Skip to main content

Genocide, Massacre, Ethnic Cleansing

We can understand that national pride in any nation has a propensity to deny, minimize, or ignore sins in that nation’s history. The United States is no exception. A nation with a Christian heritage has a greater conscience. The nation does not know how to get forgiven so it may deny that the sin ever happened. In early history the murder, rape and pillage that took place was recognized, accepted, and bragged about. Timur would take a city and tell each soldier to enter the city and bring back a head. A pyramid of 75,000 heads was then made outside the city.

In the 20th century Stalin, Mao, and Hitler all murdered people of their own nation in the tens of millions. Japan also committed great atrocities in Korea, China, and Southeast Asia. In recent years Japan came up with new school books for their children saying that these atrocities never happened. China and Korea strongly objected to the rewriting of history. As I understand it, Japan backed down.

These are facts of recent history and anyone who wishes to know the details they are very available. In recent years there has been mass murder in Cambodia 1978, in Rwanda 1994, Serbia in Bosnia and now in Darfur and Northern Uganda.

There is an ancient nation and people which has been Christian in name since the third century A.D. They have not converted to Islam from the Arabs nor from the invasion of Turks from Central Asia. The nation was Armenia. The language, the culture and people are called Armenians. Their culture is more distinct than Jewish cultures.

In 1894 the Sultan Abdul Hamid II ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1908 was responsible for the massacre of about 200,000 Armenians.

In 1909 20,000 Armenians were killed by Turks in Cilicia in south eastern Turkey.

In 1915 under the Young Turks, Talaat Pasha and Enver Pasha official genocide with great barbarity took place.

“It is estimated that out of the total Armenian population (about 1,800,000) about one-third escaped deportation, one-third was deported and one-third massacred.” Encyclopedia Britannia.

Mass murder, massacre, and genocide are good words to describe all of these events. “Ethnic cleansing” is a euphemism for genocide. Although there was a great world outcry by people, newspapers, and world leaders, no nation took action to stop the atrocities. It seems that nations take action only when the genocide is against them.

It is noteworthy that the perpetrators of these evil acts, leaders and participants, were Communists, Muslims, Fascists, and pagans. None of them were Christian. It is also noteworthy that relief came from the Christians but the “Christian” nations did not participate in trying to stop the massacre.
Recently, the Congress of the United States endeavored to declare that this genocide happened. It did not pass. For almost 100 years Turkey has taught their people that this did not happen or it was caused by the Armenians

We can rewrite history, but we cannot rewrite what is written in the books at the great white throne judgment.


“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11-15

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” Revelation 22:14-15

For further reading read The Burning Tigris by Peter Balakian and Henry Morgenthau’s diary of his three years as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey 1913-16.

You are permitted to relay this to your mailing list.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Old

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a

Three Types of People Christians Aren't Loving

There are three types of people in the world that Christians do not love with the Gospel . The first type are the people we witness to but do not love. The second type are the unbelievers that we do not witness to. The third are people we love but do not witness to. That sounds like doubletalk. Let’s change it. 1) We witness to people we love. 2) We love everybody and witness to them with love. As Christians, we have the fruit of the Spirit—love. We are commanded to love our neighbors and our enemies. The first thing is to have the love. The second is to choose to love our neighbors and enemies. Sometimes we can’t make the choice because we have lost the fruit of the Spirit, love. We lack the fruit of the Spirit of love because we are under the chastening of the Lord because of unconfessed sin. In order to get the love back, we must confess sin. Once we get the love back, we can choose to love our neighbors and enemies and preach the gospel to them.   Written December 22,