The Eyes Have It!

-- Essays & Articles --

/ Newsgroups > alt.religion.christian.biblestudy, alt.bible.prophecy / Forum > TheologyOnLine > Religion / Date > 16 Nov 2000 /

The Eyes Have It!

Well now I'm not much of an art-critic, but it seems to me that one must be slightly mad to be a painter or sculptor or any artist working in a visual medium. This is because "the visual world" is horrendously rich and complex; and so doesn't take kindly to being reduced in size and dimension. Moreover, the visual-world is the place where we get most of our information about the universe around us. The human creature indeed appears to be deliberately designed around the eyes; as if those two tiny globes are of the utmost importance, and foremost among all the organs. Thus the eyes are the windows upon the soul; or so they say. And so the loss of our eye-sight is widely held to be the most dismal and unfortunate condition that any human being can fall to. Maybe so. But then there are many different kinds of blindness (just as there are different kinds of 'seeing'); and the failure of our physical eyes is most certainly not the worst of these.
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In our 21st century post-modern techno-global-village there is certainly no shortage of things to see, of things to look at, of things that leap fourth demanding the attention of the eyes ... As all greedy corporate advertisers know: Grab the eyes, and all the rest will follow (just as surely as day follows night). But the funny thing is that all these wondrous eye-grabbers have only one thing in common: they all distract us from the real world, from the truth of things, from all those things that *really* matter. Our 'wandering eyes' set us apart from all the previous generations of humankind. Through them we wander into the past and future, into the heart of the atom, and out to the farthest galaxies. Through them we wander we know not where (nor do we care), as long as we wander well away from the Lord; for even one hour per week is far too long to spend in His company!
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And people wonder why the Lord seems to have forgotten them and the world? But the Lord has not forgotten. Rather it is the people who have forsaken their Lord in order to follow their wandering eyes wheresoever they may lead. Consequently, this generation cannot be excused by pleading ignorance; for the current social and cultural darkness is largely of their own devising. So let it be said then, near and far, that in seeing they have made themselves blind! ... Therefore:
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"Hear the word of the Lord, O churches of the world.
For the LORD has a dispute against the peoples of the Earth.
For there is no truthfulness, nor loyalty, nor knowledge of God in the land or on the Net.
There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery; they break every moral restraint,
and bloodshed is repaid with more bloodshed. Therefore, the land will mourn, and all its inhabitants
will perish; the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky, and even the fish in the sea will perish ...
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So plead earnestly with your mother America (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband),
so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.
Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born.
I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, that I might slay her with thirst.
I will have no pity upon her children and churches, because they are all conceived in adultery.
-- Hosea 4:1-3; 2:2-4 / Prophet Version

- one who speaks of doom and gloom - textman ;>

P.S. "The righteous man has sympathy for the life of his beast; but the mercy of the wicked is cruel" (Proverbs 12:10).

] In 1Jn 2:29 & 3:16 the prophet John sayeth: If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of him ...
] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. -- RSV
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Here then is the importance of the example Jesus sets for us; and also the true meaning of the cross for theology and human conduct.
Let's take WWII as an example. In the early years of this war, while Europe was being hammered by Hitler's technological war-machine,
the American people were determined not to get involved with yet another global conflict. The President, however, was very sympathic
to England's troubles, and did the best he could for that nation, even while praying for a miracle that would rouse the people from their
irrational blindness. The Lord heard this prayer, and soon decided that it was just. Then Japan's navel forces surprised everyone by
attacking an American military installation, and just like *that*, America was in the middle of the great war of many nations.
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But while the war was 'revenge on Japan' for 99% of the american people, the Lord and the President both knew that the real war was
the one against Hitler and his Nazis. So to that end those soldiers who died fighting Germany died for the right reasons (ie. doing right in
the eyes of the Lord); even though (and let us be clear on this) there is no such thing as a so-called "holy-war". In fact, Jesus rejects
violence in ANY form. But while the war on Hitler was certainly not a holy-war, it was, after all, a necessary war. So all those brave
warriors who died fighting Hitler sacrificed themselves for truth, liberty, and justice. For that reason they did right, and the Lord accepts
them with love and grace; despite any sins that they may have collected along the way.
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The war against Japan, on the other hand, was altogether a different affair. For both nations the violence was indeed very like unto a
holy-war. A holy-war fueled not by love but rather by anger and fear and hatred and an unquenchable lust for revenge. As far as the
Lord is concerned that war ended with the defeat of the japanese navel forces at Midway; for Japan was no longer a threat to America
after that astonishing day ... [please *do* check it out!]
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So from that point on America was more or less without rational justification for their aggression. I can see hunting down the rest of the
jap-navy, and maybe even taking back some of the islands and nations that Japan had conquered over the years, but beyond that america
was acting the part of an unjust aggressor (just as Japan did), conducting an evil war of mindless vengeance. Jesus rejects all of that part
of the war as irrational and unnecessary; and sees the attack upon Japan by atomic weapons as the very embodiment of an evil act taken
to demonic extremes. There was and is no justification whatsoever for any nation to use such weapons against another nation. Never, ever,
period! No rational believer should ever the doubt the judgment of the Lord on this particular point.