Terrorism, Paris, ISIS, and the Christian Response

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the atrocities of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, France that occurred yesterday, Friday, November 13. Coincidence with the date? It would not surprise me to learn that it was deliberately planned for a Friday, the 13th.

That aside, the latest figures report that 127 have died and 180 injured in what appear to have been at least six well-planned attacks in various places throughout the city of lights, Paris. What concerns me great – aside from the death and mayhem created by individuals in love with their own ideology, who firmly believe that a god named Allah is not only behind their efforts, but supports those efforts to destroy anyone and everyone not affiliated with Islam, is the reaction of people who see and/or part of tragedies like this. In fact, radicalized Muslims have also been known to take out other Muslims whom they believe are not as “fundamental” or “sold out to Allah” as felt they should be.

It wasn’t long after the tragedies began to subside when I heard people on the news talking about what should occur in Paris, which had essentially gone into full lock-down or Martial Law mode. The view that there should be more police, more military, more law enforcement who would be given greater powers to stop anyone they felt needed to be questioned. These law enforcement officials would also have carte blanche to go into anyone’s home without proper written documentation, place people under house arrest, and essentially have the wide-open abilities that are normally provided under a police state.

Why do people do this when they clearly fail to realize that they have essentially granted police and law enforcement the power to keep them “safe” by handing over to them the power to treat average people as though they are/were criminals. People mistakenly believe that a police state or Martial Law equals a level of safety that they’ve not enjoyed previously. It is a false safety, one that is enforced by severely limiting the movement and freedom of everyone, in the hopes of catching a few perpetrators.

People do this because they are deathly afraid of being injured or killed. They believe that by granting nearly unlimited powers to law enforcement, they will gain a measure of safety that they had not previously experienced. Again though, at what cost?

Living in a police state may mean not being able to leave your home. Curfews are often put in place. Borders between countries may be shut down or extremely modified so that comings and goings curtailed. Checkpoints might be placed throughout a city to keep people on their toes and so that nothing slips by unnoticed. Cars, homes, and even people can be stopped and searched and because of the terms of Martial Law, this is not illegal. However, simply deciding to stay home (without Martial Law in place) often provides the same level of safety, doesn’t it?

Will terrorists or criminals obey Martial Law? Do they currently obey laws concerning gun ownership? In fact, do criminals currently obey the rule of law? Do I need to answer that?

A number of individuals on the news yesterday noted that NSA needs to be given the powers they have had to do blanket searches of phones, etc., so that events like this most recent Paris tragedy does not occur again.

One can only wonder why the very morning of this Parisian tragedy, President Obama stated in the Rose Garden that ISIS had been “contained.” What led him to say that? Is the pool of worldwide intelligence so bad that completely incorrect information is provided to the president of the United States? I’m sure he’s embarrassed about it, but then again, maybe the elite is at work here to make him appear to be a moron. Had he known of the evening attacks coming in Paris yesterday, does anyone really believe he would have gone on record saying that ISIS had been contained? I have a very difficult time believing that.

But in reality, the events that unfolded in Paris yesterday are a perfect example of the Hegelian Dialectic. It works by coming up with a solution first. In other words, a group of people (the elite, for instance), might ask, “How can we get people to demand the government keep them safe?” The answer to that might be, “If society can be scared enough into thinking that they will give up rights in exchange for perceived ‘safety,’ then they would be willing to give up their rights.”

To test that theory, either a false flag is created or that group simply waits for tragedies like the ones in Paris to happen to see if people are willing to call for Martial Law for their own safety. This same group might also plant their own operatives who could be interviewed by news agencies, who would then state that they personally wish to see the implementation of Martial Law. Then they sit back to see how general society reacts.

Yesterday, after the event, I tweeted out the following:

It’s official. Paris going under lockdown aka Martial Law. Ppl will say, “if it keeps us safe, then good,” will give up rights 2 b “safe.”

It wasn’t long before someone replied with this comment:

better to give up rights than life

This is the problem. We are all going to die eventually. I have no idea when that will happen. I’m not terrified by that upcoming event. While I would prefer to simply die naturally in my sleep, I have no real idea how my upcoming death will occur. It’s not a morbid thing for me. It is simply a guaranteed event. It’s a door from this life to the next.

If I had been in that concert hall or the cafe in Paris in which people were killed and that was to be my last day on earth, then so be it. I realize that some consider that mindset to be one of fatalism, but not when you’re a Christian who believes in God who controls the situations that come into our lives. It is not fatalistic at all. Quite the opposite.

I used to wonder how we would get to a point where the world would become “one” as the Bible describes in so many places. When I was younger, I never considered that the use of so much evil would become prevalent to bring about a one world system. In reality, most people would not embrace or accept a one world system on their own. They have to be forced to accept it and the best way to force people to accept it is to threaten their lives, or make them feel as though credible threats against their lives is something they will have to live with each day. People who do not have or know God have nothing except their lives. They don’t want to lose those lives because it’s all they have. The enemy of our soul knows this and capitalizes on it.

I wrote a short series on how Satan has always wanted to be like the Most High since sin was found within him. His goal has been to rule the world and he’ll be given the opportunity through his “spiritual” son, the Antichrist. I don’t believe that’s too far into the future, but of course, I could be wrong. Eventually, it will happen and it will happen because the world will become as one, with respect to a system of global governance that makes it easier.

In order for this global governance to occur, people have to be brought to a point of seeing “big brother” as good, a system that can keep them safe. It’s pie in the sky. We all have our date with death and it has been designed by God. He controls those things.

Had those people in Paris not been killed by terrorists yesterday, they would have been killed by something else. Each day, 150,000 people die in a variety of ways. It just so happened that we witnessed roughly 130 plus die at roughly the same time and in the same region. That causes a great deal of concern in the average person.

I’m not trying to minimize the deaths of innocent people. All people who die – whether the unborn through abortion or those who die in a preplanned terrorist attack – should be mourned. However, the “fix” is not in giving the government more control. When we do, we also give the government more of our unalienable rights too. When we do that, do you think the government will return those rights to us?

If people would simply read the Qur’an, they would know beyond doubt why ISIS does what it does. The facts stare us in the face, but political correctness borne of Cultural Marxism (resulting in emotional virtue) makes us refuse to accept what is obvious.

If we stopped with the political correctness and our leaders did the right thing, we would treat Muslim refugees as potential terrorists until they could prove otherwise. Instead, we allow all Muslims into a nation (and France is no exception), and then when terrible things like this happen, people immediately go to the “I need to be safe so please implement Martial Law” scenario. This effectively turns everyone into a potential terrorist until they can prove otherwise.

It’s a very sad state of affairs, but one that God still overseas. As Christians, we need to understand that accidents do not happen to Christians. If faced with this type of death, would we do as Stephen of Acts 7-8 did? Would we pray that God would not hold this sin to their account?

Instead of worrying about the evil in the world, which has existed since the time of the fall in the Garden of Eden, we should be more concerned with how God wishes us to comport ourselves in this evil world. We need to be as wise as snakes and gentle as doves. We need to understand why things are happening and be prepared that God, could, at any moment, place us in a situation that becomes the next terrorist event. Not a scenario anyone looks forward to, is it?

Yet, we must ask, is God Lord of our life or not?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective