Feb 4
The Path To Self-Destruction
Last Friday, two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives
brought carnage to two Baghdad pet bazaars. More than 100 people were killed in both
bombings, the city's largest attack since the American troop buildup began.
The bombers were able to get past security because men are not allowed to search the
bodies of female pedestrians. The women’s mental condition is another factor that may
have tricked the guards into thinking they were harmless. Police said one woman sold
cream in the mornings at the market and was known to locals as "the crazy lady."
At least four other suicide bombings have been staged by women since November, all in the volatile Diyala province northeast of the capital.
Officials in Iraq were quick to condemn the bombings. "These two suicide vest attacks
represent the worst of human nature," said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, the top U.S.
commander in Baghdad. He said American forces would continue their targeted operations
that have succeeded in decreasing attacks.
"We will not give back any terrain here in Baghdad," he told reporters at a U.S. patrol
base south of the capital.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings prove al-Qaida is
"the most brutal and bankrupt of movements" and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject
terrorism.
Friday's death toll is part of a recent steady increase in the monthly toll of Baghdad
bombing deaths. After reaching a low in November, the body count has risen the past two
months. February is only three days old and it is already on track to be the deadliest month
since the surge began.
What seems to be lost in all the news reporting is the word "evil." These terrorist bombings are some of the most repulsive acts in human history. You would think the devil himself would be the origin of a plan to use mentally retarded women as bombers to attack a pet bazaar crowded with dozens of children.
Probably most shocking is that this event has received little reaction from the global community. I was amazed at how quickly the bombing story disappeared from the headlines.
Why has Islam not suffered any major scorn for these depraved bombings? The only logical answer would have to point out the level of control Satan has over this world.
In 1945, the world was shocked to discover Hitler's death camps. The German people were seemingly forever stained by acts committed by their leaders, and man collectively decided that this terrible event should never be repeated. If the holocaust
happened today, I wonder if its impact would last through the decade. The lessons from history have been lost, and man has become hopelessly desensitized to his true evil nature.
Our society has clearly lost its moral compass, and unless we find it, the inhabitants of earth are doomed to follow the path towards self-destruction.
Whenever there is some senseless act of mass murder, everyone asks, "Why did this happen?"
"And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days" (Mark 13:20).
-- Todd
The Coming Change
You can sense it. It is in the air. Not in the literal atmosphere we breathe, but within the sea of life in which all of us swim daily. It is the scent of things to come–things prophesied long ago, but present in the societal, cultural, and the political air we inhale and exhale these days. There is a sea-change in the making, and, according to God’s Word, it won’t be for the better for those who dwell upon earth.
Most in my circle of family, friends, and colleagues–even acquaintences with whom I have lesser contact, are saying the same things these days. It all revolves around the mantra: “I just don’t see anyone I can vote for, do you?” Yet, I hear animated inflection, even exhilaration, in the expressions of media pundits and in some out here in the sea of humanity who engage in common conversation.
A news story caught my attention and set in motion a bit of cogitation on the strange mixture of foreboding and excitement wafting throughout America and the world while the U.S. presidential election process pervades our daily comings and goings. It reads in part:
“Germans are gaga over Barack Obama. He's got Japan pretty jazzed, too, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Russia's leaders, not so much: They prefer a Republican—as long as it's not Kremlin critic John McCain. And Mexico's president? He doesn't have much use for any of them.
America's extraordinary presidential campaign has captivated politicians and ordinary people around the globe. With so much at stake in the race for the White House, the world is watching with an intensity that hasn't been seen since the Clinton era began in 1992.
After eight years of President Bush, the latest mantra in U.S. politics—"transformational change"—is resonating across the rest of a planet desperate for a fresh start…” (World Captivated by US Presidential Race, Feb. 1, 2008, By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer).
Actually, the “transformational change” is well under way. It has been in process for decades. The tide of humanism has washed away the base in which the pillars of American constitutional principles were set by the founding fathers. The 1960s saw judicial fiat replace much of the legislative and executive branches' involvement in shaping social-cultural posture for this nation.
Roe vs. Wade and the abortion of nearly 50 million babies, followed by prayer and Bible reading being rejected and ejected by humanists who now run the public schools, prepared the way for the complete transformation in church life in America–and spiritual changes that no nation can survive as a moral entity.
The mega-church movement that has invited entertainment priorities to replace sound doctrinal teaching and preaching is the result of decades of telling the American people that while church (meaning Christianity) and state must be separate at all costs, the Church must allow the secular things of the nation–and all things attendant to humanism—to be a visceral part of its activities. Entertainment, pop psychology, rock bands, and merchandising have become part of the transformational change.
The methodologies have worked. The mega-churches have burgeoned in numbers and grown wealthy and opulent. They will receive no sound doctrinal meat of God’s Word in most cases, but the attendees have “been to church.” Their consciences can be clear, and it didn’t hurt a bit.
The “transformational change” the humanists–and Lucifer—want is coming to pass. The result will be the regime of Antichrist, whom the masses will worship as God. There will be no doubt about who to vote for in that day.
God’s Word through the psalmist echoes in our time: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:1-6).
Christians are to be good citizens. I don’t mean to imply we shouldn’t cast our ballot for the best alternative. But, we must never be deluded into believing that change for the better will flow from any human election or subsequent government. True change that can improve the human condition comes only from a transformed spiritual heart–a condition produced only through God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
--Terry
