If you donÕt already check this site, the following
article may change your mind: www.debka.com A Welcome at Downing Street for The Grand Old Man of Terror
ÒMan is a religious personality.Ó Now I could have also
said, ÒMan is a religious animal.Ó Notice that both statements reflect a
certain tone about the different paradigms of individual religious choice.
Listening to the radio yesterday while traveling around
on my daily duties, pushing buttons to try to stay away from advertisements, I
ran across a commentator stating that bin Laden had declared war on America
because we were a nation without any (religious) absolutes. As an Islamic
religious leader, bin Laden was commissioned by God to give us some. I arrived
at my destination before I heard the commentatorÕs development of this concept,
but it definitely got me thinking.
When I think of absolutes, I think of Francis Schaffer,
one of the great Evangelical leaders of the 20th Century. Both Schaffer and bin
Laden would agree that the lack of moral absolutes is the greatest weakness of
western society. While their religious paradigms are mutually exclusive, the
truth of this reality is quite apparent, America and western culture have
become as the last verse of the Book of Judges rightly states: In those days
there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
To overcome this problem bin Laden would establish a
religious Islamic state with the Quran as the ultimate book of truth and
religious interpretations handed down by favorable religious mullahs as law.
This of course is exemplified by
the Taliban government now ruling in Afghanistan. Western society, as
well as most of the Muslim world, finds this type of government extremely
repressive of individual freedom. But the fact remains and has remained since
the founding of Islam 1300 years ago, a theocracy is the preferred means of
government. There ultimate control of the state is in the hands of religious
clerics, or more temporal sheiks and their royal families, and the concept of
representative democracy is foreign to the whole culture. Allah is central and
is in control of all society through his delegated religious leadership. If you
feel you have a right to any freedom you are an infidel.
Many in western society see no difference between this
repressive religious state and that offered by fundamentalist Christian
leaders. Instead of Islamic values, Judeo-Christian values are substituted
instead. ÒThe religious right just wants to suppress my desires to exercise my
free will to do my own thing.Ó
Before we look at any differences in the two systems of
religious absolutes, lets continue into some more similarities. Moslems,
Christians, Jews, Mormons, other sects, and cults all have some sort of book of
enlightenment written in the past by prophets, priests, and kings of their
specific religious system. Proponents of those systems then interpret those
writings into absolutes for religion, culture, and society as to the future
kingdom age.
How does anyone discern the difference between such a
variety of choices?
At this point, in most cases, enters the religious
experience. ÒThere was the burning in my bosom that told me this was the way to
walk.Ó This experience from Mormonism is really not all the different than ÒI
asked Jesus into my heart, Ò of Christianity. Whatever the source of the
enlightenment experience, as an experience it cannot be verified by outside
ÒscientificÓ observation, it ÒJust must be received by faith.Ó
If experiences canÕt lead to true absolutes, then surely
good well reasoned doctrine from the holy book(s) will get us there. If we
truly codify the teachings and the interpretations of Father Abraham, Mullah
Martin, Pope John, and Ground Chuck, the right path shall be seen. For we are
led by both the word and the spirit. But are we just left with one manÕs,
men's, and or women's opinions? Perhaps, the Bibles admonition is wise: ÒLet us
eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!Ó (1 Corinthians 15:32b, quoting Isaiah
22:13)
Materialism, the religion of eating and drinking and
dying is where we have now come full circle. The doctrine of the absolutely
wasted life. A life without absolutes, the utopian life of manÕs highest
calling.
So what is missing in all this? How can America and her
allies win the war on terrorism?
The answer to both questions is the same.
The first true absolute is missing in the preceding, and
is followed by the second. There really are only two. These two absolutes alone
separate one concept from all the rest of cultural and religious thought
whether, Islamic, Christian, Jew, pagan, atheist.
The first absolute is the concept of sin, or religious
total depravity. The second is the grace of God alone. Beyond those two,
standing stark naked before God, we have no sound basis for our sinful
justification in this life. Nothing in any of any religion will get you there.
Some exclusive teachings might help, but what it all comes down to is: Sin
equals death and by GodÕs grace alone, death equals life.
This is the total concept of what Paul is speaking in
this part of Corinthians. I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in
Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If, in the manner of men, I have fought
with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise,
ÒLet us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!Ó (1 Corinthians 31,32)
In this brief passage is the answer to the questions that
religion cannot answer. PaulÕs ability to do it daily. Today is sufficient into
itself. Only true Christianity centered in GodÕs grace alone provides the grace
to face each day, one at a time, how great, or miserable it may be. This
without the need to resort to emotions, doctrines, past legacy, or future hope.
Scapegoats for religious excuse. Today, or more correctly, my attitude in it,
is really all I can control, all I have to work with, it is the ultimate gift
of GodÕs grace. This is impossible without the true understanding of GodÕs
grace offered to Saul, the great Jewish religious leader, to become Paul,
apostle to the gentiles.
Two weeks ago I assume I sent this message out six times.
For the first and only time since I have been doing this email program, ISP or
whatever did not work like it normally does. It still makes no sense. I also
apologize for this mishap whatever the cause. Last week things seemed to be
back to normal. However, from early Wednesday morning through Thursday my
answering machine tape was full. Consequently, that $3 million contribution
that I know someone called with, provided I returned the call immediately was
not taken care of. I listened to a couple of minutes of what sounded like
static before I erased the whole tape. Now the tape is 30 minutes, and it ran
to the end on a voice (or noise) activated recorder. This too makes no sense.
This is really the problem with living, or trying to live
only in the present. Things donÕt always make sense. My petty problems here are
just that, but we all try so hard to transfer the past to the future. So by not
truly appreciating the present is just a way we determine to not truly enjoy
GodÕs grace. I see it in my life,
in the life of my house mates, as we struggle with some things the Lord is
doing and do not know the outcome. Perhaps it also is present as the allies
continue to convert more of Afghanistan into more dust, as if there is not
enough there already. This without any apparent further direction or strategy.
So please intercede to these ends as well as my desire to get into the future
as soon as possible, not understanding much of why I am able to do so little of
what I believe I am called to do each day.