From the Editor

This may seem hard to believe, but just this month the USA secured a huge, $60 billion military contract with Saudi Arabia, with a shopping list that included the following: 84 F-15 fighter jets, 72 tactical Black Hawk helicopters, 70 Apache attack helicopters, upgrade packages on 70 used F-15s, as well as other military supplies. One would think that Saudi Arabia would be eternally grateful for the purchase.

However, my question is this: In a country that still does not have one single legalized church, and in a country that even maintains certain highways where non-Muslims are not even allowed to drive, I ask, was this really a good idea? I’m sure the purchase is bound to make a handful of Americans very rich, but at what cost?

Muslims onlyIn the 1940s, to combat Hitler, the USA—including US “Christians”—threw in their lot with Stalin and all of Soviet Russia. Joining with evil to stop evil is the way of the world. History now reveals that the evil committed by Stalin far exceeded the damage done by Hitler. Did we learn from our mistakes?

Well, let’s take a look at our history a little after that. In the 1980s, one of the biggest threats to US interest and security was the nation of Iran. Radical Muslims had taken over the country of Iran, and this made the US—and other western countries—very nervous. The world has an old tactic it likes to employ at such times: “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Well, the US put this old tactic into practice in a dangerous way. Just like the mistake made during WWII, when the US joined forces with Russia to defeat Hitler, in the 1980s the US found out that Iran’s mortal enemy was Iraq. Consequently, the US began to substantially support Iraq’s war efforts against Iran. The Reagan administration actually gave Saddam Hussein roughly $40 billion in military aid to fight Iran. The US also gave Saddam Hussein billions of dollars to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the Soviets. In the course of these events, Iraq became “the third-largest recipient of US assistance in the world.”

So what happened? I think most everyone knows that the billions of dollars given to build up Iraq and Saddam Hussein ended up being a really bad idea. To this day, over a trillion dollars have been spent in military spending to undo that mistake, and this does not take into account the damage and cost to Iraq to blow it to pieces and then try to rebuild it—all to undo a mistake.

But did we learn? Why don’t we ever learn that all our actions have consequences? Evil seeds produce evil fruit. Solomon said in the book of Proverbs that, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Pr. 14:12

And what about us? I think that this issue of The Heartbeat of the Remnant is a challenging one. Several articles this month probe deeply into our life, and force us to look at the consequences of our decisions. Is our faith real; is it demonstrating Christ and producing spiritual fruit? The first article by Pablo Yoder tells us the story of a man who has had to suffer much from the consequences of his decisions, but also demonstrates the redeeming power of how God can use someone like Pablo when they yield themselves to His Word.

Several other articles deal with taking up our cross, a theme that is silently passed over too much in our day. In previous issues, it was normal to try to focus the whole issue around one theme. Although we no longer strive for that goal, we could easily theme this issue to “The heartbeat of the remnant … is to take up the cross of Christ.”

Mike Atnip’s article on the “Romans Road” takes a look at some common misconceptions about the book of Romans, and shows how God wants to work a beautiful Christian walk through us all, to glorify Him. And then we have included a long article directed at youth, but profitable for all.

This issue is a “meaty” one. The articles are definitely more “heavy” overall than some past issues have been. We could apologize for that, but we feel no need to apologize for striving for maturity and depth. Our desire is captured by the poem on the cover. This poem was written from a meditation based upon Judges 5:11, “They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water …” Yes, the enemy’s archers are near the watering holes of God’s Word and prayer, with a pointed design to chase off any who would drink of the refreshing water. We trust this issue of The Heartbeat of the Remnant will encourage you to “march where you have right to go”: the right to drink in the deep things of God! ~

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