Lessons From Pearl Harbour

Exactly 70 years ago the Japanese launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. In around 3 hours over 2400 people were killed and almost 1300 wounded. Some 18 ships were destroyed or damaged, and around 350 aircraft were destroyed or damaged.

It was a devastating attack, and was indeed, as President Roosevelt said, a date “that will live in infamy”. The tragic thing was, there were plenty of warnings, but they largely went unheeded. It seems the whole affair was a case of military intelligence bungling and incompetence at the highest levels.

Of course for those who follow this closely, they will know that a raging debate has been taking place as to exactly how much FDR and the military leaders knew, how many warnings were available, what the cracked Japanese codes had said, and so on.

So there is debate as to how many actual warnings there were and were ignored, or how much bungling took place by the top brass, and so on. It is not my intention here to rehearse all the arguments, highlight all the books and articles on this, and come to any sort of conclusion.

My point is simply to say that a very high price was paid 70 years ago, and it seems that some bungling and some unheeded warnings did in fact occur big time. Had the warnings been passed along to those who needed them most, or had the warnings been taken a bit more seriously, we might have had a very different outcome indeed on that fateful day.

But I here want to tie this in with some spiritual and biblical realities. The Bible of course is full of warnings, and the question is, do God’s people take them seriously? Consider for example just some New Testament warnings – those having to do with falling away, apostasy, the need for perseverance, and so on:

Matthew 10:22 He that endures to the end shall be saved.

Mark 4:16-17 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

1 Corinthians 10:11-12: These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

Galatians 4:8-9 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

2 Timothy 2:12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us;

Hebrews 3:12-14 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

Hebrews 12:16-17 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

2 Peter 2:20-22 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

There are of course many more such warnings found throughout Scripture. They are there for a reason, and we must consider them in a sober and serious fashion. Indeed, the Old Testament is filled with examples of those who have one way or another turned their backs on God and abandoned the faith.

Now it is not my intention here to get into a big debate about things like eternal security and the like. I am quite familiar with all the debates and the various pros and cons about them. All I want to do here is urge us to take seriously the many warnings of Scripture, and not be cavalier or presumptuous in this regard.

There are also other sorts of warnings, eg., prophetic-type warnings or watchmen on the wall kind of warnings. God puts in his body these voices to warn and alert his people. Again the question is, do we actually heed these warnings and pay any attention to the various alerts being given?

Many of us for example have been warning for years just how serious the militant homosexual lobby is in terms of threats to faith, family and freedom. We have given one warning after another, but they seem to mainly fall on deaf ears.

It seems that most Christians don’t want to know about all this – or they simply do not care. But soon it will be too late. If we do not rouse ourselves out of our slumber soon, we may not have the freedoms any longer to worship, believe, and witness as we like. All that may be taken away from us.

I document how this is occurring on a regular basis all around the Western world. Yet the church seems to be uninterested, unconcerned and indifferent to all this. But the price we will all pay for ignoring these warnings is just too high.

I for one think that religious freedom, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and freedom to proclaim the gospel are great goods which should not be taken away from us without a fight. But we will indeed lose all these things if the majority of churches and especially church leaders fail to speak out.

Let me close with just one example of a real Christian hero. This woman is not afraid to take a stand for truth, and she puts most other Christian leaders to shame. Perth pastor and former world number one tennis champion Margaret Court has just been featured in the secular press.

Why? Because she is taking a strong public stand for traditional marriage, while so many of her colleagues are refusing to say a word on this. The article, “Legend condemns gay marriage,” begins this way: “WA tennis legend Margaret Court has slammed the push to legalise gay marriage, saying she wants to ‘protect families’. The Rev. Court urged Australians to make a stand against gay marriage, saying no human law could ever change God’s divine laws.

“The Rev. Court, who is regarded as the greatest female player of all time, believes Australia needs to wake up as a nation to protect future generations. ‘Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take,’ she said. The Rev. Court, who founded and is a senior pastor in Perth’s Victory Life Church, said society was best served by strong family units that comprised a mum, dad and children.”

Now that woman, in my books, is a hero. I wish all God’s people, and especially all God’s leaders, had the backbone that she has. Why must she speak alone on this? Where are all the other Christian leaders? She is sounding the alarm, and making the warning, but so many more believers should be doing the same.

We all must take heed before it is too late, and even greater tragedy strikes. Will we listen and act, or will we refuse to learn the lessons of history about unheeded warnings?

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/12256170/legend-condemns-gay-marriage/

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34 Replies to “Lessons From Pearl Harbour”

  1. Thanks John

    Yes you are absolutely right. Anyone who dares to speak up about the militant homosexual lobby will be savagely attacked. So we must pray for her and send her a word of encouragement as well. I already have.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  2. I have a feeling it will not just be religious freedoms either. Many other freedoms I fear could go too.
    Carl Strehlow

  3. Getting through your book Bill, the most un-enjoyable book I have ever read, a bright light shining on the darkness but in my opinion a must read by both pastors and politicians and for that matter everybody else.

    Talk about the truth being swept under the carpet, the facts speak for themselves yet no one wants to know about it?

    During the time of the Nazi’s there was all the evidence in the world to warn the Jews what was going on in the extermination camps, yet they just could not find it in themselves to believe the society had put their hope in was capable of doing what they were doing.

    I think many people may have a problem coming to grips with the confronting truths and degradation you present and hence will turn a blind eye and continue on the path to even further deception.

    If they do come to grips with the truth, how could anyone in their right minds still possibly support the legalizing of supposed marriages within this dark, soul and body destroying, obvious evil sphere?
    Christians get the book and wise up!

    Rob Withall

  4. “I think many people may have a problem coming to grips with the confronting truths and degradation you present and hence will turn a blind eye and continue on the path to even further deception.”

    Bill thank you for another perceptive article. The danger from the unfettered ideology of the militant and organised homosexual crusaders is very real. It is also very subtle as it is sold to us as being all about “equality”. As you say; “deception”
    It is nothing of the kind. Homosexuals have all legal status and equality under the law in all western countries as far as I’m aware.
    It is about suppressing ALL Christian criticism of it by any means, and preferably by national laws – again, under the guise of “equality” legislation.
    Its agenda is: “To prohibit and even criminalise public criticism of homosexuality, including the quotation of biblical passages disapproving of it – in other words, a total jamming of criticism with the force of law”
    I may have referred to this book before on this blog, if so please forgive another reference. It is a very important, searing, resume of exactly how the Judeo/Christian world view is being systematically undermined and destroyed, particularly in the USA.
    One reviewer (Judith Reisman President of the Institute for Education in the USA) describes the book as “required reading for politicians, clergy, grandparents, parents and youths in every high school and college”.
    Its message reaches far beyond the USA, and I urge readers of this blog to get this and read it.

    ‘THE MARKETING OF EVIL. How radicals, elitists and pseudo experts sell us corruption disguised as freedom’
    David Kupelian. WND Books. ISBN 1-58182-459-9.

    The author is a Christian. I quote but one small excerpt from his closing chapter ‘The fall and rise of American Christianity’

    “In far too many pulpits across the USA and broadcasting over the nation’s airways, Christianity is presented in such a shallow way that it doesn’t require a love of truth – which is tantamount to a love of Him.”
    This really is a “must read”

    Graham Wood

  5. Yes had the same response as many. I wrote to Margaret and expressing my desire to stand in solidarity with her as the flak is going to come…
    Peter Brownhill

  6. Thank you very much Bill
    I’ve printed several copies of this article and will be circulating it to all who will listen. And even the ones that won’t listen. At my work place we have 8 aborigine people working as Bus drivers and through some investigative questioning, I’ve discovered 3 of them are Christians who are completely disillusioned and lost as to what to do about the Gay movement. When I started talking to them about what I’ve read from here and so on, their eyes lit up.
    Daniel Kempton

  7. Today’s Mass reading, Matt 11:16-19 “We played the flute for you but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.”
    Wake up people, we are under attack.
    Along with the attack on marriage, the Victorian abortion law is marching its way to Queensland as we speak. If Queensland falls, we will all fall like dominoes. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
    Anna von Marburg

  8. Often the problem is getting the media to report views which are contrary to their own. As a case in point, this year alone at least eight articles appeared in the major MSM paper extolling SSM. The AFA tried on many occasions to counter them but to no avail. Eventually, after an appeal to the managing editor, we were permitted one letter which was heavily censored. Ironically, this same managing editor is appearing before the current Finkelstein Inquiry into the Media and castigating it for attempting to censor the press.
    Dunstan Hartley

  9. Thanks Dunstan

    Yes the MSM with its blanket of censorship have a lot to answer for. But we must keep trying to get truth out into the public arena.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  10. Hi Mark. Thanks for the anglican-mainstream post, a very scary and insightful video on this site shows a primary school in California being indoctrinated about gender.

    This week Mr Garrett responded to a journalist that one of his best achievements of the year includes the ‘National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence’.
    This appears to be a front to the same kind of indoctrination of our children please check out this site.
    http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/talkout/spotlight/sexualitybasedprejudicemain.shtml

    Thanks Bill – so very true, Australia needs to be heeding these warnings.

    Annette Williams

  11. Bill – Well done! Margaret is a good friend of ours and without question she has the weight of church history behind her on this issue. It’s worth mentioning that on all major areas of Christian theology and doctrine -1) Creation, 2) the Fall, 3) Redemption and; 4) Eschatology, the Scriptures are consistent on this issue and God’s divine order for marriage.
    Mihael McCoy

  12. Bill, the same aircraft that bombed Pearl Harbor also bombed Darwin – in fact more of them than the 7th December attack. My wife’s two uncles although not gunners went and manned and fired guns at the Zeros, unlike others who ran.
    What is significant is that there had been warnings to the US by their own Bill Mitchell, by our great John Curtin and by a British naval historian in the 1920s in a short book called the GREAT PACIFIC WAR.
    The warnings to us about sin – all sins – and its consequences have been in the Bible since God spoke to Adam. Just as the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Darwin came with sudden destruction, so does the consequences of sin, especially in this era of personal peace and affluence and the non compassionate use of wealth.
    Wayne Pelling

  13. I should have added that it was Francis Schaeffer who made the statement about personal peace and affluence and the way one uses or misuses wealth.

    Wayne Pelling

  14. I spoke about the issue of gay marriage at work and one colleague literally attacked me, demanding to know why gays couldn’t have the same marriage rights as heterosexuals. No amount of pointing out the problems of such relationships (such as the need for a child to have both male and female role models) would convince him otherwise. Other work colleagues (some of these who call themselves christian) said they couldn’t see what the big deal was and as long as it didn’t affect them they couldn’t see any problem with it.

    If this is the attitude of the general public at large, then the homosexual lobbyists have done an excellent job in promoting their cause and we, the church have been miserably silent on the matter.

    Margaret Court is a hero and she must be supported as she will no doubt come under fire for taking a stand.

    Fred Merlo

  15. Fred, what you and everyone else needs to point out is that homosexuals have exactly the same marriage rights as everyone else. The law governs us with respect to marriage exactly the same way it governs them concerning marriage. There are certain categories of people I cannot marry and those categories are the same for homosexuals. I can not see any discrimination here.

    One of the main tactics used by the homosexual lobby to overcome this is to claim that marriage needs to be redefined and that the very definition of the word is discriminatory against them. However this tactic is as invalid as the dog owner crying “discrimination!” because the cattery won’t allow him to house his dog there, or the Queenslander alleging discrimination against Tasmania because the weather is too cold for his liking. Marriage is what it is; redefining it to eliminate this supposed “discrimination” is as illogical as redefining the word “fire” to mean something lukewarm instead of something dangerously hot in hopes that it won’t burn you.

    Edwin Barui

  16. Just a small comment to Fred, I too have been shocked or maybe that’s the wrong word, surprised at how quick and strong people responded when we bring up the subject (SSM). I remember last year a co-worker, a young happy girl who enjoyed our lunch time conversations, up until my fateful mistake. I said just as a passing comment, it seems logical for a child to have a Mother & a Father what do you think? Knowing full well she was bought up in a loving healthy family unit. She got really angry and I remember thinking where did that come from.
    Daniel Kempton

  17. Thanks Daniel

    Yes it is getting more and more difficult to even open your mouth without being savagely attacked for daring to say something which is not politically correct,

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  18. Spencer,

    I am by no means supporting the ‘prosperity Gospel’ but it seems to me you have unreasonably extrapolated Margaret’s statement that is quoted and there is no additional evidence that you give. The rest of your quotes aren’t even from her! That makes your argument extremely weak.

    Furthermore, even if Margaret was/is in error, it seems unnecessarily tangental to this topic to mention it. I have to wonder why you brought it up.

    So, is your theology perfect? How would it be if someone took one quote of yours from 7 years ago and tried to build a case against you for “false teaching”? C’mon! I think you can do better than that.

    Mark Rabich

  19. Thanks guys

    If I support someone on a certain issue, it does not entail that I consider them to be terrific on every single other issue of course. I too am no great fan of the Word of Faith movement. But I like to give credit where credit is due. Margaret has more guts than most Christian leaders and celebrity pastors around, and she deserves support and encouragement in this regard. If even a tenth of all pastors spoke out on this issue as she has done, we would be a lot further along than we now are.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  20. I think we’re getting good teaching from our Catholic Archbishop here in Perth. He has made the valid position very clear, though the media don’t really report him fairly. He also speaks out against abortion and leads silent prayer vigils outside a local abortion clinic. He funds Linda’s House of Hope (run by a former prostitute to help women escape that life style). He has more recently organised a “centre for evangelisation”, recognising an urgent need. He has made the verandah and grounds of his house a refuge and sleeping place for indigenous folks and other homeless people and has attracted vilification for his actions.
    He has made the true nature of marriage clear and has explained that the church could never condone or conduct homosexual “marriages”. He has explained that the very idea of SSM is a complete misunderstanding of what marriage is all about.
    Our Catholic paper’s front page headline and editorial this week deal with the issue very clearly and the editorial concludes by suggesting the need for a sustained campaign to promote the incontrovertible evidence for the lasting benefits to society of marriage as we correctly understand it.
    Anna Cook

  21. Anna Cook,
    My husband, a retired minister, says he knew your archbishop was doing great things but he is much in your debt for you spelling out what they are. Thank you.
    My addition to this conversation is to say please let your politicians know how you feel about marriage.
    Katherine Fishley

  22. I thank God for Margaret Court’s stand for the truth of what has been marriage since the beginning of time.

    It is expected that Martina Navratilova, a lesbian, would oppose her. Billie Jean King has supported the politically correct view and support for a Christian view is hardly likely from her.

    However, when Jesus was challenged about divorce, he took the opportunity to affirm that marriage was between a man and a woman. According to Mark 10:7-9, Jesus Christ stated, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate”. And dare I say that Jesus was so old fashioned that he called upon the “command of Moses” from Genesis 2:24 to affirm heterosexual marriage.

    God’s view through Moses was as relevant for Jesus as it is for us today.

    It is also interesting to see the flack that Kevin Rudd’s sister, Loree Rudd, has received with a view similar to Margaret Court’s and against homosexual marriage, when she resigned from the Nambour branch of the Australian Labor Party. See the Sunshine Coast Daily’s report at: http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/12/13/rudds-sister-quits-labor/ The Age’s view is at: http://www.theage.com.au/queensland/kevin-rudds-sister-quits-labor-over-gay-marriage-policy-20111213-1os44.html

    Spencer Gear, Brisbane

  23. It is very sad that the MSM love to promote those who claim Christ and stand with the latest political agenda. The whole “Here is a reasonable priest who supports SSM or a woman’s right to choose” makes me angry and sad.

    I was speaking to someone yesterday who believes we should let the unbelievers have their laws and concern ourselves only with obeying God’s moral law, not imposing God’s law on those who don’t believe.

    Kylie Anderson

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