By Jim Denison
Are we seeing the beginning of World War III? Turkey recently approved 26 amendments to its national constitution. Voters passed measures to guarantee gender equality and protect children, the disabled and the elderly. Nearly 36 million people, 77% of the population, cast ballots. How could this be a bad thing?
Not so fast, opposition leaders are saying. They claim that other measures approved in the reform package will give Fuhrer-like powers to the current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan leads the Justice and Development Party, which advocates a much stronger Islamic character for the nation.
Last May, Erdogan’s negotiations with Iran led to a nuclear-fuel-swap agreement. The Turkish leader claimed that his efforts rendered further United Nations sanctions against Iran unnecessary. That same month, a flotilla launched from Turkey was intercepted by Israeli forces; the ensuing bloodshed was described by Erdogan as “inhuman state terror.” As a result of its recent actions, many believe Turkey to be a rising leader in the Islamic world.
The opposition in Turkey’s recent election represents the secularist tradition begun in 1923 by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. They claim that the government’s recent actions are part of a pattern designed to transform Turkey into an Islamic theocracy.
I have traveled often in Turkey over the years, and have been amazed by the contrast between the country and other Muslim nations. Women in Turkey are not required to wear Islamic clothing; men often wear Western suits. The government functions as a parliamentary democracy where clerics have no political office (unlike Iran, for instance, where Shiite Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the de facto leader of the nation). Many observers fear that the Western and democratic character of the nation is in jeopardy.
Why does this issue matter to America? George Friedman’s fascinating and controversial book, The Next 100 Years, predicts that Turkey will one day become the most powerful nation in the Islamic world. Turkey already possesses the second-largest military in NATO, after America; its economy is the largest in the Muslim world.
Friedman predicts that Turkey’s leaders will one day seek to remove Western influence from their region, aligning their nation with other powers in the next world war against America. None of this may come to pass, of course, but the recent elections are nonetheless food for thought.
Here’s what we know for certain will happen someday: “[T]he Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30). Before his return, “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (v. 7). Are these those days? Are current and coming conflicts in the Middle East the beginning of the end of history?
I have no idea. God put me on the preparation committee, not the planning committee. What I do know is that most Americans are not ready for Jesus’ return. Secularism and materialistic consumerism dominate our culture. We divide our lives into sacred versus secular, Sunday versus Monday, religion vs. the “real world.”
By contrast, Jesus taught us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33) and to pray that “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). If Jesus is your King, you’re reading these words on his computer. You’re breathing his air and wearing his clothes. He’s your King on Monday, not just Sunday. The only way to be prepared for your King to return (Rev. 19:11-16) is to serve him today.
Years ago I found a statement that impressed me so much that I taped it inside my preaching Bible: “There is one thing that must never be forgotten. It is as if a king had sent you into a foreign country with a task to perform. You go and perform many other tasks. But if you fail to perform the task for which you were sent, it will be as if you had done nothing at all.” What task have you been sent by your King to fulfill?