Dec 19
Dealing with Iran
After months of playing diplomatic tag with the West, Iran has become
emboldedened to press forward with its nuclear ambitions. It has refused to
allow international inspectors to observe its so-called peaceful
use of nuclear energy.
Increasingly, the U.S. does not appear to have the will to become
involved in this problem. The Bush administration is under pressure from
Congress and pro-Israel groups to take a hands-off stance toward Tehran. Anti-war
doves want the nuclear issue referred to the U.N. Security Council, where
sanctions could be imposed.
The question in everyone's mind: Is Iran getting close to the "red line"--the point at which Iran will have enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb? Because spy satellites are the way for us to monitor Iran's progress, we can only guess at how close the radical Islamic state is to the danger line.
The implementation of sanctions against Iran may become a driving force
in Tehran seeking to achieve nuclear capability. Once you become a nation
with the bomb, the world has to treat you with greater respect.
Complicating the problem with Iran's atomic program is the fact that
the nation's leader is a Jew-hating nutcase. In October, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Israel was a "tumor" that should be "wiped off the map." This past
week, he aggravated tensions with the West by calling the Holocaust a "myth."
During Israel's defense meetings, I'm sure Iran is a frequent main topic.
It is a scary matter to have one of your neighbors be led by a
Hitler-loving radical who is months away from gaining access to nuclear weapons. You can be certain that the Israeli government has some interesting plans in the making.
One possible target date could be this March. The London Sunday Times
recently ran a story that said Israel is readying a military strike
against Iran. In a briefing to Israeli lawmakers, Israel's intelligence
services said that by late March Iran will have reached the "point of no
return." The IAEA's Mohammed el Baradei gave the United Nations a similarly
dismal assessment.
If Israel should attack Iran's nuclear program, a big concern would be
Moscow's reaction. Most of Iran's nuclear components have "Made in
Russia" on them. These nuclear reactors are not self-assembled. Russian
technicians and scientists currently are hard at work in Iran building these
facilities.
When Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad, the
French were partly assisted with that project. A strike on Iran would cause
Russia to suffer a huge financial loss.
It's too early to predict how an Israeli attack would play into a Gog
invasion of Israel. The time being so short, any major event is almost
certain to factor into the end-time
scheme.
"And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords" (Ezek 38:3-4).
-- Todd
Repackaging Ancient Evil
Bible-centered, discerning Christians must be on the alert to dynamics rearranging the world system in preparation for the wrap-up of the age. Ancient evil is being repackaged–yet again—while this generation plunges toward the prophesied apocalypse.
Two areas I would like us to consider in regard to this repackaging are: 1) the New Age and 2) the New world Order. To get to the roots of “the New Age,” as it was called until some time in the 1990s, we must go back even further than the Garden of Eden, when Lucifer engaged the woman, Eve, in the following conversation:
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:1-5).
But the true genesis of the very ancient movement the New Age devotees renamed and repackaged is found in eternity past:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isa. 14:12-14).
From the moment Lucifer, soon to be renamed Satan, planted his own seed of desire to usurp the throne of God in Eve’s heart, human history has been set on a course leading to destruction. The downhill avalanche of evil has been gaining momentum throughout the ages, with God’s judgment having disrupted the plunge temporarily with the flood of Noah’s day. But, always Satan works in concert with the fallen human heart to repackage the evil called “sin.” Always the pyroclastic flow of the mystery of iniquity grows, and sweeps all of humankind toward the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Whether in the antediluvian age or the so-called “new age,” Satan and his minions wrap sin in a beautiful, seductive package that appeals to sinful people’s desire to do what is right in their own eyes. The newest, latest packaging is more appealing –and appalling—than ever.
And the devil’s deceptiveness is more refined, more nuanced than ever before. When his many-faceted attack upon mankind called “New Age” drew effective fire from such Christian investigators as Dave Hunt and his exposes The Seduction of Christianity, and Beyond Seduction, the father of lies simply changed tactics. He went straight at the heart of the Church –that is, believers in Jesus Christ. He repackaged the same old lies in a covering called “new spirituality.”
Now, instead of trying to convince unbelievers and Christians that they must become one with some nebulous cosmogonal mind through eastern meditation, strange looking gurus, etc., Satan is succeeding in convincing growing numbers of Christian leaders that they must meet the unbelievers at least half way. Christianity must become “seeker-friendly.” That is, the body must become one with unbelievers, by reaching out in love, without any judgmentalism that speaks to sin or the necessity of the blood atonement of Christ.
We, as Christians, must preach and teach God’s love, because telling them about His judgment and wrath discourages the unbelievers from coming to them–the leaders who want to reach out and embrace --to absorb the masses in one big hugfest of forgiveness (an embrace, coincidentally, which, with psychology-based, corporate marketing strategies, help them build megachurches that don’t seem to differ much from the world’s multi-media entertainment domes).
But Jesus said, “ye must be born again” (John 3: 3). When the Holy Spirit calls the lost individual, that person must confess that he or she is a sinner and must ask Jesus Christ, who died to save sinners, to come into his or her life and make him or her one with God, the Father. This is the way –the only Way—to become a member of God’s family for eternity in Heaven (John 14:6).
The second repackaging of evil involves the geopolitical entity President George H.W. Bush termed “the new world order” 19 times in a series of speeches. That nomenclature for the developing one world system that Antichrist will one day head drew too much fire from Christians and others, and the term became politically incorrect. The new world order has since been rewrapped in a package called “the international community.”
We saw this ancient, yet contemporary beast in action just this past week. Iran, Israel’s chief nemesis–apart from Satan, himself—made this week, through its Hitler-like president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the call for a new holocaust against all Jews. The fact that the international community jumped to Israel’s defense is a paradoxical matter, if one believes the international community is a likely precursor to Antichrist’s 10-toes kingdom of Daniel 2, and his 10-horned beast state of Revelation 17. That final humanistic world order before Christ’s return is scheduled to perpetrate the worst holocaust ever suffered by the Jews (Jeremiah 30: 7). So, why the quick condemnation of Iran, and the jump to defend Israel’s right to exist?
The answer might lie within one of the devil’s most sinister repackaging ruses.The international community is demonstrating at present that it can act as a guarantor of Israel’s peace and safety. This is precisely the thing Antichrist –the Prince that shall come mentioned in Daniel 9: 26—is prophesied to do: "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…” (Daniel 9:27a).
But, that “peace” offered by the devil’s man–the rider on the white horse of Revelation 6:2--will be the peace that shall destroy many (Daniel 8:25).
The Lord Jesus and His gospel message, found in God’s Word, the Bible, needs no repackaging. The Lord is faithful to all of His promises. Let us who name the name of Christ remain faithful to Him in these closing days of this evil age.
--Terry
