For lack of a better title, I'm going to call today's editorial "News and Views." It's derived from some news articles or historical documentaries I've seen recently that made the old editorial juices flow. I'll give you the article/event, the "News," and then my "Views" will follow. Here they are in no particular order.
Solomon told us in Eccl. 1:9 "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." (ESV) I've often told my class that there is nothing new in the world, it's just that we now have faster ways of getting into trouble and technology is the reason. Telling you that leads us into our first news item.
Did you hear about the car dealer in Texas who was installing a hidden program in the vehicle's computer/electronic system that caused the car's horn to honk continually if a payment was late? If you wanted it to stop you had to come in and make the payment and they would shut it off. Of course this was done without the knowledge of the car buyer.
Well, you can guess what happened, can't you? Yep, you're right. A disgruntled employee, knowing the "password" to the program, got in there and set off all 170 plus vehicles. To say that people were irate is an understatement. Wouldn't you agree that the dealer's actions went a little "beyond the pale" so to speak?
My views on this: it's also "beyond" the practice for Christian behavior when we recall God's words spoken through Paul in Rom. 12:17 where Christians are told to "do what is honorable in the sight of all." (ESV) Was the car dealer's hidden horn-honking program "honorable?" I think not!
I'm not sure if his program is legal or not, but if he can't be prosecuted for his actions, at least his business should, and probably will, suffer from them. And, if this represents the general attitude of his life and it remains unchanged, my Bible tells me that he will suffer "beyond" this earthly existence too. I mean, isn't "kindness" and "doing good to all men" part of a Christian's make up? Aren't they elements of the "fruit of the Spirit?" (Gal. 5 & 6)
News: I recently saw something about the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" in Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC. What caught my "mind's eye" was the words of the inscription on it. They read: "KNOWN BUT TO GOD." My initial thought about this was, it doesn't say "TO BUDDHA," it doesn't say "TO MOHAMMAD" or any other "religious" entity. At one time most of this country believed that we were a "God-fearing nation" but I'm not sure that label fits us anymore.
My second thought was to recall the words of Christ in Matt. 10:27 where He said that not a sparrow "shall fall to the ground" (perish) without the Father's knowledge. He went on in verse 31 to say that we, mankind, the culmination, the pinnacle of His creation, are of much more value than a sparrow. Yet God knows when a tiny bird dies.
Many people seem to think that, perhaps with so many people occupying the world today, that God's too busy to see and know everything. That maybe their indiscretions (the Bible calls it sin) will be overlooked and that is a sad conclusion to arrive at. Not only does God know WHO is in the "Unknown Soldier's" grave, He knows the status of that soul because it has already returned to Him. (Eccl. 12:7) The lesson to us is this: He will know "who" is in our graves, wherever they may be, and our souls' status will be known and sealed.
Last item: There were many tragedies in WW2 but, unarguably the worst was the annihilation/extermination of over 6 million Jews by Hitler's Germany. That figure, by the way, was established by a high ranking officer of the German government at the Nuremburg trials. And, the location where the greatest number of Jews were killed was a place called Auschwitz-Birkenau. The horror attached to that place is almost beyond comprehension. Why I'm citing this historical event to you is because of what one of the few survivors said about it.
He said that after the Jews would exit the trains there, they were herded to a central gathering point in the camp. At that location the Germans would make an announcement that consisted of 8 words: "Men to the left, women to the right." From there the majority of them would go directly to the gas chambers which operated 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. Is it any wonder that since this holocaust the motto of the Jews has been "Never Again."
It's the "separation announcement" that got me to thinking about a scriptural lesson to be gained from it. In Matt. 25 Christ tells us that we all face a "separation announcement" at a future point. Only this separation will not be by gender, but by category. The two categories will be the "saved" and the "lost." Or, as Christ said it, "the sheep and the goats." (Vs. 32) The "sheep" go to the "right hand" and the "goats to the left." (33)
If we read on through verses 34-46 we see that those on the "right hand" are the "righteous," the "blessed" and the ones on the "left hand" are the doomed. After reading those verses, I see the reason for the two vastly different final destinations being determined by a simple equation. That those on the "right hand," the "sheep" being the "blessed" because they loved God and their brethren. They obeyed the two "great commandments" identified by Christ in Matt. 22:37-40. They love God with all of the being AND their neighbor as much as themselves.
Those who obey are His "sheep" and those who do not are His "goats." His "sheep" inherit eternal life, whereas the "goats" inherit eternal punishment. Just something to consider as we close this lesson: Which category do you think the German exterminators fit into?
Ron Covey
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