How Did People Lose the Ability to Discern Evil?

The Bible did warn us that in the last days men would be brutal truce breakers with a false zeal, thinking they are doing God a favour by killing the people of God. Even now as jihadists rage against the peoples of the Book, the God of Israel will soon hold them in derision.  His vindication is guaranteed, but woe to those who in this hour “call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)

We’re living in an upside-down world when the boldest and most blatant terrorists have become darlings of the West while Israel’s Arab neighbors remain strangely silent as cheerleaders for the cause of Hamas.

Shamefully, former President Jimmy Carter, who still teaches a Sunday School class every week, doesn’t comprehend his Bible. Once again the misguided former President is meddling in Middle East policy with a scathing op-ed column calling for Washington to recognize the designated terror group Hamas as a legitimate “political actor.” Carter whips Israel at ForeignPolicy.com over its battle for survival in staging the Gaza military offensive.

Who would have thought it would come to this?—that the United States government is more supportive of insane terrorists than most Arab governments in the region. The Obama Administration is staggering from crisis to crisis without an honorable game plan, but Bible prophecy (Ezekiel 38:13) indicates that the young lions of  “Tarshish” (the former British Empire) will only engage in diplomatic talk, lacking any real substance.

Evil is flooding Iraq. The Telegraph reported overnight that Islamic State jihadists who took over large areas of northern Iraq have continued to force thousands of Christians to flee, and they have occupied churches, removed crosses and destroyed priceless manuscripts, according to the Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako. The Islamic State jihadists have overrun Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town, after pushing back Kurdish troops across a large area of the north of the country, fleeing residents and Christian clerics have said.

Shockingly, neo-pagans in Germany are threatening Jews with gas ovens; in Belgium a cafeteria sign warns that the premises are open to all “except dogs and Jews.” Also in Belgium, a doctor refused to treat an elderly Jewish woman when she telephoned for help, saying cynically, “Send her to Gaza for a few hours, and she will not feel the pain anymore.” “Heil Hitler” is shouted by lunatics on the streets of Calvary, Canada, even though Canada’s Prime Minister still remains Israel’s best friend in the halls of politics.

The question that begs to be asked:  why can people seemingly no longer discern evil?

Not so long ago there was an American President, Ronald Reagan, who called evil. . . evil.  He spoke of the “evil empire” of the former Soviet Union and his rehetoric resonated with sane people.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s rhetoric is plain truth with phrases such as, “We shield our people, Hamas uses people as shields.”

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres said transparently, “This was the war of an army against terrorists . . . a war of brave men against men with no restraints.”

But who is able to discern such plain words of truth?

Why are people who are considered to be otherwise rational, intelligent human beings incapable of rejecting Hamas flat-out. . . .as utterly vile? I continually shudder to think, and shield in my prayers, Israeli soldiers on the ground who are forced into hand-to-hand combat with enemies brainwashed from birth with bloodthirst. Surgical strikes from a distance are preferrable than facing such fiends.

Israel has lost the war of public opinion to the most transparent evil. Hamas’ charter, which is open for anybody to read on the Internet, would have made Hitler envious. It blames the Jews for everything. You might be shocked to learn that Hamas believes the Rotary and Lions Clubs are “secret societies” in an international Zionist conspiracy.

I wonder if  Carter, Kerry and Obama have read Article III of the Hamas Charter that says peace initatives are meaningless because they “are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its memers to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah. . . .”

So why are people no longer capable of calling evil. . . evil?

Author Lance Lambert explained in our most recent Jerusalem prayer conference, that it’s because God’s hand of restraint, as a judgement, has been lifted from our nations, thus the growing lawlessness.

Author Daniel Hannan underscored my point in a Daily Telegraph blog: “The refusal of some of Israel’s Western cheerleaders ever to accept any fault – a good example was their almost deranged insistence that Israel shouldn’t apologise for attacking a Turkish ship in international waters – damages the cause they think they’re advancing.”

The prophet Isaiah warns,  “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

As the centenary of World War 1 has been remembered this week, we are seemingly in a “back to the future” time warp—darkness is re-settling over Erope. But this time, Hallelu-Yah, there IS a haven for Jews. The darkness is pushing them home, where they will find here the Light. Jews are quickly reaching for the only safe place for them on earth, but it also happens to be the most threatened and coveted piece of real estate, the tiny state of Israel.

As watchmen on the walls, we must pray earnestly for Israel not to become infected by the disease of hatred and violence. If a nation is not diligent, violence and revenge can easily infect a society. Fear and despair for one’s very survival while living in such a rough neigborhood can be morally crippling for a society based upon ethical monotheism.

Isaiah 63:9 declares, “In all their afflictions, He was afflicted.” Israel’s suffering is God’s suffering. The suffering of Christians under the boot of Islam is also Yehovah’s sufferings. We share His burden as watchmen on the walls. Let us fulfil Hebrews 11:25,  “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”