Bombs! Babies! Bible!

As I write these words in Jerusalem, sirens blare and we feel reverberating percussions of the Iron Dome system exploding Iranian missiles overhead. This is the second war that Susan and I have experienced while visiting Israel; we were here when war broke out with the Hamas invasion and massacre on October 7th, 2023. I want to put to rest immediately and unequivocally the poisonous rumors that we tend to precipitate Middle East wars by our presence.

That we start major wars is simply not true. But it is true that my wife and I have been igniting firestorms of controversy since we married and started our ministry together. While I firmly maintain that like the prophets of old, my paths are the paths of peace, conflict follows me almost inevitably. I am a Happy Warrior, and that means that I do not flee confrontation. I am more likely to embrace it joyfully because my worldview is sculpted by God’s Biblical Blueprint. However, much of American culture surrounding me is shaped by a secular schematic based on evolutionary biology.

I am sure that we are here because God created us in His image and placed us here, while they are equally sure that we are here because of a lengthy process of random, materialistic evolution through which primitive protoplasm just became plumbers and programmers. Only one of those beliefs can be true, so naturally I find myself in frequent fights.

And for much the same reason, Israel finds itself in constant conflict. If it was not pointless evolutionary biology, then we are here in this world because of the Design of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Or alternatively, we are here because of the design of the god of Islam. Those two beliefs produce two incompatible world views and although the American State Department and London’s Westminster are filled with government bureaucrats who’ve never met people willing to die for their beliefs, the Middle East is full of such people.

Although Iran’s population is ten times that of Israel, and although Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, are ferocious and formidable fighters, Israel continues to win wars as it has done for the past 78 years. This simply defies secular geopolitical pundits who grapple impotently for logical explanations. The very last explanation they would consider is “Behold the Guardian of Israel neither dozes nor sleeps”. (Psalms 121:4)

Maybe they would prefer some of these equally inexplicable facts about this improbable sliver of real estate on the shores of the Mediterranean. Sweden, Greece, Hungary, and Portugal are four industrialized western, countries with about the same population as Israel. Let’s look at them more closely.

One of the most reliable indicators of a country’s economic vitality is the number of tower cranes operating. After all, renting and operating a tower crane is very expensive and you’d only do that if you were building a very large structure. And you’d only build one of those if you have a pretty good sense that customers will purchase apartments or rent offices in your new highrise. And the presence of such customers suggests a level of economic vitality. Well, it turns out that a company by the name of Rider, Levett, & Bucknall make their living by collecting crane data and selling it to investors.

How many tower cranes are currently operating in Sweden? 200. Portugal—200, Hungary—200, Greece—100. How about Israel? The answer, obvious to any visitor to Israel with eyes in their head, is many more. How many more? Well, right now, over 1,700 tower cranes are operating in Israel.

Now, who is going to occupy all that space being constructed with the help of all those tower cranes? The answer is all the new babies who will grow up and require apartments in which to live and offices in which to work. How many of them are born each year?

Sweden sees 98,000 new babies each year (more than half are Moslem). Portugal—85,000 new babies each year. Hungary—72,000. Greece—62,000. How many babies are born in Israel each year? The answer is more than 200,000! (more than 80% are Jewish) That is over 500 new little people EACH day—all of whom will need apartments and offices.

As dying European and Asian countries are discovering, it is impossible to stimulate many new children through economic incentive. On the contrary, many new children produce economic vitality and an atmosphere of irrepressible optimism. And the tower cranes prove it. Winning wars is similar to economic vitality. It takes optimism and Israel has that in vast quantities. So, little by little, the sirens are becoming less frequent, and we hear fewer and fewer explosive sounds of bursting ammunition. Soon, with God’s help, Israel will have won yet another war, the airports will reopen, and with mixed feelings, Susan and I will return to our home in America.

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