In the name of Churchill, Stalin, Napoleon , God, whatever

In God’s name many people do horrible things to each other in a way that is not at all different to the horrible things that other people do, who don’t use God’s name. They are no different from each other. The only difference is that some use God’s name whilst others don’t. Essentially, the people who do horrible things to one another behind the authority of words are the same type of people - horrible.
A few of the many authoritative words that people use are ’Allah’, ‘Democracy’, ‘God & Country’ ‘Security’ or just simply ‘God’. Do you think that by using God’s name, it automatically confers God’s blessing, as if God endorses everything we do because we use one of his names? Is this an honest way to conduct our lives? Is it therefore honest to argue that God must be horrible because many people do horrible things in his name? Its like describing the Aston Villa Football Club a band of psychos because of the mindless violence of a few of its supporters. Likewise, do you think that by using the name of a country, it automatically confers the country’s blessing?
So, as the evil young men flew the Airbuses into the Twin Towers crying ‘Allah!’ ‘Allah!’ we must assume that Allah was complicit in the evil they had planned, must we? Is it not a fact that God’s name is used like a cleaning utensil to wash the conscience clean and give the impression that its OK to be horrible, as long as you use a respectable sounding word like God or Country. The Old Testament people did this.
Unfortunately such acts, together with the vain words that precede them, have nothing to do with God. In fact, God is somewhat ashamed of people who constantly use his name in vain. They have been doing it for thousands of years. Likewise, the evil people who drop bombs on men, women and children in Iraq, or anywhere else, are as horrible as the evil young men who knocked down the Twin Towers. By dipping their tongues into a lexicon taught by their respective teachers and then wagging them in the air as if the name of God or some other word or phrase has the power to absolve them from their evil deeds, they show clearly they have not fully understood the truth yet. And how can they be expected to understand when the people who control what is taught in our schools and our churches vehemently oppose the teaching of the truth? Broad is the pathway that leads many to the fire of hell.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement. Again, anyone who says, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew5v21-22)

The practice of using God’s name or any other high sounding word as a kind of justification for doing horrible things to each other is not new on this planet. It is this fervent religiousness with which teachers and leaders of his day committed themselves to plan murder and then to get others to carry out their plans that caused the Son of God to rebuke them so often. What the enemies of Christ did in his day are no different from what the enemies do today who sit as leaders in their war cabinets to devise hideous ways of killing innocent people by mass destruction and who then get others to do the killing for them.

“Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speak his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John8v43-44)

This business of plotting to kill people is deeply distressing, especially when the people who do the plotting today are the same respectable pillars of society who tried to silence Jesus. The very same teachers and leaders. Moreover, the entire edifice of today’s Government has been built over the centuries on ideas that give authority to men to plot the destruction of innocent people who live in distant lands, who pose no threat to us whatsoever. These ideas are embedded in our educational system that teaches our children to regard war as heroic and to respect those who kill for our sakes. We think we can justify these ideas by using some kind of holy mantra like, ‘For God and Country’, ‘Regime Change’, ‘Holy War’ or ‘Defenders of the Faith’ or ‘War on Terror’ ad infinitum. The fact of the matter is, horrible acts of violence are horrible acts of violence and they are not actions that can easily be whitewashed by a language that relies on some higher ethical authority whether as a direct reference to God or to a collection of words enshrined in our statute books. Verbal whitewash, like sanitary towels that keep clean the outer parts, may give the appearance of respectability but cannot absolve the menstrual violence within.
If the holy mantra brings death to innocent people then it is the mantra that is evil as well as the people who speak and teach it. Using a higher authority like God’s name, or the name of a King or General or Country or President, as a justification for violence is all in vain and gross hypocrisy. The mantra is evil.

“Woe to you because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. (Luke11v47-48)

Predatory institutions that inscribe the cult hero worship of mass destruction on the tombstones and war memorials of our national consciousness are no different from those that murder the innocent in war. The hero worship of mass destruction is most horrible. Doing horrible things to one another is not sanctioned by our hero worship nor is it officially justified by the ethics committee of the State who maintain our tombs and shrines of war.
The light of mankind is so darkened by shadows cast by the totem poles, sacred cows and marble altars that give tribute to people who have killed and maimed through the ages that it is not surprising the language of our art, education and politics has become so encrusted with the idea of killing each other that even Church leaders have succumbed to it. Within these shadows we imbibe each generation with a view of history that glorifies the deeds of men of war. The glory of violence is the testimony of our history books, the same testimony of men from the Old Testament. These same men stared at Jesus with the very same violent eyes of murder as they planned his death because he exposed their murderous hearts with a new language of truth to which they were not accustomed. They had become so accustomed to drinking the old wine of the testimonies of men that the testimony of God Himself, spoken from His own lips, was a new wine that could not be contained in their crusty old wineskins.
What Jesus began he will finish. Whoever you are, whether Oxford atheist, academic historian, theologian, BBC journalist, comedian, don, cardinal, commander, scientist, plasterer, king, whether you can’t or won’t understand the truth that Jesus has revealed, it is going to accomplish what he has promised at Cana. The truth is not negotiable.
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5 v 28-29)
By his own death and resurrection God has clearly demonstrated his management of life and death as Son of Man has nothing to do with the testimony of men. He came with great humility to show us our evil ways by letting the teachers and leaders of his society murder him on the cross. This perfect example set by God himself is the way for all creation and there is no excuse for those who carry on taking the law into their own hands as a means of bringing about peace and order by human force. Murderers who take the law into their own hands and kill others with force will be judged at the end of time for their rejection of the One who showed us very clearly the way to trust his management of life and death.
Acts of mass murder come from a very old collection of ideas to do with using physical force to control each other rather then trusting God to control us from within. If God cannot control us from within ourselves we will never be set free from this degenerating loop of destruction. It is an immutable fact of life that the forces of human nature occur within the human spirit not without. The without is just a manifestation of the dark and evil forces within. And it is a cop out to whitewash ourselves with a holy mantra to justify the practice of killing and hating each other. It is a sham & disgrace to educate our children with the idea that the free reign of violence is glorious and noble. It is evil.
The use of human force is completely and utterly repudiated by God himself in the way he dealt with the teachers and leaders who always came accusing him of this and that, always trying to justify their own violence within. For example, when they tried to stop him from healing people he attacked them with words of truth and they responded with acts of violence. Words v. Violence. Truth v. Lies. The teachers and leaders of his day who plotted his violent end are no different from the teachers and leaders today who plot acts of violence against innocent people at home and abroad. Many today are complicit in promoting acts of violence. Whether by teaching children nice things about our forefathers who mass murdered innocent souls or by leading parliament into making decisions that bring mass destruction to innocent lives, everyone it would seem is complicit in promoting violence. The promotion is the mantra, the ideology of self-reliance is the cause, and the destruction of one another is the inevitable and inexorable outcome.

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3v19)

In God’s name people do horrible things to one another because they have not met Jesus yet but when they do it will be too late to say sorry.