Bombs, design and Spiritual Blindness

Where is the outrage over hundreds of bombs raining down on Israeli cities, and the oft stated intentions of Muslim  radicals to wipe Israel off the face of the earth?

How long would the United States tolerate terrorists bombing its capital Washington DC, or its financial center New York City? Well we  already know the answer don’t we? When terrorists attacked the US on September 11, 2001 the US response was swift. On September  20, 2001 President George W. Bush declared a “War on Terror” and later vowed to capture the mastermind Osama bin Laden “dead or  alive.”1 That sentiment resonated with the American voters and helped win him a second term. That was after one attack on a single day with four targets.

What would the response be if terrorists were raining down bombs by the hundreds over months and years?2 What if they  regularly made statements to totally eradicate every last American? I submit the answer is obvious.  Americans wouldn’t tolerate it, and would  demand swift, decisive military action to eliminate the threat – as President Bush initiated against the war on terror. There would be no tolerance for hiding in bomb shelters  nor a felt need to moderate the force used against the terrorists.

Why then does anyone have a problem with Israel’s actions to defend itself? Why the continued calls for Israel to back down on  their defensese? Why the sympathetic articles towards the terrorist group Hamas by liberal papers like the The Washington Post? Why is the world, (not to mention her ally the United States), not rallying behind Israel supporting her 150%,? The answer is easy: As one Israeli Christian put it,

“…it is the very height of hypocrisy that the West, which sheds crocodile tears over the horrors faced by Christians in Iraq and Syria, then  turns around and condemns Israel for defending its people against the very same horrors.”3

But why the hypocrisy? Another easy answer: Spiritual Blindness. The type of blindness that prevented the Pharisees from acknowledging that Jesus had  healed a man born blind in fulfillment of prophecy and thus both demonstrating and asserting that he is the messiah.4

It’s the same type of spiritual blindness that keeps evolutionists from seeing all the evidences of design in God’s creation; that keeps big bang supporters from  recognizing that you can not get a universe out of nothing; and the same type of blindness that keeps atheists who are angry with God from seeing that  anger or disappointment over some evil in the world does not mean that God does not exist.

Scripture records Jesus reaction on one occasion to the stubbornness and  spiritual blindness of  those who refuse to answer even a simple a question lest their error and hypocrisy be revealed:

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts…
Mark 3.5

If you deny Israel’s right of self defense, or obvious things like the fact that universes don’t pop out of nothing, don’t be surprised to get this reaction from a Christian.

Let me close with a reminder to Christians:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure.
Ps 122.6

Duane Caldwell | posted 7/31/2014 | Print format


 

Bush pledges to get bin Laden, dead or alive USAToday 12/14/2001 
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/14/bush-binladen.htm

2  Hamas has showed Israel with hundreds of  bombs with the intent to kill as many as possible – regarless of whether civilian, women or children and have targeted the capital  Jerusalem, and the financial center Tel Aviv.

Hamas rockets reach Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Jerusalem Post 7/8/2014http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Iron-Dome-intercepts-second-rocket-over-greater-Tel-Aviv-361994

This tweet puts the number of rockets fired by Hamas at Israel at 3034 since the start of Operation Protective Edge
https://twitter.com/israelunderfire/statuses/495544304723451904

Israeli Christian Spokesman: Enough With Western Hypocrisy! Israel Today 7/30/2014
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/Default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=24801

4   John 9.1-41;  Isaiah 42.1-7

Does where you’re born determine what you believe?

Is Your Faith a determined by where you're born? Is your faith merely a product of your location and culture?


Here’s a conceit that atheists allow themselves that would be amusing if it weren’t so utterly false and insulting to everyone who’s not an atheist. It goes something like this:

If you believe in God, you’re a slave to beliefs  imposed upon you in your youth. You’re a slave to the beliefs from the area of the world and culture you grew up with. On the other hand if you’re an atheist, you’re not subject to such imposition, and have freed yourself of such beliefs.  Of course they don’t put it that way, they usually phrase it something like this:


Did you catch the conceit? Apparently, atheists believe they are  somehow superior and they and only they have the power to choose what they  believe. They thereby implicitly state that theists are weak and  ignorant; and explicitly state theists are slaves to whatever belief was  imposed upon them while they were growing up. What remains unanswered is  for atheists who grew up in a family with theistic beliefs, why they too didn’t remain a slave to such beliefs?

Others1 have  addressed this topic, but let me try to succinctly add some glaring issues with this argument:

First off it’s logically fallacious, falling to the logical fallacy of  Special Pleading -where the arguer finds fault with a particular  proposition or situation; yet they themselves fit the proposition or  situation.  Nonetheless they believe their conclusion does not  apply to them – and provide no reason for believing themselves to be the exception. This is a classic case of irrational special pleading.

Secondly, many atheists continue to believe that Continue Reading