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All hell has broken loose

“The gate of hell has opened.”

That was what one resident of the now demolished neighborhood of Shijaiyah, Gaza said after Israel shelled his community.

“This is not a disaster, it is Hell”, said a local commander surveying the death and destruction after the downing of the Malaysian flight MH17 in Ukraine.

“What the hell is happening in Iraq right now?” asked the widely-read American magazine Mother Jones.

Scores have been killed in the past week in continuing clashes between rivaling militias in Libya. These clashes have destroyed the country’s two most important airports in Tripoli and Benghazi. Just today the world found out that another Christian was killed (this time beheaded!) in Benghazi for his faith.

The International State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continue their rampage through Iraq and Syria, beheading and burning on their way. This past week they burned a church in Mosul, Iraq that had been operating for 1,800 years!

Has “all hell broken loose”?

Yes. In fact, it has.

Without rebirth in Christ, the devil reigns in the hearts of man. Men and women are children of the devil. The devil is their god and hell is their home. Sin and death mark each person. (Jn. 8:44, Mt. 13:38, 1 Jn. 3:8,10).

Hell has broken loose in our souls and in our world. No one is innocent. No one is free of condemnation.

As a result, “the nations rage, the kingdoms totter”. Ps. 46:6

What hope is there?

CHRIST! Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. He is the our hope of glory.

Christ transforms us from “darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God,” (Acts 26:18). He entered our hellacious humanity and brought the hope of eternal, abundant, life in Him. He is the hope of the world for joy, peace, and thriving!

He is the hope of the nations. He is the only hope for every man in ISIS, every pro-Russian rebel, every militiaman in Libya, every person in Hamas, every soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, and yes, each one of us.

 

Photo Credit: Amir Farshad Embrahimi [CC0] via flickr.