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The Trumpet Herald

Giving the trumpet a certain sound

August 2005

London Terrorist Attacks

On July 7, 2005, suicide bomber attacks on the London transportation system took at least 55 lives. Time magazine reported on some of the aftermath:

In the aftermath of terrorist attacks like the London subway bombings, it is often tempting to conclude that those who purposely commit suicide in the service of mass slaughter must be sick, evil, not quite human; they are not us. But as investigators pieced together the fragments of the plot that left at least 55 dead, Britons were forced to confront a reality nearly as disturbing as the attacks themselves: the killers were their own. (“Hate Around The Corner,” www.time.com, July. 25, 2005)

And there may be more to come:

A huge fear among counterterrorism officials is that the London bombings may be part of a wave of attacks. French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard says French and Spanish investigators have been asked by their British counterparts to collaborate in finding “two or even three other teams” of suicide bombers that could be part of the Pakistani-led networks responsible for the London attacks. (ibid.)

News reports indicate that four more small blasts have hit London transportation as this issue is being written.

Inspired Commentary

Fear is a potent motivator to public opinion regarding giving up personal freedoms in the hope of gaining more personal security. Who can predict what a great fear might lead a superpower nation to do?

The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church. (Testimonies, v. 5, p. 81)

Supreme Court Vacancy

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made a surprise announcement on July 1 that she was retiring when a replacement could be confirmed. President Bush on July 19 nominated Appellate Judge John G. Roberts Jr., for the position. O’Connor has been called a key vote in deciding some cases before the Supreme Court. Filling that opening with a conservative is a prominent goal of the “religious right” in the U.S. The following comments by a church attorney active in religious liberty issues mention some of the issues involved:

3. Judge Roberts is undoubtedly well qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, and is expected to excel in his legal reasoning and judgment. He may or may not deliver what the religious right is hoping for – a knock out blow to Roe v. Wade. Historically, judges have surprised people when they are on the Supreme Court, and have to decide actual cases.

4. Although it was inevitable, given the current politics, that the Bush Administration would obtain approval of the religious right for any nomination, the power wielded by the religious right should alarm students of Bible prophecy. It is unseemly for the church to be wielding so much political power. It is also a fulfillment of Revelation 13. (“Judge John G. Roberts Nominated to Supreme Court Expected to be Confirmed” analysis by Alan J. Reinach, Esq, Religious Liberty Newsflash [an email newsletter], July 20, 2005)

Inspired Commentary

Although we have understood an end-times national voice regarding religious freedom to come through legislation rather than court decisions, the voice of the Supreme Court may also have a role:

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Rev. 13:11-14)

Cohabitation Replacing Dating

A recent item in USA Today reported on sociology research highlighting a trend toward unmarried cohabitation:

Testing the marital waters by living together is a common practice among today's marriage-wary twenty- and thirtysomethings.

The number of unmarried couples living together increased tenfold from 1960 to 2000, the U.S. Census says; about 10 million people are living with a partner of the opposite sex. That's about 8% of U.S. coupled households. Data show that most unmarried partners who live together are 25 to 34.

“In some sense, cohabitation is replacing dating,” says Pamela Smock, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. She’s among researchers who are bringing attention to a living arrangement that is almost a foregone conclusion for many singles.

What’s more evident, she suggests, is a probable increase in “serial cohabitation,” or living with one partner for a time, then another. High housing costs and tight budgets often lead young couples to cohabit because it “makes sense to young people if they’re serious about each other at all.” (http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2005-07-17-cohabitation_x.htm)

Beside the issue of renting one place instead of two, one participant in a cohabitation arrangement commented:

Anderson's parents are divorced, and “he definitely didn't want to be the person who had to tell a child that he was moving out,” Hoversten says. “So we took our time in getting engaged. We wanted to make sure it was right. Living together can always be undone. The marriage part of it we see a little differently.”

Inspired Commentary

The injunctions of the Bible don’t seem to have much weight in the thinking of many in the cohabitation crowd. What does it take to be married in the sight of God as opposed to the pronouncement of human legal systems?

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:23, 24)

For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away [divorce]: for one covereth violence with his garment [for it covers one’s garment with violence], saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously." (Mal 2:16)

And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. (Matt. 19:9)

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication [sexual immorality], let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. (1 Cor. 7:1, 2).