Days of Infamy

"Yesterday, 7 December 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

This was the opening statement on this date sixty-four years ago as President Franklin D. Roosevelt stood before the congress of the United States of America asking for a declaration of war against the nation of Japan, who a day earlier had attacked the naval station at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

160 aircraft were destroyed. 18 ships were sunk or severely damaged and the US suffered 3,581 casualties in this surprise attack on our nations soil. Or was it a "surprise attack" at all?

We know from history that the War had already began years earlier. We just chose to call it someone else's war. Just as long as it didn't effect us, we chose to honor a "neutrality agreement" to stay out of the fight. German tanks had already rolled into Poland and Eastern Europe.

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Many Jews had already been detained in Nazi concentration camps and many had perished in the gas chambers as well. Japan meanwhile was terrorizing the South Pacific and building an imperial juggernaut that would soon be emboldened to take on a world super-power on its own turf.

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But, weeks in advance of the first Japanese Zeroes strike on the unsuspecting, early morning servicemen and women of Pearl Harbor, an encrypted message had been intercepted and delivered to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. for examination and determination. On January 27, 1941 Joseph C. Grew, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, wired Washington that he had learned information that Japan was planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

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No one in Washington believed him and most thought that if Japan was to attack any US interests that it would be in Manila, Philippines to disrupt naval routes. They were obviously wrong--even though they were rightly informed.History often has a way of repeating itself. While many in the US Military and government would acknowledge that their was the "potential" for an attack, their actions or inactions certainly told an altogether different story.

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They failed to listen to the warnings of the man, Joseph C. Crew, whom they (the President and Congress) had appointed and confirmed as their Ambassador to Japan. His job was to know what was going on their in the land of the "Rising Sun" and report back from the vantage point of one on the "front lines."His pleas and warnings fell on deaf ears and the end result was the loss of nearly 4,000 US lives needlessly to a power who had already "tipped their hand" to their intentions.

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We sometimes feel like Joseph C. Crew as well. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says that we are "Ambassadors for Christ." We have been named, appointed, and commissioned as His "front-line" representatives in a very hostile environment. From our vantage point on the front-lines of the City of New Orleans and various other places that we regularly take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to--we have intercepted "data" that reveals (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that the enemy has planned a full-out aerial assault on our "soil."Yet, there is no urgency still.

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The "Church" at large continues in its lackluster, mundane and often indifferent approach in winning people to Jesus Christ in these "last days." Maybe they have forgotten that these are the "last days."2 Peter 3:2-4 says, "I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

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First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."Much of the Modern-Church has adopted this same mentality--just as it was prophesied that they would!

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"If we ignore it, it might just go away" is the attitude that is prevalent in many circles. "That is such a negative message" is another common perspective as well.THIS AMBASSADOR has news for you though: The enemy has devised a plan to attack YOU and take YOU out once and for all.

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The US thought that they were somehow out-of-reach and untouchable by their adversaries--and it took a catastrophe to wake them up to the realization that an invasion force desired to defeat them on their own turf.

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We have got to get ready and launch a PREEMPTIVE STRIKE against the works of the devil BEFORE he invades and claims more lives! You can believe it or not--but from my perspective "on the front lines" there is an attack fast approaching on the horizon.