Let's Keep Things in Perspective

Let's Keep Things in Perspective
Saturday, August 1, 2015 by Dan Allen

The world is in turmoil: Here’s some of the headlines:

   Retreating ISIS leaves thousands of mines in Syrian city
   More than 50 dead in suspected Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon and Nigeria
   Suicide bombs in north-eastern Nigerian towns leave scores dead
   ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mogul (July 2014)
       Ethiopian Christians slaughtered on the sands in barbaric ISIS video were 'migrants on their way to Europe': 30 victims were beheaded and shot (April)
   Syrian sources say ISIS executed 15 Christians – with more killing to come (February)
   Selling fetal body parts deemed ‘research’ for legal protection
   U.S. officials can’t find Cecil the lion’s killer as Zimbabwe calls for his extradition

Okay, so we’ve got people being raped, tortured and beheaded by ISIS and Boko Haram. Christianity is on the run against Muslim extremists, many fleeing for their very lives with just the clothes on their back. A daily dose of suicide bombings killing dozens. And Planned Parenthood butchering aborted babies to sell the body parts. But the world is most concerned about the killing of a lion.

Hey, I get it. The lion had a name, Cecil. It was a popular lion. The reported way of luring the animal to the kill zone seems out-of-bounds. But tears from a late night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, and the mass hysteria against the dentist who killed the lion seem over-the-top (NY Post – social media is “flooded with vitriol and death threats; his home’s under police protection. Hundreds of thousands have signed online ‘Justice for Cecil’ petitions”). Lions might be endangered, but how about Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe 35-year nightmarish reign which has included torture and mass arrests of dissidents; child abuse, including forced marriages; human trafficking; seizure of private property, etc., etc.

How about the innocent babies who are murdered each day - 3,000 in USA and 125,000 in the world! I see no tears from Kimmel. Where’s the outrage over this?

The prophet Isaiah gave a warning with his fourth “woe” or sins denounced when he wrote – Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (5:20).

One outcome of rejecting God, as noted in Romans 1, is to reverse things - worship the creature rather than the Creator. This is done in our society as the lion becomes more important than the human. One would think that the greatest pro-life people would be animal lovers, and yet, other than Christians who “get it,” these folks are generally pro-abortion. Kill a bald eagle’s egg and you’re looking at a $5,000 fine and up to one year in prison. Kill a baby in utero and you’re a hero. The animal has replaced the human. The creature is more important than the Creator. Sins are celebrated and codified (gay marriage). Good is called evil and evil, good.

This should not take us by surprise. We are warned by the Apostle Paul that in the last days perilous times will come – people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, . . . unholy, heartless, . . . without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

Let’s keep things in perspective, folks.