ISIS, Iran, America and Israel: How Prophecy and Destiny Endanger Us All

Dr. David Liepert

Posted Mar 10, 2015      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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ISIS, Iran, America and Israel: How Prophecy and Destiny Endanger Us All

by Dr. David Liepert


If you think you know exactly where you are and exactly where you’re going, sometimes you’ll take shortcuts, get lost and do a lot of unintended damage along the way.

What is driving the rapidly escalating battle brewing between ISIS, America and “the West,” Iran and Israel? Everybody, regardless of their religious persuasion (and that includes atheists) is convinced they have a better grasp of the big picture than they really do, with each side informed by their own specific and individual set of un-testable assumptions:

For the US—and their allies—and Israel, it’s each side’s own conception of their nation’s role in the unfolding history of our planet: their Manifest Destiny
For Iran and ISIS—it’s each side’s own conception of their role in end of the world.

And regardless of which side we are talking about, I think we are all getting it wrong.

Without question, some are more wrong than the others. Last week, I posted a blog condemning the stupidity of ISIS’ prophetic claims, with ISIS’ leaders purporting to be putting together the avenging army of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him).

Similarly, last summer in the heights of Israel’s most recent massive assault on Gaza I blogged about my own beliefs about Israel’s destiny in God’s Holy Land: I think the Israel that is there right now hasn’t yet become the Israel that God intends them to be.

When they do, Israel will become God’s Holy Land for everyone.

But the conflict that’s brewing in the world right now roosts between two side players in the one-day divine denouement of God’s pre-ordained end-game—Iran and America—and their impressions of their importance.

For what it’s worth, I love America. I think America’s people are the most empowered and kind-hearted people on the planet. I like singing your national anthem and thinking about your brave beginnings, and I think your Declaration of Independence is one of the finest testaments to our shared human rights and aspirations there is.

It’s just that when Manifest Destiny first came to America, it was primarily a political marketing tool, to justify the Louisiana Purchase. When the time came for America to colonize their own continent by spreading westward, I think it made it much easier to ignore the rights of your own First Nations to believe that God intended you to.

That misplaced good-feeling has driven much of the expansion of America’s global reach ever since.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not always been a bad thing: there are a lot of countries that really appreciate all the good that America has done in the last century.  Unfortunately, there are also a lot of countries that can’t appreciate everything you’ve done.

Never forget you invented napalm.

Because the thing is, I love what’s best about Iran—the Iranians—too, and I think you know that if God loves you—Americans—then He loves them as well. And if the atheists are correct and there is no God and no guiding purpose to lead us, then there is no such thing as destiny anyway, either.

Put another way, if there is a God as believers claim, then even though the idea God takes sides in our little wars remains a great way to fill up our places of worship, it leaves soldiers with a problem: “we were only following orders” didn’t work in Nuremberg, and it’s certainly not going to work when you’re facing God’s Judgement Day for something like murder. And even assuming that atheists are right, then there are a few simple principles it would be wise to keep in mind:

Everybody ALWAYS thinks they’re the good guys.
Everybody ALWAYS thinks they should be in charge.
The end does not EVER justify the means.
We only have one planet to share, between all of us.

And none of us really knows what’s really going to happen, or what’s really going on everywhere, not even with Fox News or CNN.

When Muhammad was faced with creating a political State to govern, even though he knew the absolute truth about divine providence and knew at least some of the future—according to Muslims—he didn’t create a State that allowed him to impose his views or his will upon others even when he was alive, and he certainly didn’t intend for such a State to come about in his name after his death. Instead, he drafted the Compact of the Virtuous in Mecca, and the Charter of Medina in Medina that demanded egalitarian justice regardless of race, creed or gender for all.

Because the truth is that everyone always has the best of intentions, that always inevitably lead us all down the garden path on the road to hell.

Sometimes we need more objective eyes than our own. In fact, perhaps the reason why a man who could always see the correct way to act himself crafted a community that included diverse voices—and demanded that they consult with each-other- the Islamic concept of Shura—was that without preternatural guidance, sometimes the only way to see that path unfolding before you before it’s too late is to see through the eyes of others, those who aren’t on the same path as you, but who have the gift of perspective: sometimes others can see where you are and where you’re going better than you can, just because they have a better view of it all from where they are standing.

Or take one of Jesus’ stories one step further (peace be upon him), regardless of whether you’ve got a lot or a mote in your eye, sometimes it takes a friendly hand to take it out.

Or to put it another way, Muhammad (peace be upon him) once told his companions that to live in peace with others, one should never remember two things and never forget two things.

Never remember the good you have done for others, or the bad they have done to you.
Never forget the bad that you have done to others, or the good that others have done to you
.

Today, too many of the decisions we are all making are predicated in the idea that our side can never do anything wrong, and the other side will never do anything right. Instead, for whatever reason we are all in this together, and it’s going to take all of us to get through it to a better future, together. What would the world be like; if ISIS and Iran realized that they are all working towards a prophetic world that will be led by the man who said,

“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

And what would the world be like if America—and their allies, including Israel—realized that—regardless of what anyone believes—the rights and aspirations recorded in America’s Declaration of Independence pertains to Iranians and Palestinians too?

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