PART V
RATS LEAVING A SINKING SHIP
Indeed, the European business community - if not their political community - has already begun to "throw in the towel.' The Berliner Morganpost - a centrist, business-oriented newspaper in Berlin - is furious at the policies that Schroeder and his Socialist / Green coalition have taken vis a vis the United States. The idea of constructing a "Euro-Sphere" in opposition to the Dollar was never really embraced by the business community in Europe. They were always fully cognizant of the dangers they faced in such a course of action. In an article for the paper, Nikolaus Blome laments the fact that Germany appears to have "overplayed" its hand:
"The European Union ... has suffered considerable damage because of the conflict with Iraq ... The German government has taken a very lonely stance: The nations of the E.U. speak as a unit in favor of more inspections and another U.N. resolution on Iraq. But of the E.U.'s important member-states, Germany alone has made it clear in advance that there will be no question of a military strike against Iraq ... On this point, Berlin above all has made it impossible to find a common denominator. THIS HAS SO ENRAGED FOUR LONG-STANDING MEMBERS AND FOUR FUTURE MEMBERS THAT, IN A SEPARATE ANNOUNCEMENT, THEY DECLARED THEIR FULL SUPPORT FOR THE UNITED STATES.
"For Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (who has taken particular pleasure in going out of his way to criticize the United States), a proponent of integration (meaning, in this case, building-up the European Union in opposition to the United States), this was a blow below the belt (i.e., the fact that eight members of the E.U. (four current members, and four soon-to-be-members) embraced U.S. policy toward Iraq as opposed to the policy France and Germany were pushing). A majority of E.U. members should have supported him: Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, and Denmark should not have gone behind the backs of the rest of the E.U. in this manner."
But they did! - which indicates clearly the clout the U.S. still wields in Europe, and the fact that these nations consider their relations with the United States to be more important than their relations even with the E.U.
Leopold Unger, writing in the liberal Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, says:
"Contemporary Europe never could (and cannot now) relate as an equal ... to the United States. Its security has always depended on U.S. assistance. It is not even about the two world wars, the Marshall Plan, or the Cold War, although given today's anti-American babble, we should recall these. It was the U.S. Army, however, that ran Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan; right here in Europe, in Kosovo, we couldn't manage without it (i.e., the U.S. Army), and - this borders on black humor - it took Powell to resolve the dispute between Morocco and Spain over the island of Perejil. Even in matters of the economy, the Europeans ... feverishly awaits news from Wall Street, knowing that a European Eldorado depends on a U.S. rebound."
Finally, Jacques Attali, writing for L'Express, a centrist newsmagazine in France, reports ominously,
"There is no animal more dangerous than a wounded lion, especially if its pride is wounded, and that is the case of the U.S. administration (because it has been so vigorously opposed by France and Germany). France and Germany will soon learn, AND IT WILL COST THEM ..."
IT WILL COST THEM
And it will cost them. In the end, the United States pulls the strings in Europe, not France and Germany, and by challenging U.S. world-hegemony by attempting to elevate the Euro to the status of a "reserve currency" on a par with the Dollar, these countries are going to find out just how "second rate" they really are in the American New World Order System; again, THAT REAL POWER IN THIS WORLD FLOWS OUT OF THE BARREL OF A GUN, not out of a cash register which can be stolen by those wielding guns.
And when those who wield the guns believe they are "doing service for God" by stealing from, and killing those who oppose them - if they believe, as Jean-Marie Colombani of Le Monde reports - "that America (i.e., the 'robbers') ALONE incarnates Good" and "what is beneficial to the United States (i.e., the 'robbers') is also beneficial to the rest of the world," then one is just a hair's-breadth away from getting his brains blown out in a "RIGHTEOUS" rage by the Americans if he dares to resist.
"GOD BATTLES THOSE WHO OPPOSE HIM"
That's certainly the way most American evangelicals feel about the matter - and, just as Colombani says, most Americans really do believe that in resisting the will of the United States, people (and nations) are OPPOSING the will of God. THAT'S THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER! That's certainly what Charles F. Stanley, the pastor of one of America's largest churches, believes; he writes:
"God battles with people who oppose Him, who fight against Him and His followers ... Therefore, a government has biblical grounds to go to war in the nation's defense OR TO LIBERATE OTHERS IN THE WORLD WHO ARE ENSLAVED."
Of course, the word "LIBERATION" in the sense that Stanley is using it here means allowing oneself to be subsumed by the American New World Order System and accepting Christianity AT THE POINT OF A SWORD or THROUGH THE BARREL OF A GUN - hardly a "program of conversion" that Christ would approve of. Christ said -
"... all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matt. 26:52)
And -
"Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
"Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
"And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also." (Luke 6:27-29)
A THEOLOGY THAT GIVES LICENSE
TO CONQUEST AND ENDLESS WAR
But Stanley and his ilk would prefer to "live by the sword" by embracing the hideous doctrine of "WARFARE THEOLOGY" that is being pushed today throughout Christian circles in this country. This is a theology that, if it does anything, certainly gives license to the Bush administration's new doctrine of "preemptive war" - "ENDLESS WAR" in the service of God's "REDEEMER NATION" (meaning the United States). It's a theology that aims at - again, in the words of Dr. Boyd - "winning back the earth for God," "destroying the works of the devil," "renewing the earth" and "transforming it into an abode of light and life."
WARFARE TO REMAKE THE WORLD
And that's EXACTLY what the Bush administration plans: "ENDLESS WAR." Robert Dreyfus writes:
"For months Americans have been told that the United States is going to war against Iraq in order to disarm Saddam Hussein, remove him from power, eliminate Iraq's alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and prevent Baghdad from blackmailing its neighbors or aiding terrorist groups. But the Bush administration ... sees the conflict with Iraq as much more than that. It is a signal event, DESIGNED TO CREATE CATACLYSMIC SHOCK WAVES THROUGHOUT ... THE WORLD, USHERING IN A NEW ERA OF AMERICAN IMPERIAL POWER ..."
Michael Ladeen, who is a slavish devotee of America's New World Order System, says that the new war that Bush has embarked upon -
"... MAY TURN OUT TO BE A WAR TO REMAKE THE WORLD." [And, again, this is precisely what American Christians like Charles Stanley would like to see.]
WE ARE ALL TARGETED
A "war to remake the world," a "cataclysmic shock wave" designed to "usher in a new era of American imperial power." This is what the War in Iraq is all about - and, according to Syrian President Bashar Assad, "WE ARE ALL TARGETED, WE ARE ALL IN DANGER."
And whatever one may think about Assad, he is right on this one. Edward S. Walker, former Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, writes:
"They (i.e., the "Bushites") want to foment revolution in Iran and use that to isolate and possible attack Syria ... They want to pressure (Muammar) Quaddafi in Libya and they want to destabilize Saudi Arabia, because they believe instability there is better than continuing with the current situation. AND OUT OF THIS, THEY THINK, COMES PAX AMERICANA."
Lewis H. Lapham, writing in Harpers, agrees; he says:
"Washington these days suffers no shortage of visionary geopoliticians touting the wonders of an American empire imposing by ... force of arms, "peace on earth and good will toward men." THEY ENVISION A SLUM-CLEARANCE PROJECT FOR THE WHOLE OF THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST. IRAQ IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF MODELS ... (UTOPIAS) [most likely 'Christian utopias if C. Peter Wagner, Franklin Graham, John Hagee, etc. have anything to do with it] SOON TO BE ERECTED IN SYRIA, IRAN, LIBYA, EGYPT, AND SAUDI ARABIA ..."
"YE KNOW NOT WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YE ARE OF"
A giant slum-clearance project for the Middle East? - and, again, however much one might disagree with Syrian President Bashar Assad on other issues, isn't that essentially what he is saying here? That's what the people of the Middle East are to Charles Stanley and his ilk: TRASH TO BE REMOVED TO THE "DUMP" unless they "repent" and embrace Christianity, even if at the point of a gun.
But Christians who say such things "... know not what manner of spirit they are" (Luke 9:55) - that they are serving the purposes of the devil, not Christ. That's what the Bible says:
"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
"And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
"AND THEY DID NOT RECEIVE HIM ...
"And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, WILT THOU THAT WE COMMAND FIRE TO COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, AND CONSUME THEM, even as Elias did?
"But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, YE KNOW NOT WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YE ARE OF." (Luke 9:51-55)
Isn't that what Stanley and his crowd of apostates are calling for: fire to consume all those "who do not receive Him?" Of course it is! Then, come on now! - you answer the question, What manner of spirit is guiding Stanley and his cohorts?
BEAT UP SOMEBODY, AND EVERYBODY ELSE BEHAVES
Moreover, it's not just the Middle East that Bush and his so-called "Christian" followers are lusting after! The entire world is in view here. After all, that's what "WARFARE THEOLOGY" is all about: capturing the world for "Christ and the church" - even at the point of a sword or through the barrel of a gun. Dreyfus continues:
"And it's not just the Middle East. Three thousand U.S. soldiers are slated to arrive in the Philippines, opening yet another new front in the war on terrorism; and North Korea is finally in the administration's sights. On the horizon could be Latin America, where the Bush administration endorsed a failed regime change in Venezuela last year, and where new left-leaning challenges are emerging in Brazil, Ecuador and elsewhere. Like the bombing of Hiroshima, which stunned the Japanese into surrender in 1945 and served notice on the rest of the world that the United States possessed unparalleled power it would not hesitate to use, the war against Iraq has a similar purpose. 'IT'S LIKE THE BULLY IN A PLAYGROUND', says Ian Lustick, a University of Pennsylvania professor of political science and author of Unsettled States, Disputed Lands, 'YOU BEAT UP SOMEBODY, AND EVERYBODY ELSE BEHAVES'."
Anatol Lieven writes that -
"The U.S. is seeking UNILATERAL world domination through ABSOLUTE military superiority (vis a vis the rest of the world)."
This is what Jonathan Schell believes too. Schell, a "fellow" at the Nation Institute says that what the United States is aiming at today is the creation of a "UNIVERSAL EMPIRE," the foundation of which -
"... would be not equality or consent of any kind, but the absolute and unchallengeable superiority of one power and the vassalage of all others ..."
This is "WARFARE THEOLOGY" writ large!
And this is EXACTLY what Christians like Charles Stanley, D. James Kennedy, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, C. Peter Wagner, Paul Crouch, Jack Hayford, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Beverley LaHaye, Ern Baxter, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Colson, David Yonggi Cho, Robert Stearns, Mike Bickle, Reuven Doron, Che Ahn, Frank Hammond, Cindy Jacobs, Bill Hamon, John Eckhardt, Bobbie Byerly, Dutch Sheets, Jim Goll, John Paul Jackson, James Ryle, Frank Damazio, Ed Silvoso, Carlos Annacondia, Claudio Freidzon, Roger Mitchell, Ted Haggart, Paul Cain, Chuck Pierce, Rick Joyner, Kingsley Fletcher, Jim Laffoon, Barbara Wentroble, ad infinitum have been waiting to hear. THIS IS THE KIND OF "STUFF" THEY CAN ALL BACK AND ENCOURAGE (EVEN DEMAND) THEIR PARISHIONERS TO BACK AS WELL
ALL CHRISTIANS MUST SUPPORT BUSH - OR DIE!
Stanley continues:
"Even if we do not actually participate in the fighting, we are ... called to create unity and harmony within the country. WE NEED TO SUPPORT WHATEVER DECISIONS OUR NATION MAKES. (How then) can we justify the protests and marches against (the) war? I understand that, in America, for example, we have a right to express our different opinions. HOWEVER, THERE COMES A TIME WHEN OUR PERSONAL OPINION IS NOT A PRIORITY ... INSTEAD OF RESISTING, WE SHOULD OFFER TO SERVE THE WAR EFFORT IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE DURING THIS TIME ... This is a frightening time for all of the world's citizens, BUT IT IS ALSO A TIME FOR GOD'S PEOPLE TO RISE UP AS A UNIFIED BODY AGAINST THE GLOBAL THREAT ... (that now confronts our country). I challenge you, as a child of God, to respond to this conflict as He desires: with an attitude of prayer (and) SUBMISSION ..."
What Stanley is calling for here is unquestioning obedience and unity on the part of Christians insofar as the dictates of America's New World Order System is concerned, lending a certain ominous and terrible meaning to the words of Christ when He said:
"They shall put you out of the synagogues (i.e., expel you from the churches): yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." (John 16:2)
And why is it that they will do this? Because, as Jesus said -
"... they have not known the Father, nor me." (John 16:3)
THE "SHAMANIC JOURNEYS" OF
BOYD, STANLEY AND THEIR ILK
"They have never known the Father, nor me" - that's what Christ said, and that is certainly true of Boyd and his cohorts. And the truth of it can be derived from the manner in which Professor Boyd derived his warped theology.
Boyd takes as his starting point the mythology of the Shuar Indians of eastern Ecuador (page 11 of his book, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict) who believe that there are two levels of reality: the "ordinary" physical world, which we experience with our senses, and the "real" one, which is experienced only occasionally, and mostly in dreams or in "SHAMANIC JOURNEYS." [Wow! - this is the kind of "stuff" that C. Peter Wagner and his merry band of loonies love - nitwits like Paul Crouch, Jack Hayford, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Beverley LaHaye, Ern Baxter, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, ad nauseum - and remember here, Wagner says that Boyd "Raises the current discussion of spiritual warfare to a new and unanticipated level of scholarly (Ha!) investigation ... (and) advances God's kingdom today." EDITOR. Please see our article on Wagner, "Today's Church: Making Zombies out of Christians - the Prophets and Apostles Movement."]
Boyd says that for the Shuar, these "SHAMANIC JOURNEYS" are - "in a most significant sense" - regarded as "more real" than are the events of the physical world we experience from day to day. According to the Shuar, the genuine cause of events in our "unreal physical world" is found in the "real spiritual world," a mostly invisible dimension of reality that is virtually saturated with spirits. This invisible society of spirits is behind everything that occurs in the physical world. The Shuar understand almost all sickness, misfortune and death as the result of the activity of various kinds of hostile spirits. Boyd asserts that the Shuar worldview (which he labels a "warfare worldview") -
"... centers on the conviction that the good and evil, fortunate or unfortunate, aspects of life are to be interpreted largely as the result of good and evil, friendly or hostile, spirits warring against each other and against us."
Boyd believes that in essence, the mythology of the Shuar is correct; he says -
"I call this understanding of the cosmos a "WARFARE WORLDVIEW." [Of course, what this really is, is Christian "dominionism" writ large.]
According to Boyd, this mythology or worldview postulates that in "eternity past" the cosmos suffered a revolt against God; that this revolt centers on the earth (the one place in all the universe where the "physical" and the "spiritual" intersect, and that man has been raised up by God to "take back the earth" and EXPEL God's enemies, thus cleansing the earth.
THESE ARE THE NEW PROPHETS OF THE AGE
The prophets of this kind of thinking - Christian leaders like C. Peter Wagner, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, et. al. (please see our article on 'Christian Dominionism;" please also see our article, 'George Bush, the Promise Keepers, and the Principles of Messianic Leadership" and 'The Superman Theology of the International Christian Embassy'), and "new cons" like Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, et. al.] enjoy the patronage of power, some of them White House privy counselors, others advisers to the Pentagon, etc. - and all of them are willing to rearrange the world to fit their vision - EVEN AT THE POINT OF A GUN.
AMERICA "WINS," EUROPE "LOSES"
In the end, Europe will lose in the effort to stay up with the United States; but before Americans gloat over their victory here, they should ask themselves, Who really won? Certainly not REAL Christianity - the kind of Christianity whose Author said,
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matt. 16:24)
And -
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12:24-25)
Yes, the "Secular-Humanism of Europe" may have lost this war, but it isn't Christianity that carried the day; it is an APOSTATE form of Christianity that has won the day, and in the end, that is a far, far worse fate for us all; it would have been better had "Secular-Humanism" won, just as it would have been far better for Germany had the corrupt "Cabaret Society" of Weimar Germany won in 1933 rather than the Nazis.
God help us all!
God bless!
S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries |
