You wouldn’t expect it, things normally being clearer up close, but the human race has a knack for seeing idolatry at a distance. Show us idolatry over yonder and we can spot it in an instant. Tell us of idolatry in our own living rooms and we stare with bewilderment. And yet, God has a way of using that idolatry to expose our idolatry—”Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die…’ Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!'” (2 Samuel 12:5-7).
Americans have watched in horror as the Taliban has taken Kabul, Afghanistan. The people of war-torn Afghanistan indeed need our prayers. I have heard a report that the Taliban have sworn to kill Christians. Various news articles lament the coming treatment of Afghanistan women under Sharia law. Over the years, American soldiers have heroically given their lives on Afghan soil, and praise God for them and their families. All of this calls for Christian grief and intercessions that God would have mercy. It also calls for Secular America to fall flat on its face before the King and call upon the name of Yahweh.
Secular America can see the Taliban’s idolatry and its fruits, but it is blind to its own. We are right to be outraged by the way women have been treated under Sharia law. But, you cannot be outraged while oppressing women with a heavier yoke than Sharia. You cannot object to misogyny while engaging in misogyny. And you cannot demand women stop being brutalized while brutalizing them.
Joe Biden cannot express shock that the Taliban requires women to wear Burqas, while at the same time sending violent men to the women’s prison. The American National Commission on Public Service cannot lament the Taliban restricting the movements of women while recommending that women be forced to fight male soldiers from hostile countries. The educator cannot decry the Taliban’s philosophy while teaching girls to deny their femininity. The American surgeon cannot be dismayed at the Taliban’s barbaric punishment of women while using his surgical knife to cut off a woman’s breasts in the sickening and vain attempt to make her a man.
It will do you no good to claim that I minimize the Taliban atrocities and inflate those of Pagan America. “Their god tells them to slaughter innocents!” says the American Secularist. And so does yours. American Paganism has given rise to 60 million children slaughtered since 1973. And do you know what about half of those children were? Women. And you are upset with Islamic Fundamentalism? Those 30 million precious girls would have fared far better under the Taliban than they did under Planned Parenthood.
Many Americans converse over the very difficult decisions regarding foreign policy. What do you do when a foreign leader oppresses his people? What actions are fitting when he uses chemical weapons against innocent civilians? Such questions are right and good, challenging though they be. But, can you imagine the difficulty another conscientious nation faces as they consider what to do about the United States of America whose leaders permit the slaughter of innocent civilians?
The American Government has permitted genocidal jihad against innocent civilians in their land. 48 years this slaughter has occurred unabated. The children themselves who have been lost could have formed a nation one and a half times the entire population of Afghanistan… Should we deploy the Hellfire missiles on the White House or put boots on the ground in New York City?
I love my fellow Americans and I love my country. And that is why I say, “You are the man.” Pagan America has oppressed women and slaughtered preborn precious children because they are afraid and guilty. You want life. And you will let nothing stand in your way. You want happiness. So you use people in an attempt at happiness. But no matter how much blood you shed, no matter how you assault and deform the image of God, you cannot get free of the guilt. You cannot be rid of your fear. And you are not happy.
The reason you are miserable is because idols don’t save. Baal does not send the rain. Neither does Allah. Neither does the self. Neither does the state. And the CDC is no help at all. It is Christ or the abyss. And the abyss is not only over there in Kabul. You are in the abyss, and the breach widens daily.
The good news is that Christ is the Savior King. He saves, not idols—”And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified, dead, and buried. After descending into hell, He rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. Put away your idols, be it Allah or any form of creature. And call upon the uncreated Creator, the Redeemer Christ the Lord: You will be saved.
Follow Jared Longshore:
-
- Twitter | @jaredlongshore
- Facebook | @jaredlongshore
- Instagram | @jaredlongshoreÂ
