Recognising the
Hand of Judgment. Ch.24
The Upper Hand and the Lower
Hand.
Two Systems.
In all the chapters so far, we have seen how behind the outward show of
historical events, there is a Guiding Hand at work, the hand of God. Man,
in his blindness, may not
perceive this Hand, and the news media
of the world choose not to look
for the evidence of this Upper Hand.
However, it is there, and those
who have an active faith in the Lord Jesus should search and see, so that they
may redress the balance, and bring forth the evidences from the past, that God is "working His purposes out", and that "the
Most High rules in the Kingdoms of Men."
This has been my purpose in producing this historical sketch, and I have found great delight in seeing this Upper Hand at work. But as I have given myself to research and discovery, it has also become obvious that there is another hand at work, a sinister, lower hand, the hand of Satan. Wherever God's Upper Hand has started to work, so Satan's lower hand has been right behind, seeking to pervert God's work, even to mixing the signals so that the evidences are lost in something akin to static noise in radio transmission.
In a previous chapter I sought to show that Moses Hess, a Jew, was the founder of Communism. He was the man who taught Marx and Engels the Satanic philosophy that has been like a greedy carnivorous monster in the 20th century earth, slaughtering an estimated sixty million people in Russia, and about the same in China, and relentlessly persecuting not only Christians, but Jews.
Another Jew, Richard Wurmbrand, who is also a Christian, was one of those mercilessly tortured for his faith by the communist regime in eastern Europe. I have quoted from his very perceptive booklet entitled "Was Karl Marx a Satanist." (1976) We listened to a talk he gave in the Nairobi Cathedral, Kenya, in 1973, in which he described some of the bestialities imposed upon him and his fellow-Christians in earlier years. We wondered how he could still be alive.
I should now like to quote again from his booklet. He takes up the theme of these "two hands" at work:-
"After Hess convinced Marx and Engels of the Socialist idea, claiming from the very beginning that its purpose would be to give "the last kick to medieval religion", an interesting development took place in Hess's life. He who had founded modern socialism also founded an entirely different movement, a specific brand of Zionism.
"I myself am a Zionist. The State of Israel belongs to the Jews by divine right. God, the creator of the earth, has said repeatedly through the prophets that He has given the land of Palestine to the Jews. This does not mean that I subscribe to all that Zionists have ever thought.
"I am a Christian. This does not mean that I approve of all that Christians teach and do. That would be impossible, because Christians are divided and teach contradictory things. The same thing is true among Zionists. There is more than one brand of Zionism. There exists a Socialist Zionism, a Judaic Religious Zionism, a Jewish-Christian Zionism, a peaceful Zionism, an aggressive Zionism. There has even been a murderous, terrorist Zionism, like that of the Stern group, which has killed many innocent people.
"Within Christianity there exists what is from God, the accretions of man, and the infiltration of the Devil. Zionism too is a mixture. Apart from being the fulfillment of a divine plan, it is also a human movement with all the liabilities of human sins and weaknesses. There has been an attempt to establish a Satanic type of Zionism. Happily it has not succeeded. Herzl gave a sane turn to Zionism. In its modern form no trace of Satanism has remained.
"Hess, the founder of modern Socialism, a Socialism with the aim of chasing God from heaven, was also the founder of a diabolic type of Zionism, that would destroy godly Zionism, the Zionism of love, understanding, and concord with surrounding states."
These are the words of a Messianic Jew, looking back and observing a mixture. Rightly he abhors that which is evil, and promotes that which is good. He may even have been a little too optimistic in his assessment of modern Zion. Although I have no doubt about the title deeds of Palestine, a country promised to the people of Israel, I am also aware that their tenure of that land depended on obedience, and that is why they have had to wait nearly 2,000 years away from home. Even today, there is a group of ultra-orthodox Jews, calling themselves Neturei Karta, who believe that Zionism is wrong, being just a human drive to re-establish a homeland without the movement of God. They are still awaiting the coming of Messiah, who, they say, will create the New Israel in His own way. Whether this is true or not, I make no judgment, but I mention it here to show that there are many ways of looking at the modern state of Israel.
A
cartoon in a newspaper at the time of the first world war shows
representatives from every European country pointing a finger at a Jew, to
indicate that HE was responsible for the mess they were all in.
Jew-baiting has always been a shameful
game, but at the same time it is
quite obvious that a small minority of Jews have often been responsible for the
hostility liberated against their people.
It has been pointed out for example that it was the Bankers who
encouraged the first world war, and the
Bankers who funded the Bolshevik
revolution, and the Bankers who enabled the rise of Hitler to
come about. And who were the
Bankers? Mainly powerful financial
controllers such as the Rothschild
family, who were and are Jews. This has
led to a form of anti-semitism rife
even amongst Christians
today, where facts such as those
just stated have been allowed to
overpower all their thinking,
instead of realising that in all
things there exists a mixture. One must
learn to see and reject those aspects of any movement which
clearly stem from the Lower Hand at
work, whilst at the same time observing and rejoicing whenever the Upper Hand
has been seen at work.
To close this chapter it will be appropriate to
quote a few Bible verses which help to provide clear directives to our
daily living. First of all,
from Numbers 15:39. "Go
not about after your own heart and your
own eyes, which you use to go
astray." Then Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the
Lord with all your heart, and lean not
unto your own understanding. In all
your ways acknowledge Him, and He
will direct your paths." And finally, Proverbs 14:12. “There is a way which seems right to a
man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
In this
last reference, notice how man
can choose his own way, (singular), only to find that it leads to many different
paths, all of which lead to death. In other words, he starts off on a straight
track, albeit a wrong track, only to find a multiplicity of paths open to him.
In his perplexity he ponders what to do, not realising that each one of
them leads to death. But for those who are willing to walk God's way,
there will always be a "still small voice"
behind us, whenever we step off the
right path to the left or to the right,
saying "this is the
way, walk in it."