Chapter 5

News 232

 Local TV late July, 2002

The Quartet and Forty Winks
Spiritually Drowsy Jousting with Jews

 

We hear during the last weeks, quite a little of the QUARTET. It is not some pleasant church music which is in view, not some classical performance either. Rather it is an association of UNIONS, namely the (former USSR) Russian conglomerate, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States. What of a lot of unions! What unity do they have ?

On the  topic of Israel with which they appear increasingly to be concerning themselves, a matter highlighted in the Madrid meeting, they are not without a measure of unity. To be sure, the US in the last few days has made it clear that it was 'heavy handed' of Israel to assault the assailants as they did, though such action is largely what the USA itself, with allies,  did in Afghanistan, in some measure, to those who 'harbour' terrorists, such as lodge fiercely in the Palestinian territory.

That ? It would be good, perhaps, if the union of unions, the Quartet were to consider it. Is there one rule for some, one for another, whatever may be the fault of both ?

'Palestinian' ? Does not the very name spell shame ? Was not this the object, this Palestine, that figured in the Balfour Declaration, ratified in the League of Nations, a place for the Jewish people given as a result of an intense struggle against central European efforts at attaining hegemony among the nations, yes with the aid of Turkey, which THEREFORE lost control of Palestine in 1917! That, it occurred  when General Allenby's troops, yes and aeroplanes, took over even Jerusalem, and freed it from Moslem control (cf. Isaiah 31:5). That was a loss to the Ottoman Empire of the day, from ill-based arrogance and intimidation. The world reacted, in no small measure, to this endeavour to rule, rule and rule, with which the war started. Thus things changed, and Palestine for the Jews was one of the ratified changes made.

The Moslem menace to the Middle East was therefore retarded. It would not control Palestine, but it would be given to the Jews, who homeless among the nations, had deserved much praise from Britain in particular, for one of their scientists, Dr Chaim Weizmann, working in chemistry and armament, had given them a significant boost in the war by his discoveries, just as another Jew, by name Albert Einstein gave another boost in another war, the Second World War, with the atomic power to which his work helped to direct in no mean measure, since he provided a significant avenue in his theoretical work. This was so whatever his later concerns may have been.

The Moslems however have oil. They have it in Iraq, they have it in Iran, in Libya, yes and in some of the former USSR territories, where even now there is a question of which way the new oil is to go, by which pipeline, through which territories near the Caspian Sea, and ... WHEN!

The whole area is not only a matter of OLD NEW but of NEW OIL, in great quantities. Oil is perhaps more important than any threatened biological weapon, since its power is enough to intimidate many, who WANT it, and SEEK it without war if possible. Since the Moslems are mighty in numbers in the Middle East. Consider their degrees of power in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Algeria - a little to the East, to be sure, but still very comfortable in any mutual pact, for surrounds! Look likewise in Morocco, Egypt, Chechnya - northward as in Ezekiel 39's scenario of the coming invasion,  but still religiously comfortable for Moslems if anything ... happened, and in Armenia, Georgia and of course, Saudi Arabia.

This last land, having been rescued to no small degree in the Desert Storm war of the early nineties, is now not very willing to serve as a place for US expeditions against Iraq. This is one more index of the lack of wisdom of President Bush in trying to consolidate a companionship with Moslem lands, in his efforts against terrorism. If blood is thicker than water, the Moslem bond is likely to be thicker in texture, and stronger in fibre than a casual diplomatic arrangement which has perhaps little more power than the power of arms attributable to the US, in the midst of these lands, so distant from it!

This, however, it is a (relatively) small point. More important is the folly of the President and those who agree with him, in making such bonds with Islam, in praising the religion and so on, which MEANS praising the condemnation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Redeemer, and of course, of the Bible.

Whatever Bush MEANT, this is the implication of such words. As noted previously, it is altogether possible that the destructively minded bin Laden escaped BECAUSE of this alliance, since the loyalty of some, and the preparedness to accept bribe, or even to allow religious concerns and latent hope for world domination to sway them, who ostensibly were allies of the US in the recent Afghanistan war (in a land which still seethes with petty ambitions of war lords, by report), may have worked amiss. It may indeed have led to his escape from the assault to avenge the Twin Tower disaster, or at least remove the likelihood of a repeat operation.

The recent studies we have made (in Chapter 3 above) have biblically shown from history, the extreme foolishness of mixing the religions, and it is no mere political alliance which comments favourably on another religion WHILE going to war with its exponents on your side! It is so like Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, noted in Ch. 3, who TWICE made this error, and nearly died the first time, and suffered sharp rebuke the second. It is not for you to help wickedness, said Jehu, son of Hanani to the returning king, of his reckless, feckless act (II Chronicles 19). The Christian does well to remember that our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), and playing with that fire is as wise as a fire-fighter playing with a forest, in order not to lose his job through lack of work to do!

Love is a wonderful thing, but its betrayal is proportionately foul. Life is a wonderful thing, as God made it, but not at all to be admired is selling it out ; for this is like purchasing shares that fall, with money lent, as in the World Com affair, so that what you take is a measure of what you lose, and all falls. Convenience is a stately luxury, but unwise is he who makes it a rule against the Royalty of Christ, and who makes its call a sound to be heeded amid evil, against the purity of true devotion.

Like high tension wires, there is wonder in the work of the Lord; but when you try to fool with these, disregard them, take their warmth and power which they provide eventually at the home, as evidence that they are easily treated, need no great respect: then electrocution is not far away.
 

 

THE BASER NOTES OF THE QUARTET

The movement in the EU is continually that reported this week of one of its functionaries, that Israel is categorically astray in its treatment of the Palestinians. This Europe, centre for foul centuries of obvious, disastrous, gross and outrageous defilement of the Jewish population with pogroms and cunning laws to exploit them, with rampagings and killings, destructions of synagogues and the like^*1,   is it not then lacking in a little measure of reticence now, in its new EU clothes, about further insensitivity to the small land of those who escaped its strangely shown kindness of the
past ? Would not some considerate tenderness be preferable to unfeeling disregard in such a situation!

What however of the UN, another member of the quartet ? Does not its song go back to 1947 when in shameless defiance of ethics, of agreement, of the past agreement for Palestine to be for Israel, it dis-assembled the booty, and instead of demanding why part of Palestine, a LARGE part had been given in the 1920's to Jordan when it had already been arranged for Israel, it decided that the (relatively) small part remaining should NOT be one territory, but BITS, and that Jerusalem should not be Jewish, but INTERNATIONAL! Such an affront must rarely have been gratuitously offered to any nation.

This then is the ethical sensitivity of the UN, which as one of the Quartet, has little quarter to give to Israel, being more interested, by all appearance, in insulting the afflicted Israel, victim of endless inhuman terrorist attacks in its tiny residual domain, than in rebuking and seeking the extradition of the terrorists who so boldly claim responsibility for endless seeming atrocities, and confronting the country which before the rebukes from Israel, did so little to prevent such things, even releasing some of the more violent of them from prison!.

Are such people, then, actively sought by the UN, those like Hamas, as war criminals, and are they being looked for that they might go to the War Crimes Tribunal or any coming modern equivalent ? It is not, to say no more, very noticeable that it feels that way. Its emotions at this level seem rather levelled at the butt of the terrorist, to rebuke the victim, than at the aggressor.

Yet, you say, Israel is the aggressor for daring to take ANY land in the Middle East ? Taking! Was not far MORE than it took, GIVEN to it, only to be recklessly removed without due law, without right, without ethics, without reliability, responsibility or dependability ?

Now one gains the feeling that the UN would like Israel to be investigated, indeed they had their committee of counsellors actually physically in WAITING to GO to Israel to make just such an investigation, not many months ago. Is Hamas, the terrorist organisation, not rather to be, with its many allies, such as Iraq, reportedly engaged in giving BOUNTY for killings, to be investigated ?

Or is the United States, then, also to be 'investigated' about Afghanistan, because it sought to eradicate the terrorists who hit it ? It is not very noticeable. To be sure, the US is not as rabid as the UN appears, as utterly indifferent to the whole concept of terrorism in its aggressive initiatives in this region; but it is weakening with the oil, with the joint work with Islam, the latter itself rife with jihads and threats of violence, this being declared now here, now there, with now this statement of support (as has repeatedly occurred since Teheran in 1991, among many major Moslem nations) for the Palestinian, in which, as formerly in Afghanistan, lies the terrorist!

Yet is the US to be heeded because it INSISTS that there MUST be a Palestinian State, that is, a FURTHER carving out of some of the tiny residue now accorded to the Jews, and even from what they WON, DESPITE the other nations; for it was forced to act without their aid in 1948, and in the face of UN discrimination of an order which itself comments on the nations of this world!

The nations ? they are but men, and their aggregation - although in the days of the Atlantic Charter and the newly formed UN, after the heady days of World War II victory, and the vision of Churchill, there were many moral aspects, drawn not least from a Christian background in Britain and in the USA - is one which has little to commend itself morally. It has divorced morals from God, and is run from the nations of many gods, and is no more reliable than any other atheist-polytheist admixture.

Its words do not accord with those of the League of Nations, and its mandate is no more moral than its deeds declare.

Opposed to God, whom it does not recognise, moving in the spiritual scenarios of many gods and none, it is rapidly taking on an appearance of what the biblically predicted social-political-economic matrix (and especially the last in form of control - Revelation 13:16-17), is to be. It is that aspirant to the post of all-controlling 'master',  or 'beast' as has been attested, some 2000 years ago. As at Babel, the nations, many of them, are to unite in one lust-bust scenario at the end of the Age. (Cf. SMR pp. 750Bff., 502ff., Regal Rays ... Ch. 13).

The word of God and the work of God continue, yes assuredly; but men ? they do not become saints by gathering together, and feasting on the prey.

Feasting ? The term is certainly metaphorical here, but consider that. Is it not an astonishing and ghoulish seeming fact that the efforts of the UN are to further dismember Israel - face it - and to make its blood less and less effective, in the biblically predicted, and highly successful victories of that little nation against far more numerous foes, since 1948 BENT ON ITS VERY DESTRUCTION! The UN actually shows itself wanting to HELP those very powers which sought to ruin the land, to devour it and send its people (quite expressly) into the sea. They were not able; so now the UN helps the process ? Does the judge carry a semi-automatic weapon in order to aid the criminal in the dock accomplish his destructions ? This, it is justice ?

But the USA ? What do we read in H.A. L. Fisher's monumental History of Europe, itself published in 1936, not long after World War I and before the next instalment in World War II ? (p. 241) ? We find this, that Mexico was tempted by Germany, by the offer of three US States (assuming Germany won the war, which was not the occurrence), namely, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. For what would such a 'reward' be given, then ? For this: in return for the help of Mexico, if it would attack the USA.

When was this done ? In the opening of 1917.

With what other steps was it taken by the German Government of the day, equipped with its Kaiser who brought on it such ruin ? At this time, it was also resolved to open unrestricted U-boat action, so that sighting of merchant ships that might aid Britain, meant that efforts would be made to sink them.

This, says Fisher, was reckless, as the USA much earlier was nearly brought into the war against Germany in 1915, by the sinking of the Lusitania. However, the concept is that the Germans conceived that they would starve Britain into submission before the USA could sufficiently mobilise its resources to pose a threat to Germany! By a narrow margin, and with the aid of the anti-U-boat plans of the British Admiralty, says Fisher, they did not succeed, and so Germany paid the penalty.

The important point for our present purpose is this, that this historian of no small note declares that it was THIS, the German thrust to involve Mexico in a direct attack on the USA, which finally stirred the USA to declare war. It appears it was at least no mean part of the action, providing no small motive for the declaration. SO history has changed because of it.

Was the USA, then, not concerned that Mexico should be prevented in its thoughts of war ? Did it seek to help it, make it a crime to seek to stop it in its endeavours to take some of the USA for itself, and help subdue that strong nation, as it then was ? Did it say, If you want to seek territory which strikes you as properly belonging to you, in terms of this or that consideration, then go ahead. Far be it from us to seek to thwart such plans ?

It is not the case. It sought to preserve its own territorial integrity and to frustrate any such plans, through any imperial nominee in Mexico, or other means. It would not yield to the threat of terrible things from the South.

In the case of Israel, however, it appears that the declaration of war by that country on what supports terror against its territory, what is actively engaging in war,  so that it is not merely exposed in the possibility of it, as in the American-Mexican case, but receiving its probes and pangs: this is not very acceptable. It is true that there has been the sentiment admirably expressed by the President on one occasion, that Israel has every right to defend itself against terror attacks. That is words. But in deed ? The USA is making it clear that part of Israel's possessions, one ceded to the Palestinians on strict conditions, for partial rule, must be handed over completely to that body.

It was not so with Mexico. Nothing was handed over there. Why ? Could not a Spanish past be considered, weighed ?

Should Israel any more than the USA be dismembered because someone thinks it would be to the point to have it ? or part of it, a large and valuable part indeed.

DROWSINESS MAY BE NICE ON SUMMER VACATION,
BUT THIS IS NO VACATION

Did not the USA instead continue to rule in Texas, from which its present President actually
comes ?

There was no need of an international commission to condemn the USA for seeking to destroy the armed source of the invitation to Mexico in 1917, then ? One has not heard of it. Why therefore is there this talk of a commission to consider the case of Israel, already, long before the current conflict, despoiled by international breach of obligation, of most of its assigned territory, and seeking to remove the danger from a source to ITS OWN SOUTH, not this time Mexico, but Hamas and other organisations of vile violence and intimidatory, destructive terror, which the PLO permits to continue. Is there then no DIFFERENCE between control and a slack hand, which allows (and DID allow) major terrorists to be imprisoned when international pressure is great, and then specifically released, in large numbers, so that they can and do then resume terrorist operations against
Israel ?

In fact, it was precisely this action which became one major motivation for Sharon who is weary of the slaughter from the terrorists, to become firmer. The USA, for its part, was very firm, sending troops to Europe in 1917, to Afghanistan in 2002. Is Israel, being Jewish, in some way different ? Is this a case of racism from the USA and the UN ? or blind selfishness, partiality amid arbitrators, of corruption in judgment by those who appoint themselves judges ?

Moreover, the USA had many other States and mighty about those under threat; but Israel is already almost destitute of land! It is almost indefensible as you move northward to its narrow neck, and it is moreover, surrounded not by other major and powerful States, as was the case in the USA, should attack have been made by Mexico, but in its own Middle East lair,  by a fully operational and largely united Moslem mass of nations. Indeed, these are in many cases already organised specifically against Israel as at the Teheran Conference of 1991, and since in Beirut, and have expressed their solidarity with the Palestinians, their opposition to Israel, and their monetarily potent endorsement of the Palestinian land, to promote it. Indeed the pan-Islamic alliance was to oppose Israel, and armaments are among the help that was pledged to be given.

How great this can be is shown by the famous Israeli interception of an ARMS SHIP, for which the stated base was Palestinian, and the source of cargo,  perhaps Iraq.

Was the Mexican threat a major reason for the USA to enter World War I, with such tremendous and ramifying results, while the Palestinian terror threat needs no suppression, though it is sometimes quite explicit from the mouth of Arafat, who explicitly intends to GET East Jerusalem in any way necessary, and whose land does not suppress terrorist groups, or even substantially do so, nor has it done so, but rather it releases them at will even if any be apprehended. Is the threat from the South of the USA a casus belli, while the threat from the South of Israel is nothing, something to be smiled upon, or slightly reprimanded, while Israel, unlike the USA is to be investigated for daring to act in such a way as to reduce the threat of invasion, of terror, of sudden domestic thrust ? Is not the ground uneven ?

Does the State of Afghanistan become a total embroilment in war because of the assault on the USA (that is, one which is USA activated), though it be far distant from the USA, while what is Israeli territory is not to be considered when it is used as a base by those who despise the conditions by which it was partly ceded to them for their use, though it IS PART of Israel as a matter of fact ? Is the one to be invaded, while the other must not even have occasional counter-attacks on those who so misuse its own soil as bases ?

Is what harboured terrorists in Afghanistan to receive the full force of international assault, while what is PART of Israel, as Texas is of the USA, is not to be cleared of terrorists, if its partial government will not do so ? It is useless to claim that they cannot because of the Israeli attack on the authority which does not remove the terrorists, for long did they play the fool with the matter, when strong!

Would it not be deemed quite remarkable kindness if the USA had ceded Texas to Mexico on strict conditions, then found it used as a terrorist base from which to launch bloody operations against its very children, even in their shopping centres, as if to throw all morals to the wind, and laugh, without simply taking Texas thoroughly back into its OWN RULE, in order to prevent this prostitution of privilege ? If indeed it did not invade Mexico, in such a case, it might go down in history as one of the commendable restraints of history.

Israel however is not invading Iran, Iraq and co., even by atomic weapons. It is merely seeking that its 'Texas' in the south, its Gaza and its West Bank (approximately the heart of the land in any case!) should NOT be used by terrorists, as if the USA had simply insisted that if Texas, graciously partly ceded to Mexico, did not STOP the terrorists, then it would do so by wholly taking that territory, already a part of the nation as the West Bank is of Israel, back to itself and ruling it like the rest of the nation.

The things in the USA (admittedly more moderate than the rest of the quartet, but equally deadly in its intention to remove parts of little Israel from it!), in the EU and in the UN scarcely speak of wisdom or equity, in this matter; but in the case of Russia, the fourth member of the quartet, is it any better ?

Did it not invade Chechnya with a final lust or bust force, after being resisted for so long, and did it not point out the danger of the Moslem menace to Europe, when Putin went abroad, and in effect sought to argue his case ? Beware! quoth he, that you in Europe do not likewise suffer from this source which you now condemn me for pursuing, for what threatens us from Islam (in effect), may soon threaten you also!

Europe seemed to have acute hearing at this stage! It seemed to listen well. Now President Putin himself is part of the so judicial quartet to determine what is to be for Israel ... Presumably then, if things are to be at all equal in this respect, the terrorist surge against Israel will need removal, for it also is Islamic, equipped with jihad mentality which does not need to be shown from the Koran in doctrine (as it may be shown, cf. More Marvels Ch. 4), for here it is simply shouted out in public places, as a thing to be done, mightily, fearlessly, without any regard at all for consequences, whether for Israeli babies blown up, or youth left anguished in injury.

And why is this terror, this infliction of agony, this rule by MERE FORCE, to be thrust upon part of Israel ?

It is because more of Israel is not freely given to those who desire it, or because the territories such as the West Bank, ceded partly on conditions statedly not kept, are not absolutely given - though obtained under international duress, and terror, to the extent they are given at all - at the present! So then Chechnya must have an international commission, and its liberty must be affirmed, and the 'international community' whoever amongst the motley lot of disagreeing nations they may be, must invade with commissions if not troops, to make sure that this outrage cease, so that any thought of this part of the former USSR being be kept within Russia's hands, should be nullified ?

Not at all! Rather Putin is here in rational garb and moral toga, to help them all decide what to do about Israel which would rather like to keep, if not its territories, at least peace in them. It is not as if people are actively pushing the point that if the Palestinians want to have the undoubted economic advantages of being citizens of Israel, provided of course, as with any other country that could readily be envisaged, terrorists are not included, then that might in time and by democratic process be wisely enabled. Not at all! Force instead of fidelity groups would of course be excluded as undemocratic and wilful. The case would in various ways presumably be prudently realistic.

Do we however hear of it ?

No, rather of war crimes

• because Israel, 
• frustrated in its desire for peace and continually forced to yield more territory with due regard for international pressure which sides largely with the massive Moslem majority in the area, for reasons of its own, 
• has sought with far less force than the Allies showed against Germany in World War II, 
• with their night-sky coverage with bombers, 
• to remove the threat, clinically. 

If it bungles, if passions at times prevail, is not the murderer to expect some lack of finesse at times, while the blood of the slain children dries ?

Did not the USA actually in effect state through one representative, concerning the slaying by error of some in Afghanistan, some in a wedding group, that there is always risk where one has to war against marauders, against international murderers in their support base ? Is Israel different because relatively oilless, because Jewish and the habit of pogrom persists, as if by some conditioned reflex ? Does the world actually, however, have especially in mind, in heart indeed, in some expressly anti-God forces, some anti-Biblical troops, a desire to reduce the victories of Israel to servility, to overturn the word of God, and in true humanist grandeur, dictate to all, including the God of the Bible ? (Cf. Galloping Events Ch. 4.)

God knows the heart, but we also know of the Communist talk about God in the early stages of the regime, that He should get out of the country, bag and baggage! It is useless to pretend. Strident anti-God feelings have long been part of the structure of many nations, and if some have in part escaped it for a time, such as Britain and the USA, and even helped the spread of the Prince of Peace's doctrine, of Christ's offer of pardon in peace with the love of God and man, yet now the movement of the nations, in general, and of the quartet qua quartet, is not so.

It is however all as biblically predicted, and in terms of closer and closer approximation to the biblically prophesied lunge by an international consortium against Israel, and a lust for world domination by one body, there is an amazingly near look to things. That, it is only what you would expect, when all the other criteria for the near return of Jesus Christ, the Righteous, are being fulfilled as if we were at some side-show with coconuts, and one by one the targets were knocked off! (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5.)

SPASM, CHASM AND RENEWAL

The world is in spasm, and this, not only in the jerking last movements of the Israeli children terrorised with brutality that is not only general, as in World War II's bombings, but specific, in that children are sometimes ACTIVELY SELECTED, as in the bus case! It is in verbal spasm, justice becoming in much and for many, where lust is concerned, more a word than an observation. It is in environmental spasm as it foils the beauty of order with greed and thoughtlessness, in psychological spasm, as fear grabs men's hearts concerning what is to come, astronomically, environmentally, physically, with disease and jihad and other impassioned destructive motions where current knowledge and ancient hatreds merge. Into what do they then merge ? It is into a violent epoch with increasing indifference for our cosmic marvel, this unique earth. It is like a young man, alert to his youth and joys, spoiling an inheritance as if it did not take anything to create it, and so with reckless gusto and artless haste disposing of it.

That too (Luke 21:23,26, Matthew 24:6) it is exactly as predicted. The passions of men no more turn the word of God, than a fly interrupts a truck. There is plenty more to come (Revelation 6, 8:8-11), including the time when an asteroid does NOT miss by a narrow margin (an event avoided when one came recently in-between the orbit of the moon and the earth).

It is not at all that amidst these spasms of folly, these judgments which interpret and rebuke them, and these chasms of conscience, where evil is called good to such an extent that the distinction for many is all but forgotten, presenting a case like that of a fit, further glamorised by having  falling  called progress, that there is no love from God. It is rather that when you set your entire global life against Him, and ignore His word, make it a thing passé, then your reception committee for the grace of God is spitting still in His face. God does not use force for faith, and if you want to spit, that is your bit.

In grace He may still seek you, since His perseverance is marvellous, as many of us Christians know with delight from personal experience; but you are not received when your heart is deceived. Repentance is needed, and He who knows all, knows who are His own. On the other hand, if you feel you are not, that is your feeling; if however you come to Him and trust Him, that is the fact. Peace is made (Isaiah 27:5). Certainly it is through His own sovereign act that your eyes are then opened, but it is equally in His loving desire that all should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2), so that the opening is no uncertain sovereignty, inscrutably assigning from vagrant passions, but the utmost work of gracious love directed to mankind. Nothing lacks in Him to your salvation! He does not force, that is all, He who knows all.

Come if you want renewal of life (Titus 3:3-7), for this globe is going (II Peter 3, Isaiah 51:6), and it is His righteousness as Isaiah declares, and His salvation which DOES NOT GO. THAT renewal is not like forests, subject to new fires, but is the inheritance which does not pass away (cf. John 10:9,27-28, I Thessalonians 5:9-10, I John 5:11ff.).  It is fascinating and wonderful not least for that reason. Death does not separate nor does the removal of this earth even qualify it, for this is no more than passing from Primary to Secondary School, an advance in premises. You may mourn your old school, but it is replaced with what is real progress, passing from pilgrimage to possessions that cannot pass away (II Corinthians 5:1-4), so that "mortality may be swallowed up by life".

• The body of preparation, your preliminary instalment of grace, for the Christian who participates thereby in Christ's death and resurrection, becomes the body of continuation. This story does not end!
   

You are dealing with an architect and an artist, an engineer, a mathematician and a great love. When He wishes, He makes a universe, like this one, for test and for pilgrimage, that faith be assured and disbelief find its own level; when He wishes, He makes another, where faith is the nature of the land, and pilgrims who came home last time, live in His permanent pilgrim places this time. Indeed, there will be place found for the fleeing heavens and earth as Revelation 20 tells us. In eternity in heaven, there is peace; and God, He makes such new things as He pleases, starting with the hearts of men who receive Christ - not some international replacement of the same name (antichrist) - as Lord and Saviour.

There is one last point that should be grasped, and though to some it may sting like a nettle, if you want mettlesome reality, not indulgent pretence, it must be seized. What is this ? It is that when you call Him Lord, you do not consider it an optional extra to "do the things that I say" (Luke 6:46). The one who does not so seek and act, what is he like ? and he who being converted, with a new heart MUST do them, desires them like fragrance and perfume, like the sound of vast waterfalls, and the call of sublime mountains: what is that one like ?

Hear the LORD Himself on this point (Luke 6:43-49):

 
“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
 

You will notice that the house that stands is one on the ROCK, and the foundation that is this, it is Christ (I Corinthians 3:10-11, Psalm 62, Isaiah 44:8, Deuteronomy 32). He was it from the first, and is to the last, and this His school, the Creator the school-master is a place of grace, and it is moreover, the only one for the race! The human race rapidly loses humanity when its source is despised. But He, to know Him is to see the oblivion that sin brings, just oblivion, though its judgment has no oblivion. It took the full power of the Creator, enshrined in flesh as Jesus Christ, to break that, and He broke it because He took it, the just for the unjust (I Peter 3:18).

This, it is a gift, but like all gifts, it must be received. No cheque, which represents only an offer, makes any financial difference until it is cashed. No redemption takes place for any till the offer is received, and though the full results are known from the first, indeed are predestinated in accord with the divine knowledge of His own will, none has ANY cover of ANY kind who is not found in Christ. Thus Isaiah 53 tells US that WE are healed, who believe and it is the sin of US ALL, the healed, which He bears.

With what good passion He offers more; but with what divine precision He knows who are His! (II Timothy 2:19). If you do not come, then you go; and if you go, who then is it that goes and whose responsibility is that ? But if YOU CALL on the name of the Lord in all faith and simplicity, the One who is unmanipulable by man, sent by His Father to this world as Saviour, you WILL be saved... (Acts 2), saved FOR Him, BY Him and FROM all sin and selfish aspiration, contrary to truth, IN peace and IN His righteousness IN Him, which is a glory itself, like shining rain anointing the fair grasses of the quiet meadow.