February 2011

by Ramesh Richard

 
Dr. Richard also recorded a talk entitled “A Middle Eastern Foreign Policy for the Christian Believer.” If you would like a copy please email info@rreach.org.

Generally, as an observer and interpreter of world events, what are your thoughts about the current unrest in the Middle East?

This may be a fad, or it may be a trend. If the unrest is an international contagion that is sustained across regions and is prolonged over time, it would be classified as a trend, much like after the Berlin Wall falling in late 1989. Nations around our world, including our own, are presently going through
all kinds of upheaval, economic, physical/natural, and political –all permitted by the Sovereign God to sensitize the world to His supernatural revelatory and personal salvific initiatives.

What do you believe to be biblical response to the situation in the Middle East?

We do good to all people, especially to those in the household of faith (Gal. 6:10). Whether we support their fight or not, we must address the disastrous fall-out that adversely affects others in the human family, and God’s family. Such sacrificial involvement will be a powerful testimony to the Muslim world –the moderate and the fanatic world –that while Christians do not stir up violence, we help those affected by violence regardless of where we fall in our political preferences.

What, in your opinion, is most significant about what is happening in this region of the world? Is there any prophetic significance?

It is best not do a “newspaper interpretation” of Scripture. Technically, nothing needs to happen in order for the next prophetic event to happen—the Coming of Christ for His Church. Biblical prophecy includes Egypt, Assyria, and Israel (i.e., the region in question) being called God’s people and inheritance (Isaiah 19:24-25).

What do you hope will be the result of what we’re seeing now?

My hope is that countries will be made freer for the gospel—In personal witness, public proclamation, and freedom of worship –my only criterion for the success of any mass movement, social disruption, or revolution.