Longing for Peace

The comments our government officials have made in the wake of the terrorist attack on Paris does not instill confidence that they have the best interests of this nation in mind. The political correctness which seeks to keep us from focusing our attention on the root cause of the terrorism plaguing this world will only allow it to get worse. You can't fight an evil that you can't even talk about. It doesn't look like Western Civilization in general and the United States in particular is willing to set aside its utopian multicultural values enough to admit that the Islamic culture is not just incompatible, it is at war with us.

I keep hearing that the world needs to be patient with the Islamists, that all they need is a reformation like occurred with Christianity. People saying this are seeing the world through their evolutionary worldview filter and miss what really happened with the Protestant Reformation. When Martin Luther had his revelation that "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17, NKJV), it resulted in a movement to take the Bible more literally as our only source of authority, sola scriptura. The problem with Islam is that this religion is in fact undergoing a reformation to take the Quran literally in our day which means the concept of jihad is transformed from a benign spiritual struggle to a physical one. As Christians strive to follow the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, increasingly Muslims emulate their Prophet Mohammad who had a very violent life.

We expect to hear uninspired commentary from liberal politicians trying to keep us from getting into a war with Islam. But I continue to be surprised by the solidarity liberal Christians have with Leftist causes. Liberal Christians don't want us to get in a war with Islam either; indeed, they don't believe any war is justified ever. War is a terrible business and I too wish we didn't have to have wars. But Jesus said there would be increasing wars and rumors of wars as a sign of His soon coming. So our thinking we can avoid war in this pre-Millennial Age by refusing to participate is only going to make the war more terrible when it is forced on us.

Among the things I can't shake my fascination with is how followers of Christ can embrace the issues of the Left. The only way they can do this is by taking a very liberal view of Scripture thinking the Bible is the story of man's search for God rather than the inspired Word of God. I have also found it is pretty predictable that politically liberal Christians are more aligned with the world embracing such doctrines as theistic evolution and amillennialism.

One of the common misunderstandings of liberal Christians is the distinction given in Scripture between the role of Christians as individuals versus the role of nations ordained by God to protect its citizens. Liberal Christians think nations should act as God calls individuals to "love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44). This would work for the nations too if they were made up of Christ-followers. But they are not and acting as though they were is not realistic in this world that sorely needs the Prince of Peace to reign. The plan of God is for nations to serve as His proxy in subduing evil in this world, that an agent of the government "does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:4). When nations fail to mete out God's wrath on evil, evil will grow and that is where we find ourselves in this world today.

The situation in Syria certainly bears watching. The United States trying to avoid confronting evil by getting in another war there has only given an opportunity to Russia. It has been reported that Vladimir Putin wants to bring 150,000 ground troops to Syria in the war against ISIS. Do we really think that Russia just wants to confront the evil of ISIS or do they have another agenda? It sure looks to me like the stage is getting set fulfillment of Ezekiel 38.

Not confronting radical Islam as the evil it is only encourages it's proponents to increase their efforts to conquer the world for Allah. Unfortunately, the god of Islam is the same god who is behind the growing spirit of Antichrist in this world. So we can expect more Islamic terrorism and more warfare in the world. The only relief for the nations will be the return of Jesus. The Millennial Kingdom will have the world peace the nations long for when: "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4).

In the meantime, until Jesus returns to establish His Millennial Kingdom, there will be consequences of nations neglecting their duty before God. It is good to be a citizen of heaven looking for our Bridegroom to come for us before this world experiences God's wrath.