Global Crisis:Making sense of our times

BY REUBEN DAVID

Understanding our present times

“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do;…” I Chronicles 12: 32

“And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Romans 13: 11

The flattening of the world

Several technological and political forces have converged to enable a globalized world—or a global village, further enhanced by web enabled playing field allowing multiple forms of collaboration. Geographical distances have disappeared as the virtual world has interconnected the globe thus levelling the playing field.

Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned.

- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964.

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Daniel 12:4

The redefining of America

America as a nation is undergoing a serious change in what it means as a nation. Are we a Christian nation or not?

“One of the great strengths of the United States is … we have a very large Christian population — we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.” President Obama

James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement: "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Patrick Henry, patriot and Founding Father of our country

“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”

Alexis de Tocqueville, 19th century French statesman,

historian and social philosopher

Ascendancy of atheism

"For a very long time, religiosity has been a central characteristic of the American identity," he said. "But what this suggests is that is changing and people are feeling less inclined to identify as religious to comply with what it means to be a good person in the U.S."

Ryan Cragun, a University of Tampa sociologist of religion who studies American and global atheism.

The early years of the 21st century saw the publication of inspiring and rational polemics against religion by Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins that changed the whole tone of organized atheism. For many years we’ve been preaching to the choir, having conversations within the atheist community between self-identifying atheists, but keeping mostly to ourselves. There is a new dynamic now: we’re not just telling ourselves that our ways are better, but we’re announcing to everyone that God is not good and that religion is folly. That does, of course, antagonize the majority of people of faith.

PZ Myers is a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris

http://time.com/109050/a-nation-of-growing-atheists-still-wouldnt-trust-one-to-run-the-country/

A new kind of Christianity

The new kind of Christianity we are witnessing todays has many forms: emergent, emerging, liberal, post-modern, seeker-sensitive, inclusive and so on.

“The Bible is more like an inspired library, one that "preserves, presents, and inspires an ongoing vigorous conversation with and about God, a living and vital civil argument into which we are all invited and through which God is revealed.“

Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity

“…everyone doing that which is right in their own eyes”

Judges 21:25

“…having a form of godliness but denying its power…” 2 Tim 3: 5

The remaking of human identity

Throughout the past decades many attempts have been made to alter the human identity. Are we made in the image of God? Are we not? Are we male and female in the way God made us to be or is it open to debate?

"The 1960s were marked by the greatest changes in morals and manners since the 1920s. Young people, college students in particular, rebelled against what they viewed as the repressed, conformist society of their parents. They advocated a sexual revolution, aided by the birth control pill and later by Roe v. Wade (1973), a Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. "Recreational" drugs such as marijuana and LSD were increasingly used... Drug taking, previously confined largely to ghettos, became part of middle-class life. The sexual revolution reduced government censorship, changed attitudes toward traditional sexual roles, and enabled homosexuals to organize and acknowledge their identities as never before... Unrestrained individualism played havoc with family values."

Gen.1:27 "So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.".

The Image of God is Specifically Reflected in the Complementary Characteristics of Male and Female

The rise of anti-Semitism

Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake

Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the rise in attacks was a terrifying reminder of an era that was thought to be in the distant past. He said: ‘We are currently experiencing in this country an explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews, which shocks and dismays all of us.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2701365/Anti-Semitic-attacks-rise-Europe-German-French-Italian-foreign-ministers-condemn-growing-hostility-against-Jews-wake-Gaza-conflict.html

Psalms 118:10 – “All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.”

The expanding arc of Islam

“ISIS is but the latest face of an age old quest for an Islamic caliphate. It has moved from a gang of Middle Eastern rowdies to an organized army to a full-fledged state.

Dismissing ISIS and the larger issue of Islamic radicalism as some sort of “manageable problem” is a major mistake. In the wake of the second beheading of an American journalist, it is crystal clear that ISIS and radical Islam sees itself at war with the West, America at the very top of that list”

http://spectator.org/articles/60356/thousand-year-reich-global-caliphate