By Dennis Edwards --
Today’s news broadcast has really gotten the Portuguese people in my area all upset. It’s just too many things in one day.
The main event that caused everyone to be on edge has been the killing of four people in a town about five kilometers from ours. It seems in a dispute about an inheritance a man killed his former wife, her parents and her adult son by her first marriage. Some years ago the perpetrator of the murders had had nearly a hundred workers. He was liked by his workers. At the present he had only two. He was in financial problems and the dispute was over the part of inheritance he thought should go to him. His in-laws wanted to leave their properties to their grandchildren, two of which were his. He told them he would kill them if they made a last-will-and-testament to that effect.
The in-laws notified the police which may have aggravated him even more. The police called him down to the squadron and he was required to turn in his weapon. He turned in his hunting rifle, but secretly kept two revolvers. The next morning at nine am he walked into his in-laws café when most of them were still in bed. He shot his ex-wife and mother-in-law with a shot to the head and heart. His father-in-law was shot but escaped to the shed in the back of the house to die there. His step-son tried to escape and he shot him twice in the back. All were dead before the ambulances arrived. Being a hunter he was an expect marksman.
I talked with next door neighbor who had been the first to enter the house after the shooting when the murderer had fled. He bemoaned that he hadn’t been able to sleep because of the gruesome sight he had encountered on entering the home of his neighbor of thirty years. It’s a very sad story, but it’s getting more and more common place every day.
The Portuguese have always been proud that the violence that happened elsewhere seemed to never touch their doors. But recently since the time that the internet and cable and disc TV entered into the country violence has increased each year. I remember reading a few years ago when the cable and disc television companies were first opening up their services in the country, how the police were anticipating in the next years a great increase of violence. Recently in an article by Dr. George Ellis, the famous South African scientist who worked with Stephen Hawking on the Big Bang theory, I read the following:
(What) I really want to say here, (is that) I think our biggest enemy in all of this is Hollywood. If you turn on the television, within 10 minutes and, absolutely, always, without exception, you will find the cinema TV is teaching people to — the way to solve problems is to kill people. And that is a message which is broadcast to the … people … in my country, sitting there. This is the role model which is offered to them. And what we've got to do is try to make available the alternative models where children learn, from the smallest ages 'til they're adults, that there are other ways to solve this, that there are peaceful solutions, there are ways in which you sit down and try and talk with people. You don't pull out a gun and shoot them, which is what Hollywood is teaching people daily, 24 hours a day. And I really think that is one of the major problems we have at this time. I'm not sure what one does about that.[1]
When an event like the murder above touches close to home you really begin to wonder where in the world are we headed? But not only was this shocking event the main headline in the national news, but the international news was just as bad. A massive earthquake killed thousands in Nepal and in the USA riots in Baltimore, Maryland caused the Governor to call out the National Guard. Just weeks ago we had a policeman killing a black man in cold blood as he tried to run away with five shots in the back. We have had ISIS cutting the throats of foreign prisoners in the Middle East and civil war in Ukraine, and students killed in Kenya.
Another Portuguese man was killed today in another city being shot three times in the head and left to die in his car. Last week in yet another case, a Portuguese man of twenty-seven, again about ten kilometers from where we live, walked up to his friend after he had gotten into his car to go to work and shot him dead. What is wrong with this picture? Where are we headed and why? Does anyone have a clue?
Yes, God does. He has given us clues in His word. When approached by his disciples and asked, “What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?”[2] Jesus responded with not just a few, but with dozens of “signs of the times.” I will review them here in case you are unfamiliar with them.
Jesus first warned that many would come in his name and deceive many.[3] How many different Christian religious groups and now New Age groups are coming in Jesus’ name? Yet, down in your heart you know that what they are preaching is just not right. We have many so-called Christian groups, besides the Jehovah Witnesses, and the Mormons. We also have the Moonies and the Hari-Krishnas. We have Reiki, yoga, spirit-science, transcendental meditation, Chakras, Deepak Chopra and plenty of other enlightened ones trying to show us "the way, the truth and the life."[3a] Jesus has warned us there would be many and that is certainly the case.
Next, Jesus said that we would also hear of wars and rumors of war, but the end would not be yet.[4] Well, here in Europe, as in the rest of the world, we have certainly had our share of wars. Jesus clarified further by saying,
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:[5]
A more recent translation uses the phrase “ethnic group against ethnic group” which is what we are seeing all around the world with different ethnic groups fighting each other within a country.
Continuing, Jesus said, “and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.[6]
We have seen famines in Sudan. Ebola in Western Africa and now we have another major earthquake in Nepal. Statistics seem to indicate that major seismological events are on the increase.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.[7]
Are we in fact seeing the beginnings of sorrows that Jesus warned about?
He then said, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”[8] Did you know that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today? You see it with the beheadings in Libya, Syria, and Iraq, and with the killings in Kenya.
Jesus repeats his warning, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”[9]Could the false prophets be Church officials, national and international politicians, news casters, authors, talk show hosts, newspaper, journals, economists, teachers, professors and anyone else that is saying, “Don’t worry, everything will be alright.” You know, deep down in your heart, that everything is not going to be alright. Do we not certainly appear to be “on the eve of destruction,” as Bob Dylan used to sing? Paul said that the whole creation groans and travails in pain like a woman giving birth waiting to be delivered.[10] Are we not groaning to be delivered from the world around us which seems every day more full of hatred, greed, envy, strife, violence and crime?
Jesus also said, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”[11] How was it in the days of Noah? In Genesis we read,
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”[12]
“The earth was filled with violence.” Does that not sound like today’s violent world with domestic violence, violence at school, racial violence, police violence, robbings, rapings, murders, terrorists, and wars? Everywhere you turn you face violence, or experience the fear of violence. Like it says in Luke:
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of the heaven shall be shaken.”[13]
We are almost dying from fear. We are gripped with fear. We shut ourselves in our houses in fear. We don’t talk to our neighbors and are distrustful of nearly everyone. We build up the fences around our houses higher and higher with tighter and tighter security in hope our fears won’t come upon us. But God’s word says, “The fear of the wicked, shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.”[14]
Jesus went on to say that “because iniquity shall abound, like we saw in the days of Noah, the love of many shall wax cold.”[15]Has our love already waxed cold because we see so much iniquity all around us? The words of Jesus remind me of those of Nietzsche in his famous parable of the Madman. Let’s read it together.
The Madman
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!" -- As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? -- Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us -- for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto."
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. (In other words, the fruit of our killing God had not manifested itself yet, but it would in the future)This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars -- and yet they have done it themselves.
It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. (A requiem is a mass, or a musical composition for the soul of the dead, song during a mass for the dead. It literally means “a rest,” as in death, so we have the words: Rest Eternal God.) Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"[16]
Nietzsche knew that the rejection of God would plunge mankind into an endless abyss of hopelessness. Jesus said the love of many would wax cold as a result of the increase in iniquity in the last days.[17] As Nietzsche said, "Has it not become colder?" It certainly seems like in our lifetime that it's become a bit colder even with all the talk of global warming! "Is not night continually closing in on us?" We have chosen darkness rather than light, because our deeds are evil. [18]We have rejected the love and light of God. We have killed Him and have embraced the darkness. That darkness that promised us liberty was itself the servant of corruption and now we are in bondage to it.[19] We are in bondage to these false “isms” that promised us sexual and moral liberty, but instead have led us into moral corruption. Like David the psalmist wrote, “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?”[19a]We have destroyed the foundations of our Christian civilization and are witnessing its moral collapse.
Like the famous British philosopher and author of the twentieth century Aldous Huxley confessed:
"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption . The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do . . For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”[20]
“We have objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” And now we cannot escape. We have embraced relativism and rejected objective moral values. We now have no ultimate standard to judge right or wrong. We have killed God and all reason to be good. We are reaping what we have sowed.[21] The prophet Hosea warned, “For they have sown the wind (or empty foolish philosophies of man), and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Are we not reaping the whirlwind in the results of the sowing of the philosophies of evolution, relativism, utilitarianism, naturalism, humanism, agnosticism and atheism? All these “isms” ultimately deny God and any reason for us to follow the old moral dictates like “love thy neighbor as thyself,”[22] or “thou shalt not kill.”[23]We take a morning after pill or have an abortion and feel it is our choice, our democratic right.
We no longer have any moral compass to hold us onto the right path. Like Nietzsche asked, “Is there any up or down?” No, we have destroyed the ultimate reason for moral absolutes; those absolutes which we each feel deep within us and which are true for every man, woman or child; the rights of life, liberty, education, decent living conditions, work and the pursuit of happiness. “Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing?”
Daniel Webster, who lived from 1782 until 1852, the American orator and Secretary of State for three US Presidents warned,
If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is one to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper, but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.[23a]
Will some sudden catastrophe overwhelm our western civilization, our social democratic experiment and bury us in profound obscurity as has happened to other great empires before us? The psalmist David warned that all the nations that forget God will be turned into hell.[23b] Is our nation being turned into hell because we have forgotten our Maker?[23c]
We ask, why does God allow all this violence and suffering? Why doesn’t he put a stop to it? He will put a stop to it one day. But until then it is up to each and every one of us to do our part to make the world a better place. It is up to each one of us to walk in love with one another because deep down within our souls we know that love is the right way to walk. As John, the disciple said, “He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.”[24] Paul reminds us that "the greatest of these is love."[25]
God is not dead. Nietzsche is. God is not dead as long as you and I walk in love and are beacons of His love to others. Love is the power and the light of God. Choose to walk in God’s love. Choose love over hatred. Choose to make a difference. The choice is yours. "When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?"[26]It's up to me and to you. Let's choose love! Amen!
Footnotes:
[2] Matthew 24:3b
[3] Matthew 24:4
[4] Matthew 24:6
[5] Matthew 24:7a
[6] Matthew 24:7b
[7] Matthew 24: 7c
[8] Matthew 24:9
[9] Matthew 24:11
[10] Romans 8:22,23 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also,... even we ourselves groan within ourselves....
[11] Matthew 24:37
[12] Genesis 6:5,11
[13] Luke 21:25,26
[14] Proverbs 10:24
[15] Matthew 24:12
[16] http://historyguide.org/europe/madman.htm; original source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.]
[17] Matthew 24:12
[18] John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
[19] 2 Peter 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
[20] Aldous Huxley, "Confessions of a Professed Atheist," Report: Perspective on the News, Vol. 3, June 1966, p. 19 [grandson of evolutionist Thomas Huxley, Darwin's closest friend and promoter, and brother of evolutionist Julian Huxley. Aldous Huxley was one of the most influential liberal writers of the 20th century].
[21] Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap.
[22] Matthew 22:39
[23] Exodus 20:13
[23b]Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
[23c]Hosea 8:14 Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; and Juda has multiplied fenced cities: but I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
[24] 1John 4:8
[25] 1Corinthians 13:13
[26] Luke 18:8
0 Comments:
Post a Comment