Which Dominates Your Life? Purpose Or Cause?

News With Views

By Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall

June 4, 2017

 People must have horribly miserable lives to willingly strap explosives on the chest of one of their children and tell him or her to blow up not just themselves, but other people, too.

Modern Americans are so spoiled; most have no idea about the standard of living – or lack of a standard – in poverty stricken nations.  Too many of us have no idea just how blessed we are and how thankful we should be.  Too few of us honor those who have lost their lives in service to America.

What does that really mean... “service to America”?  To many people, it means a person who gave their life so the idiot children of California liberals can prevent freedom of speech at the University of California Berkeley.  It means sacrificing their time on earth so we can grill hot dogs, hamburgers and steaks on our barbies last Monday... Memorial Day.

Adults who willingly tape explosives to their bodies and go to a public place to kill others must have totally meaningless lives if that’s the only life purpose they feel is worthy of them.  When innocent people who love life and are enjoying themselves at a public event need to worry about being blown up by those who have no meaning beyond a violent cause, we have returned to the attitudes enjoyed by our ancestors who lived in a cave.  Regressive defines “progressive.”

People who feel meaningless and powerless need a cause to find meaning in life.  They have nothing of value inside of themselves and must thus seek meaning by finding a “cause” outside of themselves.

Having a purpose implies choice; promoting a cause implies force.  If you doubt that, the students who took over the campus at Evergreen State College in Washington last week, demanding that all white people leave the campus for a day, prove my point. 

Having a life purpose and having a cause are quite different things... they are not even similar.  The only way to fight stupidity is to impose sufficient penalties to make people think twice before repeating such behavior... like refusing any student loans to attendees of that school because those who attend it are there not to learn but to force their views of life on others.  All financial aid to such a school should be ceased because the adults are not teaching; they are reacting to students who are teaching them how administrators should not behave.  What cowards!

We all need a reason for being alive.  We need to feel we matter.  If we can’t find a meaningful purpose in life, many people seek meaning in death... suicide, murder, violence – or, we escape facing life’s questions by seeking solace in drugs.  Or we take over university campuses to feel a fake sense of power.

Having a life’s purpose is an individual, not a group, thing.  No two people have the same skills, the same natural talents, the same thoughts or philosophies, the same education or self-discipline.  All of these things make up a life purpose.  That is precisely why having a life purpose simply cannot exist in a group environment.  Causes are born in groups.  Life purpose is born in individuals.

People who seek purpose by joining a group find no purpose, just a cause.  I wonder if they realize that at the moment they set off the explosives taped to their bodies, or as they run their car or truck into an innocent group of people to kill them.  Realize what?  Just how totally useless they are and how meaningless are their lives... how they do not matter.

Those are hard truths... but they are truths.  And we have other harsh truths with which we must come to grips.  We don’t like to think about them because it’s unpleasant to realize our own mortality. 

The two most basic truths in life are that 1) we are born and 2) we will die.  It’s what we do between those two events that either gives or withholds meaning for the time we spend on earth.  A basic look at human behavior makes it very clear that people have a deep need to feel the time they spent on earth matters – that they matter.

It is absolutely insane to bring people to America from extreme poverty and miserable societies – people who kill their own offspring so they can have a better life in the hereafter.  This life is so bad, death offers meaning unavailable to them in life:  Happiness.  They come to a free society and then demand the laws that governed and made their old lifestyle so miserable be put in place to govern them in their new, freedom-based home.

At public universities all over America, our children are being taught that Islam is a religion of peace.

First, Islam is not just a religion.  It is a total form of government and its “Constitution” is Sharia law.  It is impossible to be a Muslim if you do not accept Sharia law... just like it is impossible to be an American without pledging allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.  It would appear that many Americans have forgotten that... especially those who attend institutions of higher indoctrination.

In fact, because Sharia law prevents any Muslim from swearing allegiance to any way of life that takes precedence over Sharia -- to our Constitution -- a good case can be made that Muslims cannot be citizens of this country.  I have great respect for Muslims for being so firm in their faith.  Christians could learn a few lessons from them.

Donald Trump tried to convince people that there are some in the world who are better off staying in the misery they have created for themselves, but liberal progressives who prefer socialism to a constitutional republic fight to prove him wrong... but all of the explosions and death keep adding to President Trump’s wisdom on this subject.

We are told by most of our professors who are employed by universities that are financially supported by taxpayers – that would be you and I – that Islam is a religion of peace.  As explained above, it is not just a religion.  It is a religion contained within a government structure called Sharia law.  The following statistics prove there is nothing peaceful about it.

The Crusades began in 1095.  For those students who attend university in America and do not know which nations fought in America’s Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean or Vietnam wars, the Crusades were official wars declared by various nations against Islam.  What motivated these nations to declare war against non-European nations in the Middle East beginning in 1095?

In 1095, Muslims had been attacking Christians for almost 1,500 years.  They declared their wars against hundreds of nations and fought over millions of square miles. 

All we hear today is how the Muslim nations are the victims of Western imperialism.  However, the 1,500 years of Muslim imperialism should and does give Christian nations reasons to prevent the takeover of Christian nations today... though Angela Merkel and the rest of the G-20 do not seem to be aware of the dangers (regardless of the number of bombings, motor vehicle deaths, and rapes against the people of their nations -- their primary job is to protect citizens, not immigrants from the Middle East).

Maybe it will help if we remind the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) about the history of wars declared against Christian nations by Muslims.

In the fifth century B.C. (for Millennials and for those who attended Ivy League schools, that means Before Christ), the Persians invaded Europe in an attempt to conquer the Greeks.

August 20, 636 (that is 459 years before Christians fought back via the Crusades), the Muslims declared war, defeating the Byzentines, at the battle of Yarmuk.

 In July 637 (458 years BTC which means before the crusades), Muslims conquer Iraq. 

 In 639-642, Muslims conquer Egypt.

 In 641, Muslims Crusaders control Syria and Palestine and that began the siege of Jerusalem which lasted five months.  It is said 75,000 soldiers took part in these two efforts and they were quite bloody wars.  So it is clear that until 641, Jerusalem belonged to the Jews, not the Muslims who became the “new Palestinians” and remain so.

Between 644 and 650, Muslim Crusaders conquer Cyprus, Tripoli in North Africa and establish Islamic rule in Iran, Afghanistan and Sind.

In 652, the Muslims plundered Italy... the beginning of ongoing attacks.

In 678, the Muslims attacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople.

In 713, the Muslims conquered Spain.

By the time the Crusades began, an article in ClashDaily.com says “...Muslim armies had conquered two-thirds of the Christian world.”

And that is what motivated the Crusades in 1095.  There were terrible things done to Muslims by those holding themselves out to be followers of Christ and there is no excuse in this world for such savagery.  It is particularly disgusting because Christianity, like Islam, holds itself out to its believers to be a religion of love, joy and peace.  However, for the 1,500 years prior to the Crusades, the Christians were the ones being savaged by Muslims.  They did not become the attackers until 1095.

On the other hand, after being attacked, savaged and abused by Muslims for 1,500 years before the Crusades, Christian anger is somewhat understandable if not acceptable.  There is nothing in the Bible that tells us to turn the other cheek to evil.  We are to identify it and, when possible, destroy it.

And here we are again... Christians are being slaughtered by Muslims.  There are political reasons and political crimes behind the wrong-doings of the Western Christian world against the Middle East -- and from the Muslim perspective, they are good and we are the evil and they are trying to destroy us.  Nothing excuses the kinds of crimes perpetrated by Muslims against innocent people in this, the 21^st century after the birth of our Lord... especially the intentional killing of children.  There is also no excuse for the innocent Muslim lives lost from the wars perpetrated there by the West, including America, over oil... or is it the poppy fields?  Whether it is a bomb that unintentionally kills a child, or a knife used to slit a child’s throat, the result is the same:  Death of an innocent.

It has always puzzled me why there is so little discussion in the Christian world about the two sons of Abraham:  Ishmael and Isaac.  Read Genesis 16.  An Egyptian woman named Hagar was the maid servant of an elderly woman named Sarai, wife of Abram – who was about 85 when God told him in Genesis 15 that he and Sarai would have a son..., they never had children.  Sarai, wanting her husband to have a son, had encouraged her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, to sleep with her husband, Abram.

The Lord had told Abram that he and Sarai would have a son (Genesis 15), but both were so aged they did not take the words seriously.  Sarai actually laughed at the idea.  When Hagar conceived, she looked upon Sarai with contempt.  Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar who ran away into the desert.

An angel of the Lord found Hagar on the way to Shur and told her to return to her mistress, saying:  “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.  You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction.”  The name Ishmael means “God hears.”

The angel continued:  “He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over and against all his kinsmen.”

According to the MacArthur Study Bible, “wild donkey” refers to a wild donkey that is fiercely aggressive and independent and Ishmael would exhibit these traits and pass them on to his Arab descendants.  Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.

Then several years later, as God had promised Abram, Sarai became pregnant and had a son and, as God had told Abram he must do, the child was named Isaac. 

So, Abram became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah, as Abram was instructed by the Lord.

As the two sons grew in age and stature, Sarah became aware that as long as the illegitimate child of Abraham remained in the tribe, Ishmael would cause doubt to be cast upon the legitimate child’s right to inherit from his father.  Sarah demanded that Abraham cast Hagar and Ishmael out.  It was difficult because Abraham loved the illegitimate son he’d had with Hagar.

An angel of the Lord appeared and told Abraham, “Whatever Sarah says to you do as she tells you for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.  And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”

If you believe the Bible and continue reading the story of Ishmael and Isaac to its conclusion, it certainly appears that the violence that exists between Christians and Muslims in 2017 has its roots in Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham, and in Ishmael, son of Hagar and Abraham..

Isaac was the father of Jacob who wrestled with an angel all night before meeting his twin brother, Esau, the next day.  As dawn neared, the angel touched Jacob’s thigh and asked his name and when Jacob, son of Isaac, told him, the angel informed him that from this day forward his name would be Israel, no longer Jacob.  Until that moment, the word Israel is not spoken in the Holy Bible... the nation of Israel was born to Isaac’s son.

Perhaps our Creator has a sense of humor... one that has for several thousand years let the battle between illegitimate and legitimate sons, of abuse of an Egyptian slave woman and her son, of the Christians and Jews (who worship the same God) fighting to defend themselves from a wild donkey of a son who did produce 12 princes, as God’s angel promised Hagar Ishmael would.  

Upon reading the history of Islam and Christianity/Judaism, it appears one has been attacking the other for 2,500 years and the other has been defending and then attacking back.

Perhaps we are nearing the end of the battle for dominance between Ishmael and Isaac?