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CHAPTER 6

FROM CULTURAL CAPTIVITY OF SCIENCE
TO MEDIA MANACLING OF ISRAEL

News 296, The Advertiser mid-November 2003

BACKGROUND

Assuredly the world is in chains. Pseudo-science has done a marvellous work in selling its sold soul to the media, and through it, as we have been seeing in Ch. 5. Many without seeming to think carefully, have simply bought to enmeshed cages that are substitutes for free thought. In these, they have taken their 'science', actually science falsely-so-called as in I Timothy 6, or knowledge so-called, in mind-destroying pep-pills of philosophic parley, sweets to suck.

This word of Paul's of course includes the gnostic pretensions of his day, as well as encompassing ours in our sort of gnosticism in century 21, that proud assured mysticism which has no rhyme or reason, but only arrogance and pretence, talking grandly of things it does not understand, in defiance of all reason, while doing so with some show of reason.

This naturally makes the most unnatural union, to use for your own case what you abandon in any case! That, it is 21st century gnosticism, covered so well by Paul in his instructions. Though some seem to have misunderstood this, it is so.

As to such scientific myths, consult such works on this site as

Secular Myths and Sacred Truth, and
Earth Spasm, Conscience Chasm; and Renewal of Life;  not to mention

SMR at such sites as Ch. 2, Ch. 2 Supplement and Ch. 4,
pp. 377ff., 419ff., and 422Eff., 172ff.,
 

and TMR, with

A Spiritual Potpourri Chs. 1-9, and 

Spiritual Refreshings Chs. 6, 13 and 16.

To these you might add, if zealous, Wake Up World! Your Creator is Coming Chs. 4 and   5.

Yet we must pass on from our parallel, to our present topic of Israel. Just as media and journalistic social rites seem to have made a fiesta on the highway of philosophic inroads into science, littering the road with intoxication and its emblems on the adjoining turf, and to find it increasingly difficult to deal with actual thought in sober reality, being to a significant extent grabbed. This reminds one of the proto-persecutions rites in the vehement and unsightly English case recently - as in SMST Ch.  6 and Beauty for Ashes Ch. 3, The New Vikings, with the Australian parallel,  TMR Ch. 8, with the variant from the USA as in Wake Up World!... Epilogue.

Today however our concern is not the large measure of cultural captivity of science, from H.G. Wells on in growing magnitude - and Wells' Mind at the End of its Tether - SMR p. 698, is testimony enough to his eventual impasse, a book from his own hand! - a wild spree of illogical libido which capturing the desire of man, sloughs off mind and invokes various stages of irrationalistic mysticism as in Hoyle's little excursion into supra-rational metaphor - SMST Ch. 7, *1 cf. SMR pp. 419ff..

No, it is with another of the humanistic or egregious escapisms of man. It is with his inveterate desire
to obliterate Israel, whether from national philosophic thought, cultural significance, traditional presence, restoration to its land, prophetic impact from the Bible or any sort of fair play in the Middle East.

Why is there this dynamic, which certainly appears like a sort of inebriated hang-over from the oppressions of pogroms for which both Europe and Russia are justly famed in their historic depths of injustice to the Jew! It seems that the journalism of today - not all of it, but massively much of it in seemingly derring-do thrusts of ineptitude at which one can only marvel - is captivated, or at any rate captured by a continuity in this thing.

Pogroms are out; programs are in: but all have the same direction.

News media generally MUST oppress Israel. It is like a car engine which, inadequately tuned, does not want to stop when one turns off the key, but kicks on regardless in varying degrees of seeming nonchalance, determination or both. Have you met this phenomenon of the car ? Perhaps your car is not like mine, some 33 years old, and your vehicle knows better manners! I do not wish to pillory my car, it is fine; but one has met this events a few times.

It is almost eerie in a way, for when the key is off, it will not stop. One would think:

Now you have gone on so long and now, it would seem, you would want to stop. After all, your design is a feature which brings so wonderfully this automotive power, all involving closely co-ordinated machinery, like the universe, and it is obvious you were created.

Moreover, like the universe, you have no resident powers to create yourself, in systematic ways or indeed any other, for you just wear, and one has never seen you turn yourself into a factory. Yes, my car is so like the universe, it does the same sort of thing; but then that is what the First and Second Laws of Thermo-dynamics are telling us. And that ? It is science properly-so-called. as a branch of knowledge. That is the nature of the observable case, just as it is the nature of the logical necessity (cf. SMR Ch. 1).

It is almost eerie in another way, too, how the journalistic persecution of Israel carries on from the days of pogroms and more recently Hitler, in such apparent inability to STOP! How does anyone even imagine that the Lord will overlook such frenetic zest for dispossessing Israel of its tiny instalment on the promised Palestine, assigned to it by the League of Nations (cf. Of the Earth, Earthy ... Ch. 10, Red Hearts, Dead Hearts ... Ch. 10), in favour of adding hectares to the amassed square miles of the Islamic Island (metaphorically), with its shores stretching (literally) from Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and not a little of Egypt, to Syria, Lebanon (in part), Gaza strip (which has often enough experienced  a strip-search for more murder initiatives, which is not surprising, since murder is not nice), and then on to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Iran, and if you want to look in the peninsula of our 'island': it proceeds to Afghanistan, Pakistan and so on.

Israel then NEEDS to give some more hectares to this largely Islamic 'ISLAND', almost the largest island in the world ? to this regional massif (to move from the oceanic to the mountainous, and why not ?). It needs then to add more top-soil, to this aggressively dominating bloc (as it is in many parts and at many times in part). Indeed, it is to yield more of its minuscule, its petite place.

But one asks, Why ? Is there perhaps some reason for such disproportion ?

Is there a ground for befouling the British and League of Nations gift of Palestine to Israel, still further, and for removing still more of the tiny fraction of Palestine which it in fact got, after Jordan was given by the British, some three quarters of this internationally promised land ? Is three-quarters not enough of a grab ? Is something which is yours, and then reduced by 75% really still too much ? Is there some kind of inverse reasoning here ?

Or is it rather like the attraction of masses, gravitationally ? The larger the masses, the greater the attraction ? so that the more the Islamic peoples have, not only of their own lands, but of Palestine, robbed from Israel in the occupied territory which Jordan comprises, then the more they need ? Is it like that, perhaps ? Is it like some vast bull, the bigger it is, the more feed it needs ? Is it perhaps some kind of inverse, inverted and perverse form of 'justice' inspired by Butler's Erewhon, his Nowhere, where even the spelling is almost backwards ?

Is it perhaps based on the concept that to the great, more must come, to the strong, more must go, to the aggressive, more should yield, for peace' sake ? or for profit's sake ?

In fact, as noted previously, as long ago as 1960, Palestinians had the opportunity to become citizens of Jordan, a very correct thing since MOST of Palestine was already illicitly given to Jordan, in breach of international agreement. However, their use of that land as a haven for assault on the tiny fragment left to Israel, plus a civil war that erupted, resulted in loss of this privilege. Jordan did not relish being a terrorist base! It is understandable, that.

Israel does not appreciate the Gaza strip (a strip off Israel, which in some way is deemed a suitable place for invasion of the rest of it, by the beneficiaries who do not appreciate citizenship in this regard, or its possible prospect) being used as a terrorist base, a murder squad preparatory school, and sometimes it seeks to prevent this use. It is understandable, that.

THE AUSTRALIAN CONTRIBUTION,
ALAS, WE MUST FACE IT

But what now ? Now in Australia, alas for one's own land, there has been more of Erewhon! Something out of nowhere has become foot-loose and seeking pasture has come here.

What then is this immigrant ? It is the immigration of anti-Jewish festival in the form of a peace-prize being given in NSW to an exponent of the slaughter of Israeli settlers in that part of Palestine which the Palestinians, largely an Islamic component, want to add to their other pieces of Israel, and which many Moslems wish to  add to their vast and swelling ISLAND! Unbelievable as it may seem, one finds in an AP news item, these words which follow.

EREWHON INCORORATED

Meanwhile, however, HOW is Israel pilloried by the nations! It is not merely an occupation; it almos seems a pre-occupation, as if its mere existence, even in famous and infamous neglect of ther Messiah, is yet a threat, a reminder, a testimony, as indeed it is, for the Lord stated that HE WOULD CERTAINLY BRING THEM BACK, from Deuteronomy 32, Isaiah 66, Micah 7, Ezekiel 36ff., Zechariah 12, Isaiah 11:10, 42 and the rest. He said it, HE did it. That makes them feel discomforted, uncomforted, a little distrait. The would really far rather have Israel in the sea, as some of the people of Islam were kind enough to reveal, during the last century as war on war erupted towards that end.

After all, LIFE magazine, after the 1967 war, had a huge magazine detailed the wonders of that war: Israel had to be back, was back; had to prevail, did prevail; was to receive divine aid, evidently did. It was news of the highest order.

Whatever the reasons, however, these things together with the failure of Allah to do anything to match the prophecy, the Christ or the power of God who dominates history with His word, says it and THEN does it, or does it and THEN keeps it that way, whichever way He says, have outcomes. There is the desire for obliteration of Israel. On the way, one easy step is to be so murderous that they negotiate land away; so peaceable in sound, that they feel safer, then so virulent that they give away more, until they have so little, and it is strategically so hard to protect it from fast moving modern weapons, that they simply capitulate, and then come under the 'submission' religion of Allah.

While such things are the trend, implacable evils are the event of today.

Nowhere indeed, in the field of justice is such to be found what is visited persistently on Israel, over so many centuries! Yet she endures: that too was predicted clearly from Genesis 17 to the prophets we have cited above; and indeed Jesus Christ made it clear that it would be the return of the Jews to Jerusalem that would mark one of the pivotal expressions of the nearness of His own return (Luke 21:44).

So it was to be, and so it has happened: they have it. This too, doubtless causes a bleeding ear to those who want some god of their own. He or she or it, cannot perform. it is outclassed. That is the way of truth, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. What is, is what it is, and changing it is not the work of man. HE is a product, analysed, synthesised, instituted, created, sustained; not some sort of spiritual dynamic.

Thus with many a cause, the Jew is the butt, and the estrangement from the God who made us and offers redemption for our sins, is a measure of the detestation of Israel, straight out of the Old Testament, and flying, despite its rebellion, exactly as specified in BOTH Testaments! It was obvious that the USSR would not like the thought, and it kept millions of Jews before its own decease (while Israel went right on living! being divinely so placed, by prophecy, which cannot and - does not in fact - fail). Communism does not like competition. You can see from Mahathir and bin Laden alike, in different ways to be sure, that the Islamic mould is not especially fond of it either! Israel is thus a butt.

Erewhon has come to life in the 21st century! It is in the Middle East, where peace is murder, and obliteration is commendable, where injustice is right and where displaced persons are not Israelis, endlessly booted out from their little corner, but those whose Jordan was not enough for them, whose 3/4 in what was in any case a grab, is not enough!

Yet this is not all. It is good that Australia does not normally capitulate to such partisanship, and it is pleasant now in thought to leave our placid shores, so fouled by this spillage, though the actual red is more distant, and to proceed to the Gaza Strip.

That, you may realise, is a also a stripping medium for Israel, to be used as a base for stripping Israel of any little democratic presence in the largely autocratic Middle East, under absolutist rulers, or absolutist power religions, with absolutist pretensions for Pan-Islamic confrontation with little Israel, as seen in the Iran Conference of 1991, and since. It is the Gaza Israel-Stripping Company, not least. This is in no way to generalise; for there may be MANY fine people there. It is merely to consider the RESULTANT of the dynamics found there, in terms of the Palestinian Authority.

Now it is here that our next news item comes crushingly to add its weight to the current oppressive gravities already in view.

It may be recalled that Mahmoud Abbas, the erstwhile and exceedingly temporary Palestinian PM, was dumped in favour of Arafat, in a confrontation within their Palestinian government, since Arafat was not willing to let the power of jurisdiction, to enforce law, pass from his own hands. This of course tended to abort the presuppositions of the Road Map. This was the more surprising, despite the relatively excellent peaceable prospects from Abbas, in view of his characterisation of some Israeli efforts to continue in existence, as 'terrorism' (cf. Victory ... Ch. 7).

That did not sound irenic; but he was apparently judged too irenic for the Palestinian Authority, and so ... went!

Thus Arafat with his terrorist past, was still in charge; but a new PM was forthcoming, one to be sure, not as irenic sounding by any means, as Abbas had been, but one acceptable to Arafat, namely Qureia. This man soon made it clear that while he sought peace, he would not use force to deal with Hamas. That is, there was to be negotiation only, and at times this was reputedly or reportedly at least, proceeding to such and such a degree. However, mark it: NO FORCE to enforce law where the dedicatedly terrorist Hamas for example, was concerned. This was the initial position which he adopted.

In a recent development, indeed in The Advertiser in the last few days around mid-November, we find under the heading, "Arafat maintains hold on security", a number of revealing data. First "peace moves have been thrown into disarray", it is reported, because in the make-up of the new Palestinian cabinet, Arafat maintains indirect control of Palestinian security forces. Qureia suffered "defeat in his power struggle with Mr Arafat", and this has "left him severely weakened", while threatening complications for the Road Map, we read. This "defeat" meant that the Palestinian security forces were not now to be "consolidated under the Prime Minister, in preparation for a crack-down on the militant groups."

Even Qureia was far too irenic ... ?

Thus has passed this second possible removal of the blood extortion procedure, meaning death not least of women and children in Israel, which the Press has tended to disregard in favour of considering the murder-base as if this were a saintly site, perhaps a sacred site in the blood-letting neo-pogroms of the 21st century ? How fast does the terrorism in the Palestinian Gaza proceed, while the US pays much to seek to purge Iraq nearby. Perhaps a Peace Prize also for Arafat ? Surely the idea must occur to someone.

Now it is important to realise that by no means is all of this to pillory the Press, since occasionally one may find quite sound and reasoned articles on this topic; but it is not often, and so seldom that, along with the exceedingly tendentious TV treatment, in the case of one of our stations, hard to distinguish from simple Palestinian propaganda, there is the image of the 'Terrorist Israel', which rather resembles as an inept title of mockery, that of Mahathir for Australia as exactly that! Some terrorist, which is terrorised for wanting to keep a small part of its apportioned land.

The hideous caricature of the realities which, however, almost without interruption in journalistic prose and TV coverage, deems Jew-held acres in the Biblical land of the West Bank, a small and vitally historic part of Israel and segment of Palestine 'appointed' for the Jews, to be 'occupied territory'. This needs to be seen to be believed. Even when it is seen, one could almost wonder if it were clouded thought feverishly stirred by some type of hot and arid climatic effect of the Middle East Indeed, it begins to feel  as if it were some part of Erewhon, nowhere on earth!

But it is part of this very earth, believe it or not. It is simply so.

What then ? Do we hear of the Gaza occupied territory, and the West Bank occupied territory where Palestinians dwell, and are these jointly referred to as Palestinian Occupied Territories, held against Israel, and abutting into its land ? It is not so. We do not seem to find this language, descriptive of the situation though it be. Instead, some fragment of Palestine not yet taken from Israel is referred to, by this opprobrious title. It is as if in a crowd, one man had standing room only if he kept on the ball of his feet, because of the crushing pulse of people, and someone referred to that 10 square inches or so, as Occupied Territory, and called the police. If it were not tragic, it would pass as burlesque, but more of the slap-stick variety, where the audience, with grimacing smiles, would realise the extraordinarily ridiculous character of the one liners!

Thus the Occupied Territory of the Gaza strip, with its militant terrorists who are NOT to be governed by LAW even of the Palestinians' own making, continues as a simple parallel of Iraq, and more than this, since the weapons are indeed and visibly present on it, as a base for the

weapons of destruction for the masses (not WMD but WDM, to be sure),

continually being used. Is it not then time, if terrorism is to be controlled, to control this instead of making the anti-Semitic diatribes, as if the tribes of Israel could have NOTHING but diatribe, because of the tribal past! Perhaps it is a verbal play ?

It is however as grave as blood, as cold as the grave, as cruel as the venom of the asp.

 

IDENTITY CRISIS

As to graves, this is the metaphorical destination of identities that are lost. People who have lost their memory, are, alas, in terms of their own recollection, in danger of consigning their recollected identity to the grave. Those who have had their true identity suppressed, held in prison, so that rampant authorities can carve up their names illicitly, creating mirages for the purposes of manipulation of the people, or the destruction of the good name of some incarcerated victim, these too come near, as far as this world is concerned, to having their identity in the grave.

It is not dissimilar, only infinitely more important, when people use the name in part or in whole of Jesus Christ and try to assign some new identity to it, as if their EXPERIENCE constituted its reality (as in the preceding chapter), or their SCHEMATISATION of religion gave its true place and so on. Indeed, the author, though a mere punctuation mark in this context, if that, suffered the same sort of feeling to some degree when told of his hatred of science, and set up as if not at all horrified at religious violence! In fact, just as one loves one's children, so one loves truth, and would not see it contaminated with idle philosophy, as if science were always polluted. Lung disease is no part of the lung, except by pathological imporation: so here.

As to science, when its delectable method is followed, it has a robust dignity; but in this day, that is not so common, when religion is concerned. This meddling was so in Communist Russia, in Germany, and China, where it still is so; but it is tragic that its good name is being so imbued with frivolous frippery by those who should know better, but who being but men, when depleted through the absence of God in their lives, act as they are (cf. Romans 1, and the finding of that outstanding scientist, Lord Zuckerman on this topic! SMR pp. 168ff.).

One wondered who this amazing individual could be, who had one's own name, but was in total contradiction of one's views! So do people imagine, and indirectly, proceed with the burial of identity. However one is not suffocated, and so arose to despatch the ludicrous mismatch of one's own name with hated doctrines while attesting the truth which is beyond all, and identifies itself. Thus, even our own Home Page is vehement on our hatred of religious violence, and love of liberty for truth. Such violence is irrelevant, and it is important to be disarmed before the truth because it is true, not armed before it!
(Cf. News 98, 37.)

Now it is not so amazing, is it, that ISRAEL itself should suffer in this way. It is no more to be seen as a longsuffering nation, little, unloved by its militant neighbours, systematically invaded every so often by multi-national forces, torn from its historic and traditional roots, now back in its land by a series of miracles. These prevailed despite depraved follies by the immediate post-war British Government, using its NAVY, the BRITISH NAVY (unhallowed thought!), not to rule the waves, but to waive the rules, and turn BACK Jewish ships coming to the JEWISH HOMELAND, which British Lord Balfour had enunciated during the First World War, and the League of Nations had confirmed.

Is the obliterated to be re-obliterated ? Is the residue of Auschwitz to be given more terrorism as its reward ? Is a people the butt of European and Russian intimidation and detestation, Inquisitorial murders and confiscation of assets, Louis XIV the Sun King, not missing from the spoils, to be now the butt of the United Nations, of Arab wealth, of Islamic lust for territory, of submission to disparagement and false identity papers!

You could almost be forgiven for thinking that ISRAEL was the name given for the land now occupied by Iran, Syria, Iraq and Jordan, and that THE ISLAMIC STATE was the name given to that tenuous minimalisation currently called 'Israel', so that the large and wealthy 'ISRAEL' was persecuting the tiny and oppressed 'ISLAMIC STATE', endangering its religion, terrorising its people, and constantly sending in more inhuman squads to kill children, on buses, mothers in shops. If this were so, one could quite agree with the identity, the characterisation being given to Israel.

Since the case is the PRECISE OPPOSITE, one can only wonder at the dream world of much journalism, on TV and elsewhere. It is a nightmarish dream. It is rich in blood. It is rich in endless initiatives to KILL, Jews. It is rich in the European heritage of JEW DEATH, in the squalid past of anti-semitism.

However God has not lost His identity. He continues unchanged and His years remain the same, time itself a mere invention of His, for a world such as ours. Did the reader ever share this author's experience in having examinations in large buildings, with thousands of writing students, seeking to pass or prevail ? In this case, in the echoing halls from distance, at last comes the COMMAND: CEASE WRITING.

It is almost as if one is lost in the thousands of people, all in their little desks, all scribbling away, all having to heed, NOW and not soon, to the command, or risk confiscation of their papers.

Well does one remember not even having time to insert a second booklet into the original one, when the command came, and wondering if it would be (as one surmises did happen) lost in the rule of law, disallowed since unincluded.

Disallowed since unincluded ?

Is this not Israel in the eyes of this world, as to its current power structure ? Israel is simply not included in the folder, for it is to be left out by the shouted command of the UN, from its historic past and its internationally accorded place. Yet God is above the examiners. God examines the judges. God declares to them (Psalm 2):
 

That quotation of course is cited in Acts 4:25ff., and Ch. 13, and it concerns the Messiah, Jesus the Christ Himself, whom they sought to change, as to His identity, as if He were not God on earth, as if His power was not to be considered, His gifts, His healing, His word of power, His fulfilment of predictions, His making of them, His glorious humility, His dazzling holiness, His ability to raise the dead, yes and to die on the time appointed (Highway of Holiness Ch. 4), as if His declarations concerning the power of the Holy Spirit to come, were in vain: though it all happened. This is the True Israel, or Prince of God as the name indicates.

He CANNOT have an identity crisis, or change, since HE IS, the everlasting God (John 8:58, 5:19ff.), and as the divine expression in precision (Hebrews 1), the very Living Word of God, the effort to change Him result in one thing. YOU who seek to change HIM, are the one who changes, in this, that now you are condemned already (John 3:19ff.), and why ?

It is because seeking to change the testified truth is a spiritual crime, seeking to alter what is to make it out to be what it is not, is a disfiguring and dismembering action against reality, and when you strike it, it is a sword with an edge (cf. Revelation) or a rock which crushes, as Christ declared so very clearly (Matthew 21:44).

Let us now proceed to the next step, to Israel the nation (cf. SMR Appendix A, Great Execrations,
Great Enervations, Greater Grace ... Ch. 4)

When then people seek to change the WORD of God written, in terms of the apportionment of Israel to the Jew (despite all the sins of that race, as in Isaiah 30!), and to make conditional what the divine word made UNCONDITIONAL (cf. Galloping Events Ch. 4 and see Genesis 17). To be sure, the SPIRITUAL FAMILY of God is not at all racial; but the testimonial people of God has been given a part to play, a place to be, a time for their exile and a time for their return, a time to suffer and a time to prevail (as in Zechariah 12-14, Micah 7), a time for murder of the Messiah (Isaiah 49:7, as predicted, so it was), and a time for realisation (as in Zechariah 12:10-13:1) of what they did to Him. It is part of the divine code, the divine historic DNA which configures history as an interpretive medium for the doings of God.

That is why it was so apt, as reported, that when one king asked some philosophy to prove God in two words, the beleaguered but agile mind of the man replied, "The Jews."

Is the Jew,

	holding by a thread to national life in the midst of rampaging and roaring bulls,
	religiously minded assailants,
	oil rich aggressors,
	multi-national forces bent on oblivion for the Jew
	no less than was Hitler in some cases:

is ISRAEL then to be called a TERRORIST ?

What an invention ? Could it have a PATENT APPLIED FOR, in case anyone else thinks of such an innovation ?

Is it burlesque ? Do you terrorise your murderer, by bending back his arm while he strives to claw your throat to shreds ? One would not have thought so. Is the case different then in some way, metaphors and imagery apart ? Is it not violence of the many against the few, of the massive against the tenuous, of the populous against the sparse or at least slender, of the fanatical invaders, whose wealth pours in, often together with their forces,  against the determined settlers in a small land called Israel, reluctant to suffer slow or swifter obliteration ?

What is this new identity for Israel Is it a line in some novel of the imagination ? Is it sallow and riotous humour, as when one pretends the mouse is terrorising the cat, some Tom and Jerry facade for humour ? God however has not lost count, since to make the mind that knows mathematics was merely one of His prodigies, and He has no difficulty whatsoever in counting the accomplishments of cruelty (cf. Isaiah 37:21ff.)! Let us hear part of this deliverance from the day of Hezekiah:

"Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

                          By the way which you came.' "

You see the same determination at a later phase of history, in Micah 7 and Zechariah 12, with Jeremiah 30:16.

God will confront this execrable evil, and it is indeed HE and He alone who can execrate; but He has done it already to what insists on the overthrow of His apportionment, which is theft, since ONLY GOD MADE LAND! Patient is He, but not inert; it is longsuffering and neither indifference to wickedness nor composure with folly which gives time for grace (cf. Acts 17:26-27, Deuteronomy 32:36ff., Isaiah 66:8 to the end, with More Marvels from the Majesty and Mind of the Almighty Ch. 5). Long is the day of judgment, and loving is the Lord; but He intervenes when He is ready at ANY phase, and at the last, phasings are phased out, and only salvation or judgment remain.

not He does what He pleases with it. Do YOU, reader, feel constrained to ask your employer what to do with your wages ? or better for our figure, your employe for permission to rule your factory ? and do you ask how he would order you to do it ? One thinks not.

It is unwise to dictate to the Almighty, your will as if His.

Thus as we consult Micah 7, Romans 11, Deuteronomy 32, Joel 3, Isaiah 51:19ff, concerning the zeal of the Lord for even a disobedient people, or Jeremiah 30:14-16, where the Lord having listed the trouble that Israel's sin has brought, also lists the action HE will take, and this as we come to the new covenant, as in Jeremiah 31:31 (on this, see The Biblical Workman Ch. 1, and His Time is Near Appendix): what do we find ? It is this.  He will devour those who devour, and in Ezekiel 38ff., we see for this newly returned nation, coming to the End of the Age, what is in store.

The divine anger will blaze at the presumptuous and autocratic foes who find nothing but the invasion of Israel enough, and there will be an obliteration indeed, but not of Israel. Owners do not like their properties being squatted in, let alone when they love the contents!

Look then at Of the Earth... Ch. 10, SMR pp. 510ff., and consider, at The Biblical Workman Ch. 1, *3, and Ch. 3, *1 and think.  God is not mocked. He is patient, He is tenderhearted to the extreme, loving and lustrous with a divine light, slow to anger: but when once His wrath is stirred, judgment is not to be desired. That is why it is so marvellous to be insulated from wrath by the covenant in Christ's death (Colossians 1:22ff.), so that HE bears the curse (Galatians 3), and undertakes in magnificent stability to keep forever what receives Him as He truly is, according to His Gospel (John 19:9,27-28). Isaiah 33:6 puts it thus:

                           The fear of the Lord is His treasure."

Vast is the contrast between the malign and the blessed; the bridge of repentance is needed, bringing forth fruits worthy of it! Here only is there is insulation. But from what in this case is insulation needed, apart from all else ? It is from the results of centuries of anti-semitic persecution, lordly tones of superiority being shouted at the Jew, while the things the nations have done to this people rate amongst the worst desecrations of the human spirit even IMAGINABLE! Lordly in lust ? lordly in theft ? lordly in murder ? It is a strange lordliness that seeks so to parade itself before the Divine Power of God, the God of mercy certainly, but also of truth and of justice.

"Therefore all who devour you, shall be devoured," said the Lord (Jeremiah 30:16). Again, "those who spoil you shall be a spoil," and "all who prey upon you will I give for a prey." That also is precisely what you see in the End of the Age presentation of that great Evangelical Prophet, Isaiah, who having traced the coming and death of the Messiah, traces the New Covenant, and its embracement by some of the Jews, until the time comes when God Himself intervenes for His people, in militant mode, in anger, and "the slain of the Lord will be many" (Isaiah 66:13-17).

There is no anger in salvation.

This, in that chapter it comes after the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jews after so long a time, following their reception of the curse (as in 65:13-15) because of consolidated national unbelief in the Messiah, the ONLY remedy for sin. This restoration to Jerusalem has come only once in that time: NOW!

The new threats against Israel are NOW.

It is time to think. Identities do not have the facility that propaganda desires. They stay the same; God stays the same; His word stays the same. It happens, always the same, just as He declares (cf. these words from Isaiah 44:25-26):

Media can mangle Israel, propaganda can try to rob its identity, literary miscreancy can act as if intoxicated, politicians can award peace prizes, or accord with them, where murder riots, man can even try to rob Christ of His identity in one of the greatest robberies of all time, making the Great Train Robbery look like a speck of dust in comparison with the universe, and at that, incredibly magnified. The word of God however breaks all chains, and the Messiah will bring out of prison ALL the prisoners who seek Him
Iaaiah 61:1-3,  55, Psalm 102:18ff., 22, Jeremiah 16:19ff., Isaiah 49:6, 42:6); and if with Israel, this is taking time, for that large near-national repentance, yet God is in any case unconditional guarantor of Israel for its return.

Again, that is now.

Is it not interesting to see the two identities, that of the world, and that of God, for Israel. Both condemn it in many ways; but GOD is determined that it will fulful all His will, and the people which He made for Himself (Isaiah 43:21) WILL show forth HIS PRAISE, because HE is good, and the effort to change even His identity will be overpowered by the truth. God is right, Israel sinned and is returned, it needs to repent. It has been delivered back to its land as predicted (SMR Chs.  8-9), it WILL be delivered IN IT, first physically (as already in 1948, 1967, 1973) and then spiritually (cf. It Bubbles ... Ch. 10).

LET'S KEEP THE IDENTITIES ACTUAL

Contests with God, with truth, with the reality of His creation and apportionment, they are most unwise. They lead only to ruin. Much has already been ruined, while men, imagining that HIS patience is HIS indifference, or inertia, find that THEIR vitality is nothing to His (cf. SMR p. 713, Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet Ch. 4), for He IS vitality, life, and we, for us it is merely derivative. All draw breath from His created conditions (cf. Isaiah 2:22!); none can dictate. Dictatorial behaviour is neither His who died so that we might live with Him, nor right for any man or nation. Indulge in it, use force for your will, try potency against omnipotence, and your pride leads to the predicted fall.

The ONLY PLACE to fall is on your knees; and then, if you receive the salvation in Christ, you can arise covered in His righteousness, His gift (Romans 5:16-17), and even the giving of the gift is by grace (Romans 5:15); then led by His Spirit, assured in HIS resurrection of your own (cf. John 20, Isaiah 26:19, I John 3:1-5). God is very pleasant to know, but foolishness is not His recommendation (Proverbs 1; 8:32ff.). If you have trouble, bring it to Him, do not try to dismiss it by dismissing Him. It only increases the pain, like cutting off your foot in retribution to it, for daring to hurt you.

If you want truth, He is it (cf. SMR Ch. 5 and Ch. 6); if you want leading, He gives it to His children (as you would expect, but what have self-willed, auto-orphans to do with leading ? If you want mercy, He LOVES to show mercy (Micah 7:19ff.), and if you are moved to put your faith in Him who made it practical in dying as a propitiation, a ground of reconciliation, a target for your own deserts, and indeed love to receive His mercy just as He loves to give it, then it is yours.

If however you want to rule the universe, you neither have what it takes nor can take what it has.

Why bother ? You, as good as God ? You would die for the sins of others, having all power ? Would you really ? and have the purity to be able to bear it, being sinless ? Indeed ? I have not met your like, then. You would bear infinite suffering on the Cross as sin devoured your peace, as you vicariously bore it for those whom you love, some of whom are currently crucifying you, and you would cry, Father,  forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing ? You have the power to create the universe ? to overcome death ... You are not infinite for this massive purpose, in scope or quality.

Ah of course. One sees it is a case of mistaken identity. It is GOD who has these things. Worship Him, for worshipping yourself is deliberate choice of the inferior.

To the believer, this is obvious. To those who seek to obviate it, it will become obtrusive.