Daily Devotional for Friday September 6, 2013

The Coming War in Syria from a Biblical Perspective

(Deuteronomy 32:9-10)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, when a person dies, will they go before the Lord Jesus immediately? Could you give me the book and verses? And when they reject or recieve the Lord Jesus, will they go to hell on that same day?

ANSWER: Yes! 2 Corinthians 5:8 tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. After Jesus came, the moment each person dies they stand before God and are immediately ushered into Heaven for all eternity if they have placed their faith in Jesus, or immediately sent to hell for all eternity if they have rejected faith in the Lord.

The coming war in Syria from a Biblical perspective. The simplest way to describe what is happening in Syria is that it is a civil war. It was initially Syrian versus Syrian, Muslim versus Muslim. As the last 2 years have unfolded, the "rebels" or opposition forces are now made up heavily of fighters from Al Queda and other terror organizations who want to take control of Syria.

Despite trying to make the case, what is happening in Syria has ZERO direct affect on those of us who live in the United States. There are NO legitimate national security issues facing the US because of what is happening in Syria. The only case being made for our involvement is that Syrian dictator Basher al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people in violation of international law and treaties, and we supposedly have a "moral obligation" to respond. I find it interesting that there are all kinds of human rights violations that occur around the world, and we pick and choose the ones we feel a "moral obligation" to get involved in.

In making that case, President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry and the administration cite the children of Syria who have been killed and those who are still at risk. Let me just stop for a second and respond to that argument. I find it disgusting that any time President Obama or those in his administration want to take some action whether it be on the issue of gun, health care, Syria, or any number of issues, they love to cite "the children."

These are the same people who support, promote, and use tax payer funds to help slaughter apx. 4,000 innocent babies IN THE US each and every 24 hours! Until they start taking measures to protect the children in THIS country, stop using "the children" as a reason to take whatever actions they want to pursue regardless the issue!

As I have shared with you for many years, there is a clear Biblical predicate for a nation going to war. Of course peace is the optimum goal in any conflict, but sadly, it takes two parties to have peace. When confronted with those who have no desire for peace, a nation has every right and responsibility to defend itself when faced with armed aggression by those who seek to destroy it.

God actually sent the children of Israel into war many times against those nations and people groups who sought to wipe Israel off the face of the globe. Of course, God opposes war, however, we live in a fallen world filled with evil, and war has been part of that fallen world from virtually the beginning of human history. Jesus clearly stated that war would be part of this world until the very end of its' existence.

In WW1 and WW2, we fought nations who sought to enact their will on the rest of the world. We had very clear enemies that we fought against and prevailed over. The Korean War stopped the spread of communism into the south of Korea, and due to our great sacrifices, today the democratic nation of South Korea is one of the world's great economies.

It was in Vietnam where we first began to lose the clear vision of why we were there and what our goals were. Again, we had a clear enemy to fight as we sought to halt the spread of communism throughout the region. Ultimately, after sacrificing apx 60,000 American lives and billions in treasure, we pulled out and immediately it was overrun by the very communists we had fought against for so many years.

In our current war on terror, we no longer are facing a clearly defined enemy such as a nation, but loose pockets of people spread throughout many nations who embrace the lies of Islam and seek the domination of every nation in the world as their false religion teaches them to do. Because we are no longer facing a nation, but the ideology of a false relgion based on terror, war, death, and domination, it means we can no longer fight our enemy in a conventional war.

Look at what we have done in just the past several years in the Middle East, a critical and very volatile region of the world. Hosni Mubarak, the former dictator of Egypt was a purely evil man. However, Egypt is NOT the United States, it is Egypt. It is their country to run as they wish. As evil as Mubarak was, as a neighbor to Israel he had peace treaties in place that he honored, and while we may not like how he ruled his country, for 40 years he kept Egypt stable.

President Obama decided that we would use the vast resources of the United States to help overthrow Mubarak in favor of a more democratic form of government, without a full understanding of the make-up of those seeking to overthrow the government. In doing so, it gave rise to Mohamed Morsi, who is part of the Muslim Brotherhood that seeks to enact more of an Islamic theocracy ruled by Sharia Law. These are the people we helped put in power. Months ago, the people rose up and Morsi was removed from office by the military in a coup. Currently, the military is running Egypt but at some point there will be new leadership and whoever it is, those who seek to enact a more Islamic theocracy will have power.

As a side note, as horrible a person as Mubarak may have been, under his rule the large Christian population in Egypt was protected to worship and practice their faith in peace. The first thing that happened when Mubarak was overthrown, was for the Muslim majority to massacre Christians, causing most who weren't killed to flee the country, and virtually every Christian church has been burned to the ground!

Than you have Libya. A very similar situation as Egypt. Long time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a very evil man, but a man who ruled Libya for 42 years and kept the nation stable during his reign. Once again, President Obama used the might and resources of the United States to help an opposition group again made up of largely unknown individuals, to displace Gaddafi. Several years later, there is still a power struggle going on in Libya with many warlords vying for power. As in Egypt, whoever ultimately rises to power, there will be incredible power and influence gained by those who want to enact an Islamic theocracy.

To be fair, we also must talk briefly about Iraq and Afghanistan. While neither nation exclusively were behind 9/11, they were safe havens for terror groups like Al Queda. Rather than put hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground for a decade as we did, losing over 4,000 troops with tens of thousands injured or maimed, we could have taken care of what needed to be done in both countries in a matter of hours without having to put ONE AMERICAN military person on the ground!

The days of a conventional war as we know it are over! With all of the modern technology, and not fighting a nation but people scattered around in various nations around the globe with a political/religious ideology, invading countries as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan makes no sense. Using our vast technical resources, using air power we could have accomplished more in a few hours than what we did over a decade without the incredible human and financial costs that we paid.

The only place in the Middle East we have been successful has been in Yemen. We have not tried to displace their government. We have used the drone technology to successfully take out a large percentage of terror leaders such as Anwar Al-Awlaki. That is how we must fight terror in the future, with technology, surgically, that doesn't require our soldiers on the ground and costs a fraction of a conventional campaign.

Due to the perverted worldview President Obama holds due to his upbringing in Malaysia which was heavily influenced by Islam, the radical people who shaped his thoughts and ideas growing up in Hawaii, and later at Occidental, Columbia, Harvard, in addition to his pastor of 20 years Jeremiah Wright, he has done more to upset the stability of the Middle East the past several years than anyone could have dreamed.

Add to that perverted worldview the fact he never even ran an lemonade stand in his life and has zero concept of how the economy operates, and you have someone who is totally incompetent to hold the office he does, has no clue what he is doing, and everything he touches ends up being destroyed.

Sadly, President Obama's greatest destruction has been in the Middle East. For all time this has been a critical, very volatile, and fragile part of the world. Surrounding all of this upheaval and chaos is Israel. Not since they became a state in 1948 has Israel faced such potential danger. While they will not hesitate to defend themselves, they are surrounded on all sides by unstable nations with Islamic theocrats wielding much power. Please be praying for Israel during this critical time!

I love you and care about you so much. At some point in the next few weeks, with or without Congressional approval, we will be involved militarily in Syria. Already, 2 million Syrians have fled, mostly to Jordan, causing incredible problems in dealing with such a large number of displaced people. Basher al-Assad has already had plenty of time to insure that whatever military action the United States takes will be ineffective. Most likely at some point, we will use the full might and resources of the US government to displace al-Assad as we did in Egypt and Libya, leaving another Middle East nation in turmoil, and a power void filled by Islamic theocrats.

A decade ago I shared how Islam could become the United States Babylon as an instrument of God's judgment for our sin and rebellion to the Almighty. While I took heat from many saying I was crazy, that it could never happen, as each day goes by we see Islam gaining more power, more control, having a greater influence in nations around the world. Additionally, unless you have been sleeping the past several years, their power, control, and influence in THIS nation has grown exponentially and continues to grow with each passing day.

Our time to save this nation wanes with each passing hour. Turning back to God and His Truth is the only answer and our only hope!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller