| (Copyright 2022) by James McBride (United Kingdom) |
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| Street brawls and mass demonstrations are usually provoked by the actions of a small coterie of antagonists. Bill and Harry disagree, and fisticuffs follow—swiftly joined by onlookers. Or Tom has an issue with his energy company and soon gathers a huge Facebook following of disgruntled and angry customers—exacerbated on other social media, others are vilified for expressing a contrary thought. A wave of mass hysteria (‘mass psychogenic illness’) can sweep through a nation, often prompted by mental or emotional tension. It was evident in the Salem witch trials. We saw it with the AIDS challenge. We saw it after the untimely death of Princess Diana. We are seeing it with the spurious ‘self-identifying’ and ‘woke’ craze, with often dangerous mask-wearing, with social distancing and vaccination induced by fear tactics. Perhaps even with the Gadarene pay-rush to destruction by various Unions in this time of recession. It isn’t new. As Jesus was being falsely accused before Pilate, stirred up by a handful of religious leaders (‘doing God service’) the crowds hysterically clamored for him to be crucified. That prefigures the baying crowds in the Colosseum in Rome: ‘get the Christians’. What of the future? We have already seen—in India, Africa—militant mobs massacring those professing the name of Christ. The Devil is on the warpath: ‘…the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ’. Note: Not to compare it to the above but isn’t it odd that many thousands of supposedly upright people in our cities degrade themselves by supporting so called ‘pride’ marchers [cf Ezekiel 16:49]. As to the latter: ‘…The expression of their face’s witnesses against them; they have declared their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt evil to themselves’ (Isaiah 3:9). Divine law is brazenly flaunted on our streets—and in the corridors of power. As urges King Solomon of those who associate with or support the unrighteous:’…walk not in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path’ (Proverbs 1;15). And King David: ‘…The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts’ (Psalm 10:4). So awesome was Sodom’s sin that God sentenced them to total destruction (Genesis 19:13), with the promise of a future resurrection to individually face a period of testing (Mtthew 10:15). ———————————————————————————————————- See James McBride’s other articles at: McBride, James – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) Reprinted with permission from: The Churches of God Outreach Ministries http://www.cgom.org/ ———————————————————————————————————- |
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