Countdown To War Series

But wait. There is hope.

And that hope consists in the fact that God is in control, and that everything that happens in history is being used by God to bring about the future he has already written. What remains for us is to choose what side to be on. There’s a wonderful hymn which is not, unfortunately, in our hymnal:

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.

Some great cause, some new decision, offering each the bloom or blight,

And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet this truth alone is strong;

Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong,

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

The particular battle that this hymn refers to is a spiritual one, not a physical one. But the principle remains the same. Because every human evil is a reflection of human sin, and a judgment on human sin, each evil calls us to re-evaluate our role in it.

I believe that the war we are fighting right now is both just and necessary. Other Christians believe differently. That is a matter for each person to struggle with, with Scripture and conscience. But I think we all have to understand that in some measure it is our fault - yours and mine, as citizens of this country and participating in all her decisions and enjoying the benefits of her policies. We’ve supported tyrants from Bautista in Cuba and Noriega in Panama to the current Saudi regime. We’ve guzzled middle-eastern oil and exported Hollywood corruption. And we have stood by as our country’s leaders slowly squeezed God out of our public consciousness. We have been blind in the face of evil and weak in our defense of principle.

Earlier this week we participated in the dramatic 48 hours between our President’s speech and the time for Saddam Hussein to go into exile. As a nation we were glued to our television screens as the deadline grew closer, and the drama is even more compelling now as our troops cross the desert toward Baghdad. How will it end? We know who’s going to win. The only thing we don’t know what the cost will be.

We all have a similar deadline to face, one that God has placed in front of us. In a way, each one of us has already reached the 48 hours marker. . . . The only question is, how much time do we really have left? This war - that earthquake - or flood, or epidemic - is our wake-up call. Fortunately, we know who’s going to win, so we know which side to enlist on. Have you signed up yet?