Chariots of Fire Rumbling?
Many sense foreboding in today’s world, despite the fact that we in America go about daily life in more or less normal fashion. Government and media types strive through constant attempts at propagandizing us to convince us that the societal/cultural and economic gloom as well as the terroristic threatening that looms just beyond civility are no more than cyclical conditions through which we have passed before. Washington DC wizards of smart, we are to accept; will soon have the sensation of spiraling, out-of-control national descent into the abyss cleared up for us.
Yet a great many among the American populace harbor the dread that the world could be thrown into conflict on a global scale at any moment, if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities. Europe is in the deadly fiscal turbulence that is the economic equivalent of being in one of Saddam Hussein’s wood chippers, and might be torn apart because of the economic chaos at any time. America will suffer the loss of the lifestyles to which many have become accustomed, if either of those things eventuates, is the visceral fear in this country today.
The building bubble of financial catastrophe in the U.S. is itself more than enough to assure many that the feeling of gloom and doom of the first order are thoroughly justified. As Glenn Beck has declared, we might awaken one morning and find the nation and world changed beyond repair, with our money and way of life wiped out completely.
Christians who are paying attention--and, I’m sad to have to say, there seem to be far too few who are—see the moral rot that long ago infected our nation. There are fewer and fewer who stand against the constant assault by the hedonistic among us. When Christians or others do stand up and object to the decline in morality, they are held up as intolerant and hatemongers. Indeed, we are in a time in which good is called evil, and evil is called good.
The past week, when a thirty-four-year-old old law student went before the news cameras at a sham hearing--arranged by the Democrat officials who set it up because they didn’t want to go to the trouble and take time to go through proper congressional procedures--this moral slide came into stark focus for me. The woman, a student at Georgetown Law School, expressed her dismay and, she said, that of her fellow women law students over not having contraceptives paid for by the school’s insurance program. She expressed that they were all under great financial duress because the contraception they needed wasn’t, in effect, being provided free, or at least subsidized. The implication was that the government should make such institutions pay for protection from disease and/or pregnancy that might be the result of sexual activity.
Rush Limbaugh got in trouble for saying the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for their sex. The howls from the if it feels good do it crowd and from news pundits under the guise of defending against those who would impose their brand of morality on society were as loud as were some of the strange night sounds from the skies that some have purported to have recorded and put on youtube.com. –More about which we will consider momentarily…
The thing I wish to point out is that the whole ruse with the woman law student and her dismay was about having sex when and where one wants, married or not. The contraception should have no limitations in its free distribution was the tone and tenor of the law student’s message. The only people I heard talking about this issue were Rush and his colleagues on talk radio, and, of course, some on both sides--and a few in the middle of--politics. There were no real outcries from Christians–at least, not organized Christianity—that I personally found speaking out for moral purity. At least, such voices were given no broadcast time or print space that I heard or saw. There were no Jerry Falwells decrying the fact that people should take personal responsibility for their own sexuality and its consequences.
So, I come to the place the Christian who truly cares about the critical state of the world finds himself or herself. And, believe me, Todd and I hear from you.The thought most often conveyed from those who look at the world crowding in on them--with the walls constraining evil seeming to be about to collapse upon them--is that of being almost alone with impending cataclysm all around. There sometimes seems no hope. The devil’s forces are all around and about to win.
The reports I’m sure many have read in RR news and from other sources of the strange night-sounds coming from around the world sparked the thought of Elias, Elijah’s protege, and the young man who was his companion in his prophet’s work. The following excerpt will orient you if you haven’t read the news reports on the matter.
Mysterious sounds have been heard booming from the sky all around the world–in some cases they were so loud they set off car alarms. The unsettling noises were heard recently from Europe to Canada, sounding like groans and powerful horns. In Germany noises coming from the sky were recorded on a video camera and uploaded to YouTube, with car alarms clearly heard going off in the background. (Ted Thornhill, "What's Causing the Mysterious Sounds Coming from the Sky That Are so Loud They Set Off Car Alarms?", Mail Online, 3/6/12).
These times that are filled with so many prophetic signals–which are so obvious to the student of Bible prophecy who hold to a pretrib view—evoke thoughts of just how near the Lord is to His time of intervention into the anti-God, hedonistic affairs of mankind. This made me think of, as I said, Elias and the young man who came to the prophet terrified that they were about to be overrun and murdered by the Syrian army.
Here’s what Elias did:
And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. (2 Kings 6:16-17)
I’m not saying the strange sounds--the groans and horns and violent noises that some say they have recorded and put on youtube.com--are Elisha’s chariots of fire. But the sounds are obviously being heard over much of Planet Earth, and no one has been able to satisfactorily explain what the noise is all about. Another scripture of timely interest is the following:
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22-23)
One thing sure, my fellow watchmen and watchwomen, we are not alone, while the enemy seems to have the battle in hand. The Lord is–therefore we are--on the very brink of victory!
Terry