Matt Wretchard over at Belmont Club, in an article discussing Kim Jong Il lying to Carter and Clinton about Koreas nuclear weapon program, cut to the quick when explaining why most of the world would rather have the illusion that North Korea was keeping its agreements than the truth.
The alternative is to abandon the “sophisticated” view of a stable international order and understand that we are a planet in crisis; that in some meaningful sense humanity is in a death match with terror.
For most of the world this is a new revelation, but for Christians, this is the underlying premise of evil since the fall of Adam. Satan wants nothing less than our total destruction and humanity has been in a death match with him since we left Eden.
Back before I became a Christian, in the early 70’s, I had a bad acid trip where the Devil, personified in the friend I had dropped the acid with, tried to drag me into hell, which had opened up in my living room floor. I spent the better part of what seemed like an eternity searching for something I could use to bargain with him. In effect, I examined my whole life, searching for anything that would have value to master of evil, to save me. There was nothing, nada, zip. It was the most fearfully depressing and empty moment I have ever experienced. The Devil only wanted my destruction and it was truly miraculous that I survived that experience with my sanity still intact (it is, really). Later, that realization, that when push came to shove I had nothing of worth in my life or myself to keep me out of hell, served me well in coming to terms with my sin, my need for repentance, and my salvation gifted in Jesus Christ. He alone could pay my debt and that eventually laid to rest the unrelenting oppressiveness of that singular moment.
However, the world in which we live, and most of the people in it, still carries on the illusion that evil can be bargained with, that we have something of worth to offer it so it will leave us alone. We dont, and it wont. We are, to quote Matt, “in a death match with terror” and evil seeks only our destruction, nothing less. Even when the world at large identifies terror with evil it still deludes itself with the idea that it can mollify the beast in some way. It can’t.
As a Christian, I see Satan as the original terrorist, fundamental evil expressed in the celebration of death and destruction. As I examine the world around me, both historically and currently, I see his designs fueling those who embrace the same path. They often delude themselves into believing they are acting in the interests of God, but they are not. Their inspiration and the receptacle of their efforts is much lower and it is devoid of any care or concern for them or their victims. They are tools to be used then consumed.
Why have I brought this up? After all, to discuss these kinds of issues leaves one open to charges of mental derangement or worse. Look what happened to the various military leaders who over the last few years have equated our war with terror with a war with evil and even the Devil. No matter, since if Matt is right and humanity is really in a death match with terror and evil, then we might be awfully close to the culmination of history.
One of the oldest prayers in the history of the church is “Come, Lord Jesus, come.” Maybe that is a prayer which we should consider making a centerpiece of our daily prayers from now on.
With that in mind I pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.
