Chronicles of Diversity

18 October 2006; Volume 8, Issue 30

PDF link: http://www.wondersprings.com/2006pdffiles/whatsup10-18-6.pdf

So what’s up, that seems to make your today?

Well, I read earlier this week that again another Muslim leader told is fellow followers of Mohammed that they should leave the United States because during the Holy Month of Ramadan terrorists attacks will be carried out on US soil. Ramadan this year begins on October 23 and continues to November 22. What’s up, in this case seems to center pretty much around the American elections, all not good news. I wonder if the attacks will come before or after we go to the polls, or if the attacks will come at all?

What’s up in this country of basically good people of all faiths, that we might even be having thoughts of such nightmares? I mean, after all, the crusades were a thousand years ago.

For some historical context, how about the fact, the Middle East as we see by the lines on the map, really didn’t exist before the close of World War I. France, England, and to a lesser degree we Americans parceled up these countries to tribal chiefs, without regard to actual and Biblical tribes and nations, but rather on the evolutionary concept of race. I know that is a generality, but did we really care about the long term consequences of these actions?

Then there was the little opportunity of the Balfour Declaration from 1917, which gave Jewish Zionists the right to form communities in Palestine. Just because this would eventually become the state of Israel after WWII, does not mean that a Biblical based country should exist on the shore of the Middle East desert! Especially, if those Jews would turn that worthless ground into an oasis of prosperity and personal freedom. Western civilization where none had existed before, not a good idea to make peace with Isalm.

Oh, the jihadists are also upset by the American invasion of Iraq. I was recovering from my heart surgery, laying on a hospital type bed in my living room as Shock and Awe took place, so I really had little else to do but watch a lot of the coverage. Impressive I must admit. But again we were attempting to change the power structure, on the predating lines on a map, and it was even apparent at the time, that the Kurds, the Shia, and the Sunni residents of the area were going to be happy with their western style democracy or else. Well, three and a half years later, the “or else” is a real and present danger.

Thank God my vote only counts once. I have not had a very good success rate in my voting for President. Besides voting for Jimmy Carter, and Bush senior, my two votes for GWB, seem not to be my best insight. At least I have an excuse, we both share GWB initials, very few of the conservative members of the Christian right have that excuse.

How quickly we forget, one of the reasons that Dubya is our Commander and Chief, is that the illustrious Democratic Party ran a self inflicted war hero, and a mediocre senator and now famous save the earth documentary film producer. I guess I don’t really know how that salvation is supposed to work, I haven’t seen the film. Saving the world by controlling green house gases, that is surely something we can carry out, if we all work together and have good thoughts.

Too bad some of us have a different definition of what saving the earth is all about.

I will have to admit, I did have some reservations about my vote for George, I thought he lacked discernment, just like most of the rest of the religious right. True to form he is definitely passionate in his beliefs, and to that end I guess he still has not made any mistakes in the very hard work that his administration is carrying out. As a consequence, it looks like the political party that hasn’t had a positive idea at least in this century, may again, take control of the Congress of the United States.

Well, should George have fired Donald Rumsfeld? The book by Bob Woodward seems to think so. Would that have solved the problem? I think not, perhaps the more important question may be should Rumsfeld have been appointed Secretary of Defense in the first place? All water down the road, and the wash out, we will have to deal with for a generation of more down the road. Should those radical Islamists set off the seven bombs in our homeland in the next month, the problems will last much longer.

Books, and other writings, sometimes should be read more widely. As was pointed out to me this last week, a book by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson, may have pointed to the major problem of this administration, in the book, “Blinded by the Might.” Here is a quote from the Amazon.com Editorial Review of the book:

“Ed Dobson, who helped draft the Moral Majority platform and served as personal assistant to Jerry Falwell, offers a particularly compelling chapter in which he compares the U.S. to Northern Ireland, where Dobson grew up as a Protestant. ‘We have politicized the gospel with our agendas,’ he writes. ‘To be part of the Christian right is to be part of the Republican party. For some, this means to be a real Christian, you must be a Republican. That is heresy and is only a short distance from the extremism of my Irish counterparts.’”

It just so happens that that bastion of liberal media, CBS also promoted a similar book on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction” by David Kuo was released Monday by Free Press. So you can buy on Amazon this new best seller together with Woodward’s “State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III” for only $32.05. Together they qualify for Free Super Saver Shipping.

According to “60 Minutes”, the White House staff dismisses the leaders of evangelical Christendom as buffoons. Brother Jerry (Falwell), brother Pat (Robertson) and brother Jim (Dobson), could it be that these men of the cloth have forsaken the gospel of Christ crucified, for the power of politics.

If you skim down the current reviews in the Amazon list for “Tempting Faith” you might find the term Mayberry Machiavellis (MM) and a Esquire article. While the article does not currently exist in total that I can find, there is an excerpt that you can locate by doing a internet search for MM, which also includes on the same page a link to and “on the record letter” from John DiIulio, the person who coined the MM term. That letter is worth reading.

Back to what’s up. Last week I wrote about worldviews, that Islam is a worldview unto itself that needs to be recognized, and we of the western culture must be aware of Islam’s worldview agenda. However, how is Islam supposed to be able to discern the difference between the Christian worldview of the so called Christian right and the Christian worldview of the Christian gospel?

Truthfully, probably Isalmists don’t care, unless we convert to their particular sect of Islam, we are all infidels. Consequently, if the bomb or bombs go off we will all have to pay the price. However, bomb or no bomb there are changes in the landscape that we shall all have to cope, should the Lord tarry.

One of the things I have found interesting in an academic sort of way is that the power and money behind the religious right comes from almost exclusively pretribulation rapture enthusiasts, not from the preterist camp. Why if the rapture can happen before Ramadan begins, does it make any difference whether the bomb goes off, or the Republicans win the election, or don’t lose control of the Congress?

The Post mil people should be the real leaders of this movement. I mean if the millennial reign of Jesus Christ is taking place and will take place until the second coming, as the whole world is slowly being converted to Christianity, it seems like a strong political stand would be required now and as time unfolds hence forth. Could it be the Post mil folks, with all their shortcomings, tend to preach another gospel instead? However, this political drive comes from those who know in their heart of hearts, that at any moment they will be one of the billion or so people, not left behind. It just doesn’t seem to compute.

Over the years books have been written, again mostly by pretrib rapture people, explaining why the United States does not seem to be evident as a major player in end of time events. But books aside, they are right, while a lot of the world is mentioned, the world’s current only super power can not be found in the natural eschatology of the last of the last days, before the Day of the Lord. Basically one must assume that the American model ceases to function.

One model for that could be the secret rapture of the church, as the mark of the beginning of the Great Tribulation. However, that is pretty much the circular reasoning evolutionary explanation for the fossil record and the geological column of sediments. By definition the Great Tribulation begins when the church disappears. This does not take into account the possibility of a Mid Trib, or Post Trib rapture, or no literal secret rapture at all. More importantly it shows very obtusely that the Christian life on this earth is supposed to be without trouble once you turn and give your heart to Jesus.

That is just not true, biblically or empirically, by anyone who has lived outside the suburban evangelical bubble. More importantly however than the individual, are the bigger cultural and community applications. A dirty bomb, or a real Richter 9 earthquake, another natural or man made disaster, and your eschatology will quickly be revisited, not just as an individual case, but in the larger stage of the whole Christian community.

What would be the consequences of such a revival of reality? Again the Bible speaks about a great turning away, or great apostasy in the last of the last days. Now if you have lived your whole life in a church were the gospel is really not the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for your sins and raised from the dead for your justification, your whole world and worldview is going to be destroyed in an instant. The parson, no matter his political and economic standing within the community, will quickly come to know, deeply and personally, Paul’s admonition to Timothy about being spiritual leaders.

That could be a good thing. Through out it all we have the promise of Jesus Christ to build His church, persecution and stupendous change is what she can handle like no worldview religion. In fact, as we have stated here before, the power to become all that God wants you to be, does not come by your desire and efforts to be a good person, it comes by simply trusting in the finished work of God through Christ alone by faith. Once you truly live outside your personal religious reason, in that faith promise, you become truly aware of the peace of God’s grace and the natural praise that flows from that total revelation.

When faced with difficult times only Christians can sing praises to their Redeemer simply because the final breath of this life is not all there is, but only the beginning. While countless hymns have been written to express this joy, one comes to mind written by Edward Mote (1797-1874) an English Baptist preacher. When is beloved congregation offered him the title to the church building, he is said to have remarked, “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.”

May we all live to see that again in Christ’s church, not only American soil, but also all over God’s green earth, no matter what life’s tribulations may bring.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

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Building sanctification, Part II; PDF link: http://www.wondersprings.com/2006pdffiles/buildsanctII8-16-6.pdf
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