenant relationship with Israel was revoked.

In this view, all other Old Testament promises made to Israel, unless they were historically fulfilled before the first coming of Messiah, are now the property of the Christian Church.

(The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest – Vol: 24 Issue: 11 – Thursday, September 11, 2003)

So, while it is one thing for Bush to not subscribe theologically to Bible prophecy, it is entirely another for Bush to say he’d never heard of it.

On a purely secular level, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad believes in a coming apocalypse and also believes he has been called to start it, so one can only hope that Bush was referring to the first time he’d heard of the book, “American Theocracy.”

It is the second part of Bush’s reply that is the more revealing. “I guess I’m more of a practical fellow . . .”

As I argued in 2003, not believing in Bible prophecy is not the same thing as not being a Christian. One can be a Christian and be woefully ignorant of the Bible’s relevance to current events. (The churches are filled with them)

What gives me pause is Bush’s dismissal of Bible prophecy on the grounds that would be a hallmark characteristic of a ‘practical fellow’.

These are not practical times. The world is dividing up into three distinct spiritual camps manifesting themselves in the physical world as Jewish Israel, Christian America and the forces of the ‘Islamic world’.

The rest of the world hopes to sit this one out to the extent possible. This is precisely the scenario outlined by Bible prophecy.

One of the unique characteristics of Bible prophecy is that every major player on the world scene is represented in the last days, in precisely the form predicted by the prophets.

The Bible foresees four spheres of global power in the last days, the 200 million-strong Oriental army of the Kings of the East, the Islamic-African Kings of the South, the Russian-Iranian Gog Magog Alliance, and the revived Roman Empire under antichrist.

There is no mention of a fifth, more ‘practical’ western superpower resembling America.

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. . . Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.” (1st Thessalonians 5:2-3,14)

A truly ‘practical fellow’ might want to take that into consideration.