by Scott H. Northrup
As I sit down to write this quarterly offering, the major public debate is whether the U.S. should go to war with Iraq. Whatever our nation decides to do, the fundamental fact is that we are ALREADY in a war, like it or not. This war we are embroiled in is not just a Middle Eastern war. It is not just a religious war. It is not just the haves versus the have-nots, the capitalists versus the socialists. All of this is a part of the same ongoing war.
You and I have not always been on the right side of this war. I used to believe that if everyone in the world were like me, this would be a wonderful world. The day I was saved was the day I realized that it is because the world IS like me that it is in such a mess.
The war we are in is a cosmic warfare between the forces of good and evil, of light and darkness, of truth and falsehood. It is a war between God's kingdom and satan's. Peace is not possible by simply lighting a candle and chanting anti-war slogans, refusing to take any actions. By the same token, peace is also not attainable by military might. The disarming of Saddam Hussein through the use of military force may be a necessary action, but it won't stop the rise of a whole new generation of Islamic children who hate America. Hearts and minds must be changed.
So what do we do then about Islamic fundamentalist or about tyrants who may have atom bombs? Richard Gere and the Hollywood Left say that we need to go give the Islamic fundamentalists a hug, that they are the victims of bad karma. I wish it were that easy. Here is the irony. The cultural rot perpetrated on the world by the TV and movies of the same Hollywood Left is the very thing that Islamic fundamentalists hate most about America. The declining moral values of our Western pop culture is invading their world and they are not happy about it. That is why they call us the Great Satan. It's not because we want their oil.
What are we to do? Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10 that, "the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh." That is because we are not in a flesh war. The battlefield of this warfare is the hearts and minds of the human race. Paul went on to write that our weapons are "supernaturally powerful for the pulling down of strongholds. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the KNOWLEDGE of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." In other words the strongholds we must pull down are not physical. The war is in the knowledge realm. It is in the realm of ideas and beliefs.
Our supernatural weapon is the Word of God, God's Truth, not just talking it, but living it each day. It is living so that everything that we say and do is done "in the Name of Jesus." It is the unconditional forgiving love of God released on the world when Jesus shed His precious Blood. Practically speaking, then, it is the many small actions of yours and mine today that win this war. My friend, David Glossup, a custodian at TTU, is a hero-soldier of this war. This week he turned in $50 to my office that was lost by some workers in our building. That money was restored to a very amazed and grateful man whose faith in the goodness of God has now been restored. It happens all the time, though you don't always hear about it.
You and I are constantly in the "valley of decision" where we decide for or against God's kingdom, where we decide to "return the money" or to "keep it." When we decide to operate in the realm of honesty and integrity, and to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, God's kingdom becomes established a little more firmly. When we decide to "do our own thing" we set up our own little kingdom, which is nothing more than a Balkan state in Satan's kingdom. Inscribed over the entrance of that kingdom are the words, "Did God really say ...?"
Christian people, let us learn to "speak the truth in love," pursuing peace with all men, insofar as it depends on us. Let us choose to act at each moment so that everything we say and do is done in the name of Jesus Christ. When the world sees Christians repenting of our own hypocrisy and materialism and beginning to live out an authentic Christian life, the whole world will receive the hug from us they need. After all, "The whole creation awaits the revealing of the sons of God."
@ copyright 2002 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.