Bad Dreams

I am currently reading through a recent history of the notorious Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camp. Thanks to the brilliant teaching of Dr. Dean Rapp, Professor of European History at Wheaton College, my reading habits have drastically changed in the past few years. Now my reading du jour seems to be more history, particularly European history. The book on Auschwitz, by Laurence Rees, is particularly chilling in it's description of what the Germans did to the millions of Russians, Poles, and Polish and German Jews in their attempts to exterminate men, women, and children and wipe them from the face of the earth. I have decided it is a book I should not read at night just before I go to sleep; it causes horrible dreams as my mind dwells on the horrors of what happened in WW II.

Reading these histories also makes me wonder if reading them is a primer for survival during the coming Great Tribulation. As a dispensationalist, I believe that God is going to bring a literal seven years of tribulation upon this planet. But will the followers of Jesus Christ be left on the planet to go through the tribulation? Good question. I hope not but I cannot be dogmatic about a Rapture of the Church, though I would wish it so. So why all this rambling and what does it matter?

Since the end of WW II the cry has always been "Never again." And yet...Stalin--60 million killed; Mao--60 million killed; Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Ho Chi Min, Caceusceu; Soviet despots; guerilla leaders in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Liberia; DR Congo, Sudan, and Angola; the Balkan Wars of the 1990s; islamofascism in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Somalia, Lebanon, Israel where a human being is nothing more than a target for a mindless, deluded kid pulling the trigger that blows him and thousands of others to bits, while his masters sit in ivory palaces continuing to preach hate and death; the infanticide practiced openly, freely, and happily in many countries around the world as millions of babies are murdered every year; the numbers are staggering, mind-boggling, and incomprehensible. Considering Stalin alone, he murdered more than Hitler; but adding up the numbers of murdered due to war and terrorism since the end of WW II and the cries of "Never again," should cause a human to at least stop for a brief moment and wonder what has gone wrong.

Shouldn't the human race be getting better? We have the United Nations in place to solve all of our problems. After all if people would only sit down and talk they wouldn't kill. Sadly the talking heads of Europe and North America cannot see the folly and ills of the human heart. "It must be the fault of religion," they complain. Or a particular political party seems hell bent on destroying anyone or anything just to prove a point. "That President sees only in black and white. He speaks of truth. He speaks of faith. How juvenile and idiotic. That type of fanaticism only leads to more killing." And so the killng goes on and on and on and on and on...ad nasuem.

In spite of European headlines and speeches, the current President of the United States is not the "Hope of the World," he is not a messiah, and to compare him with the Kennedys and "Camelot" is, well, just plain ignorant. The Kennedys were bootleggers, adulterers, bad drivers, and they loved Hitler too. It is time for the so-called "Smart People" to realize that their dreams of evolutionary perfection are not anywhere near the surface, nor will they ever be in the forefront. The heart of humankind is sick and there is only one Answer: the true Messiah who loves and gave His life for every man, woman, and child on this planet no matter their religion, culture, language, passport, ethnicity, or anscestory. There is no killing with God because I am or you are of the wrong tribe. There is no mindless homocide bomber blowing up the marketplace because his puppet master is an evil man bent only on killing in the name of religion. Wake up people. The "Never Again" has continued and goes on every day with millions and millions more being killed or facing the reality of murder. Stop listening to Richard Dawkins, or the Nobel Committee, or Osama bin Laden, or a particular Prime Minister or President. God is not a "delusion." He is the only true reality in existence and the most pressing need for any of these aforementioned individuals as well as their students, disciples, or citizens.

Hope

When President Obama of the U.S. was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the rational given for the prize was that he was such a great hope for the world. Wow, how deluded people are to think that one man or woman is the hope for this world. There is only one hope for this world and Europeans need more than ever to know this Hope. Pray for dark, dark Europe.

Socialism Part 2: The Scary Reality

Though we do not know the family mentioned below, many of our friends from here in Vienna do know them personally or know of them. As you read through this excerpt of an email sent to one of our friends, pay special attention to the role of the medical commission and the fact that they can determine whether this person dies or is able to receive treatment. This is exactly what so many in the U.S. are fearing and protesting against. Do not let the fascination some policticians have with European social climes and mores allow our nation to follow in the footsteps of European medical practices.

Nuni has been going through a battery of medical tests. He has an enlarged spleen. They have a diagnosis now. He has a very rare blood cancer. Ileana and us, and now you know the diagnosis, but Nuni and their kids don't know yet. They are going to meet with the doctor on Sunday for a more in depth discussion about it. Please pray for their family as they go through this awful ordeal. They are still grieving the loss of their daughter in a car accident two years ago. It's so hard to even imagine that they have to go through this now.



Last week his anemia was a 6 and this week it is a level 3. Ileana said that his body is not able to replenish his blood. And he has tumors in his bone marrow. He needs to go through chemotherapy and then some type of bone marrow transplant- maybe that isn't quite right- they have to do something with the spine (maybe drain off fluid and do something to it and put it back in- we don't understand exactly, but it's supposed to be very painful.)

The doctors worked quickly to get his paperwork sent off to Bucharest. A medical commission meets tomorrow to review his case and to make a determination if they will approve the treatment for him (the chemo and the bone treatment). If they don't approve the treatment there is no hope for him. It's one thing if he decides to end the treatment, but it's quite another not to be allowed even to have a chance to try. Ileana has to hang onto the hope that the commission will give the ok for the treatment. Just finding out that he has cancer is like getting kicked in the gut- but it will be horribly difficult to accept if they don't allow the treatment. The doctors in the hospital seem to think that because Nuni is so young and was healthy up till this point, that he has a chance with the chemo and bone treatment, but without this commission’s approval they can do nothing. That's nationalized health care for you. And even with government insurance, the costs for the tests and treatment are very high. Nuni has had all kinds of blood tests and scans and just all kinds of tests. I went to the doctor this week and they told me insurance covers only 20%, so I know all this is really expensive for them.