These are difficult days for the Covenant Nations in Iraq and in the war against the forces of international terrorism. The global media send shaming photographs around the world in an instant, which enflame feelings among those we are trying to win over to the cause of righteousness. As a result, barbaric reprisals are taken against our people on the ground in Iraq who are there to help the people rebuild the country after thirty-five years of suppression by brutal dictatorship. In these circumstances there is a vital need for the nation under God, when acting against the spirits of evil, which is the need of regular National Prayer.
PRESIDENT BUSH was asked recently if he spoke to his father before launching the war on Iraq. In reply he indicated that it was not his earthly father that he spoke to, but his heavenly father. After his restrained public apology for the behaviour of U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, George W. Bush attended a ceremony commemorating America’s National Day of Prayer. If Great Britain marked such a day on its national calendar, it might become accepted again as great in its moral stance before the nations.
The remarks of President Bush at the ceremony were, as the people of the United States have come to expect from this American President, a stimulating mix of humility and certainty. He declared: “God is not on the side of any nation, yet we know He is on the side of justice.” The President further declared, “Our finest moments [as a nation] have come when we have faithfully served the cause of justice for our own citizens, and for the people of other lands.”
The words are what we should expect from the leader of the most powerful Covenant Nation in the world. They are wonderful words and they are true with one important exception, to which we shall refer at the end of this article. Such sentiments however are very easily corrupted by the spirits of unbelief and evil which are unrestrained and rampaging the continents at this time of conflict.
The critics say that while Americans are humble before the Lord, as the President insists, they cannot possibly know His will. While Americans “know” He is on the side of justice – they also define what justice is. This stance, the critics insist, leads to moral arrogance and the eternal folly of the religiously convinced. Indeed, without understanding the identity of the American Covenant Nation, the critics go on to say that the U.S. can toss around words like justice with impunity. They can send off mighty
armies to “serve the cause of justice” in other lands and be so sure of its righteousness that the merest act of penitence – an apology for an atrocity on Iraqi prisoners – becomes a crisis for the Head of State.
The President said of the shamming pictures that “This does not represent the America I know.” Of course we must accept that not all U.S. soldiers are going to be exempt from wrongful and brutal actions in obtaining information from the supporters of the former Iraqi regime. Let us not however overlook the power of the self-righteous media to distort the overall picture of what is happening. For example, when do we ever see pictures, let alone read reports, of the good things that are being achieved in reconstructing the basic services of Iraq?
A number of journalists have died in Iraq in reporting the conflict and it has been a true sacrifice, yet the temptation of the media to exaggerate the negative aspect of things seems to know no bounds. One prominent tabloid newspaper editor in Britain, Piers Morgan of the Daily Mirror, published what turned out to be fake photographs of British soldiers committing vile acts on supposed Iraqi prisoners. To the last he refused he refused to back down and apologize. In the end he was dismissed and frog-marched out of the offices of the newspaper.
Significantly it took the righteous anger of Colonel David Black, a former commanding officer with the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, to bring the whole thing to a head. At a hard-hitting press conference he catalogued the false evidence and spoke of his “apoplectic anger” at the besmirching of his former regiment – describing the faked pictures as akin to “a recruiting poster for al-Qaeda” – and he uttered a final comment, which sealed the fate of Piers Morgan. Col. Black thundered, “It is time that the ego of one editor is measured against the life of a soldier.” A senior executive of the newspaper listening at home said that in that instant he knew Piers Morgan would not survive as editor.
“Righteousness exalts a Nation”
Some commentators see the present American Administration as having a distressing, unbending righteousness, which defined it from the start and which has not been limited to the President. They cannot understand what they believe to be the overheated sense of good vs. evil that emanates the President’s two most powerful advisers, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. It was this resolute stance by these advisers that provided the philosophical rationale for the President to take the initiative against the evil spirit powers. Most of all, it appears that the Spirit of the Lord was raising up a standard in the world as the God of our fathers has done many times in the history of the servant people.
There are times when the Commander of the Host inspires a righteous anger from the very centre of our “Jerusalem,” meaning our city or foundation of peace. In this sense, righteousness truly exalts the nation under God. It also needs to be understood that the Islamic terrorist attack of 11th September, 2001, on the United States, was driven by evil spirit power. For the Covenant Nations it also meant that the perceived threat had changed dramatically. The oceans no longer provided protection for the United States and with terrorists able to enter and merge with the multi-racial mix of populations that now feature in all the Covenant Nations, it became mandatory that a greater force was brought into play.
If the United States with Great Britain, as the Host or armies of the living God, did not take hold of the situation on a large scale, then they would be perceived as weak and submissive to that evil spirit power. The President’s spiritual strength, his prayers to our Great Commander and his moral convictions are, no doubt, matters of genuine faith. His grand strategic response to the evildoers of the terror attack was first to remove the regime in Iraq, a huge country, and so change the balance of evil against good throughout the Middle East.
It was of powerful significance that the Prime Minister of Great Britain should make the statement that “We are at war with terrorism” on 16th-17th September, 2001. This was the Feast of Trumpets and it was a terminal date that had been foreseen as a turning point in the history of the Covenant Nations for some 70 years. Everything that has followed since that time has confirmed that we are, as a Company of Covenant Nations, passing through a global vale of trial as we approach the final Age-end phase of history.
As the going gets tough in Iraq – and over 900 deaths have now been recorded amongst the Coalition forces – the “I-told-you-so’s” are having a field day. The fact that the first seven courts-martial have already been initiated in Baghdad demonstrates that real and transparent justice is the standard that the Covenant nations seek to uphold. Also, for that matter, where but in an old and true democracy would the government, in the person of the U.S. Defense Secretary himself, have been submitted to prompt and merciless questioning, as was Donald Rumsfeld?
In a comment in the International Herald Tribune of 27th May, 2004, entitled “The U.S. needs help, not bashing” Otto Lambsdorff stated:
“Anti-Americanism wasn’t born yesterday, nor indeed with the outset of the intervention in Iraq; it is an old, lingering phenomenon. The paradox of its latest outpour outside the United States is that it is fuelled also from within the United States, by the same segments of the media and intelligentsia that seem equally out of step with public opinion, as shown by all existing polls on both sides of the ocean.
“This anti-Americanism, both domestic and U.S.-inspired, mixes all the diverse strands of classical anti-capitalism; but today also, in some of its more insidious manifestations at least a troubling redolence of anti-Semitism – as if it were some unavowed envy, deep down, towards an allegedly ‘omnipotent’ all-controlling, pro-Israel superpower that should be held to higher standards.
“In the long-run, I feel certain that such anti-Americanism will not be a decisive factor in international life. It is simply too anachronistic. Leaving aside America’s extraordinary boost to the West’s, and the world’s, arts and sciences during the last century, suffice it here to point out the thirst around the world for American education and popular culture, for America’s ‘way of life,’ even (often especially) among its most determined foes.”
These words do give expression to the fact of destiny that is overruling in world events. As students of the Kingdom Identity, we cannot afford to be swamped by the negative side of things in respect of what hidden motives President Bush may have had in going to war against Iraq. Making the world safe for his friends in the oil industry and going with the neo-conservatives, almost all of whom are fervent believers in the State of Israel, may be a strong reason for believing in the ulterior motive. However, there is a wider dimension that is compelling the true Israel of God to lead in the world and we have to realise that we do not see everything at once as the picture of destiny unfolds.
Is God on Our Side as a Nation?
Something is beginning to draw events to a climax in respect of energy supplies in the world and the repercussions on global economics. It is affecting the relationship between the European Union and the United States. In the middle of this tension is Great Britain, caught up in a dilemma between supporting the new enlarged European Union of 25 nations and resisting the federalist aims of France and Germany over the proposed EU constitution.
The moral complexities of being a world leader in this day of climax are very great. Some say that President Bush is not very intelligent. However, what is almost certain is that the previous President, Bill Clinton, would have been so wrapped up in intellectual argument over how to react to the terrorist attack on America, that decisive action would have been lacking. If President Bush is simplistic enough to express his faith in God and to pray before committing the armed forces to battle, then as students of our Israel heritage, we should rest in the confidence that God’s Purposes will ultimately come to pass.
Things are not going to go smoothly in conflict with evil spirit power delivering suicide bombers into our midst, but this is not a reason for avoiding the battle. What is essential is National Prayer to bind the evil spirits. Up to now the leadership of the Church in Great Britain has singularly failed to measure up to the need of the hour, taking the predictable (easy) stance of appeasing evil. These false shepherds will be severely judged by the Lord.
Prime Minister Tony Blair has resisted all recent urgings for National Prayer within the United Kingdom. This is very unwise, for sooner or later, as a nation with the Throne of the Lord in our midst, Great Britain may need Almighty God to deliver her from the sword without, and terror within (Deuteronomy 32:25). As indicated above, in one important respect President Bush was wrong. He said God is not on the side of any nation. The Bible is our National Book. It is our history as the Israel of God. God is therefore on our side, to correct the national course as our destiny is secured. The bond of the covenant remains (Ezekiel 20:37-38). When we are in tribulation He will not forsake us neither see us destroyed, nor will He forsake the covenant made with our fathers (Deuteronomy 4:30-31).
