Siege in Sydney

An Islamic extremist took 17 hostages in a café in central Sydney on Monday, December 16.  After a 17-hour siege, at 2:00 a.m., he began shooting some of the hostages.  New South Wales (NSW) police had been well-positioned outside and stormed the café. Two of the people inside were killed and the gunman was shot dead by the police (AP, December 15, 2014). 

This was the first time Australia has experienced a terrorist attack and authorities have been preparing for some time. But what is behind the growing conflict between Western cultures and Islam?  Many Muslims are admonished to uphold the teachings of the Qu’ran, but to reject the increasingly humanistic values of the West.  In the last 50 years, the Christian underpinnings of law, culture and ethics in the West have been removed and replaced by secular ideas that discount God’s word as the authority to live by.

Bible prophecies have long warned this turning away from God will bring real consequences, “if you do not obey Me… I will even appoint terror over you… those who hate you shall reign over you... the alien who is among you shall rise higher… and you shall come down lower” (Leviticus 26:14-16; Deuteronomy 28:43).  As a result of disobedience by once-professing Christian nations, God is removing the protective “hedge” that He has provided to His people (Isaiah 5:5; Hosea 2:6).

To learn more about what is behind the increasing difficulties afflicting the Western world, be sure to request a free copy of The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy.