1 00:00:07,150 --> 00:00:11,730 Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:11,730 --> 00:00:15,189 moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:15,689 --> 00:00:22,789 Today, what do ancient Persia, Greece, and contemporary Islam all have in common? 4 00:00:23,329 --> 00:00:29,809 We are examining a long-neglected area of a nation's survival and prosperity, and this has 5 00:00:29,809 --> 00:00:34,390 to do with us, the United States of America, and that is the spiritual life of nations. 6 00:00:34,390 --> 00:00:39,890 Now, with all three of these nations that I mentioned to you, and more if we include 7 00:00:39,890 --> 00:00:44,909 nations like ancient Rome, or increasingly our own nation, what they have in common is 8 00:00:44,909 --> 00:00:50,049 that they opposed, and they still oppose, God and the people of God, and they do so not only 9 00:00:50,049 --> 00:00:54,369 on this physical plane of existence where steel and lead meet flesh, where word and language 10 00:00:54,369 --> 00:00:59,590 meet mind and thought, and where physical borders define and demarcate nations, but they also 11 00:00:59,590 --> 00:01:04,250 meet, and perhaps more importantly, in the spiritual plane of existence, where invisible power 12 00:01:04,250 --> 00:01:09,170 meets power, to decide great eternal questions, where angelic beings struggle with one another 13 00:01:09,170 --> 00:01:14,109 on behalf of their respective nations, and where you and I dwell as well, simultaneously 14 00:01:14,109 --> 00:01:19,430 with our physical existence, and we, too, are engaged with more or less awareness of the 15 00:01:19,430 --> 00:01:24,310 daily, hourly impact we are having in this invisible spiritual realm. 16 00:01:24,769 --> 00:01:30,609 The nations of the earth presently have physical borders, which help define them with shared language 17 00:01:30,609 --> 00:01:36,090 and culture and institutions, but nations also simultaneously exist in this same spiritual 18 00:01:36,090 --> 00:01:42,090 realm, where the borders consist of moral and ethical power, and the force of will, where 19 00:01:42,090 --> 00:01:47,469 distance and time and space are multidimensional, and culture in the spiritual plane consists in 20 00:01:47,469 --> 00:01:52,969 the manner, mode, and habits that shape the actions and products of that nation by the beings 21 00:01:52,969 --> 00:01:55,390 who inhabit the physical and spiritual plane. 22 00:01:55,390 --> 00:02:02,969 Now, as we observed last week, intrinsically, the human heart recoils from and rejects God, even as 23 00:02:02,969 --> 00:02:09,090 the major religions of the world recoil and reject Christianity, even as Islam did, even as Adam and 24 00:02:09,090 --> 00:02:15,030 Eve first recoiled from God and hid themselves after they had rebelled against Him by eating the fruit of 25 00:02:15,030 --> 00:02:20,409 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This intrinsic hatred, when shared by enough of one fellow 26 00:02:20,409 --> 00:02:26,030 citizens of the nation to which He belongs, then comes to characterize that nation as a whole. 27 00:02:26,490 --> 00:02:33,110 The gods of these respective nations may differ, but they have the common theme of a shared hatred 28 00:02:33,110 --> 00:02:38,409 of God and His people. The Bible is very clear on this. For example, Psalm 2 says, 29 00:02:38,789 --> 00:02:44,689 Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, 30 00:02:44,789 --> 00:02:49,569 and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His anointed one. 31 00:02:49,569 --> 00:02:54,689 Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters, from Psalm chapter 2. 32 00:02:55,169 --> 00:03:02,930 Well, nations and kings and peoples and rulers, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, all conspired with 33 00:03:02,930 --> 00:03:09,129 the nations around Israel, like Edom and Ammon and Moab. They conspired, they plotted, they planned 34 00:03:09,129 --> 00:03:15,169 to invade and destroy and take into captivity Judah and her people, God's people at the time. 35 00:03:15,169 --> 00:03:21,650 The Old Testament prophets observed, for example, about Edom, that they, and I quote the prophet 36 00:03:21,650 --> 00:03:26,550 Obadiah, who said that Edom rejoiced over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, 37 00:03:26,750 --> 00:03:33,229 unquote. And then when Babylon invaded and even went so far as to, Edom did wait at the crossroads 38 00:03:33,229 --> 00:03:38,710 to cut down their fugitives and hand over their survivors, unquote. They handed them over to the 39 00:03:38,710 --> 00:03:43,949 chains of her captors, Babylon, Assyria, and Persia. This is hatred of God and His people, 40 00:03:44,069 --> 00:03:49,389 but it is not unique to history, dear listener. We see this same hatred of God's people being 41 00:03:49,389 --> 00:03:55,509 displayed all across the Middle East today as the exponents of the religion of peace. Slaughter 42 00:03:55,509 --> 00:04:02,050 our Christian brothers by the thousands as infidels. Now, most recently, we saw the bloody spectacle of 21 43 00:04:02,050 --> 00:04:08,050 Christians being beheaded by the true followers of Mohammed, that is, ISIS in Iraq. And all that 44 00:04:08,050 --> 00:04:14,009 our servile president could say in response was, let's not forget that Christians committed atrocities 45 00:04:14,009 --> 00:04:20,629 during the Crusades. Do you remember this? What? I asked. What? Not only is this an irrelevant 46 00:04:20,629 --> 00:04:26,410 non sequitur, Mr. President, it betrays your true religious identity, that of a crypto Muslim. 47 00:04:26,410 --> 00:04:32,610 The only reason Obama is not practicing his true faith openly, that is, the Islam of his youth, 48 00:04:32,810 --> 00:04:38,589 is because he would be an unelectable pariah if he were to do so. Progressives in the naive 49 00:04:38,589 --> 00:04:44,069 politically correct apologists for Obama huff and puff when it is even suggested that he is anything 50 00:04:44,069 --> 00:04:50,089 but a conventional Orthodox Christian. Yet when you read his own material, for example, his biography, 51 00:04:50,269 --> 00:04:56,189 Dreams of My Father, you find him reminiscing fondly of his youth growing up under Islam, 52 00:04:56,189 --> 00:05:00,129 where he heard the daily call to prayer. It was one of the most beautiful sounds he'd ever heard, 53 00:05:00,170 --> 00:05:08,230 he says. He also fondly remembers his indoctrination in Islamic schools in the Quran, and he says it 54 00:05:08,230 --> 00:05:13,569 resonated with his soul. He acknowledged the truth of the teachings of Mohammed, too. Additionally, 55 00:05:13,910 --> 00:05:20,089 when Obama joined the so-called Church of Jeremiah Wright in Chicago, Reverend Wright assured him 56 00:05:20,089 --> 00:05:24,410 that he would not have to surrender his Islamic beliefs in order to become a Christian. 57 00:05:24,410 --> 00:05:29,829 Ha, that is a Christian as understood by Reverend Wright, not so much the Bible, my dear listener. 58 00:05:30,470 --> 00:05:36,009 Well, even if this were not the case, Obama's administration's policies also betray him as 59 00:05:36,009 --> 00:05:42,149 at least sympathetic to, if not outright enthusiastic toward radical Islam. How many Americans are aware 60 00:05:42,149 --> 00:05:47,829 of the access and advisement that the Muslim Brotherhood, originating in Egypt, radical to the core, 61 00:05:47,829 --> 00:05:55,470 how the Muslim Brotherhood has had access and advisement with him and his policy makers? In fact, 62 00:05:55,569 --> 00:06:00,930 10 of them are documented as part of his administration, and numbers of others are on record as guests 63 00:06:00,930 --> 00:06:07,449 on the White House Registry coming in to offer advice on foreign policy in the Middle East. 64 00:06:07,769 --> 00:06:13,850 Consequently, because of this, we have the toppling of President Mubarak in Egypt in favor of Sharia, 65 00:06:13,850 --> 00:06:20,970 imposing Islamists hand-picked by the Muslim Brotherhood. We have also the violent overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya 66 00:06:20,970 --> 00:06:27,430 in favor of Sharia, imposing radical Islamists, and whence the attempted overthrow of President Assad 67 00:06:27,430 --> 00:06:33,730 in Syria by ISIS, and now the successful overthrow of the U.S.-sponsored government in Iraq by ISIS. 68 00:06:34,149 --> 00:06:41,470 These were all coups, dear listener, coups aided, abetted, encouraged, and secretly funded, 69 00:06:41,470 --> 00:06:48,490 and armed by the Obama administration. Our troops are now fighting radical Islamists in the Middle East 70 00:06:48,490 --> 00:06:55,149 with arms and training provided by who? Who do you think? Russia? Saudi Arabia? No, you guessed that, 71 00:06:55,290 --> 00:07:01,550 the United States of America. Even General Wesley Clark, former NATO commander in Bosnia under Bill Clinton, 72 00:07:02,029 --> 00:07:07,529 even Wesley Clark freely admitted the other day that ISIS in Iraq was originally funded and armed 73 00:07:07,529 --> 00:07:14,029 by the United States in order to topple Assad in Syria. Evidently, the Muslim Brotherhood advisors 74 00:07:14,029 --> 00:07:19,970 informing Obama must be telling him that Islamic regimes imposing Sharia upon the people is infinitely 75 00:07:19,970 --> 00:07:24,970 better than the secular dictatorships presently there. Ha! But the proof is in the pudding. What would 76 00:07:24,970 --> 00:07:31,850 you say, dear listener? And with his predisposition towards the romantic Islam of his youth, Obama is 77 00:07:31,850 --> 00:07:38,310 drinking deeply from the wells of the Muslim Brotherhood, blind to the demonic nature of Islam that is 78 00:07:38,310 --> 00:07:44,810 playing out for everyone else to see except for him and his administration. I say that the nature of 79 00:07:44,810 --> 00:07:51,709 Islam is demonic in the very same sense in which Muslims call it so. That is, Muhammad, for example, 80 00:07:51,790 --> 00:07:58,930 was regularly visited by demons. In Arabic, they're called jinn, also known as genies, anglicized, 81 00:07:58,930 --> 00:08:04,310 right? The genies in a bottle, for example, taken from things like tales from a thousand and one 82 00:08:04,310 --> 00:08:11,050 Arabian nights. And these little jinn, these genies, are not the cute little blue genie in the feature 83 00:08:11,050 --> 00:08:18,350 film cartoon version starring Robin Williams' voiceover. No, these are not the jinn that Muhammad 84 00:08:18,350 --> 00:08:24,170 faced. In his revelation of and transcribing of the holy book of Islam, the Quran, he faced an entirely 85 00:08:24,170 --> 00:08:30,189 different type of jinn. Note these salient features of Muhammad's reception of the Quran. For example, 86 00:08:30,709 --> 00:08:37,470 he was ostensibly visited by the archangel Michael in A.D. 611 in a cave on Mount Hira near his home in 87 00:08:37,470 --> 00:08:43,950 Mecca where he was meditating. So terrifying was this apparition to Muhammad that he ran home and 88 00:08:43,950 --> 00:08:50,909 sat shaking in the lap of his wife for hours. And subsequently, Muhammad would be visited by various 89 00:08:50,909 --> 00:08:56,370 other jinn spirits of such frightening magnitude that Muhammad would be reduced to the state of a 90 00:08:56,370 --> 00:09:01,870 babbling child for hours or even days at a time. Muhammad could never quite figure out whether he was 91 00:09:01,870 --> 00:09:07,690 being visited by demons or angels until his wife intervened. She is rumored to have disrobed and 92 00:09:07,690 --> 00:09:13,909 presented herself naked before the apparition. And when she did, it fled. So his wife determined that he 93 00:09:13,909 --> 00:09:19,870 did sell this jinn out of modesty and therefore assured Muhammad that this jinn was an angel. 94 00:09:19,870 --> 00:09:25,690 Muhammad therefore listened to them and their ostensible chief Michael, and he transcribed 95 00:09:25,690 --> 00:09:32,929 the Quran over the period of a number of years. Well then, the name of the god in which the jinn 96 00:09:32,929 --> 00:09:40,610 commanded that Muhammad go out and preach was Allah, who was at that time a minor god already in the 97 00:09:40,610 --> 00:09:47,389 panoply of pagan gods in his local Arabian tribe, the Qurash. Suddenly, this minor spirit, Allah, was being 98 00:09:47,389 --> 00:09:52,870 elevated to the position of supreme god of the universe. The jinn who tormented him told Muhammad, 99 00:09:52,990 --> 00:09:59,110 and I quote now, recite in the name of Allah who has created, created man out of a germ cell. Recite for 100 00:09:59,110 --> 00:10:04,850 your lord is the most generous one who has taught by the pen, taught man what he ought to know, unquote. 101 00:10:05,830 --> 00:10:12,210 Dear listener, do you see how plain it is that we as human beings inhabit two realms simultaneously, 102 00:10:12,210 --> 00:10:17,710 a physical realm and a spiritual realm. Who is this lord of Muslims in reality, I ask? 103 00:10:17,809 --> 00:10:25,269 Who are they? Who is this lord of Muslims in reality? This lord, this Allah, certainly bears no 104 00:10:25,269 --> 00:10:30,330 resemblance to the god of the Bible, does he? And he produces fruit directly contradictory to that 105 00:10:30,330 --> 00:10:36,529 of biblical Christianity. They are not the same religion. They are not the same god. Now, while it may be true 106 00:10:36,529 --> 00:10:42,889 that, as Obama declares, we are not at war with Islam, oh, the same cannot be said when it comes 107 00:10:42,889 --> 00:10:49,710 to the stance of Islam with Christianity, can it? From the Quran, from Surah, number two, for example, 108 00:10:50,470 --> 00:10:56,049 the Quran says, fight in the cause of Allah, those who fight against you. Slay the infidels wherever you 109 00:10:56,049 --> 00:11:00,990 find them and turn them out from where they have turned you out for tumult and oppression are worse 110 00:11:00,990 --> 00:11:07,169 than slaughter, unquote. Oh, from the Quran as well, from Surah, number three, if anyone desires a 111 00:11:07,169 --> 00:11:12,570 religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, unquote. This is why you have the choice of 112 00:11:12,570 --> 00:11:17,990 the sword or the Quran, the sword or Islam when they conquer or else you are oppressed as a Christian 113 00:11:17,990 --> 00:11:29,590 and a Jew under, um, under the, the treaty of, uh, Omar. Also from the Quran, Surah, number four, seize the 114 00:11:29,590 --> 00:11:34,490 infidels and slay them wherever you find them and in any case, take no friends or helpers from their 115 00:11:34,490 --> 00:11:40,110 ranks, unquote. Or how about this, the unbelievers are open enemies to you, from Surah, number four, 116 00:11:40,169 --> 00:11:45,970 in the Quran. And finally, fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day, unquote, from Surah, 117 00:11:46,029 --> 00:11:52,370 number nine, in the Quran. Well, these and other portions of the Quran make it quite plain why the 118 00:11:52,370 --> 00:11:59,490 Muslim world today is seething and boiling with hatred and bloodlust and demonic rage against Christ and 119 00:11:59,490 --> 00:12:04,870 his people. We live in two realms simultaneously, dear listener, both the physical and the spiritual. 120 00:12:05,090 --> 00:12:11,629 And at both levels, the Islam, the Muslim world is seething and boiling with hatred and bloodlust 121 00:12:11,629 --> 00:12:17,149 and demonic rage against Christ and his people. It comes from the evil spiritual realm to inspire 122 00:12:17,149 --> 00:12:22,490 followers to act in the physical realm, which then in turn completes the loop of destiny by transforming 123 00:12:22,490 --> 00:12:27,929 also the spiritual realm in turn from which it emanated, making it stronger and more virulent. 124 00:12:27,929 --> 00:12:33,210 These play upon one another. Please don't insult our intelligence, dear apologists, 125 00:12:33,529 --> 00:12:42,070 with lies of equivocation that excuse this behavior either. For example, we hear that these 126 00:12:42,070 --> 00:12:48,169 jihadists represent only a tiny fraction of the largely peaceful Muslims of the world. Obama says 127 00:12:48,169 --> 00:12:55,289 this all the time. Yet, how many cheer on their fellow believers in this barbarity from the sidelines? 128 00:12:55,289 --> 00:13:02,509 Just note, for example, the film of the celebration in the streets all over the Muslim world after 9-11. 129 00:13:03,289 --> 00:13:10,049 Just because the over one billion Muslims in the world now are not at all at once slaughtering the 130 00:13:10,049 --> 00:13:15,929 infidels of the world does not mean that they will not be doing so in the future if given the opportunity 131 00:13:15,929 --> 00:13:22,909 or else, as many are doing, offering money and resources and moral support for those who do, even now. 132 00:13:23,710 --> 00:13:29,649 Additionally, if the majority of Muslims are peaceful, why are they not strenuously objecting to the hijacking 133 00:13:29,649 --> 00:13:35,950 of their religion? Christians would. Why are they not rising up and taking Islam back, crying out to all who would 134 00:13:35,950 --> 00:13:41,590 listen, that this is not Islam? Why are they not removing these inauthentic leaders, if they are 135 00:13:41,590 --> 00:13:47,929 inauthentic, and replacing them with true leaders that represent what Islam really is? Well, I submit to you 136 00:13:47,929 --> 00:13:54,549 it is precisely because they are content with those in the vanguard, those waging jihad, those who seize the 137 00:13:54,549 --> 00:14:00,970 infidels and slay them wherever they find them. To those leaders committing acts of atrocity, these leaders 138 00:14:00,970 --> 00:14:07,649 exactly represent what most Muslims think their religion represents. Especially with the successful 139 00:14:07,649 --> 00:14:13,889 resurgence of Islam all over the world, the average Muslim is content with those who are bringing this 140 00:14:13,889 --> 00:14:22,970 revival. Now, there is a truism in political and cultural life, dear listener. Silence is assent. Yes, silence 141 00:14:22,970 --> 00:14:33,649 is assent. If you do not object and act to intervene and stop a behavior, it continues, it grows, it increases its 142 00:14:33,649 --> 00:14:43,190 field of influence like an unattended cancer. Even if you may not agree with a behavior in theory, for example, thinking 143 00:14:43,190 --> 00:14:50,889 that waging violent jihad is not true Islam, even if you agree with that in theory, your silence and passivity is a 144 00:14:50,889 --> 00:14:59,250 virtual assent, a tacit agreement that this behavior is acceptable and will proceed. Most Germans were silent 145 00:14:59,250 --> 00:15:05,049 and passive in Hitler's rise to power. Does it excuse the Holocaust in World War II? Does the silence and 146 00:15:05,049 --> 00:15:11,029 passivity of the German people in Hitler's rise to power excuse them responsibility for constituting the 147 00:15:11,029 --> 00:15:15,889 armies of Germany, for working in the factories of Germany that produced the bombs, tanks, and guns of 148 00:15:15,889 --> 00:15:20,710 Germans who ran rivers of blood all over Europe and Russia? Does the silence of the German people 149 00:15:20,710 --> 00:15:26,710 and the rise of Hitler excuse the doctrine and practice of Nazism and the master race? Ha, I submit to 150 00:15:26,710 --> 00:15:33,409 you, no. The world held all of Germany responsible even during the Nuremberg trials. Most Japanese as 151 00:15:33,409 --> 00:15:39,389 well were silent and passive during the rise of the militant emperor cult in Japan in the early decades of 152 00:15:39,389 --> 00:15:45,269 the 20th century. It only took a tiny percentage of fanatical military leaders in conjunction with the 153 00:15:45,269 --> 00:15:50,389 emperor and his family to fashion all of Japan into an aggressive militaristic empire. 154 00:15:50,389 --> 00:15:56,330 that ran rivers of blood during World War II. Does this excuse the silent passive population of 155 00:15:56,330 --> 00:16:01,690 Japan? They worked the factories. They grew the food. They constituted the armies of Japan that went 156 00:16:01,690 --> 00:16:07,629 about the evil dictated by the emperor. Were the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Were they 157 00:16:07,629 --> 00:16:13,370 selective in who they killed, slaying only those who actively, vocally supported the emperor and his 158 00:16:13,370 --> 00:16:18,970 generals? No. Well, I submit to you today, this is what is happening all over the Muslim world. 159 00:16:19,309 --> 00:16:24,769 Muslims give their virtual assent, their tacit agreement that what the jihadists are doing in Iraq 160 00:16:24,769 --> 00:16:31,210 and Syria and Egypt and Afghanistan and countless other Muslim regions represents them and their religion. 161 00:16:31,309 --> 00:16:36,610 They may be silent and passive in the face of the demonic frenzy of their co-religionists, 162 00:16:36,610 --> 00:16:44,970 but the large 99%, if you will, allow and entertain and turn a blind eye to what their co-religionists do, 163 00:16:45,070 --> 00:16:50,669 the ones who are leading. Despite crypto-Muslims like President Obama who make excuses for them, 164 00:16:51,070 --> 00:16:56,269 all of Islam must be held accountable for what is being done in its name. I say this again, 165 00:16:56,549 --> 00:17:02,409 all of Islam in the spiritual realm and the physical realm must be held accountable for what is being 166 00:17:02,409 --> 00:17:11,490 done in its name. We also hear things like Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of peace. 167 00:17:12,170 --> 00:17:19,230 Jihad is the exception, not the rule. Oh, Islam in the first place. Islam does not mean peace. 168 00:17:19,230 --> 00:17:27,470 It means submission. Islam translates as submission. Are you blind? Can you not see that wherever the 169 00:17:27,470 --> 00:17:32,670 religion of peace obtains? There is not peace, but war and blood and death in submission to the 170 00:17:32,670 --> 00:17:37,650 jihad of Allah. Wherever the religion of peace obtains, there is not liberty, but submission to 171 00:17:37,650 --> 00:17:42,710 religious and political tyranny. Wherever the religion of peace obtains, there is not prosperity 172 00:17:42,710 --> 00:17:48,769 and opportunity, but submission to poverty and want. Wherever the religion of peace obtains, 173 00:17:48,849 --> 00:17:54,950 there is not freedom of expression for ideas, but submission to suppressed speech and strangled ideas. 174 00:17:54,950 --> 00:18:00,509 And wherever the religion of peace obtains, there is not flourishing art and culture look around you, 175 00:18:00,589 --> 00:18:06,529 but rather the submission to an arid wasteland of culture, like the desert from once this desolate 176 00:18:06,529 --> 00:18:11,829 religion came. And wherever the religion of peace obtains, there is not a flourishing science and 177 00:18:11,829 --> 00:18:17,890 technology, but an ignorance and stupidity imposed by the straitjacket of submission to the Koran. 178 00:18:18,210 --> 00:18:22,950 And wherever the religion of peace obtains, there is not a love for life lived in freedom. 179 00:18:22,950 --> 00:18:29,829 But as Osama bin Laden put it, rather, there is a love for death in submission to Allah. 180 00:18:30,369 --> 00:18:36,710 Yeah, as Osama bin Laden put it, the West, you love life, but we love death. That is why we will win. 181 00:18:36,950 --> 00:18:45,849 Ha! Well, I'm tired of being told that what I see is not what my eyes are seeing. I'm tired of being told by 182 00:18:45,849 --> 00:18:51,549 apologists for Islam that what I hear is not what my ears are hearing, and that what is happening is not 183 00:18:51,549 --> 00:18:58,750 really what is going on. When a rabid dog, when a rabid dog is tearing at my ankles, don't tell me 184 00:18:58,750 --> 00:19:04,109 that really inside there's a puppy who only wants to lick my boots, and he's just waiting to get out. 185 00:19:04,109 --> 00:19:10,410 No, I will shoot the rabid dog. I am not going to believe you, Mr. President. You are a proven liar, 186 00:19:10,410 --> 00:19:17,049 but rather I will believe my lying eyes. Islam does not mean peace. It means submission. Submission 187 00:19:17,049 --> 00:19:26,329 to the demonic, the tyrannical, and the life-negating. Now, in this larger theater of the spirits, 188 00:19:26,809 --> 00:19:33,769 in this larger theater, behold the consequence for the lives of nations when they choose Allah as their 189 00:19:33,769 --> 00:19:42,569 God. Look at the nations presently under whom Allah is the undisputed God. Nations like Saudi Arabia, 190 00:19:43,130 --> 00:19:49,529 Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan, and many, many others. Dear listener, would you choose to live in any of them 191 00:19:49,529 --> 00:19:54,170 as opposed to where you live now? Look at the products. Look at the fruit of the religions. 192 00:19:54,809 --> 00:20:00,250 Listener, though you may not be in battle right now in the streets of your city with Islamic jihadists, 193 00:20:00,250 --> 00:20:06,809 there is a war nevertheless being fought in the spiritual realm even now. All through the history 194 00:20:06,809 --> 00:20:12,650 of mankind, nations have lived a life simultaneously in the physical realm as well as the spiritual realm. 195 00:20:12,890 --> 00:20:18,990 Those in vituperative hatred of God, those in vituperative hatred of God and his people, 196 00:20:19,130 --> 00:20:24,970 they have been at war with the people of God in this spiritual realm, even if the battlefields of 197 00:20:24,970 --> 00:20:31,529 the earth were relatively silent at the time. There nevertheless has been pitch battle. Here we 198 00:20:31,529 --> 00:20:39,690 see constant warfare in us in the spiritual realm, do we not? We see this reflected throughout the pages 199 00:20:39,690 --> 00:20:46,250 of the Bible as we turn in our Bibles. For instance, the angel to the prophet sent to the prophet Daniel 200 00:20:46,250 --> 00:20:51,930 reveals to Daniel that which had delayed him for so long in coming to Daniel, and he tells him with 201 00:20:51,930 --> 00:20:57,609 this message. He says, "...the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. Then Michael, one of 202 00:20:57,609 --> 00:21:01,930 the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia." This all 203 00:21:01,930 --> 00:21:08,730 happening in the spiritual realm. Nations have princes or mighty angels in regular rank and order like 204 00:21:08,730 --> 00:21:13,609 armies in this spiritual realm, and they fight in the realm of the spirit on behalf of those nations. 205 00:21:13,829 --> 00:21:19,849 This is part of the spiritual life of nations. Now, at this time in the Bible, Israel was the people 206 00:21:19,849 --> 00:21:26,170 of God. Israel was the people of God, the nation who alone stood like a shining beacon in an otherwise 207 00:21:26,170 --> 00:21:31,609 dark and pagan world. It was true in the physical realm, where Israel sat at the cusp of Asia and 208 00:21:31,609 --> 00:21:37,769 Africa, a tiny spot of land in the southeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. But it was also true not only 209 00:21:37,769 --> 00:21:42,329 in the physical realm, but also in the spiritual realm, where Israel stood alone against the hatred 210 00:21:42,329 --> 00:21:48,730 and bitterness of the nations around her. The angel said to Daniel, "...soon I will return to fight against 211 00:21:48,730 --> 00:21:53,769 the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come. And no one supports me against 212 00:21:53,769 --> 00:21:59,589 either of them except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand 213 00:21:59,589 --> 00:22:06,789 to support and protect him." Unquote. Oh, here we see constant warfare in the heavenly realm. Though we may not 214 00:22:06,789 --> 00:22:12,769 see it ourselves or feel it directly down here, it is an ongoing war and profoundly affects our daily 215 00:22:12,769 --> 00:22:18,289 lives as we see in Daniel's own life. Did you note how desperately alone the prince of Israel, Michael, 216 00:22:18,289 --> 00:22:23,730 was with only a few angelic hosts to support him against the princes of both Persia and Greece? 217 00:22:24,630 --> 00:22:30,769 This has always been the case with God's people, dear listener, fighting that battle against God's 218 00:22:30,769 --> 00:22:37,130 enemies in both the spiritual realm and in the physical realm. Now, we see this now, today, in the 219 00:22:37,130 --> 00:22:43,130 world's hatred of the church. The church is now the people of God, not Israel, but the hatred is still 220 00:22:43,130 --> 00:22:49,450 vituperative. It is still hot, both against the church and her Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. For example, 221 00:22:49,549 --> 00:22:55,150 in Revelation 12, we see St. John's figurative portrait of the church in the figure of a woman clothed 222 00:22:55,150 --> 00:23:01,089 with the son, giving birth to the Christ, who is then pursued by a great red dragon, which the Bible 223 00:23:01,089 --> 00:23:06,289 says is that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray and who is 224 00:23:06,289 --> 00:23:12,150 intent upon devouring that male child. Well, how does the Bible describe this contest? Does the dragon 225 00:23:12,150 --> 00:23:18,309 challenge God to a game of chess, perhaps a chili cook-off? No, the text is very clear. And Revelation 226 00:23:18,309 --> 00:23:23,230 says there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his 227 00:23:23,230 --> 00:23:27,650 angels fought back, but he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon 228 00:23:27,650 --> 00:23:33,529 was hurled down to the earth and his angels with him, unquote, from the book of Revelation. Dear 229 00:23:33,529 --> 00:23:38,309 listener, this is not some future contest during the great tribulation, no, but a battle that has 230 00:23:38,309 --> 00:23:44,329 already taken place. That great red dragon, Satan, has already done his worst. He slew the Christ at the 231 00:23:44,329 --> 00:23:49,710 cross, thinking he had gained the triumph, but actually God used this very malice to achieve his own 232 00:23:49,710 --> 00:23:56,230 secret purpose. That is the redemption of the church by that very bloody cross upon which Satan 233 00:23:56,230 --> 00:24:02,950 conspired to slay Jesus. Jesus' death stood in the place of ours in the eyes of his Father, the righteous 234 00:24:02,950 --> 00:24:09,150 for the unrighteous, the place where the cross was, the place where, as Paul says, God made him who had 235 00:24:09,150 --> 00:24:15,150 no sin, that is Jesus, to be made sin for us, so that in him, that is in Jesus, we might become the 236 00:24:15,150 --> 00:24:21,710 righteousness of God, unquote. How beautiful that is. What an elegant, wise, wise plan. That was the 237 00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:27,650 best shot Satan could offer, the cross, and God, the Father, in his infinite wisdom, used Satan's 238 00:24:27,650 --> 00:24:33,750 own wiles to undo him, defeating him at the cross, and making of him a cosmic fool. Paul says in 239 00:24:33,750 --> 00:24:39,009 Colossians, having disarmed the powers and authorities, that is the powers and authorities of heavens, the 240 00:24:39,009 --> 00:24:44,930 demonic ones, the evil ones, he that is God made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by 241 00:24:44,930 --> 00:24:52,089 the cross, unquote. But does that mean that the rest is easy street for us? Are we, the church, the 242 00:24:52,089 --> 00:24:57,750 New Testament people of God, beyond the reach of this vicious, voracious dragon, the devil, and his 243 00:24:57,750 --> 00:25:04,349 minions? Hardly, I say, for Revelation also tells us, and I quote, he who was hurled to the earth and his 244 00:25:04,349 --> 00:25:09,849 angels with him, woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled 245 00:25:09,849 --> 00:25:16,170 with fury, because he knows that his time is short, unquote, from the book of Revelation. We see that 246 00:25:16,170 --> 00:25:24,670 fury even today in the spiritual lives of nations, like those under the possession, those under the 247 00:25:24,670 --> 00:25:34,069 possession now of Allah and the religion of Islam. What else can we call this murderous bloodlust, 248 00:25:34,069 --> 00:25:40,009 dear listener, but satanic? What else can we saw, or what else can we call, excuse me, this obsession 249 00:25:40,009 --> 00:25:45,670 with submission and oppression? What else can we call it but tyranny and demonic? There is a 250 00:25:45,670 --> 00:25:50,549 corresponding spiritual component to the physical life we see being played out by the nations of the 251 00:25:50,549 --> 00:25:57,470 earth, including our own. To whom do we belong as a nation, dear listener? Daniel prayed, did he not? 252 00:25:57,829 --> 00:26:02,750 Daniel prayed mightily and persistently for 21 days before the emissary of the Prince of Israel was able 253 00:26:02,750 --> 00:26:08,789 to reach him. We must pray as well. Dear listener, we were founded as a nation given over to Christ and 254 00:26:08,789 --> 00:26:14,069 his gospel. Check our early charters, including the Declaration of Independence, how this has been 255 00:26:14,069 --> 00:26:20,609 seeded to our enemies, including the progressives, the secularists in our own nation. There is a spiritual 256 00:26:20,609 --> 00:26:25,730 life, dear listener, to our nation. One lives simultaneously with that of the physical. It is our 257 00:26:25,730 --> 00:26:31,829 responsibility, yours and mine, to so live our individual lives that we in part contribute as we can, 258 00:26:31,829 --> 00:26:38,289 as Daniel did, to live that life for our nation on behalf of Christ and his gospel. This is Pastor 259 00:26:38,289 --> 00:26:44,089 David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. 260 00:26:44,089 --> 00:26:50,069 at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Call us at 523-0196.