Inside the Revolution

A couple weeks ago, I attended a lecture given by author Joel Rosenberg regarding current events in the middle east. It was eye opening from a perspective we in the US ignore, a biblical perspective. Why we ignore this perspective, I'm not sure. That separation of church and state thing? I think we've made it something our founding father's did not intend for it to be. They never intended God to be taken out of everything (but that is a whole different blog). A biblical or "God" perspective of world views is very good to have because there are some nations that view the world and government through, what they believe, are "God's" eyes.



His lecture was a promotion of his new book "Inside the Revolution" and its companion documentary that will be released on September 11, 2009. The lecture also addressed the question, are we living in the end times?



If you would like to listen to the lecture, here is a link to the audio. It is about 2 hours long but well worth the listen. An Evening with Joel Rosenberg.



I really liked how Rosenberg listed how Christians and Muslims are similar and how both groups can appear to be "nuts". I've gotten that "you're nuts" reaction a couple times from non-christian peers when I've just point blank said something is right or wrong because the Bible says so.



"Are you kidding me? How can you say that? You have a college degree, you're intelligent, or so I thought, how can you just say that is the answer because the Bible says so? Where has your ability to think critically gone?"



Well, I'll tell you, I know there is a God. I think God is correct 100% of the time, absolutely. This too is a different blog.



Rosenberg compared and contrasted Christians with radical muslims in Iran.

• Christians are not trying to hasten the end of the world
  
• Iran is trying to hasten the end of the world (Shia and Sunnis believe the end time is coming differently)
  
• Shia writings say the judeo/christian culture will perish or convert before the muslim messiah comes
  
• Christians believe they will be saving people while the earth does the horrible things
  
• Shia believe they have to kill millions of people

Rosenberg also discussed another book.(I think its called What Went Wrong) that theorized the rise of radical Islam. Radicalism came about after the shock of being defeated by Christians and Jews in the 20th century. Reflecting upon what went wrong, it was determined that Islam had become corrupt and there was a need to practice pure Islam to include Shariah law.

He talked about how the CIA was blind sided by the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Kind of like the intelligence community was blind sided by the September 11 attacks. In my opinion, I think our intel and military communities have religious blind spots. Religion is completely disregard it because our nation is secular (you know that whole separation of church and state). I really believe its important to be able to see world events from a spiritual/religious dimension, especially in the middle east.

I've not had a chance to start reading this book, it and its predecessor "Epicenter" are on my summer reading list. One of my friends started reading the book and said its clearly written and not at all dry. I recommend Rosenberg's blog as it provides some good analysis/discussion regarding issues in the middle east and in Israel, from a Christian perspective.