Sound The Midnight Cry

“Are You A Fanatic?”

When you hear someone use the word “fanatic” what usually comes to mind? In the world of media it usually refers to a person(s) that are “right-wing extremist” who are then lumped together with groups like white supremacists and violent anti-government groups.

In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security put out a report listing the types of people that fit their description of “right-wing extremist”. The DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines right-wing extremism in the U.S. as “divided into those groups, movements and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups) and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

DHS specifically identified people that are concerned about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty and singles out returning war veterans as particular threats. A nice “thank-you” to those men and women that put their lives on the line for liberty!

When I was a boy, a fanatic was defined as “somebody who is very enthusiastic about a pastime or hobby.” I was a fanatic about Red Sox baseball growing up in the northeast during those years, and hardly a threat to anyone except any kid that was a NY Yankees fan. However, times have changed and so too the meaning of “fanatic”.

Today, a fanatic is defined as “a holder of extreme or irrational enthusiasms or beliefs, especially in religion or politics.” The two areas that were key in the founding the USA, are now concerns of “extremists”!

Those early settlers that stood against the religious tyranny in their homelands and left to find freedom to worship, by today’s DHS standards would be considered “right-wing extremists”. In later years, those colonists that revolted against the political tyranny imposed on them by King George III would be considered “right-wing extremists” by today’s definition.

So it should not be considered unusual that we live in a day where the powers that be in their effort to hold onto and assert more power, would resort to the labeling of those that threaten their position. The work of some grassroots organizations today are the express outgrowth to see this nation turn back to its heritage and restore the principles that were the very essence of what our nation was meant to be. The media will continue to spin their efforts as “extremists” and the majority of the citizenry will believe it without question.

I find this also true when it comes to anyone that believes the literal interpretation of bible prophecy. An overwhelming majority of church-goers have never heard one word on bible prophecy teaching, though they can probably tell you something about the Mayan calendar and its ties to the year 2012. They can probably tell you something about Nostradamus and his predictions. But when it comes to the Bible, they are ignorant and most do not want to know. So they label anyone a religious fanatic that tries to point to events happening in the world today as part of the “end-times” taught in the Bible. That’s also what they accused the early followers of Jesus Christ and yet they would not be silent and they changed the world.

Say what you may, but we need more right-wing fanatics for Jesus Christ as He’s coming back soon and the world needs to know! 

 

“A Repeat of History?”

This past Monday, 64 years ago, David Ben-Gurion announced to the world the creation of a Jewish state called Israel. The next day, the armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria invaded sparking the first Arab-Israeli War aimed at the annihilation of the Jewish State. Israeli forces defeated the coalition by the end of that year and the Jewish State was established.

As far as the Arabs are concerned, this is a temporary condition waiting to be rectified. And while history may not repeat itself, Mark Twain famously observed that it often rhymes…as it does now.

After the Suez Crisis in 1956, Egypt agreed to the deployment of a United Nations Emergency Force as peacekeepers in the Sinai desert.  In early November 1966, Syria signed a mutual defense agreement with Egypt. In May 1967, Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser ordered UN peacekeepers out of the Sinai and began massing troops in the Sinai near Israel's borders.  At the time, the Egyptian Army numbered about 160,000 troops –two-thirds of which were deployed to the Sinai. On May 22 Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran.  In a speech on May 30 he announced, “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight."

On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a mutual defense pact as Iraq began moving troops into Jordan.  On June 1 Israel formed a national unity government, widening its cabinet and bringing all the political factions together as part of a united front. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, on June 4, 1967, Israel chose to make a preemptive strike against the massing enemy troops on all sides known as the Six-Day War.

After the Six-Day War, Israel ended up taking control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. 

The Six-Day War was a crushing defeat for the Arab side, and particularly for Egypt.  Smarting from the loss, Egypt tried again, this time under former Nasser aide Anwar Sadat, in October, 1973.  That war led to Egypt becoming the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

The peace deal cost Anwar Sadat his life.  His successor, Hosni Mubarak, kept the peace treaty with Israel for thirty-three more years before Mubarak was deposed by a popular uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood and disguised as the "Arab Spring".

A new Pew Research poll shows that 61 percent of Egyptians want to cancel the 1979 peace treaty altogether.  Sixty percent of Egyptians in the poll say that $1.7 BILLION in U.S. military aid foreign aid has a NEGATIVE effect on their economy and believe that Egypt should be governed by Sharia Law. On Monday, one of the front-runners in Egypt's May 23 presidential elections, called Israel "the enemy" and expressed his desire to see the Camp David peace treaty with Israel cancelled.

Forty-five years after the Israelis pulled together into a national unity government in preparation for war with Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked the world last week when he announced the inclusion of his party's chief political rival, Kadima into a national unity government. Once again the Israelis stand united as they did forty-five years ago in May of 1967, just weeks before the outbreak of the Six-Day War.

The adage of “When history repeats itself, the price always goes up” seems relevant here. The question is, “What price will it be this time?”

 

“Wag the Dog”

In 1997, a movie called “Wag the Dog” was released starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. It was about a Washington spin doctor days before a presidential election who distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer to construct a fake war.

The title of the film came from the expression of “the tail wagging the dog”. The film begins by stating: “Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.”

As strange as it may sound, this came to mind when I heard President Obama this week make his statement concerning his evolution in his stance towards same sex marriage. He stated a couple specific reasons for his change on this issue with the first one being that he was a practicing Christian and he should follow the “Golden Rule”

The “Golden Rule” refers to the question asked of Jesus concerning which commands to follow. He summarized all of them in two commands: the first was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second was to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that a person proves their love for God by keeping His commandments. The “Golden Rule” applies first to our love of God which entails keeping His commandments—they were not His suggestions.

God established marriage as between a man and a woman irrespective of one’s personal perspective of belief. However, to uphold that position concerning marriage doesn’t mean I should not respect other people and whatever choices they make in life. It also doesn’t mean I disregard God’s design either.

President Obama also stated that he came to his position after he spoke with his children. CNN reported, “Obama said his daughters, Malia and Sasha, have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. ‘It wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them and frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.’”

As to the president’s second reason to changing his perspective, this is where the idea of “wag the dog” hit me. Since when do children instruct adults in what is right and wrong? As the idiom says, “Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail.”

Adults are supposed to be the ones giving direction for their children—not the other way around. Yet, all one has to do today is watch people and it’s easy to see that in many families the children are running the nursery.

Our culture today has been turned on its head because in too many ways “the tail is wagging the dog.” The prophet Isaiah warned of a time like this when he said, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

The Bible begins by saying, “In the beginning God…” That’s where it all started and that’s where it will end when we will all give an account for our lives. I think we would be well off to consider what He says and not so much the opinions of others.

“I Don’t Believe It!”

“I don’t believe it” – a phrase spoken by people everyday. Usually in response to something they are told that seems too incredible like they won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes. Sometimes it is used when we read something that seems too surreal to be true. Either way, it isn’t that the event didn’t take place—it is, whether we believe it or not.

Sometimes that’s the way it is each day when I’m perusing news events happening around the world. Many of them don’t surprise me; others seem to jump off the page and smack me between the eyes as I exclaim, “Wow!”

Bible prophecy has a way of doing that to you—something you know is going to happen but when it does, you find yourself almost saying, “I don’t believe it!” Not an exclamation of doubt, but more an expression of surprise.

It was one of those moments yesterday when a news report out of Britain, “Secret plan to create ‘super-powerful EU president’”. The report stated, “A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union.”

Opponents fear the plan could create a “modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages.” 

This morning, Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB (European Central Bank) was quoted as saying “eurozone leaders to come up with a 10-year target for the common currency, saying they should accept more transfer of powers if they truly want a fiscal union.” Notice the words, “should accept more transfer of powers”—it’s not so subtle code for losing control to another entity…a “super-powerful EU president?”

Another article today on King World News reported an interview with multi-billionaire Hugo Salinas Price told King World News in stunning detail what he believes to be the frightening plan to “control the world” going forward. Mr. Price described this as a “very disturbing fact that is facing humanity.”  

When you see an alignment of similar events around the world suddenly appear you almost find yourself saying, “I don’t believe it.” In fact, the naysayers are saying that right now as they read this. They don’t believe it to be anything more than just conspiracy theories and those that believe them to be fools.

However, the Bible tells us in the Book of Revelations of a future world ruler that will come on the scene. Daniel 9:26 states, “And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” The nation that destroyed the temple in Jerusalem was Rome in 70AD. The “prince who is to come” is a ruler that will once again have world influence. That new “modern-day equivalent of the European emperor” is once again being prepared to emerge on the world scene. And when he does, the people that scoffed will be the ones saying, “I don’t believe it!”

The time to believe is now—the Bible clearly reveals what will happen in the latter-days. And the culmination of those events is the return to planet earth by Jesus Christ the Righteous.

I believe it—do you?

 

“Messages From The Grave”

As long as people have lived, there has been a fascination about connecting with other people that have died. Books, TV shows and entertainers of all kinds have boasted of being able to communicate with loved ones and friends that have “passed over” to the other side.

A couple weeks ago, a major news outlet in the U.K. reported of family members and friends suddenly receiving emails from a 32 year old man that died last summer. To the shock of all involved, their first thought was that the person’s email account had been hacked and someone was purporting to be the deceased man. However, the emails have not only mentioned private conversations between the people and the deceased, but also mention events that have transpired since his death.

Another business article today announced a new start-up company called DeadSocial in the U.K. According to the company website, “the service will allow anyone to create a series of scheduled and secret messages. These messages are then only distributed across the users Facebook, Twitter and Google+ account(s) after he or she dies. In doing so it allows us all to extend our digital legacy using the social web.” A video describes the overall concept for those interested.

As weird as sending messages from beyond the grave may sound for most people, it only lends itself to the current technology used today. Around the world, people send messages of all kinds through social applications such as Facebook and Twitter. One only has to spend a few minutes to realize that people will say anything and upload pictures of everything, hoping that someone will respond to it or at least hit the “like” button.

So what would someone say to others months after their own demise? What kind of messages would they send if it were possible to do so? Somehow, I doubt they would say something like, “Clean out your attic” or “Sorry to hear that you sprained your ankle, but you always were clumsy” (some of the messages referred to in the above news article).

Consider the story recorded in Luke 7:11-17; Jesus stops a funeral procession and raises the dead man back to life. It has always garnered my attention where it says, “So he who was dead sat up and began to speak.”

Of all the things the young man could have said, what do you think he told the people? I don’t think he talked about the weather or recent political happenings. I don’t think he asked, “What’s everyone doing here?” No, he probably spoke about one subject: Paradise (before Christ died, the righteous went there) or Hell (place of the unrighteous). He sat up and either said, “This is the Christ, the Son of God” or “Repent and get right with God because Hell is real!”

Thankfully, Jesus Christ died and was raised to life again so that no one has to tell the second message of Hell! While others may think it isn’t real, everyone will one day learn it is. They will also learn that heaven is real as every person will stand there one day. However, it’s only through the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross that paid the price for our sins that will allow us to skip that judgment day.

I’ll not rely upon a website or email service to send a message when I’m gone. Instead I’ll use this moment to let you know now: Jesus Christ loves you and eternal life is yours today, if you will repent, believe and receive Him now!