Edited Strange News

I see so many strange things in the newspapers.

I see waves of migrants fleeing the Islamic world, hoping for a life worth living on old Christian soil. And how does the leadership in receiving countries react? They do what they can to preserve their Islamism. Even churches are to be made in to ‘neutral’ houses of prayer for Muslims. Who says? A Swedish lady bishop.

I read an interview with pastors in Lebanon. They were amazed at the openness Europe had for the victimizers, the ones who had persecuted the Christians in the Middle East for so long. And they said: Do they not understand that many are tired of Islam and hope to meet someone who can tell them about the Christian faith?

We once had two young Iranian students as friendship-partners wen we lived in the US. They came our university as Ph.D. students. What was the first they asked us about in our home? They wanted to go to a church. They had never had the opportunity where they came from.

I read that Hell is for real. I know that from the Bible, from what Jesus tells us, but it was front-page stuff: Billy Graham said it.

Does anyone care about his or her immortal soul anymore?

Do any of the political leaders or church leaders care if Muslims do not come to heaven, but end up in an inferno for eternity?

Am I ‘racist’ for caring?

It may be un-academic, naïve, ‘fundamentalist’, to believe that there is a Hell, but somehow anyone likes to believe in a Heaven. Even intellectuals believe in Heaven; but Hell is too complicated to relate to for them. So, they ignore it. Based on experiences in our global society, there is more evidence for Hell than Heaven, so logically, the intellectual should either believe in both or none.

I read debates where the topic is if puncturing someone’s scull purposefully is actually murder or not; if dismembering someone is evil or not; if a person’s sex (male/female) is due to emotion or biology; if it is justifiable to cheat and lie for a political cause;…

I realize with a shudder that the word ‘anti-semitism’ is no longer filled with disgust.

It is a strange world, where much of what we treasure as good has become heavily criticized: like the hope for a better world, sharing the gift of the gospel about Jesus... or in social issues, like the value of life, the nature of a family, and journalism as propaganda rather than a truth seeking endeavor.

In the end, there is a challenge: to seek the presence of our Heavenly Father, be empowered by His Spirit, and to to raise my voice for truth. The fear of being imperfect in this shall no longer stop me. The confrontations by relativists who want to bury my voice will hear it loud and clear. The complacency of "peace" cannot excuse my trepidatious silence, when it allows for injustice in our midst.