Is there a safe place – a country, a nation – from the growing madness?

There is.

My fellow substacker, Rod Dreher, uses the place “Israel” as a figure for anywhere one might call home among fellow humans who care for one another where the government seeks to protect its citizens instead of exposing them to – or perpetrating upon them! – myriad dangers, and where they can speak and live freely despite surrounding hostility. It could be his present homeland in Hungary, or even his former homeland in Louisiana (in the U.S.).

But he recently, in some of his writings, calls the emerging anti-Israel pro-Hamas fierce sentiment throughout the Western nations espoused by the progressive left younger generation an apocalypse – according the the Biblical Greek definition – an uncovering, a revelation, before unseen. And I would have to agree with him.

It is widespread, this hatred and vilification of the Israeli nation, which certainly is not a nation of saints, and has done things wrong re the Palestinians, but the agreement with Hamas that Israel – and all its Jews (and Jews worldwide, for that matter) – deserve to be annihilated in a total genocide, well, that is nothing but demonic. It is not a political solution they desire, but simply the murder of all Jews.

To leave the world stage and its events and situations, and just reflect for a moment: if such sentiments are now widely acknowledged as morally acceptable, then, with the changing of times and sentiments, what is to prevent such from targeting others who are deemed “unacceptable” by the current mob? Unacceptable, and warranting extermination?

Is there any “Israel” for souls like Rod who wish to live in peace and safety? (I realize “Israel” is a bad word among some today, but you get my point.)

It is an apocalypse – a very revelation of something once concealed – that presents itself to us: large segments of the societies or nations we live in are capable of agreeing that some of their fellow humans ought to be exterminated en mass.

And I say, no, there is no “Israel”, no place of safety in such a world as ours is now. For demonic forces and ideation appear very attractive to the people no longer tethered to the plumb line of God’s Law of Life and Love, the Ten Commandments (Isaiah 28:17).

What then? For myself, and those I love within my sphere of influence, I affirm there is indeed one – and only one! – safe place: In the care and love of God the Father, and Jesus the Messiah whom He sent to redeem and protect those who hear and love His voice, who cleave to His standards of Justice and Righteousness, becoming a new humanity made in His image. Such are shown mercy, despite their failing in perfect obedience to this law of life and love, as the righteousness of the Redeemer (not their own flawed righteousness) is given to cover them as a very robe in God’s eyes (Isaiah 61:10).

An oasis of sanity and peace in the howling wasteland the world is increasingly becoming, to the point where God’s “globe wonderland made hell” is what we increasingly live in – while His oasis is now not of this world, yet in it, a spiritual oasis accessible by faith in His promises, which are more real and reliable than our material surroundings.

     LORD JESUS
     
     They say You’re invisible,
     but You’re not invisible at all, 
     for my heart is not blinded
     by physical walls.
     
     You’re more real
     than anything here,
     and it’s Your close presence
     that keeps me from fear.

The oasis the God of Israel has established for His people, Jew and Gentile – as per the promises given to Abraham and the prophets since – is off-world in the heavens at this stage in His saving plan (but will be our eternal home when this age is but history), yet is accessible now by trusting in His word – His promises. This faith – trust – in His word has always been necessary:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest . . . All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (Matthew 11:28; John 6:37).

Yeshua Ha’Mashiach [Jesus the Christ] has spoken. His oasis awaits you who trust Him, Jew or Gentile. The prophets spoke of a world to come after this evil age is past and evil is destroyed. It is called, the global New Jerusalem, which, in our resurrection undying bodies, we shall inhabit in the Holy of Holies which it is, His direct presence. His presence is what makes Paradise Paradise.

Now is it off-world, safe from the devouring evil coming to try His saints in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10). He sits on the throne of His glory – called the Mercy Seat – awaiting all those who love His voice.