Aug 21
Amen Brother Sharpton, Amen
Many young blacks are falling under the spell of the "gangster mentality" and are preventing themselves from making a positive impact in society. This was the message that the Rev. Al Sharpton gave at a annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Sharpton faulted Hollywood and the record industry, accusing both of making "gangsterism" seem cool and acceptable. "We have got to get out of this gangster mentality, acting as if gangsterism and blackness are synonymous," he said. "I think that challenge has to be given to Hollywood and the record industry."
"I think we've allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough," Sharpton continued. "If they speak well and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that."
For some time now I've been befuddled by the perverse nature of popular music. I can't understand how this garbage is being sold to our nation's youth without any sign of protest. The whole concept of parental concern seems to have vanished from the social structure.
One day, I was flipping through the channels and I ran across a rap video being aired by MTV. I was amazed by how the video was a perfect ad for materialism. The video had everything: mansions, drugs, fancy cars, people waving cash, diamond necklaces, hot honeys shaking their bodies, and plenty of boastful lyrics about why it's good to be a pagan.
Al Sharpton's speech on "gangsterism" highlights the magnitude of how immoral popular music has become. In the early 1980s, the major concern was the demonic tones of certain types of music. Groups like Back Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden were only popular with a small portion of the population and most kids who listened to them had no idea what terms like 666, Armageddon and Antichrist represented. Today, rap music dominates the musical landscape, and its message of pure hedonism leaves nothing to the imagination.
Truly amazing is how silent the pulpits in America have remained on this subject. Last November, I wrote an article on rapper 50 Cent. I could not find a single major ministry with anything negative to say about a man who is leading millions down a path towards destruction. I came up equally empty-handed about the objections raised by Sharpton.
The preachers of today have adapted a practice of shying away from condemning sin in all but the most general terms. The lack of moral watchdogs has helped create a false impression that our moral health is better than it truly is.
In a twisted way, it is almost humorous that I would have to cite Al Sharpton as a man of reason on this issue. Many of Sharpton's personal beliefs are in direct conflict with traditional Christian values. It is like having a well-known porn star lecturing the public on the sanctity of marriage.
Just recently, Sharpton announced that he is a supporter of equal rights for gays and lesbians, including their right to marry. He has even taken it upon himself to head a grassroots movement to eliminate “homophobia’ within the black Church.
Most critics of Sharpton point to his blatant profiteering from being a “’race baiter.” They also point to the shameful Tawana Brawley hoax and the fact that he inserts himself into instances of racial tension in order to increase his own popularity.
I have no idea why Sharpton would now take the moral high road on the issue of "gangsterism." After all, this situation took several years to reach this critical point. The news stories that covered his speech suggested that his motivation may be related to his considering another run for the presidency in 2008.
The total lack of concern over the corrupt nature of popular music is an indication of that we are eventually headed towards judgment. The certainty of judgment is the reason all true believers need to condemn this type of filth. Jesus is not going to ask us if we felt vexed in our spirit about the evil transpiring around us. The Lord will be wanting to know if we did anything about the problem.
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10).
--Todd
The End of the World?
There is a sense even among those who hold little or no regard for Bible prophecy that troubling events in the Middle East could bring about the end of the world. Bible prophets, and we who adhere to a literal interpretation of the things they foretold, have been putting forth on world issues and events for years. Yet, genuine concern didn’t seem to raise its head until Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mentioned the 12th Imam, and his soon coming forward to bring about man’s final war.
It’s always been true that man would rather believe satanic lies than God’s truth. Adam and Eve believed Lucifer (as the serpent in the garden of Eden) when the father of all lies told them that they would not surely die, like God said, if they ate of the forbidden fruit. Mankind has fallen for the lies ever since, preferring to accept any lie rather than the only truth there is –truth from the mind of the Creator of all things. Evolution, for example, has become the basis for knowledge in America and around the world. Despite the proof that everything we know about has to be created –it doesn’t just happen—the purveyors of evolution tell us that all we see around us just "happened" to happen. It all came from nothingness, and grew to be –well—all of this!
That’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? That the tree from which Adam and Eve ate was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Since that disobedient eating of that forbidden fruit (fruit involving knowledge), not only have human beings died, but the human race has fallen head over heels for the lie that all knowledge must begin from within the evolutional model. The father of lies knew what would be the results of his seduction from the very moment he first enticed Eve. His methods haven’t changed. People still grasp on to the seductive lies of Satan. They latch, with trepidation, onto the thought that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the answer to the future, while God’s prophetic truth sort of just backs up what this Islamic Hitler-like dictator from Iran has to say from his version of the Koran.
The Iranian fanatic dictator, like many followers of the satanic prophecy, believes the 12th Imam as the Mahdi, an Arabic word that generally references a messiah, or a guide. This messiah will, they believe, come from his occultation (unspecified place of abode) to show followers the right pathway, and to make Islam the only religion on earth. The Iranian president, as do fanatic clerics of the region, holds forth that it is desirable to bring on Armageddon and the end of the world, in order to bring the Twelfth Imam into the world.
It is feared by many Middle East observers that Ahmadinejad believes producing nuclear weapons, and using them once they are developed, is the reason he has been placed by Allah at this time in history, in this volatile region. Israel, he proclaims, must be destroyed at any cost, so that the 12th Imam can rearrange the present world order. So –it is transparent, to me at least—that the international community and UN appeasers believe Ahmadinejad must not be confronted; rather, Israel must give in at every point of Islamic aggression, or threatened aggression. If peace isn’t achieved –at any price – the world will end in nuclear Armageddon. The collective thought seems to be that resisting Iran could be the trigger point to World War III.
Such will apparently be the degree of appeasement when Iran (the area of ancient Persia) comes down with the Gog-Magog forces as prophesied by Ezekiel. The prophet foretold that the world, watching the attack on Israel, will issue a diplomatic protest note, with a Neville Chamberlain-like question: “Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezek. 38:13).
The end of the world is on the minds of media and the appeasement-minded within the international community. To these world worry-warts, “fundamentalist, evangelical” Christians are in the same grouping with the fanatic Islamics, like those of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ilk.
Satan wants the world to see true Christians as intermeshed with Islamists, much like the Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Islamic terrorist organizations want innocent women and children intermingled with their murderous members when the fighting starts. The devil attempts to counterfeit everything Almighty God does. He tries to make it seem that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and those of us who believe Christ is coming back to destroy His enemies believe exactly the same thing. Lucifer wants the world to believe that we are fanatics who want to bring on Armageddon so the end of the world can hurry and get here. Our “religion” will then triumph.
Actually, Christians and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-type Islamics are at opposite ends of the theological spectrum. We have the God of all creation, who sent His Son to die for mankind, that all people might live forever. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes in a god who wants his and other Muslim children, if it is expedient, to die for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s god, so that that god can enslave a planet. The Lord God Jehovah wants eternal life for mankind. Lucifer wants the end of the world, so all of God’s creation called man will be destroyed.
At the time of the posting of this week’s "Nearing Midnight" commentaries, there is hand-wringing speculation that Iran could, somehow, bring about the end of the world –or at least Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s version of the end of the world.
“Aug. 22 could be an ominous date for Israelis and Americans based on its significance this year as one of Islam’s most revered holy days, according to a Princeton professor who says Iran may be planning 'cataclysmic events' to prepare the way for Shiite Muslims’ awaited messiah.
Bernard Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, warned in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that Aug. 22 this year corresponds to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427 on the Islamic calendar, which is when Muslims commemorate the flight of the prophet Muhammad on a winged horse to Jerusalem and then to heaven and back.
Aug. 22, Lewis said, could provide an opportune moment for Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to set in motion the return of the 12th Imam, whom Shiites believe will forever end the struggle between good and evil in the last days.
'Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced,’[Lewis said]" (Culture Digest, "Princeton scholar warns of threats from Iran on Aug. 22," Aug. 17, 2006).
***
Whether Israel nukes Damascus, as even talk show host Rush Limbaugh, on Thursday, August 17, said he thought could happen, or whether the madmen of Iran strike into Israel, we can be sure of one thing. This world is in full control of the one who spoke it into existence. Here’s the truth: “Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Eph 3:21).
--Terry
