Jan 1
"The Tyrant Has Fallen"
In case you've been in a coma for the past few days, you've already heard that Saddam Hussein has been executed. The end came for the former Iraqi dictator at dawn on Saturday for crimes against humanity, a fitting end for a leader who brutally ruled
Iraq for three decades before he was toppled three years ago in an American-led invasion.
Iraqi television showed the body of Saddam Hussein after his execution Saturday. “Criminal Saddam was hanged to death,”
state-run Iraqi television said. Witnesses to the execution said they were cheering around the body of Saddam after
the hanging with shouts of, "The tyrant has fallen."
The indoor execution was noted by witnesses as being a very rapid process. "We heard his neck snap," said Sami al-Askari, an ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "It was very quick. He died right away," one of the official Iraqi witnesses told Reuters.
Saddam did not go without a few more acts of defiance. He refused to allow a hood to be placed over his head. While on the
platform, he engaged in a give-and-take with the crowd gathered to watch him die and insisted he was Iraq's savior, not its
tyrant and scourge. When told by one guard, "You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution," Saddam replied, "I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians and Americans."
The execution occurred at a very fitting location. It was at a former military intelligence headquarters in northern Baghdad, where Saddam himself had executed many of his opponents.
After the hanging, several of Saddam's victims were allowed to view his body. Jawad Abdul-Aziz Al-Zubaidi, who testified in
Saddam’s trial, was at the viewing. He said: “When I saw the body in the coffin I cried. I remembered my three brothers and
my father who he had killed. I approached the body and told him, 'This is the well-deserved punishment for every tyrant.’
Now for the first time my father and three brothers are happy.”
In the hours that followed Saddam's execution, the news media played highlights of some his prideful moments. The one that
stands out in my mind is the 2002 mock election he held for himself. The Iraqi President won 100 percent of the votes in a
referendum for a new term in office.
Nearly 12 million Iraqis were eligible to answer a simple "Yes" or "No" for their fearless leader. I found it hilarious that
Saddam would ignore common sense and pronounce himself to be the first ever unanimously leader of a nation. I guess he had to do better than 1995 referendum, when he was elected with a "Yes" vote of 99.96%.
Saddam's election highjinx are about the only thing I can find lighthearted about the man. The vast majority of his life was
spent causing death and destruction. Over a million Iraqis died because of decisions he made. The U.S. has spent half a
trillion dollars cleaning up his messes.
Whenever a person with special evil qualities comes to an end, I always try to reflect the lessons that can be learned from
their tragic life. At one point Saddam had total control of a WHOLE nation, and he owned dozens of huge
mansions. When he fell from power and was captured in December of 2003, he was found hiding in a "spider hole," and was such
a grimy mess, the solders who captured him could barely recognize him.
I don’t think Saddam’s death will have any positive effect on the unrest in Iraq. The insurgency doesn’t seem to have any
type of leadership. When you have demonic hatred in control of a country, there is no need for a conductor.
Saddam's death will probably be of a huge benefit to prophecy. Because God controls all world events, human history moves
along a divinely-set path. In 1980, Saddam became a major player on the world stage when he launched the Iran-Iraq war by
invading Iran. Now that Saddam has been given the hook, the prophetic timeline will move forward as new actors take his place.
--- Todd
All Things New
Weariness sets in at the end of each day for most of us. Under normal circumstances –i.e., if we are basically healthy in body and attitude—we awaken each morning with a fresh outlook, ready to begin the day. This approach to life, I realize, can vary with us, individually, from time to time, with even the most optimistic among us.
We begin a new “day” (clean page in our lives) on the day this "Nearing Midnight" article is posted. January 1, 2007. It is, for many, a time of resolutions, promises, and a new determination to make this year better than last. And, we don’t have to put too much effort into reflection to know that this year could be improved over the one just expired. Again,some are excepted from that generalization.
On the other hand, from a prophetic perspective –and, after all, that is most generally the theme of this column—things are scheduled to get worse from this point forward. Much worse, as a matter of fact. Think with me for a moment in terms of dispensations, which, despite detractors from dispensational viewpoint, is precisely the way God deals with this earthly realm, so far as human history is concerned.
This present dispensation –the Age of Grace—or “the Church Age” as some would have it, can be likened unto a single day in the life of the human race. According to all of the signals given in God’s prophetic word, we are in the late hours of this single day God has given humankind to live upon this mortal sphere. Like in the literal 12-month periods we call years, we don’t have to reflect long or hard to know that the next dispensational day could stand improvement over that which is now passing into history.
Those who look at current issues and events –at history of the last 2000 years in general—must conclude, if looking through a prism of reality, that ours has been a day of bloody conflict and rage. Just as the Apostle Paul prophesied: “But evil men and seducers shall [become] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13).
The story of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator, on the cusp of execution as I write this, is proof that Paul’s forewarning is fulfilling in our time. Dictators abound, whether looking at North Korea, Iran, Syria, or –some are convinced—China and even Russia, evil men and seducers are indeed growing worse and worse.
It might be difficult to imagine these types getting worse than the likes of Nero, Ivan the Terrible, or even Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse-tung. But, the technologies available to today’s mass murderer dictators are so ghastly that they cause the swords, arrows, bullets and bombs of the past to pale by comparison. For example, the condemned Iraqi genocidal maniac murdered 180,000 people in one chemical/gas attack.
There are those in the world today who would wreak even greater havoc, had they the capability. And indications are they might soon have the means.
So, as we look to a new year, with a clean slate upon which we can write a better personal history than 2006, let us remember that we are in a fatally flawed –even deadly--world.
There is a Person –and only one Person—who can guide us into a better future. We just celebrated His birth. His name is Jesus. Jesus is calling out a people for himself from this quickly downward-spiraling world. He, alone, can see to it that we who name Him as our Savior and Lord will awaken into a bright new day, rather than move into the next dispensational day reserved for God’s wrath –the seven-year tribulation era.
Here’s what Jesus Christ tells all who will heed His call for redemption:
“Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:5).
Let us put Christ at the forefront of our lives while thinking on the new year. He truly assures a new beginning –both now, and for eternity.
--Terry
