i think as a christian at some point you try to guess when christ is coming and whom the antichrist is. scholars for years have tried to decipher revelations to figure out the exact date when HE will return. i bet every american president that has come and gone in the last 40 plus years has been the antichrist to some. i don't think we can possibly determine either one.
we know from scripture that we will not know the day when CHRIST will return so we must live each day as if HE was returning that day. satan is a little more obvious in my opinion. all we have to do is look at the world and we can see those that are playing his game whether they know it or not. as you journey further into the word of GOD you become more aware of what is sin and what isn't. first of all no one is perfect; only CHRIST is. accepting HIM means freedom from our sin, because HE took that upon HIMSELF in HIS death and resurrection.
a lot has changed in me over the last 10 years in my journey. one of those changes is that i was naive that the united states could never be hurt and that we couldn't lose our freedoms. another change is that i have noticed that a lot of christians are very naive as to what is happening in our world and we are just a little too comfy.
on 9/11 i really did not understand the motives behind the attacks fully until more recently. i didn't understand the complete reason why we have stayed in the middle east all these years since the attacks and i don't know if i will completely. granted i don't like having american citizens being in war, but what if GOD has a bigger reason for us to be there? what if HE really wants you to see what is going on around you? what if HE wants you to understand islam?
being a muslim has different levels. the top level is jihad. the men that sacrificed themselves on 9/11 were at the top in islam according to the quran and allah. they died, so they could bring islam to the world as the global religion. i don't hate them because they were taught to hate everything that wasn't the same as them. that's it. true muslims passionately, vehemently hate all other religions. there's the difference right there. we are told by CHRIST to love our enemies; they are told to hate. the reason why i say that is that i have been reading a book about a young man that was raised by a devout muslim and he is the son of one of the leaders of hamas.
for some of you reading this you are going to say, "but that is just hamas." this young man describes his father as a loving, caring, giving man that turns an eye while others kill innocent individuals in the name of allah, because they are not muslim. even though his rank is high in the muslim world he hasn't killed himself yet in the name allah, so he's only considered a moderate muslim.
as i've read more of this book i started to wonder if i could hold this individual as credible. what is ironic about it is i started reading it before the riots began in egypt. the number one force behind the riots is the muslim brotherhood. this organization began so that it could enforce the true meaning of the quran to the middle eastern people. this group believes that many have fallen from their religion just like christians have. they are rioting to remove one dictatorship to replace it with another. why would anyone support that; because of religious freedom? they do not have that luxury like we do.
here's a question we should maybe ask ourselves about whether or not we should have a presence in the middle east. in the revolution we fought britain because of tyranny. in the civil war abraham lincoln fought to end slavery. in world war II we knew what hitler was doing to the jews, and we knew he wanted control of the world. to say that we didn't is a lie. the only reason we entered the war was because of pearl harbor. shame on us for turning a blind eye on so many innocent lives that perished because of one man's dream of power. should we turn a blind eye now? if we do then we are no better than a terrorist in the group hamas. we as children of GOD cannot allow the freedom that we were so graciously given by GOD to be taken away.
i don't know all the answers; i'm not even going to pretend to. i just know that if we continue to be passive about the world then we will lose our freedoms; this includes our own country. can you imagine not being able to live a life of freedom to worship a loving, just GOD? we will not have peace until CHRIST comes again. no man can do that only GOD can.
"we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from GOD, that we may understand what GOD has freely given us." 1 corinthians 2:12
"this is love: not that we loved GOD, but that he loved us and sent HIS SON as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 john 4:10
"1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." james 4:1-4
"But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do." james 1:25
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