We'll Never Understand With Just a Surface View

Our stand on the Bible and what it says about the physical and spiritual world, and Satan and evil, will dictate whether or not we truly understand world events. This is critical for everyone to understand, not just a President . . .

In response (I assume) to all the rioting against, and attacks on, America in the Middle East and Africa these last few days the Obama administration has apparently asked YouTube to review the Islam bashing video that is supposed to have started this whole thing. You can read the FOX article by clicking here. In the article it says, "The White House has asked YouTube to review the online video that has been cited as the spark for demonstrations raging across the Middle East and North Africa. The Obama administration is not explicitly asking YouTube to remove the film, but to check if it meets their standards."

They don't get it, and anybody who thinks this is about a video doesn't get it. It's not about a video! Millions of people around the world have seen and read and heard things offensive to their beliefs, faith, etc. and not rioted, murdered, burned down buildings, etc. You probably have—certainly you have if you are a Christian in America. I have heard hateful things about Jesus, and I have heard hateful things from the mouths of professing Christians toward others as well. And yet, we don't do what they are doing around the world right now (and, in reality, it is so far a tiny minority in these countries, not necessarily reflective of the whole country).

But for a U.S. President's administration to get involved asking YouTube to check the video out is naive at best, and at worst a huge mistake in even giving these people an inch. It is as if someone in the world can decide they don't like something America does, riot, and we say, "Sorry. We'll try and change that." and dance to the tune they select as they manipulate our marionette strings. Does anybody really think that even getting the video pulled is going to change the type of people who do these things? It only makes America look weak and afraid—and as every Christian should know, evil doesn't honor weakness and fear, if feeds on it and is empowered by it.

Foreign policy wisdom aside—that isn't really what this post is about—this focus on the video demonstrates a huge ignorance of the reality of world events and of the battle between good and evil. Christians, above all, should know that. The Bible makes it clear that our real enemies are not flesh and blood, but the principalities and powers that drive them. Satan hates God. He hates Christians in whom God dwells and who are adopted by God. He will use any and all means to incite rage and evil against anything that is good or dear to God's heart.

Recently a young adult asked me, in light of talking about 9/11, "Why do people hate us?" I told them that there is no way they will truly understand what is happening and the "why" of their question unless they understand the reality of God and Satan, good and evil, Satan driving evil, and of the fallen nature of man and our choices unconstrained by God. It goes far beyond 9/11, or even Bush, or Reagan, or . . . it goes back to a cross and an empty tomb, and before that Abraham and two sons, and before that a garden and a couple made in God's image and a serpent, and before that . . . well, you know what I mean.

We can never truly understand this world, evil, the hatred directed toward America and Christians, etc. until we understand the spiritual reality that overrides it all—and trying to understand or deal with these issues outside of that framework and reality is ignorant and will never truly work or lead to an understanding of the true enemy. It is like painting over dry rot or termite damage and thinking you've addressed the problem. This is one reason I think it is so important to understand a politician's worldview—we can never truly hope to understand them or hope that they will understand the world unless we know if they understand the truth of what is really going on.

It is not about a video. Just like it is foolish to think everything that happened in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict was all truly about people enraged by injustice. Or all the looting and stuff after Katrina—what, were the people who did that mad at the hurricane? Man, apart from Christ, is a breath away from darkness—and darkness needs but little fuel to enpower it and bring it to light.

Just the other day I went on a call to a barn fire that also burnt up a bunch of grass and debris. We spent hours mopping up, making sure every bit was out. Over and over there would be a wisp of smoke as the only evidence of the ember smoldering and waiting below, and then you'd flip a board and the oxygen would rush in and the ember would ignite into flame. Evil, darkness, is like that. It is always just below the surface, smoldering, waiting for whatever it can use to get its "oxygen." In the end it isn't really about the fuel or the oxygen . . . it is about the one putting the match to it or blowing on it. This stuff in the Middle East and Africa isn't about a video! And, to even address the video or think that it is displays a deep lack of understanding of reality.

I thank God for His written Word which helps us understand the true world, spiritual and physical, and for the reality we know as Christians that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that whatever happens in this life is but for a moment in the light of the eternity He has reserved for those who have placed their faith in His Son's work. May His Spirit give us all understanding and open our eyes to truth as we seek to live in this world, but be transformed that we are not like this world.