Ahmadinejad's Letter to Us
Iranian president Ahmadinejad wrote an open letter to the American people. You can read it
here if you want to.
This is a man who can utter smooth, deceiving words with the best of them. There is so much that is disturbing about this letter.
Consider this prologue to his letter:
"O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers."
Sounds good, but there's one problem. Jesus Christ has already been revealed. Mahmoud is not talking about him, but about the one he is looking for.
When I took Islam in college, it was very clear to me that the Muslim Mahdi (Messiah) to come will be the Antichrist. Mr. Ahmadinejad's Messiah will indeed be that person.
"Both our nations are God-fearing..." he writes. The true God, however, is NOT the god of Islam. They are totally different.
His letter attempts to turn us against Israel, stating "What has blind support for the Zionists by the US administration brought for the American people?" He is appealing to our selfish nature, wanting us to ask the question, "Why should we support Israel?"
Friends, we support Israel because the restoration of that land to the Jewish people is a fulfilled promise of Almighty God, the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Our support for Israel is rooted in our Christian faith, not simply that Israel is a fellow democracy. This is something that I guess President Bush feels that he cannot say, but it is true. Christians know that God is a promise-keeping God, and that the restoration of Israel is a part of His plan. Does Israel do everything right? Of course not. But we support Israel's right to exist because God has said so.
It is the fallen world and Satan himself who oppose Israel's right to exist. Mr. Ahmadinejad is, in my opinion, a mouthpiece for Satan, the ultimate liar and deceiver, the one who can deliver flattering speech right up until he cuts your throat out. Do not believe what this man says. He is the liar.
"By smooth talk and flattery they decieve the minds of naive people." (Rom. 16:18)
This is the kind of guy who should make us ask, "Why does he want our troops out of Iraq?" Not for the sake of our troops and their families, I will guarantee that. It is because he has something up his sleeve for the region, and we are a major hindrance to that.
This just in:
Here is an article with "smoking gun" evidence that Iran is helping to destabilize Iraq. Just like I said. Mahmoud is holding out one hand of "friendship" and in the other hand he has a knife, or, more likely, a thermonuclear weapon.
Great Article about Our Western Spiritual Condition & the War on Terror
For a while now I have been wondering about the war against Islamic-driven terror. The Bible is clear that when God's people worship Him and obey Him, they have His protection, His help, and moral strength provided by Him.
"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. "
-Ronald Reagan, quoted on Sean Hannity's website.
This was presumably quoted during the Reagan presidency, twenty or more years ago.
Is it true today? Do we in the West have the will and moral courage to stand against Islam? Or has our apostasy bled us dry from said courage?
Read
this article.
I agree with Kupelian. We are morally and spiritually in a total mess here in the Western world, and as a result I am concerned that our leaders don't understand the religious motivations of these radical Muslims, and the very real evil that is working through it all. How could many of our leaders understand? They themselves don't believe in a living, Personal God. They disagree with what much of the Bible teaches.
This war is a big neon sign with an unmistakeable message to the Western world: Return to the faith of your fathers! If you don't, disaster will result. That is the lesson of history and of Biblical history.
Euthanasia for babies
A medical college in Britain is encouraging the public discussion of euthanasia for severely handicapped babies. The article is
here.
Why are they doing this? Because they are looking at the financial and emotional difficulties that can happen to families who have a severely handicapped child. They are looking at the suffering of the child. They are looking at the current practice of abortion, as one professor said, “We can terminate for serious foetal abnormality up to term but cannot kill a newborn. What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it okay to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not at the other?”
What they are not looking at is the intervention of God to give strength to the family, grace where it is needed, and an ability to carry on. What do I know? I've never been in that situation. True. All I know is that God says "Don't murder" and "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
The World Will Accept Blessings but Not God
"The world readily accepts Christian love, charity, and willingness to serve the needy. It just can't accept the source of that love. It wants the fruit of God's Spirit but transplants its roots into the soil of humanism."
-Berit Kjos
Yep. This is what our flesh does. The flesh will never serve God, but sure, it will take the blessings of God. It's kind of like Bill Murray's character in
What About Bob? "Gimme gimme gimme I need I need I need I need."
There seems to be this theme in many writings today, that if we Christians serve enough, if we love enough, if we care enough, then everyone will accept Christ. Unfortunately, this is not a biblical idea. It places the responsibility for conversion on the Church's works, rather than on God and the person's will. The Church, or Christians, will never be good enough to get someone to convert to Christ. Only God can do that. But as we let Jesus live through us, we'll be loving.
It truly takes a miracle of God to break through the power of the flesh and show someone that they need to accept Christ.
Election
I can't adequately express my disappointment at California voters. Let me get this straight. We do not want minors to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, drive (until 16) or vote. But yes, they can kill a baby and try to recover from that experience,
all without parental permission? Even though there was an allowance for judicial permission when they are too scared to ask for parents' permission.
Just the thought of all the underage girls being subjected to pressure from the abortion provider, for the sake of money. MONEY. And don't let anyone kid you, that is what this is all about for most providers.
Let me suggest the book
The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian. The abortion chapter is worth the entire price of the book.
God help us.
You Have the Power to Define Your Own Gender (in NYC)
This is a story about New York City allowing people to define their own gender on their birth certificates. Yes, it seems New York believes that human beings have the right to
choose whether they are men or women. This type of thinking is, according to one person, a "move away from American culture's
misguided fixation on genitals as the basis for one's gender identity." (my emphasis)
I know there is a lot of background to the issue of people struggling with transsexualism, and the ways that medical science handles it. There's a good article
here called "The Biblical Ethics of Transsexual Operations" about this from a Christian perspective. Some people have suffered a great deal.
Nevertheless, New York's answer to this issue is to allow human beings to define themselves, according to their desires. This is another example of our culture's proclivity to arrogantly assume the "right" to create our own reality. We have turned to worship ourselves, and we refuse to admit that there are external standards, a created order, realities with which we have no right to trifle. It is as Paul says in 2 Tim. 3:1-2, people will be "lovers of themselves." It's interesting that that characteristic is the first one listed among characteristics of "terrible times" in the last days. Those who worship and serve themselves believe that their desires should be able to rule supreme over any other reality. It is a terrible thing to be enslaved this way.
God's answer is always, "Turn to Me, learn the Truth, and I will set you free through My Power." In our culture's unbelief and arrogance, we will not turn to God, so we have to design "solutions" on our own.
With "solutions" like these, and tampering with God's created order, it really makes me wonder how long it will be before God ceases to withhold His judgment.
UPDATE: The NY Health Dept.
finally figured out that this wasn't going to work, thankfully.
The North American Union?
Are we really moving toward an economic and yes, political union of the US, Canada and Mexico? As ridiculous and amazing as it may be, it sure looks that way. NAFTA got us started, and there are plans to build a superhighway of roads and train tracks through the middle of America. Here is a paragraph about it from the second article below:
There is also the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), or NAFTA Superhighway, construction on which is scheduled to begin in 2007 by public-private partnerships (a foreign corporation, Spain’s Cintra, has already signed a contract). This system, which will parallel I-35 running north from Mexico all the way to Canada, with a branch extending I-69 also going to Canada through Port Huron, Mich. TTC-35 will consist of six lanes for passenger cars, four for trucks, a rails system, lines for telecommunications, oil and natural gas pipelines, etc. Its size across has been estimated at four football fields; construction will result in the taking of over 500,000 acres of land from farmers and ranchers in Texas alone through eminent domain. This puts last year’s roundly (and rightly) condemned Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, Conn. in a new light!
I would have thought this was all conspiracy-theory type stuff, up there with UFOs and Bigfoot (and you can see from my profile how seriously I take that stuff), but this seems real.
Here is one article about it.
There's another
here.
You can also Google "North American Union."
What does this mean for Christians? It points further to a one-world leader or at least leaders of larger portions of the world. The Bible speaks of ten rulers handing over their authority to the Beast (Revelation 17:12-13).
Also, it reminds us that our kingdom is not of this world. Our permanent citizenship is in heaven. America is our temporary citizenship and is only a tool to be used for God, much like the apostle Paul used his Roman citizenship to advance the spread of the gospel (see Acts 22:25-30; Acts 25:11).
new blog
You might be interested in my new blog which will be running parallel with this one.
horizonstudy.blogspot.comI'm studying 1 Corinthians, along with the help of Gordon Fee. Please feel free to join in.
I'll still be working on this one as well.
Rob
