By Pastor Alfred Massaquoi
Introduction
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| 800,000 Tutsis and Moderate Hutus Slaughtered |
Introduction
A righteous person is someone who worships Almighty God Jehovah: he prays to God regularly, does good and turns aside from doing bad things because he loves God and wants to please Him.
Inspite of his devotion to God, today, many are the calamities of good people. It's like a good man jumps into one trouble to another; it's like jumping from the fry pan to the fire, or his problems grow from bad to worse, and from worse to ridiculous!
On the contrary, the unrighteous man or the wicked man doesn't seem to have problems at all. You can see that his children grow healthy, drink milk, go to the best schools and obtain all the love, care and attention money can afford; whilst the poor good man's children feed on one meal a day, often go to bed hungry; and seemingly, the family tends to eke out a living on less than a dollar a day, only if this dollar is found.
Furthermore, the wicked rich man, if he's in trouble or a lawsuit, his money doesn't get tired to bail him out, in most poor African countries, like Liberia. True, don't go into dispute with the wicked rich and powerful for you won't win to tell the story, if God isn't by your side. For the wicked rich, life is a success. Life is glamorous, sweet and fulfilling.
Why throw Caution to the Wind?
This scenario described in the introduction is not often always the case that the good person sleeps with hunger, and the wicked rich becomes richer. Also, don't get mixed up nor be confused when I describe the 'wicked rich' and the 'poor good man,' in such terms.
Conversely, this does not mean that 'all poor' are good, and 'all rich' are wicked. Today, there are many rich people who fear God and worship him, whereas, there are many poor people who love money and material things. So, they tend to be bad. Therefore, righteous and unrighteous is not applicable in this sense.
Nonetheless, people blame God for permitting injustices -- suffering -- yes, untold suffering. But they don't stop to think that blaming God will do them more harm than good, that pointing an accusing finger at God for wickedness reaches Him nowhere as the distance between God and man is a distance separated by the firmament.
Sadly, we live today in a world where some men have power and others have to suffer under them. How true this is today when we watch dictatorial regimes in some parts of the world crash their peoples, often to death. Is it God?
Evidently, we have all witnessed abuse of power around the world that have resulted into uprising and violence, war, war crimes, crime against humanity and genocide, famine and disease.
Is God responsible? Or does He execute the acts? Creating us simply doesn't make God the perpetuator of bad things that happen to us! Let's see below how man has dominated his fellow man to his injury irrespective of God's commands to "love your neighbor as yourself -or, do unto others as you want them do unto you."
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
Today, people commit hideous crime like "Ethnic Cleansing." Is God to blame? Haven't you heard about ethnic cleansing, have you? Well, ethnic cleansing* is a process in which an ethnic army group advances and expels civilians of other ethnicities from towns and villages it captures and creates an ethnic enclave purely for members of its ethnic group.
In former Yugoslavia during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina* between 1992 to 1995, there was widespread ethnic cleansing.
A large number of Bosnia Muslims and Bosnia Croasts expelled from their homes by Bosnia Serbs, while some Bosnia Serbs did similar thing to Muslims and Serbs in Central Bosnia. However, Bosnia Serbs committed the worse atrocities* compared to the other ethnic groups.
Serbian military commander in Bosnia, Ratko Mladic,* most times issued specific orders to his subordinates to shell a particular village more than others believed less Serbs and more Muslims lived there.
More than 200, 000 civilians killed in Bosnia and Croatia since the war, and tens of thousands of women raped, some, more than hundred times*. Their sons and husbands beaten and tortured in concentration camps, and millions displaced from their homes due to ethnic cleansing.
The number of those who lost their homes increased with the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia and with the ferocious atrocities committed by Serbs* against the Albanian majority in Kosovo.
As of May 1, 2005, ten years after the war ended, 14,444* total number of persons as of date have not been found by the International Committee of the Red Cross tracing request opened by families.*
Inspite of his devotion to God, today, many are the calamities of good people. It's like a good man jumps into one trouble to another; it's like jumping from the fry pan to the fire, or his problems grow from bad to worse, and from worse to ridiculous!
On the contrary, the unrighteous man or the wicked man doesn't seem to have problems at all. You can see that his children grow healthy, drink milk, go to the best schools and obtain all the love, care and attention money can afford; whilst the poor good man's children feed on one meal a day, often go to bed hungry; and seemingly, the family tends to eke out a living on less than a dollar a day, only if this dollar is found.
Furthermore, the wicked rich man, if he's in trouble or a lawsuit, his money doesn't get tired to bail him out, in most poor African countries, like Liberia. True, don't go into dispute with the wicked rich and powerful for you won't win to tell the story, if God isn't by your side. For the wicked rich, life is a success. Life is glamorous, sweet and fulfilling.
Why throw Caution to the Wind?
This scenario described in the introduction is not often always the case that the good person sleeps with hunger, and the wicked rich becomes richer. Also, don't get mixed up nor be confused when I describe the 'wicked rich' and the 'poor good man,' in such terms.
Conversely, this does not mean that 'all poor' are good, and 'all rich' are wicked. Today, there are many rich people who fear God and worship him, whereas, there are many poor people who love money and material things. So, they tend to be bad. Therefore, righteous and unrighteous is not applicable in this sense.
Nonetheless, people blame God for permitting injustices -- suffering -- yes, untold suffering. But they don't stop to think that blaming God will do them more harm than good, that pointing an accusing finger at God for wickedness reaches Him nowhere as the distance between God and man is a distance separated by the firmament.
Sadly, we live today in a world where some men have power and others have to suffer under them. How true this is today when we watch dictatorial regimes in some parts of the world crash their peoples, often to death. Is it God?
Evidently, we have all witnessed abuse of power around the world that have resulted into uprising and violence, war, war crimes, crime against humanity and genocide, famine and disease.
Is God responsible? Or does He execute the acts? Creating us simply doesn't make God the perpetuator of bad things that happen to us! Let's see below how man has dominated his fellow man to his injury irrespective of God's commands to "love your neighbor as yourself -or, do unto others as you want them do unto you."
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
Today, people commit hideous crime like "Ethnic Cleansing." Is God to blame? Haven't you heard about ethnic cleansing, have you? Well, ethnic cleansing* is a process in which an ethnic army group advances and expels civilians of other ethnicities from towns and villages it captures and creates an ethnic enclave purely for members of its ethnic group.
In former Yugoslavia during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina* between 1992 to 1995, there was widespread ethnic cleansing.
A large number of Bosnia Muslims and Bosnia Croasts expelled from their homes by Bosnia Serbs, while some Bosnia Serbs did similar thing to Muslims and Serbs in Central Bosnia. However, Bosnia Serbs committed the worse atrocities* compared to the other ethnic groups.
Serbian military commander in Bosnia, Ratko Mladic,* most times issued specific orders to his subordinates to shell a particular village more than others believed less Serbs and more Muslims lived there.
More than 200, 000 civilians killed in Bosnia and Croatia since the war, and tens of thousands of women raped, some, more than hundred times*. Their sons and husbands beaten and tortured in concentration camps, and millions displaced from their homes due to ethnic cleansing.
The number of those who lost their homes increased with the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia and with the ferocious atrocities committed by Serbs* against the Albanian majority in Kosovo.
As of May 1, 2005, ten years after the war ended, 14,444* total number of persons as of date have not been found by the International Committee of the Red Cross tracing request opened by families.*
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| Clothes of the murdered in the Rwandan genocide |
"Within an hour of the plane crash, the Presidential Guard together with members of the Rwandan armed forces (FAR) and Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe (“Those Who Attack Together”) and Impuzamugambi (“Those Who Have the Same Goal”) set up roadblocks and barricades and began slaughtering Tutsis and moderate Hutus with impunity. Among the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, killed on April 7." ¶
As you can see the people targeted were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and political opponents despite their ethnic origin. Evidently, ordinary citizens incited to go brutal in arms against their neighbors by local officials in the Hutu led government.
Rwandan Hutus about 85% felt insecure by the Tutsi minority having long dominated the country, although, in 1959, the Hutus had overthrown the Tutsis monarchy, which resulted into tens of thousands Tutsis exiled in Uganda and neighboring countries. Tutsi rebel group styled the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF) of a group of Tutsi refugees returned to Rwanda in 1990 in an invasion, and fighting ensued until a 1993 peace deal was agreed.#
But what sparked the genocide, was a plane shot down on the night of April 6, 1994# killing everyone onboard, including the then President Juvenal Habyarimana, and counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi (both Hutus).
Shortly, Hutu extremists# took to the streets in a well-planed slaughter campaign blaming the Tutsi's RPF rebels, but the RPF said the plane was shot down by Hutus themselves as a pretext to carryout the genocide.
As you can see the people targeted were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and political opponents despite their ethnic origin. Evidently, ordinary citizens incited to go brutal in arms against their neighbors by local officials in the Hutu led government.
Rwandan Hutus about 85% felt insecure by the Tutsi minority having long dominated the country, although, in 1959, the Hutus had overthrown the Tutsis monarchy, which resulted into tens of thousands Tutsis exiled in Uganda and neighboring countries. Tutsi rebel group styled the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF) of a group of Tutsi refugees returned to Rwanda in 1990 in an invasion, and fighting ensued until a 1993 peace deal was agreed.#
But what sparked the genocide, was a plane shot down on the night of April 6, 1994# killing everyone onboard, including the then President Juvenal Habyarimana, and counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi (both Hutus).
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| Militias take to the Streets in Mayhem |
Shortly, Hutu extremists# took to the streets in a well-planed slaughter campaign blaming the Tutsi's RPF rebels, but the RPF said the plane was shot down by Hutus themselves as a pretext to carryout the genocide.
Hutu militias handled a list of government opponents, and murdered them and their families. Neighbors slaughtered neighbors, while some Hutu husbands killed their Tutsi wives for fear of being killed if they refused.#
At road checkpoints for ID cards, which had people's ethnic group on them, Hutu militias often used machetes# to slaughter Tutsis as most Rwandans kept machetes around the house, and thousands of Tutsi women abducted as sex slaves.
Whilst these killings went on the UN and Belgium mission# in Rwanda, did nothing to stop it using an alibi that their forces were not given a mandate.
Another nonchalance, was the US refusal to involve in the conflict because US troops were killed in Somalia a year before. The Belgians and most UN peace keepers pulled out when ten Belgians were killed.#
At road checkpoints for ID cards, which had people's ethnic group on them, Hutu militias often used machetes# to slaughter Tutsis as most Rwandans kept machetes around the house, and thousands of Tutsi women abducted as sex slaves.
Whilst these killings went on the UN and Belgium mission# in Rwanda, did nothing to stop it using an alibi that their forces were not given a mandate.
Another nonchalance, was the US refusal to involve in the conflict because US troops were killed in Somalia a year before. The Belgians and most UN peace keepers pulled out when ten Belgians were killed.#
As for the French, allied to the Hutu government, allegedly set up a safe zone, but was accused# of not doing much to stop the massacre in the area, and Rwanda's current president also accused French involvement in the slaughter - a charge denied by France.
Certainly, the list of wickedness or unrighteousness or lawlessness goes on and on from country to country, where the innocents and the law-abiding people suffer the consequences.
Certainly, the list of wickedness or unrighteousness or lawlessness goes on and on from country to country, where the innocents and the law-abiding people suffer the consequences.
People Praise Men than Praise God
Another wickedness we have seen in this world is for an evil man to be praised for his crime. Solomon said wicked men buried but people on their way back home from the cemetery praised them in the very city they perpetuated their crime.
An example can drive home this point, although, I don't share the views about the late Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz in the following documented reports about him because I cannot judge him or label him an unrighteous man.
According to Wikipedia^ on Fidel Castro, he was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister for 18 years and then as President for 32 years.
Politically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, Wikipedia stated that Fidel also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011.
Wikipedia said that under his administration, Cuba became a one-party socialist state, where industry and business nationalized and state socialist reforms implemented throughout Cuba.
It said Fidel participated in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, and later planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, but failed in 1953.
Another wickedness we have seen in this world is for an evil man to be praised for his crime. Solomon said wicked men buried but people on their way back home from the cemetery praised them in the very city they perpetuated their crime.
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| Fidel Castro still lives on even though he is dead |
According to Wikipedia^ on Fidel Castro, he was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister for 18 years and then as President for 32 years.
Politically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, Wikipedia stated that Fidel also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011.
Wikipedia said that under his administration, Cuba became a one-party socialist state, where industry and business nationalized and state socialist reforms implemented throughout Cuba.
It said Fidel participated in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, and later planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, but failed in 1953.
He was imprisoned for one year, according to the report, and upon his release, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, called the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Che Guevara.
Returning to Cuba, the report says Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in aguerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, the report says, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister.
Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of government, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western hemisphere, according to Wikipedia, and elaborating, policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control...
Frances Martel° in his article on Fidel in breitbart.com carried the banner headline: "Cuba has released Danilo Maldonado Machado, an artist also known as “El Sexto,” after nearly two months in prison for having celebrated the death of Fidel Castro in public."
Frances reported, "While the Cuban government alleged that his arrest was related to spray-painting the words “se fue” (“he’s gone”) onto a wall in Havana, Maldonado was never charged with a crime or allowed to stand trial.
He spent 57 days behind bars for the graffiti and a Facebook Live video in which he asked passersby if they were happy that Castro was dead. The video was filmed the night dictator Raúl Castro announced his older brother’s death."
He continues, "During the first few days of his arrest in late November, Maldonado was reportedly stripped naked and beaten until police induced an asthma attack and then refused him an inhaler. Maldonado told his mother Victoria that he suspected that guards were sneaking tranquilizers into his food in order to prevent him from shouting, “down with Fidel” and “down with Raúl,” from his prison cell where other inmates could hear him. Maldonado refused to eat initially.
In prison, Maldonado wrote letters surging the Cuban people to revolt against communism, smuggled out by his mother and published on Facebook by his fiancée, Cuban-American journalist Alexandra Martínez. “The Cuban people march by force under the sun and shout slogans like ‘I am Fidel,’ but many are silent because the Cuban people fear, and with fear one cannot be free,” he wrote. “We must learn to demystify a murderer, because if not, that day [that Castro dies], nothing will happen.”
However, "Fidel Castro is more of a presence in death than in recent life" wrote Mimi Whitefield∆ in the miamiherald.com world news stating, "Castro’s ashes reside in a granite tomb that says simply “Fidel,” and during the nine days of national mourning following his death, Cubans by the thousands chanted “Yo Soy Fidel” (I am Fidel) as a caravan with Castro’s ashes moved across the country en route to Santiago."
Whitefield said, "Two months after the remains of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro were laid to rest, his voice and thoughts continue to resonate from beyond the grave.
Castro, via events in his honor and retrospectives, still makes an almost daily appearance on the front page of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. After the recent end of the long-standing policy of allowing Cubans to enter the U.S. without visas, his thoughts on independence and self-determination were even included in the Cuban government’s Jan. 12 immigration declaration."
Solomon's View on Life
Solomon said people commit crimes readily because they are not punished quickly enough, and a criminal may commit hundred crime and still live. Nevertheless, he advised if we have fear of God, everything will be fine for us, but the wicked will not escape death. He said like a shadow the wicked die young - not referencing to Fidel Castro and all those perpetuators mentioned in this piece, but his statement is in reference to us all. So, beware!
Therefore, Solomon said it's nonsense or useless to see in this world where the good man receives the punishment for the wicked man, and the wicked man gets the reward of the good man. Come to think of it, are all those people locked behind bars in Liberia guilty of the crime they accused them of? Why do criminals walk down the streets shoulders high in borrowed robes of honor and the righteous man (one who fears God and does what is right) caught up like an animal in a trap?
Worrying causes pain to our health, therefore, Solomon suggested why not enjoy yourself because the only pleasure a man has in life is to eat and drink and enjoy himself during the short time he finds food for himself in this miserable world.
You'll never understand despite being wise what God does in this world -- no matter how long and hard you think and stay away from sleep at night and day. How harder you try, Solomon said, you'll never know, even scientists claim to know the universe, but they don't.
This renders us to believe that God controls the action of scientists and good men; He controls even their love and hate. Certainly, we don't know the future, likewise, Scientists don't know God's plan for the trillions of planets in our universe.
Ethan• in a Scientific online journal said that our Sun is just one of an estimated two-to-four hundred billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, and there are around two-to-three trillion planets in our galaxy.
He reported that 100-200 billion planets found in our Milky Way, and 10 trillion planets are in our galaxy alone in the universe, therefore, he elaborated, "With at least 200 billion galaxies out there (and possibly even more), we’re very likely talking about a Universe filled with around 1024 planets, or, for those of you who like it written out, around 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in our observable Universe."
Scientists perhaps could be accurate to estimate the billions of stars making up a galaxy, the billion of galaxies and the trillion of planets in the universe, yet, they cannot explain correctly God's purpose and significance for the arrangement of the universe.
Returning to Cuba, the report says Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in aguerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, the report says, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister.
Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of government, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western hemisphere, according to Wikipedia, and elaborating, policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control...
Frances Martel° in his article on Fidel in breitbart.com carried the banner headline: "Cuba has released Danilo Maldonado Machado, an artist also known as “El Sexto,” after nearly two months in prison for having celebrated the death of Fidel Castro in public."
Frances reported, "While the Cuban government alleged that his arrest was related to spray-painting the words “se fue” (“he’s gone”) onto a wall in Havana, Maldonado was never charged with a crime or allowed to stand trial.
He spent 57 days behind bars for the graffiti and a Facebook Live video in which he asked passersby if they were happy that Castro was dead. The video was filmed the night dictator Raúl Castro announced his older brother’s death."
He continues, "During the first few days of his arrest in late November, Maldonado was reportedly stripped naked and beaten until police induced an asthma attack and then refused him an inhaler. Maldonado told his mother Victoria that he suspected that guards were sneaking tranquilizers into his food in order to prevent him from shouting, “down with Fidel” and “down with Raúl,” from his prison cell where other inmates could hear him. Maldonado refused to eat initially.
In prison, Maldonado wrote letters surging the Cuban people to revolt against communism, smuggled out by his mother and published on Facebook by his fiancée, Cuban-American journalist Alexandra Martínez. “The Cuban people march by force under the sun and shout slogans like ‘I am Fidel,’ but many are silent because the Cuban people fear, and with fear one cannot be free,” he wrote. “We must learn to demystify a murderer, because if not, that day [that Castro dies], nothing will happen.”
However, "Fidel Castro is more of a presence in death than in recent life" wrote Mimi Whitefield∆ in the miamiherald.com world news stating, "Castro’s ashes reside in a granite tomb that says simply “Fidel,” and during the nine days of national mourning following his death, Cubans by the thousands chanted “Yo Soy Fidel” (I am Fidel) as a caravan with Castro’s ashes moved across the country en route to Santiago."
Whitefield said, "Two months after the remains of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro were laid to rest, his voice and thoughts continue to resonate from beyond the grave.
Castro, via events in his honor and retrospectives, still makes an almost daily appearance on the front page of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. After the recent end of the long-standing policy of allowing Cubans to enter the U.S. without visas, his thoughts on independence and self-determination were even included in the Cuban government’s Jan. 12 immigration declaration."
Solomon's View on Life
Solomon said people commit crimes readily because they are not punished quickly enough, and a criminal may commit hundred crime and still live. Nevertheless, he advised if we have fear of God, everything will be fine for us, but the wicked will not escape death. He said like a shadow the wicked die young - not referencing to Fidel Castro and all those perpetuators mentioned in this piece, but his statement is in reference to us all. So, beware!
Therefore, Solomon said it's nonsense or useless to see in this world where the good man receives the punishment for the wicked man, and the wicked man gets the reward of the good man. Come to think of it, are all those people locked behind bars in Liberia guilty of the crime they accused them of? Why do criminals walk down the streets shoulders high in borrowed robes of honor and the righteous man (one who fears God and does what is right) caught up like an animal in a trap?
Worrying causes pain to our health, therefore, Solomon suggested why not enjoy yourself because the only pleasure a man has in life is to eat and drink and enjoy himself during the short time he finds food for himself in this miserable world.
You'll never understand despite being wise what God does in this world -- no matter how long and hard you think and stay away from sleep at night and day. How harder you try, Solomon said, you'll never know, even scientists claim to know the universe, but they don't.
This renders us to believe that God controls the action of scientists and good men; He controls even their love and hate. Certainly, we don't know the future, likewise, Scientists don't know God's plan for the trillions of planets in our universe.
Ethan• in a Scientific online journal said that our Sun is just one of an estimated two-to-four hundred billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, and there are around two-to-three trillion planets in our galaxy.
He reported that 100-200 billion planets found in our Milky Way, and 10 trillion planets are in our galaxy alone in the universe, therefore, he elaborated, "With at least 200 billion galaxies out there (and possibly even more), we’re very likely talking about a Universe filled with around 1024 planets, or, for those of you who like it written out, around 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in our observable Universe."
Scientists perhaps could be accurate to estimate the billions of stars making up a galaxy, the billion of galaxies and the trillion of planets in the universe, yet, they cannot explain correctly God's purpose and significance for the arrangement of the universe.
Also, scientists guess life is in mars, and they're looking for life in the other planets through space exploration, but Ethan says, "Let's keep looking for not just planets, but for water, oxygen, and signs of life," which testifies that God has only shown scientists what He wants them know and nothing more nor less.
Come think of it, how possible the same fate or destiny awaits the righteous man and the wicked man; the same fate occurs to the good and the bad, to those who go to church and pray to God and to those who don't know God, to those who offer sacrifices and to those who don't?
However, don't think granted you're a good person you're better off than a sinner. Know also that a man who takes an oath isn't better off than a man who doesn't. That's why Solomon said this is as wrong as anything that happens in this world in a situation that we all have the same fate alike.
Come think of it, how possible the same fate or destiny awaits the righteous man and the wicked man; the same fate occurs to the good and the bad, to those who go to church and pray to God and to those who don't know God, to those who offer sacrifices and to those who don't?
However, don't think granted you're a good person you're better off than a sinner. Know also that a man who takes an oath isn't better off than a man who doesn't. That's why Solomon said this is as wrong as anything that happens in this world in a situation that we all have the same fate alike.
Solomon cautioned as long as people live, their lives are full of evil and madness, and suddenly, they die. But the living has hope, he said, but adding that the living know we'll die as opposed to the dead that knows nothing at all in that they have no further reward; the dead are completely forgotten. Yes, what dies with them is their love, hate and passion. They'll never again take part in the world of the living.
Therefore, Solomon said we should be happy and cheerful that it's all right with God. God wants us to always look happy and cheerful much more to enjoy the woman you love as long as we live this useless life God has given us in this world. So, we enjoy every useless day of our lives because that's all we'll get for our troubles.
Since we shall all die and in our graves there exists therein no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom, we must work hard now at whatever we do for the great beyond will house us forever.
Just think of it, most people deprive and starve themselves all in the name of saving huge money for troublesome days ahead. However, whilst savings in itself is very good, but what's very bad you deprive yourself from healthy living and food that saves life under the pretext that vegetables and fruits, so expensive, you can't afford them -- what of if you can afford them?
Some people, who lack healthy diet, develop malnutrition and other diseases; they get seriously sick and die a premature death. Do you know that those food rich in nutrients like magnesium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, sodium, copper, manganese, selenium, protein, folate, choline, calcium, zinc, carbohydrates, low colaries, and all the vitamins: A,C,D,E,K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12 and the rest, help keep the doctor away?
Therefore, eat good food always, and drink red wine from time to time. Learn to be happy and cheerful if you don't have all the means of life, or if you do, either of you will sooner or later realize that life is so short, and suddenly you die, and your riches are not buried with you in the grave.
Also, while it is a good thing to forge ahead in life - to excel in all things - at work, in love and family life - in short, in whatever, bear in mind to be more careful and play safe with a balanced attitude that not too much optimism should ginger our actions. Why, the fast runners don't always win the races; the strong man doesn't always win the fight; wise men don't always earn a living; intelligent men don't always get rich; and capable men don't always rise to the top.
The US President Donald Trump is a sterling example of a man who rose to the top without political, military, and a Harvard educated experience. According to Forbes, Trump networth is 3.7 billion US dollars as of 2017. This billionaire beat Hilary Clinton, a seasoned politician of the establishment. Brexit - is anther glaring example, when in a referendum, Britain, unbelievably, opted out of the European Union.
Since we shall all die and in our graves there exists therein no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom, we must work hard now at whatever we do for the great beyond will house us forever.
Just think of it, most people deprive and starve themselves all in the name of saving huge money for troublesome days ahead. However, whilst savings in itself is very good, but what's very bad you deprive yourself from healthy living and food that saves life under the pretext that vegetables and fruits, so expensive, you can't afford them -- what of if you can afford them?
Some people, who lack healthy diet, develop malnutrition and other diseases; they get seriously sick and die a premature death. Do you know that those food rich in nutrients like magnesium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, sodium, copper, manganese, selenium, protein, folate, choline, calcium, zinc, carbohydrates, low colaries, and all the vitamins: A,C,D,E,K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12 and the rest, help keep the doctor away?
Therefore, eat good food always, and drink red wine from time to time. Learn to be happy and cheerful if you don't have all the means of life, or if you do, either of you will sooner or later realize that life is so short, and suddenly you die, and your riches are not buried with you in the grave.
Also, while it is a good thing to forge ahead in life - to excel in all things - at work, in love and family life - in short, in whatever, bear in mind to be more careful and play safe with a balanced attitude that not too much optimism should ginger our actions. Why, the fast runners don't always win the races; the strong man doesn't always win the fight; wise men don't always earn a living; intelligent men don't always get rich; and capable men don't always rise to the top.
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| Donald Trump - US 45th President |
We don't get often always what we want in life because bad luck happens to everyone no matter your status in life. You never know when your time is coming; like birds suddenly caught in a trap, like fish caught in a net, we're trapped at some evil moment when we least expect it.
Conclusion
Now, what is the meaning of this writing to you: The Righteous Suffers for the Unrighteous - Who Says God is unjust? Have I convinced you enough that God is not to blame for all the human sufferings, rather, we have ourselves to blame?
Well, in our preceeding exposé, Solomon in Ecc. 8:9 makes the point: "I saw all this when I thought about the things that are done in this world where some people have power and others have to suffer under them."
How true this is? Remember also that God did not create evil or man's evil nature or desires because He's God of love (1 John 4:8), but we have ourselves responsible for human suffering as we've read examples above of the Rwanda genocide of about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus slaughtered (in July 1994) and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (between 1992 to 1995), which claimed more than 200,000 lives, million displaced, millions became refugees in neighboring countries, and much more human suffering.
Come to think of it, was it God who committed the Rwandan genocide and the Kosovo ethnic cleansing? Perhaps, one would argue God could have stopped the killings, couldn't He, you might wonder?
Now, let's reason it out! How could God have stopped the carnage, when He permitted human authorities (Rom.13:1-6) on the ground to provide law and order to protect lives and properties?
For instance, the UN and Belgium forces in Rwanda pulled out in the height of the genocide; the US refused involvement in the conflict; and the French allied to the Hutu government refused to stop the massacre. France was accused of involvement in the slaughter - a charge Paris denied.
Furthermore, during the period of the genocide, local officials and government-sponsored radio stations called on ordinary Rwandan civilians to murder their neighbors.
So, as you can see, God is not unjust -- it's human rulership or humans themselves that are unjust.
The Bible explains in James 1:14,15 what happens to us when our desires make us misbehave:
"But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires. Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
And 1 Tim 6:9,10 says concerning our desires: "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows."
Therefore, Titus 2:11-14 should resonant in our minds: "For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will appear. He gave himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to him alone and are eager to do good."
Finally, with all these lies and accusations levied against God, "...The Lord has a case against the nations. He will bring all people to trial and put the wicked to death. The Lord has spoken.’”
The Lord Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth. On that day the bodies of those whom the Lord has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.
Well, in our preceeding exposé, Solomon in Ecc. 8:9 makes the point: "I saw all this when I thought about the things that are done in this world where some people have power and others have to suffer under them."
How true this is? Remember also that God did not create evil or man's evil nature or desires because He's God of love (1 John 4:8), but we have ourselves responsible for human suffering as we've read examples above of the Rwanda genocide of about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus slaughtered (in July 1994) and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (between 1992 to 1995), which claimed more than 200,000 lives, million displaced, millions became refugees in neighboring countries, and much more human suffering.
Come to think of it, was it God who committed the Rwandan genocide and the Kosovo ethnic cleansing? Perhaps, one would argue God could have stopped the killings, couldn't He, you might wonder?
Now, let's reason it out! How could God have stopped the carnage, when He permitted human authorities (Rom.13:1-6) on the ground to provide law and order to protect lives and properties?
For instance, the UN and Belgium forces in Rwanda pulled out in the height of the genocide; the US refused involvement in the conflict; and the French allied to the Hutu government refused to stop the massacre. France was accused of involvement in the slaughter - a charge Paris denied.
Furthermore, during the period of the genocide, local officials and government-sponsored radio stations called on ordinary Rwandan civilians to murder their neighbors.
So, as you can see, God is not unjust -- it's human rulership or humans themselves that are unjust.
The Bible explains in James 1:14,15 what happens to us when our desires make us misbehave:
"But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires. Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
And 1 Tim 6:9,10 says concerning our desires: "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows."
Therefore, Titus 2:11-14 should resonant in our minds: "For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will appear. He gave himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to him alone and are eager to do good."
Finally, with all these lies and accusations levied against God, "...The Lord has a case against the nations. He will bring all people to trial and put the wicked to death. The Lord has spoken.’”
The Lord Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth. On that day the bodies of those whom the Lord has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.
Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, and you will be butchered like rams. There will be no way for you to escape. You moan and cry out in distress because the Lord in his anger has destroyed your nation and left your peaceful country in ruins.
The Lord has abandoned his people like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the Lord's fierce anger have turned the country into a desert."-- (Jeremiah 25:31-38)
The Lord has abandoned his people like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the Lord's fierce anger have turned the country into a desert."-- (Jeremiah 25:31-38)
Nevertheless, Jeremiah 10: 23-25 should be the prayer we conclude this exhortation before Jehovah brings His punishment upon those practicing wickedness and lying on God:
"Lord, I know that none of us are in charge of our own destiny; none of us have control over our own life. Correct your people, Lord, but do not be too hard on us or punish us when you are angry; that would be the end of us.
Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you and on the people who reject you. They have killed your people; they have destroyed us completely and left our country in ruins."
Consequently, dear reader, give God the glory, and don't accuse Him for humans' foolishness, and as they say in Liberia, God "has no fish to fry in your oil."
_____________________
"Lord, I know that none of us are in charge of our own destiny; none of us have control over our own life. Correct your people, Lord, but do not be too hard on us or punish us when you are angry; that would be the end of us.
Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you and on the people who reject you. They have killed your people; they have destroyed us completely and left our country in ruins."
Consequently, dear reader, give God the glory, and don't accuse Him for humans' foolishness, and as they say in Liberia, God "has no fish to fry in your oil."
_____________________
Bibliography:
*W. (2016, December 26). Ethnic Cleansing in the Bosnia War. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2017, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_in_the_Bosnian_War
¶Rwanda Genocide. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.history.com/topics/rwandan-genocide
#B. (2014, April 7). Rwanda Genocide: 100 days of Slaughter - BBC News. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506
•E. (2013, January 5). How many Planets are in the Universe? Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2013/01/05/how-many-planets-are-in-the-universe/
^W. (n.d.). Fidel Castro Death. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Cas Fidel Castro's death, an online news website
°Martel, F. (2017, January 23). Cuban Artist El-sexto Freed after two Months in Prison. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/01/23/cuban-artist-el-sexto-freed-two-months-prison/
∆Whitefield, M. (2017, January 25). Fidel Castro is more of a presence in death than in recent life. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article128744659.html
°Martel, F. (2017, January 23). Cuban Artist El-sexto Freed after two Months in Prison. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/01/23/cuban-artist-el-sexto-freed-two-months-prison/
∆Whitefield, M. (2017, January 25). Fidel Castro is more of a presence in death than in recent life. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article128744659.html
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