Murderers and Martyrs

Let me begin by saying that to murder is a sin. To murder someone in the name of God is still a sin. Any virtue that was to be gained by an act of murder thus corrupts that very virtue and any blood shed against the innocent in the name of God is thus rejected by God. Consequently, a murderer cannot be a martyr. Virtue cannot be realized by acting in sin. Furthermore, we know God rejects murder because Christ the Lord will reward all martyrs a Crown of Righteousness when they are resurrected in the future. No murderer will receive this crown - only the murdered. And even more precise - only they that are murdered in Christ's name shall receive this crown.

There is nothing romantic about being martyred. It simply is a cheap shot to silence the Ambassador in Christ and to prevent him from completing his mission in recruiting for Christ. God himself recognizes the dangers of witnessing in his name especially in lands that are hostile and violent to his Church. Even Christ said to us that if they abused him then they will abuse us. If they murdered him will they not murder us as well?

Islam cannot stop Jesus Christ and they certainly cannot stop his royal family - the Church. Though they recognize Christ as "a prophet" they do not recognize his divinity and thus have demoted him in essence from the Son of God who sits at the right hand of God the Father to someone who merely preaches about God. Islam is a religion of murder. It is a religion the mob could be proud of - killing, theft, racketeering, rape, slavery - all of the vices of the old sin nature enshrined in religious edict and enforced by blind obedience.

In the end, it is the murdered that will be resurrected to life again. The murderer however, will suffer the second death. For a moment in time, it appears they get away with murder, however, in the fullness of time the right hand of God will catch up with them and they who have rejected the God-Man will be judged by him and will be incarcerated in the Lake of Fire. This is where they will suffer their second death.

Islam will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ' return. Anyone who opposes the Church by murdering the citizens of Heaven will answer for it before the Son of God. Woe to the enemies of Christ.

Romans 6

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ukraine Is Lost?

Last May, I wrote about the apparent loss of Ukraine to Russia that the West apparently deemed unworthy of defending. I lamented that Ukraine would have to fight for their independence alone and without the divine support of the United States in spite of the fact that we sat on their doorstep through the auspices of NATO in Western Europe. Belatedly, support seems to be forthcoming as reported in the New York Times recently under the headline, U.S. Considers Supplying Arms To Ukraine Forces.

Amazingly, a situation report was drawn up by a conglomeration of foreign policy think tanks such as the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Atlantic Council, the Brookings Institution and the Center For A New American Security that illustrated the need for increased military spending, both lethal and non-lethal, by the United States as well as the EU in support of Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of a growing Russian involvement in the battle over the future of Ukraine.

Last December, President Obama signed into law the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 (HR 5859), outlining additional aid for Ukraine and additional sanctions against Russia for violating an earlier ceasefire agreement arranged in Minsk on September 5th of 2014. The situation report by the Chicago Council and company goes further however, requesting drones, anti-drone tech and light armor anti-tank missiles for the Ukrainian armed forces. According to the report, most of the Ukrainian casualties (up to 70%) have been by drone-directed artillery support the Russians have given directly to the "separatists" that are loyal to Moscow. On top of this, Moscow just last week has authorized heavy weapons such as T72 and T80 tanks, a substantial force multiplier, to be used by Russian backed separatists against Ukrainian forces. The report also recommended a substantial increase of funds from the already authorized $350 million dollars in aid to be raised to a billion dollars per annum for the next several years in support of Kiev.

The question remains: is this enough to stop the Russians? Russia has the power to squash Ukraine if it wants. Does it have the political will to weather the political ramifications of such a dastardly deed? Really, that is the only thing keeping the Russians from an all out invasion of Ukraine at this point. However, if American military forces are landed in Ukraine, regardless of size, then by this action alone would prevent an immediate conventional military invasion by Russia of Ukraine. Separatists actions, however, is another thing entirely. That being said, a United States military landing in Ukraine may not even be conceivable due to past political obligations that prevents Western troops from being deployed inside Ukraine. Known as the Budapest Memorandum, this was an assurance, as opposed to a treaty, between Russia, the United States and Great Britain to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine if Kiev signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. They held a substantial number of nuclear warheads left over from the Cold War on their lands though operationally the Russians still controlled them. Ukraine did in fact sign this treaty in 1994.

So, now here we are in 2015 and Ukraine wants to join the West and Russia is supporting so called separatists to meld Ukraine back into the Russian political sphere. We stand on the abyss of a full scale conventional war that Europe has not seen since World War II. Who will blink? Who will back down? This is a delicate time that could result in desperate measures by both sides if one side goes too far. Perhaps the downing of the Malaysian airliner in Eastern Ukraine by Russian back separatists last year is an bloody omen of things to come? It certainly shows us how things can quickly escalate beyond anyone's control if this wound is left to fester for too long.