Any of you who saw the answer to my little Bible quiz know the verses in Proverbs that were nearly identical. Here it is: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (KJV)
That was one of the first Bible verses I ever memorized. It had special significance for me for two reasons. First, it reminded me of how deceived I had been before coming to faith in Jesus. I did not grow up in a Christian home, and in high school my humanities teacher convinced me there was no God. And I lived the life of an atheist for many years, totally convinced that I was right. That’s the scary nature of deception, because you don’t know when you’re a victim of it. Nobody believes that what they “know” to be true is a lie, otherwise they wouldn’t believe it! So my belief “seemed right” as the Bible says, but it leads to death. Second, I was surprised to find the same Bible verse repeated almost word for word. God doesn’t usually repeat Himself like that, so I think it must be VERY important for God to have repeated it. We must be very careful to guard against deception. Okay, I think most of us can agree on that principle. But the real test is applying it, and here is where you and I may need to re-examine what we believe to be true. Many Christians would say that that good cannot come out of evil, but what they support tells an opposite story. Specifically I’m referring to the war in Syria that is raging as this is being written. Fact: we are dropping bombs and killing many innocent people, including Christians. Fact: we have not been asked to intervene in Syria, and the Christians there strongly support President Assad. Fact: the USA is mostly hated throughout most of the world. But here in America we are told that we are waging these wars for “freedom” and other countries are “envious” of our greatness. Something doesn’t add up. We intervene in foreign countries that pose no threat to us, supposedly to stop some evil there. But in the process we commit evil ourselves. Did God say that the end justifies the means? No, I think that was the communist Karl Marx who said that. And we will not hear a word today from America’s pulpits about this immoral and illegal war in Syria. My pastor will talk about it, but the vast majority of pastors won’t. Do you think God can bless an aggressor nation? Are we sure America is on the right side? Because if it isn’t, we can only expect God to judge us. I think the judgment has already started.