Why the threat is even worse than it appears

Tropical Storm Debby is posing what Axios calls a “nightmare scenario” for flooding across Georgia and South Carolina this week. Some seven thousand miles to our east, another nightmare scenario is unfolding for Israel. According to the Israeli news outlet Haaretz, Western diplomats expect Iran’s attack response to the Israeli-attributed assassination of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh to come within the next day or so. In related news:

• Iran sent a notice alerting pilots about GPS jamming in its airspace, similar to the warning it issued before its April 13 attack on Israel.
• Lufthansa canceled all flights to Israel until August 12.
• President Biden convened a national security meeting yesterday to discuss these developments. He also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah.
• Several countries have urged their nationals to leave Lebanon amid fears of a wider conflict in the region.
• Many Israelis displaced by Hezbollah bombing in the north are pressuring their government to make that part of the country safe, even if this means a full-blown war.

However, things are even worse for Israel than they appear.

“The ground is changing beneath our feet”

Writing in Foreign Affairs, international relations expert Dalia Dassa Kaye reports that, on a recent trip to Israel, she found a fundamental change in the “spirit” of the Middle East: many Israelis now believe that their adversaries think destroying their country is actually a realistic goal.

The October 7 invasion shattered Israeli assumptions that their military and technological superiority could deter their enemies and that they could live securely behind walls and fortified borders. Now analysts express a sense of existential dread they describe as different from any they have felt since their country’s independence in 1948.

Israel is hemorrhaging international support because of the enormous death toll and destruction in Gaza. In legal forums in The Hague, Israel faces heightened scrutiny for their West Bank occupation and their conduct of the war.

In addition, Iran’s April attack on Israel alarms authorities who worry that the next assault may not be so easily repelled. This while conflicts with Hezbollah to the north, Hamas to the west, jihadists to the east, and Houthis to the south continue with no end in sight. As the nation faces multi-pronged aggression unprecedented in its history, its reservists are exhausted, constraining Israel’s ability to sustain—much less heighten—its war effort.

As one former government official told Kaye, “The ground is changing beneath our feet.”

“The terrorism warning lights are blinking red again”

To respond to the crisis in the Middle East most effectively, we must engage with it most empathetically. But this is hard for many Americans.

We are deeply worried about yesterday’s further drops in the stock market and focused on a presidential election that is truly unprecedented. Our expansive oceans and vast military superiority have led us to feel protected from wars abroad.

But this sense of complacency is ill-founded.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iran’s leadership. Given Iran’s recent military and economic partnership with Russia and China, we are left to wonder what role Russia might play in any escalation between Iran and Israel. And what role the US might have to play in response.

Meanwhile, ISIS-K is escalating into a terror threat against our homeland. Analysts warn that “the terrorism warning lights are blinking red again,” echoing the run-up to 9/11. Undersea cables that conduct 99 percent of the world’s internet traffic are especially susceptible to sabotage. And AI-made bioweapons can be easily smuggled across borders and deployed with devastating consequences.

I report all of that to ask this: If the threats against Israel were threats against the US, how empathetically would you respond?

“When you know how much God is in love with you”

The biblical command to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) has not been this urgent since the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948. “Peace,” in Hebrew, translates shalom, meaning a deep sense of well-being with God, others, and ourselves. For Israel to have such shalom, it must be at peace with God and at peace with its neighbors.

Accordingly, let us pray fervently for peace to come to all peoples in this war-torn region. And let us pray for Jews and Muslims alike to turn to the one Messiah who can bring such peace to their nations and to their hearts.

Let us pray for them as empathetically as if they were our family because, in God’s eyes, they are. Jesus loves each of them as much as he loves each of us. He died for them just as fully as he died for us. Now it’s our turn to pay forward his compassion with ours.

Mother Teresa was right:

“When you know how much God is in love with you, then you can only live your life radiating that love.”

To this end, let’s close by making Henri Nouwen’s prayer ours today:

Dear God,

As you draw me ever deeper into your heart, I discover that my companions on the journey are women and men loved by you as fully and as intimately as I am. In your compassionate heart, there is a place for all of them. No one is excluded.

Give me a share in your compassion, dear God, so that your unlimited love may become visible in the way I love my brothers and sisters.

Amen.

Tuesday news to know:

• Kamala Harris is now Democratic presidential nominee, will face off against Donald Trump this fall
• Stocks bounce back in whiplash reversal
• Google loses antitrust case over search dominance
• Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasini resigns and flees country
• On this day in 1965: President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God carries your picture in his wallet.” —Tony Campolo

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How the Christian faith is relevant to financial fears

There were some massive news stories over the weekend:

• Debby strengthened into a hurricane overnight and may bring “catastrophic flooding” to Florida.
• Kamala Harris earned enough votes to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
• The US sent jets and warships to the Middle East as Israel prepares for severe and perhaps imminent Iranian retaliation.
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked a plea deal for the accused September 11 plotters.

But I would guess that none of these feel as personally relevant to you (unless you live in Florida) as the financial news of recent days that is causing many to wonder if a recession is imminent:

• The Dow closed down more than 600 points on Friday.
• The Nasdaq fell 10 percent below its record high on disappointing earnings from Amazon and Intel.
• US hiring unexpectedly declined sharply in July.
• Unemployment rose in the month as well.
• Investors fear that the Federal Reserve made a mistake by keeping interest rates at current levels.

The cacophony of bad news is sparking a global sell-off. Earlier today, Japanese stocks suffered their biggest one-day drop in history. European stocks have fallen more than 2 percent in early trading this morning.

Many have been struggling financially for some time. In a new CNN poll, 39 percent of US adults said they worry they won’t be able to make ends meet. The percentage of past due credit cards is at its highest level since 2012. Young adults are discouraged, and sixty-year-olds are “staring at financial peril.”

How is the Christian faith relevant to times like these?

Humans have four fundamental needs

New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof writes that the Chinese term for “crisis” (weiji) is composed of the characters for “danger” (wei) and for “opportunity” (ji). Accordingly, he notes, “We’re in a period of great danger but also one pregnant with opportunity for a new path—if we can seize it.”

The path we have been on for generations isn’t working. Secularism by definition values only this world and thus measures success by materialistic means. But this is what philosophers call a “category mistake,” akin to asking how much the number 7 weighs or the color of a C scale. In this case, we are using creation as if it were the Creator, valuing the means as the ends.

And this does not work because it cannot work.

Humans have four fundamental needs: belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. None can be met fully by material possessions. No matter what we have, it isn’t enough. There’s always more to own, more people to impress, more races to win.

In a consumption-based economy, we are conditioned to be consumers who choose what we want now over what we want most. In a post-Christian culture, we are conditioned to be existentialists who choose what we want in this world over what we will want in the next.

However, the financial anxiety of these days offers us, in Kristof’s terms, an “opportunity for a new path.”

“He bestowed on us at once every good grace”

St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1797) described God’s love for man:

He gave him a soul, made in his likeness, and endowed with memory, intellect, and will; he gave him a body equipped with the senses; it was for him that he created heaven and earth and such an abundance of things. He made all these things out of love for man, so that all creation might serve man, and man in turn might love God out of gratitude for so many gifts.

But he did not wish to give us only beautiful creatures; the truth is that to win for himself our love, he went so far as to bestow upon us the fullness of himself. The eternal Father went so far as to give us his only Son. When he saw that we were all dead through sin and deprived of his grace, what did he do? Compelled . . . by the superabundance of his love for us, he sent his beloved Son to make reparation for us and to call us back to a sinless life.

By giving us his Son, whom he did not spare precisely so that he might spare us, he bestowed on us at once every good: grace, love, and heaven; for all these goods are certainly inferior to the Son (my emphasis).

The God who “is” love (1 John 4:8) loves us more than any human can. He loved us before he made us. He created our race knowing that we would cost him the life of his Son. He loves us despite sins we do not know we have committed and those we do not yet know we will.

To prove this love, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Billy Graham commented: “We cannot save ourselves; even one sin, the Bible teaches, would be enough to keep us out of heaven. Nor can a Savior who is less than God save us, for only God can forgive sin and make us part of his family forever.”

And this is just what Jesus has done. He would do it all over again, just for you.

“We are of such value to God”

We’ll say more across the week about the transforming relevance of God’s love for us. For today, let’s close with this reflection by St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380):

“We are of such value to God that he came to live among us and to guide us home. He will go to any length to seek us, even to being lifted high upon the cross to draw us back to himself.”

In her view, “We can only respond by loving God for his love.”

Do you agree?

NOTE: You have a choice every night before you turn off the lights: Will you replay the day’s stress or embrace the peace that comes from God’s wisdom? We imagine you’d like to choose the second option more often! This is why we want to send you a unique and powerful new 365-evening devotional book by Janet Denison called Wisdom Matters. Get your copy today.

Monday news to know:

• Strikes on Gaza kill 12 and stabbing in Israel kills 2 as fears of wider war spike
• Who are the US citizens still being held abroad?
• Seven EU countries call on Venezuela to publish electoral rolls quickly
• Don’t miss: meteor shower peak, star forge, Mars and Jupiter converge
• On this day in 1914: German assault on Liege begins first battle of World War I

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God’s love is like an ocean. You can see its beginning, but not its end.” —Rick Warren

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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan were among twenty-four prisoners from seven countries who were released from Russian captivity yesterday in one of the largest prisoner swaps between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. While the government has been working to free Gershkovich for more than a year and Whelan for far longer than that, news of the exchange still came as a surprise to most.

Clues that something was going on began to emerge late Wednesday as a number of high-value prisoners and dissidents began to disappear from the prisons where they had been confined. As Reuters reported, at least six special government planes were confirmed to have traveled across the country to regions known to house political prisoners. Russian law requires that they receive an official pardon from President Vladimir Putin prior to any exchange, a process that began on Tuesday when he signed a number of “secret decrees” in Moscow.

Similar steps were taken to gather prisoners in the United States, Germany, and a host of other countries before the exchange took place at an airport in Ankara, Turkey. In total, sixteen people were released from Russian custody, while eight were freed by Western nations.

Prisoners released from Russia

The most high-profile prisoner was Evan Gershkovich. He was arrested on charges of espionage in March of 2023 while reporting from Yekaterinburg, Russia. While both the American government and the Wall Street Journal—where he was employed at the time—denied the charges, he was detained and then convicted last month. Prior to the exchange, he faced sixteen years in prison. He was the first American journalist to be charged with espionage in Russia since the Cold War. Given the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, most viewed him as a hostage rather than a criminal.

Whelan’s tale is much the same. A citizen of the US, Canada, Britain, and Ireland, he was in Russia to attend a wedding when it’s claimed that a Russian citizen gave him a flash drive with classified information on it. He denied any knowledge of the drive’s contents and the US government has long held that he is innocent of the charges. Still, he was tried and sentenced to sixteen years in prison back in June of 2020. Despite attempts to include him in previous prisoner exchanges since then, he had remained a Russian prisoner until yesterday.

Among the others set free were Alsu Kurmasheva—a Russian-American editor for Radio Free Europe—and several Russian opposition leaders, such as Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Oleg Orlov.

But while the return of those wrongfully imprisoned is a source of joy and worthy of celebration, it is important to remember that their freedom came at a cost.

Prisoners returned to Russia

Perhaps the most controversial of the eight prisoners released back to Russia is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen facing life in prison in Germany after he was convicted in 2019 of assassinating a Chechen separatist fighter in central Berlin. During his trial, German prosecutors indicated that Krasikov was working for the Russian Federal Security Service, while the judge suggested the order to commit the murder came from Putin directly. The Kremlin denied any involvement, but Putin has since praised Krasikov as someone who, “due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals.”

Also returned to Russia were a convicted computer hacker, two alleged Russian sleeper agents jailed in Slovenia, an intelligence operative accused of passing American-made electronics and ammunition to the Russian military, and an academic in Norway accused of being a spy.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul spoke for many when he remarked:

I am thrilled Evan, Paul, Alsu, Vladimir, and many others who have been illegally held by Putin’s regime are finally coming home to their families. But I remain concerned that continuing to trade innocent Americans for actual Russian criminals held in the US and elsewhere sends a dangerous message to Putin that only encourages further hostage taking by his regime.

So how can we embrace the joy of seeing the innocent released when it’s accompanied by the fear that the path taken to get there will only lead to more people sharing their fate in the future?

God’s call to see beyond the sin

In an ideal world, governments would only arrest those who have committed a crime, and the kind of political calculus McCaul laments would be unnecessary. However, we don’t live in an ideal world—on this side of heaven, we never will. I doubt that comes as a surprise.

What’s interesting, though, is that despite the general understanding that this world is a fallen place filled with sin and suffering, there’s something in us that recognizes it shouldn’t be that way. William Barclay put it like this:

“The true wonder of human beings is not that we are sinners, but that even in our sin we are haunted by goodness, that even in the mud we can never wholly forget the stars.”

As Christians, that should give us hope.

No matter how much the culture rejects God and embraces a worldview that stands in contrast to his, that spark of his identity with which every one of us was created will never be fully snuffed out in this life (Genesis 1:26). Consequently, every person you meet has the potential to come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and the God who loves them enough to send his Son to die to make that salvation possible doesn’t give us the option of giving up on any of them.

That doesn’t mean we naively ignore the evil around us or take an unrealistic view of the world. But a realistic view must leave room for God’s immeasurable capacity to redeem that evil and bring good from it. And when we allow despair and anger to rob us of that hope, we give up on much of our ability to take part in that good.

So, the next time you are tempted to look at the world and focus on all that is wrong, remember God’s call to see beyond the sin that surrounds us and to keep your eyes fixed on him instead.

Let’s start right now.

NOTE: If you have children or grandchildren, I highly encourage you to order A Life of Faith prayer journal today. This best-selling resource from Christian Parenting, a brand of Denison Ministries, runs low on stock each year because it’s been such an encouragement to parents and grandparents. A Life of Faith is a weekly journal that includes a short devotional with relevant and timely topics, scripture verses, a guided prayer, and space for you to write down your specific supplications for your child or grandchild. Copies are selling quickly, so don’t wait to order A Life of Faith prayer journal today.

Friday news to know:

• Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, steps down amidst increasing criticism
• Kamala Harris to choose running mate before campaign stop on Tuesday
• Three men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks plead guilty at Guantanamo Bay
• On this day in 1934: the German army takes an oath of allegiance to Hitler as their new Fuhrer

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day:

“The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can’t supply is proof that Heaven must be our home.” — C.S. Lewis

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