ISRAEL UPDATEAugust 7, 2005 – On a cool September day in 1939, Germany invaded Poland… One balmy Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, the military installations at Pearl Harbor were bombed by a surprise Japanese attack… just as the Israeli forces were caught off guard on October 6, 1973…
The Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon were leveled on October 23, 1983, by a lone terrorist driving a bomb-laden vehicle… both the U.S.S. Stark and U.S.S. Cole were also attacked by surprise… and over the years, many other U.S. interests around the world have been attacked in one form or another…
Both of the World Trade Center attacks, one on February 1993, and the other in September 2001, dealt shock and surprise…
The point is, now the United Kingdom has fallen prey to the subtlety of terrorist attacks, as their alert warning level was at its lowest since 9-11-01.
It appears that the “calm before the storm” has been a pattern of deception for America, Israel, and Britain. Every one of these countries has top-notch intelligence services that are capable of warning of such events.
Question… Is it failure to gather, read, and understand intelligence reports, or is it putting blind trust in an enemy that has no respect or regard for life, limb, and personal freedom?
House to house fighting in Europe, island hopping, and bitter jungle battles, or the fear of a war of attrition and terror – both take a toll on the quality of life. Those enemies threatened freedom and hated America. The difference is, Japan and Germany were soundly defeated, while Islam is thriving… alive and well.
August 7, 2005 – Is the Resurrection of Jesus just a point of controversy, or is it a relevant fact that brings hope to all who believe?
First, had Jesus not risen from the grave after death, where would the doctrine of “justification by faith” be? It is not our own righteousness that justifies us – we rest in the hope and belief that since only Jesus resurrected – only He can justify the sinful man.
Second, there is hope in the future for those that believe in His resurrection, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.” Jesus was the first and only person to accomplish this most phenomenal of feats.
However, the primary key here is the distinction between the Christian believer and believers in all other religions… no other leader of any other religion has ever risen from the dead.
The sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross brought justification, while the Resurrection gave us Jesus as the first fruits. We now can partake of the same phenomenon; therefore, there is a huge difference.
No other could do what Jesus did, so no other could offer to their followers any such hope.
Why so many people continue to make the Resurrection a controversial issue is hard to explain. However, it can be stated emphatically that the Resurrection is the distinction from all other religions, and gives hope for the future.
To be continued…