Dangers of Our Times

One of my favorite lines from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is this: "It is always winter and never Christmas" in the land of Narnia.  Looks like that now here in Minnesota.  Yesterday we set the record for most snowfall in the month of February - over 31 inches; it just doesn't want to quit snowing.  And we still have March to go.  The snow is piling up with mountains of snow gracing parking lots all over the metro area.  Yes, everything looks beautiful with its deep, white winter mantel.  The snow is a reminder to us of how cleansed we are when forgiven by God.  Praise God for that forgiveness.  But so many of us are ready for some green grass and blooming flowers.


Well, the 2020 presidential campaign is beginning to heat-up.  The Democratic field increases almost weekly.  As one surveys that field of candidates, one is hard-pressed to name one declared candidate who would be considered to be "mainstream."  The preponderance of candidates are leaning very much to the left, in fact, some of them dangerously so.  I was just reading this morning about Senator Bernie Sanders who recently announced his candidacy for 2020.  He will be running on a campaign theme of racial, social, and economic equality for all.  Yet, according to the news source, Senator Sanders and his wife own three homes, two in Vermont and a townhome in Washington DC.  So, I would like to ask Senator Sanders if he becomes the nominee, will he be selling his three homes and living in something more modest like the majority of Americans?  Then I read that Senator Elizabeth Warren has a net worth of $7.8 million.  Now I am not criticizing her net worth, yet she has consistently attacked those in the 1% who do not pay their "fair share" of taxes.  I would like to ask her if she is paying her "fair share" or if she employs the "loop holes" to benefit herself?  Oh the hypocrisy today, and sadly, it is not even disguised any longer.  It is blatant and open.  We are in for months of candidates advocating everything from free health care for all, to free college tuition, to a guaranteed job at a livable wage.  Those may sound very nice, but they are also excessively expensive.  Someone will have to pay the bill.  Now I wonder who that someone might be?  I look at one of those "someones" every morning in the mirror.  Yes, you and I will be paying the bill; more correctly stated - our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be paying the bill.  It will create a debt that will never be repaid - ever! 


Also of concern to me is the continued assault upon the State of Israel and of Judaism itself.  In an article published by the group United with Israel (www.unitedwithisrael.org/ny-times-says-israel-inspired-9-11-terror-attacks), Ira Stoll writes: "The New York Times is suddenly and retroactively blaming Israel for motivating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, without much evidence to support the claim. ...The Times reports, 'The suffering of the Palestinians has long been an animating cause for Al Qaeda, a stand-in for the victimization of Muslims at the hands of Western powers.  Biographies of Osama bin laden say that as an adolescent, he cried watching news coverage of displaced Palestinians who had been forced off their land."  Just as Hitler blamed the Jews for all the problems within 1930's Germany, so the New York Times is now saying that it was the Israelis who caused the attacks of September 11, 2001. 


Around the world we are seeing the rise of anti-Semitism.  We have watched the assaults upon the Jewish communities in Europe.  We have witnessed the increase hostilities toward Israel and the Jewish communities within the United Nations.  No other nation on the face of the globe has had as many negative resolutions hurled at it by the General Assembly and the Security Council as has Israel.  And now we have a strong anti-Semitic presence within our United States House of Representatives.  Sadly Ilhan Omar is from the State of Minnesota.  She is the first Somali representative ever elected to Congress.  I remember that fall during the campaign, many were concerned about her strong pro-Palestinian positions and her equally strong anti-Israel positions.  Once she was elected she did not waste any time in letting the world know that she was opposed to Israel.  She even tweeted that she believed that AIPAC had bought off many of those within Congress.  She quickly removed that tweet, but her bias was once again exposed. 


Friends, over the past few years I have read a lot about those days before World War II.  The parallels between our time and those days is shocking.  I strongly encourage you to read Erwin Lutzer's book titled, "When A Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany."  This is an excellent book for a group discussion.  With blame already being cast at the Jews, all it took was for the rise of a man to ignite that firestorm of anti-Semitism that resulted in the "final solution."  In many ways we are awaiting the rise of another "Hitler" who will do the same.  And, furthermore, we know that such a person will arise.  We know him via his biblical title, "The Antichrist." 


These are indeed very interesting and exciting days in which we are living.  But, for me, the excitement is predicated upon the foundation of knowing that Jesus Christ is going to return.  That God has a plan that He is overseeing through the affairs of this world.  That the King will soon come to claim His rightful throne in Jerusalem, ruling with a rod of truth and justice.  But, I have to admit that if I did not have that lens through which to view our world, I would be filled with utmost despair.  Oh the difference Jesus Christ brings!