So God created man in His [ own ] image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1:27 & 28
From the moment in time when Eve decided to take from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, things have gone down-hill. They were told before this happened, to 'have' dominion but ever since the 'Fall', it seems like man has taken whatever dominion he has, whether it be over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the beasts of the earth, or the earth itself. One has only to read one of the good old history books,, ancient or 'modern', to read this history, 'necessary' or not, of violence.
When, on September 11th, 2001, 'a date which shall live in infamy', two hijacked airliners were flown smack-dab into two of the most influential towers in this country, if not the world; violence, which had stayed, for the most part, in other parts of the world, returned to our shores, and prompted maybe one of the greatest, and most short-lived spiritual revivals this nation had seen for quite some time. People were going to church again, neighbor was helping neighbor, and God was again be sought after for help in time of trouble. As was the case with Israel of old, however; once things began to calm down once again, and relative peace was restored ( there is still a flair-up every now and then; usually outrage over some new mosque, or some such ); God was yet again returned to the back burner ( if not the oven ), and life pretty much returned to normal. To be fair; I don't live in New York City; and cannot, therefore say with any real authority that this disaster had no lasting effect on the spiritual welfare of those involved!
Getting to the point, though, of the passage above; the only reason that those terrorists did what they did ( well; I probably shouldn't say 'the only reason'............... ), was that the leadership of this great nation of ours had decided, long ago, to take what they thought was their right, and to exercise their own brand of dominion by going overseas, and sticking their noses in where they didn't belong. This happened most notably in 1948, with the wrongful wresting of the land of Palestine from the Palestinians and 'returning' it to the Israelis, in the name of the Jews.. Here is a short passage from the Wikipedia article on the subject;
'Following the 1947 United Nations decision to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization[9] and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared Israel a nation independent from the British Mandate of Palestine.[10][11] Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinians. Since then, Israel has fought a series of wars with neighboring Arab states,[12] and has occupied territories, including the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, beyond those delineated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements.'
This is not the only episode in the history of violence in those parts, but doubtless the most notable in recent, modern history. This is also just one area of the world, which has seen a history of violence, and interestingly enough, this is where the Scriptural story is centered; all because men don't want to just receive and steward the gifts which God has given; we would rather take them, by force if necessary, and say 'Look what I did; look at me!' This all goes back, as was pointed out earlier, to the Garden of Eden, where our first 'parents' got impatient to have dominion, and decided to take it for themselves!
Aggression can be a good thing, as with all moods, when it is harnessed by the Spirit of God, but sadly; I'm afraid that much of the aggression shown by our leadership in the past, and it continues today, has not been according to the Spirit of Almighty, and loving, God. This aggression, though it cannot necessarily be blamed on any one individual, those who have taken the leadership in this country, since a few short decades after its inception, have, to varying degrees, brought much trouble on this nation through their stance.
How can we get out of this mess?
The one and only way that we can crawl out of this deep, dark hole that we have dug, first of all, is to humble ourselves before this Almighty, and loving, God, seek His forgiveness for centuries of careless repression and apathy, and repenting of our sin, bring before our exalted leaders the grossness of their iniquity, and through our own example, lead them to repentance of their own evil deeds.
This will not happen overnight, 'in the twinkling of an eye', so to speak; it has taken centuries, even millenia to get to the point we are today, and apart from the super-natural, miraculous intervention of God Himself, it's not going to be restored to Eden in one day! God has made us kings and priests in His Kingdom, and it is up to us to rule according to His law, being stewards of the gifts that we have received by warrant of birth!
With this in mind; let us begin to have the dominion that God has given us!
By God's grace, Charles Haddon Shank
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