What do the Iraq War and the European Union have in common?

A great shaking of the nations is rapidly spreading across Europe following Britain's decision to leave the European Union. In Italy the anti-establishment Five Star Movement has officially called for a national referendum on whether to keep the Euro, which they say simply does not work for Italy and other nations in the south of Europe.

There are similar calls for a referendum in France, Denmark and the Netherlands. Right across Europe there is a sense of uncertainty as the clamour for change rises among those who are suffering from poverty and a sense of injustice.

The Chilcot Report

In Britain it is surely no coincidence that the Chilcot Report has come out within days of the Referendum decision to leave the European Union and the furore that has been created from those who wanted to remain, many of whom are now clamouring for a second vote. In one damning sentence, Sir John Chilcot neatly exposed the gross error of the decision to invade Iraq. He said, "We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted."¹

MPs who voted for the war such as Sir David Amess are now expressing deep regret² and saying that the information they were given was flawed – in other words, they were deceived. The military campaign was successfully carried out but there were no plans for what to do afterwards. With the Iraqi Army, Police and Government all disbanded, Iraq rapidly descended into anarchy, looting and sectarian violence. This continues to this day, with Iraq and Syria immersed in a bloody dispute that is unsettling the whole region, with consequences right across Europe.

Across Europe there is a sense of uncertainty as the clamour for change rises among those suffering from poverty and injustice.

No Follow-Up

There is a strange connection between the Referendum campaigners and those involved in the Iraq war – neither of them had any plans for follow-up!

In the week following the Referendum, none of the leaders of the 'Leave' camp came up with any clear plans for the future. The Government, who campaigned for 'Remain', also had no plans for what would happen if the country voted to leave. The Prime Minister resigned; the parliamentary Labour Party became immersed in a leadership struggle. So we have had no stable Government and no effective Opposition! None of our political leaders have been able to give a clear direction for the future.

This has not only unsettled the stock exchange and financial services, it has unsettled the whole of the United Kingdom (particularly Scotland and Northern Ireland) and has also sent shock waves right across Europe.

Deception and Destruction

There is a verse in the Bible that aptly describes what is going on today. It speaks of the day when God will shake all the nations because of their sinfulness. It says "He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray" (Isa 30:28). This chapter in Isaiah begins with the words "'Woe to the obstinate children,' declares the Lord, 'to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin.'"

Both the war in Iraq and the European Union fall into this category. Both were conceived in deception. False information was given to the people so that decisions were made without understanding the long-term consequences. The European Union was presented as a trade alliance for economic co-operation – not a 'United States of Europe' in which each country would lose their national sovereignty, with Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, a common law, a common currency, a common army and a common [anti-Israel] foreign policy.

There is a strange connection between the Referendum campaigners and those involved in the Iraq war – neither of them had any plans for follow-up!

The war in Iraq was said to be to destroy the weapons of mass destruction held by Saddam Hussein which were said to be a threat to the peace of the Western world, but its real intention was regime change – to get rid of Saddam Hussein and replace him with a form of Western democracy which Western leaders hoped would provide an ideal type for the whole Arab world! This reveals their utter ignorance of Islam and Islamic culture!

Recipe for Revolution

When a project is born in lies and deceit, it is doomed to failure. "Woe to those who carry out plans that are not mine," says the Lord. If we human beings deliberately choose to ignore basic standards of honesty and righteousness, turning our backs upon the word of the Lord, we inevitably bring judgment upon our actions. The terrible consequences of the Iraqi war are still being seen and felt right across Europe, every day of our lives.

Similarly, the consequences of the European Union with its open borders and its common currency have created enormous poverty and suffering for millions in some parts of Europe whilst providing vast wealth to others. This is a recipe for revolution – it creates an enormous 'us and them' situation, wherein large parts of the population suffer a sense of injustice and deprivation which eventually build up pressures of social unrest that explode into violence.

Both the war in Iraq and the European Union were conceived in deception – and projects born of lies and deceit are doomed to failure.

Right across the world today the nations are suffering the consequences of unrighteousness. We are part of the generation that has ignored the simple truth of the proverb "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Prov 14:34).

The great shaking of the nations prophesied in Scripture is to provide a strong warning of the danger that lies ahead if we continue along the same path. The great question facing humanity today is whether or not we will heed the warning signs and seek the wisdom of the Lord for the way forward – seeking his plans, which are for our good – for blessing and hope, not for harm.

At a Crossroads

PA/PA Wire/Press Association Images.

Britain stands at a crossroads. Will a righteous Government be appointed to lead the nation into the future? I was attending a meeting of the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group yesterday, when the Conservative MPs were voting for their new leader. Much depends now on how the Conservative Party members vote for our next Prime Minister.

Will they vote for Theresa May, the present Home Secretary, who is said to be 'a safe pair of hands' – in other words she will continue following the same secular humanist policies that have been pursued by her predecessors (in Westminster she is said to be the one who persuaded David Cameron to change the law on marriage, telling him that it would make him popular with the LGBT community) - or will they vote for Andrea Leadsom, a Bible-believing Christian who regularly attends a prayer group and is not afraid to declare and defend her faith in public?

We ask that you join with us at this time to pray that the right choice for our Prime Minister be made on 9 September – that God's will be done. This is a crucial time in the history of our nation.

References

1 Sir John Chilcot's public statement, 6 July 2016.

2 Letters to the editor: We must learn lessons of Chilcot. London Evening Standard, 7 July 2016.

In the first issue of Prophecy Today, 30 years ago, we carried an article under the title “A World of Inequality” which said that more than 10 million children had died of starvation during the previous year, 1984.

There were 500 million people in Africa suffering from malnutrition. It was at a time when huge swathes of eastern Africa were suffering from years of drought. 1 million people had died of starvation in Ethiopia and 7 million people in that country were living under the threat of starvation.

From 1985 to 2015

Prophecy Today joined others in sending out an urgent appeal for aid from the rich countries of the West to be sent to people facing death. In July 1985 Bob Geldof responded with the first ever Live Aid when pop stars freely gave a concert at Wembley to raise funds for the starving. Later that same year Comic Relief was founded on Christmas Day 1985 which was later linked with Sport Relief and Children in Need. These events, attracting huge television audiences, have raised hundreds of millions of pounds which have undoubtedly brought relief to many communities struggling with poverty.

"World poverty was halved between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank. But the world of inequality still exists."

World poverty was halved between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank.¹ But this does not mean that poverty has been eliminated. The world of inequality still exists despite the immense amount of aid that is poured into developing countries. One billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day.² Most of the world’s population still lack basic services which people in the developed nations take for granted – access to safe water, healthcare, electricity, schools and adequate food.

Inequality persists

In 1985 we said:

The rich nations use their muscle to protect their prosperity. They control the world’s capital investment. They control the price of basic commodities on the world markets, such as grain, seeds and fertilisers. They have a monopoly of technology which they deny to third world countries thus keeping them dependent on the West and limiting competition. They control interest rates and thus ensure that any aid given to poor countries comes back to the rich nations to increase their overflowing abundance.

That situation still exists today and should be a serious warning to us because justice and righteousness are part of the nature of God. When we deny justice to the powerless we are actually offending God who says “For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and iniquity” (Isa 61:8). There are plenty of instances in history where nations or communities have brought disaster upon themselves through injustice and oppression. Sodom and Gomorrah are two good examples.

"When we deny justice to the powerless, we are actually offending God"

Most people think Sodom and Gomorrah came to disaster because of sexual deviance but the Prophet Ezekiel says something different. He says there was another reason why God destroyed those two great cities. “This was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Eze 16:49).

Western wealth offensive to God

What are the things that are most offensive to a God of justice and righteousness? They are surely the vast wealth controlled by 1% of the world’s population while so many struggle with poverty. The enormous amount of money spent on slimming aids and reducing obesity in the rich nations while others die of starvation must be deeply offensive to God. He said to the Prophet Isaiah that the kind of justice and righteousness he wants is “to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wander with shelter – when you see the naked, clothe him...Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rearguard” (Isa 58:7-8).

"The nations have the power and the technology in our generation to feed the hungry and to care for all people, but we choose to indulge ourselves"

The monumental amount of money spent on weapons of destruction by the nations is deeply offensive to God. We are more concerned with destroying one another than with caring for the poor and those who are powerless to provide for themselves. “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter” (Isa 34:2).

The nations have the power and the technology in our generation to feed the hungry and to care for all people, but we choose to indulge ourselves, to pile up wealth that we can never use such as the grain mountains, the butter mountains, the meat mountains of Europe and America. We choose to maintain vast armies and vast stocks of weaponry and we turn a blind eye to the poor, the powerless and the hungry.

What will a God of justice and righteousness do with this generation?

References

1 World Bank Poverty Overview, 2011 data.

2 Ibid.