Posted on 11/19/2015 7:03:01 AM PST by SkyPilot
The layers that obscure the truth are burying humanity in large numbers. Yes, Paris was burning again and those flames and the dead bodies may well be a grim foreshadowing of what the future holds. I was in neighboring England the night the massacre scattered across Paris took place, as people going out to enjoy a dinner or concert or a football game were the targets of hate-filled and ruthless killers. The newspapers the next day had similar words: “Carnageâ€; “massacreâ€; “assassinationâ€; “murderâ€; “bloodâ€; “deathâ€; “screamsâ€; “terror,†and so on. Television programming was preempted and viewers were cautioned that some of the scenes of the slaughter were graphic. It was real. A few hours later, names and pictures of the dead were shown. It was like we had heard this before. But it was new and real: the victims’ lives cut short in the peak of their careers. Children who weren’t going to come home. People looking for their loved ones. Marriages suddenly broken by death. A young graduate with life ahead of her. And so on. One doesn’t have to know the individuals to feel helplessness and pain. This is twenty-first century murderous man. War in small increments can be deadlier than large scale war because it doesn’t just desensitize the killers; it desensitizes all of humanity.
Killers who do not represent a country and whose belief is debated ad nauseam as to whether it is a version or a perversion are truly sinister and are the cancerous cells of our time. They are protected by having no roots either in country or belief. The West is being taken down in small portions till one day the lie of the murderers being protected by smooth-talking power brokers with a bodyguard of lies will be seen for the terrifying belief that it is. No contrary view will be allowed then. For now, the layers of distortion cover the graves of the murdered. The whole world has become a courtroom where clever lawyers make truth unattainable. Whether it be 9/11 or the carnage at the Boston Marathon or blown-up planes or Paris, we will not find answers because to ask the question is either to receive a lie from some politicians or many in the media, or to invoke the wrath of hate-filled killers.
So we ask! What is the belief behind all this that kills with such callousness? We do not get any answers. We are told by some that it’s a religion of peace. Others call it a political theory at its core covered with the garb of religion to give it maximum protection as it invokes the laws of blasphemy. What is the answer? We had dare not unpack the truth. In one sense, strangely, one feels almost pity for these murderers. The possessor of hate loses the essence of life much more than the victim does. Living with a heart so deceived breeds a decimating misery within and spreads the venom globally. There must be scores of young men within the belief who do not wish to inflict such pain but who now live with the pall of suspicion over them. Such is the contagion of a poisoned soul.
But the quest for answers still haunts. In one Middle Eastern country, an awful thing happened. Two young Muslims turned atheists were on a program. They argued for the reality that blood had been spilled across the centuries and that there was no denying that from its earliest days to the present, this was the same blood-letting in the name of the belief as originally given and carried out. Then one of them asked the cleric a question that was as pointed as could be. It was a powerful question with an irrefutable fact within the question. The question laid bare a reality that was deemed blasphemous. The next day that man and his family were murdered, just for asking a fact-laden question that was unanswerable without conceding the truth. For that, he and his family paid with their lives.
That’s the depravity of our age. It is death to ask the pointed question because the answer, if true, betrays the real truth. The masquerade is on and it is deadly. We watch hundreds die. We hear speeches full of distortions; we tolerate deceit and even reward it. Some in power and in the public eye whitewash the reality while the blood of the murdered cries out from the ground. Our children and grandchildren will inherit the whirlwind because our media pundits and misguided speech-makers have sown to the wind by trading in lives for their power.
It would be easy to lose heart and become cynical. But No! There is One who sees all things, knows all things, and will ultimately triumph over all things. There is only one message that addresses the truth as the truth. The Lord of glory, Jesus Christ, came to this earth and was also the victim of hate. Lies sent him to the cross. Power overruled reality, as politics and religious demagogues once again made the lie seem noble. But the Lord who sees the beginning from the end amazingly conquered not in spite of the dark mystery of evil, rather, He conquered through it. James Stewart of Scotland, pointing to the cross, said it in the most powerful terms I have read. Commenting on the verse from Psalm 68:18, “He led captivity captive,â€â€Ž he said,
It is a glorious phrase—“He led captivity captive.†The very triumphs of his foes, it means, he used for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to subserve his ends not theirs. They nailed him to a tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to his feet. They gave him a cross, not guessing that he would make it a throne. They flung him outside the city gates to die, not knowing that in that very moment they were lifting up the gates of the universe, to let the king come in. They thought to root out his doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy. They thought they had God with his back to the wall, pinned helpless and defeated: they did not know that it was God himself who had tracked them down. He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil. He conquered through it.
The lie has a shelf life. The truth abides forever. God can even conquer through our perversion.
One more thing. I would be remiss if I left the guilt and darkness out there. That is the seduction of a fake righteousness. We all have to look at our own hearts and see the evil that is within each one of us. Only then can we find the answer from which all other answers flow. Some time ago, I was in Romania. A sculptor had some of his works on display. One was a horrific, fierce-looking, long nail. When you picked it up, as rusty and jagged as the nail was, the head was polished and shiny. ‎And when you looked at that polished head, you saw a reflection of yourself. It is sobering. Very sobering.
You see, the nails that cause hurt and pain and death ultimately point to our own hearts. Only when we as individuals see the evil that is within will we find an answer for the evil that is around us. Maybe, just maybe, someday a carnage will take place that might cause everyone in power to see their own hearts as God sees them and tell us the truth of what these killings are all about. Only then will truth triumph and we find real answers. Until then, the flames will gain ground and not just Paris will burn, but the next story of scorched lives in another city will make us forget this one… or possibly, awaken us to the cost of a lie. More than ever we need the Savior. Lord have mercy! ‎
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Zacharias
He is (in my opinion) one of the greatest intellectuals of our time. He is also a very humble, gentle, and committed Christian. For decades, he has spoken and debated at universities, colleges, military academies, conferences, and governments around the world.
This short video is just a taste of his brilliance.
A Muslim Student Challenges Ravi Zacharias
In his wonderfully penned letter above in response to the Islamic terrorism in Paris, you can see the pain and outrage in his heart regarding these events, but also witness his hope - in that of Christ Jesus.
I hope Ravi's words may bring the same hope to those here who may read them.
In that one paragraph, Zacharias all at once dissects and lays bare the lie of liberalism in our culture, media, and politics.
Ping.
BFL. Thanks for posting.
WE have to get rid of the Muzzies. They have to go.
WE have to get rid of the Muzzies. They have to go.
Thanks, bro!
If Ravi Zacharia wrote it, it has to be great!
Bttt
he mentions the question the 2 athiests asked...anyone know what they asked or this story?
In Jesus is our hope. All else is shifting sand.
I am not sure where Dr. Z was going with this. He certainly seems to get the evil of Islam, and how they strike like the Viet Cong and vanish into friendly countries. He even highlights how Islam's followers are afraid to point out the errors in their own religion out of fear of torture and death. But in the end, it is another of those Christian exhortations to simply trust in God.
The trouble is, I don't know what God has planned. Maybe he has decided that the time has come for the West to be over-run by Satan in the form of Muslims and then Christ will return and end Earth's history. Maybe this entire episode is a cosmic joke in which ancient man in the person of Abraham, in trying to speed up God's process, was the founder of his own race's downfall by fathering Ishmael. Maybe we are living the last chapter in that story? Or maybe he has put a challenge in front of us to see how we will deal with it - something like the challenge of WW2 which was surely THE event of modern times?
I am currently reading a book called A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson. I am currently at circa 1500 in the history, when the Jews began to be ghettoized. Previous to that, they had just been run out of Spain and untold numbers had perished due to ant-Semitic hysteria. It was a sad period in human history to see a people persecuted basically for being different. Even more sadly, I think that a similar treatment to Muslims is the only way the West can survive.
As Dr. Z explains, we are not at war with a nation. There is no way to fight them as we would a normal nation. To me, this has to be handled the same way as the persecution of the medieval Jews or the American Indians. If we decide we cannot live with bombings and mass shootings and sabotage on a regular basis, we are going to have to expunge the people who are doing this. It would mean we would be living in a place where there are signs that say things like "no Muslims allowed". Muslims will walk into establishments and be told "we don't serve your kind here!" They will have to be run off, or treated so badly they carry themselves off. They are too entrenched in our society to do this any other way. Do we as a people want to go there? Surely some innocent people would be caught in the nets along with the guilty. But it is clear that Islam is simply not compatible with any of the ideals of the West.
The alternative will be that we learn to live with terrorism and regard it as just one of the many hazards in life, like disease, accidents, daily crime, etc. It will be like Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil, in which a terrorist bomb will go off in a restaurant, and a cleaning crew comes and cleans up the damage while the diners continue as if nothing unusual has happened.
Thank you.
Wouldnt it be wonderful if the so called mainstream media picked up THIS article.!
Thank you for the ping. I would have missed this one.
I can’t argue the theory that God is warning us. I think this is a final warning. If we don’t get back to being a good Christian country we will cease. The Muslims have to go. The Progressives have to go or be silenced. They are about 26% of the population and they are running the show. That has to change and fast.
That 26% has so thoroughly infected the society that our children are now recruits in the insanity of Progressivism, and we have not gone to war with such evil, even in our own homes! The first step is unplugging the television. The second is ‘raising the child up in the way that they should go’ ... the degenerate school systems and television programming are surely raising the children in the way the demonic forces want them to go, in the absence of parental work.
The school system has to be changed. We need to shut down the Dept of Educ and send education back to the states.
The Univ system is now reaping what it has sowed for 50 years. If it has to collapse so be it. It has to change also.
OK, What was the question asked?
I’ve been searching but only came up with bloggers being murdered in Bangladesh. One was an American hacked to death.
I don’t know the question asked of the Imam that got the guy and his entire family murdered, but I am certain that if Ravi mentioned the incident, it occurred. My guess is the facts surrounding the case are not being mentioned in order to protect other innocents that may also now be targeted if found out, but I am not certain.
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