When I got up this morning, there were reports of gunshots in Paris. I went to do the tasks of a Saturday morning, and then returned some six or so hours later, doing the lectionary reading a bit late. And, as Looking glass noted, things are moving on quite rapidly. From BBC
France has declared a national state of emergency and has closed its borders after scores of people were killed in multiple gun and bomb attacks in Paris.
At least 100 people are reported to have died at the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris.
Gunmen took many hostages there before being overpowered when police stormed the building.
Others died in a reported suicide blast near the Stade de France and gun attacks on city centre restaurants.
Paris residents have been asked to stay indoors and about 1,500 military personnel are being deployed across the city.
What can one say? There are a bunch of families grieving. Because Islam is evil. Because it kills randomly, for the glory of that demon Allah. Because the jihadis simply went where the crowds were. As if the French cannot fight: they can, oh, yes, they can. Go visit the graves from that war last century if you don’t believe this.
What one can say is that there will be a judgment, and those who die for Christ will have qualified as those who judge. We will be held accountable.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
How does this fit with what is happening? We are witnessing a slow train wreck in Europe. It is not a matter of saying that there will be blood on the streets: the blood is being mopped up. At present this is not understandable. The world appears mad.
The hope we have is that there will be true justice. That we will see it. And if we are blessed in our witness in this life, we will be doing the judging.
Let us pray for Europe, that they will return to God Almighty. For they have let the Barbarians in, and shunned the God of Israel. For that there will be an accounting. Let there be instead a reformation of the secular state, and a return to Christendom. Before the blood on the street becomes a flood.