For those of you who don’t bother to keep up with politics in the Balkans – which is most of us, self very much included – then the whole kerfuffle between Serbia and the bit of the country that NATO illegally broke away from it by force and occupied won’t mean a damn thing to you. But, the fact is that Kosovo & Metohija ARE part of Serbia – illegitimate and criminal NATO bombing campaigns against Belgrade notwithstanding – and the West knows it just as well as everyone else does.
That is why they are resorting to outright temptations to get the Serbian leadership to knuckle under and accept Kosovo’s independence:
The sooner Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s independence, the faster they can both reunite in the prosperous embrace of the EU, in which the former Yugoslavia will power the continent’s entire economy, the US envoy for the Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said on Friday in an interview with a local CNN affiliate.
“I think we have to move away from the narrative that Kosovo is Serbia, and move toward the narrative that Kosovo and Serbia are Europe,” Escobar told N1 TV at the US embassy in Belgrade.
“You have a common future, and that future is moving rapidly away from the problems of the 1990s and quickly to the opportunities of the 21st century,” he added.
In this future, the remnants of Yugoslavia will become the “driver of growth for Europe, for the entire continent,” Escobar explained, a center for renewable energy production, information technology, shipping and transportation.
“So the reality is that, eventually, you’re all going to be linked anyway,” starting through some regional economic arrangements such as the “Open Balkans” initiative, and “eventually through the European Union. The quicker we can resolve some of these issues, the quicker we can get to this future of opportunity,” the US envoy concluded.
This is exactly what the Devil’s temptations look like. If you are under any illusions to the contrary, just look at what Scripture has to say on the subject:
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
— Matthew 4:8-11, English Standard Version
This is how it always starts – with the promises of glittering prizes, if only you will give up your independence and willingly submit to someone else’s vision of how you should live your life.
You will encounter temptations like this throughout your life, whether you are some freelancer working out of a coffee shop on your laptop, or the leader of an entire nation. Some oily-looking character with a completely forgettable face and name will come to you and make you an incredibly tempting offer. Your reward will be riches, fame, adoration, and all manner of fancy pants and lollipops.
The price, of course, will eventually be your soul – but you don’t know that yet, or so he assumes.
I’ve talked about this before – the moment you take the ticket, the Devil owns your soul, and you will NOT get it back. The sale always starts innocuously, but it always ends in horror and pain.
There is, however, a bit of good news about these sorts of temptations, and it might seem crazy at first, but it is absolutely true:
The Devil’s agents do not pitch tickets to you unless they really need to, because they are at some level deeply desperate.
Think about it for a moment and you will understand why this is so. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus, he was fishing for information, because he simply could not figure out who this weirdbeard Nazarene was, wandering through Galilee and Israel, preaching God’s Word and turning so many thousands against him. Satan needed to figure out who this guy was, to get His measure, and to understand whether this really was the Messiah, the long-prophesied Son of God that would one day destroy him. So he tried to tempt His Hugeness – and failed.
He didn’t realise, at that time, the full measure of his failure. He sure found out a few weeks afterwards, as we know now. But, if Jesus had been anything less than God Incarnate, the future would have been RADICALLY different – Satan would have won, and the world would have been destroyed.
The same principle applies for nations as it does for men. The Serbian leadership is being tempted right now because the Empire of Lies is desperate. Its project to weaken Russia and bring Eastern Europe under its control and domination is failing rapidly. The West is cracking and breaking under the weight of Russian counter-sanctions – and the Russians haven’t really started to do much of anything yet, other than restricting their own gas flows through one big pipeline.
If the Serbs are foolish and stupid enough to give in to temptation and sign away the future of their country for the “benefits” of joining the EU, they will eventually discover, as all ticket-takers do, that their prize will turn to ashes and sand. Membership of the EU is a ticket to damnation. The EU itself will not last very much longer – it is doomed to fall, thanks to its own reckless and suicidal policies, and the sooner it collapses, the better for all concernd.
1 Comment
No one should look at the dreck that is the EU and say “I want me some of that! Sign us up!”
The craving for Fancy pants and Lollipops and to be with the cool kids is unreal for people who crave power.