69 million page views

There is hope

Reader comment on item: Erdoğan's Self-Indulgence
in response to reader comment: Michael you are right, but

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jun 19, 2016 at 22:24

Hello, Jake

Remember that it is your teachers who are DEFINING your fellow man as "unhappy, weird, looney, screwy, psychotic, neurotic", etc. You don't have to accept their verdict.

The Bible paints two pictures of mankind: one of man with a functioning relationship with his Maker; and the other separated from him. Separated from him, we have done some truly looney things: Cain killed his brother Abel, out of religious jealousy; later on, Lamech made the boast:

Genesis 4:
[23] And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
[24] If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

You can imagine where that sort of thinking led to:

Genesis 6:
[11] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
[12] And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
[13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

You are right: we have lived through some "crazy" times: Two world wars, Stalin, Hitler, and the threat of mutual annihilation. That is because many of us are "Lamech"s, demanding vengeance for wrongs we think we have suffered; and God would certainly be JUSTIFIED in declaring us all fit for the trash heap of eternal forgetfulness.

God hasn't done this; because when Adam and Eve still related to God as His trusting, innocent children, He loved them and cared for them, and called them a people "created after His own image".

There is nothing wrong with our brains, with the wiring of our "hardware". We have a software problem, in that we do not allow God into our thoughts. Fix that problem, and He has software for us that can cleanse us of every virus, every trojan an all malware, spyware and adware. He is even able, after we swap out our old hard drives in death, to give us new, eternal operating systems.

It's either that, or the trash heap. Notice that I have used a "computer" analogy. If we, as weird, looney, psychotic and borderline psychotic humans, can do that with silicon wafers, don't you think that the God who made us can do the same with us? We are, after all, easier to etch than silicon; and the Maker of the Universe is a better engineer than Intel.

My vision of the future may seem gloomy to some; for I see awful wars ahead, and famines, diseases and climatic changes. I even think we have been given a timetable of sorts in the Bible: mysterious Biblical imagery is starting to take form. "Gog" is possibly becoming "Erdogan"; "Babylon" looks something like New York City and the "Seat of the beast" is looking like the Western World.

It is also that "Great City, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt". Aren't many of us now homosexual, as was the case in Sodom? Aren't our leaders starting to behave like Pharaoh? Aren't they trying to put us into bondage, just as in Egypt? I do not say that we should make war against any of these things; not a natural war. but in the realm of the spirit, this information realm I am right now talking to you in, I am right now waging a spiritual war by saying what I am. You cannot combat "mass lunacy" by dropping bombs; and God will not allow anyone to destroy mankind. As the Bible says,

Matthew 24:
[22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Notice that the Bible doesn't say that "the elect shall be raptured out of those days". He says that those days will be shortened; and that the "elect" will go through those shortened days, just like everyone else. That's what I preach, what I call the "Good News".

Millions of Jews died between 20 Jan. 1942 and 8 May 1945 -- roughly the "3½ years" spoken of in Revelation. They died in the "Babylon" of their day, in exile in Europe. Many died, hoping for Messiah to come save them, the Babylon of which the Book of Revelation said,

Revelation 18:
[4] And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
[5] For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
[6] Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
[7] How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
[8] Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
[9] And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

The liberation of Europe didn't mark the beginning of the Messianic Age; but it did fulfill prophecy, in part, to the Jewish people; and those survivors in the concentration camps were especially glad to witness the "shortening of the days". The Jews are, as one Jew put it, "the world's miner's canary"; and the Bible seems to say that those calamities that befell them will soon the rest of the "remnant", those of us gentiles who hope and trust in the God of Israel. Our days will also be cut short, after 3½ years of suffering; and those remaining of us will share with the Jews a thousand-year reign of world peace. Even the dead of us, it is said, who hoped in Messiah, will rise and join us.

That's the Good News that I preach. The real warfare is inside us; it is there that we will see victory or be defeated. Have you seen this picture? The children are smiling:

http://www.ajaloomuuseum.ee/juudikogukond/public/.thumbnails/10944_Four_Jewish_children_converse_outside_in_the_Kovno_ghetto_520x358.jpg

Those smiling Jewish children were in the Kovno Ghetto

http://www.ajaloomuuseum.ee/juudikogukond/german-occupation-and-holocaust/

Most Jews there died, and there was nobody to help them. The important thing, for them, was that their lives should be worthwhile in the midst of horrible circumstances. So shall it be in the coming Holocaust, when the Goy believers join their brethren. There is hope for us: hope for joy, and for eventual salvation. That is the Good News that I preach.

Shalom shalom :-)

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

Reader comments (16) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
What timing on this article [9 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Tipper SnoreAug 18, 2016 11:11231483
Questions regarding NATO and Turkey [52 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Stu FaginMay 28, 2016 19:10229713
2Daniel Pipes, and the anti-Israel Trans-national movement [731 words]Michael SMay 22, 2016 16:21229584
States of Pre-Mental-illness largely represented amongst general population but mostly ignored [228 words]BorekMay 22, 2016 08:18229577
Narcisists, Megalomaniacs and other Demoniacs [166 words]Michael SJun 7, 2016 16:10229577
NO psychoanalysis of any SS and War criminal but outdated psychiatrical stubborn concepts of diagnosis [164 words]BorekJun 12, 2016 17:55229577
Should people even want to be normal? [350 words]Michael SJun 15, 2016 05:25229577
Michael you are right, but [170 words]jakeJun 18, 2016 02:51229577
1There is hope [1163 words]Michael SJun 19, 2016 22:24229577
Wishfull thinking Blablabla [81 words]jakeJun 23, 2016 01:59229577
Maigret and the Bible [133 words]Michael SJun 26, 2016 05:37229577
Whatever Happened To Turkey's Military? [60 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
DaveMay 20, 2016 20:04229550
Israel should wake up to the danger of a Turkish attack [457 words]Michael SMay 23, 2016 17:05229550
Have More Confidence In The Turkish Military [108 words]DaveMay 26, 2016 10:14229550
Morsi, Erdogan, Antiochus and Gog [607 words]Michael SMay 31, 2016 16:52229550
What is happening to Turkey's Military [36 words]Michael SJun 5, 2016 06:29229550

Comment on this item

Mark my comment as a response to There is hope by Michael S

Email me if someone replies to my comment

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

See recent outstanding comments.

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)