Muslims not the enemy
Here we are at the tenth anniversary of 911 and its a Sunday—the vast majority of Americans will be mourning the loss of American life on American soil. It will be a day of remembering the details of a horrendous outrageous, outlandish attack by a desperate enemy.
But who is the enemy? “Terrorism! Islamic terrorism!” we hear ringing from every police radio, every microphone in Congress, every pulpit of our houses of worship and the White House. And of all days to have a day of silent contemplation and prayer, it is Sunday. How convenient! Did Satan look ten years ahead when He decided which day to move forward with His demonic scheme of moving Americans to give up their Constitution? The devil has genius we don’t begin to grasp.
How many sermons across our fair land will speak of the dangers of Islam? How many will preach that Americans should trust implicitly in their government’s efforts to eradicate Islamic terrorism by tightening our belts and giving up more of our civil freedoms contained on our Bill of Rights.
Yet how few are aware of the truth of 911! The percentage of Americans is small who have been enabled to see that 911 was orchestrated by Rome through her Jesuits dressed as White House leaders, CIA and FBI operatives; top military brass and soldiers, and even congress-men and -women. And the U.S. Supreme Court has done nothing to counter it.
The USA Patriot Act depletes Americans of their self-defense against a tyrannical government. Icobod—our glory has departed. Our White House urged it upon Congress and Congress accepted it for us. Now we are lost. We are doomed to captivity in every form Rome can think of. Satan has God’s people just where He wants them; and they know nothing about it. The Protestants left their God generations ago and He has left them in the hands of the god the chose—the god of this world.
The Lord has had to give us up to our sworn adversary. We have sold ourselves to our new master. “Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” (Is. 50:1). “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” (Hos. 4:1-2). “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Yea, truth faileth; and He that departeth from evil maketh Himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.” (Is. 59:1-15).
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him;
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey Thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.
And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Thy truth.
Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice.” (Dan. 9:8-14). “But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments;
And if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant:
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.” (Lev. 26:14-16). “And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and IIIIIIII ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. IIIIIIII
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation…
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.” (Lev. 26: 19,25,31,33,37-39).
The Lord’s promise to us is: “And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God.” (Lev. 26:44). Protestants have a great hope in their merciful God.
But His promise has conditions which we must fulfill. “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.” (Lev. 26:40-43).
Then He will give us the rest of His promises. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.” (Ez. 36:25-31).
“Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” (Is. 51:11). But that rejoicing will forever be a humble joy. “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.” (Ez. 36:32-35).
The fourth example and unfortunate mistake comes from Dietrich Bonheoffer. Of powerful intellect and allegiance to right, he stood up against Hitler’s regime in Germany with all the weight and machinery and wealth of Rome behind the dictator. Bonheoffer wrote pamphlets and books that should dissuade the honest follower of truth in Germany from joining the multitudes that were haling the Fuehrer for fear of his brutality.
During the pivotal years of Hitler’s rise, when Nazism could have been prevented using peaceful, civil means, Hitler’s greatest opponent was found in this humble man. Politically, Communism presented the fiercest obstacle; but popularly, in the hearts of men, where the real battle lies for every dictator, the protestant pastor swayed the people.
In Bonheoffer the principles of the Reformation and the original gospel bloomed in splendor, and perfumed every soul that received them. His exposé of the true meaning of carrying the cross of Christ and laying down the life for truth in the earth, still ring of truth and the purest Christianity.
But Bonheoffer decided upon a plan of action that controverted his teachings of self-sacrifice. For some reason he imbibed the idea that he needed to assist God in the overthrow of His earthly enemy. So this mighty preacher masterminded an assassination of Adolf Hitler.
While he had preached, Hitler left him alone. He belonged to one of the elite families of Germany which afforded some protection for the reformer. And had he remained true to his work as teacher and exposer of the wicked regime that was sweeping upon the minds of his beloved German people, he would have exemplified just what he was bringing to the people from the word of God.
But Dietrich’s assassination attempt failed, and Hitler tried and hung him. Blood on Bonheoffer’s reputation soiled his great work for truth and the God of truth. This failed attempt to kill Hitler only added new life to the dictator’s extraordinary effort to take over the world for the Vatican. Eventually the Lord raised up the rough and tumble, unstoppable General George Patton to stop Hitler’s progress of preempting Satan’s domination of Earth before the Law of God could be sealed in the 144,000.
Today, in the shadow of 9/11 and the encroaching work of the last final dictatorship in America and of oppressive imperialism spreading around the world, the work of God’s people must entail and be limited to preaching of the gospel principles.
That Christ never attacked the ruthless Roman government militarily or politically, nor Herod’s, gives us clear guidelines and direction for the work of the church today. When He was almost forcibly taken to fill the role as king of Israel’s armies, He verbally disbanded the power-thirsty multitudes and separated from His closest disciples for a night. In the meantime, He went up into a mountain to pour out His soul to God to help Him get through to them that His true mission was to conquer the hearts of mankind through grace and love.
During that dark night He did not pray His Father to remove His disciples from the stern discipline of being lost in a midnight storm at sea. Then after sufficient labor and fear was instilled in those fishermen, He went to them to seal His lesson deeply within their psyches and hearts, that His kingdom was not of this world and that it would operate free of ambition, intrigue, and self-exaltation. He also taught them anew their own humiliation and their constant need to rely on Him for the successful navigation of the church, as His chosen representatives.
Christ selected for His closest circle of friends men of every background and makeup. Simon, the Canaanite, was an avowed zealot, a “Neo-con” by today’s colloquialism. Judas Iscariot has been thought to subscribe to the zealot mindset, since his name, Iscariot, refers to a scarab or a dagger. Many Jews followed the rabbinical false interpretations of the promises to Israel, which described great victories to the nation and world dominion; but the part they missed was that all those promises would come only if, according to Moses, “their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity.” (Lev. 26:41).
In that day, Jesus’ meekness caused constant conflict with the religious leaders and only He knew that those promises, which He had inspired the prophets to write, could only be fulfilled when His people were sufficiently humbled by the pagan empires’ captivity which His providence had brought against them.
“If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” (Lev. 26:40-42).
“Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jer. 29:12-14).
“If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2Chron. 7:14).
Yet the nation had not wholeheartedly received the message of John the Baptist, and God would not fight for them. As had been the Maccabees, the Jewish people were operating on their own, totally apart from God, especially so after they fully and wholeheartedly rejected and killed their Messiah, the Son of God. But His chosen disciples led forth His people to the victory of the truth of God.
Nary a sword did the apostles carry, except for the word of God which is “sharper than any twoedged sword.” (Heb. 4:12). The law, sealed in their soul and expressed in every word and deed, struck fear in the consciences of the wicked everywhere they turned. According to the prophecy, “If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.” (Rev. 11:5). The Lord was their “shield, and…exceeding great reward.” (Gen. 15:1).
Their watchword was, “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (Jas. 3:17,18). “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” (1Tim. 5:22). “We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” (Act 6:4).
The apostles were the New Testament earthly high priests of the church. And “every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God…who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.” (Heb. 5:1,2). They followed Christ, who “though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” (Heb. 5:8,9). And, through His example, they were made perfect in weakness.
As fathers to the church, they restored the Hebrew faith of Abraham and the leadership of the twelve elders of ancient Israel. They were never to join with other unmerciful Jehu’s and Elijah’s (before he learned the lesson of the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit); nor did they partner up with violent belligerents like Barabbas and Theudas. “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (Jas. 1:20). They remembered the night before their Master’s sacrifice, when they were still in the old mindset of fighting among themselves and fighting against their enemies. “They said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said unto them, It is enough.” (Lk 22:38). (Which was to say, Don’t think to trust in swords.) For “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so He giveth His beloved sleep.” (Ps. 127:1,2).
Let the crude, faithless world do as the work of providence leads them in the way of militant national defense. But His church must have no part in that, not even remotely. “Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thess. 5:22,23). And let the Church of Rome be sufficiently humbled for all their intrigue and forcing the hand of God in Satan’s work on earth. Let the word of God stop them in their blood drenched path, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19).
But who is the enemy? “Terrorism! Islamic terrorism!” we hear ringing from every police radio, every microphone in Congress, every pulpit of our houses of worship and the White House. And of all days to have a day of silent contemplation and prayer, it is Sunday. How convenient! Did Satan look ten years ahead when He decided which day to move forward with His demonic scheme of moving Americans to give up their Constitution? The devil has genius we don’t begin to grasp.
How many sermons across our fair land will speak of the dangers of Islam? How many will preach that Americans should trust implicitly in their government’s efforts to eradicate Islamic terrorism by tightening our belts and giving up more of our civil freedoms contained on our Bill of Rights.
Yet how few are aware of the truth of 911! The percentage of Americans is small who have been enabled to see that 911 was orchestrated by Rome through her Jesuits dressed as White House leaders, CIA and FBI operatives; top military brass and soldiers, and even congress-men and -women. And the U.S. Supreme Court has done nothing to counter it.
The USA Patriot Act depletes Americans of their self-defense against a tyrannical government. Icobod—our glory has departed. Our White House urged it upon Congress and Congress accepted it for us. Now we are lost. We are doomed to captivity in every form Rome can think of. Satan has God’s people just where He wants them; and they know nothing about it. The Protestants left their God generations ago and He has left them in the hands of the god the chose—the god of this world.
The Lord has had to give us up to our sworn adversary. We have sold ourselves to our new master. “Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” (Is. 50:1). “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” (Hos. 4:1-2). “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Yea, truth faileth; and He that departeth from evil maketh Himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.” (Is. 59:1-15).
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him;
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey Thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.
And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Thy truth.
Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice.” (Dan. 9:8-14). “But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments;
And if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant:
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.” (Lev. 26:14-16). “And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and IIIIIIII ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. IIIIIIII
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation…
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.” (Lev. 26: 19,25,31,33,37-39).
The Lord’s promise to us is: “And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God.” (Lev. 26:44). Protestants have a great hope in their merciful God.
But His promise has conditions which we must fulfill. “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.” (Lev. 26:40-43).
Then He will give us the rest of His promises. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.” (Ez. 36:25-31).
“Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” (Is. 51:11). But that rejoicing will forever be a humble joy. “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.” (Ez. 36:32-35).
The fourth example and unfortunate mistake comes from Dietrich Bonheoffer. Of powerful intellect and allegiance to right, he stood up against Hitler’s regime in Germany with all the weight and machinery and wealth of Rome behind the dictator. Bonheoffer wrote pamphlets and books that should dissuade the honest follower of truth in Germany from joining the multitudes that were haling the Fuehrer for fear of his brutality.
During the pivotal years of Hitler’s rise, when Nazism could have been prevented using peaceful, civil means, Hitler’s greatest opponent was found in this humble man. Politically, Communism presented the fiercest obstacle; but popularly, in the hearts of men, where the real battle lies for every dictator, the protestant pastor swayed the people.
In Bonheoffer the principles of the Reformation and the original gospel bloomed in splendor, and perfumed every soul that received them. His exposé of the true meaning of carrying the cross of Christ and laying down the life for truth in the earth, still ring of truth and the purest Christianity.
But Bonheoffer decided upon a plan of action that controverted his teachings of self-sacrifice. For some reason he imbibed the idea that he needed to assist God in the overthrow of His earthly enemy. So this mighty preacher masterminded an assassination of Adolf Hitler.
While he had preached, Hitler left him alone. He belonged to one of the elite families of Germany which afforded some protection for the reformer. And had he remained true to his work as teacher and exposer of the wicked regime that was sweeping upon the minds of his beloved German people, he would have exemplified just what he was bringing to the people from the word of God.
But Dietrich’s assassination attempt failed, and Hitler tried and hung him. Blood on Bonheoffer’s reputation soiled his great work for truth and the God of truth. This failed attempt to kill Hitler only added new life to the dictator’s extraordinary effort to take over the world for the Vatican. Eventually the Lord raised up the rough and tumble, unstoppable General George Patton to stop Hitler’s progress of preempting Satan’s domination of Earth before the Law of God could be sealed in the 144,000.
Today, in the shadow of 9/11 and the encroaching work of the last final dictatorship in America and of oppressive imperialism spreading around the world, the work of God’s people must entail and be limited to preaching of the gospel principles.
That Christ never attacked the ruthless Roman government militarily or politically, nor Herod’s, gives us clear guidelines and direction for the work of the church today. When He was almost forcibly taken to fill the role as king of Israel’s armies, He verbally disbanded the power-thirsty multitudes and separated from His closest disciples for a night. In the meantime, He went up into a mountain to pour out His soul to God to help Him get through to them that His true mission was to conquer the hearts of mankind through grace and love.
During that dark night He did not pray His Father to remove His disciples from the stern discipline of being lost in a midnight storm at sea. Then after sufficient labor and fear was instilled in those fishermen, He went to them to seal His lesson deeply within their psyches and hearts, that His kingdom was not of this world and that it would operate free of ambition, intrigue, and self-exaltation. He also taught them anew their own humiliation and their constant need to rely on Him for the successful navigation of the church, as His chosen representatives.
Christ selected for His closest circle of friends men of every background and makeup. Simon, the Canaanite, was an avowed zealot, a “Neo-con” by today’s colloquialism. Judas Iscariot has been thought to subscribe to the zealot mindset, since his name, Iscariot, refers to a scarab or a dagger. Many Jews followed the rabbinical false interpretations of the promises to Israel, which described great victories to the nation and world dominion; but the part they missed was that all those promises would come only if, according to Moses, “their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity.” (Lev. 26:41).
In that day, Jesus’ meekness caused constant conflict with the religious leaders and only He knew that those promises, which He had inspired the prophets to write, could only be fulfilled when His people were sufficiently humbled by the pagan empires’ captivity which His providence had brought against them.
“If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” (Lev. 26:40-42).
“Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jer. 29:12-14).
“If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2Chron. 7:14).
Yet the nation had not wholeheartedly received the message of John the Baptist, and God would not fight for them. As had been the Maccabees, the Jewish people were operating on their own, totally apart from God, especially so after they fully and wholeheartedly rejected and killed their Messiah, the Son of God. But His chosen disciples led forth His people to the victory of the truth of God.
Nary a sword did the apostles carry, except for the word of God which is “sharper than any twoedged sword.” (Heb. 4:12). The law, sealed in their soul and expressed in every word and deed, struck fear in the consciences of the wicked everywhere they turned. According to the prophecy, “If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.” (Rev. 11:5). The Lord was their “shield, and…exceeding great reward.” (Gen. 15:1).
Their watchword was, “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (Jas. 3:17,18). “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” (1Tim. 5:22). “We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” (Act 6:4).
The apostles were the New Testament earthly high priests of the church. And “every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God…who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.” (Heb. 5:1,2). They followed Christ, who “though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” (Heb. 5:8,9). And, through His example, they were made perfect in weakness.
As fathers to the church, they restored the Hebrew faith of Abraham and the leadership of the twelve elders of ancient Israel. They were never to join with other unmerciful Jehu’s and Elijah’s (before he learned the lesson of the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit); nor did they partner up with violent belligerents like Barabbas and Theudas. “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (Jas. 1:20). They remembered the night before their Master’s sacrifice, when they were still in the old mindset of fighting among themselves and fighting against their enemies. “They said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said unto them, It is enough.” (Lk 22:38). (Which was to say, Don’t think to trust in swords.) For “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so He giveth His beloved sleep.” (Ps. 127:1,2).
Let the crude, faithless world do as the work of providence leads them in the way of militant national defense. But His church must have no part in that, not even remotely. “Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thess. 5:22,23). And let the Church of Rome be sufficiently humbled for all their intrigue and forcing the hand of God in Satan’s work on earth. Let the word of God stop them in their blood drenched path, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19).
posted by David | 10:11 AM
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