Sound The Midnight Cry

“One Nation, Under God?”

When I was a child and went to school, the Pledge of Allegiance was still recited along with an opening prayer in the public schools. Today in an effort to “protect” the feelings of certain people, we have turned our back on the very basics of what this nation was founded upon.

At the risk of being taken out of context and being accused of presenting a mean and nasty God, I would ask you to consider the following:

• The Western third and the Southeastern United States are under severe to extreme drought conditions.
• Southern California is experiencing raging fires which have caused the evacuation of nearly 400,000 people.
• New Orleans is experiencing flooding [at the time of this writing].
• Atlanta’s water supply is running out.
• Home foreclosures are at record highs as are oil prices.

Questions need to be asked: Why are these things happening? Are there rational reasons for any of it? So once again, consider the following:

• California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just signed into law bills designed to teach homosexuality as normal in California’s public schools and the removing of the words “Father or Mother” from curriculum. [Interesting that when legislation passes that will destroy the family--homes and families are put in peril by fire...just a thought!]
• A school board in Maine voted to distribute birth control pills to sixth graders without parental notification.
• The U.S. Congress is considering legislation to require employers to hire homosexuals by not allowing businesses to discriminate based on “sexual orientation” [regardless of the religious convictions of the owner].
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pressuring Israel to divide the city of Jerusalem to bring about a "peace" deal.

Add to these issues that President Bush has bent over backwards to promote other god’s at the expense of his own Christianity. In meeting with the Dalai Lama, Bush called him “His Holiness” and a great spiritual leader. Congress followed suit by awarding the Buddhist the Congressional Gold Medal. The US Mint created a coin in his honor. A week earlier, the President in responding to Ramadan said, “I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God.”

Most people would never connect all these current events. However, Christians should recognize that from a spiritual sense they may well be connected. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” In Zechariah 12:9, the Lord says, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

The prophecies contain both blessings and judgments. A loving God cares enough to try and get our attention to the choices that we are making as a nation. Throughout the Scriptures, God spoke to Israel through events of nature and man-made.

If we pledge to be “one nation, under God” then it’s time to turn back to the Lord Jesus Christ that our forefathers knew and recognized to be Supreme. It is time for Christians to pray to God and intercede for our country. It is also time for us to speak out to the world and let a voice of truth be heard.

What's Up, Doc?

A familiar cartoon character would be seen leaning on an object eating a carrot and remarking to his enemy "What's up Doc?" Well, with all that has transpired this week in news coming out of the Middle East and Asia, it could make one scratch their head and ask the question of "What is going on in the world?"

We begin with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is boasting that time has run out for the enemies of Iran and Palestine. According to the Iranian news website, October 12th, Qods (Jerusalem) Day is the day for the unveiling of an official response.

"Supporters of the Zionest regime will receive their response during the world Qods Day's rallies" government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, said Wednesday. The spokesman made the remarks during his weekly press conference while commenting on the current visit to the occupied Palestine of the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Qods Day is held each year on the last Friday of Muslims fasting month of Ramadan after it was nominated by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as a day to voice the protest of the Islamic Ummah against the Zionists. The day falls on October 12 this year. "The U.S. loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime (the Zionist regime) which is now at its weakest political and social position," Elham said. He warned that Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result "but further political disgrace" for itself. Referring to the approaching World Qods Day, the spokesman stressed,"Supporters of the Zionist regime will definitely receive the final response for their support on that day."

Is this something the world should take note of or is it another idle threat posed by President Im-on-a-jihad? The answer is that no one knows for sure. What is known is that in spite of his assertions at Columbia University that he wants peace for everyone including Israel, he is bent on seeing the destruction of Israel and the U.S. Couple with that the recent speeches suggesting the arrival of the Islamic Messiah is "imminent," rather than several years away and that his destiny is to usher in the Islamic Messiah onto the world stage and things get kind of shaky.

Meanwhile, Syria is preparing for a war with Israel. The leadership of that nation stated this past week that they will retake the Golan Heights using any means necessary. Add into the equation that Lebanon is on the verge of a civil war; Hezbollah continues to buy massive amounts of weapons from Iran and Syria to prepare for a future war with Israel and the fact that the U.S. and Israel are reportedly stepping up their war gaming efforts to prepare for war with Iran and possibly Syria as well and you get a recipe for trouble with a capital "T".

As if all these rumblings in the Middle East weren't troubling enough, Russian President Vladimir Putin finally played his hand when he revealed that he plans to stay in office beyond 2008, when he is constitutionally mandated to step down. Several times over the past couple years I have speculated that he would create a position that would allow him to remain the dominant power broker in Russia. He announced this week that he will be sliding over to a new position of "prime minister." In light of Putin's planned $200 billion increase in defense spending and his recent arms deals with Iran, Syria, Algeria and other Islamic enemies of the West, this should cause alarm to the rest of the world. Putin is setting himself up as a classic Russian Czar. His ambitions run far beyond maintaining control of the Kremlin. He could be setting the stage for Ezekiel 38.

To the Bible believing Christian that understands that bible prophecy is as current as tomorrow's newspaper this is no surprise. To the rest of the world, it seems like madness run amok. These news reports only serve as a reminder for the Church of Jesus Christ that the message of the Gospel is true--that God desires that none be lost. The follower of Jesus Christ cannot sit back idly and not let those know that are around them of what is taking place and that it is simply pointing to the greatest event to ever take place in human history--the return of Jesus Christ to planet earth!

“Be One of Satan’s Tools!”

Imagine signing on to your internet account and being confronted with the challenge to “be one of Satan’s tools!” No, it wasn’t a Halloween prank or an ad to buy costumes. It was an ad for the latest TV show on the CW Network plastered on the AOL sign-on page . The CW Television Network, a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corporation, boasts of being the only network targeting young adults 18-34.

The show revolves around a “20-something slacker named Sam Oliver…who has an unexpected encounter with Satan while driving on a neighborhood street.”

Sam then finds out from his father, “Your mom and I sold your soul to the devil.”

Sam learns of his new obligations after asking the devil, “Do I have to go to hell now?”

“You’re going to work for me here,” says Satan. “You’re just going to bring escaped souls back to hell. You know, like a bounty hunter. That’s cool!”

Though the character of Sam refuses he later relents when he finds out that working for Satan apparently has benefits as Sam is given special powers to woo and impress his love interest.

As blatant offensive this is to anyone that would call themselves a Christian, I find an underlying message here that some will probably overlook. The character of Sam acknowledges that he has a soul, there is a hell and recognizes that he will go there.

This is interesting as recent polls among those that call themselves Christians [much less those that don’t] show that the majority does not believe in Satan and even fewer accept the biblical view of hell. Of the 83% of Americans that identify themselves as Christians, only 49% of these individuals described themselves as absolutely committed to Christianity. Add in that three-quarters of America’s youth (73%) have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity, beyond mere media exposure or horoscope usage and you get a recipe for a show like “Reaper.”

The issue that stands out the most to me is not that a show like “Reaper” would air on TV. It is that no one seems to care and the Church in America is oblivious to the spiritual culture war taking place all around it.

So when ‘Sam’ asks, “Do I have to go to hell now?” the devil is all too obliging to say, “No, you’re going to work for me here—I’ll take you in later!”

It's time for The Church to wake up and wipe away the slumber from its eyes. May God anoint our eyes with healing salve [Revelation 3:18] that we might see with spiritual understanding. Then the cry must be "prepare the way of the Lord...He is coming!"

“Actions Speak Louder Than Words!”

That should have been the byline of the news reports following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University a couple weeks ago. Instead, media fawned over him as if he were some rebellious rock star rather than recognizing him for the international criminal that he is.

Ahmadinejad was quoted repeatedly by the news media as saying, "We seek détente. Every stance and position has been toward peace." He categorically denied that Iran has supplied weapons to kill American troops in Iraq. His response to that accusation was, "Why would we want to do that? " Indeed!

The DEBKAFile reports that just a day before Ahmadinejad arrived in the U.S. there was an annual military parade in Iran. Iran unveiled its new long-range missile, saying that the missile put U.S. bases in the Middle East within reach and could target Israel. On the trucks transporting the missiles through the parade were slogans saying, "Death to America," "Death to Israel," "Israel should be eliminated," "No Muslim may recognize Israel" and "Israel must be wiped off the map." Add to that documented reports of U.S. troops continuing to find advanced Iranian-supplied weaponry including a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively-formed penetrators.

Columbia Dean John Coatsworth told the news media that the university stood as a place of enlightenment and that it was not afraid to entertain all platforms and positions. He stated, "If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak…If he were willing to engage in the debate and the discussion to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him." Really?

I don’t know which is more unbelievable: One the one hand you have the two-faced ranting of a maniacal leader declaring that all he wants is peace and with the same breath calling for the extermination of a nation(s). On the other hand, you have a dean of a U.S. university stating that given the opportunity, he would give Hitler a platform to speak. How could anyone say that who acknowledges that Hitler was responsible for the genocidal mass murder of millions of Jews — plus millions of non-Jews?

The university was first founded as a religious institution [as were most of the Ivy League schools] and their motto is, "In Thy light shall we see light." [A paraphrase of Psalm 36:9]. Evidently the light they started with has been exchanged for a different kind of light.

The Bible tells Romans 14:16 "…do not let your good be spoken of as evil." Therein lays the problem—most people no longer recognize evil for what it is. They make excuses and say things like, "To each his own." I cannot imagine what the founders of our nation would say if they saw one their schools being used to spread the propaganda of an evil regime.

Isaiah 5:20 tells us, "Woe to those that call evil good and good evil." I don’t know what the "woe" could possibly be but the madness that comes with this kind of thinking will surely cause anarchy and chaos. It’s time for the Church of Jesus Christ to begin to pray for God to turn our land…or face the consequences.