|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Should A Christian Love Arafat? TruthNews Commentary, August 31, 2001 We don’t usually engage in theological debates, but a recent comment on a Christian web site sparked our interest. The moderator of a reader’s forum on that web site stated Christians should love Yasser Arafat and pray for his salvation. This struck us as rather perverse, rather like praying for the salvation of Adolph Hitler, so we decided to check to see what the Bible has to say about the matter. Many people, when they think of Arafat, recall the smiling Nobel Peace Price winner shaking hands with then-President Bill Clinton and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on the lawn of the White House. But Jesus might have been speaking of Arafat when he said (John 8:44), "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." Arafat was a murderer from the beginning. He founded Fatah in 1956 and became the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1968. For the next two decades, the PLO launched bloody attacks on Israel, and Arafat gained a reputation as a ruthless terrorist. He did not confine his targets to Israel, however, as he also attacked U.S. and other foreign interests that he saw as supportive of Israel. During his reign of terror in southern Lebanon, Arafat and his PLO murdered as many as 30,000 Lebanese Christians. In 1982, Arafat masterminded the kidnapping and murder of 13 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games. In 1984, he assisted Syria in blowing up 241 U.S. marines in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1985, Arafat oversaw the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and the murder of American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. However, in 1988, Arafat decided to continue his war with Israel under the guise of peace. He told the United Nations that the PLO would recognize Israel as a sovereign state, then in 1993 signed a 7-year peace treaty with Israel. He was awarded the Nobel Prize, but as God said in Jeremiah 13:23, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" Events of the past year have proven that Arafat had no intention of making peace. Arafat is the type of person that David spoke of when he said, "My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war (Psalm 120:6-7)." When Jesus spoke of loving your enemy, he meant your personal enemy. Loving your enemy is different than loving those who hate God. Jesus said, "I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44)." Jesus did not say that we should love the avowed enemy of his chosen people. This is like saying that we should love Hitler and pray for his salvation. Both Hitler and Arafat did the work of the devil. There’s not a single example in the past 2000 years of anyone as evil as Hitler or Arafat coming to the Lord. That’s why Jesus said, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you (Matthew 7:6)." Should we love Arafat? Jehoshaphat, one of the godly kings of Judah, is condemned for helping Ahab. The Bible (II Chronicles 19:2) says, "And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord." Get this, Jehoshaphat is condemned for loving them that hate the Lord. So won’t we be condemned if we "love them that hate the Lord?" God says what will happen to Arafat and his ilk. In Zechariah 2:7-9, God says, "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me." Those who are saved are the "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2)." But God doesn’t want evil men to be saved. In fact, he will send them strong delusions so that they will be damned. Paul says in II Thessalonians 2:7-12, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." God will bless those who help Israel and curse those who work against it. God said to Abraham (Genesis 12:3), "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." When Isaac blesses Jacob, he says (Genesis 27:29) "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." When the spirit of God came upon Balaam the son of Beor, Balaam blessed Israel by saying (Numbers 24:9), "Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee." We will be blessed if we bless Israel, and Arafat is cursed for cursing Israel. When Jesus comes in his glory, he’ll separate the nations according to how they have treated Israel. In Matthew 25:41-45, Jesus says, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." These are strong words -- those who do not help Israel will be cast into everlasting fire. No, I don’t hate Arafat. But I don’t love this "enemy of the Lord" either. As Christians, we should carefully consider what God has to say about Arafat and his cronies.
© 2001 TruthNews. All Rights Reserved. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
| |
|
