Light and Darkness

In architecture, "structural integrity" refers to the strength of the building. Similarly, a man with integrity is strong, while a man without integrity (like a building lacking structural integrity) is weak. Lack of integrity also refers to sinfulness, a lack of moral backbone. This is weakness in a man.

As it goes for men or nations, so it goes for spiritual beings. God, the creator of the universe (I call Him the "Heavenly computer programmer") is without sin and pure Love. Satan is full of sin, therefore, he is weak! God is sinless, therefore, He is almighty! So why do we fear evil? Because some churches have mistakenly given the devil credit for power that HE CLEARLY DOES NOT HAVE!

The Bible says that the devil is like a roaring lion, always roaming around, searching for someone to devour. In Job, God asks him where he was, and he says; "Going to and fro". God stands still, but the devil keeps roaming. This tells you that God is the same, yesterday, today and always, but the devil is a master of disguise, always changing his face.

Satan hates those who carry God's name (Jews) and those who carry God's Spirit (spirit-filled believers) and he will never end his quest to murder God (attempted deicide). The pogrom never ends. The next holocaust will not happen in Germany- Satan has already moved to a new location. He is already setting up camp elsewhere so he can, once again, attempt to kill his enemies. But the devil cannot win because sin is weakness. Strength can only be found in God, who is sinless. 

The question, then, is why an apparently intelligent being, Lucifer, who was created as a powerful angel, would imagine that he could wage war against God, who is infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. The answer lies in the fact that God, after making the angels, concealed some of His power. He loves unconditionally, and wants to be loved unconditionally. He does not want His creations to love Him out of fear. 

Lucifer believed that God's power was limited, so in his pride, he sought to raise himself up to be worshipped. The scriptures tell us that one third of the angels joined him and were cast down, forever separated from the light and love of God. 

In these times, it appears that darkness and evil have the upper hand. Evil dictatorships rob citizens of their rights. Poor farmers are oppressed by corporations or international organizations. The middle classes and the poor lose their land, their jobs and their livelihoods and the greedy are rewarded. We see wars everywhere, as well as natural catastrophes, like earthquakes, tsunamis and floods. Is God really in control?

Some would say that God is in control, and that he is behind these catastrophes. They say he is judging humanity. But who would want to worship a God who would kill little children, or even entire families? We can acknowledge that all men are sinners, but how can we justify the suffering around us?

Others say that God is not in control. They believe that God created everything, but gave it to us, to do as we please. This idea that God just created the universe, then sat back and let everything happen is referred to as "Deism". Many of the founding fathers were deists, including Jefferson and Franklin. They believed that the universe functions like a grand machine, and that God seldom intervenes in human affairs.

However, the scriptures reveal that God has, indeed, intervened in a very dramatic and personal way. The heavenly computer programmer of the universe became a part of the "code" itself and entered into His creation. He did this for one purpose only- to save us, His creation, and to show us all a better way through His example- a way of peace, love, forgiveness and grace.

Meanwhile, He is, again, concealing His almighty power. Lucifer, now the adversary of God ("Satan" is Hebrew for "adversary") believes that he can win at war against God. He has summoned all of his power. He has produced a body of anti-God propaganda (including the lie that God does not exist!). He has unleashed his demons of war, hatred, racism, violence, perversion and corruption. He is gaining more and more power over the earth. I do not doubt that Lucifer himself is behind the catastrophes.

God warned us through His prophets that these times would come. God warned that He would withdraw His divine protection from those who continually rebelled from Him, and that in these times, He would stand back as Satan was let loose. God, in His omniscience, knows beforehand what will happen, and knows what choices we make. This does not absolve us of our free will choices! However, in His mercy, He chose that these times would be cut short.

One day soon, all things will be revealed- both good and evil. In the book of Genesis, we read the story of how Adam and Eve ate of the tree of "Knowledge of Good and Evil", setting into motion the things that would be. The spiritual meaning of this is that we, humanity, want to know what good and evil is, but to do so, we must suffer. We have chosen the path of suffering instead of the path of Paradise. The final conclusion draws near. Those who choose Yeshua will be freed from eternal suffering. Their suffering here on earth will end in joy.

Good and Evil are being revealed in our time. Soon, God will reveal Himself to humankind,  and put an end to suffering. He will reveal His power. Before that happens, we who live in times of darkness must hold on to our faith, knowing that it only takes a small candle to light up the darkness.

God has the power! Remember that God is light. The power of darkness is the power that a shadow has. Shadows can frighten small children, but adults know better. We are meant to grow in Christ, and put away childish things, so we can give up our childish fears and face the light, and know that the darkness cannot touch us. 

Is America repeating the mistakes of ancient Rome?

In 2001, a book published by a small publishing company in the US came and went without receiving much fanfare.  Nestled among the many glossy get-rich-quick, positive thinking and self- help books that one commonly finds in Christian bookstores, "When the Empire Strikes Out: Are We Repeating the Pattern of Past Civilizations?", with its serious title and earnest, analytical tone, could not have seemed less untimely.  

After all, America had just experienced a whole decade of growth, peace and self-indulgence. The economy was booming, after a few "setbacks" like the dot com bubble that burst in 2000. The Soviet Union, long considered America's archenemy, had collapsed. The Cold War was over, and Clinton had promised a "peace dividend". What could go wrong?

The book's author, William R. Goetz, delved into a theory with which most Americans are unfamiliar - Sir John Glubb's theory of the rise and fall of empires- and what this theory could mean to Americans - namely, that the United States was in the throes of its imminent collapse and death. Needless to say, the book was not terribly popular. Truth never is.

At the time, I found a copy in my local Christian bookstore, and read it with great eagerness. Goetz explains how Sir John Glubb's famed book The fate of empires and Search for survival. The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival outlined seven phases in the life span of an empire, from the first, the Age of Outburst, to the last, the Age of Decline and Collapse.

Goetz's book applied this theory to the history of the United States, and came to the almost inevitable conclusion that the United States was heading for disaster.

The parallels between the last days of Rome and the last few decades of the United States are appallingly clear -the political corruption, obsession with luxury, huge disparity of wealth, and above all, obsession with triviality, wealth and hedonistic sex are found in both. Of course, we have all heard of the decadence of Rome's final years. In Caesar and Christ, Will Durant described Rome's final days as follows: 

"Prostitution flourished....  many rich men paid a talent ($3,600) for a male favorite; Cato complained that a pretty boy cost more than a farm. Marc Antony surrendered to such sensuality that his subjects lost respect for his authority. He surrounded himself with dancers, musicians, courtesans and roisterers, and took wives and concubines whenever a fine woman struck his fancy."

The worst ruler, Nero "divorced one wife, murdered his own mother, killed a pregnant second wife, then in regret found a youth who closely resembled her, had him emasculated, married him and used him in every way like a woman." 

Has it gotten this bad in the US yet? Thankfully, America has not yet produced a new Nero, but the many sexual scandals (including Bill Clinton's famed cigar incident with intern Monica Lewinsky) should give us cause to consider. 

Goetz quotes Henry Cabot Lodge in The History of Nations: "Perhaps the most significant mark of the corruption of the age is the frequency of divorce and the general aversion to marriage..... immorality was the rule." Another sign of a society in decline is the division of wealth: "(There were) two predominant classes in the state... the mass of beggars and the (incredibly wealthy). 

The "economic and social disintegration", as Lodge put it, caused the Romans to become lazy, overly fond of luxury and adverse to hard work.  The indolence of its citizens, the endless internal struggles brought about by societal disunity, and the financial burden of providing free bread for thousands - these were the first cracks in Rome's invincible facade. 

Add to this the assimilation of thousands of barbarians into Rome, the frequent invasions from without and the many foreign wars designed to bring in much-needed funds to pay for the bloated military, public welfare and luxurious decadence of the Roman aristocracy, and you have the makings of disaster. 

To be sure, the long, slow decline of Rome has long been a favorite of historians, and innumerable books have pondered the causes for her fall. While few have read all of Edward Gibbon's momentous seventeen-volume work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the gist of the book's chronicle of Rome's downfall can be summed up in what Gibbons describes as the five significant factors in her inglorious end: a rapid increase in divorce, a craze for pleasure, a bloated military coupled with ignorance of enemies within, an increase in violence and a decline in religious morals. This, yet again, reads like a perfect description of American society today. 

The frivolity, hedonism, obsession with convenience (so that even walking five minutes is considered an undue burden) are one side of America's decline, and are even looked upon as comical. Home-grown terrorists, school massacres, a sudden rash of child abductions by predatory pedophiles and the splintering of society are the darker side. 

Selfishness and individualism cause children to be seen as a burden, instead of a blessing, as Goetz points out. One result is an increase in abortion, long a hot topic of controversy among conservatives in the US. However, this, too, is nothing new. Ancient Romans practiced not only abortion, but infanticide, as well. 

 

American hedonism has also brought us the "Great Recession" we are now seeing: a nation that, for decades, consumed without producing, bought what it couldn't afford and demanded more wages for itself, while consuming cheap goods from overseas, is destined for defeat.

When he wrote his book in the last years of the nineties, Goetz could hardly have seen just how horribly wrong America's short- sighted economic policies could have gone– we now see Washington sending trillions of dollars to rich banking billionaires, while a whole generation of kids will spend their formative years living in tents, sleeping in motels or in their parents' cars. 

Meanwhile, the open borders with Mexico means that the so-called modern day "barbarians" will continue their invasion. Why do they keep coming? Again, America's short-sighted economic policies, such as NAFTA, forced millions of desperate Mexicans into poverty and hunger. With a drug war out of control, many now have little choice but to risk their lives fleeing from danger.
 

At the same time, millions of American citizens, out of work, are depending on extended unemployment benefits and food stamps, some living in their cars or in tents; all the while, America's wealthy elite would rather hire illegal immigrants than US citizens.     

On the political level, we see other signs of decay: the growth of a centralized, bloated bureaucracy, an inefficient, bloated military, the increase in expensive overseas battles, and a buildup in debt and ongoing corruption. No nation has ever successfully fought two wars on two fronts simultaneously and survived. The last two to try were Napoleon and Hitler, and both were defeated. The arrogance of our nation's leaders to think that they could succeed at such a task is astounding.

Interestingly, in chapter ten, Goetz enumerates the many threats facing America, many of which have, in the following years, come to pass. The Chinese have already committed many of the attacks that Goetz described a decade ago, including infiltration of the food supply (the melamine poisoning), shutting down power grids (which happened in 2003) and attacking the economic system through hacking (which happened last year). China's "information warfare" program is the second largest in the world - after the US. Because of America's dwindling number of native-born IT specialists (another product of the failed school and university system), we can expect the quality of China's program to soon exceed that of the US, if it hasn't already. 

In When Nations Die, Jim Nelson Black writes: "As I examine the parallels between American society and other great empires in history, I am often stunned by the way our civilization mirrors the fallen giants of the past."  If we want to see the future, we need only look at the past. Goetz's book now seems chillingly prophetic in its warnings. Too bad America's leaders were too busy playing golf, conducting sexual affairs or attending campaign fundraisers to pay attention to his dire warnings.