MIDDLE EAST August 22 Does Iran have something in store?

1. MIDDLE EAST August 22Does Iran have something in store? BY BERNARD LEWISTuesday, August 8, 2006 4:30 p.m. EDT Mr. Lewis, professor emeritus at Princeton, is the author, most recently, of "From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East" (Oxford University Press, 2004). During the Cold War, both sides possessed weapons of mass destruction, but neither side used them, deterred by what was known as MAD, mutual assured destruction. Similar constraints have no doubt prevented their use in the confrontation between India and Pakistan. In our own day a new such confrontation seems to be looming between a nuclear-armed Iran and its favorite enemies,

2. named by the late Ayatollah Khomeini as the Great Satan and the Little Satan, i.e., the United States and Israel. Against the U.S. the bombs might be delivered by terrorists, a method having the advantage of bearing no return address. Against Israel, the target is small enough to attempt obliteration by direct bombardment. It seems increasingly likely that the Iranians either have or very soon will have nuclear weapons at their disposal, thanks to their own researches (which began some 15 years ago), to some of their obliging neighbors, and to the ever-helpful rulers of North Korea. The language used by Iranian President Ahmadinejad would seem to indicate the reality and indeed the imminence of this threat. Would the same constraints, the same fear of mutual assured destruction, restrain a nuclear-armed Iran from using such weapons against the U.S. or against Israel?

3. There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers. This worldview and expectation, vividly expressed in speeches, articles and even schoolbooks, clearly shape the perception and therefore the policies of Ahmadinejad and his disciples. Even in the past it was clear that terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam had no compunction in slaughtering large numbers of fellow Muslims. A notable example was the blowing up of the American embassies in East Africa in 1998, killing a few American diplomats and a much larger number of uninvolved local passersby, many of them Muslims. There were numerous other Muslim victims in the various terrorist attacks of the last 15 years.

4. The phrase "Allah will know his own" is usually used to explain such apparently callous unconcern; it means that while infidel, i.e., non-Muslim, victims will go to a well-deserved punishment in hell, Muslims will be sent straight to heaven. According to this view, the bombers are in fact doing their Muslim victims a favor by giving them a quick pass to heaven and its delights--the rewards without the struggles of martyrdom. School textbooks tell young Iranians to be ready for a final global struggle against an evil enemy, named as the U.S., and to prepare themselves for the privileges of martyrdom. A direct attack on the U.S., though possible, is less likely in the immediate future. Israel is a nearer and easier target, and Mr. Ahmadinejad has given indication of thinking along these lines. The Western observer would immediately think of two possible deterrents. The first is that an attack that wipes out Israel would almost certainly wipe out the Palestinians too.

5. The second is that such an attack would evoke a devastating reprisal from Israel against Iran, since one may surely assume that the Israelis have made the necessary arrangements for a counterstrike even after a nuclear holocaust in Israel. The first of these possible deterrents might well be of concern to the Palestinians--but not apparently to their fanatical champions in the Iranian government. The second deterrent--the threat of direct retaliation on Iran--is, as noted, already weakened by the suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today, without parallel in other religions, or for that matter in the Islamic past. This complex has become even more important at the present day, because of this new apocalyptic vision. In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of

6. time--Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise. What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq,

7. first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind. A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an 11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. "I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers [i.e., the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another's hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours."

8. In this context, mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning. At the end of time, there will be general destruction anyway. What will matter will be the final destination of the dead--hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement. How then can one confront such an enemy, with such a view of life and death? Some immediate precautions are obviously possible and necessary. In the long term, it would seem that the best, perhaps the only hope is to appeal to those Muslims, Iranians, Arabs and others who do not share these apocalyptic perceptions and aspirations, and feel as much threatened, indeed even more threatened, than we are. There must be many such, probably even a majority in the lands of Islam. Now is the time for them to save their countries, their societies and their religion from the madness of MAD.

9. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community, while Chavez urged the world to "Rise up and defeat the United States, Let us together, save the human race, let us finish offthe American empire," Chavez said. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

10. MATTHEW 4:12-25 • REVIEW • We have just finished Matthew’s account of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. • NOW REMEMBER: Matthew was still a tax collector in Capernaum when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness. • Matthew could have only known these things if Jesus told him at some point in His public ministry. • WHY did Jesus let them in on this very private event in His life? • BECAUSE Jesus knew that His followers would one day be confronted by the devil And in

11. He let them know that He, the unique and only begotten Son of God, faced each temptation as a man. • A man led by the Spirit, yielded to the Spirit, filled with the Word of God and submitted to the Word of God. • He understood what it said and He put it into practice. • 12 Now when Jesus had heard • KEY INSIGHT: There is one year between verses 11 and 12. • 12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; • KEY INSIGHT: John at this point in time knows that the Christ is on the scene. • He saw the Spirit descend on Him like a dove.

12. He knows that this is the One who’s going to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. • John understands that the Bridegroom, Jesus, is here and that he, John, has to decrease, and that Jesus is going to increase. • He’s been calling the religious leaders a brood of vipers. • He’s also been telling Herod the tetrarch that he is an adulterer. • So they take John and they throw him into . • And then it says that Jesus heard that John was in prison and He departed…. He went somewhere else.

13. I don’t think John was real encouraged by the circumstance here. • 13 And leaving Nazareth, • Jesus evidently went first to Nazareth and then He comes to Capernaum, which was a trade route. • There was a synagogue in Capernaum. • There was a Roman guard there. • Oh - and by the way - There was a seat of custom there, where Levi, Matthew, our author was sitting collecting taxes. • 13 he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: (two of the tribes of Israel)

14. 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, • KEY INSIGHT: Probably speaking of the Via Mares which was the trade route that all the ancient kings and kingdoms used. • Part of it came from Damascus, down across the northern part of the Sea of Galilee, part of it came down along the coast. • 15 by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16The people which sat in darkness saw great light; • NOW THOSE IN JERUSALEM considered those in Galilee to be hicks, hillbillies, second class Jewish citizens because it was an area that was always plagued by the attacks and the influence of gentiles nations.

15. It was an area that was intermingled with the cultures and religions of Tyre and Sidon, and Syria. • KEY INSIGHT: If any Jews left the borders of Israel and went to Tyre and Sidon, when they came back into the holy land they would shake the dust off their sandals because they didn’t want gentile dust coming into the holy land. • The Pharisees and Sadducees, when they got around gentiles or Romans, they would pull in their robes lest they touch a gentile and be defiled. • Because Galilee was so influenced and intermingled with gentiles they called it Galilee of the gentiles. • For that reason the religious elite in Israel looked down on Galilee.

16. I FIND THIS VERY INTERSTING! Jesus doesn’t go after the religious people • He goes after those that are in darkness • He goes after those who know their need. • Thus we read - • 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time - • From the time John was put in prison. • 17 Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: • KEY OBSERVATION:Isn’t that interesting? • The first word we have recorded in His public ministry is REPENT!

17. REPENT is a word that one rarely hears today from the pulpit • On reason is because it carries with it the image of the strange guy with the sandwich board…. Or the weird guy driving the car that looks like it is held together by bumper stickers with the words REPENT OR BURN IN HELL painted on the windows. • But there is another reason why it is blatantly omitted in today’s preaching - • Because the very concept assumes something wrong in man! • For clarity sake - we can exchange the word REPENT with - • TURN AROUND - CHANGE YOUR WAY OF THINKING • BOB DYLAN tune

18. 17 for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. • Kind of picking up John’s ministry. • NOTE: Jesus is preaching • kerusso, kay-roos'-so; of uncert. affin.; to herald (as a public crier), proclaim, publish. • Jesus is not preaching the gospel, He is preaching that the kingdom is come and repentance is necessary. • 18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. • Fishermen.

19. 19 And he saith unto them, • You know the verse. • 19 Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. • So Jesus now sees Peter and Andrew, his brother. • THIS IS IMPORTANT: He had met them a year earlier. • John 1 tells us about their first encounter. • And then we have a year between – • During this time Jesus meets the woman at the well. • He meets Nicodemus. • Matthew skips that year

20. We’re back up in the Galilean ministry and Jesus crosses the path of Peter and Andrew once again. • BUT - A year before this John and Andrew had been disciples of John the Baptist. • They watched John the Baptist point at Jesus and say to those men, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. • He told them this is the Messiah, this is the One who comes after me that will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. • So they began to follow Jesus. • Jesus turned around and looked at them and said, whom seek ye?

21. Not what are you looking for, but whom are you seeking. • They kind of stuttered around and said, ah, where do you live? • And He said, come and see. • So He took them and they spent an afternoon with Him. • We don’t know anything about that conversation. • I would love to have been able to have listened to that. • Because Andrew comes out of it and finds Peter and says, we’ve found the Messiah. • It must have been an interesting conversation that afternoon.

22. Peter is NOT the kind of guy you say something like that that to unless you’re sure. • And then Peter comes to Jesus and Jesus says, Simon Bar Jonah, we’re going to change your name to stone / rock. • It’s kind of a ridiculous thing when you get to know the man. • NOW – One year later He says to them follow Me. • They know about Him. • He’s been doing miracles in Capernaum. • He’s walking by the place where they have their boats and their nets. • He sees them, He says follow Me, I’ll make you fishers of men.

23. KEY INSIGHT: Fishers of men = catch men alive • Only used one other time in the NT • 2 Tim. 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. • NOTE WELL: Satan is fishing for souls…. We are to fish for souls. • Satan is trying to catch men alive…. • So that he might bring them into bondage to himself and to sin… and ultimately spend eternity in hell with him • We are to catch men alive…. • So that they can be set free from the power of Satan and sin and become servants of Jesus and spend eternity with Jesus

24. And notice this, • 20 And they straightway (Immediately,) left their nets, and followed him. • They left their profession to be dedicated to following Jesus and fishing for souls! • KEY INSIGHT: I don’t believe Jesus calls everybody to drop their nets. • He may say to another man, pick up your net and get back to work. • He may say to a millionaire, keep in the stock market and support missionaries. • CRUCIAL: The follow Me is universal, the drop your nets is not.

25. KEY POINT: He will always call you to FOLLOW HIM in the circumstance of your life, whatever you’re involved. • He may want you to stay in the very situation you are in when you get saved. • There may come a time when He tells you drop that, come to the mission field. • I don’t know that, I can’t say that. • But I do know that the follow me is universal for every Christian. • But for these guys they immediately dropped their nets and they follow Him. • And then it says,

26. 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. 22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him • We’re not told what Dad (Zebedee) and Mom (Salome) think of this. • But they leave Dad and the nets and they go and follow him. • KEY OBSERVATION:It is common for us to look at this event and imagine to be something that it wasn’t. • Because when we think of those guys we think of these men as Apostles.

27. We picture Jesus • Walking along the sea of Galilee… Perhaps right around dusk • And the Father says to Jesus - There theyare son - Do you see them? They’re the four holy guys over there that are glowing • And Jesus says - Yeah, that’s them Father, I can see them. They’re glowing, they’re holy men. • KEY INSIGHT:These guys were just like us. • That’s the remarkable thing. • That’s the thing I love about it. • That’s the reason you have to love Peter –

28. I love Peter because of how human he was. • Tradition has it that he was an older, big gnarly fisherman, wrinkly skin from the sun, giant fingers, knobby thumbs - just a big guy. • But Peter was a big guy that sometimes was in a bad mood. • EXAMPLE: After spending three years with Jesus in person, he chops somebody’s ear off in a tight jam. • Maybe you can relate. • Tradition also tells us that John was fifteen or sixteen years old when he began to follow Christ. • We know him as “the apostle of love”.

29. On one occasion John and James go into the area of Samaria to prepare for Jesus. • They come to Jesus and say - • Look Lord, these guys don’t want you to come. • They don’t want to feed you at the inn, they don’t want to give you a room to stay in. We know how to handle these guys….. • We think calling down fire from heaven, and just burn ‘em up would probably be a good idea right now. • This is the apostle of love saying Burn ‘em Lord! • And Jesus says, you don’t know what manner of spirit you’re of. I didn’t come to destroy life, I came to save people. (He sees the world so differently than we do - NY train… He needs to MAKE me different)

30. KEY POINT:This is rough material here that He’s working with in these guys. • But I’m greatly encouraged because that’s what we are. • Isn’t it amazing that He took us? • When I first got saved I was content to just get in the door. • No aspirations on my part!! • But isn’t it amazing what He can do with our lives. • What He can do with us. • Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. • No seminary required here. No Bible school.

31. I think Bile College/Seminary can be fine if that’s where God leads you, but the important thing is to follow Jesus Christ. • It even says in the Book of Acts that the Pharisees and the religious leaders took note of the apostles because they were an unlearned and ignorant men but that they had been with Jesus. • And that’s what makes all the difference in our lives! • QUOTE: J. Vernon McGee addressing a graduating class from a Presbyterian seminary. • He says to them, Okay guys you might as well take everything you’ve just learned in the last eight years, six years, whatever, and throw it out the window because you’re going out in the world where there’s divorce, where there are broken homes and broken hearts and drug addiction….. real problems…..

32. and what you learned in Greek, none of that is going to mean a hill of beans to any of these people. The only thing that’s going to matter to these people is not what you know but Who you know. Do you really know Jesus? Have you really followed Him. Are you really led of Him? • Which takes us back to the beginning of the chapter. • THEY FOLLOWED HIM! REMALABLE! (That is the ONLY way you can become a fisher of men because it is JESUS who MAKES you one.) • These next few verses set the stage for next week. • 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness Not most, all manner of sickness.

33. Now you have to remember – • There are no hospitals there’s no mental institutions, these people are out in the crowds. • 24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him • Notice this word, all. • 24 all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan. • Scholars feel at this point in time there were upwards of 20k people at a time following Jesus Christ.

34. They have come from out of all Decapolis, all of Jordan, all of Syria, Jerusalem, Judea. • You have to understand as you look at the crowds that there are in these crowds Pharisees and Sadducees… who normally didn’t get along…. But they’re in these crowds rub shoulders together, they hated each other. • There were Romans, there were lepers, there were prostitutes, there were gentiles - people who normally would never get into the same crowd together, who would never touch one another – • KEY INSIGHT: And they were jammed together to see Him, to get close to Him, come to Him with their leprosy or their broken legs or whatever. • THAT is what the Jesus Movement looks like!!/What I long to see!!

35. KEY OBSERVATION: There are places in the gospel that give us the impression that as fast as people were being thrown down in front of them He was healing them. • Legs were growing back, fingers were growing back as leprosy was being healed. • People that had been insane for years were being touched and healed. • People that have cerebral palsy and MS and all these diseases that were crippled, He was touching them and healing them. • We have no idea of the power and the magnitude of the ministry at this point in time except for the crowd. • For those kind of people to be jammed together who normally wouldn’t touch each other, something staggering was taking place at this point in time.

36. KEYINSIGHT: To shake up this entire country He does not need Ted Turner/CNN….. Time-Warner….. Disney/ABC/ESPN • HE can pour out His Spirit and He can have this entire community flood into this building without a television, without a radio without anything if He wanted to. • He is able to do that. • And these were multiplied thousands with nothing but word of mouth. • SIDE NOTE: I think it’s wonderful that Jesus differentiates between those who are tormented - and the Greek says - with oppression, from those that are demon possessed. • They’re not the same thing.

37. Lunatic comes from two Greek words that mean moon-struck. • Did you know that it has been documented that when there’s a full moon there is more trouble in mental institutions, there’s more people in emergency wards. • We have no idea why. • There’s no lab work that proves why that happens. • But when there’s a full moon…. Ushers - keep your eyes open! • But isn’t it interesting Jesus divides them. • BY THE WAY: In the New Testament time lunatic normally applied to those who had epilepsy, those who would take seizures and fall down. • They would say that would be due to the moon.

38. KEY INSIGHT: Scripture marks three distinct groups • Those who were tormented with oppression, not demon possessed. • They were oppressed. And Jesus looked at them and He knew. • Then there were those who were demon possessed. • There were those who were lunatic. • Human beings are so complicated that it freaks me out. • I can not, and I do not, want to understand all of that. • I don’t have to be able to identify the problem, I just have to know the answer. • That’s all I have to know.

39. And again it isn’t what you know it’s Who you know. • I’m powerless but the Scripture says He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. • CONCLUSION • Let me tell you something - THIS crowd tells me that Jesus is working here. • People that would never hang out together are together. • Why in the world would we ever hang out together on a Sunday morning? • What is the rest of the world doing right now? • NOT THIS!!

40. Why in the world would we ever hang out together on a Sunday morning? • Jesus! • And He’s the same this morning as He was in Matthew 4. • And whatever our torment is, whatever we may be going through we have, as we worship now I want you to lift your heart to Him and sing to Him and look to Him and ask Him to touch YOUR heart, YOUR life and make you whole! • 212`640`7734 • What do is see…..? • Why don’t I care/DO I care/how can I care for