Personal From... Greed for our time

Leonard V. Johnson    About

COJCOM · Personal - Greed For Our Time - Audio Article

The other night I watched on television again a great movie “Darkest Hour,” the 2017 war drama featuring the legendary Sir Winston Churchill─ one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century─ and his unwavering belief that Adolf Hitler was indeed an evil, vile, despicable genocidal psychopath! And the fact that no peace could be achieved for our time! Even though Mr. Churchill may not have been aware of it, the LORD God was using him to lead the island of Great Britain to conquer tyranny with its tyrannical leaders!

While watching this film I asked again the question─ where are the great leaders of this world!? Why are they gone!? It’s sad to me to know that this generation is calling Mr. Churchill a warmonger! This world is certainly not like it was in my youth─ from the age of 12 to 20 the United States of America had a great blessing from our LORD God to be led by a great leader, President Ronald Reagan─ who had a profound sharp eye for the dangers that we were facing at that time. Personally, to me, the next to the last great leader since President Donald Trump!

Before I was born we had many great leaders in the USA! And to name but a few ─ John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt along with his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, and of course, Abraham Lincoln. Yet sadly, those great leaders have come and gone.

As I’ve stated before─ the calm before the storm is over! We are now facing the brunt of the storm! Where is our great civic leader to help lead us through this tremendous storm we are facing!?

As I sit here early morning writing at my desk here in Florida, our news headlines are all pointing to one terrible outcome! The utter collapse and destruction of life as we have come to know it!

● “Why prosecutors might get Trump─ and not Biden─ for classified documents!” ● “Russia Threatens To Nuke United Kingdom, Launch ‘Unstoppable’ Torpedo To Create 500–Meter Radioactive Tsunami”

● “North Korea issues chilling warning to US about escalating tensions” ● “U.S. General’s Prediction of War With China ‘in 2025’ Risks Turning Worst Fears Into Reality” ● “Doomsday clock advances to 90 seconds to midnight — the closest to apocalypse it's ever been” And the list goes on and on.

Is all but saber-rattling!?

News headlines in other nations read similarly –

● “Chinese video shows fighter jets tracking foreign warplanes over disputed waters” ● “Australia domestic violence: Over 600 charged in four-day police operation” ● “Australia targets Myanmar, Iran with economic sanctions” ● “Taliban beat up, detain professor who spoke out on women's school ban on live TV”

Again I ask ─ Why can’t we all just get along, as Rodney King stated after his beating by four police officers after initially evading being pulled over for driving while intoxicated. No matter what an individual does – no one deserves to be beaten to an inch of their life ─ or murdered, by a self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner! NO PERSON!

Let us take a REAL CLOSE LOOK at the STATE OF THIS WORLD, TODAY!

Is it, as my wife is famous for saying, that there is no more violence in the world than there always has been!? That there are only more news sources and greater technology to cover it!? Strangely enough, this appears to be the sentiment of others. I found a 2017 article entitled “Why human society isn't more—or less—violent than in the past.” According to their controversial new study: People who lived in small bands in the past had no more proclivity toward violence than we do today.

I think we can all agree, however, that a great many of our cities in this world have become a cauldron of evil with buckets of blood flowing through our streets the likes of which we have never seen! Yes!?

Just WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!?

Sadly, so many of our peoples around the world are like Emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. At least that is what my generation was taught in our history books.

According to Global Conflict Tracker ─ there is great civil unrest around the world! Massive criminal gang violence in Mexico, Instability in Venezuela, Mali, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, conflicts in Nigeria, in Somalia, civil war in South Sudan, and war in Ethiopia and Yemen. A grave territorial dispute raging in the South China Sea, and a North Korea crisis! Just to name a few. And one which I didn’t see on their list ─ a US border crisis getting worse by the day!

Sadly, this WORLD IS NOT PAYING ATTENTION AS A WHOLE! As that article speaks about, this world takes this violence globally as a matter of course. “The past had no more proclivity toward violence than we do today”! They suppose it to be just a natural state of affairs.

IT IS NOT!

In 1923, an American Western drama, Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton utters, “Greed will be the thing that kills us all!”

In this Personal, let’s discuss greed.

At the very beginning of this great downfall, Lucifer himself ─ filled with greed ─ said to himself, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; … I will be like the Most High” – Isaiah 14:13, 14. Greed and pride was at the forefront of his thinking.

Our 40th President of the United States of America made a dire PREDICTION! Here is what he warned –

I can't believe that this world can go on beyond our generation and on down to succeeding generations with this kind of weapon on both sides poised at each other without someday some fool or some maniac or some accident triggering the kind of war that is the end of the line for all of us.

He made this comment on May 16th, 1983, to the National Association of Home Builders, but it was certainly a comment made for more than just to them!

STILL TODAY – nuclear proliferation!

Eight sovereign states have publicly announced successful detonation of nuclear weapons. And according to World Population Review, it includes the five major countries that occupy the five permanent slots on the United Nations Security Council. In reality─ including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moving the ‘Doomsday Clock’ but 90 seconds to midnight─ this world’s final world war fuse shortens!

Why is greed one of the main reason for war!? Greed causes an unfair taking away or destruction of another’s property. This can occur at all levels, from an individual to an entire nation. Why in the nearly 6,000 years of mankind’s history, that mankind has NEVER been able to stop warring!? To have “lasting peace”!?

Why war in the first place!?

There are certainly a number of reasons why kingdoms war against one another, and why war exists.

WAR IS A BUSINESS. There are some in a few circles that are saying that the U.S. could use a war to get the economy back up and running. Mike Moffatt, writing for ThoughtCo. says, no. He says─ This faulty belief stems from a misunderstanding of the economic way of thinking. 1 Irregardless, the manufacturing, producing, and selling of military hardware brings BIG MONEY! There are entire industries that flourish for this very reason! Thousands of jobs hinge on WEAPONS─ like the U.S.’s newest fighter jet, the F-15 EX!

Compared to the Great War (1914-1918), in which, according to some estimates 8,500,000 soldiers were killed and an unknown number of civilian casualties! ─ Today, with our modern, sophisticated, technologically superior military weapons, such as the F-15 EX, which is advertised as “Enhanced Survivability” ─ lethal and reliable, with a price tag of $87.7 million each─ our modern militaries have the ability to annihilate every man, woman, and child from the face of the earth!

Thoughts & Attitudes

It’s all in attitude of mind. Let us notice what our Lord Jesus Christ says –

“’ For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22) thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23) All these evil things come from within and defile a man’” – Mark 7:21-23.

These evil thoughts from within the heart of man, uncontrolled, are what produces civil unrest, instabilities, territorial disputes, crises, and war! For when these evil things from within the heart of man has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death! - cf. James 1:14-15.

Nearly every nation and kingdom claim they want peace, but they want peace through their means ─ not the LORD God’s!

The LORD God’s Way of peace is based upon the love for others – cf. John 13:34. Yet love ─ true love ─ has been left out of human teaching throughout the ages. True unadulterated love is not even a part of the thinking of such groups as Antifa, the Black Lives Matter group, or the Bilderberg Group!

Greed, lust, and utter foolishness have been prevailing worldwide! Taking, instead of giving. Hating, instead of loving. And war is the final result. Civil unrest, among families, neighbors, kingdoms, and nations.

God’s living word lays it out before us!

A brother to our Lord Jesus, the apostle James writes –

“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2) You lust [you covet] and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3) You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” – James 4:1-3.

In other words, individuals, kingdoms, and nations fight and kill ─ and in many cases, murder. Desiring to have. Is it any wonder why we do not have “lasting peace”!? And if God is sought─ surely the very God many know of as “THE UNKNOWN GOD,” the One in whom they claim to worship, though they know Him not (Acts 17:23), or even, sadly, a great many pray to or through Mary the mother of our Lord Jesus, or even to angels; which is forbidden ─ they ask for their own selfish interests.

Where does this attitude of selfishness and greed actually come from!?

Let us acknowledge a vital TRUTH! Satan the Devil is real! And he is a great military tactician! He influences human behavior for the worst! And this cunning evil “serpent of old” deceives all peoples, kingdoms, and nations.

“ … that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; …” – Revelation 12:9.

Again, it is his spiritual influence that causes civil unrest, instabilities, territorial disputes, crises, and war! Just how this “anointed cherub” became Satan the Adversary is explained in our sermon “Lucifer - Became Satan The Adversary.”

Mankind’s first parents, under the very influence of Satan the Devil, outright rejected the LORD God (the great family of God; at this time consisting of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ) and Their Way. And mankind has reaped the consequence. Filled with hate, greed, and jealousy, Adam’s firstborn son, Cain, MURDERED his brother Abel!

“Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; [under the guise of brotherly familiarity, he concealed his PREMEDITATED PURPOSE] and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and [MURDERED; 1 John 3:12] him” – Genesis 4:8.

And sadly, mankind has been killing and murdering ever since!

‘Repent, and believe in the gospel’!

The time is at hand─ national and individual repentance unto our great God Most High and our Sovereign Lord, along with the acknowledgment of Their ultimate power will protect all those who trust in the LORD God!

I watched again last night on television “We Were Soldiers,” starring Mel Gibson, in which he played the real Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore, which dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14th, 1965. And while watching I couldn’t help but mourn for the loss of life on both sides─ 234 US soldiers dead with 242 wounded, and over 1,500 North Vietnamese soldiers having been killed!

Our beloved apostle Paul – under the divine inspiration of God’s Spirit says –

“Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. 20) Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ 21) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” – Romans 12:19-21.

Our great and awesome LORD God has all power. Even if one nation were to turn to the Lord God─ the very One who made the world and everything in it─ He would protect that nation against its enemies.

“When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” – Proverbs 16:7.

What nation or individual is willing to heed the Lord God’s message, TODAY!?

But even if our nations are not willing to heed His voice, His mercy comes─ “lasting peace” will be imposed upon a rebellious mankind for their own good.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ overcame our archenemy Satan the Devil! He qualified to become this earth’s RULER! He has PROMISED to return to earth –

“Now I saw heaven [the atmosphere] opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12) His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13) He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called THE WORD OF GOD [see John 1:1-14]. 14) And the armies in heaven [the atmosphere], clothed in fine linen, white and clean [representing righteousness], followed Him on white horses. 15) Now out of His mouth goes a sharp [two-edged] sword, that with it [His very living word; see Hebrews 4:12] He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16) And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” – Revelation 19:11-16.

When our Sovereign Lord returns He will put down any opposition against the kingdom of God! But WOE to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea!

“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, [the atmosphere] ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God [God the Father], and the power of His Christ [our Lord Jesus Christ] have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down” – Revelation 12:10.

Notice chapter 6 of the Book of Revelation as well –

“And the stars of heaven [the atmosphere] fell to earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.” - speaking of Satan the Devil and his minions.

Eventually, Satan the Devil along with his minions will be bound for a thousand years so that he cannot continue to deceive the whole world –

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven [again, the atmosphere], having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2) He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3) and cast him into the bottomless pit [the abyss; prison], and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. …” – Revelation 20:1-3.

Major violence and hate will subside. Military weaponry will be a thing of the past. Military weapons will be converted into peaceful and productive implements –

“He [the Lord our God] shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore” – Isaiah 2:4.

Instead, the LORD God’s Way of “lasting peace” will be taught from childhood. Knowledge about the LORD God and Their Way of life will prevail─

“Now it shall come to pass IN THE LATTER DAYS That the mountain of the LORD’s house [the headquarters of the kingdom of God; New Jerusalem] Shall be established on the top of the mountains [human ran kingdoms or governments], And shall be exalted above the hills [smaller nations]; and all nations shall flow to it” – Isaiah 2:2.

This is part of the glorious message from Father God that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ brought almost 2,000 years ago. Yet, this present evil world as a whole has rejected this message.

We and our affiliated churches ANNOUNCE THIS MESSAGE! □

1) Moffatt, M., Are Wars Good for the Economy? ThoughtCo. 7, 9, 2018; Retrieved 4 Feb. 2023.