- Religion continues with archness,
liberalism raves and rants, and simple Biblical faith in the profound and
glorious God is being covered with the gilt of this world, the guilt of
sin and the neglect which such practices breeds.
Large
denominations have collapsed doctrinally (the US Presbyterian being among them,
in its millions, while the Southern Baptist is continuing to harbour
Rome-aligning Graham), in Biblical terms (cf. SMR pp. 1032-1088H); and the concept of
national self-interest, again not exclusive to the US, but heartlessly for some
decades now, prominently pushed by secularists into the very heart of its
government: these things make the nation a very different thing from what it
was one century ago. It has been blessed with its many real Christians, for
long; and it is still is so.
It is not however without
credibility, that having added this dangerous tepidity towards the plight of
the nation of Israel, which is on a knife edge for its existence, it should
find the result as it has come. One conceived and expressed concern
that it might
come; and it appears that it has come. What more is to come will depend on
purity of seeking the Lord and applying truth to all things, not fear or
self-interest. We shall look further at this point at the end of this chapter
and in the following one.
PONTIFICATION AND
PRECISION
By no means is one
pontificating on the root cause of the Twin Tower disaster. This is known only
to God. However it is no pontification but Biblical fidelity to point out that
when you sow the wind, you reap the whirl-wind; that God is merciful but not
stupid, that His longsuffering is great, but amongst the sufferers are the
youth in the USA, as indeed in this one's own country in no small measure, so
often miseducated in theology, in biology and in astronomy. It is not mere
judgment which is at point.
Each
individual life molested by rampant philosophy or irrational parodies of
religion is a potential tragedy, another Tower, smaller but not less
significant. These leave less obvious rubble, for the spiritual ruins needs
more discernment; but they are still there! While much of this is
private, and a duly private matter, much is public and appalling as such.
It is time not only
for the USA, but for all peoples who want to regard themselves as in
some reasonable way related to God, to act. Freedom should be restored to
education,
as a beginning. Youth should
be loved, not shoved.
Our own State of South
Australia, as often pointed out, and in detail and formally from documents, in That
Magnificent Rock Ch. 8, is a
grave offender. It refuses
to give ANY logical answer to
our protestations, and those of others, at its indoctrination contrary to
scientific method, contrary to logic, contrary to evidence; and at this, that
it does not even allow a due presentation from creationism and evolutionism.
ONLY the latter is permitted, and debate on the issue is excluded, being
pre-drafted into the area of 'sacred' things, which are DEFINED outside of
logic! The presumption reaches to heaven! The folly invades things academic. It
decrees religion like a pope. The prostitution of truth is now at such a level,
that it is difficult to think how, without the added use of force, this inanely
popular practice could become more of an enormity, a comedy not divine, a
comedy against divinity, than it now is.
Many nations which have had
much from Christ and the Bible should now stop to consider. America has been
enormously blessed; now it tastes something much less than many do, but in a
way so dramatic that the blind might see, the deaf hear...!
OTHER nations should
consider their own case. Are you going to proceed to defame God and to molest
with mockery and expect that the lies told and the fraud committed will
indefinitely leave you above your peers, from whom you have historically been
differentiated by the MEASURE of biblical emphasis and regard, the DEGREE of
recognition of the Almighty that you once had!
Further, if this Twin Tower
disaster comes to be shown as an Islamic matter, it is time, as often shown on
this site, to realise once and for all that this is not, as a ludicrous cartoon
in the Advertiser suggests, a matter of Islam being innocent, only
terrorists guilty (if Islam IS confirmed as being involved). The Koran has many incitations to
violence in the interests of the spread of that faith, and towards its insertion, if that
were possible: a fact which fulfils the specifications of disfaith (q.v.
faith), since objectively it is against the
testimony which alone, in terms of logic and scientific method, stands! See
these attestations in such sites as SMR pp. 50ff., 91
in the context of pp. 829ff., 987ff., 1080ff., 1186Aff., and note Koran,
Surahs 3:148, 160, 4:76, 8:36-41, 9:5, 9:27-31, 9:77-46, 47:3-10, 48:22 in the
above contexts.
The lack of logic and
the abundance of force for 'faith' are twin towers of its destruction from any
valid consideration.
As far as the Taliban is
concerned, we find, moreover, in a report from John Zubrzycki concerning this
movement, that Taliban leaders in Jalalabad, prior to their gaining Kabul, had
this to say: "No one helps Taliban, only Allah." It is, said
that report, "committed to establishing an authoritarian Islamic State
based upon the teachings of the Koran and a strict interpretation of Islamic
law."
Indeed, "We want," the report cites them as saying, "to establish the
first truly Islamic State and extend the Jihad from here. We will take back all
the countries which were once Muslim from Spain to India." Not dissimilar is the free
'education' reported in Kashmir, where students were to become likely soldiers,
being educated in the Koran with influence in view, and the US the supreme
obstruction, and hence enemy (The Australian, in a report late last
year).
In view of recent
developments, it is of much interest to note in this news item, the reported
words of Mohammad Ajmal Qadri, leader of the fundamentalist Jamait Ulema Islam
party, as given to the Washington Times. "He was quoted as saying
that although the thrust of the training was to deploy students in Kashmir and
Chechnya, the West, particularly the US, was the ultimate target." It
appears that they want a 'homeland' in Kashmir, rather than 'sharing' with
Hindus and the method as now almost nauseatingly multiplied, is simply war.
Then not only can the sect and section have what they want, the others cannot,
at the level of religion.
The irony of their attitude
to Israel's ONLY world homeland is of course intense! It is always difficult
when you combine cruelty, viciousness and dynamics in the name of God, with
some god of your own construction, who did not construct the human race. In
such a case, you not only degrade the name which is above every name, but offer
degradation to His creation. The results are often very bloody, hideous to
contemplate, the proponents inured to the shameless propulsion of a 'faith' by
force, to engulf those who do not, cannot and indeed logically should not accept
it. It is domination of mind, body and spirit, or death, largely in practice,
at this level. To yield to such persuasions is of course spiritual suicide,
mental folly and racial degeneracy.
Since the LORD is in fact
Lord, though violence to secure 'faith' is far from HIS methods, this is a
gross attack on Him, to which in the way way programmed in prophecy, as often
covered on this site, He will respond. Armageddon as in Revelation 16 is the
doorway and the throne of judgment is the room of those aweful assizes.
Let us however revert to
the Taliban and its tender mercies in Afghanistan. We have seen earlier the
atrocities on women found in that State, now that it is established (Galloping
Events Ch. 7 and see The Australian
April 5, 1997, 'Afghan females vanish under barrage of mullah edicts'),
as the entire suppression of liberty, even to the point that some German,
Australian and US citizens have been arrested and disdainfully threatened with
death for PREACHING Christ (not by guns but by gospel).
It is this which reminds
us, though in those Islamic sites with brute force, of what has been seen in
the democracies themselves as just noted above, with subtle misuse of liberty
in education, just as irrational but more plausible. In the Islamic version
here however, the thing does not hide, and we find the ultimate in suppression
blatantly paraded as if virtue.
If then the Koran indeed
promotes force in the area and arena of faith, thus making, whether
intentionally or not, the Lord responsible for all evil, and violating the
realities of the race at the same time (cf. SMR pp. 50ff., 65ff., 92ff., 978, 1186Aff., 840ff.), we need to ponder this
appalling horror. On their own basis, since human liberty misused SHOULD not
exist, and thus with the power of the Almighty available for His will: if the
same were Allah, if this figment WERE the Almighty, then therefore
necessarily it WOULD not exist, as verified in this, that in such Islam states
following the Koran, it languishes sometimes to an appalling degree, especially
with women.
This should be so for any
allegedly almighty being of such a mind as that! To be sure, then, as if to
verify the understanding, it largely it DOES not exist in various Islamic
States; but in most of the world, and with many convulsions of deliverance as
men dabbled in such idolatries, following the unwarranted thought of man,
liberty does exist. This Allah does not secure what the program requires. It is
the antithesis of Christianity, where freedom is crucial for man in God's
image. It has its objectives, its rules, and its 'lord', but it fails
monstrously, notoriously, and now only with new oil money, is it again
appearing any more potent than the pope, in terms of crass power.
What then ? The Allah
simply lacks the power of his precepts. His signs and signals are violated as
if by constraint. It is constraint; his is not the day. His image has fallen,
and all the cruelty in the world will not avail to restore it. If possible,
worse is to come, where not a projection of man's thoughts in cruelty and rape
of religion, but a personification in his own name is to come! (as in II Thess.
2).
Meanwhile, what is the
situation for Islam in its vehemences and violence ? in its declarations and
non-attainments ?
What would one expect ?
Obviously, no non-existent being today can do more than Baal in the days of
Elijah. His devotees vainly called on him; he did not reply since he was ...
hunting ? suggested Elijah, conversing, sleeping ? This is one of the criteria
of false gods, that they require what they do not perform, and in test, do not
supply verification. Power belongs to God (Psalm 57:2, 62:11); but He has
given opportunities for its good or evil use to men, and though they imagine
they can construct their own gods, or do so in a profuse and contused
confusion, as if elaborate robots of unreality, He leaves them to find their
own level, and exposes their follies, before the judgment which is fast approaching.
He does this by power and He retains His control by power, and implements as He
has implemented His prophecies by power, sent His Son into the world by power,
raised Him by power, got the death date in historical data as in prediction,
precisely so; and He tells the way it is ending, just as it goes, by
power, doing as He declared.
We watch as those at an
opera, with the opera program beside the hand. It is an opera of grandeur,
gruesome in parts, ghoulish in some, glorious in the end, brilliant in concept,
wonderful in design, overcoming not in mere power, but in a glory that makes
power its subject and love its course.
THE WISDOM OF GOD
God is wise, and does not
fail to allow the evil to show itself, the idols to explore their vacuities and
saints to display their faith (cf. Daniel 12:10) as they proceed, despite all,
in paths of righteousness.
God has given to man
liberty in spirit; but not from results. It is however when man posing as God,
reduces the liberty of man to his own deluded dimensions, that evils mount like
a typhoon, whether they come from the Kremlin of the last century, the Koran of
the 7th or the Rome of the inquisition and subsequently, moving towards world
aspiration for their dominion. It is scarcely less true of these players than
of of Islam (cf. SMR pp. 1032ff.).
All three have striven to the uttermost, descending to levels unspeakable,
horrors as a specific, depravities as a way.
The thrust felt in
Islam is well illustrated by the report of 8000 young Muslim radicals
gathering in central London to call for the establishment of a global Islamic
state" (Australian Beacon, September 1994). Such explosions of
juvenile jousting are not dissimilar to what we find in Afghanistan and in
Kashmir.
The liberty made possible
to be dead or Muslim, far worse of course, since it mocks at God, aborts the
scripture which it asserts (references below) and presents an unscripted
christ long after His death who did the work which brought the fame, and made
unique the name over all. Even in the Koran, though accredited with being
sinless, unlike the free admission relative to Muhammad, the imaginary christ
becomes a captive of the untested imagination of the false prophet. Another
christ, as far as possible from the multiplied prophetic testimony is
presented, one who does nothing, living only in the imagination of Muhammad.
Life however is not founded on dreams (cf. Jeremiah 23), but on God who attests
His truth, verifies His statements and presents His Christ at the required date
and for the appointed salvation, with the protested power and the declared
impact (cf. SMR
Ch.
9).
Fatally for those who so
mock at the God of evidence and truth, of salvation and grace, it is not
the Lord's Christ who results (Luke 2:36, II Cor. 11), but the manufactured
invention which bears the same name who is simply re-created at the will of
Muhammad and committed not to earth, but to a piece of paper. It matches the Romanist
concept of a piece of bread. The actual Christ cannot be so contained, or moved
at the will of man. This is worse then illusion; it is delusion and presumes in
the face of light, to prefer darkness.
While this is a brilliant
fulfilment of the actual Christ's predictions in Matthew 24, it does not really
affect anything but the perishing of the souls of those who so abuse the name
and presume to act as if to recreate the One who is God, defile the bodies
of those killed to get rule for followers of this imaginary god and of course,
or assail the human liberty of those whom they rule, being left alive.
(Cf. SMR pp. 826-831, 929ff., 1080ff..) It cannot create faith (cf.
Hebrews 11:1ff.) or its fruits. In truth, these attest the OBJECT of it, the
Lord Jesus Christ, by the concurrence of what He says and what happens. This,
it is the fruit-claim verification which is so useful in looking at the Middle
East, which seems so pre-occupied with the script God has provided these
several millenia, that it hardly knows where to turn but to fulfilling what is
written (cf. SMR Ch. 9).
What is claimed and done:
this is mirage with the Moslem construction; history with God.
Not only does logic
prohibit such distortion (SMR Chs. 1,10),
verification evacuate its relevance, but history mocks it. That of course is
one reason for the inflamed Islamic passions, Arabian excursions into the blood
of the children of Israel and the desperation of the antics at the World Trade Centre. God's people however have no need
of inhumanity to 'win', for God is there already. He needs no aid.
Neither the ghoulishly antisocial St Bartholomew's Day, celebrated in its
heinous slaughter in France by a papal medal, nor this in the USA in 2001, can
alter the truth. They merely confirm where it is NOT to be found. Hatred
blinds; it does not build. It never endures. Its source the devil himself is on
notice (Rev. 12) that his time is short. All that may be hated is sin; and this
involves such desecrations of God's own property in man, as would kill not persuade,
ruin in the name of the Creator, without ground but using simply a gun ... or a
rocket of murder, murdering both its occupants and its prey.
In this
connection, it is of much importance that the US, though not as such a
Christian nation, yet one with a Christ-professing President, should carefully
avoid vengeance for the attack on its civilians, and confine itself to
extirpation in a war defence, of the powers which wish to murder, mutilate and
assault its citizens in a barbaric fashion.
Yet in so considering the
issue, it would be fitting to consider further the suppression of liberty
RELATIVE TO FAITH. Saudi Arabia was even reported to be harassing US personnel,
in this matter, yes, those called to help it from the once marauding Saddam
Hussein! How far can it go ? Is this then the end!
Let us then think on
the result ? It means a weak god cannot stop what he does not approve. If on
the other hand, it is really NOT wrong in principle, to have liberty in faith,
then Allah has no part in the proceedings, since the Koran makes faith a target
to force, in vast and important terrains! The actual God whose word is
ALWAYS fulfilled, gives to men responsibility. If they choose evil and live
without the gospel, they are accountable. Equally, evils result. These God
limits in predestination and accounts in prophecy, as if in a laboratory
situation for precision; and He instructs the human mind to regard this
precision, and realise the truth. If the human does not want the Almighty, so
be it; but there is no moral entanglement of God in human follies, for He made
man in His own image, and this liberty both makes for the wonder and depth of
human personality and the rigours of evils such as the false prophet based
Islamic movement.
God has acted, provided redemption,
eliminated the false concepts of trying to make some mark, missing by this or
that percentage, for eternity, or gaining. He has provided a free gift. He has
given grace. His coverage is intense, perfect and provides a perspective
explaining all, and finishing all where it comes in the judgment.
Not by force does He act in
this, for the evil is the result of man not of God. Force, if the means, means
this, that God is responsible, and man a dupe. Faith however leaves man
responsible and God so far from being inanely less than some men, instead their
source and splendour, giving in salvation what they lack at His own cost, as
befits the Creator, and is requisite for sin. Not with less can any who live
with Him, for whom sin's noxious foulness is wholly unacceptable, a quick
transformation agent for heaven to become hell itself, were unchanged
immigrants to land there! and for justice to bend, were the baseness of man to
smile at justice, like a lout. It is costly, the truth. It took the Cross.
As for the violence of
Islam in the arena of faith: Its denials of liberty in this Age of grace is not
limited to many features of its own; nor is it limited even to its preying on
the liberties of those nations taken over by this, its oppressive religion; nor
are they limited to those of people like the now arrested aid workers whom they
requite with death threats via a court deemed, of all things, a court of law
... what, the law of death to liberty and evidence ? ... no, they extend
further. They seek quite assuredly to exterminate Israel.
ISRAEL at the conferences
noted above, and often elsewhere, is quite explicitly made such a target. It
must not exist. This is the thrust of it. What helps it, this MUST stop doing
so. If this is the US, it must stop. We recall the case cited earlier: WHY
do we hate you ? asks the Arab intellectual. Ask yourselves that!
And what is the answer
? It is because of Israel. Such has been the propaganda of so many years,
extermination, catastrophe, sweeping into the sea and so on! What then for the
USA ? YOU supplied Israel with weapons to help her! YOU are
accountable! Who then has said such a thing to this nation ? Who is
that person ? Bin Laden! He is reported on TV as having declared this: It is his mission to
clear Israel from its land, and he hold the US responsible for weapons to that
country!
This is not
to answer the Twin Towers question; it is however to answer the question
of WHY there is hatred of America, raised by an Islamic person, interviewed not
far from Israel itself. It is just the bin Laden approach. Expropriate Israel,
and do not stop us... or else! God is aware of the movement, predicted it and
will meet it.
We are now moving in terms
of the Koran, and the TOTALLY Islamic pretensions in Afghanistan, from the past
of the scimitar which threatened Europe and used misplaced force to secure
religious 'victories', on pain of death, very like Rome which, like Islam and
Communism, is a world conspiracy to replace with force, what faith does not
desire (cf. SMR loc. cit.).
We are moving to the 21st
century passions and the approach of the finale; we are moving, it may yet be
shown, to forces of Islam as one of those conspiracies active even to the Twin
Towers, to its aspirations, every bit as fatal to peace and truth as those
of Rome and Communism.
We are seeing that once you
play truant with the Bible, and imagine your so wonderful civilisation is a
result of YOUR power, superiority or lying successfully, and not of the mercy
of God, whose principles in the land exalt a nation, then you are merely
joining the queue of the depraved, no great accomplishment. In due time, you
will pay, as others have paid from Babylon onwards (see Jeremiah 50-51, and
Daniel's revelation in overview on the Empires, and News 49, *1 for coverage on Babylon). It is
indeed the whole world which is to pay, and the tributaries of evil will pay,
as the intense forces of misdirection reach their climax (Isaiah 24, Revelation
16, 19).
As we have seen, there is
coming a form of pure beast, if you can call any garbage 'pure', that is
quintessential beast, a political-economic-social-financial spiritual scam,
which will seek to take over from God and rule all the people with guile and
force. We considered this often in Beauty of Holiness, and have
seen it in Biblical Blessings Chs.
1 and 6, SMR pp. 750Bff. and other
sites available from the Indexes. The evil is not centred in Allah or for that
matter, any movement alone, but in a man himself, its crux and parade,
the height of humanism with the help of Satan, the intensive adversary at the
last as likewise at the first, a man showing himself that he is God!
This, it is the epitome of
humanism, the pit of self and the ultimate in racism, the human race. It is
intolerant and as programmed as any Hitler, ruthless as any Mao. It is not
Islam, and it IS religious (Rev. 13:11-15). Our present interest, however, is
not in this aspect of what is coming, but in the way to it.
We are finding that pride
of life, individual, racial, national or international and humanistic, is
folly; has no logical basis; is a perversion of science; and an intolerance of
man. It will fall because it cannot stand; and it is God who makes ANYTHING
stand (cf. Hebrews 1:3, 11:1-3). So man goes his long little path, though it
seems to his small endeavours like a four-lane highway, and in speed it does resemble
it, his pathway to hell (Matthew 7:13, Mark 9). But it is sad, and it is
eminently desirable that some at least should be recovered from the stricken
aircraft of mankind, futilely tilting itself this time racially as much of
mankind, not against the Twin Towers of World Trade, but against that rock who
is God, whose fury Israel has for its part , already sufficiently tasted.
Now to come is the fury to
be faced by those who as if God, declare that Israel shall not be (Appendix A, SMR pp. 502-516, and see Ezekiel 36-39).
Assuredly many things are
left in our hands; but the truth is not. It escaped both Rome and Israel
conjointly as Christ rose; and it will not wilt now. Some of the coming lurks
of evil however are worthy of attention; for its plane, unlike the one which
struck the Twin Towers, DOES have a parachute and it is only lack of faith
which prevents its use. It is time to get out of the disasters of Islam,
Romanism and Communism, on vast display now for so long; yes, and of
liberalism, neo-orthodoxy and every other departure from Christ, the Biblical
faith, the word of God unchanged over the ages, fulfilled in every age.
HOW, says the writer of
Hebrews in God's name, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a
salvation!" (2:3).
There is an escape when we do NOT neglect it as in Acts 2:36-38; but we need to
remember that there is NO OTHER NAME (Acts 4:11-12). If it is neglected, then
there is NO ESCAPE. But what would you ? If someone offered you a parachute
when the plane was nearing the towers, and you saw the situation, would you
argue about a second option! or take it.
God is not a bigamist, and
His 'bride' is the Christian Church, those who receive in salvation and as
LORD, this Christ, it is these whom God has delivered! There is no other God,
there is no other way, there is no other book, no other Saviour, no other
Christ, no other word.
It is not some other who
saves! Certainly, there IS another christ (there are lots and lots of them as
predicted in Matthew 24:24 by the One who did the job and paid the price of
divine redemption for man); and there are heaps of other gospels, born almost
every day, without parental virtue, spawn of the dust, without power or purity,
background or basis. There is plenty of dust likewise; but a garden, this is
select.
Grace has provided. It is
not arguing, but giving. If neglected, this gospel, it indicts (John
3:16-19,36).
FUNDAMENTALIST
DEMONISING
(1) The Start
This however
brings us to a new aspect.
One of the
coming and cunning lairs of the devil is now quite clear; and has been clear
enough for long. Indeed, it was given a critical analysis as far back as The
Biblical Workman,
Appendix III, and as a topic of delusion, in Light of Dawn, Ch. 2.
What is this
hateful device ? It is to attack the people of God as an option in seeking to
be free of the Lord. It is, as so often, to blame them for the results of the
neglect of the gospel, as if they were responsible, not their detractors. It is
an old story of moral grime.
It is apt
here merely to mention this phenomenon and see its relevance as imaginary
devils are sought for the Twin Tower disaster, without reason, since the
actual ones are in type so inveterate, as noted above, that their removal would
require repentance itself!
On one radio program during
these stirring days, in which many things are stirred, one gentleman of note
was heard being interviewed. His name is not important; his message is rather
more so. It was, he declared, a matter of evil with which we were
confronted. This discerning remark was then amplified. It was in
particular, in this American disaster, the security expert opined, clear that
there were evil forces which needed eradication.
Well, this is not an
unusual situation in this world.
What PARTICULAR evil forces
did he have in mind ?
FUNDAMENTALISM, he
responded. It was this, Christian fundamentalism (of no immediate plausible or
potent relationship to the Twin Towers as yet, but still, it rolls off
the tongue), or Hindu fundamentalism (one gained the impression he was mentally
scratching about, looking for other things to mitigate his savage lunge at the
belief in the Bible, IF this is what he meant), Islamic fundamentalism (since
this is ON RECORD against Israel, and major proponents show concern at US aid
to the same, we are getting nearer to something resembling evidence): or
ANY fundamentalism. There, quoth he, there lies the evil!
Let us consider this a
little.
Perhaps we could have the
Love Fundamentalist Association, believing in free 'love', as in the 60s. Could
it qualify ? Perhaps, at that, it might in the opinion of that speaker, since
it was COMMITTED to it, and hence dangerous. To be committed to anything other
than your skin could perhaps, by such thinkers, be deemed dangerous. If
you are committed to survival then at least you can respond to pressure.
However he appeared to
leave out of his so subtle equations, one little consideration, one small
pocket of thought. If fundamentalism is the assured taking of some
thought, philosophy or code, some religion or political fabric or framework,
some social theory or biological one, as RULING and ASSUREDLY RIGHT, then
on his basis, there would be need to ... remove ? was that the word ? all
evolutionists, all creationists, all socialists, all communists, all
Islamic people, all Romanists, all Jewish, all Hindu - no some, all democrats
(look how that young group of people decided to DO something about the plane
that crashed in Pennsylvania during the epics earlier this week, perhaps they
even BELIEVED in democracy!) and so on.
This would be difficult;
and its value does not appear obvious.
(2) THE FINISH
SCENARIOS AND SELF-SENTENCING
MUSINGS ON THE UNORIGINAL THEME OF FORCE, AND
GETTING RID OF TROUBLESOME PEOPLE, AND IN PARTICULAR GOD -
BY AN IMAGINARY
STRATEGIST OF THE SECURITY TYPE IN VIEW
Perhaps
however he could, for no reason, but for relief, simply do this to religious
people. It would provide, perhaps, some sort of outlet.
After all, if
you confine it to the religious for some unapparent reason, and if HE is not
religious, why worry ! ONLY religious people would go, and after all, on this
sort of dream, GOD is Himself the ultimate in trouble. HE is very determined
and even constitutes the truth. That has endless problems for people who do not
want it; so perhaps...! But no. It is done already, when God in fact came in
human form to secure redemption from sin and its gross and grotesque penalties,
ones all too true for it however, by seeming gross and grotesque in bodily form
on the cross.
And that idea
to remove the Lord ... that strategy ? is that the term for security
interests ? It did not work. He was duly and on time resurrected and then
did all He said, bringing the gospel to many nations who received it in
substantial numbers, just as Isaiah forecast as to the substance and the
result.
No, it did
not work, the concept of deicide. Indeed, in arising, the Lord made death look
foolish.
In solutions,
it is so very important, is it not, at least one would imagine, such theorists
would think so: that it works! After all, getting rid of this and that
race, the Tutsi matter in Africa springs to mind, the Cambodian one, the
Siberian remnant one, yes it is not so effective ? Hitler tried it on the
Jews, and the Arabian Knights seem to be trying it in not a few aggregations of
political power; but it has not worked. God is also on record as being against
it, and His record unlike all others, always works.
Well, our imaginary theorist
might pursue the point: perhaps the prospect would be better if all
religious people who believe some book is right and from God, should be
...removed ? that word, was this it ? Perhaps just their EVIL removed. That
could be done, as the Inquisition showed to a point, by killing them if they
repented of believing in God, as prescribed in the Bible, then grabbing their
money and using it for your own purposes. It is rather like a cyclotron effect.
Let us
then proceed with the musings of our imaginary protagonist, bent on security.
We may even interpolate a little here and there.
You then can kill
them, as Thomas Aquinas suggested (SMR p. 1035), in many cases even if they did
repent, for it tends to clean things up rather better, it seems, and he
appears to have spoken in terms of security ... also.
Then those who live can
have fear of you, and do what you want.
That however, it is secure
? One has to see a thing like the Protestant Reformation, and realise that
really, the kill bit did not work.
Then Communism, really,
tens of millions were removed, freedom fundamentalists, Christians and the
like, committed people who simply get in the way. The
concept ? this: to Siberia, make them slave to death, use the
results of their labour - a sort of variant of the Inquisition, to create
wealth for the rest. Then you see, it was more modern times, and they advance,
the security people. They work it out.
However it did not work.
It is also
not very nice. After all, you are busily exterminating either people or their
thoughts or hopes or beliefs, if possible and if they are not from God; and
your objective is to stop people exterminating people, so that the point of the
security is not clear. Unless of course, the objective is simply that one set
of people should be secure, and the rest not.
Himmler had
this idea, and he had the notion of beauty and peace with the best ruling for
the best; but it too did not work. He apparently took cyanide and this was not
very secure.
Which set of
people should be secure ? The best ? But then what is good ? Without God
as we have repeatedly shown on this site (see Morals
in index) there is no possibility of assigning
any moral meaning to the term.
It is so
difficult that perhaps the idea comes to this: religious people are not
desirable, but a nuisance; God is not desirable; we have a world; let us use it
without harassment for goodness knows, it is hard enough even without that!
Does that
seem nice to the security-conscious secularist ?
But then, let
us divide. Religious people can be influenced, but it is far harder when they
have a book. Besides, the main religions have one, when God is either actually
or ostensibly concerned. They are one element that could be wiped out.
They might not be more than nearly half of the world population and the
rest could have more resources then. On reflection, however, as a security
measure it does not rate, for to deliver a small fraction from violence, is it
good to remove about half! It does not seem to meet the criteria of the
security program, so better let it drop ?
Why not JUST
the Christians. They try to be nice, so you could exploit that, and get rid of
them more easily. Just dupe them and abuse their minds with all sorts of fake
guilts, and then rub them out! Yet this is not very secure for many. Besides,
it is really necessary to get rid of things that one could not possibly be part
of ... otherwise the security would prove too insecure for ... well, practical
personal purposes. After all, to be secure, one must endure.
Why not then
divide them into those who REALLY believe their book and those more enlightened
and easier to live with ? Then there is God. Since HE makes it intensively
clear that HE is back of ALL of His book, why not try rubbing Him out
with the people who believe in Him ? (as in Rev. 19:19).
Anyway, you
COULD make it appear that because some people believe in one god, and that god
believes in violence to faith, and this is illogical as shown in SMR (see Index
violence, and pp. 50ff.), then the
Islam people could all go. But then, not all of them really believe in DOING
it. It is only certain mullahs and leaders and some of their politicians.
Should they be removed ? No ... only those who insist on those parts ? But then
you will have to remove those who insist on ALL of it, since these are parts
inside it... Yet perhaps you could make nearly all of them agree to removing
some parts of their books, the parts that are a nuisance, and do it with a sort
of dramatic delusion, so that they think they are becoming socially mature.
Would God do well without anyone ? For of course the rest you would kill.
Yet again,
the killing idea might take on. You would have to improve on the subtlety,
maximise the propaganda, the Goebbels sort of thing form WW II might help, and
then when the believers in the God whose word works, are left all alone, well,
perhaps not kill them all, just the ones you can provoke to upsets for which
you can readily have them killed; and as to the rest, they can be starved by
money control, come to think of it as stated IN the Bible in Rev. 13.
WEAPONS BETTER THAN BOMBS
WISDOM THAN
WEAKNESS
Now that we
have ceased to regard the appalling directions of irrational force, let us look
at some practical and ultimately spiritual steps the USA could take. Let us
meanwhile realise that this is VERY FAR INDEED from being limited to the USA!
Well we
have come to the end of our imaginary thought person, whose musings on the
radio suggestions have been interesting, have they not! Their logical status is
of course appalling*2.
They could well be related
to our equally imaginary but equally spirit of the Age mentality in musings
of a bureaucrat, for which see Barbs, Arrows and Balms 18. The actual answer to the US 'problem' however
is a just matter to consider, sevenfold. In this, there could figure the
tightening of security, the question of high selectivity in training in USA to
fly its aircraft, which may have to be treated as weapons, for such in fact
they have become, so that licensing is to own a weapon not wholly unlike an
atomic bomb.
Access to cabins could be
controlled by pilots only, if necessary; and access BY pilots could be via
television, with weapons available from within the cabin, by remote control,
for those seen to be seeking unlawful access to the pilot's section.
These and many such things
could be considered, but all this reminds one, not because it is wrong or bad,
but because it is not the PITH of the problem, of a scriptural exhortation It
is in Isaiah in 22:8-14, where we see a similar constraint:
- "He removed the protection of
Judah.
- "You looked in that day to
the armour of the House of the Forest;
You also saw the
damage to the city of David,
That it was
great;
And you gathered
together the waters of the lower pool.
You numbered the
houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses
you broke down
To fortify the
wall.
You also made a
reservoir between the two walls
For the water of
the old pool.
- "But you did not look to its
Maker,
Nor did you have
respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.
- "And in that day the Lord God
of hosts
- Called for weeping and for
mourning,
- For baldness and for girding with
sackcloth.
- "But instead, joy and
gladness..."
THESE are
the directions needed FIRST. Nevertheless, the lesser matters noted deserve
consideration, PROVIDED the underlying CAUSES are first dealt with as a
PRIORITY.
The Lord is the ultimate safety, and those
who are His are not ultimately interested in this world; but again ultimately,
they are safer than rock, surer than water, stronger than passing life: He who
keeps them as their Lord, is Prince of life, Lord of glory, reliable, and His
service is better than any time: for time, it is merely something which He
made. Security is in Him alone; but that all that is needed. It is seen in I
Thessalonians 5:9-10, Romans 5:1-12, 8:29ff..
Life is not a matter of
survival, but arrival, in the midwifery department of the Hospital of Holiness,
where it is endued also with grace and set forth with its specifications at the
level provided for, in the spirit of man (Titus 3:3-7).
Meanwhile, at the national
level, there are elements for review, more important by far than any merely
temporal safety, in terms of which any nation is more nearly viewable as a
going concern for God.
1)
Make sure you do what
is right concerning Israel, not regarding it as beneath the threshold of pain,
or as if attacks on the White House were in some subtle way wholly other than
attacks on the centre of Jerusalem. Be careful not to act as if constant
attacks on the lives of American youngsters were wholly diverse from those on
Jewish youngsters, and to refrain from buying*1
the concept that a population group within a nation should quite rightly be
able to bargain for more and more of their host country, on the ground that
otherwise there will be more and more crippled youths, broken children, maimed
bodies within it.
In particular, be careful
not to treat defence of that nation's security as in some strange way wholly
contrary in concept to that of the United States.
2) Encourage Islamic activists and
terrorists to seek the balm of their pains elsewhere, rather than in the
pitiably small and wholly unique site of the people of Israel, in the
multiplied surrounding lands; or give Israel back the rest of Palestine, as
agreed after World War I, and this includes Jordan; though the
former of these two options seems far more practical a solution now.
3) Encourage world action against
terrorists in general, and those who make themselves either holy or unholy
terrors, by presuming to kill or maim people whom they would like to
replace. It is an action wholly cowardly as President Bush rightly said, when
it was applied to the USA. The Jews are not different; nor their assailants by
the means of indiscriminate killing of civilians, in this regard.
4)
Seek a national return
to modesty, rather than the clamant chaos of insistences on every immoral
action and thought as sacred territory for the individual. Leave freedom alone
where it can contain itself physically, and freedom of thought and speech: but
by ensuring these, remove those violences of body which separate mind from
body.
5) Remember that righteousness
(Biblically defined) exalts a nation. People do not have to be Christian, but
there is need for a regard for one's neighbour which stops short of killing his
children, maiming his youth, or advancing into forced anti-God theories,
instead of righteous evidence-bound education, with due liberty to consider
without prejudice.
If a STATE does violate
youth's opportunities in that sort of way, so far from being on a bounty list
for divine favour, it is performing an atrocity. Let this sink in. If its funds
are for this, if it boosts atheism, assumes its follies or fosters its
proponents selectively in principle OR in practice: then it is guilty as a
STATE, just like Israel of old. In this case, however, it is in the mind not
body, that there is the sending of its children through the fire,
for idols. Let the students think for themselves, and provide the facts not
rudimentary theories contrary to all known law and observation (cf. Wake Up World! Your Creator is Coming ... Stepping Out for Christ, That Magnificent Rock, SMR). That sort of selectivity is idolatry. This
is not helpful if you are seeking God, honouring truth and imbued with peace.
6) Seek integrity on grounds that
stand. There is none but God the Maker, the Redeemer, for all others being
without basis themselves, move. Hence the nation is betrayed. Consider what you
want to have first in the land. If it is some mixture of elixirs of religions,
let that save you! It is predictable that it will not. The number of gods to
have before God is ZERO (as noted in the ten commandments in Exodus 20). People
do not have to believe Him; the nation has to be sure where it stands. If it
stands outside this, let it be clear. It speaks of trusting in God. It would be
wise to know who that is! He states this: Those who honour Me, I will honour.
7) Stop doing things to distance the
Christian past of the nation; but at the same time, restrain all efforts to
force people to be Christian. Christ did not shoot; He was crucified. Seek
righteousness, not violence.
The surest way to massive
and deserved trouble, relatively speaking, is to yield by subtle and diplomatic
degrees, ignoring facts and avoiding trouble, as if it were in some way
criminal for Israel to go back where she came from: for this is acting as God,
who having given them the place and the covenant, has brought them back
according to His word, and will bring them back in spirit as He wills. Playing
God in radical contradiction of His word becomes in the end, another .... yes, declaration of war. It is not good, as wars go, to
have such a war as that. It is, on the other hand, predicted as coming quite
explicitly, as the end tumbles into its bath (Revelation 19:19).
If you are going to do it,
consider its end (Luke 14:31). You CANNOT win, and you OUGHT not to win, for of
all lords, there is but ONE who is just and wholly right as LORD, having begun
us all, and the universe, and provided adequately for us all, if we will but
receive Him. It is HIS creation, property and the ownership is for no other.
Accordingly, WHEN He states intentions concerning it, you have only two
options. Fight Him or agree. It is all His. He made it.
When the integrity of a
uniquely disciplined nation such as Israel is at stake, humanity of
heart itself should speak. In this case as always when God is taken
as the truth (John 14:6), agreement is also agreement with the facts. It is
also agreement with a prodigy of loyalty and faithfulness, grace and
compassion, truth and reliability for which the world has no equal, no near
equal and no place. It is propositionally divinely presented in the Bible and
vitally and definitively in Christ.
It is only those who are
His, who find in Him the way; but there is no other way. You find Him otherwise
as does a student a teacher. Consider the educational case: when you oppose him
and his teaching, he may be gracious, and let you slide somewhat; but if your
very life depends on your understanding, and truth is its companion, then there
is no grace in his just letting you go.
Ruin is not a destination
for which grace yearns, for any man. It is not so very difficult to find, if
you just discover its recipe and carefully follow it. SOW the wind and REAP the
whirlwind. There are a lot of whirlwinds about at present.
The
ways of God are on display, unchanged over the millenia. Christ was on display,
in high profile, rather like a human wreckage to resemble that of the Twin
Towers. He is not unknown, nor yet His word nor His work. They are not merely
for exhibition.
NOTES
*1
The obvious desire implicit in
the Arab comment here, if indeed it was not a veiled threat, or even exultation
at the destruction wrought, is this.
The purport ? Israel is to
be left marooned by the US. Many in the Middle East positively hate, he is
implying, any attempt by any outside party to prevent or limit the destruction
of Israel, its entire removal, the wipe out of its democratic, open society
place in the Middle East! Indeed, this is found so intolerable that its
restoration over some 2 millenia of exile, in 1948, as a nation, is 'the
catastrophe' in the encyclopedia of Arab hatred.
Let us be clear. Some Arabs
are Christians. Not all hate. Of course! But the authorities and the Koran and
many leading Muslim clerics, and whole regimes, and several nations are on
record with dire determination for the removal of Israel.
Hitler had precisely the
same idea, except in this, that at the time there was no extant Jewish State,
so it was the actual people, one by one, who were to be and in the case of over
6 million by oft-cited report, in fact were physically exterminated.
However there is an even
closer approximation to Hitler's procedure in the Arab self-styled hatred which
we are considering (limited as noted, but aggressively and defiantly nearly
pervasive at high level, as also noted!). In Jerusalem young people at the
crest of potential, awaiting coming adulthood can religiously be maimed
by the mercies of Allah, according to the jihad concept. Merciful
maiming! But some may say, But no! There is mercy, but this is judgment! Whose
judgment and why ? It is Allah's judgment. Why then ? Because he does not like
Jews ? or because people who notice his non-existence should, but do not,
send garlands to celebrate it ? (cf. Dawn of Light Ch. 6). An infinite who does not reveal his
ways to confirm them, is but a cipher.
The Middle East is a
religious bomb. It has a sovereign scimitar element, which as shown from the
earlier cited references, is certainly in the Koran; and often but not always
there has been strenuous efforts for this to be applied. This comes into the
very domain of faith, subjugation of the living in the interests of applying
this religion, whether they have this concept or not! It leads to bullying of
women and people, races and places. It nearly took Europe. Putin was not in
concept wholly astray in pointing out to Europe, not long ago, that what he did
in Chechnya was something Europe should realise was not without ground. The
menace was Islamic. It could threaten Europe also.
He was of course wrong if
for that reason he was using force to liberate Chechnya, for this is not the
place of force, to deal with faith. If however brigands take over a country,
and subjugate with cruelty those whose lives they oppress, never having been
given any mandate, but only having by vile means violated peace, then the case
does indeed call for consideration in terms of humanity.
However this is not to be a
religious matter; for Christ the crucified does not crucify. It is a brigandage
matter. Was Chechnya demonstrably in this situation ? It is not easy to
determine this, but it seems more than doubtful. However the principle needs
watching when brigands, whether or not in religious dress, oppress a people, as
does the Taliban whose introduction was force, and whose method is force and
whose Muslim 'purity' relies on force, which they then attribute, to his
detriment, to 'Allah'.
In a report printed in
The Australian just before the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, we read this:
- Leaders of the fundamentalist
movement also denied allegations by the Afghan Government that they had
received support from Pakistan in the recent string of military victories in
eastern Afghanistan.
- "No one helps the Taliban,
only Allah."
This
has proved wholly inadequate in the Middle East in the most dramatic way since
1948, on countless occasions, where the entire forces of tens of millions in
very numerous nations opposing Israel, with cries of Islam, have failed DESPITE
such 'help'! The Taliban doubtless would like some redress. If yours is the
best football team, it is, after all, rather difficult to have them fail
momentously, famously, incredibly, in compounded and varied circumstances, in
small things and great, for over half a century without cease! (cf. SMR pp. 779ff., 829ff., Dawn of Light Ch. 5).
Israel given
by international agreement after WW I, Palestine as a homeland, following the
Balfour Declaration in 1917, has now only a carefully manicured little lawn of
it left! (cf. It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls...Ch. 10). They would like it to get off the grass.
The Taliban is now seeking
to show its force and then to attribute the result to Allah. Their concept: the
US is NOTHING to such power as this! That is the evident concern. However,
while one butchery of civilians is not a victory, it does bring into better
perspective the ruthlessness of the exponents of the religion who follow its
relevant sections in the Koran, as likewise their disregard of civil liberties,
of liberty in general, their use of force to fetch glory for their god, which
is an entire desecration of truth and the divine name, which they have seized
just as they seized Afghanistan.
It will prove harder to
manipulate. God is not mocked. This we shall see, as the antichrist, who
believes not in Allah but in himself, arises.
The place of the Jew,
however, though small in Israel, is the fish-bone par excellence for Allah
image-makers. It is guaranteed by God. When the Christians all go, there will
be fun for a little, but then the judgment. God leaves His calling card in
various ways. One was the work done in the Old Covenant through Abraham and his
heirs; one was the work done in the New Covenant by Christ; and one is the work
done in terms of His prophecies from both Covenants (for the author being God,
HE does not change - as in Malachi 3:6, Matthew 5:17-19), as in parallel, in
the Gospel by grace since then. God does not fail; nor does His word.
- It is then important that the US
does not, however unintentionally,
- join the queue of those who
placate multiplied civil murder in Israel; and if they do not precisely
acclaim the efforts of one section of the state of Israel to gain a
sectional advantage by bombing children and youth, women and children in crowded
places as form of protest for gain, then not
- criticise the Jews for a lack of
due capitulation, in part or in whole.
If however USA does join that
popular and populous line, then one can only tremble for her.
Currently, it would seem
more likely that she will realise the force of the protestations of Israel at
such Arab tactics, since they now fall on her own soil
indiscriminately, almost as if to bring the point, shall we say, HOME! Perhaps
it will have this effect, and if it does, this can only bring a blessing where
it is sorely needed.
On what the USA does NOT
need to do at the religious level, now, see Ch. 4
below.
*2 FUNDAMENTALISM, TRUTH AND ITS TORMENTORS
If someone is a man, and a man
is bad, does this mean that all men are bad!
Do not, you say, insult my intelligence.
Why is this wrong ? It is
because men vary, and the formal fact of being one, does not include a moral
tag in the moral attributes area, except in this, that all men are born
sinners, and there is none on this earth who is not guilty of sin.
If someone is a
fundamentalist, and is bad, does this mean that all fundamentalists are
bad ?
Do not, SOME say, insult my intelligence.
Others like to have scape goats, perhaps by nature, and so do no 'see'
this.
In fact, says the reasonable man,
fundamentalists vary, and the formal fact of being one, does not include a
moral tag in the moral attributes area.
Most true.
So this is invalid
generalisation, with the logical tag, rash generalisation. That is the formal name which it
is historically given.
The case is however far
worse than this, in several dimensions.
First (which is really now
second, but let it pass), there is the second logical fault of inadequate definition, or confusion of terms. In fact, the term 'fundamentalist'
can be made, according to social taste and preferences of mind, to mean, as our
musing security official shows, almost anything. It could mean:
- 1) all who have a strong belief in
something fixed and certain, and will not change it, like democrats. It
could be a right or a wrong belief, but it is not left behind.
- 2) It could be a wrong belief,
which is kept free from reason, as we have shown to be the case with
organic evolutionism (index q.v.). In this case, the elements of fixity
and irrationality mix, though plausibility may or may not remain.
- 3) It could be a dangerous belief,
that is for safety, like terrorism in order to bring political unity to the
world.
- 4) It could be the above plus a
handbook on bombs and so forth, like that of the terrorists, according to
preliminary evidence at least, who destroyed the Twin Towers of the Trade
Centre: the one found in the car.
- 5) It could be this with an
element of religion, such as would appear when a second handbook, called
the Koran was found with it, according to TV report at the time.
- 6) It could be a dangerous belief,
for spiritual safety, because it is the truth and people who want a lie,
do not want the truth (II Thessalonians 2:9-10). This is to some, even
more threatening, and the State of Victoria seems already to have taken
steps to make FEELINGS more important than FACTS in this domain, when
religion is concerned (cf. NEWS 156 - Ancient Words :
Modern Deeds Ch. 15, Galloping Events Ch. 7, End-Note *2 , DIAMOND 10 ).
- 7) It could be the case for 6)
above, plus a handbook.
And so on.
Since it can vary so much,
the term 'fundamentalist' is not a wise one to use, in normal cases, for the
simple reason that ambiguity is so colossal as to make it like the muzzle of a
gun used as a scalpel during an operation.
That is the second kind of
logical error.
The third is more
monumental by far. It is this. It is to ignore that some things which could be
called fundamentalism are inclined to use force without restraint, in the
pursuit of their aims, maiming, milling in killing, in mass murders, like the
jihad movement; and some are not, like Biblical Christianity. Since this was
the topic, it is rather an important point! It is rather like being a
mathematician, and presenting yourself as one, and then finding that you failed
to add one plus one correctly. For a novelist this might not be the end; but
for a mathematician, the error is more substantial!
We have compared in this
relevant respect, Biblical Christianity and the jihad movement, and noticed a
salient difference.
The former has the
following motifs from its book, known as the Bible, and received as the word of
God (HE can speak, dear reader, as well as you, for the realm of symbolic logic
and grammar, semantics and the scenario of transmission and reception of the
same with understanding is not a property of matter, but of man, and the
will to confuse such things is not a property of thought but of volition, and
the scope of liberty to do so is not a property of our own creation but of the
One whose power has this propensity, while the rational attribution of grounds
for receiving this, and not another thing as the word of God, is as SMR
has shown, without limit and without competition).
What are these here
relevant motifs then in the word of God, received as such by Biblical
Christianity, which is what it has been from the first, and what its precursor
was before Christ came, in the days when He was predicted as to date and work,
life and purpose on this earth (cf. SMR Ch. 9,
Barbs, Arrows and Balms 13, 20) ? They are inclusive of three which are
relevant here.
- 1) Do good to all men (Galatians
6:10)
- 2) Love your neighbour as yourself
(Matthew 22:39)
- 3) Love your enemies (Matthew
5:44).
Now the more attentive may observe that this is not entirely
identical with:
- 1) Do evil to a select group of
people.
- 2) Love selected neighbours and
hate the rest.
- 3) Hate your enemies.
This difference is known as
mutual exclusion. If you are the one, you cannot be the other. To equate these
is like equating infinity and zero. It is not very clever.
It is also a logical error,
or fallacy: confusion of terms, based on ambiguity.
We are not proceeding very
well in the assault on 'fundamentalism' as a scare term and a scape goat.
In fact it begins to appear
that if there is a goat here at all, it is one of naiveté plus vindictiveness;
or at best, colossal and multiple confusion, irrationality of a kind that is in
a class of its own.
How could such things be ?
It is not primarily the intelligence which is at fault, for evidently in such a
case as this, it is temporarily and at least partially suspended. It is in fact
just what the Bible declares: man is alienated from the life of God without
Christ (Ephesians 4:17-19), and holds down the truth (Romans 1:17ff.) so that
the truth is an offence. They actually KILLED CHRIST, whose claim to be the
truth is abundantly verified and wholly rationally and uniquely valid as noted
in SMR and elsewhere. Where the going comes close to the heart and essential
desires of the will, this can become much more obvious!
Thus this merely verifies
the text of the Bible. Intelligent people do things like this! Yes, there is an
explanation; and the more the evil is wrought, the more obvious its
applicability becomes.
Thus the term fundamentalist
is used to mean two OPPOSITE things relative to the POINT in mind, in the speaker!
He uses ONE meaning to apply to the OPPOSITE case and condemns the latter in
terms of the former.
We are not done. There is
this element here also. This scurrilous and outrageous misalliance with
irrationality which can be found, is one which also runs into a further
maelstrom. Some who believe the Bible to be what it says, the word of God, and
find it abundantly verified at all levels as nothing else is, as an exercise in
reason and an excursion in logic, do not care for the term 'fundamentalist'
BECAUSE of the ambiguity and rabidity of misuse so often found. We call
ourselves as many have done for long, plenary inspirationists, or use the term plenary
inspiration. This means that when God decided to talk to our race, which He
had made, and which needed speech for direction, information and correction
very soon, He knew what was in His mind and made sure it could get to the mind
of the recipient. This is what is known as good communication, which endless
seeming business communication courses require without much mystery.
God being the source of the
symbolic skills of human communication, and of the hardware associated, as well
as the software, is brilliant at this. Why would anyone think He would mess it
up ? The thought savours of wishful thinking on the part of rebels. It is hard
to see how any logical consideration is other than alien to the uttermost.
Thus Bible believers may be
visited with an unacceptable, confused, ambiguous term while being abused with
information that is the opposite of the fact.
As an exercise in security,
the best place for which is the truth and the love of God, it is not merely
hopeless. It appears as the opposite of the apposite. It does not really help,
nor does it provide any solution, nor does it relate to the 'problem' except to
augment it.
Safety is of the Lord, and
it is vain to look elsewhere. It is unvaluable to mislabel His people. It is
invaluable to seek and find the truth. Then you do not run into things in the
darkness (John 8:12).