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

The picture above suggests American power. It also suggests divine creation.

The title above suggests that we are about to continue the comparison of the actions of the three world conspiracies, seeking terrestrial power on the earth as one whole. They do not all do it directly; but this is the impetus for each.

However, that is not the topic. It is rather a comparison of Israel and the United States of America.

It is true that this was done, the review of that particular parallel, relative to dealing with terrorism, such as afflicts both of these nations: a terrorism which has acted pejoratively on one of these peoples, for far longer a time, than on the other. This parallel was considered in some detail in Ch. 10  above. What is to follow uses this as a foundation, and continues with a new development.

That ? The USA has, it seems rather peremptorily, ordered, commanded, directed is perhaps the best word, Israel to get out of the Palestinian territories which it has ceded, and stay out. Israel has indicated that this is not what it will do.

Is this a new confrontation ? Is the USA now using kid gloves so thick, that there is no sign of a hand beneath, with the Arabs in alliance against terrorism, internationally, and using the iron hand with no sign of a glove at all, and with even the skin rather rough, on Israel ? How strange the way one treats one's friends and deals with what, in many respects, have characteristics of enemies!
This, it is not a matter of the people, but of the constraints of their religion.
 
 

ISLAM is by its very Koran, as we have repeatedly noted in recent chapters, allied to world domination, taking it here, there, and in this instance and in that, always moving in one way, towards submission. It can fight against people because of their religiously unsatisfactory character (Surah 9:27). "If God helps you, none can overcome you," in battle (3:160). The topic is dying and being slain. This makes the Middle East affairs of the last half century most instructive!

"The true believers," we find, "fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil" (4:75-77). The upshot ? "Fight then against the friends of Satan." Here this is a religious discrimination so profound, that you physically fight the opposition on the assumption he serves the devil. Christians fight evil, but their mandate is not as a church to overturn and overcome and ensure submission. We have seen in the last chapter some religionists, indeed three varieties who have done much of this; but it is nothing to do with the Bible (John 18:36), or with wisdom!

Again, Surah 8:36-41, "Tell the unbelievers that if they mend their ways, their past will be forgiven; but if they persist in sin, let them reflect on the fate of their forefathers." What does this imply in terms of 'fate' ? How could they reflect on what they had not seen, and if they are unbelievers, how could they believe what is merely affirmed ? It appears therefore that the 'fate' was bloodshed, and the threat is no less. Hence there is a sort of communist parallel: conform or be squashed.

In 9:5, we come to this select instruction: "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way ... God and His apostle have no trust in idolaters, save those with whom you have made treaties ..." Here we find that those who do not worship the entity forwarded for this purpose by the man, Muhammad, are to be treated to utter, deceptive violence. If there is a treaty, they must implicitly acknowledge what he presents as if God, and give forced 'gifts'. If not, then they are NOT allowed to go their way.

What that means is already spelled out before. This is that utter and entire arresting of the world in the woes of Islam, to submit to people with a religion, or be dealt with forcibly, dangerously, prodigiously, by all means, or else to be subject to their fear, their inspection and supervision as such things may from time to time, and place to place, and for reason to reason, seem good to it.  It is scarcely possible to regard the Nazi regime as more blatantly pretentious.

If GOD were for them, nil evidence would not be the attestation. If God were so to honour this restless aggression, on the other hand, they would not suffer the undying defeats which have been their lot for so long, in the face of what God actually does, and has done, even for a still rebellious Israel, just because in His faithfulness, He said He would do so (see preceding chapter). The disparity is unlimited.

In 9:27 we find that they are to "fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe neither in God nor the Last Day, and who do not forbid what God and His apostle have forbidden, and do not embrace the true Faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued." Here is this same emphasis on some human beings utterly subduing other ones, in the name of an alleged being, who gives no objective evidence, in the face of One who does, and that superabundantly (cf. SMR pp. 989ff., 1080ff., Chs. 8-9).

They are to be puppets, or robots, instructed on what to forbid, to accept, and if not having the 'faith' in such an entity as this religion forwards, they are to be subjected to such interference as will equate to utter submission. What did the Communists worse than that ? and their 'god', though shrouded in verbiage, was just of the same kind: one affirmed with force, and contrary to reason.

The same Surah promotes war by indicating the varied punishments for those who are slack about it.

In Surah 47, we find that "God will bring to nothing the deeds of those who disbelieve" and that, in light of this, "When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly." Indeed, the advice is this, "do not falter or sue for peace when you have gained the upper hand."

It is intolerable to have free people who do not submit, do not believe, in this way or that, do not agree, do not submit to second class citizenship if treaty is made instead of the infliction of death. If after the treaty IS made, with this duress, they should not continue in submission, then we may hear this ... (Surah 9):

"Proclaim a woeful punishment to the unbelievers, except to those idolaters who have honoured their treaties with you in every detail and aided none against you. With these keep faith, until their treaties have run their term.  .. When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them." This is some interesting use of the ‘sacred months’!

It is not for those who disbelieve in such impositions on their fellows, to honour what is giving such honour to force; and it is in any case, a gross sacrilege and sundering of spiritual fealty to the Lord Jesus Christ, to regard what worships NOT-GOD as if it were God. Their freedom to do this is part of the liberty grace allows; conformity to it in any way is not courtesy. It is honouring what dishonours Christ. It an enabling of what disperses Christ’s name as if it were mere humanity, so defiling the honour of God. This they may do; but not with help for that purpose, from the Christians.

WE do not participate in ANY way in such activity, either its force^*1 or what is, in view of its non-divine status, idolatry. It is the same with swine flesh. If Jews are unable to find the Christ of the New Testament, it is not force which is needed; and if they want to avoid some sorts of meat, it is not courtesy to inhibit them. If however they want action to disenable those who hold otherwise, that is the limit. There is to be no religious imperialism, nor are those who hold to the Christ bound in ANY way by those who reject Him. Not in that way does righteousness exalt a nation; and what are we now seeing, but a nation being debased, which debases the name of Christ by calling via its President, Moslem teachings ‘good^’*2.

What truck has a Christian in estimating the value in this way, of another religion; and that one which debases Christ, dishonouring His deity, rejecting His redemption, forbidding His way, harassing those who follow Him in repeated instances in many lands, and so following a book which has led to so many jihads, on premises often written!

Thus violence and reviling abound, and force is a priest. Vengeance on men for daring to differ, for existing without due regard to this and that law, provenance, desire, is always near. Mercy is extended on the basis of the first Being, alleged to exist,  having satisfaction. So does the Middle East, so does the history of Europe, so does the scimitar, so does bin Laden, so does the Egyptian movement through the Muslim Brotherhood onto the murder methodology against Americans and Jews, make excellent sense, such as comes in this new World Islamic Front, all forming  into a line with the basis as written. So does the Teheran Conference of pan-Islam war on Israel, match these things; and so likewise the 2000 Islamic conclave for a similar purpose.

It is not the case that all of the Islamic people practice these things; of course not. It is the case however that there is abundant testimony back of those who do. The folly of playing ball on their court is beyond belief, but not beyond the retributive results which folly so often procures. It is sad to see it sought; it is sad to see the USA, for one, and Britain via its PM, for another, making hallucinative seeming remarks about Islam, as if the teachings were good, which are both violent and anti-Christian. WHO is being sold ? And what is the price ? It is very terrible in the end, and so to see Great Britain, being divorced from the Great, by pre-occupation with what did NOT save it in the days of the Spanish Armada, is a grievous thing, and hard to bear.

So however do nations fall, who have arisen. So do they all look near and nearer to the falling into that abyss of abhorrence, that human religious enforcement which is to come (Revelation 13), in which force will be every bit as shameless as in Islam, in Romanism's violent past, as in that of Communism.

For all this, there is no ground to retaliate. Not evil but good should be sought for all. Do GOOD to ALL men is the instruction from the Bible (Galatians 6:10).

It is folly to seek the destruction of people for their religion; that is God's affair. It is wisdom to deal with their invasions, of this kind or that, by mail or by airliner. It is wise to protect one's people. It is unwise to pretend that what is written, however, is not written; just as it would be unwise to pretend that all who affirm the Koran, actually follow it. Some are indeed peaceable; but as with all world conspiracies, which seek to dominate the earth with their entities, their beings, it is necessary to use the caution of history. What speaks violence, like some virus, some seed containing worms, may continue for long; and then in the suitable circumstances, it arises to devastate.

The Bible, underlying Christianity, like its New Covenant Founder and Focus, Jesus Christ, has these words and not invasion, intrusion and subjugation for its code. That is written; the rest is what Christ DID. He did not plunder, except His own riches, so that He, though he was rich, became poor so that we through His poverty might become rich (II Cor. 8:9).

But the Koran does not so direct concerning violence; but rather has submission of another kind.

Is the United States of America now to count friends, those who have such things written ? Love them, most certainly. Seek their good, as of all men, of course, for this is the Christian way. But when you are good to what bites, you need to be aware of its code, and treat it with the apt caution. As to those who share more of your concern for non-violence, it is best not lightly to throw them away, or to expect impossible things of them. It is best, particularly, not to do this when you are treating yourself to almost the exact replica of what you seek to forbid to them!
 
 

When therefore the USA TELLS Israel to get out and stay out of Palestinian lands conceded to them, it lacks a certain restraint.

What it does NOT lack is this. It is a substantial parallel; for Israel has not merely said NO! It has said what it has apparently meant all along: it will take action, resolute as Netanyahu descried as a quality in the US reaction in its own defence against terrorism, and sure until the CULPRITS are handed over to it from the base in which they have acted. The USA has said this: We do NOT negotiate. DO not trouble us with words and offers. We want bin Laden. Hand him over. There is nothing to negotiate. We said that at the first; and it is true to the last.

Now is not Israel, if not entirely ECHOING those stout words of President Bush (when he refused to accept the OFFER to have bin Laden handed over to a neutral country, recently), then closely following them. WE WANT the culprits. You have made arrests. Act. If you do not act, we do not negotiate. We do not like having Cabinet Ministers killed at your wish. We do not like to have you assume guilt and gut those who seek to defend their land from insurgents, whether from within or without.

It is good to see that there is no servility here. There is no Islamic submission style, in the Israeli response to the amazing rhetoric from the USA. It is time for Israel to realise that even though in times past the USA has indeed helped, it was by no means this nation which delivered it in 1948 when the case was as good as over, but God clearly intervened, clearly in this, that this is precisely the sort of scenario traced prophetically beforehand in Zechariah 12. It is time for Israel to seek the Lord as in Isaiah 55, and to seek the Messiah as in Daniel 9:24-27, who died some 2000 years ago, and avoid the follies of continued stress with the Lord.

THIS is sound practical advice. GOD IS practical. He HAS warned. He HAS indicated to His people, in their own book, what He would do, and He has done it. He has told them what they are to do, and they need to do it.

Let us be clear. There is for each one of us on this planet the God who made us, the God who has provided redemption and rationality alike, so that no other faith or philosophy can stand (cf. SMR Chs. 1-3, 10, Repent or Perish Chs. 2, 7, That Magnificent Rock Chs. 1, 5, 7, 8, News, Facts and Forecasts 14, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6  -7 and Lord of Life, with Spiritual Refreshings for the Digital Millenium esp. Chs. 13, 16).   If you do not relate to Him, He does not force you to change by scimitar or sickle. It is however, despite His patience, which now is 2000 years old in this ONE THING, in Israel, a perilous thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is better to place yourself in them, on His terms.

Now someone may say, This sounds to me like Islam. Submit! Not really: for in this case it is to the LORD Himself, not nation, not army, not mental or iron weapons. It is to be done because there is none so good, so kind, so true, and because as His creature, you being a sinner, merely spoil what He has made, and bring evils upon yourself. It is not men who supervise the submission. It is to God, as by His Spirit, we find in Zechariah 12, that this is to occur.

As God is, it is to Him by faith that He exists as Hebrews 11 tells us, that you must come. MUST ? Yes, but you need not. There is all eternity to reflect. It is not a happy reflection; and one who rejects Him needs to be sure that the Lord  is to be hated as Islam appears to hate what is not in tune with its god, one so inclined to violence to this day, against the infidel, which of course includes believers in God Almighty. THESE cannot accept any treaty with such a being, forbid what it forbids, or accept what it commands, just because of its source, quite apart from its spirit and tenor.

If then, you hate God, you are at war with your Constructor, and despise the depth of His compassion which provided payment for your sins. Such arrogance is not pure, and such an attitude ignores the fact that you did not make, do not even understand and cannot continue your life. Is truth so abhorrent ? Is reason so trivial ? Is mercy so undesirable ? Is Christ in His love so perfect for a rejection scenario ? Is sin so attractive ? Is the love of God so despicable, even that with which, when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ?^*3

If it is, then in its absence you consign yourself.

It is so with nations, with people, and truth will never bend. Not even for oil.
 
 

*1
It may be well to present here again from SMR on this topic, pp. 91, and 1074ff.. See also pp. 65ff.
Times Roman print will help to differentiate the imports, and so is left.

For some hyperlink references within these excerpts (other than end-notes, which are covered), take the originals at pp. 91 and 1074ff. respectively.
 

A. SMR p. 91.

23 The Quran (Koran) in the translation of Muhammed Zaffrula Khan (1971) states (p. 30, from Surah II): Fight in the cause of Allah against those who fight against you, but transgress not. Surely Allah loves not the transgressors. Once they start the fighting, kill them wherever you meet them, and drive them out from where they have driven you out; for aggression is more heinous then killing. (Sic). But fight them not in the proximity of the Sacred Mosque unless they fight you therein; should they fight even there, then fight them: such is the requital of these disbelievers. Then if they desist, surely Allah is Most Forgiving, Ever Merciful. Fight¹ them until all aggression ceases and religion is professed for the pleasure of Allah alone... (It. added.)

The cause of killing is removed upon the removal... of 'disbelief' of those who possessed this particular relationship towards the visions of Muhammad. The Battle of Tours, in 732 A.D., was one place where the violence of religious drives was halted, before Europe, in dire peril, could be engulfed. Again, Surah VIII shows Muhammad, stirred by contrary religious action, advising: ''Make war on them until idolatry cease and God's religion shall reign supreme'' (refer p. 1081 infra).

Similarly, Sydney Cave in his work, An Introduction to the Study of Some Living Religions of The East on p. 212 gives Surah IX. 5 of the Koran as follows (italics added):

When the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever you shall find them; and seize them, besiege them and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush; but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is gracious, merciful.

The historical impact of Moslem 'forced conversions' is no more ambiguous than is this directive above. It is not an aberration of some unauthorised segment of the 'faith', but actually written in its 'scriptures'. (See pp. 987, 1080-1082 infra.)

On topics in relation to this religion: see Index - Moslem.
 
 

B. SMR  pp. 1074ff..
 

So far from being fanciful, this very charge is made by the prophet Micah, as the Jews for their part, come near to a time of divine Judgment:

THUS SAYS THE LORD CONCERNING THE PROPHETS THAT MAKE MY PEOPLE ERR, THAT BITE WITH THEIR TEETH, AND CRY, PEACE: AND HE WHO PUTS NOT INTO THEIR MOUTHS, THEY EVEN PREPARE WAR AGAINST HIM (Micah 3:5).

One of the early forms of that wrath is frequently the outburst of war: with iniquity abounding, as Jesus predicted, hate and force thrive as far as such evils may. The world writhes and now that this set of "war and rumours of war" predicted by Christ multiplies, the GULF WAR added to the normal Jewish-Arab series of wars, Indian unsettlement, the throes of Sri Lanka, the trials of Papua-New Guinea, the horrors of Ethiopia, the cruel treatment of the Kurds, the continuing horrors of Afghanistan, the unrest of black South Africa, the bloodshed and the tension in the confrontation of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the horrendous, internal confrontation of freedom with the bamboo rod of Chinese communism, the threatening rape of the Baltic nations by Russia, not so tame after all with its troops VERY slow to leave, world-wide Moslem unrest, terrorism and threats of terrorism in unison: these make a cacophony of violence.

In the midst of the war season of 1991, how precious the word: PEACE! How precious also it seemed during 1917, 1940 and the Battle of Britain! How desirable to the Jews in 1948, 1967, 1973 and 1991, it seemed: to them after all their sufferings; as to the British in the rigours of two WORLD wars, in which near to one million men died in one battle-place, VERDUN!

Christ is the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6), and has shown the ONLY way to peace: God not surprisingly, so far from being limited by men's ideas, limits their thoughts by His own; and He knows what are His chosen thoughts. Hear Psalm 2:1-7:

Why do the nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against His Anointed, saying, 'Let us break their bonds in pieces, and cast away their cords from us.'
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His displeasure:

'Yet have I set My King on My Holy Hill of Zion.'

I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son ... You shall break them with a rod of iron...'

There you have three of the world's major religions, all relating closely to Christ (whom Muhammad, though changing Him, revered as a prophet): ONE killed Him (at Jerusalem); ONE killed BY 'Him' and still sacrifices (*16) 'Him' (from Rome), and one 'kills' Him by changing Him, and has arrangements including a direction to KILL, in certain circumstances till all opposition to "Allah" ceases, and often met in the unholy call for 'holy wars' (*17).

Now this is killing in the INTERESTS of religion (*18), not for moral rebuke or justice. Disbelief in these transmutations or mock-up's of Jesus Christ, made by managerial man, usurping the place of Christ, plagiarising, stealing His name, and killing in it, false masters, frauds! disbelief in THEIR product ? THIS ? IT can mean to DIE at the hand of sinful man, frequently confused man! to do so in appointed seasons, by this method and that, as seems good to such religionists. Let us examine only one aspect of all this.

What does the world deserve for this! Christ, the Prince of peace, is USED for killing... What hope is there while men use God's provisions so often to change them, while keeping the name, or 'honouring' it; use them to kill, in a perverse misapplication of the very 'weapons' of peace! And this, it is done by those 'leading', mastering and 'explaining' - CHRIST'S divine prerogatives - by those therefore by definition, usurpers... (Matthew 7:26-29). Christ misused to make war... it is worse then grisly! it is historical.

What of Australia⁴, which is being taken over increasingly by a pragmatic, unbelieving relativism in religion, one which cares nothing for truth; experimenting in what might properly be called 'social dynamics' ? It is open to infection from all sources. Absolutely declaring that this is the way, that all is relative, none of the religions is the truth, to an increasing extent, it thereby assumes it has truth in order to make this statement, and so ends in a mere contradiction - as well as using this contradictory and irrational folly surreptitiously to establish its own religion, one void of any ground but the sheer effrontery of arrogant repetition, something engaged in, with considerable temporary success by another great propagandist, Adolf Hitler.

Even for many who do not understand, whose pockets are appealed to in a short term flurry of worry and greed, WHILE THE COUNTRY SAGS - whose children are indoctrinated with materialism, while materials fly away - one increasingly laden with national debt: convenience becomes king and truth is to be kept in confinement. Very much in confinement, as this Church found when refused access to a public access radio station in Adelaide, for doing no more than present precisely what the Bible teaches! How aptly the ancient Jewish prophet Isaiah sums it up, of a former fallen period, one that led on to the Jewish national catastrophe towards Jesus Christ:

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. (Isaiah 59:14.)

Authoritarian myths like that of organic evolution, join hands with philosophic follies (Chapter 3 supra), like determinism and humanism. These myths are wielded, in some cases by law, like batons on the heads of children. Alas is any more blatant than South Australia, to which we have previously referred concerning its official diatribe, set in smooth terms, antithetical to the Bible. And what does it have, this liberty crushing anti-Biblical talk ? It comes with no more ground than a signature! Even Principals are told the ruling religion in terms that do not mention it, except in the performance. WAR is declared on freedom, on the Biblical faith and on the means to expose fantasy!

There will, however, despite such misuse of liberty as we have suffered from the radio access, and the children from their directors, be no peace without its Prince. You cannot suppress Christ and express the truth; and you cannot bypass the truth and have peace. America seethes with similar cases. States contest the issues, while the creeping cramping continues. Where, then, war is less open, it is not necessarily less real: nor the suffering less keen. There is war at many levels, and will be till the means of peace are adopted.

In the physical world, you will always be ineffective if you do not pursue the truth. Much more is this so spiritually, for here, ignoring the only way is no way to get anywhere, far less, to the peace of rightness, of having things as they should be, as they are meant to be, where they work apt in function and harmony, beauty and edification, reality, redemption and rest - in righteous tranquillity.

Neither the killing of Christ in the flesh, nor Holy Wars for the glory of ambitious religion, using force where faith is required, nor Inquisitions, even though they may make life temporarily simpler for some incendiarists⁵... really help! No, religious killing does not help! Nor for that matter does killing in the name of irreligion, as has led to the death of millions in the hand of Communism. Russia was only one that suffered vast internal invasion, their own people like locusts, persecuting them, suppressing Christianity, assaulting those at prayer, behaving in multiplied instances like beasts - and worse: often exulting in it, with a depraved ideological baseness.

The religion of man unmakes man (*19).

What now of this vast Russian religion, making a religion out of irreligion and worshipping what the Bible calls a "god of forces" ? It too now is internationalised, leaving neither liberty nor prosperity in its wake.

All this both validates Christ's prediction of ramifying wars, and verifies His place as Prince of Peace; for as obstruction grows, the results show; and alternative 'methods' fail, with a regularity that is nothing short of systematic. In fact, there is more of apologetic interest: Christ not merely predicted war in abundance, in an increasingly immoral world, He also forecast this:
"YEA, THE TIME COMES WHEN HE WHO KILLS YOU WILL THINK THAT HE DOES GOD SERVICE"
(John 16:2, Matthew 24).

Such indeed was the feeling as martyrs like John Huss were put to death: the death orations (*20) of Rome, as martyrs were spent (*21) like the millions of some modern entrepreneur, could be exercises in double killing. They were lacerating the name as well as the corpse, assaulting the destiny (if it were possible) as well as the day on earth... all but unbelievably, in the name of... Christ! Unbelievably ? Hardly. Both history and prophecy attest such things; and the fact that they have not only happened, but done so widely, is fulsome further verification.

Whilst war may be necessary to defend the afflicted from violence, the concept of simply grabbing what you want to the glory of Allah, or some humanly invented religion or drive or lust or thrust: it is as hideous as it is irrational, as irrational (*) as it is irreligious, and as irreligious as it is provocative to the Prince of Peace, who in peace gave Himself (cf. James 4:1-3). As Paul states it (Romans 3:17), in seeking for men to come to the Prince of Peace, from their rebellions:

The way of peace they have not known.

Finally, we should summarise the systematic character of the offence which in principle so violates the Bible, the Prince of Peace and the world. It is no accidental occasion of strife which disturbs the world so noticeably that even the blind may soon become... aware.

In motive, men are forever seeking glory where it is not to be found. The glory of the (humanistic) race, of Rome, of Muhammad, of war, of winning, of racial superiority, of Communistic doctrinaire aridities, of the Pope, of Mary, of Aryans, of genes... you name it! This is readily interpreted by the Bible: it is because there IS glory so that it is rational to see it; but they seek it where it is not to be found, through unbounded rebellion which is producing increasingly confounding results! Here is 'Babylon'⁶ ablaze! (Contrast Isaiah 55:2-6.) And what says Jeremiah 13:16-17!

Give glory to the Lord your God
before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains,
and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.
But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride;
My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears...

Their god is and always has been one of violence, and one for which the use of force to secure religious conversion is in certain cases, in order (Surah IX. 5, and Schaff, as noted). This god is the one Saddam Hussein says he worships; it is in the name of this god that Americans are called devils, doubtless including George Bush when, during the Gulf War, he was fresh from his prayer service, apparently directed to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how can the same God have his followers calling Christians devils, as has long appeared the trend ? THEY reject what HE in writing commands! Of course, he is not the same god, but no god at all, except it be as one format for the god of this world, a world which offers its friendship - as James tells us - at the expense of becoming enemies of God, the true God, and not the heretical caricature which the Moslems announce; nor the wafer God of Roman Catholicism, which is no god at all.

The Moslem religion denies that Christ died for the sins of men; the Roman religion denies that eternal salvation is conferred as a gift, entirely through the grace of God, and sets up a schedule of unauthorised priests and actions to intervene between any hope of heaven, and suffering sinners.

The JEWISH religion is separate from the Christian on one basic ground: the nation so acted as to KILL Christ, without accepting Him as the sacrifice for sin for which He came. That is not the ultimate point for this people: it is failure to repent at the national level which still afflicts the nation, in the very midst of divine mercies that are both prodigious and predicted, as we have seen in considerable detail.

The ARAB, the ROMAN and the JEWISH dealings, all international, have Jesus Christ in one way or another changed, rejected, or caricatured. The Russian contribution of a COMMUNISTIC rejection of Christ and most able persecution of His people, makes a fourth - MARXISM. (See p. 862 supra.)

ROME, JERUSALEM, MECCA:
Arab, Jew and Roman all produced an internationalised religion. EACH of these religions is against the Christ of God, declared in the Bible. These religions spread not only where their people were, but through them. Yes, to this add: MOSCOW: Russian, Jewish ... Arab and Roman religious rejections or transformations of Jesus Christ, and this accounts for thousands of millions of the people on this globe! The revolt is systematic; the case is tragic; and so are the results.

But WHY do we need so to cover this case ? It is that men might see verified the word of the ONLY GOD THERE IS, whom reason attests, whom prophecy exhibits, whom history follows, honour His name, accord to Him the honour (Ezekiel 21:26-27, 17:22-24, Revelation 5:9,12-13) which is objectively His due, and come to the only PRINCE OF PEACE that there is; and this, so they might cease their hatred of one another, seemingly an epidemic, and learn to love one another in the God who IS LOVE. Violence in religion is pandemic, but not in religion alone; love for the lost is needed that they might be found... love and not violence. It is neither wise nor Biblical to hate or attack those who are currently misled. It is both Biblical and necessary to show their errors, precisely as does a doctor, though here the physician is Jesus Christ, and the danger is both critical and eternal.

Since ALL have sinned, moreover, there is NO glory for ANY flesh when Christ is received. We must love our enemies and seek that through the Prince of Peace, they may find the reality which, rejected, leads the world swiftly now to its death throes (*19).

The sacrifice of Truth has occurred already (cf. Isaiah 59:14, Luke 23:26, John 8:40,43,46); it is not there that resolution is found. The failure to know or find or use aright the truth, is one of the testimonies to a fallen and systematic Age; for when what IS true is rejected, what is not, will satisfy neither reason nor soul, neither spirit nor nations. Restlessness will assuredly be ruinous, violence pandemic. WITHOUT the Lord, MAN is not an animal but a derelict god; and he acts like it, with a poignancy of pathos allied with a violence or a programmed evil, now callow, now callous, with hints of aborted glory, and vainglorious follies.

Even in dereliction, man is different; and the pangs and spasms of his heart, these are so many display units, dedicated to the description of what he is... but has refused to become, something in the image of God Himself: a creaturely derivative, by grace dowered with longings and hopes, often found intolerable in the abortion.

The events of Iraq in 1991, arousing violence where it has always lain, show anew how vulnerable is the world which rejects or manipulates Jesus Christ. In that He predicted, promised, increasing instability, war, and disquiet with an immoral escalation, leading to events that man could not handle, except He returned: therefore this acrid smoke from the turmoil of conflicting religions, from the false pursuit of misnamed glory of whatever kind, by the searing souls that will not make peace with God, often irreconcilable in a similar way with their fellow men; this Middle East situation in particular, not only in its PLACE, but in its FORCE... all this verifies most aptly what Jesus Christ said, claimed and predicted.

Its PLACE ? Yes, for it is precisely here that enormous turbulence is foretold (Zechariah 12, 14, Rev. 16:16). The place ? Where better than where the Saviour was killed, whose solution is rejected so systematically by the SYSTEMATIC GENERATION, by such thousands of millions of the human race... for the sight where His judgments come, as they have not fully yet come, though the eagle's pinions are now beating more noticeably, as it flies to its divine appointment at Armageddon.

It is here that no peace can be found, in the Middle East, in the environs of JERUSALEM. Like a dizzying crevasse, the ground opens, and irreconcilable conflict continues, where so much symptomatic of false religion in three kinds, meets. It will never be resolved without the acknowledgement of its Prince, killed by the Jews, despised by masses of Gentiles, 'doctored' by Moslems, 'captured' by Rome, trifled with by much of the world, which would see peace, without its price, even though that price has already been paid. They prefer to pay it themselves (*19), and bankruptcy appears. War and rumours of wars ? yes that is the predicted price of failing to accept the price paid.
 
 
 
 
 

*2
The debasing of Christ in such ways has long been practised in effect in neo-evangelical and other circles. It is a psychological 'wisdom' which is often deployed. Do not, they say, be aggressive, it only leads to strife. Yet they would seem to imagine that the conduct of Peter and John before the high priestly party was wrong, in that case. The word 'aggressive' however begs the question. It is not a question, as should by now be clear, of invading people, or forcing them in any way. It IS however a matter of making clear, positively and surely, boldly and fearlessly, without concern for the consequences, by faith with fidelity, that there IS NO OTHER WAY but Christ. You cannot even REACH God at ALL without Him. Failure to propound this clearly is merely infidelity. It is to give hope where there is none, and help to a precipice which is steep, the waters below deep.

Listen to the apostles, in the presence of another religion, one equipped with a force which it had just used on their LEADER, and their God as man, Jesus Christ:

"Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19).

The TOWER of the flock had just been smashed physically. The TWIN TOWERS of His mercy and His grace had just been demolished, as far as His earthly body was concerned, in the crucifixion. God had rebuilt these Twin Towers in three days, as He said and had said for a thousand years (SMR Ch. 6, Joyful Jottings 21, 22, 25), that He would do. These men, the apostles, blessed as they are,  were thus under threat of wild and expansionist philosophy, masquerading as divine religion. However not only did they categorically dismiss ANY divinity in the claims of those who had misused the religion of Christ, violating truth with vile violence, after He had had to purge the commercial interests which invaded the temple, and to rebuke many of the religious 'great' of the land (Matthew 23, John 2).

Not merely did they so act. No, they did it again! and this,  when further threatened. Any thought of 'peace' and quietness through fawning favour shown to what was false, what demeaned the integrity of Christ, to what would even physically attack Him, or His people, was as far from the apostles as the most distant realms of space, and further. For those are in one universe; this behaviour of the apostles was altogether salty, apart from flesh, incomprehensible to it.

The authorities were stunned. When they repeated the disjunction of Christ from all else, the rejection of anything else, even what could claim to be a close parallel, just not actually accepting Him for what He claimed (Acts 4:28ff.): there was a measure of deserved confusion in their tormentors.

First, they were furious and plotted to kill them, a sort of anti-Jesus jihad, a religiously based intolerance that was willing to use force, just as the Communists and the Inquisition have done, and just as has been sanctioned by Thomas Aquinas, but not by God (SMR pp. 912ff., 1035ff., 1074ff., Beauty of HolinessCh. 8, Ch. 6 above).  " When they heard this, they were furious" (Acts 5:33). Murder was in mind. It does not really matter what you choose to call it, when you plan to kill individuals for the sake of your religion and opposition to it, what else can it be called ? Does the use of a religious name make it less!

Gamaliel had to caution them to be careful, lest they find themselves fighting against God (Acts 6:34ff.). This therefore actually enabled them to keep warning people, since after all, if you do not love someone enough to warn of approaching just judgment from God, in view of the rejection of the ONLY path available for mercy, what are you loving ? Yourself ? Is it not yet clear, in such a case, that nation likewise must not love itself, and seek to save itself. It is in the LORD ONLY that safety is to be found. That is written in Proverbs 21:31

• "The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
• But safety is of the LORD."

The LORD is most careful to indicate His entire detestation of religious synthesis and syncretism. HE is appalled at honour to names of other beings, called gods, or God. Israel suffered repetitively for their failure to honour Him, who IS, and for the people's daring to honour what is NOT GOD!

This is not courtesy to man, but an aid to his downfall. It not courtesy to God, by the way, and is such an entire insolence against His truth and being, integrity and majesty, that it is hard even to imagine how anyone could both defile the hope of his neighbour by false 'acceptance', and despitefully use the name of Christ, by wrongful association and demeaning, as if courtesy failed to bother about truth, or peril is best served by ignoring it, raising the hat while your neighbour goes to hell!

NON-VIOLENCE is necessary. But courage and truth are indispensable also.

Thus in Jeremiah we find both the abhorrence of MORAL MIXTURE and NAME MIXTURE, relative to God. In Jeremiah 7:9-10, we hear this:

"Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know; and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations?' "

In Ezekiel 14, we find the divine expostulation to the prophet:

"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should let Myself be inquired of at all by them?"

"Is it not enough ..."  God expostulates at the failure in faith of King Ahaz, unwilling quite simply, just as now appears in the US, to trust the Lord God Almighty of the Bible utterly and without honour or praise for any other.

Is not WHAT enough ? the reader may ask. Let us hear the divine answer as given in Isaiah 7:

"Then he said: Listen, O house of David!

"Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God ?

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel."

This translation is from the New American Bible. In the New King James translation, it has this: "Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also ?"
 

The King would not simply ACCEPT in faith as from the Lord, the safety from the Lord in a time of national emergency. Assuredly that was a theocracy, but the principles have not altered. You trust the Lord and act in His name with courage, or you do not. If you suffer, it is in honour, and to His glory. Your purpose is not to be comfortable, but to be honourable, and to honour Him who says this: They who honour Me, I will honour.

See also Galloping Events Ch. 7.
 

*3

This is from Romans 5, part of which is reproduced below.
 

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.