Moral Atomic Bomb

That's what Bernhard-Henri Levy calls the heat behind the cartoon dust-up--though even he still fails to recognize that the cartoons that started this latest rioting were fakes, and one of them was based on plagiarism. His solution: "reject the clash of civilizations of the kind desired by the extremists of the Arab-Muslim world and by them alone." Well, maybe I don't desire it. But I know that this clash must come. The Bible predicts a war that will bring to power a dictator more brutal than Bernhard-Henri Levy imagines, or dares imagine--and capable of anything. (He will start out seeming to be capable in the good sense of the world--as in, a capable administrator. But God's judgments will make hash of all his administrative efforts, as John the Revelator describes in detail.)

Levy speaks of triangles to describe linkages on the Muslim side, and the one he'd like to see on the Western side. But I see a three-cornered war, involving Christians, Muslims, and secularists. The secularists will gain the upper hand--until Christ Himself returns to settle everyone's hash.

Understand this: I am not issuing any rallying cry to the kind of violent action we have seen among Muslims. For one thing, I don't expect to be standing on this earth when that final clash comes. For another, Christ will come back in His own good time, and not to suit anyone on earth. And for a third--in sharp contrast to the competing visions of the Mahdi that Muslims have--Christ will do His own fighting, without anyone's help.

But dreams of man-made peace are just that: dreams, or deadly illusions. The Koran does not permit Muslims to negotiate in good faith with Westerners--and the Bible contains its own cautionary tale about negotiating with people you don't really know.