Jairus' Daughter

Do you see what I see?

Usually I try to write, in the grand tradition of Seinfeld, about nothing.  However, in the next few paragraphs, I will wander into the realm of something.

I have noticed things.  Things taking place in our world.  Things out of the ordinary.  I have noticed things, and perhaps you have, too.

A lot of people in America hate President Bush.  And when I say "hate," it is not because I am too lazy to find a better synonym.  They hate him.  Viscerally.  Irrationally.  They don't merely disagree with his policies or disapprove of his actions while in office; they hate him as a person.  With all the thinking people in America (and I consider most of the Bush-detractors to be thinking people) I would expect arguments against the president to be more logical and less emotion-driven.  This, to me, is strange.  Along with the most outspoken segment of America, the Rest-of-the-World seems to hate Bush, too.  This is also strange, and yet makes perfect sense, as I will attempt to demonstrate in a moment.

Intersecting anti-Bush sentiment in the fabric of history is the simultaneous surfacing of a number of life-or-death issues:  abortion; terrorism; cloning; war in the Middle East; embrionic stem cell research; gay marriage (as for why I consider gay marriage a life-or-death issue, that is a subject for another post).  Some of these came to the forefront years ago and are still with us.  Others are more recent developments, brought about by the courses that technology and our cultural sensibilities have followed.  Some I never expected to see in my lifetime.

These issues, among others, have contributed to the political polarization of our country.  The conflict has been heated, as evident in this most recent election.  Much was at stake, and everyone felt it.  It was as if events were coming to a boil around us, accelerating toward a focal point.  But it was not the election.  The anticipated focal point is on a much grander scale. 

What is obvious to me, and yet remains hidden from the general populus, is that the conflict raging around us is predominantly spiritual.  We perceive echoes and outgrowths of it in the physical realm, but the corpus of it lies entirely in the spiritual dimension.

The reason so many are at odds with President Bush is that he and they are on opposite sides of God's law.  Romans 8:5-7 elucidates this principle (emphasis mine):

Those without the Spirit are hostile to God and therefore hostile to God's people, who are indwelled by His Spirit.  Jesus foretold the world's attitude toward Christians when he spoke about the end times:  "You will be hated by all nations because of me" (Matthew 24:9b).  How very accurate.

We, dear readers, are living in the end times.  I can't say exactly where in the end times timetable we find ourselves, but we are assuredly here.  And if I know it, then it is certain that satan knows it.  Hence the mad rush to negate as much life as possible; he knows his time is short.  If he can keep abortion legal, establish terrorism as an accepted negotiation tool, and devalue human life to the point of its being created for spare parts, he will have erected a system of evil capable of perpetuating itself.  The reelection of a godly president over a world superpower is just a minor setback.  The return of the Kings of Kings will put him decidedly out of business.

So, how do you respond to this, written by a Christian, who says that invading Iraq is not very Christlike? And are you saying that everyone who voted for Kerry worships Satan?

I don't recall making any references to Kerry voters.  No group or individual can be described accurately in a blanket statement, including the "religious Christian right" and the author of your article.

Worshiping satan would require volitional action, so, no, I don't believe we have very many satan-worshipers among us.  I would argue that people are more likely to deny the existence of satan than to worship him, a probability upon which the father of lies capitalizes.  If he is not acknowledged, he is free to influence anonymously, unrecognized.  It is the predisposition of humankind to be influenced by satan's lies, which is why he is called the "prince of this world" and nonbelievers "children of the devil."  Jesus came to reverse this disposition in those who would submit to Him, and the Holy Spirit was sent to guide us into all truth.

Also, the Messiah has a first coming and a second coming.  To define His first incarnation as the sum total of how He represents Himself is to miss half the story.  He came once as a suffering Servant; He will come again as a conquering King.  He is concerned about peace, surely, but the peace He is most concerned about is that between God and humankind.  This is the reconciliation for which He laid down His life.  In the meantime, and for as long as there is evil in the world, there is a time for war and a time for peace.  And we must be seeking the mind of God to know the difference.

Great editorial. It's hilarious to see the elite media running around in circles wondering how "values" were such a factor in the election -as if morality mattered! Precisely because of these values, the world would hate us whether or not we had invaded Iraq.