Four years ago, I wrote about Iran’s EMP weapons program. EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse. Experts say it’s one of the few ways in which the UScould be defeated militarily, first because it’s a relatively unsophisticated weapon so our enemies could make one, and second because we don’t have a reliable defense against it.  Recently (July 2008) this type of weapon was in the news again because of Congressional hearings about our continuing vulnerability.

An EMP weapon works like this. You fire a missile (Scuds are obtainable on the weapons market for about $100K, but Iran has its own Shehab-3) loaded with a small nuclear warhead (also obtainable) from the deck of a nondescript merchant ship (there are currently 130,000 of them registered in 195 countries including Iran … Al Qaeda reportedly has 80 or so) a little ways off the coast. You don’t need pinpoint accuracy because you’re going to detonate it at high altitude above your target area.

As you do, the explosion creates an electromagnetic pulse that travels at the speed of light down to the earth’s surface, destroying all surface and airborne electronic equipment within a circle whose size is determined by the altitude and power of the explosion. If you could get your missile high enough you could wipe out all the computers, phones, weapons guidance systems and other electronic equipment in the entire US with one shot.  It would take months or even years to repair the damage.

By buying your missile on the black market and using an old tramp steamer as your launch platform your target wouldn’t know who to retaliate against, even if they still had the capability. According to experts, a launcher covered by an old tarp on the deck of some rust bucket can’t be distinguished from a stack of hay bales or a bunch of bananas by even the most sophisticated spy satellite.

Earlier this year Iran was conducting missile tests that observers contended were failures because the missiles exploded at the top of their trajectory. But Irancalled them successful. Were they test firing EMP weapons? Some think there could be no other reason for Iran to be experimenting with mid-air detonation of missiles than for the planning of an EMP-style attack

The US is especially vulnerable to this kind of attack because we’re by far the most advanced in our use of computers to run things, and therefore the most dependent on them. Remember the Y2K scare?  This one is real and could be worse.   “Doomsdayers” say this kind of attack could happen any time now, since we aren’t protected against it and our highly motivated enemies probably have the required capability.

But Wait There’s More
I also reported that Iran would break the dollar’s monopoly on world oil purchases, which has happened.  As of December 2007, only 15% of Iran’s oil production was sold in dollars.  Other countries have followed suit, and today more than 30% of the world’s oil is sold in other currencies.

And Iran and Syria have without a doubt extended our stay in Iraq by funding and staffing terrorist groups determined to prevent us from establishing a stable government there, costing hundreds of additional American deaths and untold millions of dollars. Iran is also steadfastly refusing to back away from its nuclear program, even offering to share its technology with Syria to pick up where North Korea left off. More and more it appears likely that sometime between the November election and the January inauguration. Pres. Bush will team up with Israel to give Iran its due, and most experts agree that together we could do them some serious damage.  And of course they’ve promised to give as good as they get.

Why is Iran goading us this way?   Well, aside from wanting to defeat a sworn enemy, their particular brand of Islam holds that the 12th Imam (12th descendant of Mohammed), who disappeared while still a child some 1300 years ago, will one day return to earth to set up a world wide Islamic society. But this can’t happen until the world is experiencing enough oppression, misery, tyranny and sorrow to warrant his coming. So to hasten his return, Iran’s leaders believe in provoking as much chaos as possible, arguing that not doing so delays his coming and their redemption.

There are other clues that Islam will likely govern the End Times.  Beheading is their preferred method of execution.  Some forms of Islam support a convert or die policy and Rev. 20:4 talks about the souls beheaded for Christ.  The other day I was reading an article on the number of large banks that have quietly instituted Sharia banking practices, having sold major interests in their organizations to Islamic investors to cover their losses.  It occurred to me that having these Sharia laws in place will make it a lot easier for the anti-Christ to exclude believers from the End Times economy.  Plunging the world into economic chaos and buying up financial institutions is therefore a desirable step toward achieving a worldwide conversion to Islam. And like the EMP weapon it’s a goal that could be within reach, and against which there’s currently no defense.

In the mean time, we’re doing a pretty good job of making ourselves as vulnerable in the financial arena as we are against EMP weapons.  We have yet to see the end of the mortgage crisis and in August more mortgages will be due for rate adjustments than in any other month so far.  Foreclosures are 50% higher than last year at this time, and there are now over 2 million homes for sale in the US.  Three banks have been closed recently and there are 90 more on a government watch list.  Ford just posted it’s biggest loss ever and GM stock is at a 50 year low.  Nobody even mentions Chrysler any more.  The former number 3 auto maker will likely file a chapter 11 bankruptcy before the end of August.

Some experts are saying that Washington has its back to the wall. They say that with interest rates having been kept too low and debt having gotten too high there’s no place to go. Between the soaring price of oil and a trillion dollars of foreign owned debt, other countries effectively have veto power over American financial policy now.

It’s only fair to say that we’re not in this alone.  Europe and Asia are actually worse off than we are.  It’s really only the oil producing giants who will escape what some believe is becoming a serious world wide recession.

What Was The Question?
But here’s the real question. If our enemies have the necessary capability to do destroy us on several fronts, and if we’re so vulnerable, why haven’t they already acted?  It’s certainly not from lack of desire.

But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge. (Psalm 94:22)

In spite of near fanatical attempts by some to have God expelled from our schools, erased off our currency, and kicked out of our lives, there are still too many believers around for them to fully succeed. And as long as we’re here the Lord will continue to restrain the forces of evil until in His perfect time He removes us and releases them to do their worst (2 Thes. 2:7-8). The birth pangs of war, natural disaster, and pestilence we’re experiencing now are to remind us that our reliance on money, jobs, or government will soon prove to be an unsound strategy.  So He’s stripping away every trace of the false sense of security these things have provided for us in the past, teaching us to look to Him instead.

And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer. (Psalm 78:35)

From the study of prophecy it seems likely that the US will decline suddenly and dramatically, perhaps in the same manner as the Soviet Union which was literally there one day and gone the next. Whether it happens because our computers suddenly die or our currency loses what’s left of its value, the change will be abrupt. Many of those who’ve built their spiritual houses on the sand of humanism instead of The Rock will find it catastrophic. Investments and savings accounts will shrink overnight, equity disappearing with the snap of a finger. Worse than the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed, it will cause many to be left unable to face the future.

(If you live in the US, you may not have noticed how dramatic the change in the dollar’s value has been, and may be thinking I sound like an alarmist. But in Mexico where I live it’s much more obvious.  The same dollar that was worth 11 pesos just a few months ago is now worth 9.5 pesos.  The orphanage we work with is a good example of what this means.  They get most of their donations in dollars, but have to pay a lot of their bills in pesos.  The dollar’s decline means that it now takes 1,000 more dollars each month to pay their peso denominated bills.)

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1-3)

But people of faith have a certain defense, impervious to our changing circumstances. We know that we have One Who is pledged to our protection, Who will never leave us or forsake us.  Even in the most difficult of times He will carry us through until that glorious day when in the twinkling of an eye, we disappear forever. Until then,

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall (Psalm 55:22)

and,

Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt. 6:31-33)

There was such peace and harmony in The Garden. Every need was met, every desire of the heart fulfilled. Scholars speculate on the length of time Adam and Eve enjoyed Life in the Garden, but no one really knows. I believe it was long enough to give them a very clear perspective on the differences they experienced after the fall. Life in the Garden is so deeply imprinted in the memory of man that it’s been the stuff of mythology and the subject of books ever since. Sir Thomas More’s book “Utopia” is just one example, although perhaps the most famous.

Whose Decision Was It?
What took Adam and Eve out of the Garden? Nothing more than the substitution of their own will for God’s. He had given them everything, including the freedom from worry. He had accepted full responsibility for their well being, providing for and sustaining them, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

When they began making decisions for themselves He let them, but He also let them share some of the responsibility for their decisions. This shared responsibility brought them feelings unknown in the creation until then. The Hebrew word describing these feelings is translated sorrow in the KJV and pain or painful toil in the NIV. It’s used only three times. Two of those are in Genesis 3:16-17, verses that outline the consequences of their decisions.

To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

The only other time it’s used is in Genesis 5:29 where it describes how the Lord would bring relief from these feelings.

He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.”

Lamech named his son Noah, which means comfort. But how did Noah bring the world comfort from the curse? Well, one way was that he preserved the purity of the Messianic line, avoiding the attack on humanity that produced the Nephilim and contaminated the human gene pool. This made the coming of the One who really would give us comfort possible.

But I believe Lamech also knew that Noah was to be the last of the 10 Patriarchs from the time before the Great Flood, and because he named his son Noah, their 10 names could be formed into a single sentence that summarizes the complete Gospel story. “Man (Adam) is appointed (Seth) mortal (Enosh) sorrow (Kenan), but the blessed God (Mahalalel) shall come down (Jared) teaching (Enoch) that his death shall bring (Methusaleh) the despairing (Lamech) comfort (Noah).” It’s a prophecy of the Messiah that took 10 generations to write, but it has brought much comfort to the world, because it had to have come from God. What kind of coincidence could have produced it otherwise?

But the most important point to remember is this. Adam and Eve learned that sorrow and painful toil came into their lives as the result of seeking independence from God.

Shared Responsibility
When I say the Lord let them share some of the responsibility, here’s what I mean. Even though they had just made the second biggest mistake in the history of Man (the biggest was Israel’s murder of their Messiah) and even though God could have made them disappear and started again with another handful of red dirt (Gen. 2:7), He still watched over them and cared for them as His children.

His first act of kindness after the fall was to provide food for them, even though they had to work for it. His second was to clothe them. His third was to send Cherubim to guard the way to the tree of Life, preserving their way back to the Garden once the consequences of their actions had been reversed at the cross (Romans 8:20-21).

In no way could Adam and Eve negate the outcome of their decision, but because of His great mercy they could learn from it and voluntarily yield their will back to the Lord who was still their Provider (El Shaddai). When they did, He blessed them with long life and many children, signs of His favor. And though their circumstances were forever changed, they again walked and talked with God and were at peace with Him in spite of those circumstances. In other words, even though they could no longer physically live in the Garden, they could achieve a Garden state of mind.

Lessons from History
The German philosopher Hegel once said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” But in Romans 15:4 Paul wrote that “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.”

In other words, lessons that began in the Garden still apply today. We’re to learn both from Adam and Eve’s mistakes and the Lord’s response.

Like Adam and Eve we’re God’s people. As long as we submit ourselves to His will our every need will be met and He will assume full responsibility for our well being (Psalm 37:4 & Matt. 6:31-33). But when we start exercising our own prerogatives He begins sharing that responsibility with us. The more independently we act, the more responsibility He shares. Along with shared responsibility come sorrow and painful toil.

When we surrender again He takes the responsibility back. Since He hasn’t given us full use of the dimension of time, we can’t go back and negate the consequences of our independent decisions, but like Adam and Eve we can learn from them and voluntarily yield our will again to the Lord who is still our Provider. All He requires is confession and a willingness to start over. His mercies are new every morning, so we too can achieve a Garden state of mind in spite of our circumstances, just like our first parents.

It’s All in Your Mind
One day soon, the Lord will lead us all back to the real Garden, the one in heaven. But until then, there’s the Garden state of mind. These are perilous times and every indication is that they’ll become more so. If you’re all stressed out about them, maybe you’re assuming too much responsibility, trying to impose your own will on things you can’t control instead of trusting God and living according to His will. If so, you’re living outside the Garden, where it’s full of sorrow and painful toil.

Jesus said, “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28).” Give your life to Him again, and relieve yourself of the responsibility. You may not be able to reverse the effects of your past decisions, but if you draw near to Him, He’ll draw near to you and lead you safely through them. Just like Adam and Eve did, you’ll find that life’s better in the Garden, even when it’s only a state of mind.