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CHAPTER 10

JUSTICE AND MERCY ARE POLES APART

but man wants the poles together

Nahum and our Times

                                                                     I

 POLES APART

There is about the prophecy of Nahum an uncompromising directness which does not hesitate to declare judgment, ruin and justice which is worse in a way, than ever cruelty could be. It is searing because it is true. Nineveh, scene of a thousand depravities, heartless acts, an al Qaeda of the past blooming into an Empire, is up for removal from the earth.

“Who will bemoan you!”

asks the Lord, declaring prophetically in advance,

“Nineveh is fallen!”

Indeed, said the Lord, the voice of its nobles would be heard no more, and its name, He commanded, would be perpetuated no longer!

This is precisely what happened. It became a literal heap, buried, and it was not until the 19th century that secular evidence was found of the regal name, Sargon, which some 'liberal scholars' had pretended to be wrong, since it had not till then been found. When it was found stamped on bricks, which were exhumed, unbelievers were amazed; but it is always the same with all but monotonous regularity: speak against the Bible and facts demote your impudence, and the word of the great King of Kings proceeds to demolish not only kingdoms of arrogant power, but of errant unbelief.

To the last tittle it is fulfilled, and will be; and many are the Ninevehs of nonsense which articulate themselves similarly, that their name be no longer remembered, since they fought against the Lord of truth, and cavilled at the King of Glory. NO OTHER NAME is given to man by which to be saved; and His is the name of salvation, truth and justice, mercy and goodness, the living Word of God manifest, wedded to what is written by His Spirit (I Peter 1:10-12, Matthew 5:17ff., Acts 4:11ff., 17:31, John 5:19ff., 14:6, Philippians 2:1-12).

What makes this current case of Sargon of Assyria the more ironic is this: that it was Sargon whose outstanding military endeavours make him perhaps the most notable of all the Assyrian conquerors (whom the Liberals with such knowledgeable ignorance 'omitted', before found out), and it was he who did much for the demolition of the Hittite kingdom, which liberal 'scholars' had likewise denied, though now it is a source of information of great interest. Thus two omissions in the dubious interests of making an invalid argument from silence to non-existence, at the archeological level, ended for the agents of unbelief, with a double demolition.

As to those assailants of truth, some amazingly - but as predicted (II Peter 2:1) worked in 'churches' which were so busy falling that the dust scarcely settled as ruin added to ruin, a phenomenon which has not ceased, for it was this too which the word of God foretold (II Thessalonians 2, Matthew 24:24, II Peter 2:1ff., II Timothy 3:1-5, Matthew 24:11-13).

What then do we find ? Not only was the demolition of Sargon demolished, but that of the Hittite kingdom, often mentioned in the Bible; for both did not yield to the blatant invalidities of passionate assailants, more interested in attacking that Bible which never falls, than the question by all evidence. Not only was this double demolition of their attacks to occur, however, as the spade continued to dig into the vaults of history, but the one 'demolished' leader in the liberal book, so far from being non-existent, was actually important not only in his own land to a large degree, but in the demolition of that other attack site of the Liberals, the Hittite power.

What to them did not exist, destroyed in historical reality what also to them did not exist: and if two negatives are to make a positive, then it was thus positively shown that their imaginations being over-wrought, and their logical procedure untaught, they were no match for the word of truth. It did not burn, but burnt their squabblings contradictions to ruin.

Thus two 'non-existents' were alive and vital, and the one was found to have been busy demolishing the other. In all this demolition, it is difficult to determine who is demolished the more, the Hittites by Sargon, or the Liberals by both of them, so that the historical forces of both, combine to mock the theological contrivances of the Liberal power, now fallen with both of them, for Assyria was not so long in coming to its own biblically predicted end, as we have been seeing in Nahum. Some may ask why the term 'liberal' is used of those whose desire is to attack the Bible, for surely liberal is the last thing that such preconceived notions could aspire to be called.

However, when it is a question of a narrow path, that of truth, and pre-set desires swarm, the world likes to think of it as liberal, just as having marijuana is 'liberal' in the medical sense, advanced, not troubled by mere problems like schizophrenia and delusion. The 'liberal' attitude to having one's own way however, when it comes to ignoring God, does not prosper in its ignorance, for the truth will (and does) find you out!

Whether it be foolish attacks, foolish empires, foolish philosophies, they all fall, writhing under contempt, their day past, their fashion finished; and when the assault is noted by the word of God and its end announced with precision, then this merely accentuates the position. They go, of course; but they go AS predicted, just as the Christ CAME as predicted, and when (Highway of Holiness Ch. 4), to do what was predicted, and leave the predicted Gospel to do its predicted work in the world (cf. SMR Ch. 9), till the end predicted, should come with the signals predicted.

The forces of this world, ignorant in calumniating what they cannot destroy, the word of God, lie one on top of the other, mute (because dead) but eloquent witnesses (because of their historical testimony) of the power of God. Let us however look at some of the features of Assyria, in turn and in its time duly to be destroyed; for destruction is not without reason, and the curse is not without cause (Proverbs 26:2)....

Instead of trusting in what is cursed for its presumption, arrogance and moral vice, man has another and unalterable course, thrust into the concourse of history without cease, change or variation. It is this.

Trust in the Lord, as mighty to save (Isaiah 63:1) what seeks and trusts Him,  just as He is ready to doom after much patience, what arrogantly despises or carelessly ignores Him (II Peter 3:9).

Following another course, Shalmaneser of Assyria, that Empire of which Nineveh was head, is reputed ruthlessly to have moved whole populations about at his pleasure, to secure the result he desired; but Nineveh, the capital of that cruelty, it is not moved about, but down and out, inhabitant of dust, blighted by Babylon, righted by none!

As to that divinely judged city, its predicted and perpetuated end clearly depicted by Nahum in its loud days,  before it crashed into oblivion (1:14, 2:13 cf. Zephaniah 2:13-15), what became of it ?  It fell so far that for centuries it was of an unknown site, a desert victim, simply lost, rubble covered. Nineveh is merely one of the emblems that God “will not at all acquit the wicked.”

History happily obeys the God of creation, and knows no other Lord. It is His word the Bible alone which so acts in His name; for it is His.

Like chaff blown from the residual wheat, wandering from truth in its dusty throes, wantonry has its woes, and flies futile at last, into the wind (cf. Psalm 1:4-6).

On the other hand, in Nahum is the entire faithfulness of God shown: for

“the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him,”

to whom He gives His own righteousness (Romans 5:15-17) and in whom He places His own life by His Spirit (John 15:1), with grant of enduring not for a season, but for eternity (John 10:9,27-28, 5:24, I John 5:11-12, Romans 5:1-11).

Mercy is not justice, and justice is not mercy. If you want it straight, then there is no mercy in justice when sin is the disease and death is the penalty.  Judgment according to truth (Romans 2:1ff.) is the least savoury of the spiritual realities; but not the least necessary. Waste has to go. Imagine however waste about to go, and not relishing the thought of its everlasting burnings, yet refusing to trust in the Lord, so that He, instead of removing garbage (Matthew 13:38-39,42, 13:12), would be a stronghold! Whatever be the nature of time in that realm, unwise is he or she who has time for it! (Romans 8:37-39). It is the domain of everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2).

 It is no good attacking God because He attacks relentless rubbish; He spares it long, but infection is the problem with defection: it is not its creation but its desecration which is the point. If it becomes evil-smelling, a fantasy in deformity, equipped with the energies of dissolution, then its end is assignable. The wonder is that God is willing to reconstitute rather than re-cycle, so that what sin has rubbished, mercy may regenerate. THAT, it is the wonder of grace.

If grace however is despised, and trust in the Lord is not exercised, then

“Who can stand before His indignation” – Nahum 1:6.

“Darkness will pursue His enemies!”

If you reject the light of the world, then darkness is all that is left (John 8:12, 9:4; 3:19,36). Coming is a trial and tribulation such as the world has not before known since Israel became a nation (Daniel 12:1-2), so great that without divine intervention, human beings would cease to exist on this earth altogether (Matthew 24:22). While Australia ponders the possibility of an atheist PM, we do well to remember that if that sort of folly were to find its end, it would simply be death. War on the God of life can mean no less; and the end is interminable, destiny undesired (Mark 9), rebellion’s depiction.

The “wrath of God” abides not only on smashed Nineveh, but on all that proud and exalts itself to the demeaning of God (cf. Isaiah 2:11 –

“The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day”).

It is well then that

“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power”,

but it is well also that

“He will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3).

What takes the tar, gets the bar: cleansing is essential.

                                                                             II

WHAT DOES NOT STAND, FALLS

The end comes, as it did for Nineveh, so for this world.      -

“What do you conspire against the LORD ?”  

asks Nahum of the enemy of His rule and mercy. “

He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time”

– Nahum 1:9.

So is this present Gentile era, the enemy who now is more than Empire, and quickly becomes international: Britain falling into a freedom trap now it appears, the UN already a bastion of spiritual corruption, Europe forsaking principle in its new Constitution, the USA long involved in Power Politics instead of pure principles at the governmental level, seedy substitutes for spirituality, while the false prophets in sects and Islamic terrorists flower like sour grass instead of crops. When the end comes, it does not manufacture other endings. The curtain falls, the whistle blows, the trumpet will sound (I Corinthians 15:52).

In Nahum 2, God chides and challenges Nineveh to ‘man the fort’, but all in vain,
for her destiny is certain.

 “ 'Behold I am against you,’ says the LORD of hosts. 'I will burn you' ” – 2:13.

The name fell too! It is for them of old, a part of the evil of this world: like its flower of evil now, the rest of the evil of this world, as in II Peter 3, where this world and its evil works will be burnt up. The challenge is the same, the Speaker is the same and the result will not differ! Again, 1:14,

”The Lord has given a command concerning you, Your name shall be perpetuated no longer.”

III

THE FALL IS SPECTACULAR,
   BUT SO IS THE SAVING STRENGTH

God Himself compares Nineveh to former fallen cities, and declares,

“It shall come to pass that  all who look upon you, will flee from you and say,

'Nineveh is laid waste, who will bemoan her
Where shall I seek comforters for you ?' ” (3:7).

The end is graphically described (3:18):

“Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria:
Your nobles rest in the dust.
Your people are scattered on the mountains,
and no one gathers them.”

Indeed, “Your injury has no healing,” and worse,

“all who hear news of you will clap their hands over you.
For on whom has not your wickedness passed continually ?”

Broken morals are not rebuilt: they must be pardoned in humility, atoned.

This world is dying. Its time has been sufficient. Its death notice is already in the spiritual paper, the Bible, and the newspapers continually confirm all the Lord’s predictions as its wickedness proceeds where there is no healing; for there is no help but in holiness, no holiness but in mercy, no mercy but in the Cross of Christ (Galatians 6:14, Acts 4:11-12), no truth but in God (John 14:6, I Cor. 2:9ff.), and no escape but in the propitiation of His wrath (Hebrews 6:19-20, 2:1-4). This is for the spiritual fornications of man (Romans 3:25), who turn from God as if their destiny were their own, their world their creation: their consciences captives to lusts of mind, spirit and body.

How beautiful therefore that there are on the mountains (Nahum 1:15 as in Isaiah 52:7) the feet of the Gospel bearers whose word focusses the Messiah, the Christ, captor of sin, liberator of life (John 8:32-36). The feet have beauty because of what they carry, and it has beauty because of its strength of salvation, that Gospel which not only publishes peace, presents pardon to faith, but a Lord to life, that man might know the mind of his Maker, and do the will of his Saviour with relish, practising righteousness with joy, and meeting with the Lord (Isaiah 63:5).

Look at the last two paragraphs, and what do you see ? It is one road or the other.

For or against Christ: these ways are poles apart.

The poles however do not meet.

There is to be, says Daniel, as the resurrection comes into its place in the divine drama which is called history (12:1), “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. “

Who is to be delivered ?

“Everyone who is found written in the book” will be delivered.

In what is the name written ? In blood, but whose ?

In that of Christ, in effect, since “in Him, we have redemption through His blood” (Eph. 1:7), for He has reconciled many to Himself

“in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy, and blameless,
and above reproach in His sight.”

But HE is “a STRONGHOLD in the day of trouble,” and He KNOWS “those who trust in Him.”

TRUST therefore in Him, for there is no substitute for faith, nor for mercy, which is everlasting and places those regenerated by Him, in the site for His children (John 14:1-3, II Cor. 5:1ff.), ransomed by grace.

IV

VITICULTURE and VICIOUS CULTURE

Grapes of Wrath

Since this is precisely what this world loves to oppose, and the vice of decrying the Lord while crying spasmodically, as its end looms: let us consider the case for the Gentile world. It is a special case as it reaches the extremities, not of the earth, since it is round, but of this Age, since it is coming to be around now (Answers to Questions Ch. 5). Its end looms, as its end of season notice comes into effect.

Let us then apply the spiritual principles we have been considering, in the context of the word of God, the way of man and the trials of final examinations now close.

Where now is this absolute culture, which is to condition man and excuse all his dealings, a thing to be preserved at all costs, like some museum piece, given licence to live!

Culture ? It surges with authority to establish itself, as a last relic of the dignity of man who, divorced from God, finds it hard to think of anything to hold to, so holds to himself, like someone falling over a precipice, unable to catch any fast passing rock with his hands, before being smashed at the bottom.

With nothing else he cares to look for, he falls alone, so holding on to himself with tight arms^*1A, as if that would help! Seeing the abyss below, he exults in the speed, and having no brakes, cries now with pride, now with excitement, now with gloom. His culture however cannot help him: it is himself!

It is their culture! they say. Culture ? what does that do except declare what has been done, or what people want to do! If it is your culture to smoke marijuana, or tobacco, does this remove the cost, the penalty or provide wisdom ? Clinging to culture is clinging to yourself, and if you made the universe and the spirit of man, that would be something; but as a product, what is this interest in yourself alone, or a group of groping selves! If mankind clings to himself as he falls, he falls nonetheless. He does not alter the pit, or reduce the speed of its coming by talking, talking...

When proud nations were the culture, did this reduce the appalling dead in frightful wars of pride ?
or stay the lust ? as man fumbling with cultural passions of philosophic norms of the day, came near to committing suicide as a race,  in ways which still have their results in radioactivity ratings and threats alike, so that the puny could overthrow the mighty by finding a place to put a bomb ... or two, of sufficient power in the right place; or simply scattered bomb-thrust radioactive materials.

Soon, without doubt, the fear of such things in the hands of terrorists, being absolute for those who love their culture, or let us be direct, their own lives and selves and ways and the bonding of their own social norms and customs, will induce a combined response to meet it. What is that  by all signals seen, and by scriptural prediction ? It is a fallen Europe^*1, shown by its recent Constitution-making spree, with its 'common destiny' and unavowed past, and unnoticeable foundations: it is this Europe,  together with a fearful world conjoined  to construct a new culture, with a new leader, for a new fear and an old lust, that of running things somehow, without God (cf. SMR pp. 683-706, 750Bff.).

Terrorism will be a father with unbelief and passion, of an international authority which no terrorist can intimidate or control. Such will be the intention and largely the result, but as so often, the watch-dog becomes the dominant dynamic (Revelation 13), and the terror is his own!

So will the sovereign assertiveness of man without God respond, as it is already responding in England, where the message of putting people in prison if they do not meet ''safe" norms of speech (even speech!) is already in view. Terrorism is dangerous, the message runs, so we need to control things in the mouth.

Truth is not the criterion; but safety.

International co-operation is becoming the order of the day; but its price is high. As increasingly soulless plans and ways, power-broking and life-controlling features emerge, survival the chant, self-hood the sermon, the biblically predicted junta is now very close.

Truth has long been disregarded by those who, with absolute assurance and self-contradiction alike,  declare that nothing absolute can be known, and that this is absolutely true to the point that, should you dare not to conform, then your university or political or other career will suffer, and you will be labelled 'fundamentalist' and even made a 'terrorist' because you believe in God, and His word, and act as though it really mattered. This is the direction of flow by means now subtle, now surreptitious, now boastful and now open. It is weaving as political spells tend to do in democracies, a spell with hypnotic influences, myriad-marching, to secure an 'understanding'.

Now do not misunderstand: this is a process, but it accelerates. You can, so far, be permitted to have a cultural norm, such as having a pope, though this will appear untoward in its time^*2, or some sect, but you CANNOT and MUST NOT have the Bible in its evangelical clothes (that is the term the British Home Secretary is currently attacking), because this means action, acation towards God and man, threatening to those who would domineer; and action for them is out of place, unless of course it be their own. It is especially out of place where the actual Bible is concerned. The endeavours to link it, via 'fundamentalism' with terrorism or something else, are as constant as they are slanderous^*3.

 Why ? It is so because it is the Bible which Britain in particular for centuries had as its ostensible book of wisdom, handed to the sovereign at coronation, and the Church of England was an established church, governmentally. Remember, if you can after the years have passed, that the British Empire was an extension of Britain, and on this the sun never set. It was not a little thing...

To that, there must be no return: so runs the script for a godless world; for as Britain itself falls from its former degree of constancy, it does not desire its former ground; and there was little desire for it, a biblical ground,  in any other Empire of note in recent times.

As to this world, has it not sought for long to invade the little isle, this other Eden, demi-paradise as Shakespeare somewhat fulsomely had it; and did not Napoleon lust for it, and Hitler pant for it; and did not Spain prepare for it with its vast and demolished galleons ? If Rome wanted England then as a jewel in its papal crown, now it is not so much Rome as Europe; and underlying that, a common destiny without foundation, let alone biblical foundation, into which strange concoction all members of the EU must wallow, and in which all survive, and have culture, and impose it because of terrorists of the heart or the body or the spirit, or some combination which they cannot and in their own mind, WILL not endure!

Then, having 'arrived',  they set about to live and survive, for an unknown common destiny. It is a strange tour, but as with all which ignore the end, the end does not ignore them.

Such is what the Bible shows as the Satanic script (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 2); and such increasingly to the observer, is the cultural condition of things in our contemporary world. So they seek to survive; and then ? Then they find this question: What on earth  they are to survive for ? Then comes the realisation that it is (as always) for greatness and glory, and then they will insist that it is THEIRS (as they come to do). Hence they now the more openly despise the God they seek to bury once and for all, ignoring the resurrection and the impending return of Jesus Christ, in his long prophetic train, of which this is the last carriage.

This sort of spirit and approach has already had a fascinating prelude in reported words from the former Clinton administration^*4. It does not delay the end, but beckons it.

This too, like Babylon, like Tyre, like Nineveh, and alas, like Jerusalem when it has been under warrant of discipline for its unbelief (cf. The Pitter ... Ch. 4), this will come. This time it is not some one Empire but a universal empire (and they would rather like it to include Mars and the Stars, and of course the moon, so they are spending billions to extend their wings, in order to fly further, should anything go ... wrong), it is this that is to come. It will not be a Hitler who kills off his detested Jew, but a god-man, enshrining humanism's greatest hopes and condensing them into one figure (the human desire to worship is never quite quashed, since man is made by One deserving it, his Creator); and it is not the Jew who is his objective, except of course when there is a spiritual threat because they become in large measure Christian in their time. No, rather it is the Christian who is to be demolished as a pièce de résistance.

As you saw before with the 'liberal scholars' seeking in vain to demolish the Bible, so you find now, it is what stands that must fall, not in fact but in political thrust; and this is the singular thing, like a vast Empire State Building, not thousands of feet tall, but reaching to the stars in indomitable heights of truth, which MUST GO! Hence the predicted persecution of Christians, already vast in the days of the Roman Empire, continued under the 'Holy Roman Empire', pushed by papacy for centuries, especially in Spain, Italy and England, but not there alone, adapted into academic realms by 'liberals' who ruined many churches and so made it easier through propaganda and unbelief, for political power to come, to remove what remains of the churches: it is soon to come to its head.

One of the more obvious ways of seeking to make the gates of hell (to use the term of Christ) prevail against the Church is of course to declare that certain forms of speech are not to be permitted. Thus as already the case in poor, stricken Victoria in this nation (yet she does not seem to realise yet her servitude, a slave to political convenience): if you open your mouth in such a way that it DISTURBS someone's religious feelings, even if you meant well, too bad! Look at a prison, and consider its ways, and see how you would enjoy it. So BEWARE, beware, for many brave men are asleep in the deep, and you may be added to their number.

Similar efforts are afoot in Australia for anyone who in some way says things which a body of 'reasonable men' do not think good, may find himself or herself under legal duress. Remember the cultural norms of the past ? Remember the 'reasonable men' in Germany (oh, you do not think so now ? but the  powers-that-were thought so, THEN!), who took over Germany, gradually finding their favour and imposing their will, until millions of Jews were killed ? Do you remember at all ?

Remember the 'reasonable men' in Tokyo who bombed Pearl Harbour, because in their given culture this seemed a good thing, and even an appealing one, enabling, some tell us, a dream of a beneficial rule over Asia to be for the good of all.

Can you recall the reasonable approach to Russia, which reasonable liberators were offering the people, who endorsed their ways for a while, and the not so reasonable results after the USA helped Russia to stand in WW II, so that Europe's East could fall ? How is it that people seem to be dedicated increasingly to having no memory ?

And now the reasonable men can say, Oh, you are saying things which however reasonably composed, do not seem to us reasonable, for our culture cannot really allow this, since it may disturb its stability. We must have no absolute truth, and that is absolutely that. So pipe down, or be interred, and meanwhile have some fines to reduce your power to do things anyway; and oh! get off the internet. Your words are too strong; we have no answer but this we answer: fines, removal and then ... We shall see, won't we!

Impossible ? It would be a miracle if it is not soon in place.

China was so fortunate too to have reasonable men in reasonable clothes showing the masses how much better it would be just to follow them, and to avoid corruption. Hence they took over China, with this little chink in the case for man to imagine he could see light, so that absolute corruption could rule, unchecked, as man sought to fight God in earth, acting if it were possible, to deprive him of heaven, and to make THIS WORLD on THEIR terms, without reprieve or redress, to be run as they saw fit.

A good fraction of the earth then, has already experienced whether in Europe under Hitler, in USSR under Stalin and Co., or in China under Mao, what is to come. And it is always most reasonable, even if it does not stand up to reason. It is 'reasonable' because it seems necessary to survive, or advance, or have glory or whatever; but its actual bases are always absurd, nature without father, law without base but its absence, thought without foundation, validity without a source (cf. TMR Ch. 5), a meaningless muddle of contradictory assertions leading to a world for man, on his terms, as his culture dictates. And his culture ? that is just himself seen in an historical mirror. And what is this 'historical' part, they will say. Man is for the future, and the mirror is his dreams.

Does it not remind of the day of Israel before its own demolition by Babylon first, and then Rome in AD 70! Did not Jeremiah in Ch. 23 put it once and for all : "

"I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’

^"How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.

                           And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

As Jeremiah also declares in that Chapter, it is as true today as then, for the word of God is the option to the dream of man, and the latter is seeking to implement itself in God's world with man's strength, and it comes now to the uttermost, so be prepared!

                           In the latter days you will understand it perfectly."

These are those latter days, of which Jeremiah like the other prophets speak (cf. Jeremiah 23:6-9, 31:31ff., Isaiah 2, Micah 4, Isaiah 65, Revelation 20, Micah 7, Zechariah 12-14, Psalm 72), and now is this time roaring into being as man seeks at last for the WHOLE WORLD to make it not HOLY but wholly his own, run by his power, directed by his decrees, with no escape for anyone, since it is too intimate a thing to have any longer with bipartisan segments, but must all, all together, become ONE VASSAL of ONE VICTORIOUS UNIVERSAL POWER, who of course is directed in the end simply against God (as in Revelation 19:19). Hence all God's people will need to be subdued, for such an annihilative attitude to the  God of creation;  for it stands to 'reason' that if God is to go, man must come and remove the emblems of God's power, yes the very repositories, the Christians whom He has adopted!

This is as seen in Revelation 13, 17, and as in Daniel 2 and 7. How 'reasonable' it all sounds to those who desire this world for themselves, and ignorantly to dismiss the source not only of their exquisitely crafted bodies, validly thinking minds and responsible spirits, of their rationality and their meaning, so that they can have it untroubled. Trouble however does not find somewhere else to go because of the social tantrums of man, however international is their 'creating'. Alas, this is the creating that man does, to use the old idiom, it is the 'creating' of the naughty child who WILL have his will!

This, it creates only destruction; always did and always will - till peace and pardon are found in truth and righteousness. When it is God against whom you are 'creating' and in the process, seeking to create new earth, it is with God you are dealing, not a parent of the flesh. That, it is a vulnerable thing to do, to attack your Maker; you cannot unmake Him, for you lack the power. The thing that happens ? it is this, that the assailants are unmade, undone! They face a truth that does not bend, and ignoring a grace that bowed to deliver them, inject themselves like weird gases into the pistons of fury, and to the exhaust.

NOTES

*1A

One of the prime examples of the culture grip, that holding of oneself which is so deadly and so vain, comes in the form of the treatment so often accorded to the Australian aboriginal people.

One has seen them in many modes, in a mission station, glowing with joy, meaning and strength, in drug-drink rides, filled with abandon, in charm and in guile, in youth and in age, in groups and in demonstrations, as students and as caught in the web of intrigue of this or that kind.

Now with the concept that morals do not have any place in Government (except in modish modes which are 'acceptable' to 'reasonable' people), becoming stronger and stronger, there is little many social workers want to do in an objective fashion in this sphere, so it becomes near to fiddling; and of course the aborigines are not really dull. They know how to manipulate if they wish, and one told me in some detail of the mode of manipulation of some agreeable authority, whom he handled to a nicety, as a fisherman his trout!

Hence they give them money for this and that, do not ensure their education is real, but are so concerned about their culture, so that the concept of working for your living loses much of its moral force. One has seen possible bright sparks conditioned into the ease of simply getting money, visiting the 'relies' (or relatives), drinking here, partying there, having marijuana in some other place, or some fight in another. It becomes meaningless disorder (and many white people can follow the same path, but NOT with the same 'cultural' nod!), not seldom fostered by reckless moneys for newly imagined reasons, so that without adequate training and with funds they will often spoil the time, their lives; and all talk of culture.

Hugging the culture is as vain in this as in any other way which ignores the salvation of God. It is as destructive to treat aboriginal people without vision as it is to act without vision in any democratic nation, European or other. It is all a form of holding to something that is oneself, one's nation, one's own way, whether with arrogant aggression, such as Europe has provided so often, or with slack retirement, as often with numbers of our aboriginal people; with smart money, as with the Mafia or in Nigeria, or with evident and eminent corruption as with many banana republics, and not a few recent governmental embezzlements, with devious philosophies or unfounded religions.

In one as in all, it corrupts.  Return to God is the only way open to man; and by culture, he finds a convenient door-closer.

It is not that the special features of a people's past do not matter; it is that they should not dictate, be worshipped or be followed without thought, whether that nation be European, American or other. Culture is no excuse.

In the end, judgment is according to truth, not predisposition to listen.

*1 See Highway of Holiness Ch. 10, His Wounds Opened Eternity Ch. 3, SMR pp. 720ff..

*2 See SMR pp. 946ff..

*3 See The Biblical Workman Appendix 3.

*4

These words were cited in Ch. 5 above, reported as from Robert Reich,
Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton.
 

The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face.

The ludicrous confusion of science and logic with disregard of God is part of the propaganda machine which this site demolishes, showing to the contrary, that LOGIC requires GOD with an absolute and irrevocable stringency, and demolishes whatever seeks to avoid Him, in its own terms (cf. SMR, TMR, Spiritual Refreshings Ch. 13, 16); that science properly so-called demolishes evolutionary waywardness for the origin of man with an utterness which is as remarkable as is the contrary popular educational indoctrination which so many nations conveniently impose on the growing minds of youth (cf. TMR Ch. 1, with The gods of naturalism have no go!).

That is why the Viking-style expeditions were made so recently in England (cf. Beauty for Ashes Ch. 3), although even Paul Davies calls a halt to some of the more ludicrous features of the syndrome (cf. Sparkling Life ... Ch. 8), just as Sir Fred Hoyle had to do (cf. SMR pp. 226ff., with 252Eff., 211), and Stephen Jay Gould could not help himself in complementing (cf. SMR pp. 234ff., Spiritual Refreshings ... Ch. 6).  The Viking rule, the cultural king of secular humanism has provided a misuse of scientific method (cf. The gods of naturalism ... Chs. 3, 5, Appendix II ) which has been so palpable that it is a tribute to the anti-God passion that it can even keep a straight face as it speaks. It fails on all points, while creation triumphs in all (cf. SMR pp. 149ff.), yet it continues.

What is it like ? It is like moss on old trees, just hanging there, but no part of life. It is a ... cultural norm for a fallen age hastening to its end.

Our present point however is not to recover what has been dealt with so often before on this site, but to see the way in which this confusion is made a basis, though airy-fairy, in its mythology (cf. Secular Myths and Sacred Truth), for an explicit and here governmentally endued effort to bring people to dispense with God and run the world for man. It is as simple as that.

It is probable that millions could read this cited statement here, and not even realise what is being said, that it affects their religion: so vast is the cultural conditioning, preached by TV, radio, on discs, in schools. This continues over the decades till the effort or inducement to hypnotise in full sight of the truth, as if it were not there, will produce ... produce what ?

It induces and produces this: the due judgment of God that former civilisations in their erratic cultures disregarded in their own cultural blindness; in those cultures in which they came to 'believe' if they believed anything but their own ways. Delusion deceives; but truth stalks, and the hunter comes. Many seem to imagine that because God is love, He is foolish; but it is not so; or because He is slow to anger, there is none; but it is not so.

It comes. It does not delay forever; it is just that Christ is patient (II Peter 3:9), and the Lord was glad to spare Nineveh in the days of Jonah, before the end came as predicted later by Nahum. God did not make the universe lightly, nor does He remove it in haste. He did not die for sin, in Christ, lightly; nor will He cease the day of Gospel intervention too soon. It is, He declared, as in Matthew 24:12, to go on, this Gospel preaching, till all nations know; and THEN the END comes.

It is interesting that Peter in the passage just cited, indicates that some may feel that the Lord is delaying His coming. Way back then, just a few years after the crucifixion of Christ, Peter, apostle of truth, was at pains to make it clear that the sort of time scale before the RETURN of Christ, was a matter not of decades, or a century, but of a thousand years! This was the sort of unit which is to be used.

THAT is the sort of time involved. That is perfectly clear in II Peter 3:9 and it is now the case that we have had two of these, two thousand years, and the signals are flapping like flags in the breeze (Answers to Questions Ch. 5), while the storm clouds make those of the days of Hitler in the thirties as the menace grew, seem but passing fingers of grey, BY COMPARISON!

Whether however in the day of Jonah, when Nineveh LISTENED, repented and believed the Lord, so averting disaster, deserved but remitted through their response to the divine message of the loving God, or in the day when it was past hearing, when Nahum prophesied unconditionally, there is but one alternative to man and his cultures, thoughts, philosophies, invented religions and bastions of self-centred power. It is the Lord.

It is the same Lord. He has not changed, does not change, nor does His word of peace through pardon following repentance and faith in Him and in His mercy at all alter; nor does the necessity of sacrifice change, nor does the due fulfilment of that in ONE SACRIFICE, ONCE MADE FOREVER (Hebrews 7-10), unrepeatable, indissoluble, undeviating in its thrust to mercy, unconfined in its scope of love (cf. Colossians 1:19ff.), in ONE Saviour, Jesus Christ, the foretold Messiah, at ONE time killed (cf. Highway of Holiness loc. cit.). Nor is there change in the one immutable Gospel (Galatians 1, 3, 5), predicted beforehand, provided for all time.

But it is not for all time that man may dawdle; it is NOW that one must believe, when in the grace of God one hears and sees.

Doors are made to be opened and shut. The door is now open (John 10:9), is Christ Himself personally, and in its nature now completed before our very faces, it has been so for some millenia; but the end comes. It has come to civilisations and it comes to the global civilisation about to come and then ... go, as those merely regional empires did. Size does not alter guilt before God, nor judgment according to truth.

The end available before the end is the end of the guilt which is not able to beguile God: it is to be found in the Cross of Christ, where sin is remitted. It is not in masses, but in faith, for without blood there is no remission and without suffering there is no sacrifice (cf. Hebrews 9:22,26). It is not in priests, for Christ is now our High Priest (Hebrews 2-5). It is in Calvary (Galatians 6:14, Romans 3:23ff. cf. SMR pp. 1046ff. -1088H), the mission accomplished of the Christ who invaded history in order to remove the inveigling of sin, and provide peace for all for all time, to those who receive Him, not culture, as King! (cf. John 1:12-14, 3:16-19,36).

Why should souls be desolate because the cultural world seeks the soulless option of pretence ? It goes its own way. Let each who hears, go his or hers also; but in all the mercy of God, one hopes for many to find the One whose way is wisdom and eternity, freely providing loss of guilt before the holy God who has done all, and is able to save any who in faith receives His truth, His salvation, His Christ despatched from heaven, not space, with a sovereignty to be desired, since truth is its territory and love its motivation.