Unrestricted Warfare

Unrestricted Warfare is a book you might have missed, published in 1999. It was written by two Chinese Air Force colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. The basic thesis of the book is that anything China does to bring down the US is acceptable – the doctrine of unrestricted warfare.

Qiao was quoted as stating that “the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” According to the downloadable pdf, the book was published before the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Remember that incident? The US accidently bombed an embassy that was clearly marked on maps of Belgrade and excused the action by saying they didn’t know it was an embassy. The CIA targeted that strike – but to be fair, the embassy was broadcasting signals for Serbs.

What we forget sometimes here in Western Christian Civiliation is that before the cross, might made right. Powerful people could do anything they wanted to the less powerful. It was the church that imposed rules on warfare. This is an historical truth deeply embedded in our culture – so deeply that now sometimes people are held accountable for war crimes. Perhaps not often enough, but sometimes. The further we drift for our moral foundations of course the more these concepts are likely to fade away.

One of the ‘gifts’ that China has been supplying to the United States is fentanyl – a deadly narcotic. Either the drug itself or Chinese labs ship the chemicals for making fentanyl to the cartels cross our southern border.

The US had a record number of fatal overdoses last year – 36,500 were from synthetic opiods like fentanyl. There were others as well because fentanyl gets mixed into cocaine and methamphetamine. The total number of drug fatalities from overdoses according to CDC was 70,980.

Learn to use narcan and carry it with you – it will make you something of a combat medic.

kidnapped missionary killed

According to a report out today by World Watch Monitor, a Swiss missionary who had been kidnapped a second time in northern Mali has been executed by her abductors. The source of the information was a woman aid worker who was held with the Swiss woman.

The first time the Swiss missionary was taken in northern Mali was in 2012. She was kept for 10 days. She returned home to Switzerland for a time, but then went to Timbuktu to continue her mission work. She appeared in several films produced by jihadist groups during her period of captivity which started in 2016 this second time.

Pray for the others who are still being held captive in this region of the world.

Professor Patrice Nganang

How does a literature professor at Stony Brook end up in jail in Cameroon? He wrote an article critical of how the government is treating its English speaking people.

It turned out relatively will for the professor who holds dual citizenship between Cameroon and the US as he was expelled from the nation of his birth and told not to return. Charges against him included issuing a death threat; insulting constitutional bodies, specifically the military; and inciting violence in a Facebook post.

Be aware that foreign governments monitor your Facebook accounts.

another Dalit woman dies

Another Dalit woman died in India today. The 19 year old had been raped by upper caste men two weeks ago and strangled. They have been arrested and charged, but that won’t bring her back.

“Dalit” comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “broken” or “downtrodden.” This is the word used now for those formerly known as “untouchables: in a society with a rigid caste system. Through the centuries, Dalits have been the victims of man’s inhumanity to man.

Did you know that Dalits form about 60 per cent of India’s Christian community?

If you haven’t read Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland, I encourage you to do so. Holland is not a Christian – but an excellent historian. He gives a very good account of how Christianity changed our world so we don’t think powerful men have the right to use the bodies of the powerless.

Consider others more important than yourselves. That was, and is, a fundamentally radical idea. It is a concept our civilization is privileged to hold.

Virologist says coronavirus made in lab

Virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan says the coronavirus as made in a lab – it is a chimera. A chimera is a virus that is spliced together. She also believes it was released intentionally.

Why? Look to what the virus accomplished and that might give you clues to the motives. Please watch her interview.

Pray for this brave woman.

sad day for Iraq

Dr. Riham Yaqoob was assassinate by unidentified assailants on Wednesday. Her death followed that of another activist on Friday when caused citizens to take to the street in protest. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi dismissed Basra’s chief of police and other security officials in response to the killings.

hail Xi Jinping!

Chinese church leaders, in state approved churches, have been order to either praise the communist party and Xi Jinping or are not allowed to re-open.

May we suggest a few sermon topics for these church leaders? How about dominion belongs to the LORD and He rules over the nations, including communist China with its leader? Mybe Isaiah 40:17-18, how before Him all the nations are as nothing? Or perhaps Ezekiel 14:13-18? if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men – Noah, Daniel and Job – were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness,’ declares the Sovereign Lord. . . . ‘Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass throughout the land,’ and I kill its men and their animals, as surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved.

Plenty of material in the Old and New Testament to show the place that Xi Jinping occupies in the grand scheme of things – certainly he is included with others in ‘every knee shall bow.’

While this may not be what the communist party had in mind with its directives, there is plenty of material in the scriptures that it is not just Western leaders of ‘christendom’ who are ruled by the Sovereign Lord of History.

Preaching about national affairs, as ordered, ought not to be a problem as the Old Testament contains plenty of material. The prophets have a great deal to say about nations. China and Xi Jinping are certainly just modern examples of past nations where rulers thought they were supreme. It ought not to be too difficult to find instances of the United States falling short of God’s standards either (Psalm 33:12-19).

As to Chinese cultural traditions? “Daoism” is one of the great traditional religions of China. It is concerned principally with the reign of heaven Heaven’s will is a Chinese political and religious teaching that was used in ancient China to justify the rule of the King or Emperor of China. Heaven, or Tian 天, bestows leadership.

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords knows that Xi Jinping is ruling China, even if Xi Jinping doesn’t know to whom he will answer.

In 2018 the government of China declared there were 44 million Christians in China. If the underground churches are included, the number is closer to 80 million. This means there are probably more faithful Christians in China than the US. Consider this, only 23 percent of people who claim to be Christians in the US attend assembly each week which would be about 55 million people. By 2030, there will likely be 247 million Christians in China.

The underground church is growing in China. The government has an official five year plan issued nit 2018 which calls for inserting “patriotic education” and “socialist core values” into churches, revising the Bible and using church sermons to enforce party leadership and reject foreign influences, killing some for organ harvest, targeting children (banned Sunday school), renouncing Christianity, revere Xi Jinping, and retranslating and annotating the bible.

Here are examples from the “new” version of the bible. The first commandment reads, “Thou shall have no other gods before me, except as required by Chinese law.” How about, “Thou shall not kill, unless thou are killing rightest, counterrevolutionaries, running dogs, separatists, religious extremists, hostile foreign forces, etc. The New Testament has also been revised.

You might want to be proactive and memorize scripture, unless you don’t care about the rise of China. Meanwhile, remember the Lord is in charge.

Algorithms to Live By

It’s not often we recommend a book, but this is useful one called Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions. It was written by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.

This book takes powerful lessons from computer science and explains how they can be useful for regular humans. I don’t want to ruin the book for you, but here are a few gems: 1) older people take longer to retrieve information from memory, not because they are getting senile, but because they have more stored, 2) piles are the most efficient way to store the paperwork on your desk, 3) there is an optimal time to search for an apartment or mate before taking the plunge. I am not giving the rest of the book away, but it is really interesting and insightful.

Lament for Beirut

Beirut is one of the oldest cities in the world, it has been inhabited for more than 5000 years. It is the seat of government in Lebanon. The blast devastated neighborhoods and impacted half the city. Ammonium nitrate, 2,750 tons, exploded near the port and caused mass casualties. Emergency workers are still searching for survivors. A 2012 study found that 40 percent of the population of Beirut is Christian. Christianity in Lebanon is nearly as old as the faith itself. Paul preached in Lebanon, having lingered with the early Christians in Tyre and Sidon. Maybe you know the place as home of Phoenicians. Luke 10:1-42 mentions the place.

Hinduism – on steroids

Mahatma Ghandhi, as you might recall, said “I like your Christ, but not your Christianity.” I like your Christ, but not your Christianity.” He was noting the failure of the West in living up to the teaching of Jesus Christ.  God forgive us that our two major politic parties seem to be the parties of lust and greed.

Ghandhi was assassinated by an advocated for Hindu Nationalism, Nathuram Godse.  Godse has been a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).  Godse’s chief gripe against Ghandi was being too accommodating to Muslims during the partition of India.  The goal here is not to focus on Ghandhi but on the RSS.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh literally means “national volunteer organization.”  It was founded in 1925 and had six million members by 2014. RSS supports Hindu nationalism.  It has been described as almost fascist in the classical sense. 

The cabinet of the first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru banned the Hindutva ideology-based RSS after Ghandhi’s assassination.  It was banned again under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.  But in 2014, RSS member Narendra Modi was elected Prime Minster of India. He was elected a second time by a landslide in 2019.  Since his election, RSS membership has increased by 20 percent. 

Anyone who leads others away from Hinduism is targeted with imputing by the RSS.  Social media reports on Christian missionary activity across the nation. In 2017, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) ranked India’s persecution severity at “Tier 2” along with Iraq and Afghanistan. As of 2020, USCIRF placed India as Tier-1 in minority persecution along with countries like North Korea and Pakistan.

Within the decade, India will be the most populous nation on earth. Pray for the Christians in India as they carry on the mission of seeking and saving the lost.