1-8-02
We are learning to live globally just one day at a time with the situation between Israelis and Palestinians, but now we've had to add Pakistan and India to our daily watch. Their tensions seem even higher since both sides have nuclear arms. Oh for the days when "put up your dukes" was enough to say for a fight, instead of "put up your nukes." If such conflict breaks out, it will quickly polarize the planet and probably around the Middle East rather than Pakistan vs. India. Fortunately both sides are now promising never to be first in using the unspeakable weapons. But the logic points to Pakistan because it's so much smaller and would need an "equalizer" if war should break out. India has an image of being peaceful going back to it's Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated in the forties because he refused to lead any violent resistance against British rule. Though India now claims to be secular as the world's biggest democracy, it's population is as overwhelmingly Hindu as Pakistan is Muslim. And the dispute is over that territory approximately between them, Kashmir, which is split as Hindu and Islamic. We are inclined toward Pakistan, which has been our close ally in this war on terrorism, though infested with terrorists itself. We still recall that India sided with the USSR that cold war of the 20th century. I don't think its atheism bothered the Hindus as much as it did Muslims. Now that atheism is politically dead, the militant Muslims are trying to make Allah the global issue. While our motto is "In God We Trust," we know that it refers to GOD in the Bible worshipped by both Christians and Jews. And we Christians also trust that He revealed His heart in Jesus Christ. I've finally come to see that the Son had been begotten by the Father before all time and space (creation) and then conceived at a point in history by the power of the Holy Spirit in the virgin womb of Mary. Thus Yahweh has disclosed His inward self to humanity in the Man, Christ Jesus. Oh that all people could behold this wonderful, marvelous revelation. And that Muslims would read it clearly in the New Testament instead of accepting the Koran, where it is covered up and hidden.
That teen called Charles Bishop in the news actually had an Arab last name from what I've heard. I thought it showed some in the colored photo we saw on TV. Thus his written support for ObL that was found in the pocket on his dead body would make a tiny bit of sense, if his dad were Arabic. Saudi Arabia seems to be a Jacob/Esau nation (Genesis 27:24), officially an ally that sells us so much oil and wants our business while secretly hating us as infidels that have defiled their "holy land" by keeping our military based there. It would help to know about that 15-year-olds religion, I think. ObL had appealed in one of his television tapes for young Arab men to follow the pattern of the WTC attackers by flying planes into tall buildings. If the boy heard it, he could have been seduced by that satanic proposal. False faith can cause such horrible consequences. Tampa is home of the national air defense system I understand. That also seems to fit. He may have hoped to do a whole lot more damage than just ending his own life, sad as that was.
Two other cases getting public attention are the trial down in Texas of that mother who drowned her five children and the one up in Cambridge MA over a youngster's hockey game where one father killed another. While neither has any link to the war on terrorism, they both display the devil's same design to bring hell upon earth? Maybe that's what made Christmas 2001 more glorious to me than any ever: it reaffirmed the victory of good over evil, because the Savior has been born; Whose name, Yeshua, is the Hebrew word for "salvation." That old lesson of history comes true on Nativity Night each year: "When it gets dark enough, the stars come out." Then the birth of baby new year 2002 echoes that reality. In spite of hellish events, our secular society derives its goodness and decency from the heavenly Gospel that is preached more in this land than any other does. As surely as He came at Bethlehem so long ago, He's coming again very soon! So make ready to face Him while you still have time.
1-13-02
The two biggest stories of this morning's news are Enron going belly up and the Pakistani president Musharrif making a speech against terrorism. The first is local and the second global, as I see it. How very sad to see so many employees loose their life savings in America's biggest bankruptcy ever. But a nuclear war between Pakistan and India could see millions loose their lives and everything. So that's the bigger issue on planet earth in my opinion. Yet money is at the bottom of nearly everything that happens I've learned. Terrorism has to be financed and our efforts to dry up their cash flow has done as much, if not more, toward shutting down such operations that military action; just look at the way a lack of money has shut down that energy giant, Enron. Yet there was still another item in the news dealing with getting guns out of Kabul that causes me to wonder. They are saying it's the very top priority of Afghanistan's new premier, Nazari. Our offer of buying them back from the tribesmen has had little result. Such a failure makes me think of the twenty-five million dollars that's been on ObL's head and has gone unclaimed as of yet. So is there something in the Islamic world that resists payoff? Perhaps an aversion to avarice? Are they not motivated for monetary reward the way we are? Could it be that Islam has some other "bottom line?" That might be what the egg heads mean by their "clash of civilization" terminology. It just blows my mind considering such a possibility. We have long held that there are things in our culture, which can't be bought with money. But that seems more like the stuff of fairy tales today. Maybe it was true in former generations and we are clinging to nostalgia. A commercial slogan goes "Some things money can't buy, but for everything else there is MasterCard." It sounds like an echo of days long gone doesn't it? Yet the Kingdom of GOD is the very realm of such reality. Our Lord said "Lay not up treasures upon earth...but lay up your treasure in heaven..." which is as true now as the day He said it. Thus the Kingdom is more important than earthly life and we should be as ready to be martyred as those terrorists who blow themselves to bits. However, our martyrdom would never be to hurt or destroy others. It would only be to sacrifice self for their sake. And that means more than other Christians only. Even though outsiders are unbelievers, we still see them as souls precious to the GOD who gives life to all human beings. We're not at war against "infidels" but against Satan. That's why our warfare is not carnal and our weapons must be of the Spirit as in Ephesians 6: "For we wrestle not with flesh and blood; but with powers and principalities, with rulers of darkness and wickedness in high places."