Last night, on the Michael Reagan Talk Show, a caller asked, almost out of the blue
after a comment on the present war situation, "Mike, when do you think Jesus Christ
will come?" Of course, Mike didn’t know the answer to that question. However,
over in Jerusalem, a group of evangelicals from Hereford, England, has set up a web site
to monitor the Golden or Eastern Gate of Jerusalem's old city walls via a fixed camera in
the hope of recording the Messiah's return around the year 2000.
I have watched the Serb people, not only in Yugoslavia, but Serb-Americans right here
in the United States, go from what appeared to be feelings of simple pain that Americans,
of all people, would be destroying their country - their homes, churches, sacred shrines,
and monuments to their painful past- to a doomsday feeling that the Americans plan to
exterminate the Serbs of Yugoslavia.
Why has the Clinton Administration, undertaken the total
destruction of Yugoslavia? He claims, without proof, that the
Serbs have committed "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing." Yet, it is
obvious from looking at the statistics that it is Serbs, not Albanians, or Bosnians, or
Slovenes, or Muslims, who are being reduced in number. WHY? I asked that question when the
bombs started falling - and still have not gotten a good answer for it.
However, the destruction we are seeing in Yugoslavia and other places around the world,
seems to fit in the minds of many with signs of the return of Jesus Christ.
"What shall be the sign of thy coming?" the disciples of Jesus Christ asked
him at one point in Jerusalem long ago. And, in the 24th Chapter of Matthew, he answered
the question: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not
troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Well,
since the outbreak of America’s Civil War in 1861, we’ve had almost an unbroken
line of wars and rumours of war.
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the
beginning of sorrows."
I think we have seen the beginning of sorrows in the 20th century, with its numerous
famines and pestilences and earthquakes - plus of late a lot of other natural disasters -
floods, tornadoes, storms, etc. We very well could be in the "beginning of
sorrows." Of course, we have no idea how long that might last.
Jesus went on to say: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall
kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall
many be offended and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false
prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the
love of many shall wax cold."
The Serbs seem to fit the description. They are followers of
Christ and they sure seem to be hated by all nations. Their Christian monuments,
monasteries and churches are have been deliberately destroyed by Muslims for years and now
are being "accidentally" bombed by a nation our founding fathers believed to be
a Christian nation. Are we no longer a "Christian" nation?
Jesus was describing an irrational hatred and betrayal of those who believed on his name.
How real are the accusations being made against the Serb people? It was reported yesterday
that the Clinton Administration, which has accused the Serbs in the past of both
"genocide" and "ethnic cleansing", claimed they had reports the Serbs
had killed 4600 Albanians since the bombing started.
We know, of course, that the Alliance has killed 1300 Yugoslav
civilians. We don’t know how many soldiers have been killed, but NATO keeps
telling us that they have caused great damage to the Yugoslav Army. How,
do you suppose, anyone in or out of Yugoslavia right now could make an accurate count of
how many people have died, what nationality they were and who killed them? And, how
come, based on unproven reports, we are killing so many people and wrecking so many homes
in Yugoslavia? If, as Clinton claims, Milosevic has killed a bunch
of people, why is he killing women and children who had nothing to do with it? And,
shouldn’t even Milosevic be considered innocent until the guilt is proven?
But, even if we give NATO the benefit of the doubt and accept
their 4600 killed Albanians as accurate, that is about 25% of the number of Serbs
slaughtered by the Croatians in 1995 when they killed the elderly Serbs who would not
leave their homes in Krajina.
How come killing 20,000 Serbs is just normal warfare, but killing
4600 Albanians is "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide"? Are we being deceived? Can a leader proven
to be deceitful in both his private life and his public statements lead a nation to
righteousness in war?
Maybe it is mystifying to most Americans that an Serb professor
would get himself so worked up over an inaccurate report about a bridge being blown up six
years ago in Mostar, but it isn’t to me. It’s just another frustrating
symbol of injustice we are, as a nation, practicing. It is sort of like the distraught
Serb who fled, penniless and without shoes, to Macedonia, after his wife and sixteen year
old daughter were blown up by a NATO bomb in their home, - but denied aid because he was a
Serb. The "humanitarian" agencies have this policy, you
see. Serbs are not eligible to even BE refugees. He was denied aid - because he was a
Serb.
So, what can the Serbs do? Going back to the words of Jesus Christ, He advised, when
all these things were taking place: "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved." From NATO bombs? Not necessarily. But those who endure to the end
keeping the commandments of Christ, even when faced with persecution because of their
faith in Jesus Christ, will be saved. "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of
desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet," Jesus said, "stand in the holy
place."
