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By Berit Kjos

January 21, 2007

NewsWithViews.com

 

At age 22 Amy Carmichael heard God's call and gave Him her life. He led her from the comforts of northern Ireland to the poverty of southern India, where neither scarcity, sickness, nor hostility could dim her God-given love for abused and abandoned orphans.

While Amy was rescuing little girls sacrificed to Hindu gods as temple prostitutes, her Irish countrymen were fighting and killing each other. But their local battles were minuscule compared to World War I, which drew dozens of "civilized" nations into a deadly 4-year struggle that claimed more than a million lives.

So -- are humans naturally good or evil?

In today's postmodern, post-Christian era, senseless violence is rising along with immorality, insolence and intolerance. Thanks to high tech media, those signs of the times reach around the world.[1] While gang warfare erodes personal security in America's heartland, an article in the British Financial Times describes the chaos in Palestine:

According to this article, today's terrorizing assaults are unrelated to Islamic Jihad or religious zeal. Instead, they are driven by universal rage and thirst for violence. At least, that's what Gunnar Heinsohn, a German social scientist and genocide researcher seems to suggest. He goes on to say:

Some argue that money is the answer. answer. Others disagree. "In El Salvador, for instance, the explosion of political killing in the 1970s and 1980s was preceded by a 27 per cent rise in per capita income."[2] Instead, the author blames envy and low self-esteem mixed with the natural drive for success and prestige. Yet, a decade of educational efforts to inflate self-esteem has done little to tame those raging fires of the heart.

In spite of the loving witness of missionaries like Amy Carmichael, a growing number of angry atheists blame Biblical Christianity for the ills of the world. A Wall Street Journal article (1-5-07) shows the kind of passion and prejudice that drives the changing tides of rage:

The arrogance of this new breed of atheists may lessen its influence. More persuasive are those in the media and educational establishments who vilify genuine Christian by blaming them for historical atrocities. They point to the Spanish Inquisition that tortured and killed Protestant believers across Europe, forgetting that the powerful religious/political rulers of those times bore little resemblance to Jesus' humble followers. And they point to the Crusades, apparently oblivious to their actual history. Yes, Rome dispatched thousands of mercenary warriors to reclaim Jerusalem and protect the endangered lives of pilgrims who longed to visit the beloved capital's sacred sites. But historical revisions have hidden the fact that Jerusalem had been conquered in the 7th century by vast Muslim armies that slaughtered Jews and Christians and destroyed their communities around the Mediterranean. A century later, the rising Islamic empire reached from Spain to Western China.[4]

Of course, revenge and retribution can't fix the human heart. Nor can psychology, philosophy, atheism or the United Nations. The real answers to questions dealing with hate, hope and human hearts are only found in the Bible. And long ago, God warned His wayward people that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Jeremiah 17:9 Then He showed them His way to peace:

Such a new heart was given to a radical Muslim activist involved in Iran's militant Free Islamic Revolutionary Movement. A teacher in Islamic fundamentalism and a leader in Iran's Fundamentalist Revolution, Daniel Shayesteh was determined to exterminate Jews and Christians. But God had a different plan.

Daniel Shayesteh had supported the Ayatollah Khomeini but was imprisoned when Khomeini began his reign of terror. Three friends incarcerated with him were hanged, but he was miraculously freed and escaped to Turkey. He was given a Bible, began to study it, and found in it the reality of a loving, personal God."[5]

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Daniel Dr. Shayesteh knows the cost of discipleship, for Jesus made it clear: "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." But, like Amy Carmichael, he has discovered something far greater. As a citizen of God's eternal kingdom and a pilgrim here on earth, his eyes are set on the King. No matter what challenges he might face, God's life in him spreads the sweet fragrance of His peace and hope among those who hear and follow.

Hast thou no scar? by Amy Carmichael,

No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be....
Can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?

Footnotes:

1, Signs of the Times
2, Christopher Caldwell, "Youth and war, a deadly duo," Financial Times, 1-6-07.
3, Sam Schulman, "Without God, Gall Is Permitted," Wall Street Journal, 1-5-07
4, Chronology of Conquests in the Name of Allah
5, Exodus from Darkness and Building a Biblical Worldview

� 2007 Berit Kjos - All Rights Reserved

 

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