Interview with Rabbi Daniel Lapin on How Today's World Compares to the
Days of Noah
By John-Henry Westen
WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The recent death of
Mrs. Ruth Graham, the beloved wife of preacher Billy Graham, has caused
renewed reflection on her oft quoted comment: "If God does not judge
America soon, he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." Indeed,
with the culture war raging on abortion and same-sex 'marriage', many a
Christian has wondered about a coming purgation - a cleansing as in the
time of Noah and the flood.
It may come as a surprise to some, but Orthodox Jews too have a belief
in a coming purgation. As the man popularly known as "America's Rabi"
told LifeSiteNews.com, we are "moving towards some kind of enormous,
humanic and historic upheaval."
Nationally acclaimed speaker and best-selling author, Rabbi Daniel
Lapin spoke with LifeSiteNews.com about his newly released audio series
"The Gathering Storm: Decoding the Secrets of Noah," in which he looks
at the similarities between the time of Noah and our present day.
Rabbi Lapin is the founder and leader of Toward Tradition - a
ground-breaking coalition of Jews, Christians and other Americans
united in fighting secular fundamentalism and promoting traditional,
faith-based American principles of constitutional and limited
government, the rule of law, representative democracy, free markets, a
strong military and a moral public culture.
Key to interpreting the Bible (the Old Testament) suggests the Rabbi,
is the Hebrew language. In that language, he notes, the Bible tells
that in the time just before the flood there were aborted babies.
"Everyone is familiar with that section just before the flood, of
giants," said Rabbi Lapin. "The King James translation refers to these
people as giants - one thing, in the Hebrew, it becomes immediately
very clear is that what we really are talking about is aborted people,
aborted fetuses."
"In Hebrew," explained the Rabbi there is "one word for giants (and)
aborted fetuses." Comparing the time of Noah to the current day, the
Rabbi said, "Babies that are aborted eventually bring about a culture
of death that destroys society."
Asked if Jews, like some Christians, feel a time of purgation is
coming, Rabbi Lapin replied bluntly, "Yes, it is extremely intense."
The Rabbi stressed however that a Judeo-Christian view of the end of
time is a hopeful one, in contrast to the secular view of the end of
time which sees only doom and gloom. "There is a dichotomy here
between a secular world view in which the end of time is hopeless,"
Rabbi Lapin told LifeSiteNews.com. "It is doomed. It ends in oblivion
. . . Right now it is global warming, a few years ago it was nuclear
winter. Before that it was that we were all going to starve and die
naked and cold when Thomas Malthus at the end of the 18th century made
his predictions."
"The secular world view will generate an end of time picture of
hopelessness and doom and by contrast a Biblical world view of both
Jews and Christians shows an end of time picture that, while it may
have its turbulent threshold, is a time of some kind of unimaginable
solution to all human problems."
Asked, if it would be "a time of renewal of goodness on earth?" the
Rabbi replied, "Exactly right. Yes."
As for God having to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for not acting on
America for its sins, Rabbi Lapin suggests God is in fact acting on
America. "God doesn't necessarily act towards every culture in the
same way," he said. "Every culture that adopts abortion and
homosexuality as normal is a culture that begins to decline and
eventually vanish off the stage of world history - that is God acting."
"That is precisely the point. It is not that hard to see in many ways
the fortunes of the US of A are simply not where they were before these
twin scourges became prevalent. Yes, He is acting - He is not going to
have to apologize to Sodom at all. He is being very consistent. He
may not be burying us in thunderbolts and mountains of salt but the
damage that the US of A is enduring is no less fatal."
Rabbi Lapin sees another striking similarity between our day and the
time of the Biblical flood. Noting the political situation in the
United States, where the major argumentation seems focused on abortion
and same-sex 'marriage, Rabbi Lapin observes: "Undoubtedly, it was very
significant, that never before in a presidential election has there
been this much focus on the faith and beliefs of the candidates which
again brings us back to this Noah like period in which divisions
between people are lining up very clearly on a spiritual level."
While Rabbi Lapin rejects any attempt to fix a date on the coming
upheaval, he does say that it is rapidly approaching. "What is
unquestionably crystal clear is that time and history are
accelerating. Things happen more quickly now than ever before so it is
moving rapidly towards this event, whatever it will look like."
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