CHAPTER NINE
CROSS, CRUSADE AND COMPASSION
The Burden of bin Laden and the Weight of Truth
News 173
Advertiser,
While AID workers continue in that dark and delirious seeming dungeon of wrath that appears so near to the Taliban and its 'pure Moslem State', showing evil for good and punishment for kindness, further attestations of the Islam, or submission religion continue. This is not personal. Many may wish differently who somehow want to keep the name of this religion. The matter is principial. This we have seen.
It has been just the same with the fiction of the Pope, the Commissar as with the Mullah, the Prophet. All are to have all power, all obedience, all in this or that way, with this or that degree of immediacy, are to be rulers, utter rulers over flesh, as if flesh were ONLY flesh and they were only head.
It is not so. There is no point in any of these three world conspiracies, whether as with the papal, in flat contradiction to the text of the book to which it ostensibly subscribes (though with free reign for additions which the book abominates - cf. SMR pp. 1032-1088H, 1088A and Appendix D, Proverbs 30:6, Mark 7:7), with the Koran with acknowledgment (cf. Ch. 8 above) of its 'scriptures', with directives from the heady days of the early territorial wars, or from history, in flat contradiction of what history actually does, as with the Hammer and Sickle, a sick devastation of factual reality, as in Communism (cf. SMR. 925-926, 965-966, 614, 422Eff., Repent or Perish Ch. 7, Beauty of Holiness Ch. 4, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6, Biblical BlessingsCh. 1, SMR pp. 712ff.).
Sad indeed and subject for much compassion is the confusion which allows grown men, people of years, to be the dogs and devotees of mere men, themselves far from God but with His name, or with some vain pseudonym on their lips, as they direct to destruction those who ignore that what is NOT-GOD does not serve Him who has made His word reign and His will apparent from millenia behind, to the present day.
In Christ definitively and in the word in divine declaration, He has spoken, as in history which, unlike the case for all other claimants, is bent on doing His bidding on the basis of a prepared text, just like a laboratory experiment, following the student handbook.
These 'students' however
tear up the book, write another, with war not peace in purity (Isaiah
9:6-7); and afflict the world. They have done it for millenia, except
that Communism, that reactionary unrealism that omitted the very name but not
the implicit appeal to God, is younger in name, if not in reality in its
historical antecedents from
Thus it is with grief for
the misdirected that one sees bin Laden indicating he would pray for such and
such warriors to become listed with the righteous and prophets and pious,
just like an Islamic pope, in papal splendour, conferring gifts. This we find
reported in the Advertiser,
- "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness
for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter
for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in
their own sight..."
Yet there is still more error in the message reported from bin Laden as in the Advertiser on this day.
"We hope," says the reported text from this man, "those brothers are the first martyrs in the battle of Islam in this age. The new Jewish crusader campaign is led by the biggest crusader Bush under the banner of the cross.
"We
incite our Muslim brothers..."
CROSS AND CRUSADE, WORLD AND WITNESS
In fact, as we have seen in some detail in our last Chapter, this is far removed from being a Christian assault. There has even now been a yielding, it is reported, so that a Muslim protest at the use of the term, Operation Infinite Justice has been yielded to, leaving a new code name for the military action against terrorism. Why ? Only Allah, said they, could work at this infinite level of justice. However since he is NOT-GOD as shown repeatedly on this site, and in a little detail in our last chapter, along with many other would-be gods and the like, such yielding is ill-advised.
It is NOT that it is unwise
to avoid needless offence, to be diplomatic in things that are not central and
to be as gracious and thoughtful as possible, avoiding the opinionated and
following the just.
That, it is good, excellent.
It is that when a name which is a flat denial of Christ, the Son of God, is used as a ground for dissidence, to yield can give the impression that this name has respect. If this is done, it is far more than mere diplomacy and grace. It is a yielding where no man can safely yield, where the name of Christ must be alone. The name COULD have been changed, but on the stated ground that since Christ alone is infinite as Judge, with His Father, hence a name which did not utilise it for a national action would be given.
Further, as we have seen, there have been multi-faith prayer meetings, and in one of these, the President attended. To be just and fair to all, to be concerned for all and to show love to all is a Christian and a beautiful thing, and the avoidance of rancour and rancidity is excellent; however it must be done in the NAME of Christ, not to its detriment, for ALL THINGS are to be done in His name BY THE CHRISTIAN (Colossians 3:17). In fact, "whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks," says the apostle in the word of God. This does not include doing things in terms of NOT-GOD, NOT the Lord Jesus.
- No, this multi-national action is far from a Crusade "under the banner fo the cross".
It is not comparable to the Crusades in which the papacy was an imposing feature. There is no Christian movement to gain territory in this; there is a multi-national, religiously multiple effort to remove a mass murdering drive on the part of some religionists. Murder does not appeal as a way of life, or a form of justice; and since only God is judge, the use of this sort of terrorism to mar and mangle peoples is felt to be contrary to wisdom. Others of course merely do not want incidental deaths added to the signs of the times, though in view of the predictions of Revelation 6:4,8, where this sort of passion for killing is noted as a thing to come, this want is not necessarily going to be granted. The thing has come, is coming and is increasing, though from time to time, that hardly seems possible; yet possibility is not bounded by custom in this thing...
Ghastly sights and immoral
excess are part of the signature of prophecy on this phase of history, and what
is written comes to pass, is coming to pass, and will grow as Christ declared,
until the point comes that UNLESS those days were shortened, NO FLESH could be
spared (Luke 21:11, Matthew 24:21-22). Let us hear the latter words:
- "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved: but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened."
Christ there proceeds to tell of the false christs in rooms or deserts, as in mass, for example, but to note that when HE COMES, it will be far different from all that. The sun will be darkened, as fitting for the great Creator,
- "the powers of the heavens will be shaken," and then
- "the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory" - from Matthew 24:29-30.
He will select the elect, remove His chosen, take out of the turmoil His own people, all who by faith have called on His name (Acts 2:21 with II Cor. 11, Acts 4:11-12, Galatians 1).
Yes,
that is a name which is NOT, specifically NOT the name which governs the
assault on the murder machine complex. in this claim, therefore, Bin Laden is
mutilating history; and if he is indeed behind the World Trade Centre
massacre, then bodies as well.
LOVE NOT HATRED, HEAVEN NOT EARTH,
TRUTH NOT
MENTAL ESCAPADES
God however is still available, to one, to all. The love of God is the opposite of hatred; and though judgments come, they are retarded with much patience (II Peter 3:9), for the spoliation of the hearts of the young has been proceeding in the Western democracies as well as in Russia, though in the former with some more freedom, since there is still a relatively free press, and as the author has found, one can still, if willing to pay the price, exhibit publicly and academically, the folly of organic evolution and its love of pride of place, pride of race (the HUMAN race), pride of power and exemption from facts.
This we have often seen but
now recall in the profile of events, when so many suffer who have in their own
nations, suffered the wildest of the figments of the imagination to form in the
minds of developing youth for so long (cf. SMR Chs. 1 , TMR Chs. 1, 8, Stepping Out for Christ
It is time to return where the validity is, where the testimony is, the evidence and the proof, the demonstration of power and of history, of logic and of truth, of peace and of love. The exotica of false religion is a severe reminder, whether in the surreptitious symposiums of communism or organic evolution, or Islam or other forms of rejection of truth, that life is not for the clever and the pushy, the prominent and the dominant, but for the humble, for the MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.
What does Solomon say ? "Fear God and
keep His commandments" (Ecclesiastes
"Come, buy and eat,
Yes, come and buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for hat is not bread,
And your wages for hat does not satisfy ?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me:
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you -
The sure mercies of David."Indeed I have given Him as a witness to the people,
A leader and commander for the people..."Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon."
It is He, not another, and the
Messiah, the king and commander, not another, the Saviour from sin as Redeemer
(Isaiah 53), and not a god who gives nothing, and takes all.
These commands being from God, are to be fulfilled: so LOOK, DRINK and RECEIVE.
Look in Barbs, Arrows and Balms 31 and you will see how hard was the way for Solomon, who wrote of his preliminary seekings and findings in Ecclesiastes, to come to terms with reality! Fear God ... It is a loving fear and a fearful love: NOT in the sense of the craven, the cowardly (for in fact these do not enter heaven as in Revelation 21:8), but in the sense of reverential delight, chaste awe, glorifying God with adoration, for He is a consuming fire to sin and folly, but a help to the widow, the distressed, the prisoner, to all who come in faith to call on His name through His word, Himself living and delivered to death by the proud machinations of man, just as so many of His disciples have been, since that day of His advent and atonement (Hebrews 12:29 in the context 12:18-29, I Peter 2:17).
The fear of the LORD is CLEAN (Psalm 19), with no mixed motives. His commandments are PURE, we find in this same psalm, with no pollution. Self-centred collusions with others do nothing to glorify Him. He is not constructable by the imaginations and hearts of men, having made the same, as their very Creator. He is to be found where He is, not where He is contrived to be, whether in mass or Koran, in sickle or other 'power out of a gun' guruisms. The seeking to seize power, whether by wealth or stealth, open violence in hideous mockery of the author of man, or in subtlety to seduce his spirit, as is to be the outset of the coming 'method' for the antichrist: this is all in the devilish direction, disaster for the human spirit, for human destiny, and a cause of lament for those to be deluded.
By all means, says Ecclesiastes, go on with your own wisdom and desire, your own invented passion, but know this:
- "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth,
And let your
heart cheer you in the days of your youth:
Walk in the ways
of your heart,
And in the sight
of your eyes,
But know that
for all these
God will bring
you into judgment" -
Ecclesiastes 11:8.
Idols in the heart (Ezekiel 14:3), be they Baal or Allah, be they invented this way or that, on this day or that, it is all one: rejoice in what you find in your heart, or else REPENT and SEEK THE LORD, who will abundantly pardon with the WORD of SALVATION, which is ONE, and has never been more, is PREDICTED, and FULFILLED, and given as a grant of love, not a medium of shove, of seeking THIS WORLD; for said Christ, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight" - John 18:36. The prince of this world, said Christ, was to come, and he had NO PART in Christ (John 14:30).
One writer in a recent newspaper declared that religion had evolved to allow its endurance, in this, that the violent mode was being transformed. This kind of delusion is understandable, but irrational. If the confusion is made that Rome is Christianity, that bread can be God, so be it. Then there was force indeed used in an idolatrous regime, worshipping bread and ascribing to it properties denied it by the book, which forbids any image of God, or any place where 'Christ' is to be, in any room, but puts the words of His sacrifice as from the mouth of One to be IN HEAVEN (John 6:51-63, Acts 3:19-21 cf. SMR 1042-1088H). Adding to His word and subtracting from the properties of matter in order to excise the truth in ecclesiastical power, is trebly disastrous.
In these things, and their enforcements, there was indeed rebellious force used where it is EXCLUDED specifically by CHRIST. It was not a matter of undue force: here force is excluded, and in this evil substitute for Christianity was to be seen abortion of truth in dogma and method, in procedure and in loveless grasping for goods and souls alike (cf. Revelation 17:4ff., SMR pp. 946ff., 1088Bff.); it was in multiple principle, as it always has been, condemned by the incarnate Jesus Christ.
This was dereliction of duty and invention of 'god'. That has changed, for the time being, in the matter of force, though the change is recent and is not assured for the future! (cf. SMR pp. 920, 951ff.).
But what has this to do with Christianity, which excluded such force in the realm of faith, FROM THE FIRST, demonstrably, explicitly, dramatically, and in the very person of Christ as an ILLUSTRATION. Is the servant then, to be above his Master, as Christ forbad! (John 15:20). Is he to serve TWO masters, which Christ said is IMPOSSIBLE, then! (Matthew 6:24). Is this to be obedience by rebellion, a matter of a new word for an old deed, as when Communism insisted on calling itself (of all things) 'democracy'!
Is the Master to be slain and the servant to slay! Heaven forbid. No, there is no use of violence in faith, nor could there be, except in impounding the name of God with this additional blasphemy: that He is the source of all evil, using power as he will, failing in much, and in the blood-soaked mess of masses, trying to put things right as he sees it, giving no responsibility to man, since he himself does not separate him from duress of spirit itself.
There has been violent move
in Islam and Romanism, in Communism and elsewhere, to draft man; but God does
not so act in faith. He has need of nothing from man, and His principles apply
unchanging (Psalm 50, SMR pp. 25ff.,
65ff., Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6, Repent
or Perish
Ch.
2).
HIS kingdom is not of this world, and the authority for THIS, it is Himself, as we have just noted. Those who want the world will fight for it. It has nothing to do with Christ as a religion. To protect people from assassins, this is one thing for a country to seek; but it has no note of a Christian crusade.
THAT kingdom is not
of this world, and those who want this world can have no part in force for and
over faith. They are mutually exclusive: seek it and use what it takes, or seek
God and follow Christ who has come to show and provide a remedy, the redemption
eternal and assured, settling accounts in purity and peace: and this by HIS OWN
POWER and HIS SUFFERING, not our work or our voice. We are not even near the
requisite standard, being sinners, and even when redeemed, not to squander
pride on thoughts of being perfect, though it is to be sought with zeal
(Matthew
His
kingdom is then other than this, the corkscrew of violence, the ram of
rebellion and the riot of invasion of hearts with thrust in hand and blood in
mind. It is His kingdom which involves forgiveness, peaceableness,
kindness, compassion, purity and a fearless faith which DOES EVERYTHING IN THE
NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, not in that of multiple religion, be its puny
power what it will.
JUDGMENT IS DUE, ON GENTILE OR JEW:
BUT MERCY IS
FREE FOR ALL
IN THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST,
FOR THERE IS
NO OTHER NAME
This kingdom was not purchased for nothing; but the only One pure enough to pay, sinless therefore, by His own merits and credits, His own substitutionary salvation, His own realities as a sacrifice, has already done this. Thus, says the Psalmist in 71:16: "I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only." This is precisely what Paul is declaring in Romans 3:23-27.
Judgment has already come
on Christ, as the Saviour (Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:12-28,
Nothing else is possible, valid or rationally assignable, and unreason cannot provide reason, being thwarted in advance by its own posture (That Magnificent Rock Ch. 5, SMR Chs. 1, 3, 829ff., 987ff., 1080ff., Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6, 7, 30, Repent or Perish Chs. 2 and 7).
No, not some invented machinations of the human mind, most distinct, but distinctly unattested by divine glory, evidence and power, without remedy for the collision of this world with God, implicitly allowing the blasphemy that God freely suffers an unremedied world, with an unmet sin burden of man to continue, because He wants to, as if the omnipotent God compromised His principles or was in manacles of some machinery (and man did try a kind of manacles, when He came, for the truth was not, as largely it still is not, desired!).
God is not mocked; He has not left Himself without a witness, nor left this world without a redemption, never permitting its folly as if to stand, but always having the remedy, the salvation, free from Himself, by His own grace and power according to His written word; and as to this demonstrable fact, the truth of His word, the Bible, His living word, the Christ Jesus, it is confirmed daily. He did not turn His back on a world in collision with Himself, or accept its folly, and omit its destruction as a dissident against truth and mercy. Instead, He has provided a remedy, thus Himself free of any collusion with its vices, but the Victor over sin with a provision available for ruined natures, as a gift to their destiny and an enduement for their lives.
This Gospel, not of war but for peace, is sent to ALL THE WORLD (Matthew 24:14), and HE undertakes to go with it, UNTIL this task of information and protestation, presentation and opportunity done, the time becomes too ripe for anything more but rottenness, and He intervenes, to come in judgment. INTO ALL THE WORLD, it goes, the Gospel of grace, the everlasting Gospel (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17), distinct and contradistinct from ALL (That Magnificent Rock Chs. 2 and 3); and it has been going as He ordered and declared, this grand news of the divine plan of salvation; and THEN shall the end come! INTO ALL THE WORLD IT GOES, and THEN HE COMES!
That was His word, and like
all the rest of these, it is being done, will be done, and will be
accomplished: just as was His saving death (Luke
Not in works that still fail to reach His standards, in a world on disastrous and lying collision with truth, has He acted; but in wholly covering the declension, the sin and the folly with His own sin-cancelling death for repentant sinners, He has not merely divorced Himself from the sin which man's own sick nature brings, but given to man the opportunity to file for divorce likewise.
Were it otherwise, God Himself would be enduring a world uncovered, a rebellion unmet, and so embroiled and inculpated in its very continued existence! As it is, He has given separation-power from the lordship of sin, from sentence, and is very manifestly and with quickening tempo in this technological Age, bringing this Gospel to the ends of the world, before the end of the world, as He says. The end ? It has been postponed as predicted, for a time, till the ripe time when the coast is covered (II Peter 3:9). How otherwise! for God is both just and merciful. But it hastens...
The case is met, His standards are not broken by collision with His principles without remedy,as if adding here a little, there a little, met infinite purity and covered the case of Him whose it is: HE HAS MADE UP THE DIFFERENCE AND CALLS TO ONE AND TO ALL to come! (Isaiah 55, II Corinthians 5:17-21).
How is this possible ? It
is because Christ is LORD, not a phrase, not a ceremony, not a magic in mass,
not a mass of military power, not a people power, not a submission to violence,
not an anti-evidential faith-leap, not an unknown God, not a synthesis of
insights, not an insidious power crawler, seeking nations and popery of this or
that guru or 'divine'.
He even vacated His OWN premises on the Cross.
It is He who declares, Blessed are the poor in spirit! (cf. Questions and Answers 12).
It is He who demonstrated His deity
- in the very face of some of the most subtle, unified, radical and unbowing men you could ever wish,
- in power, in miracle,
- in word, in death,
- in unkillable overthrowing of this assassination by arising, His body free,
- His word performed to the last as from the first;
- in fulfilment of prophecy,
- in sinlessness, for none can show any nor ever did, despite the wonderful opportunities to do this, to expose the slightest marring in One who worked at that public and therapeutic level for body, mind and spirit, amidst enemies and friends, few and many, year in and out;
- in prophetic word;
- in the date of His death,
- and its centuries-old provision (cf. SMR pp. 886ff.),
- in the sheer singularity of His coming, for He has no competition,
- and in the clear signals of His word of things to come, and still coming; for there is no comparison evidentially anywhere.
ONE slip at ANY time, in
healing, in argument, in prediction, in His many miracles of multitudinous
kinds, in confrontation, in having His body available for demonstration that He
was dead, in order to repudiate His untouchable claims, themselves so
unanswerable that murder alone would do; one mistake or ineptitude in His
predictive words, in argumentation, in logic, in knowledge, in command failing:
and He was done. It did not happen, and He was received as He is, the LORD.
It is Christ ONLY, and Christ as LORD actually (Luke 14:27ff.), or it is that sundering of spirit that results in ruin, when the living of a lie is exposed at the end; for there is an end, as there has been a beginning, and the last phases of the consummation are now upon us (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5). As to that, even that, it is all written, scripted and programmed, and now being done as violence and vileness, false christs and prophets, people making gods and making saints by their prayers and killing as their profession, proceed to enter the Stage as the program requires.
It is better to have died on the stage in the love of Christ, than to die and then doubly, in the hatred of truth that knows what it cannot find, and finds what it cannot know (John 9:31-41).
