Who cares what God says?
From the anger of some atheist rhetoric, it seems that they care a lot. If there's no God, there's nothing for them to
fight against. They're caught on the wrong side of Pascal's classic argument NOTE 2. Fearing God doesn't harm you in this life
and may prove best in the end. Ignoring God puts you on the side of some unpleasant company in this life and could prove
disastrous in the end.
OK, I know that modern atheists have some powerful arguments, but not one of them brings comfort and hope. Yes, the case for God rests ultimately on faith - but so does the case for no-god. The plain truth is that we don't know. Our friends who have already died haven't come back to tell us what they found - except, that is, for one man. The great hope of Christian belief rests on the testimony of a man called Jesus, who was thoroughly killed by Roman soldiers whose training and experience ensured that no prisoner survived their well-proven methods of execution. But this prisoner reappeared 3 days later and was seen by so many people that the truth of his resurrection cannot be disputed. Well, yes, it can be disputed, but only by discounting the evidence of hundreds of witnesses. We all know that dead men don't come back. But this one did.
Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
Never mind "why?" for the moment. Just notice that anger is a pretty consistent element in the history of nations.
They get angry because they feel they have something to lose. And that doesn't just go for nations. It goes for races,
parties, interest groups and anyone else who thinks they've been dealt a bad hand. Blaming highlights problems, but it
doesn't solve them. There's a lot of inequality and injustice in the world, and it's right to challenge those wrongs.
For Christians, whether they have suffered those wrongs themselves or just heard about them, it's right to pray about them.