I am an American.  Let me begin this blog with an honest assessment of my own country and some humble admissions.  If there was a global contest, we would hold the world corner on sinful abominations.  If recent reports are correct, I believe that America is currently the PRIMARY creator and importer/exporter of the following depravities worldwide:  child sex-trafficking, funding for abortions, proliferation and encouragement of drug cartels (including supplying them with guns), pornography, Hollywood violence & filth, international geo-political promotion of the LGBT philosophy, and the final abomination:  Betrayal of our ally Israel.  In all of these categories, we are the “winners” by far. 

So with that disclaimer and qualitative assertion being stated first…this commentary in no way reflects the attitude that America or Americans are sailing along just fine.  We are on the Titanic and it has already hit the iceberg.  Our present government is the textbook definition of tyrannical social and moral evil.  
  
But for today, let’s discuss the Christian country of Australia which has a rich Christian heritage.  In 1606, Portuguese Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiroz Australia to be “La Australia del Espiritu Santo” or “The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit.” 

Interestingly, Australia is also known as “The Land of Oz.”  It has both a secular and Biblical prophetic meaning.  On a secular level it is simply a play on the term “Aus.”  However in Strong’s Concordance, the Hebrew word “Oz” means:  “Strength” or “Might.”  
   
Therefore, I find it rather spiritually significant that this week’s G20 Summit met in Brisbane, Australia.  Brisbane, by the way, means “bone-breaker.”  The derivation is from the ancient words “brise” meaning a break, and “ban” – meaning bone.  Brisbane was also the recent location of a Muslim terrorist public beheading plot.  There is some disturbing imagery going on here.

Prime Minister Tony Abbot recently confronted Putin at the APEC Leader’s Summit in Beijing about the downing of Flight #MH17 and the killing of the 38 Australians who were on board.  While no official acknowledgement from Russia was ever forthcoming as to their involvement in supplying the weapon to the pro-Russian rebels, it is widely accepted that the plane was accidentally shot down while mistaking it for another target.  The surface-to-air missile attack was meant to incite aggression in the Ukraine/Russian conflict. 

Savvy political commentators would easily recognize the “Bear” as a symbol of Russia.  However, I think fewer would realize that China is often symbolized as a crouching Tiger and Persians are symbolized by the Leopard.  In antiquity, a leopard was believed to be a hybrid of a lion and a panther. 
With Turkey (Persians), China and Russia meeting at the G20 summit, truly…Lions and Tigers and Bears were meeting in Brisbane.  Oh my!
Rewind the tape to Abbott’s position on abortion.  Many conservative Christian Australians were initially very excited by the election of Tony Abbott.  As a professing Roman Catholic, they believed that Abbott would finally be someone “in their corner” on this vitally important issue.  That initial enthusiasm has given way to resigned dismay as he has simply allowed the abominations of his predecessor to continue. 

Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth. ~ 1 Kings 13:33-34

Therefore, the question remains:  In the spiritual world, is Tony Abbot confronting Putin in aiding and abetting the spilling of innocent Australian blood with “righteous indignation?”  Or is Putin simply behaving exactly like Tony Abbott…unwilling to confront his country’s evil radical fringe intent on committing mass murder unopposed?  Is Abbott’s refusal to confront the Pro-Death crowd in Australia the moral equivalent to Putin’s simply “supplying the weapon” for innocent mass murder?

It is pretty much safe to say that Tony Abbott has stimulated little change on Australia’s abortion laws and has not actively campaigned for any reform on this issue besides maintaining the status quo. See news link below:

Abbott “No Deals” on Abortion

Like Obama, he made his positions clear when he was running for office.  He openly stated that he would not change abortion law if elected and that abortion should remain “safe, legal and rare.”  These are Clinton liberal “talking points.”  However, most Christians still voted for him anyway.

I personally don’t think Tony Abbott is a bad man.  However, it brings to mind this quote: 
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
  ~Edmund Burke
Recently, Christians in Australia invited Opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten to give the KEYNOTE address to the Australian Christian Lobby.  With the consent of Director Lyle Shelton, Shorten publicly announced his support of the LGBT pro-gay marriage stance while the “Christian” audience clapped in support.  Even if this applause was just due to tepid politeness,–they clapped nonetheless for someone who just announced he was going to begin promoting Biblical abomination.  (Yay?). 

God is watching all of this closely. 

It seems few have the Courage to stand up to the LGBT movement or the Pro-Death movement in Australia…Neither the current ruling party nor many of the Christian groups.  There are some notable exceptions…but they are just that…exceptions.  Most are like “scared crows” walking along the yellow-bellied path.  

With Bears on their coastline, Muslim Lions threatening their public safety and a Chinese Tiger crouching in the background to “pave the way” for this new Axis of Evil, the Land of Oz needs to live up to it’s “strength” and “might” heritage.  

Otherwise, I can almost hear the strains of….


Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
~ Proverbs 3: 5-6

~Posted by permission of Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at