The evils of the present times are manifest enough to satisfy the requirements of human reason unaided by the light of faith. For the need for peace is such that all our nations recognize it by the depth of the darkness war has wrought upon our humanity and our world.
But such is the LORD that God has made provision to fortify the faith of those whose hearts are so inclined that all may indeed work for peace (and peace rightly understood).
Let me now share with you, my friends, my interpretation of the passage in Daniel 12. Far be it for me to be so bold as to presume, I will not suffer to forever hold my peace on something that has time and again proven itself to me as truth in my heart.
The signs of the times seem to me so obvious as to be compelling and since it involves all of us in all our nations, woe to me if I keep it from you. For if I see the danger lurking, if I see the enemy of our nations approaching, will I not cry out to you who share with me a common humanity?
I shall therefore entrust to you what I have long kept in myself and leave it to your discernment.
We have so far sought about this peace enough to understand that peace indeed is the craft of all nations. For in reality, all nations are responsible for each other.
Daniel 12 decisively places its emphasis on the importance of individuals in the healing of nations and the importance of nations in the healing of our failing world.
Time is 1000 years, Times is 2000 years, Half-a-Time is a 50/50 choice - shadow (uncertainty) being made half of light and half of darkness, we are in each our hearts presented now with a choice between war as a paradigm and peace as a paradigm.
The difference between the days in Daniel 12 which is 1290 days leading up to 1335 days being the year 2009 through to 2045.
Because as time flows from the timeless flowing from the Throne of the LORD in every human heart, the work of the heart (which is each individual human heart) always precedes the work of the earth (our X and Y Generations among all the nations, in particular from the three, great Abrahamic lineages).
2009-2012 denotes an initial period of awakening; a period set aside by God. This is most especially true for each of us today in 2011 - a year of choices.
Therefore, the necessary groundwork of effective peace-building both within as well as between our nation-states should be established within this time.
2012 shall be a turning point. How it shall come to pass depends on the choices we make today.
2012 is a time of testing. It is perceived as a burden of expectation and not of judgment. How decisive it shall be for us as nations depends completely on how decisive we allow ourselves to become here and now as individuals - to be present in the here and now for the peace and the peace properly understood.
When the sign appears, it shall be too late.
2012, if war is hastened, shall be calamitous. This hastening, if we shall at present choose to largely ignore the signs, shall be accompanied by fire from the sky which is a large-scale impact event. It is worth noting that in 2009, Jupiter was hit yet again by a Shoemaker-Levy type extra-planetary body.
In the order of grace, my friends, there is no such thing as a random event; that one particular year of years - 2009 - in the context of billions of years of time and space is not coincidental.
However, it must also be duly noted that the main emphasis of the passage in Daniel 12 is the deliverance that is being offered and not the global catastrophe that seem so foreboding in its inevitability with or without the assistance of a large-scale impact event.
An example of this kind of deliverance being Y2K as a non-event was already manifested in the year 2000 but was largely ignored or consigned to the imaginary realm of pure luck: That God delivers from evil, as in our Lord's Prayer, is never due to random chance, this was not learned by our nations in 2000.
It took 2000 (or 2009) years for this choice for peace to become comprehensible to our souls. But after this time, this choice shall no longer be a choice.
Were this same choice for peace presented to our nations at an earlier time than this present time, it would have been futile. For no nation before this time would have had the developed capacity to comprehend it meaningfully.
Therefore, if we in our nations are to willfully pass up this invitation to draw nearer to the LORD, during this season of peace - together this time, we shall no longer be without any accountability.
War which is the enemy of all nations, if we do not bind it today - together this time, shall be set loose upon our generations. And all of our living memory shall not even be enough to contain the remembrance of this destruction.
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The Quest for Peace in the Middle East
The roots of war is ancient. Therefore, who is to blame for the presence of war in the Middle East? No one. Who is to blame for the absence of peace in the Middle East? Everyone.
Now, what I mean to say when I write about the "siege of war" being broken only from the Middle East is that the epicenter of this interpretation is the Israel-Palestine or Palestine-Israel division in general and Jerusalem in specific.
My fellow Filipino compatriots, concerned as we are about the well-being of our own peace, we must also connect (in our minds and in our hearts) our own peace-building initiatives with that of Israel and Palestine.
And I also enjoin the citizens of those other nations longing for a better world to do likewise.
What shall it gain us to achieve a greater peace in our own lands if the labor of building up the (inhabited) earth which is the undertaking of all nations fails?
We must do what we can and work to become bigger than our own national interests.
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The Israel-Palestine/Palestine-Israel Division
What happened to you, O Israel -
pitted against your own soul,
a nation among nations
at war against thy own peace?
pitted against your own soul,
a nation among nations
at war against thy own peace?
The past has been terrible,
but the night shall soon wane
the darkness shall fade forever
and the dawn shall arrive.
None shall be left in the night!
We will do this - together this time.
The everyday, ordinary Palestinian is like a seed caught in a storm. Indeed, they are as a people like so much seeds blown hither tither, seemingly at random, and mostly by forces beyond their control. But however strong the storm these seeds remain as seeds - in the quiet, waiting for its time to grow. That is the truth.
Now, the Palestinian people are not a perfect people.
But the Palestinian people is a nation. Therefore, there is nothing either on earth or in heaven that can prevent their emergence save their own rejection of this truth. Now, it is you, O Israel, who have helped them to embrace their own nationhood. Therefore it is you, O Israel, who must also stand with them. Do so now, O Israel, do so now.
It is the natural right of all nations to fulfill each their own potential as a particular undertaking of Country upon the earth. This right was not denied you. This right will not be denied them.
So turn now to your brother in unity. You must find it once again in your heart to accept their own humanity with your own. For there is a purpose and an order to all things under heaven, each in their own times and seasons under the LORD.
To reject this truth is to propagate the conflagration of the last great age of war. It is to prolong our suffering and to do this is not human and an inhuman nation is an abomination to God and to itself.
So let the climate of these times turn to the peace, all ye nations. This is our time.
Towards the morn, O ye nations,
towards that awakening dawn!
Towards the peace, O ye peoples,
towards the twilight of the new!
Towards the LORD, O ye numberless stars,
towards that promise made of old!
Towards the Light, all ye living lights
away from the darkness,
where all our roads,
lead back to you, Jerusalem.
towards that awakening dawn!
Towards the peace, O ye peoples,
towards the twilight of the new!
Towards the LORD, O ye numberless stars,
towards that promise made of old!
Towards the Light, all ye living lights
away from the darkness,
where all our roads,
lead back to you, Jerusalem.
It is difficult. But it is not impossible. Indeed, there are many things in the way of our returning to peace that are left to each our own free and human choice. But not war, O Israel, not war.
War is a spirit. It will most certainly prevent the emergence of peace in your region in Asia. The momentum of the last 2000 years will most certainly try to us all into a deadly complacency. For the siege of war may indeed only be broken from your region in Asia. And the beast knows it.
Let me tell you here and now, O Israel, that the blessings of the peace that awaits us all in this new age far outweighs all of these present anxieties. This is not beyond you. In fact, the choice now lies squarely within your reach.
If we work to achieve this necessary requirement under heaven, the enormous potential of the one family of the nations of Mankind shall become unleashed in the service of our common humanity: What once served the will of war shall now be brought into the service of the peace of the LORD, our God, for all Mankind.
We will find respite for our failing world - together this time.
It shall not be perfect before the Day. But it shall no longer be a labor wrought in bitterness and tears. So exercise prudence. Look for wisdom. Seek for justice and the healing of hurts. But you must pray. Pray now with an urgency. Pray now with an understanding of the times. Pray now with a knowledge of our hopes together in time. Pray now with the brightness and the force of a heart undivided.
Let us all pray now for the peace all nations even as we pray also for the peace of each our own. Let us all who desire a better world desire peace with all sincerity.
Finally, to help us understand the question that is now being presented to each our hearts do not look for answers before 2009.
For all of it, (time, times through to 2009) including the "war on terror", is one entire proposition, a plaidoyer if you will, that in the midst of the silence within our souls must, God-willing, incline us all to peace. Lest we forget.
All of it, God-willing, must lead each our hearts, willingly and freely, unto the LORD, our God, the one Sovereign of all nations.
In this way, in this age, which is different from all the ages before this one, we are all pioneers.
May it be so, O ye nations, may it be so, O beloved people Israel. Let us work our way through to 2012. Let us all work to complete each our own remembrances and and make the choice for peace today while it is still today.
No nation learns in isolation. No Country matures on its own.
Palestinian Christian, I believe in your nationalism:
Do not be deluded by the darkness that deceives
for the spirit of war lusts for all nations equally
but your unity is your nation's guarantee.
Do not be embarrassed. Do not be confused.
The God Who loves us all - He is the LORD of our Lord.
Therefore, in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ,
there is both a will and a way for all of us.
Be perfect in this way,
encompassing all things in your heart of hearts -
tolerate no division, no chaos, no enmity...
and all this for love of God and Country
and you will find rest.
The War in heaven is in the heart.
Your place in the Middle East is meant for better things,
much better things...
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Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God be with us all.
