A Militant Response

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS!

Like many of you, last night I watched the news about the horrible tragedy in Manchester England. News this morning is that the British authorities think they know who perpetrated the act of terror. Whether they actually did it or not, ISIS has shown its character, by claiming responsibility for the murders of nineteen and the injury to nearly sixty more, many of them children. I feel in my heart the urge for revenge. I'm sure that this desire to balance the scales is far stronger in England. Their nation, their people, and their children were attacked. Again, the national peace and security of a great nation has been compromised. We shouldn't ask, for whom the alarm sounds. It summons us all. What, though, should our response be? My comments are not intended as an agenda for our security agencies or armed forces, but as a mental/spiritual agenda for the rest of us. A song we used to sing in my youth says it well.   Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before! Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle, see his banner go! While the song has been used in military settings, it was not written for thatpurpose. Tim Challies shares the words of the author, Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould,    Whitmonday is a great day for school festivals in Yorkshire, and one Whitmonday it was arranged that our school should join its forces with that of a neighboring village. I wanted the children to sing when marching from one village to the other, but couldn’t think of anything quite suitable, so I sat up at night resolved to write something myself. “Onward, Christian Soldiers” was the result. (here)   Soon after the Salvation Army adopted the song as their favored anthem. It is a great reminder to all we followers of Christ during these times of global threat. Jim Denison reminds us that    We must pray for spiritual victory against our spiritual enemy. Radical Islamist groups seek nothing less than global conquest for their religious ideology. As followers of Jesus, we are on the front lines of this spiritual conflict. We must pray daily for spiritual awakening in the Muslim world and especially among jihadists. This battle will be won on our knees.  (emphasis added) Denison is a good watcher of and commentator on the world scene. I encourage you to read the rest of his post, "Terrorist attack in England: 3 facts". It is clear that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12). While governmental and military action is appropriate, we dare not allow ourselves to believe that this is the final answer. It is not. On the day Jesus was crucified, the greatest injustice and moral atrocity ever perpetrated was taking place, yet our Lord's response was to pray that His Father would forgive them. A few years later a young Rabbi, doing all within his power to finish the job his wicked predecessors had begun, was knocked flat on the ground where he had a radical encounter with Jesus Christ. I recently met a young man from an almost exclusively Muslim land. He is a new Christian. We discussed how he might be a witness to his people. Pray for him, pray for others like him, some of whom are risking their lives to be light in the darkness. Pray for those who are involved in seeing that the Gospel is made known in lands where ISIS is recruiting new terrorists. Pray that God in his unlimited ability to confound our predictions of doom will bring a turning to Christ in these lands where people are taught to hate Christians. "Onward Christian Soldiers . . ." Onward and upward . . . on our knees. It's STTA (Something To Think About).  Here is a different presentation of the Good News in Christ. You can find several ways to explore the Message of Grace here.

Standing with Those Who Stand for Christ

Ask not for whom the bell tolls:

The Institute on Religion & Democracy calls it Jihad on the church. Father Jacques Hamel, an 86 year old Roman Catholic Priest was leading worship when two Muslim extremists, burst into the church in Normandy France, shouting, "Allah Akbar," and slit the cleric's throat.  ISIS issued a statement that two of its soldiers had carried out the attack. The murder took place in a country other than mine, in a church that is different than mine, and it was perpetrated against a pastor whose Theology and practice are not my own.  What I, and others like me need to realize is what made Father Jacques Hamel a target of terrorism is something that is absolutely true about me.  He died as a representative of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died in our place, and arose victorious.  In no sense was it one of them who died in this cowardly, ugly attack.  Father Jacques was/is one of us. So, how do I react? My branch of Christendom--Evangelicalism, Conservative Evangelicalism, The movement formerly known as Fundamental, Historical Fundamentalists, I don't know what to call my kind--suffers serious division on how to answer this question.  At the risk of creating further divide, but in hopes of moving us toward sanity, I make the following suggestions: My kind has a history of "coming out from among them."  I was taught the virtues of separation.  Not so much the value of unity.  This is a time to link arms, to embrace.  We may disagree on the definition of what it means to be a Christian, certainly we have a variety of answers to the question of how we do Christianity, but let us not forget.  Father Jacques was not killed because of what he believed about the mass he was performing, or because of his allegiance to the Roman Catholic hierarchy.  His throat was cut because he was a follower of Christ, and because he was leading others to follow Christ.  He and I are the same.  No "buts." We have to walk spiritually, and chew gum politically at the same time.  One of the terrorists who attacked the church in Normandy was a known terrorist.  The church was known to be on a hit list.  One of the tasks of governments, perhapsTHE task, is to keep order, to keep the citizens of a land, and others within its borders, from killing each other.  I need to be disciplined enough to give the same answer when the attack is by "Christians" on a group of Muslim worshipers.   My nation, the United States, has a history of protecting freedom of worship.  That value seems consistent with the teaching of Scripture.  The Bible presents a balance and a tension between a personal response that is characterized by charity and forgiveness, and a governmental policy of security and justice.  Having police armed with Glocks is not contradictory with the response of the members of Emmanuel A.M.E. church in forgiving the murderer of their pastor and fellow-church members (here). Christians who emphasize the importance of forgiveness are right.  Likewise those who stress law and order are on solid ground.  Those who exclude one or the other are wrong. We need to eliminate from our thinking any notion that this business of standing up and speaking for the Lord is safe.  It isn't.  That distortion has been perpetuated because we, my kind, have been living in an anomalous time and place.  Christians always and everywhere have been called to a Romans 12:1dedication.  It's just getting clearer, now. We do not stand for Christ because it is easy or safe.  We do so based on this calculation:     We believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. (2 Corinthians 5:14–15, NLT) The prayer requests that the Apostle Paul offered in the First Century make a great deal of sense in our world. ". . . pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified . . . and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith" (2 Thessalonians 3:1–2). ". . . pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak" (Ephesians 6:19–20). One missions leader, for a period of time, forbid the people in his office from praying for the safety of the personnel they represented.  Prayers for safety were taking up all the air in the room.  Prayers for boldness and effectiveness need to be offered, as well. So, I close this STTA with prayer. Lord, I pray for those who love Father Jacques; May they know your comfort and peace.  Grant that they will respond with the grace that is becoming to those of us who bear your name. I ask that the authorities in France, the US, and around the world will act with justice and appropriate firmness.  I pray that all--even those whose worship is a lie--will have freedom to worship in safety. As the Lord of the harvest, I ask that You will send forth laborers into the harvest, even the parts of the field that are not safe.  I pray that those who represent you in dangerous places will be effective witnesses.  As your servant, the Apostle Paul observed, that might be by life, or by death. I pray that Your will be done down here in this messy world, and, Lord, I yield myself, dedicate myself, to that task. I long for Your Kingdom to come. Amen.      It’s STTA.   You can read more about the life-changing Good News, that gives us something worth dying for,  here.

Each of them has a name.

Something To Think About, People of the Cross:

Aaron Earls posted about the twenty-one Coptic Christians who were recently murdered in Libya, by ISIS thugs.  I found his post very moving for one particular reason--he listed the names of all of them, but one.  Apparently that man's name was not available to him.  Below are the names of these men.  As Earls pointed out their murderers called them "People of the cross," intending to insult them.  Those of us whose lives have been changed as a result of Jesus death for us know there is no greater honor than to be associated with the cross of Christ. I encourage you to read these names.  Read them slowly.  If you are like me it will drive home the reality that these were not just a group.  We call what was done to these men a mass-murder.  It was not a mass anything.  Twenty-one individuals, each with a family, a story, a job, hopes, dreams, plans, and a name  were killed.   Milad Makeen Zaky Abanub Ayad Atiya Maged Solaiman Shehata Yusuf Shukry Yunan Kirollos Shokry Fawzy Bishoy Astafanus Kamel Somaily Astafanus Kamel Malak Ibrahim Sinweet Girgis Milad Sinweet Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros Mina Fayez Aziz Hany Abdelmesih Salib Bishoy Adel Khalaf Samuel Alham Wilson Ezat Bishri Naseef Loqa Nagaty Gaber Munir Adly Esam Badir Samir Malak Farag Abram Sameh Salah Faruq An unnamed worker from Awr village I've probably seen a score of news-stories about these men, but this is the first time I've seen their names.  Thank you, Aaron. You can read Aaron's post here. It's STTA

ISIS, and 50 Shades of Gray, I don't need to see either one do their work:

Something To Think About, Closing Our Eyes:

I didn't watch the video of the Jordanian Pilot being burned to death by the ISIS thugs who had captured him, nor will I read, or watch Fifty Shades of Gray.  I already know enough about both to draw the conclusions about them that I need to.  I have heard enough from credible witness to know that the former portrays an act of utter barbarity, and that the later presents a perversion of love and sexuality.  I also tend to avoid sitting in manure piles and bathing in cesspools. There are folk who need to look at, and even closely analyze the horrible and repulsive.  I sincerely hope that, somewhere in the bowels of some intelligence operation, there are technicians poring over the film the ISIS released.  I hope that as they microscopically examine each frame that they will find some useful evidence that will help bring these terrorists to justice.  Perhaps someone needs to read perverted books or watch movies of the same, I don't know.  I just know it's not me.  I am praying for those men and women who have good reasons to plunge into the filth.     "God give them soundness of mind.  Don't let this hurt them."  I make my choices about the ISIS propaganda film and Fifty Shades . . . for essentially the same reason.  Both of them represent perversions.  On the one had terrorists have perverted the sanctity of life.  For them human beings are totally subservient to their ideology.  They think that some human life--lives that agree with them--is valuable.  Fifty Shades . . . is based on a perversion of love and sexuality.  It puts forth a philosophy that makes caring for another subservient to personal pleasure.  It is love as in "I love chocolate cake."  In the end the cake is consumed, not bettered. Perversions ought to be avoided, not voyeuristically consumed. It's STTA