W W W W  World Wide Web Witness Inc.  Home Page   Contents Page for Volume  What is New


 

Chapter 15

NEWS 185

The Perfect Palestinian and the True Jew

"Looking for Answers" on SBS TV,  October 23, 2001
Varied on-line news sources

Where is there that Palestinian who would rather die than use mere force to protect himself from those who for truth's sake, would slaughter him ?

Where is that Jew who would prefer to surrender even the earth itself, to dishonouring the word of the Lord, as in Isaiah 53 and Micah 5, as in Isaiah 49 and Psalm 2, as in Daniel 9 ?

Where is there peace without consecration, and wisdom in the latter, without truth!

It is Jesus Christ who is the perfect Palestinian and the true Jew. It is He who is 'an Israel in whom I will be glorified' (Isaiah 49:3). This is the 'Israel' who is so perfect that though He voluntarily GIVE all, even to death for sin, not His own, yet it is all freely returned and more also (Isaiah 49:6). Here is the Palestinian who did not abandon His home to allow entering armies more liberty to conquer, but to allow lost sinners, prisoners of folly, to be redeemed.

There is, can be and will be no peace without Him, that will endure (Isaiah 9:7). The laboratory aches with efforts to do without Him. HE is our peace; and no other is or will be provided (John 14:6, Ephesians 1:10, 2:14-17). Nor is any other to be seen ...

America has sought to help the Jew in Israel, and most advisedly in principle. What do we learn, as in the broadcast of "Looking for Answers" on SBS TV,  October 23, 2001 ? We find a young convert, disciple, follower, rabid and irrational, assured and taken over completely, who is given much air time. He tells how it is a Western failure to understand the Eastern mind, which is a problem as he asserts his violence. Is it ? It is nothing new to have those who, feeling their case is hopeless without violence, engage in it, while attacking the inhumanity of those who, inhumanely and indeed with total abandon of all human restraint of feeling, they assault.

It is amusing in a grave and rather grim fashion to see this 'moral' elevation in which the dissatisfied, the unfulfilled, the educated (who as in Egypt where you can so readily - they are not alone in this - get a college education and no job), without satisfaction:

who will kill,
will to kill,
and it seems at times,
virtually thrill to kill.


Thus the young man concerned, perhaps in his 30s, a self-confessed disciple of Omar Abdel-Rahman, whom he regards as a father, acknowledged a medley of emotions about the assassination of the former Egyptian President Sadat, that moderate with more restraint and diplomacy than many a battalion in the area, it would seem. It was he who made peace with Israel, amid rejoicing. Good ?

Not at all! says the young man. It was a betrayal. The US gave him much money, and this Rahman disciple viewed that, rather as a bribe.

That assessment did not meet with consent by a US speaker on the same session.

Not at all! said the US dignitary. It was a necessary aid to one who, in making peace with Israel, that unmodish thing, would need help to be delivered from backlash from the violent who prefer not peace but war.

Yet the thoughts of the young man on the murder of Sadat were these: at first he was surprised, virtually shocked to see such 'success' for violence from their Islamic base. Then he was pleased, yes his whole expression ratified his words. It seemed that it was delicious in his sight, this slaying of someone with whose policies he disagreed. Surely Revelation 6:4 is being fulfilled. Death to many of these 'submit or else' religionists (a position historically abundantly verified over millenia and in the Koran as repeatedly shown cf.  Lord of Life p. 59), is merely a mode of sainthood.

Normally, it is the death of someone else, but the feature is growing to die yourself. It is easier for those who are utterly frustrated with themselves, the world or the status quo, and want something which alas,  is all submission to what is a NON-GOD, one who is given a name which could cause confusion with the one who IS! (cf. Lord of Life Ch. 8).
 


GOD IS ONE and HIS FEATURES ARE ONE and NOT CONTRADICTORY

Why abandon a clear head for the sake of gain !
which in the end can be infinite loss...

It is one thing when the God who IS God ordered Israel into the Promised Land, after waiting hundreds of years before so acting (Genesis 15:16,  12:1-2, Joshua 1:5-9, 3, 5:13ff.). That is discussed in SMR pp. 1186Aff.. This was simple judgment on the part of God who wished a nation which would be a show-case and a praise to Him, an example and a testimony, to take a place to bear the light and to proclaim the truth, so that men might freely know the truth, not by blood, but by light (Isaiah 43:21, Jeremiah 7:9-14).

When Israel itself failed in that very land, they were not persuaded by blood, but dealt with in judgment likewise. The call not to murder, however,  remains. The Gospel has finished till the end, such insurgencies. The expression of judgment has been transferred to the Cross, and there not only epitomised, but culminated and contained. Now it is not available to those who reject the mercy of God, and in particular, create new gods, or attribute to the documents of testimony, the opposite of what they contain, and invent new religions (cf. SMR pp. 1080ff.). Those who do not trut cheques do not present them; and what is not presented is not gained.

Meanwhile, the violation of life by force for the purposes of 'faith' is not a human prerogative. It is likewise a denial of faith and an assault on the goodness of God, as if force being proper where faith is concerned, one can play God. How readily the name is assumed, and how surely does God not regard as guiltless those who take HIS name in vain (Exodus 20:7). God might as well have omitted freedom, and thus never tolerated evil at all. It then means that this false religion implies a God who IS evil, since He permits it, not in the interests of liberty, but merely by will. As so often in theological matters, it is NOT what you think you are doing which matters most, it is what you ARE doing! It is the same with aeroplanes. If you are confused, and THINK you are flying at 10,000 feet over mountains, when in fact you are flying at 1000 feet, there is a collision.

Here the collision is with the word of God. Hence that short report from the Tehran Times, Oct. 16, 2001 is of some interest. Which one ?

This: it is stated that an MP in the Christian Democratic Party was quoted as saying that the Arabic word 'Allah' should not be translated into the word 'God'. As a translation issue, it is a separate consideration; but one can see the thrust. The Allah who, as on the mosque in Jerusalem, has NO SON, CANNOT be the God who has ONE ONLY SON, incarnate, His eternal word, on whom all of salvation DEPENDS! Hence if the God of the Bible is in view, it is mere confusion to use any terminology for some alleged God, who is other. There is ONE GOD. We have demonstrated this; and He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this too has been proven.

Thus it is quite right, when a Christian is talking of God, NOT to use the term in association with 'Allah'. It would be treason or treachery, confusion at least, so to do. It would demean God, and ally His name with fictitious entities. It was always the case since ancient times that the multitude of made gods involved the true God who was zealous against such confusion and presumption. You see some sign of the same sort of thing not only in Jeremiah 14, but in Acts 19:33ff.. People often become upset because you do not recognise their god or gods as God. SO be it. It is nothing new. It is a matter of millenia. It was, as Jeremiah 14, and 23 clearly show, something infinitely detestable to God that His name should be allied with that of others who were NOT GOD. This we have studied in detail. It is scarcely surprising.

It is in fact ONE of the 10 commandments, NOT to take HIS name in VAIN!

Now however, the sparing of the neck, or the making of allies, this becomes a ground for confusion at best, for betrayal at worst. It is in any case forbidden to use the name of God for ANYTHING else! There is, He declares, NO OTHER ROCK (Deuteronomy 32:4,15-18, Psalm 62); and it is when "they provoke Me to jealousy with that which is not God" that "a fire is kindled in My anger".

DO you, who read, consider your current neck more important than the truth and peace of God ? If so, you will join in the thrust and throng of those who want irrationality, "God" being used of contradictory beings. It is merely unbelief in action; and where confusion reigns, it is better to rein in.

In the same line, on the same session,  Looking for Answers, this point came to substantial impact. An American, in the Staff of Colin Powell, one who spoke at times with considerable point, did however on this vital point make a massive error. In view of the thoughts of the young man, whose words were so exposed for so long - for reasons of interest, a topic not here discussed - to wit, that others were infidels, the Staff member had a pointed retort. We are all, he declared, Jew, Arab, Christian, people of the book. Hence, it would be wrong, he intimated, to use 'infidel' of this camp or that, in the trio.

This is one of the most salient thrusts into the territory of confusion that one could wish. As diplomacy it may commend itself to those who wish for security, or peace in this world without truth, or quieter times, or any such thing; but as truth, it is impossible. Its irrationality comes like the rising breaker in the heaving ocean, rising, rising as if never to fall: then crashing it comes with a force that seems augmented by its long parody of indecision! When it does fall, what a writhing is seen.

As noted above, ONE God cannot have and not have one Son. Similarly, THE God cannot be for and against the use of force to secure 'faith', the slash of the scimitar for the confession of 'faith', the same at times proceeding till all confess Allah, as it prescribes in various conflicts. There is no way THE God  both requires salvation by grace without works (Ephesians 2), and demands works as the essential mode of making the difference, for the status of salvation. Nor is there way open both to direct the protection of Israel, and its destruction. THE God does not call for a jihad against Israel, and announce the entire destruction of those who, on its return after so long a time of discipline to the land He gave it, wish to invade and set about it.

Nor can a people of the book reject the Christ who had to die approximately at A.D. 30 (SMR pp. 886ff.), and die with a Gospel which is the one which has been around for two millenia, apart from its prediction centuries earlier; and at the same time accept Him.

This is absurdity. It is mere contradiction, first of God, and then of oneself so to maintain.

If what was meant was that there is a common NOTION to seek one God with A BOOK, then this has some truth; for many in such religions do such a thing. Yet this does not validate one and all. The contradictions cannot include all.

That ONE of these three parties rejects what is written, and one remakes it, is a fact. What is written stays put. There are two books, one without visible heritage or agreement with that which has it; and this is total divergence. Again,  within the first part of one of the books, there is a rejection of its CHIEF message; and that likewise makes total divergence. These three therefore do not all deal with the one God, or even with the one Book in acceptance of the same. In what way, then, can more than one of them be other than infidel, once it be seen that God is and that He has spoken! Of course those are infidels who reject  the word of God. The word 'infidel' is not worth the argument in itself, as it may carry overtones unnecessary to the point, for some. Let us say, UNBELIEVER in GOD.

From a Biblical, and a rationally attestable perspective, this is simply fact. Wrath from the divine source, is the stated penalty.

Wrath on earth is the observable result also, often seen not only WITHIN those who do not receive Him, but scaling the very earth. Rejecting the Bible, and HENCE its message of love and peace, while waiting in faith in Christ for the judgment to come, is not at all to be aligned with IMPOSING by force your 'faith' on others. That is  a condemned and predicted procedure from the Biblical perspective, an antichristian event which came and was to come, one indeed which has long been with us, in Russia, in China, and in Moslem lands to the extent they use force to subdue in matters of faith, as when they kill or molest or terrorise those who do not accept Muhammad, a common practice.

That is contemptible, NEVER practised in the Bible, impossible in any case to practice, a mere slashing or selection for submission, meaningless except in statistics.

The judgment will come soon enough (John 3:36), and those who play God by seizing its reins now, will look forward to just judgment; for blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. But as for the murderers, who use a novel religion to kill those who will not follow their irrationalities, and indeed their wholly disproved beliefs (cf. SMR pp. 50ff., 814ff., 987ff., 1080ff.), they face the judgment of murderers, people whose hearts lie in that plane, and who are rejected from heaven (Revelation 21:8). THAT is not the way of heaven! It IS heaven. Such hearts are alien at once, as it is written.

For diplomacy, for social acceptance, for cultural accord, or any other thing which is not in accord with godliness, that loving zeal which puts GOD FIRST, people by all means may make irrational combinations of Gods, like mixed drinks; but in so doing, they INSULT and arouse wrath from the God who is the Being in view by this disbelief, disowning and delinquency. What is needed is not that betrayal of Christ which mixes His name and revelation with that of others, for that was after all the prerogative of Judas, and is that of countless since who follow his example; and indeed how COULD you do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you put other 'names' in, such as false prophets whose coming He predicted (Colossians 3:17).

To win a war, you lose one ? Alas, in the end, you lose all, by that means! The war that matters is already lost for you when you are doing that (Ephesians 6 indicates what THAT war is!).
 


THE LOVE OF PASSION AND THE PASSION OF LOVE

The young, whether of East or West, are often impassioned these days, for motor-bike contests with death on the road, for rock festivals and drink and lust affairs, for fighting wars of this kind or that, for defeating this tyrant or that, and becoming in the process, far worse than the last one.

Such, it seems, is the vision of the young Moslem, and it appears to make of him one


But this is not all!

Equally, this young disciple of Rahman would like to see the USA OUT of the Middle East. He resents bitterly the use of Egypt, propped up by the US in what he deems its corruption and repression, as a sanctuary from war. It is not good enough that it made peace with Israel. Thus and for sundry such reasons, Sadat had to go. Now as this young man appears of a mind to make war with many, and to be judge of all, and continues to seek the removal of what does not seem to fit well in the world, always on the supposition that he and his 'faith' does fit well, and that it is fine to decapitate, amputate and activate any sort of passion to overthrow whatever it is that must be overthrown, what becomes of him, personally, and to what is he directed ?

Alas, most grievously, he merely becomes part of an international regime of intolerance, suppression, oppression and corruption, in which devious plans of destruction become the METHODS of overcoming, tricking and spoiling whatever is in the way.

Such is always the way. Sic semper tyrannus is the Latin, for the thing is very old. The concept from the antiquities is this: THUS ALWAYS THE TYRANT ... It means in context that the tyrant is always a hopeless mess, is always to be seen when dead, as a deliverance. It is fitting that he go. This is not for murder, but for relief at his passing.

He was not to be rejoiced in. That was the way of it. He departs unlamented by his erstwhile victims.

Now the tyrant is the tower-impacting user of foreign assets to destroy foreign assets, the disposer of humanity by power and craft, the judge of all, in human and sinful form. It is horrendous morally, and it is judged spiritually (John 3:18, 36). The judgment where no repentance ensues, is declared in the Bible already! There is nothing to wait for, in this sense, for there is no case. It is settled.

Such actions of violence are mere delusion, the passion for death in place of the passion for love, the love of God, and His redemption and His grace.

It mangles, it dismantles, it destroys, and what it builds is agents of destruction. It has no moral discrimination, and like the Romanism of yore, it kills and kills and kills ... It sees no end. It does not matter that you murder. It is immune. There is a moral antibiotic to protect you. Do not worry about truth or peace; just drink deeply with the almighty Allah who has been roundly defeated this half-century with total ignominy in the Middle East. There he has fallen before God and HIS word, as shown in the last few volumes on this site: it is His word which  is one thing, and Arab desire which is another. His word always wins.

Force is not the method. It merely invents new tyrants, young and old, blind or seeing, but whichever, taking power into their hands until those who kill by the sword duly fall by the sword. It is futile. Hitler did it in style. The inquisition did it in myriads.

In fact, there is an enormous parallel.
 


THE ENORMOUS PARALLEL

It is this. The Romanist heresy, like the Moslem, takes parts (few) of the Bible and adds. Rome takes the Bible and adds. The Moslem movement sought world dominion; so did Rome, and indeed it maintains that it DESERVES it (in Unam Sanctam q.v.). The Moslem move came to a European crisis around 732 A.D., when it was repulsed; but it continued a menace and took Constantinople in 1453, and continued in the Middle East and in Africa in considerable numbers, but as time progressed, without considerable power.

Oil has changed that.

Rome, for its part,  continued in the Holy Roman Empire moving happily through many centuries till it weakened and British liberty increased. Final humiliation in the 1870s was a newly announced 'infallible' pope being routed out of his lair by armies. In the meantime, countless thousands died in torture, with robbery and attacks on their good names that leave little to be available for surpassing, in China's assaults on Christians and Christian pastors, to name but one category. Thus Rome won much of Europe, had enormous power, crusaded to take more, and managed both preliminaries and actualities, inciting war as we have seen in SMR, according to plan (cf. SMR pp. 921, 968ff., 1033ff.).

The Moslem conspiracy, like that of Rome is and long has been a conspiracy, so that we have what is a joint movement against due authority, in this case that of God, to usurp it by force: whatever names may be used by the parties for themselves, or for God. It had its own day of vast European invasive force, an early parallel to Rome, though the latter was more extensive.

And what of the recent developments, which have not arisen over-night ? It now appears, that just as Rome resorted after its heyday of power, or as it came towards a conclusion, to extend its use of terrorism by priest and political power, to usurp goods, life and good name, calling heretic, very often, what was most saintly, in that mode known as the Inquisition, so DOES the Moslem movement do the same. Using aeroplanes as incinerators, instead of the wood and fire under bodies so popular with Rome, often slowly burning, it makes its lurid mark and its telling parallel. The speed and scale is different; but then Rome took a long time about it, centuries of papally supported atrocities; and the Moslems are just expanding now their terrorist wings.

There is a third parallel to this assemblage. The Communists, in their third membership of the world conspiracy league, did much the same, though not with quite such an intensive parallel to offer. They took much of Europe rather easily, sheltering perhaps under M.A.D., concepts of US restraint; and then they abused it, extorted wealth, scientists, and challenged the US, before finding their atheist and all-knowing system such a contradiction in practice, that it came to mirror its irrationality in reality (cf. SMR pp. 925ff., Barbs, Arrows and Balms 30, News, Facts and Forecasts 14 and see Indexes). In the meantime, desperately, with concerted zeal so like the Inquisition as to be an object lesson in human depravity, they used the methods that in their case, came early.

They waged war on their captives, who in millions they either killed or transported for cheap labour. Torture, efforts to change minds, use of force to gainsay both reason and religion. It was their Inquisition; so that we now have the whole three of the world-getting conspiracies, using the same modes in their sequences of power lust. Morals in each case were adapted to the concept that the end justifies the means, and with Romanism, this equivocation became famous in the case of the Jesuits, the papal support squad that seemed, especially when it was excluded by many nations in Europe, a sort of commando squadron.

The current terrorism is the one of immediate interest;  but it is best seen in the perspective of abuse of power over history by those who want to control it, with special emphasis on religion as the motivating force, whether it calls itself by that name, or not: erroneous concepts of the ultimate invading human reason and demeaning both it and man.

So does the Moslem war mount, spreading its wings against God, like all the others - not against their concept of God, but against God as defined by the Bible and required by reason (cf. SMR). But it is not done yet.

Now we find there , like a Moslem World Trade Centre tower assemblage, one of their own, the WORLD ISLAMIC FRONT. This body is concerned to fight Americans and Jews, it is reported; and it combines the bin Laden enterprise, it seems, with various other ones. There have been enough. The Muslim brotherhood in Egypt evidently led to many Egyptian exports of people not desired, who freely went and in other countries continued their fight for meaning and control. The al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan owe not a little to this flurry from Egypt, as of course from Saudi Arabia, of whom there has been report that funds were sent to Afghanistan to help boarding schools skill pupils in Islamic concepts, not unakin to those of al Qaeda.

But what of Saudi Arabia at home ?

How horrible! chanted the young interviewed Muslim to whom we have referred. American troops in Saudi Arabia! It appeared to grief him intolerably.  Was not bin Laden willing to help ? It appears from the program as presented, that the Saudis found that young gentleman,  too unreliable. To be sure, he was closely connected with political potentates there, but where lay his heart ? On such grounds, it was asserted, the Saudis preferred Americans to come to their rescue.

The thing seems keenly felt, in terms of the young heart on fire. What a humiliation that Moslem power did not secure Moslem interests ... Was it however the Americans who made that decision ? Is it wise to blame those who came WHEN a Saudi ruler did NOT trust his Moslem hosts, and sought aid ?

It was charged that it was in America's interests to go. This is quite possible. It has before  now been made clear on this site that the concept of national self-interest, as if it were any better than merely personal self-interest, is a misnomer. It is just as tediously narrow in selfishness. Be that however for the moment, put to one side: the Americans, whatever their interests, and without prejudging by cant that question, did come. They did deliver Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel.

Is it by some omniscience known that despite the millions of Americans who have acute concern for Israel in heart and conscience, this did not figure in American willingness to come! When reason and facts are replaced by mere derogatory fanaticism, it is merely a matter of force, shouting or the like.

It is however true that America has most ill-advisedly sought to support regimes whether in Vietnam, or in Saudi Arabia, or in Iraq! at an earlier stage when it was struggling with a dangerous looking Iran (so creating much of its later troubles!), instead of relying on God. It is no use pretending. You can rely on God in your leadership, or in your own heart: you do or you do not! American involvements in such regimes were not wise, and for that reason. The current Islamic involvement in its approach, and the style of it, is no better.

With all the slippery talk about 'good Islamic teaching' from the President, what is in view is in fact a violent anti-Christian religion which continually persecutes Christianity whether in direct bodily assault, as in Indonesia's horror where so many thousands have been actively killed, and more are threatened, or in Asia: it is no better.

In this respect only, that the USA has been too involved with unsatisfactory regimes, the young Moslem has a point.

Even this, however was confused. It ignored the benign actions of America in helping Israel against those who would like by violence to complete Hitler's job on the Jews, and the peaceable intention with Egypt, willing to be brave in the midst of destructive fanaticism, and to seek some sort of co-operation other than in death, with another nearby country. This intemperate fanaticism has one desire: ALLAH MUST RULE, ALL MUST SUBMIT. And this ? It dares to talk about morals at all. It is mere religious imperialism, irrationality on the throne, desire for the world against the world!

You need no 'eastern mind' that ludicrous invention, to understand that. Means may vary; the heart does not alter. It is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, says the Bible of the man who does not know the only God there is (Jeremiah 17:9).
 


THE EVERLASTING LIFE AND THE ETERNAL DEATH
Neither is new, but only one is always fresh

As to such ambitions, then, and the whole bevy of them, there is NOTHING NEW IN THAT. You do not need a special sort of mind to understand that. We have had it too in the West, this same disregard of all morals, this utter determination to make the world submit, as the ONLY way for its own good, to your own ideas, and 'faith'. Hitler's was a racial one, focussed on a special sort of person also. We have had it in Communism just the same. The ludicrous contention: It cannot be wrong. It is sure. It must be done.

The result in East, Middle East,  as in West ? It is this. Nothing need be spared. it is moral to be immoral. What is seen is all there is; nothing must stand against it. Anything the target ever did wrong, however, is soon utterly surpassed in the wrongs of the blighted bigotry which cannot stand on logical feet, provide reasonable evidence of any kind for its claims, either terrestrially or celestially, but gives one thing, destruction. Any fool, however, can destroy.

Life needs more than that. You need to follow the evidence to God, not lead your 'god' to the evidence which is not there, and convince yourself that any follies of flesh, any shedding of blood must be worth it. Why! the very example can only ennoble mankind... Really ? Is this the way history reveals ?

Alas, it is one more flurry of fury which goes as it comes. It is vain. Such things always have been and will be, till the end, which approaches like an asteroid on a curve and curse of collision. It is not all curse. There is cure. It is however by faith, and according to evidence, for God has not left Himself at all without a testimony. Its truth is on all sides (cf. SMR in verification chapters).

Man is not to be treated by force in religion, and if it were to be the case, then God would not have given him the power to rebel. God however has done so; and He has provided for man by love, not force, yet in so doing He has deployed the  power to raise the victim, Christ, bodily from the dead, so that man may be at peace. Against this reality, the Moslem heresy is merely one more attempt, turning from the actual God to some notion, this time using some of His name, by which to conquer, and secure submission. This is its mission. It is not savoury. It is not spiritual. It is not godly. It will fail, in a pool of blood.

One of the pointers to this is this new determination in the WORLD ISLAMIC FRONT. We noticed that one of its exalted aims was to kill JEWS. This should be seen in the context of Micah 7, especially 7:15, and of Ezekiel 36-39*1  . It will merely perish. The word of God is quite clear on that. One can only pity and pray for those who like this vocal young man, follow blood in floods, to die by the sword, perhaps, for no good reason, squandering his spiritual future in the flight to violence.

What God says is this, and it needs to be heeded, for in the very love of Christ, which is not limited to Jew or Gentile, and covers Arab as well (Colossians 1:19-23). It is broadcast not from Al Jazeera, but from the Bible;  and to the Jewish settler as to the very canniest jihad assault crew, it is a bottomless pit which awaits the assertion of flesh without the Saviour, Jesus Christ (Mark 9, John 3:17-36). It is a haven for one or the other, and a new life which knows wisdom, which is available for one, for the other. In the midst of God's plans for His glory, do not forget His plan for your own life!

Sins may be various; redemption is one (Acts 4:11-12, 17:31). Justice may be breached by one or another; its penalties are found in One only. God is gracious, and His way is not to submit to men, but to be made secure in the Lord, who IS Lord. That way apart, man lives apart, and what he is and becomes is ungodly, and it grieves the one, as the other. There is no peace. Meanwhile God patiently continues to implement His long declared plans. These elevate nobody on this earth; for all are humbled (Isaiah 24). They do however execute the words He has spoken.

Let us hear Ezekiel 37:28: "The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore." It starts on earth and is there sustained, and it continues in the haven of heaven with those of the nation who come to Him (as in Zech. 12:10, Romans 11:25ff.), and so join those who from all 'faiths' and philosophies, turn from darkness to the light which is God's alone. It is He who dwells in light unapproachable (I Timothy 6:16),  but has commanded light to shine in the darkness, as light at the first; and it is this which may be seen in the face of Christ Jesus, even the glory of God (II Corinthians 4:6, cf. Biblical Blessings Appendix IV, Repent or Perish 2, 7).

It is not only the other nations! Thus in Ezekiel 36:14, we read of many in Israel itself:

They ALL have to learn!

There is still a lot of work to be done in the Middle East. Non-Christian Jew and Arab alike have to come to the one God, whose word the Jew faithfully passed on, while rejecting the Messiah, and whose God the Moslem will not abide. Only in Him is there peace; it is like two warring Ph.D. students, each assured, each wrong. One has long had the answer in his hand, but not in his heart. The other has yet to find it at all.

It is only when it is in the heart that the heart will know peace*2. It is only when the Christ is adored, that force is not longer applied. The force of truth belies the truth of force, and the god of forces*3 will perish like all the other idols of the human mind.
 
 
 
 

NOTES

*1

See The Biblical Workman Ch.  1 esp. pp. 140ff. 8, SMR Appendix A; 510ff., 814-815;
It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls ... Ch.   10; Galloping Events Ch.  1, 2 , 3.

*2

Isaiah 32:16-17, 26:1-3, 27:5, Philippians 4:4-6.

Let us hear the first:

"Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. "


*3

SMR pp. 707ff., and see SMR Index.