SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS ITSELF EVIL

January 12 2019

SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS ITSELF EVIL

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
…By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
– William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I, 1606

“Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short”. (Revelation 12: 12).

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil – God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Yes, I’ll admit, judging by the above quotes, this is not going to be a cheerful piece. Sorry. One of the advantages of writing a blog is that I have to be my own editor: there’s nobody out there who will smooth my tale, take off the sharp edges and give my story an uplifting twist in the end, the usual way of editing.

What I am about to do is prepare me and you for what is to come. My tender tentacles tell me that 2019 and beyond spells trouble. The signs are all over: I see Lawless Trump as a sure sign that he is a true lackey of the Evil One; by his acts and words he daily welcomes Evil with open arms.

Trump now rules a society spiraling out of control. Trump is so popular because his lawlessness mirrors the lack of norms his constituents have: they have lost all ideas of right and wrong: they consume violent porn, subscribe to hateful ideologies, overdose on opioids, megachurches and Trump rallies, spend their last dollars on lotteries and casinos, while neglecting homes and spouses. Their health is poor, also because the cost of insurance and institutional care is prohibitive, beyond the reach of most.

Right now the last battle – between Good and evil – is being fought in every sector of the universe. Those who had expected that Christ’s great triumph here on earth when he rose from the grave on Easter would result in increasing peace and prosperity, is cruelly cured of this illusion.

“But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! Filled with fury, because he knows that the time is short.” (Verse 12).

That’s what the angels sing. This means that the demonic armies have thrown themselves onto the world with such unbridled ferocity and awesome fury that it can only have the most terrible results.

We see it not only in Trump, but also in Brazil, in Turkey, in China, in Hungary, in refugees, in the Yellow Shirts in France: everywhere, especially in the Middle East. Also the transatlantic concord underpinning the West since the Fifties is dying. NATO, the G7, the G20, the WTO and the EU are all in varying degrees of crisis. The mayhem of May’s doing and the stupid shutdown in the USA are just the tip. Combine this with turmoil in the climate, and it points to universal breakdown.

From now on world events will be grimmer, more frightening, and accelerating with breathtaking speed, continuously assuming more ghastly proportions, dragging millions along in a maddening “danse macabre”, undermining all old established morals, speeding relentlessly to chaos and social upheaval.

This world, indeed, has become possessed. All factors that somehow acted as brakes to stall this development have been pushed aside; now that this process is in motion it speeds up disastrously, and nothing can stop it: only the word “exponential” expresses it correctly.

So why does God allow this to happen?

God has a reason why the demonic powers are allowed to pursue their relentless opposition; there is a reason why God has allowed a certain period in which life on earth goes on as if Satan and not God and his angels are calling the shots.

The reason is simple: matters are not yet what they are: everything still looks different than it is in reality. But a haze of untruthfulness hovers like a curse over the world and in that fog of uncertainty history marches on.
There’s where Trump fits in: through him the true face of humanity and the true nature of the church are becoming evident.
We have to become what we are: “the righteous more righteous, the evil more evil”, that’s the point of the last Bible book, REVELATION. Admit it: there’s a lot of rot out there: that’s what the economy is, that’s what humanity is, that’s what politics is. And, sorry to say, a religion that welcomes a Trump and a Pence, is totally degenerate. A religion that sees the earth as disposable, is cursing God. Name me a brand of religion that treats the earth as holy, as a gift of God.

Looking back.

There are parts in the world where for a long time hardly any change took place, where the old religions were kept in honor, and the old ancestral morals remained intact. Large parts of Asia, Africa and South America lived for centuries without undergoing any change at all.

However since the 1500’s the entire world has seen a very deep transformation, with Europe at the forefront of this wild ride. Then the center of gravity switched from the Mediterranean Sea powers to the Western countries, in particular Germany, England and The Netherlands, partly through the discoveries of new continents and the establishment of colonial empires.

That period saw deeply penetrating social changes, urbanization, and bloody revolutions. It also witnessed the birth of a global mechanical, physical science- dominated world with all its consequences.

All too evident also were the erosion of old moral principles. All too well-known were the World Wars, affecting and upsetting all that lives. Never before in the history of the world has so much in such a short time been demolished and radically changed, as in the last five centuries.

Today these immense changes are no longer confined to Europe and the USA, but now involve all people everywhere, imperiling the existence of all these countries and regions and increasingly cause unrest and confusion.

In this grand scheme of changes the many discoveries especially in the area of natural physics have played a significant role. We all know about the invention of the machine, steam, the motor, electricity, atomic energy, television, the Internet, just to name a few. Medical science gained new insight in the nature of diseases and the methods of healing. We saw new ways in agriculture, a great increase in world population, new methods of transportation, especially aviation, and communication such as the rise of the computer and electronic information.

We also witnessed the development of new weapons and greater possibilities for destruction. I believe that now, in the End Times, the dangers of a nuclear war are greatly increasing. Every day we read about new developments. As ever the probing human brain is searching for the secrets of the universe in the quest for new discoveries.

All this means an immense increase in human power. It almost seems as if God for centuries has blindfolded humanity to prevent them from seeing all the planetary powers and possibilities and then suddenly he ripped away the blindfold in our days so that the one perspective after the other opens up.

This wild, unrestrained progress of human thought and discovery came with both a good dose of triumph but also with visions of frightening nightmares. Now nerves are constantly at an edge, the pace of life is ever more hectic, undefined feelings of anxiety dominate the millions.
We are confronted with situations, internally, spiritually, and morally which make it impossible to cope, which make us feel helpless, and which give us the unnerving notion that we are racing toward indescribable confusion and degeneration.

There is no doubt that what took place in the previous five centuries has all the hallmarks of a wild and turbulent era, overwhelming all opposition, undermining all established certainties. As a furiously cascading stream it forces a destructive path to nobody knows where. Is that what is meant when it is said that ever since the Easter morning the world resembles more and more a possessed world?

Today the words of Revelation 12: 12 are being fulfilled:
“Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short”.

John on Patmos knew nothing about Climate Change, which is bringing ‘woe’ to the earth and seas. Today evil forces are unloosened which as a tsunami are overwhelming the world. We now are in the eye of a cyclone: everything around us is cracking up, crashing, on edge and at the breaking point. “For this world in its present form is passing away”. (1 Corinthians 7: 31).

And that is GOOD NEWS.

Above this disjointed and utterly terrified world we see the sparkling sign of the Easter morning. All our dismay and bewilderment cannot erase the overriding fact that the demonic forces in reality have suffered defeat and that’s why their fury is merely a symptom of their defeat.

The forces of evil realize that they have ‘little time’, that their influence on earth is approaching its inevitable finish. That “woe on earth and sea” may be accompanied with feelings of untold anguish, yet they fully rest on the unbelievable sounds of jubilation coming from on high: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.” “He has come!”

Above the screaming of ever more powerful hurricanes and typhoons emerges the over-riding call to joy beyond measure. It resounds like a loud trumpet blast penetrating to the utmost parts of the universe. It also echoes in our hearts, filled with anxiety and fear.

Where do we stand ourselves?

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil – God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is time to have a look at ourselves in an effort to find the meaning of all this for our personal lives. Bonhoeffer wrote this while living under Hitler. He spoke up and it costs him his life. Not to speak up would have cost him eternal life. A fellow prisoner later reported that when the German Gestapo came to fetch Bonhoeffer to be executed, Bonhoeffer’s parting words were: “Now my real life begins.”

We today face a similar choice.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil – God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act”

God’s world is on the edge of extinction, and that involves us, of course, as well. “Humanity is facing the final, western corporate capitalist, fossil fuel initiated, catastrophic Arctic methane hydrate destabilization and Permian style methane blowout – firestorm that will culminate in 1 to 8 years (2020 to 2027),” reported ARCTIC NEWS a few days ago.

Not to speak up against Climate Change is saying that God’s creation is disposable that God is imperfect. Not to act against this looming disaster is demonstrating that Jesus died in vain.
To remain silent in the face of evil is itself evil.

Life always entails a choice.

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, as well as death and disaster. For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 30).

That choice, more than 3,000 years ago, now applies to the entire world.
Life and prosperity awaits us in the New Creation, if…IF…we speak up in the face of evil. If…IF we live the LIFE God wants us to live in the New Creation.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil – God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act”

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