Defining Terrorism

God is present in the world he has created. His presence creates the truth, goodness, beauty, justice and righteousness that flow from His being and mark His reality. The divine absence is seen in the false, deceptive, illusionary, ugly, evil and cruel existence of the fallen world. Where God is accepted, even in a superficial way, His qualities are felt in the world. The absence of God, and substitutes for God, leave the negative, hurtful characteristics mentioned above. The terror being inflicted upon the world by some in the name of religion, demonstrates the terrible negative power religion can have, when that religion is not the revealed religion of the Bible. Terrorism is not the product of ethnicity - it does not occur because one is Iraqi, Iranian, Palestinian, or of any other national origin. Terrorism is a product of a perverse understanding of who God is and what He expects of His people. The failure to discern the Spirit - and spirits - in religions, leads to the terrible misunderstanding of God and religion. And to the sad outworking of the wrong qualities in human existence.