Disdain for the Cross Dr. Don Bailey In June of 1950 the Korean War erupted when the North Korean Communists hordes crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea. At that time I was serving with US Army’s 24th Infantry Division, attached to the 24th Medical Battalion, Kokura Japan. On July 11, we were immediately put on the alert, and within hours the 24th Medical Battalion was in Korea and was unloading ambulances, with big-red crosses, from trains in Pusan Korea. I had no idea that by July 16 my comrade and I would be transporting seven wounded soldiers from the frontline. At the same time, the Chinese Communists were making their big push southward, which pressured the 24th Division’s 19th Infantry to retreat. When the pullback began, we happened to be in front of the 19th. Unfortunately for us, the Communists had secretly set up machineguns so that when the retreat began, we found ourselves sandwiched between the machine gun emplacements and the 19th. Then all hell broke loose. They began firing on my ambulance. Under the Geneva Convention, ambulances marked with a big red cross were not to be fired upon, but a cross to any Communist or any leftist movement is a target; they destroyed the ambulance and in the process, I was wounded by multiple machinegun fire. My point is this: No leftist movement, Communist or otherwise, has any respect for a cross of any kind. Take for example the utter contempt that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other related groups have for crosses: they oppose cross-shaped headstones and seek to have them removed from all federal cemeteries and state owned or state maintained property; they have sought the removal of an 8-foot cross in California’s Mojave National Preserve; they were engaged in the removal of an illumined cross in a southern California City Park; they have been strongly opposed to a steel-beamed cross proposed for inclusion in World Trade Center memorial; and, another example of hostility toward the cross was publicized on Oct. 7, 2010: At the time of this editing, the most recent opposition to the cross had been from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation on the small town of Whiteville, Tenn., which resulted in the removal of the cross from the citys water tower to another location (foxnews/us/2011/10/07). Since then other attacks have been waged against the cross, at least three in opposition to the steel-beamed cross found in the shambles of the World Trade Center; one such assault being directed toward it at the present by the same fools of the Atheistic Society(3/11/2014). Believe it or not, they are also in the process of trying to have the WWI Memorial Cross removed (3/11/2014). There is no end to their hatred for the cross. If it is on grave markers in military cemeteries, they hate it. They show utter contempt for it as a marker beside of highways where loved ones have been killed in accidents, and God forbid should it be on a church steeple. Yes, the cross strikes horror in the hearts of the Atheists Organizations, the ACLU, and others...like holding a cross before the face of a vampire. They shudder to even think of looking at a cross. They grab their black cape of hate and cover their eyes because that symbol reminds them of the cross on Mount Calvary where the Savior shed his blood and gave Himself as a sacrifice for their sin. They hate the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross. Neither has any importance whatsoever in their hearts. “The word of the cross is foolishness [a matter of little or no importance, brackets mine] to those who are perishing...” (I Cor. 1:18). Soon those who love Christ, and all He did for them on the cross will observe Good Friday of 2014; and those who hate His name and the symbol of His death will become so enraged that they will begin spewing out their hatred like red-hot lava from an erupting volcano. The cross may have little or no importance in the eyes and hearts of those who despise it, but to those who have embraced the Christ who died on it, it is the power of the living God to save. To those who hold the cross in contempt, I appeal to you to reconsider your negative feelings toward it and to, most of all, dwell upon the fact that it was the instrument on which His Son died to save you. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Unless you repent of your wickedness you are considered to be the enemies of the cross whose end is destruction from the presence of God you reject. And, as for me, God forbid that I should glory in anything other than the cross of Jesus Christ and Him crucified (Galatians 6: 14). In the cross of Christ I glory, towering oer the wrecks of time; all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime. ─Conkey. Note: This article has been republished and edited.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 08:13:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015