From BALI to BETHLEHEM

  EVIL on our doorstep has demonstrated the bankruptcy both of secular relativism and of the anaemic Clayton's Christianity that accommodates to it, not to mention "designer Buddhism".
  The horrific Bali bombing, virtually on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the New York [World] Trade Centre [and the Pentagon, Washington], has reminded us afresh of the reality of evil not to mention our own vulnerability and mortality.
  The Australian media, in reporting the carnage at the Kuta nightclub, have naturally focused on the immense tragedy for many Australian families. There has been little mention of the simultaneous bombing in Manado, a mainly Christian city in North Sulawesi, or of the pattern of Islamic terror to which Christian communities in Eastern Indonesia have been subjected for the past three years.
  Between five and ten thousand Christians have been killed. Others have been tortured and many forced to convert to Islam. Churches have been destroyed and thousands driven from their homes and land by invading jihad forces often with the compliance of the Indonesian military.

From the Bishop of North West Australia

  There has been scant mention in the Australian media of this systematic violence against Christians. Where it has been reported it has been portrayed as "inter religious conflict".
  It is worth noticing by the way, that Osama bin Laden has declared Australians to be a legitimate target, not because of the Government's foreign policy towards Iraq, but because of our "crusade" in East Timor.

ISLAM AND VIOLENCE
  Insurgency and terrorism are on the increase. Whereas a few decades ago such violence was caused mainly by atheistic Marxist or Maoist groups (and still is in countries such as Peru and Nepal), the motivation increasingly is religious and especially Islamic.
  We should constantly pray for Christian victims in the Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and Indonesia. We should confess that Christians are far from guiltless. Every Muslim knows the story of the Crusades, almost forgotten in the West.

[Picture of man's face with white beard]  Bishop Nichols

  We are of course repeatedly told that religion is the cause of the world's troubles. The Bible from the beginning, however, shows that violence is a fruit of our rebellion against the Creator (Witness Lamech's eulogy of revenge in Genesis chapter 4). Moreover, the most awful killings in the past century occurred not in religious societies but under the anti-religious governments of Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot. The problem is not religion but human nature.
  Unfortunately Islam, despite its noble vision of Allah as good Creator and righteous Judge, provides justification for terror and violent revolution. Mohammed commanded and practised jihad against infidels and death for apostates. Those who convert to Christianity are legally executed in some Muslim countries today. There are Muslim leaders in Western countries who genuinely seek to spiritualize the "jihad" but the Quran [Koran] and Islamic

history are against them. Mohammed rode into Mecca on a stallion to subjugate with the sword. By contrast Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem to humbly suffer and die for the sins of the world.
WHERE WAS GOD?
  When a tragedy such as the Bali bombing occurs we are often challenged with the question "And where was God?" It is a perverse question because it assumes God owes us His aid and protection. It is particularly perverse and illogical if it comes from an unbeliever. Thus the atheist who regards humanity as an accident of blind evolution can make no value judgement. He cannot explain his feeling of indignation at evil, nor the sense of sympathy, fairness, goodness and love which he shares with believers. He cannot in the end declare something to be just or unjust without an intellectual framework in which a just God is at the centre.
  But where was God when those religious fanatics detonated the bombs at Kuta? Answer? He was exactly where He was when religious fanatics killed His Son Jesus Christ -- in complete control of everything that happened. This is the clear teaching of Jesus and his apostles. Those who plotted to bring about Jesus' crucifixion were completely responsible for their wicked deed. Yet in their actions and through His death, Almighty God was relentlessly working out His eternal

plan in a way beyond the grasp of our puny minds (Acts 2:23).
TO BETHLEHEM
  Evil has not in fact just appeared on our doorstep. It has been with us for a long time -- ever since original man doubted and disobeyed God's word. G.K.Chesterton summarized the problem when he responded to an article in The Times in the briefest of letters:
  "In response to your question 'What's wrong with the world?' -- I am. Yours faithfully, G.K.Chesterton."
  The root cause of terrorism is not in the end to be found in our foreign policy, Middle East politics or religious fanaticism, but in the sinfulness of the human heart.
  It is this root cause of evil that God came to solve in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bali bombing is a wake up call. It warns us that evil is real, that life is brief and fragile and that death is certain. Moreover we are reminded that there is a final day of reckoning when each of us must give an account of himself to God who will judge the world with justice. But against this realistic backdrop comes the best tidings we shall ever hear:
  "Behold I bring you good news of great joy for all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11) -- Anthony H. Nichols