By Michael, on October 12th, 2012 
(Guest Article by Jimmie Parr)
Before the ongoing bloodbath in Iraq began, while Saddam Hussein was still in power, President George W. Bush declared, “if (Saddam Hussein) doesn't disarm, then we'll disarm him in the name of peace.” From what I understand of Saddam’s Iraq, though thousands of Iraqi were killed (notably Kurds in the northern part of Iraq), we didn’t read of roadside bombings, or of Shiites and Sunnis killing each other. Professing Christians seem to have been allowed to have their churches without as much molestation as they now receive, in post-Saddam Iraq. I am not saying that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was paradise. I am saying that, probably in order to help to preserve his position, Saddam kept the lid on violence inside Iraq (unless he initiated it). But Iraq was invaded “in the name of peace.”
Here’s a short video clip of then-Senator Obama. The current resident of the White House is telling of a supposed need for a domestic security force which is “just as powerful; just as strong; just as well-funded” as is the entire U.S. military.
George W. Bush oversaw the removal of Saddam Hussein “in the name of peace,” and Barry Soetoro/Barack Obama wants to appear to beef up security, or safety, with a domestic security force which is to receive as much money as what the Pentagon receives—peace from Bush; safety from Soetoro/Obama.
“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (I Thessalonians 5:3).
Until 2009, I heard, from the right speaker of my stereo, George W. Bush talking about bringing peace. Now, from the left speaker, I hear Barry Soetoro telling me that a domestic army is going to bring safety. I sense impending “sudden destruction.” Perhaps it will not be THE “sudden destruction” of I Thess. 5:3. The “sudden destruction” coming along with the “peace and safety” blaring from the left and the right will come largely from pride—“Pride goeth before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18). Specifically, it is the pride of trying to get people to believe that human government, alone, is able to bring peace and safety.
I know that most all of this “We’ll keep you safe” talk from politicians comes from post-“9/11” concerns of citizenry. Unfortunately for my ability to believe them, there is much information that the “official” story about 9/11 is not to be trusted. (Note that the following sentence has numerous links; not just one.) If Middle Eastern “terrorists” wielding box-cutters were not responsible for bringing down four airliners, what criminals were responsible? LISTEN TO THIS!, and then tell me that you still want to slurp up slop from D.C. There are low people in high places (Daniel 4:17b). Yeah, they’ll bring us “peace and safety.” When we’re cut to pieces, then they’ll be in safety—piece and safety. Remember that, when someone points a finger, three are pointed back at the one pointing. Look at who is pointing at Middle Eastern “terrorists,” and see in which direction the other three fingers are pointing.
John the Baptizer raised his voice as a trumpet (Isaiah 58:1), and exposed the sins of King Herod (Luke 3:19). Of John, the Messiah stated, “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist”
(Luke 7:28). There may have been those who called John “unpatriotic,” just as many told Jeremiah (paraphrased), “You’re a Benedict Arnold! You’re on Nebuchadnezzar’s side! (Jeremiah 37:13b). That is shameful. Just as any human can be misguided, and can even become malevolent, any government can be misguided. That includes ours. The government of the U.S. has not been good simply because we call ourselves “America.” Principles; not a name; made America great. A name will not maintain America’s greatness. We are losing our principles. We need to regain them, and add new ones, which, in the past, we lacked. Before you accuse another person who is criticizing U.S. policy of being a turncoat or a traitor, or of hating America, think about John the Baptist, Isaiah (who ended up being cut in half with a saw by “the government”), and Jeremiah. Some people who criticize the U.S. government ARE traitorous. Some are cherry red. On the other hand, some people who dutifully wave the flag are “sunshine patriots,” who are willing to stab YOU in the back, if they can advance, or if they’re in trouble. They have a form of patriotism, but are shallow in substance. How many “American” businesses have fallen all over themselves to “outsource?” How many American laborers are willing to take advantage of an employer who is known to strive to keep jobs in the U.S? Stop accusing anyone who criticizes U.S. policies of being a “pinko.” Learn about multi-valued orientation. Judge righteous judgement(John 7:24).
I have often heard I Thess. 5:3 used in the context of an “antichrist” declaring “peace and safety,” after having established a power base by killing or imprisoning opponents. Until the morning that I began putting this together, I had never thought that, perhaps, this sudden destruction will come during much talk, from many “talking heads” in positions of power or influence, concerning human ability to bring “peace and safety.” (British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's declaration, in September of 1938, of “...peace in our time” comes to mind. A year after Prime Minister Chamberlain’s soothing announcement, the British declared war on Germany, after Germany invaded Poland.) Notice that I Thess. 5:3 states, “...when they shall say, Peace and Safety.” It’s not, “When, or after, they set up their system.” It could be that, before “they” could actually set up their “beast” system, “sudden destruction” could come, while they’re blabbing about peace and safety.
Is the “sudden destruction” mentioned in I Thess. 3:5 the destruction of all of the earth? Or is it “Jacob's trouble?” Is “sudden destruction” a time when destruction comes to Jacob's economy, government, and society? And, when Jacob's economy, government, and society collapse, does that remove any earthly blockade to Satan? Who is Jacob, or, what people now comprise Jacob?
“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7). According to Jer. 30:7, no “day” (or time period) is like the time of Jacob's trouble. Compare that with Matthew 24:21, 22. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” Jer. 30:7 says that no time is like the time of Jacob's trouble, and Matt. 24:21, 22 says that the degree of tribulation after Daniel’s “abomination of desolation” begins to stand in the holy place (v. 15), or, as Luke wrote, when armies surround Jerusalem (Luke 21:20), is to be greater than any hard times before or after that period of tribulation. That is why I can't help thinking that “sudden destruction” of I Thess. 5:3 is the time of Jacob's trouble, which is also the time of great tribulation of Matt. 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Again, if “sudden destruction” = Jacob's trouble, I ask, who is Jacob, now? On whom will the hammer fall?
The “peace and safety” which Bush commenced to bring, and Soetoro continues to bring, make me think about our possibly being on our way to a situation comparable, in some ways, to that in H. G. Wells’ book, The Time Machine. I remember the “movie” version released in 1960. In the “movie,” the “Eloi” seemed to dwell peacefully and safely, until the siren started. The siren put the Eloi in a trance, and they were drawn into the open doors of the underworld of the Morlocks, who devoured any of the Eloi who passed through the open doors.
Before I proceed, I don’t wish to come across as “knocking” either being peaceful or having safety. I do have to ask, who can bring peace and safety? Who is the source of true, just government? Did, as an example, Solomon bring peace? Or did Someone working through Solomon bring peace? I say that the Creator worked through Solomon to bring peace. If any person, or group of people, claim that s/he or they will, outside of the Creator, bring peace, will not that so-called “peace” be a counterfeit? Haven’t all of the other humanly-devised schemes to bring peace and safety been failures?
I once heard a joke about a boy whose puppy had followed him to school, and all the way into the classroom. The teacher grabbed the puppy and put it outside, and the door slammed behind her. The puppy whined and scratched on the door. The Creator appeared. The puppy was thrilled to see the Creator, as He picked up the puppy, but then the puppy turned back toward the shut door, and began whining. The Creator said, “Yes, I understand. They won't let me in, either.”
I learned the old hymns, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Open My Eyes, that I May See,” “Take Time To Be Holy,” and others; not from church attendance (though I regularly attended Sunday School at the First Baptist Church in Baytown, Texas), but from the intercom speaker in the classroom in Mrs. Broussard's first-grade class, at San Jacinto Elementary School, in Baytown. Although I may now have some “theological” disagreements with some of those old hymns, I also know that the school’s having played those hymns provided the only exposure that some of those pupils had to anything even remotely related to living a life of holiness, or of being set apart by and for the Creator. In November of 1963, President Kennedy was voted out of office; not by ballots, but by bullets. By the 1965-'66 school year, there were no more hymns broadcast over the P.A. system. I don’t believe that public schools ever had a 100% correct view of the Creator (does anybody?). But, by 1965, the Creator, or any notion of Him, began to be put outside with the puppy.
In Genesis 15 is an account of the Creator talking to Abraham. At that time, Abraham was in the land of the Amorites; in the land which would, in time, be called the Promised Land. He told Abraham that his descendants would serve those in another land for 400 years, and then his descendants would return to that land. The Creator then told Abraham, “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16). Implied is that, when the iniquity of the Amorites was to become “full,” the descendants of Abraham would be given the “Promised Land.”
All people have iniquity—lawlessness—in them. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All societies have elements of lawlessness in them. All governments have elements of lawlessness. But, apparently, in most cases; in most societies, the Creator doesn’t deem as “full” the level of iniquity, as it eventually became, in the case of the Amorites. (Wouldn’t you agree that the reason that Sodom was destroyed was because iniquity of Sodom had become full?) If I understand Genesis 15:16 correctly, when the iniquity of a society becomes full; when a society is “full” of iniquity, its destruction is imminent. Just as our “schools” have put the Creator next to the puppy—outside of the building—our so-called “government” is in the process of putting any notion of a Creator outside of policy-making. One difference between “schools” and “government” is that some people in the government still give “lip service” to the Creator. But He is outside of policy-making in “schools,” and in “government.” One exception seems to be that, while schools seem to wish to purge even the mention of a Creator in classrooms, government officials will continue to lace their speech with “God bless America,” as they do whatever they're doing. “The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:2).
Is the level of iniquity in the U.S. approaching a “full” level? Or is it now full, as it became, with the Amorites?
Learn that no government operating outside the will of the Father can bring “peace and safety.” For any such government to claim that it can do so is pretentious beyond measure. That is probably why, when a government/cabal becomes full of iniquity, the people running it are so full of themselves that they believe that they are the authors (and, thus, the definers) of peace and safety. So if “the government” expresses a wish to preserve your safety, you should ask yourself, “Are they attempting to make me docile, so that I won’t challenge them, so that they won’t “come back” on me? For example, I have doubts about why, for about an hour and a half, while airplanes were crashing into buildings in New York and Washington, NORAD somehow wasn't able to get any airplanes in the air. If I express my doubts about whether “terrorists” with box cutters commandeered commercial airliners, do I put at risk the brand of “peace” which Washington is trying to deliver? Am I safe only if I put unquestioning faith in Washington? Are they asking/telling me not to take risks, and, thus, not to attempt to improve my situation? Is my compliance to them supposed to make me feel “safe,” while, in fact, making me less of a risk to them?
Unfortunately, precious few people are asking themselves whether people in Washington are being straight about why politicians seem so interested in having us feel “safe” and “at peace.”
No rational person wishes to remain 100% free of risks. If I carry a desire for safety, or a safe approach, or a lack of willingness to take a risk, to an extreme, I may end up not getting out of bed. Had the “Pilgrims” not taken the risk of climbing aboard the Mayflower, they would not have been able to have children who enjoyed the relative freedom from a State Church which obscured (Romans 1:18, 19) at least some of the truth about the Creator.
Taking measures toward minimizing the chance of injury does not involve complete avoidance of risks. If you are in an airplane, and you are seated with your seat belt on, you are still taking a considerable risk. If your airliner encounter turbulence, being seated, and using your seat belt, is good. If the airplane suddenly “konks out,” and, from an altitude of 30,000 feet, falls from the sky and crashes “nose first,” a seat belt probably ain’t gonna help. (How many times have you read of airplane crashes in which everyone aboard the airplane perished? And if I'm on the Titanic, the last thing that I need is a seat belt.) If you’re riding 30,000 feet above the ground in a jet, you’re taking a risk. It’s a calculated risk, because (supposedly), before the passengers boarded, the airplane had been inspected. But, riding in an airplane, you aren’t completely “playing it safe(ly).” When you’re walking down the steps in front of your residence, you aren’t 100% safe. The edge of a step could break off, and, as a result of a fall, you could break a bone.
Does the Creator go to all lengths to keep people from physical harm? What happened to Yahshua—Jesus--the only begotten son (John 3:16) of the Creator? The Father could have delivered His Son from becoming our Passover (Luke 22:42; I Corinthians 5:7). Yahshua was beaten probably beyond recognition. Is that why, after His resurrection, some of His disciples did not initially recognize Him (John 20:5)? (The eyes of the disciples having been supernaturally prevented from recognizing the risen Messiah was also in play—Luke 24:16.) According to Isaiah, “his visage (face) was so marred more than any man” (Is. 52:14). Being the Messiah on Earth in this age was not safe. Being a follower of the Creator in “Old Testament” times was risky business. “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:34, 35). Neither is following the teachings of the Messiah in this age safe. “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16). For anyone to follow his/her Creator is not physically safe. The Creator doesn't seek to bring harm to His followers. The wolves mentioned in Matt. 10:16 and the “roaring lion” (I Peter 5:8) make things unsafe for the followers of the Creator.
In a literature class which I grudgingly took, a teacher brought out the point that, while we think of the word, comedy, as “funny,” and “ha, ha, ha,” or as a description of a “funny” television program, or cinematic production, the term, comedy, was formerly used to describe a play with a happy ending. (Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, while having accounts of difficult moments, is considered a comedy, because its ending is happy.) A tragedy (Romeo and Juliet is an example.), on the other hand, is a play with a tragic, or unhappy, ending. Often, in a tragedy, with the physical demise of the main character came the spiritual triumph of that character. (To those who know “oodles” more about literature than I do, please forgive my mistakes/omissions. I am going by what I remember having been said 30+ years ago, and I’m not “well-read.”)
“The flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). Those who turn from evil become prey to the above-mentioned wolves and roaring lion (Is. 59:15). Rough comparisons between the physical life of the Messiah and a Shakespearian tragedy could be made. With the physical demise of the Messiah came spiritual triumph. He is now at the right hand of the Father (Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55, 56), and will soon begin to demonstrate His triumph, and that of His Father, to the entire world (Revelation 11:15). In time, every eye shall see Him (Rev. 1:7). Those who pierced Him shall, once again, look upon Him (John 19:37; Rev. 1:7). Though the Messiah was safe for much of His physical life (Psalms 91:12; Matt. 4:6; Luke 4:11), He was willing to put that physical safety aside, because he wanted to be safe, spiritually, and He wanted to clear the way to make us safe, spiritually. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24; numerous other verses).
Before you accept any more notions about the “peace and safety” offered by super-rich “elite” people, through the U.S. government, think about Revelation 21:8. “But the fearful…shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
When I was 21 years old, I got a notion that my life had been, up to that point, very easy. Though my confidence in my abilities is still quite limited, at that time in my life, that confidence was much more limited. I hoped that my fund of self-confidence would receive a boost. Though I had some college credits behind me, I decided that I had a chance to learn more—that I had a chance to increase my degree of being educated—if I put college aside for a time, and to set other challenges before myself. So I moved 200 miles from where I grew up, in an effort to find out whether I had what it took to carve out a niche for myself in an area where I had no “connections.”
Before I moved, I made preparations. I had a 1967 Chevrolet pickup truck with a long wheelbase. I purchased a “topper”/camper “shell” for 75 bucks. The topper mounted on the bed was a foot to 18 inches higher than the top of the cab. I put in a clothes rack. I prepared to be able to live in the back of that truck, if I had to do so. In a way, what I did was patterned after Henry David Thoreau's move to Walden Pond, where he tried to remind himself that the three most important things in physical life are credit rating, social status, and the Dallas Cowboys food, clothing, and shelter. Going into the body, food is the most important. Going onto the body, clothing is second most important, and shelter is behind food and clothing in physical importance. (With all of the “safety” measures pushed by “the government,” I’m not even certain that what I did in 1976 would now be legal.) Of course, my plan to leave what I knew and challenge myself was met with disgust and horror by people close to me, just as people looked askance at Thoreau, as he prepared to live near Walden Pond.
I can’t help thinking that the same…I’ll call it a flaw…the same flaw which caused people to criticize Thoreau for having picked up and moved to Walden Pond, and the same flaw which spurred my acquaintances to criticize me, for having (temporarily) left college, in order to live in my truck, bathe in creeks and rivers, and, in short, test my mettle, is the flaw which causes people to crave safety over discovering truth. Rather than the American people, collectively, “getting to the bottom” of 9/11, they are willing to allow the “doctors” who caused 9/11 to treat the symptoms of our feeling unsafe.
It is we Americans who are “enabling” our politicians to push their flavor of “peace and safety” on us. It is the citizenry who allow, for instance, a Transportation Security Administration (T.S.A.) which has, with their wandering hands, offended many people, including a member of the embassage from India, and Jesse Ventura. And, if some pundits of the T.S.A. are right, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. What the T.S.A. currently does is just a chip of ice on the iceberg of oppression which is coming, if, again, some pundits are right.
Remember that true peace and safety come from the Father of lights (James 1:17), as do all good and perfect gifts. Our quest for peace without the Prince of Peace, and the government’s quest to provide peace, again, without the Prince of Peace, are the ingredients for “sudden destruction.”
