Trapped in a war zone

To say the Middle East is a powder keg is an understatement. Since the dawn of creation the part of the world known as the cradle of civilization has been the center of strife and conflict. The jealous rage that provoked Cain to slay his brother, Abel, simply previewed the fury and frenzy that characterizes that region today.

In the southernmost part of the Fertile Crescent, Israel has been pounding the Hezbollah stronghold with a barrage of artillery fire. Hezbollah, which in Arabic means “party of god,” is a Lebanese Islamic military and civilian group. Israel’s recent campaign in Lebanon was launched after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed two others.

Hezbollah is generally regarded as a terrorist organization much like the Taliban in Afghanistan. Hezbollah’s military responded to the Israeli attack by launching hundreds of rockets aimed at northern Israel, hitting some of the cities including Haifi and Nazareth.

Israeli warplanes continued their retaliation with airstrikes against Lebanon in a deadly and destructive assault. Beirut’s southern suburbs, believed to be a Hezbollah stronghold, have been the target of the most vicious attacks by the Israeli Air Force.

Having never served in the military or been trapped in a war zone, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be hunkered down in some bomb shelter. I cannot imagine what it would be like to feel the earth shake from exploding rockets. I cannot imagine what it would be like to hear the helpless cries and blood-curdling shrieks of those who have been shredded by shrapnel. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have jet fighter planes strafe the nearest street in a nation virtually cut off from the outside world.

As reported in The Christian Index, nine members of Eagles Landing First Baptist Church were trapped in Beirut during the initial days of the Israeli offensive. However, after eight days of withstanding the raging bombardment the Eagles Landing church members, who were helping in a children’s camp, were evacuated by the United States military. What a sweet deliverance that must have been!

Honestly, while we may not be hearing bullets buzzing over our heads or rocket grenades whistling through the air, we, like the folks from Eagles Landing, are trapped in a war zone.

I am not referring to America as a war zone because of the ever-present threat of a terrorist attack here in our homeland. I am speaking of the ideological war raging in our country that is far more deadly than the one fought with bullets and bombs.

The secular humanists have been sending their salvos of destruction for years in America. They contend that moral values derive their source from human experience rather than the Word of God. Thus, ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological and ideological sanction. The secularists deny that morality needs to be deduced from religious belief, and so they oppose absolute, objective truth or Biblical morality.

Because secularists believe that standards of human behavior are derived from within human experience and that the plurality of human beings and their experience requires pluralistic standards, then it follows that, for secularists, everyone in society must be permissive and tolerant of every other person’s standards and behavioral conduct.

Secular humanism is a religion, and this false religion is being taught to the sons and daughters of Georgia Baptists in many of our public schools. Furthermore, our society is so inundated with this indoctrination via the media that the moral fabric of our country is unraveling.

Satan has even launched this ideological war against the church with such a relentless attack that it appears that many church members have been trapped in the assault and the churches have not been able to withstand the insidious and withering onslaught.

Churches have perhaps unknowingly acquiesced to this humanistic ideology by adopting a consumerism mentality or by designing their pulpit ministry to address felt needs. Such a ministry is more man-centered than God-centered.

We must especially make sure that our worship is never man-centered or cater to the whims and desires of man, but insist that our worship is forever designed to please and praise the “God from whom all blessings flow.”

The most encouraging contemplation the mind can embrace is that ultimately “wrong will be on the scaffold and truth will be on the throne,” and the church will be victorious for not even the gates of hell can prevail against it.