What’s Happening in Society is Result of What’s Occurring in Spiritual Realm

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

I will be getting back to the subject of the Tribulation soon because I want to finish it up. However, I have something else to say about the terrorist act that took place in France yesterday.

Previously, I spoke of the fact that God is absolutely in control. There is no other option that the true Christian can arrive at. God is either in control of all things or He is in control of nothing. It cannot simply be that He exercises control of some things but not others.

As the world noted yesterday, Muslim terrorists believe that their god Allah and/or Muhammad must be avenged every time someone does or says something that is ultimately seen as offensive to Islam. To suit their ends, several Muslims strapped on AK-47s, and drove to Charlie Hebdo offices where the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine is produced. The editors/cartoonists at the magazine had the audacity to include an image of Muhammad on the cover.

In the past, Obama had criticized the same magazine for its pointed satire directed at Islam and Muhammad. Speaking on behalf of the White House, then spokesman Jay Carney stated in 2012:

“We are aware that a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the Prophet Muhammad, and obviously we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this,”

It was a sideways attack on freedom of speech, which is also why I believe the Obama administration did not come out immediately yesterday after the tragedy to label it terrorism. Apparently, this was eventually done but not until after CNN interviewed spokesman Joshua Earnest about the situation.

We are all also aware of the fact that after the Benghazi attacks in which four Americans died, President Obama repeatedly directed the world’s attention to the infamous 15-minute video of Muhammad that, though having been on the Internet for months, it was used as the excuse for the Benghazi attack. Shortly after that, even as the actual facts were coming out and people were questioning the official narrative, President Obama stood behind the podium at the UN and made the statement, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

No one asked why that was the case. Why that had to be so. Why the prophet of Islam was more important than any other prophet from numerous religions.

Unfortunately, in making that statement, President Obama was also stating that Freedom of Speech has its limits and those who go beyond those limits are responsible for what happens to them.

But let’s be clear here though because in making these types of statements, it also means that what applies to Islam does not necessarily apply to any other religion. This is the full meaning of Obama’s statement. It does not matter that he referred to Christianity or Judaism or any other religion in his same speech to the UN. The fact that he specifically held up Islam as requiring special handling tells us a great deal.

Anyone who has read or reads the Qur’an understands what is being taught in it. There is very little context. In essence, most of it is like reading the Proverbs or Psalms. While yes, there is some context, the context itself does not really impact the full meaning of what is read.

For instance, Solomon (writer of many proverbs) speaks a great deal about wisdom and of course, uses examples of his day. Yet, the proverbs themselves are timeless because the underlying meaning remains true in his day and in ours. Nothing has changed.

It is the same with much of the Qur’an. Though Muslims argue about whether or not the passages that are intended to incite Muslims to kill “kafir” or “infidels” are to be taken allegorically or literally, it is very clear that in our society today, many, many Muslims take those passages literally. They are taught to believe that these passages mean they should go out and wage physical jihad against unbelievers because generally speaking, unbelievers are enemies of Islam and therefore, Allah. Even though Muslim apologists try to tell us that these passages are only meant in self-defense, quite the contrary is true when we see Muslims using these passages to murder people. Certainly, they might argue that cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo “attacked” Muhammad and Islam, therefore it must be avenged.

Yesterday, I read tweet after tweet from liberal leftists who spent a great deal of time acting as liaison, protector, and apologist for Islam. They agreed that the tragedy was heinous, but they were also extremely quick to add that not “all” Muslims were like that. That doesn’t even matter, frankly. The fact that any Muslim would perpetrate such hideousness – seemingly without conscience – is the problem. That there are any Muslims who believe that it is all right to murder people for what they SAY is inexcusable and something leftists refuse to acknowledge.

Need I remind the world of the great “artwork” created by an “artist” who placed a crucifix in a bottle of his own urine? How did Christians react to that? How did the LEFT react to it?

But again, what we as Christians need to be aware of is that this hatred of all that is right, true, and good along with the fact that the Holy Spirit lives within Christians, is due to the fact that Satan hates us. Jesus warned us that the world hated Him and this same world will hate us. We cannot allow ourselves to get caught up into it. That is verboten and must be avoided at all costs.

So how is that accomplished? Yesterday, I pointed out that Satan is being allowed to work toward fulfilling his promises of Isaiah 14. God is giving him more and more leeway to accomplish this. While we might feel as if this is “unfair” to people who live in the world, we need to shake that attitude off and quickly!

Who sinned in the Garden of Eden? Who chose to deliberately disobey God’s simple instructions? Adam did. The Bible tells us Eve was deceived and she even admitted as much. Adam deliberately sinned. By the way, we all would have done the same thing because that appears to be a problem with having absolute free will. It would seem that only God Himself can have and enjoy perfect free will without abusing it, which is why Jesus was able to not succumb to the temptation to disobey the Father. Thank God for it otherwise there would be no hope at all.

Consider Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is filled with admonitions to praise God in all things, to look well beyond the physical realm and understand that all of it stems from the activity in the spiritual realm! Though Paul could not understand every reason why he was imprisoned, he could and did comprehend that it was by God’s design. This is why he could praise God so mightily while in prison because he knew that God’s incomprehensible will was being worked out in and through Paul’s life!

We need to focus on this. We need to revel in it. We need to praise God mightily for His purposes in all things.

Yesterday, as I watched a video of two Muslims with their identities cloaked calmly jog up to a fallen French police officer who had already been wounded, then without any hesitation whatsoever, one of the terrorists pointed his AK-47 at the fallen officer and shot him to death, I was overcome by such a feeling of helplessness and sadness for the innocent man. I saw the terrorists as direct instruments of Satan himself as they just as calmly jogged back to their car, one of the terrorists bending over to casually pick up something he had dropped, then they got into the car and drove off.

Another video showed these same Muslim terrorists praising Allah with loud voices. These men – unfortunately – have consciences that are completely seared. Can God save them? I’m not really sure. I do know that Scripture points out that a person can actually get to a point where they become salvageable (Romans 1) by their own designs. There are many people like that in the world today and many more to come.

I cannot imagine what it will be like when the demons of hell (currently locked away now) will be freed for a time in order to be used as God’s arm of judgment during the Tribulation. I cannot imagine that.

Christians however, must come to fully understand that what takes place in our physical realm is often overflowing from the spiritual realm. We cannot see what goes on there. We can only see the results of some of the things that occur there when they spillover into our dimension.

One thing I know is that it will get much worse. People are up in arms. They are at their wit’s end. They want to destroy this evil that plagues our world. Unfortunately, we are the ones who invited it in when our first parents ignored God’s directives and chose their own path. At that moment, Satan was given the keys to this planet and he has been doing whatever he can from that point to bring his promises of world dominion and becoming like God to fruition.

Ultimately, we have ourselves, not God (or even Satan) to blame. We failed. We disobeyed. We went off the straight and narrow. Today, we are the “beneficiaries” of that action. It must all play out and it will.

Draw close to God. Learn to trust Him. Fill your minds with Scripture and praise Him mightily for all things. This is the only way I know of to overcome any and every problem Satan throws in our path. It’s what Jesus did. It’s what we should do as well.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective