November 2001 Vol.4, No. 9 Contents Political Correctness Hides the Truth by Melvin Rhodes Restoration...A President Who Prays by Darris McNeely War on Terrorism Is Spiritual Warfare by Don Ward Beware of Prophecies! by Cecil E. Maranville What Do We Do Now? by John Ross Schroeder In Brief...World News Review by Cecil E. Maranville, John Ross Schroeder and Jim Tuck This Is the Way... Running Toward the Flame by Robin Webber What Do We Do Now? In the wake of the war with international terrorism and the subsequent Allied response, a new kind of protracted conflict is shaping up. We are threatened with the shadows of an apocalypse of long duration. How do we cope? by John Ross Schroeder Our generation is getting used to the fact that this planet is not a safe place. In truth it hasn't been for a very long time. America's sheltered life has drawn to an abrupt end. We still long for normalcy, but don't really expect it anytime soon. Terrorist strikes from the air and bioterrorism on the ground in New York City and Washington D.C. have revealed the terrifying vulnerability of the open societies of the West. In fact no nation feels safe on an earth that is rapidly developing into a new kind of war zone. Our uncertain future We have the uneasy feeling that the world is moving from one era into another, and most human beings tend to be very uncomfortable with too much change in too short a time. The 20th century was always the age of anxiety. Yet, after two world wars and two draining conflicts in Southeast Asia, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 seemed to herald a new era and a fresh opportunity for world peace. Leaders talked of a "new world order." Just 12 years later, we seem further from real peace than ever. The future seems uncertain as the present world crisis escalates. We appear to be on the edge of global anxiety. One of the purposes of preaching and publishing the gospel is to spread the certain message that the Bible offers us real hope for the future in spite of our present chaotic, unstable world. The apostle Paul tells us that "everything that was written in the past (the Old Testament) was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4, NIV). Jeremiah to the rescue The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah lived in a moral and political climate not so different from our own. His nation was under constant threat from two ancient powers of the time, Babylon and Egypt. By that time the Assyrian Empire (which had previously conquered and taken the 10-tribe northern House of Israel into captivity) had begun to disintegrate somewhat. Jeremiah's basic commission from God included warning his nation of Judah about its demise and eventual captivity by a foreign power, King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. In the course of 40 years in a major prophetic office (626-587 B.C.), encompassing the reigns of five kings of Judah, Jeremiah learned certain hard-won lessons that 21st century man desperately needs to grasp and understand. Prominent among them was his understanding of the limitations of mankind-that we cannot live proper and fulfilling lives without the continual guidance of Almighty God. One newspaper writer recently observed, "Nation states are failing to settle the world's differences, but a new kind of imperialism can do it" ("Dawn Chorus for the New Age of Empire" by Robert Cooper, The Sunday Times, October 28, 2001). Human hope springs eternal, but when based solely on mankind's limited resources, we are destined for disappointment. The prophet said to God: "O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). The New International Version puts this profound observation in this way: "I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." This basic biblical principle applies across the board-globally, regionally, locally and perhaps most of all, personally. It impacts our governments on every level. Purely human intelligence, wisdom and understanding are not sufficient. In fact, we are fatally flawed unless we learn to rely on a great unseen power apart from ourselves. Jeremiah faithfully recorded God's thoughts about our impaired human condition. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (humanly). Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind" (17:9-10, NIV throughout remainder of article). This major prophet had already pressed the point. "This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD'" (17:5). Getting to know God Called to his prophetic office even from the womb, Jeremiah had a long-enduring, close relationship with God. Over time, he learned to trust the Creator with the positive outcome of his many sore trials. He once said to God: "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you" (32:17). No matter what happens, God is in charge. He is sovereign. He is our Creator. He had said: "With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it" (27:5). In an age when much of modern education is based on the theory of evolution, this is a hard lesson for modern man to learn. (If you would like to examine the evidence, please request our two free brochures, Life's Ultimate Question: Does God Exist? and Creation or Evolution: Does It Really Matter What You Believe?) Jeremiah recorded the following words, reflecting the fact that God saw him through all of his hardships in a time of terrible national crisis. "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream" (17:7-8). But what needs doing? How do we establish a relationship with God? Needed: national and personal reformation Make no mistake about it. During Jeremiah's age it was said: "We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror" (8:15). This passage is reminiscent of our own modern age. We, too, live in a time of unusual tension and international anxiety. Not everyone escaped with their lives during Judah's severe national crisis. Only 4,600 citizens were removed from Judah to start a new life in the land of Babylon (52:28-30). Many of those who failed to follow God's specific instructions through the prophet Jeremiah perished, whether they remained in Jerusalem or fled to Egypt. Obedience to God is the master key to human survival. National calamity came upon Judah because of her many sins-transgressions of God's spiritual law. People ignored the Ten Commandments. Idolatry, adultery, lying and Sabbath breaking typified their conduct. God said: "They have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and in my name have spoken lies" (29:23). Also: "The land is full of adulterers" (23:10). Is anyone willing to venture the thought that these passages of Scripture do not aptly describe our Western world today? In truth we know that sexual immorality threatens to engulf and shatter the very fabric of Western society. Few today take the Fourth Commandment to rest on the Sabbath day very seriously. They didn't in Jeremiah's day either. Maybe they thought that God had forgotten that He had rested on the first Sabbath day concluding creation week. Jeremiah soon set them straight. Read chapter 17, verses 19-27 for yourself. Our free booklet Sunset to Sunset-God's Sabbath Rest shows how important the Sabbath day is to our Creator-and ought to be to us. Perhaps Judah's worst sin was their national idolatry which expressed itself in two basic ways. "My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (2:13). If you'd like to understand the ways many are breaking the First Commandment today, please write for the free booklet entitled The Ten Commandments. Gaining God's favor God didn't enjoy punishing Judah for its national and personal sins. He sent His prophets to warn them first. "In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction" (2:30). So national captivity became a necessity. Before the calamity Jeremiah preached national repentance to his contemporaries. "Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.... If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place" (7:3-7). God said to His peoples of long ago: "Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed" (21:12). Today also, many seem much more concerned about the rights of criminals than the plight of their poor victims. The law has been turned upside down. But even if our nations as a whole do not heed God's loving warnings and really repent, you can develop a personal relationship with your Creator and turn your own life around. You will benefit enormously from His continuous guidance no matter how bad national conditions are allowed to become. Jeremiah set a fine example. He said to God: "Correct me, LORD, but only with justice-not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing" (10:24). In an obvious attitude of repentance, the prophet sought God's correction and guidance in his life. He knew God through constant prayer, and the Creator knew him in return. "Yet you know me, O LORD; you see me and test my thoughts" (12:3). Behind the scenes, Jeremiah knew that God was in complete control of events. Many of his countrymen did not, and some of them continually contrived to undermine his messages that had come directly from the Creator. Yet God had said to Jeremiah: "I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled" (1:12). Our Creator has a definite plan and purpose for mankind. Few things in this world really make sense unless we grasp that fact. To the remnant of Judah who obeyed Him in Jeremiah's day, God promised to bless them and increase their numbers even during their Babylonian captivity. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (29:11). It is no different today. God has not changed. He will respond to genuine repentance and a willingness to be corrected with His abundant blessings. Indeed He will guide His people into more and more truth. "This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it-the LORD is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not (yet) know" (33:2). wnp WNP Home - Literature Library