Remedy found in the Christ who died for our sins

Will we see unrest on the streets?

What are the spiritual dynamics behind all the Brexit fury?

On the need to guard our hearts.

Not a day seems to go by at the moment without some drastic event or other filling our newspapers and screens – not helped, of course, by 24/7 broadcasting, Twitter and every other way in which modern technology allows us to access events all over the world almost in real time. The effect on our hearts, minds and spirits can be overwhelming. We are on information overload - more so than any other generation in human history.

This week, continuing demonstrations in Hong Kong against Chinese tyranny have vied for airtime with growing instability in Kashmir, more devastation in Syria, the US-China trade war, a possible arms race between the US and Russia and escalating tensions with Iran in the Gulf. And of course we cannot and should not forget the mass murders of Christians happening across North Africa virtually every day, though they go largely unreported.

Never mind Brexit and Project Fear: the global ‘birth pangs’ heralding the return of our Messiah genuinely seem to be increasing in both frequency and intensity.

Bloodshed Follows Bloodshed

Perhaps most shocking of all this week has been news of the two mass shootings in the USA, claiming 22 lives in Texas and nine in Ohio, both carried out by deeply disturbed young men (aged 21 and 24, respectively). At the same time, at home we heard of a young child being hurled off a high viewing platform at the Tate Modern in London, allegedly an unprovoked attack by a teenage boy.

Surely God’s lament through the Prophet Hosea to morally degenerate Israel is pertinent: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (Hos 4:1-2).

Children Plotting to Kill

When our children and young people are plotting to kill, something is drastically wrong: this very concept is awful and provocative, and should be prompting searching questions.

But when the US shootings were first reported, I reacted probably in much the same way as many did: a few moments thinking how terribly regrettable it all was, before getting on with my day. It wasn’t until I read a testimony from the family of one of the victims, daring to forgive the perpetrator with true Christian grace, that I was actually brought to tears and prayer.

How easy it is, unless special care is taken, to grow accustomed to the gradual encroachment of evil as an ordinary part of everyday life.

How easy it is, unless special care is taken, to grow accustomed to the gradual encroachment of evil as an ordinary part of everyday life. We’ve seen it all too many times before; our hearts gradually harden to it, often imperceptibly. But the above verses from Hosea carry a warning: the spread of evil in a society and the departure of love are two sides of the same coin.

Pondering these things, I was reminded of Jesus’ salutary warning in Matthew 24, that “Because of the increase in wickedness [in the times of the end] the love of most will grow cold – but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (v12). Let’s consider this more for a moment.

Global Cooling?

How, precisely, might an increase in wickedness around the world threaten the love in our own hearts? Jesus’ description of love ‘growing cold’ here is translated using a Greek word (psuchó) meaning to breathe or blow on something in order to cool it down. Basic science teaches us that warm objects lose their heat when they are exposed to a cooler environment. Just so, spiritually: spending too much time immersed in contemplating the world’s evil is enough to cool the love in anyone’s heart even to numbness.

But another way objects can grow cold is by going underground, hiding away in places where neither day nor night can permeate. Just as the love of God in our hearts can be chilled by constant contemplation of evil, so a total refusal to acknowledge or face up to the realities of evil can have the same effect. This deliberate avoidance hardens hearts in self-defence.

A third way in which things grow cold is through inactivity, which perhaps speaks for itself as a spiritual problem. And a fourth way is through isolation – simply by not being near other sources of heat. Many Christians in Britain are finding themselves in a season of spiritual isolation at the present time; though God-given, these nevertheless come with their own challenges and are not intended to be permanent.

The spread of evil in a society and the departure of love are two sides of the same coin.

Staying Warm

Jesus followed his outline of the terrible days which will precede his return (Matt 24) with a series of parables designed to teach his disciples how to ‘stand firm to the end’, their hearts alive and warm: strengthened by time in the warmth of God’s presence, invigorated by the knowledge of his truth, goodness and victory.

These emphasise the need to be found prepared and filled with the Holy Spirit, faithful and active, wise, watchful and alert. Elsewhere in the New Testament the Apostles join the call for faithful, holy living (e.g. 2 Pet 3; 1 Tim 4; 2 Tim 3:1-4:5).

But, “over all these virtues put on love” (Col 3:14). It’s a cliché, but the fire of real, God-given love is the first and best antidote to these days in which we find ourselves.

Searching for reality in a 'post-truth' age.

The famous words of Pilate at the fake trial of Jesus have echoed down the centuries – what is truth? These words have taken on new significance in the 21^st Century with the development of social media and the spread of ‘fake news’. Paul defines truth in very simple terms: as the good news of salvation (Eph 1:13). Jesus says that he himself is truth. He says “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). By this statement Jesus means that anyone who knows God, knows truth.

If truth is so central to the purposes of God, it is small wonder that it is under attack from the powers of darkness that are presently ruling the world. It is as though a huge blanket of cloud is covering humanity and preventing clear perception and rational thinking. The evidence of this can be seen in every part of the world.

In America, division over immigration has led to parts of Government being shut down because of President Trump’s dispute with Congress over the wall he wants to build between the USA and Mexico. Europe too is wracked by disagreement over immigration and the many other problems besetting the EU project: in Germany there is mounting fear over the failing economy and the future of the Euro. In France there are growing social problems, with millions taking to the streets before Christmas in populist demonstrations against the policies of President Macron.

These problems are not going away and there are similar tensions in other EU states. But, arguably, none have such potentially far-reaching consequences as the divisions over Brexit.

No Alternatives?

At the moment Brexit arguments in Britain have not spilled over into the streets, although there are plenty of noisy groups in Westminster demonstrating around Parliament day after day. The major upheavals are inside Parliament where confusion reigns supreme.

The Prime Minister insists that the deal she has negotiated with the EU is the only deal and there is no Plan B. But Parliament has voted to take back the initiative by insisting that if her deal is voted down by Parliament next week, she must come back to the House of Commons in three days with a further plan.

If truth is so central to the purposes of God, it is small wonder that it is under attack from the powers of darkness that are presently ruling the world.

Although there appears to be no valid alternative to Mrs May’s deal, there is probably a majority of MPs who want to ensure that Britain does not leave the EU with no deal at all. The EU fears a ‘No Deal’ more than Britain does, but our politicians appear blind to this. If the MPs make it impossible for ‘No Deal’ to happen, they strip the Prime Minister of the most powerful weapon in negotiations with Brussels.

The Netherlands alone say that they will lose more than £2 billion in trade if there is no deal between the EU and Britain. Germany is desperate to sell their cars in Britain, without which their economy would be in serious trouble; and the EU itself urgently needs the €39 billion promised in the divorce bill, without which the Euro currency is likely to fail. Many of our MPs seem completely unaware of the power they hold over the EU, which is part of the blindness afflicting leaders of our nation.

The Consequences of Rebellion

This blindness to truth is not simply a political, economic or social issue: it is fundamentally a spiritual problem resulting from Britain’s rejection of her biblical foundations. Though this rejection is not recognised, its consequences can be seen throughout the life of the nation.

One obvious example is that every week there are young people dying on the streets of London through a wave of knife crime, drugs, gangs and lawlessness that is spilling across to other cities. This is a national issue, but our politicians are too busy arguing over Brexit to notice what is happening on our streets.

But this wave of violence is directly linked to our rejection of God. We have rejected the biblical foundations of Britain’s value system, so we are no longer able to recognise truth. For 50 years we have allowed the nation to be driven by secular humanist activists who have deliberately undermined traditional family life, promoting divorce, cohabitation, sexual perversion, abortion-on-demand and more recently, transgenderism. These policies have all been based on a lie – the lie that all types of family are equal.

This blindness to truth is fundamentally a spiritual problem resulting from Britain’s rejection of her biblical foundations.

There have been scores of sociological research reports demonstrating that only faithful marriage as the Bible describes it produces happy, stable and successful family life for both adults and children. But this truth about families has been wilfully ignored or rejected by post-modernist agitators who have done untold harm to British children.

Every child who dies on the city streets of Britain is in some way a victim of the post-modern, secular humanist, pro-LGBTQ+ policies that have deliberately aimed at destroying family life in the nation in this ‘post-truth’ age.

Spiritual Blindness

The greatest crime in Britain today is the blindness of our leaders, in both Church and state, to recognise the sickness of the nation and the root of its problems.

I have been responsible for no less than eight sociological reports to Parliament on family life in Britain during the past 30 years. They have set out clearly the consequences of following policies based upon the false concept of ‘equality’. But successive Governments have been blind to TRUTH.

This blindness is a spiritual malady. It is not a lack of intellectual capacity. It is plain and simply a spiritual force of darkness, given a foothold through rebellion and rejection of God’s word, that makes it impossible to understand and accept TRUTH.

This is why our MPs are in such utter disarray over Brexit. There is no shared vision because they are blinded to TRUTH. The plain fact is: no political solutions to the nation’s problems can be found until there is repentance for what has been done to the nation; and new openness to the word of God. What will it take? Is it a matter of more prayer, or more truth-telling – or must more disaster be allowed to come upon Britain?

At this time, it is vital that the faithful remnant of God’s people seek to understand what he is doing and pray and act in line with his will. Elsewhere in this week’s issue of Prophecy Today UK is an article to this end, entitled ‘A Word for 2019’. Please do read this and bring it before the Lord in prayer, seeking how you might respond.

We need to be honest about the root causes of our national problems.

In last week’s Editorial we said that successive Governments have undermined the central importance of marriage and family, thereby damaging the social stability of the nation. This is a major reason why we are now seeing so many children and young people who have no understanding of right and wrong and whose behaviour is uncontrollable. And this is why so many young people are dying on our city streets in a wave of knife crime, drugs and gang warfare.

20 years ago, I was working with Home Secretary Jack Straw MP, compiling a report to Members of Parliament on the health of the family in Britain. It was presented in July 1998 at a meeting in the Moses Room (appropriately) - with its great wall murals depicting Moses receiving the 10 Commandments.

Mr Straw promised a White Paper stressing the importance of measures to strengthen family and marriage in Britain. In a Green Paper, Supporting Families, he had correctly stated that marriage was the most reliable framework for raising children: but this caused dissension from LGBT members in the Cabinet which prevented him from issuing the White Paper or taking any concrete measure to support and strengthen married families.

The rallying cry of the secular humanists driving Government policy was “the family is not deteriorating, it is only changing”. They said that all kinds of family are of equal value. This was the beginning of Government policy focusing upon ‘equality’. Hence the value of the married couple family could not be taught in school in case a child from a single-parent family was made to feel inferior.

The rallying cry of the secular humanists driving Government policy was “the family is not deteriorating, it is only changing”. They said that all kinds of family are of equal value.

In defiance of all the evidence, children were taught what is now known as ‘alternative facts’ (laying the groundwork for ‘fake news’!). This was a milestone in the reshaping of Britain in accordance with secular humanist objectives.

Church and State Collude

At that time, the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group recognised that child poverty, ill health, drug abuse, mental health problems and youth crime all stem from marriage failure and family breakdown. The evidence was said to be conclusive and incontrovertible, but ‘political correctness’ prevented the Government dealing with these root issues. In the Foreword to the Report The Cost of Family Breakdown it was stated:

Different sexual and child rearing lifestyles are decisively not ‘equal’ in the sense of ‘equality’ that is applied in all other areas of legislation; that is, ‘equal’ in their average results for good or harm on the present population and on generations to come.

Although the Report was received warmly by MPs on both sides of the House and in the Upper House, there was no change in Government policy. It was as though a veil was drawn over the eyes of politicians of all parties shielding them from the truth.

Worse was to come: at the time this report was published in July 2000, an Education Bill dealing with what pupils should be taught in school about sex and child-rearing was going through Parliament. A peer attempted to include Jack Straw’s statement in Supporting Families saying that “marriage is the most reliable framework for raising children”.

The Government fiercely opposed teaching children the truth that married families are the most reliable unit for raising children. There were extraordinary scenes in the Lords with the largest turnout of the session. No fewer than 234 peers voted against the Amendment, including nine bishops! It was a very tight vote and if the nine bishops had voted the other way it would have been carried. So, the Church of England’s representatives in Parliament voted against holy matrimony being taught to children in the schools of Great Britain!

In 2000, Church and State colluded to destroy family and marriage on one of the saddest days in our Parliamentary history.

Church and State colluded to destroy family and marriage on one of the saddest days in our Parliamentary history. Therefore, surely, in the sight of God, the Church of England must be held responsible for what we are now seeing on our city streets!

Veil of Deception

The veil of deception is still over the eyes of senior Church leaders today. I have seen evidence showing that the Bishop of Liverpool, a strong LGBTQ+ supporter, is using his power to prevent evangelical clerics from being appointed to Liverpool churches.

The Methodist Church has appointed a homosexual man as their National Director of Evangelism with the specific intention of creating more LGBTQ-friendly inclusivity; and the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster has banned evangelist David Hathaway from hiring it. He held a prayer meeting there last month but evidently said some things that were unpopular with some of the staff.

As I said in my recent book, The Reshaping of Britain,

The intensity of the great shaking of the nations is increasing rapidly. We may all soon be engulfed in a modern ‘Babylon’ of unbelievable intensity. But God is offering to Christians the most incredible opportunity, because only those who have put their trust in him will be able to stand and be overcomers.

Spiritual, Not Political

What we need to recognise is the hand of God in the deepening national crisis! Truth being upturned in the public square, confusion over Brexit, violence on the streets, soaring mental health problems, public institutions on the verge of collapse: all speak of a nation under judgment – both Church and State.

We have turned the word of God upside-down and he is saying, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isa 5:20-21).

We need to recognise the hand of God in our deepening national crisis!

As the Brexit crisis deepens and the confusion among politicians increases, we have to recognise that there are no political solutions to our problems, because they are primarily spiritual.

The cleverest politicians in the land will not solve the present crises! The only solution – the only way forward for the nation – is repentance and turning to the word of God. If we do this, whether we have a deal OR no deal, God will reach out and restore peace and prosperity to Britain. But if we simply continue as we are today, the result can only be catastrophe.

The People’s Vote

The people of Britain are being offered a choice at this astonishing juncture in our national history. This is the true ‘people’s vote’!! Joshua presented the same choice to the people of Israel: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Josh 24:15). To the people of Britain, the choice is whether we will serve ourselves, and the pagan gods of the European Union, or the God of the Bible who has preserved us and so richly blessed our forefathers in times past.

To Christians in Britain, the choice is whether we will stand up and declare the truth, or stay silent. The good news is that it is always in times when God shakes the nations that the greatest opportunities for evangelism are presented.

Turmoil on the streets, in schools and in matters of state: what has gone wrong?

Two chaotic scenes shown on television this week speak volumes about the state of the British nation today. One was a short film about a school for excluded pupils showing young people whose behaviour was so disruptive they had been banned from mainstream education. They were some of nearly 50,000 dysfunctional or ill pupils taught in alternative provision schools.

The second was Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons with 600 representatives of the people all shouting at the same time and no-one listening to anyone else. This was the Mother of Parliaments in action – the oldest and most respected political institution in Western democracy. Brexit fever had spread its pernicious toxin across the House and sanity had fled the building. Chaos reigned supreme.

I went into my study and wept. What has gone wrong with the nation I have loved and served throughout my working life? Is there any word from the Lord? Isaiah 31 came to me. The Assyrian Empire was at its height and many in Israel feared invasion. In Jerusalem there was a strong pro-Egyptian party who had persuaded the king to send emissaries with lavish gifts to sign a treaty binding them with Egypt. The word of the Lord came to the Prophet Isaiah,

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strengths of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord…But the Egyptians are men and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, he who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall; both will perish together.

How apposite this is for our current situation! When do we ever hear any of our political leaders ask if there is any word from the Lord? Of course, it should be obvious that if M. Barnier and the European Union are happy with the deal, it must raise doubts as whether it will be good for Britain. But the greatest need among our Members of Parliament is for spiritual discernment, which is woefully lacking at present.

When do we ever hear any of our political leaders ask if there is any word from the Lord?

Facing Turmoil

No-one, however, could fail to admire the resilience of the Prime Minister facing a baying pack of critics in the House of Commons with insults and jibes thrown at her from all sides, yet she answered each one with dignity and confidence. At the end of the day she held a televised press conference in the full view of the nation and defended the deal she had struck with Brussels, saying that her major objectives had been achieved and Britain would be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019.

Her objective has been to seek an arrangement that would ensure frictionless trade with the rest of Europe while at the same time taking back responsibility for our borders; but safeguarding the position of EU workers in Britain and British citizens resident in Europe.

Her objective has also been to get out of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fishing Policy which have favoured foreign producers. Above all, a major objective has been to ensure that Britain is free from the rules and regulations of the European Court of Justice and all the other legal impositions of Brussels. This is where there are major doubts among those who have fought for many years to be free from the EU and return sovereignty to the British Parliament.

Anti-Brexit protestors in Westminster this week. NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA ImagesAlongside all these objectives has been the complication of the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. No one wants to return to a hard border, but the DUP, whose 10 votes in the House of Commons are needed for a Government majority, do not want Ulster to be treated any different from other parts of the UK.

Most of the politicians shouting abuse at Theresa May had not read the 580-page document jointly agreed by the negotiators from Britain and Brussels. It will no doubt be argued over for a long time and there will still be hardline Brexiteers who will prefer Britain to leave the EU with no deal than one that keeps Britain tied to European laws and customs-regulations for an ill-defined period.

The weakness of all those opposing the EU deal is that they have no rational alternative. They all appear to be a bunch of individuals peddling their own political ambitions - in contrast to the statesmanlike conviction of the Prime Minister.

The greatest need among our MPs is for spiritual discernment, which is woefully lacking at present.

Nation Under Judgment

The turmoil in the House of Commons and out on the streets of Westminster is something never before seen in my lifetime. There is a simple reason for this: we are a nation under judgment. Since the 1950s, one law after another has been passed in our Parliament that violates biblical values and teaching. The final red line was the passing of The Same-Sex Marriage Act in 2013.

This was not only directly against God’s act of creation in making human beings male and female in his own image, but it also further undermined the central importance of marriage and family in the social structure of the nation. This, together with all of the other laws which have enabled and encouraged family breakdown, is why we are now seeing so many children and young people who have no understanding of right and wrong and whose behaviour is uncontrollable. And this is why so many young people are dying on our city streets in a wave of knife crime, drugs and gang warfare.

Our politicians are infected with the same spirit of rebellion that we see among young people. Once you reject the word of God, ultimate standards of truth and righteousness disappear from the nation. If Parliament rejects the deal offered by the EU and agreed with the Prime Minister, the only alternatives are a ‘No Deal’ or another referendum. But a second referendum would only increase division and bring utter disaster, releasing uncontrollable anarchy on the streets.

It is important to remember that the European Union is also under judgment for having rejected the word of the Lord and scorned its centuries of Judeo-Christian heritage. In the near future, I believe we will see one nation after another enveloped in turmoil across Europe with rising nationalism tearing aside the false unity created by Brussels with their one-size-fits-all, secular-pagan politics.

The turmoil in Westminster is for one simple reason: we are a nation under judgment.

Pray for Mercy

If Britain were a godly nation we should simply leave the European Union, with or without a deal, and put our trust in the Lord, who would undoubtedly respond with protection and prosperity. But without faith we are likely to be driven by spirits of darkness.

The future of Britain is at greater risk today than at any time since the darkest days of Dunkirk in 1940. Will God have mercy upon us for the sake of our godly heritage and the faithful remnant of believers who are still interceding at the throne of grace?

Christians: Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong (1 Cor 16:13). And pray: pray for a spirit of repentance to fall among our politicians. Pray for eyes to be opened to the realities of what has gone wrong. Pray for prophetic voices to arise to call the nation back to God. Pray for mercy in the midst of judgment.

Just how peaceful is the ‘March of Return’?

After our overview last week of the Gaza border protests, which Hamas claims will climax this coming week, David Longworth takes an in-depth look at Palestinian rhetoric, asking whether we can trust the Western media’s assertion that the protests are ‘peaceful’. N.B. Some of the information in this article might be distressing.

The American news agency Bloomberg, reporting on the ‘Great Return March’ activities promoted by Hamas on Friday 6 April, carried the following comment: “…protesters sought to thwart Israeli snipers by burning mounds of tires and using mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays into soldiers’ eyes, as some pelted soldiers with rocks and firebombs. The Israeli army said it used water cannons to put out fires, a giant fan to dispel the tire smoke and live rounds against people who tried to breach the fence.”¹

The irony of this literal illustration of the deception being largely swallowed whole by the Western media seemed lost upon the writers of the article. Smoke and mirrors indeed!

Spontaneous?

There is little in the demonstrations that is spontaneous. Hamas, the organisation that governs Gaza, organises protestors and provides transport to the fence area. Yet its website maintains the camouflage of spontaneous and peaceful protest; for example:

The Zionist entity is gearing up to confront the mass participation and expansion of the Great March of Return amidst internal Israeli conflict on techniques needed to quell this peaceful form of resistance, which is capable of gaining worldwide support…

The Zionist occupation terrorised and threatened the peaceful protesters of the Great March of Return and conveyed a message that it isn’t concerned about the popular achievements on the ground…²

Compare this with a recording made of a conversation in which the Arab owner of a Gaza transportation company is heard telling an Israeli administrator about Hamas: "They came in, arrested us and pressed charges. They told me they wanted to lock me up and brought in other drivers. They said they wanted to impound my buses. What was I supposed to do?"³

Behind the various activities is a web of Islamist incitement and deceit which is rarely, if ever, commented upon by Western media.

For Justice?

Behind the various activities is a web of Islamist incitement and deceit which is rarely, if ever, commented upon by Western media. The so-called ‘Great Return March’ began on Friday 30 March 2018. Yet as early as 27 January a Friday sermon in Gaza by Imam Musa Abu Jleidan, posted on the internet, included this:

The Great Return March, which is the national and Islamic consensus, is a form of Jihad. It does not eliminate the need for Jihad by the sword, by missiles or by rockets. They go hand in hand. It has caused harm to our enemies and today they are in a state of distress.

Allah said to us about the Jews, ‘Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. They slay the prophets and people who command justice. They are the philosophers of terrorism and crime, people of treachery and deceit, who slayed the prophets of Allah. It is an honour for us here on this blessed land to have been chosen by Allah to fight them and to strike fear in them.⁴

It seems no coincidence that on the very same Friday in Saudi Arabia, a prominent imam proclaimed in his sermon, “These are the Jews. Allah cursed them, was angry with them, and turned them into apes and pigs. He would keep sending to them until the Day of Resurrection those who would lay upon them a cruel torment. They instigate strife among Muslims, and the Muslims will continue to confront them until Judgment Day.”

The sermon ended with Islamist invocations:

Imam: Oh Allah, hasten their annihilation.

Congregation: Amen.

Imam: Oh Allah, count them one by one, and kill them down to the very last one.

Congregation: Amen.

Imam: Do not spare a single one of them.

Congregation: Amen.⁵

Such anti-Semitism is endemic to the situation in Gaza, 99% of whose population is primarily Sunni Muslim.

Peaceful Intentions?

How ‘peaceful’, then, are the intentions behind the organised protests? A leader of the Al-Sawarka Bedouin tribe preached a sermon broadcast on Gaza’s Al-Aqsa TV on 29 March, in which he asserted, forcefully:

This is a message to the whole world: The Palestinian people shall never relinquish the Right of Return. The Palestinian people shall liberate its land with blood, with martyrs, with women, and with children. We shall never relinquish our land, the land of our fathers and of our forefathers. We shall return with all our might.

We shall return as liberators, with our heads held high, and carrying the banner of 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger…This siege must be shattered with all our might – with our bodies, our lives, our hands, and our bare chests. We shall come and take down that fence with the fingernails of our children, Allah willing.⁶

The irony of the use of smoke and mirrors is largely lost on the Western media.

If that might be dismissed as mere religious rhetoric, here’s what Yahya Sinwar, the Prime Minister of Gaza said on Al-Jazeera TV, on Friday 30 March: “Let them wait for our big push. We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”⁷

He was also reported by Britain’s Labour Friends of Israel as adopting a particularly blood-curdling tone. They quoted him as saying “The March of Return will continue…until we remove this transient border” and vowing that the people of Gaza will “eat the livers of those besieging” them.⁸

On 5 April Iyad Abu Funun, a Hamas cleric and TV host, said on Al-Aqsa TV, “If our generation today makes a decision – and indeed, we are making this decision, and all our people’s generations need to make this decision…Our hijra [emigration/flight] must come to an end. We have a right to our land, and we must return to it. We must return to it – above ground, underground, by means of demonstrations, bombs, weapons, explosives, explosive belts…We must return to our land…”.⁹

Mohammed Talatene/DPA/PA ImagesAnimated footage followed these words, showing Palestinian men attacking Israeli towns in the West Bank with rifles, missiles, and hand-grenades, torching homes and leaving the land barren and in flames.

Non-Violent Behaviour?

One may then ask, what about peaceful behaviour? On 28 April members of a ‘Tyre-Burning Unit’ proclaimed:

Martyrs in the millions are marching to Jerusalem! Martyrs in the millions are marching to Jerusalem! Martyrs in the millions are marching to Jerusalem! Allah Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!...We, in the tire-burning unit – this important unit in Gaza – say to all those who conspire against the Palestinian people: we are steadfast, we persevere, and we are ready to sacrifice our lives…Let despicable Trump hear the voice of the mujahideen: What is our loftiest aspiration? To die for the sake of Allah!¹⁰

Gazans readying a weaponised balloon. NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images.Photos taken of Palestinians within the Gaza boundary clearly show determined efforts to cause injury and damage. Very large catapults have been used to propel rocks and improvised explosive devices against the IDF.

Large kites have been used with devastating effect to carry flaming fuel-soaked material into Israel’s nature reserves and cereal fields. YNet News reported on 24 April that “Four kites affixed with burning objects were flown from Gaza at a wheat field in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council on Monday. While there were no casualties, the consequent fire caused immense damage, torching an estimated 100 dunam (equal to 1,000 square meters) of wheat…Other Gaza perimeter farmers echoed his opinion, estimating the damage caused by the incendiary kites to reach the thousands of shekels, with torched chickpea and wheat fields in their wake."¹¹

Then on 2 May hundreds of dunams of lovely grasslands and woodlands of the Be’eri Forest were left badly charred. Ten firefighter teams were battling the weather conditions for hours as well as the blaze, due to a sharav currently gripping the country – a hot, dry desert wind that combines super-high temperatures with low humidity and strong easterly winds, all of which is a recipe for increasing any kind of wildfire.¹²

Photos taken of Palestinians within the Gaza boundary clearly show determined efforts to cause injury and damage.

And an IDF video shows masked Gazans chanting, “Allah willing, the Jews’ hearts will burn. We will not stop until the Jews leave our land and, Allah willing, we return to it.”¹³

There can be no doubt that Islam and its inherent deception lie at the heart of Palestinian political and military action, especially in Gaza. We must not be fooled. If recent events are anything to go by, it seems that the need for watchful prayer has never been greater.

References

1 Palestinians clash with Israeli troops along Gaza border. Bloomberg, 6 April 2018.

2 Great March of Return...An option feared by the occupation. Hamas, 5 May 2018.

3 COGAT reveals Hamas threats against bus company owners. YNet News, 5 April 2018.

4 Translations from Arabic by the Middle Eastern Monitoring and Research Institute (MEMRI). Taken from here.

5 MEMRI TV, 28 January 2018.

6 MEMRI TV, 29 March 2018.

7 Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - We Will Tear Out Their Hearts - April 6, 2018. Youtube.

8 Clashes at the Gaza border leave sixteen Palestinians dead. Labour Friends of Israel, 4 April 2018.

9 MEMRI TV, 5 April 2018.

10 MEMRI, 28 April 2018.

11 Continuing kite threat puts Israeli farmers on edge. YNet News, 24 April 2018.

12 WATCH: Be’eri Forest Fire Started by Gaza Terror Kites. Jewish Press, 2 May 2018.

13 PEACEFUL PROTEST? ‘The Jews’ Hearts Will Burn,’ Threaten Gaza Rioters. United With Israel, 7 May 2018.

The Gaza border protests enter their sixth week.

For several weeks now, thousands of Palestinians have lined up along the Gaza border fence in protest. Stones and Molotov cocktails have been flung, burning tyres have been rolled and attempts have been made to breach the barrier. The IDF has responded with crowd dispersals, rubber bullets and occasionally live fire, with 40 deaths so far.

But the promised break-through and subsequent flooding of Israel with millions of Gazans has not yet materialised – and events in Syria and elsewhere have gradually drawn the eye of the media away.

The so-called ‘March of Return’ began in late March, with protests planned to continue up to Israel’s 70^th anniversary in May, when a new ‘intifada’ may be launched. This article puts some facts about the protests into historical context, and then reflects a little on their biblical significance.

Some History

The recent history of the Palestinian war on Israel is composed of sporadic attacks on Israeli citizens (stabbings, kidnappings, suicide bombings), interspersed with escalations of violence known as ‘intifadas’.

Both the First Intifada (1987-1993) and the Second (2000-2005) ended with Israeli agreements to compromise – first with the 1993 Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority (PA) and agreed a phased Israeli withdrawal from the so-called ‘Palestinian territories’, and secondly with Israel’s agreement to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip. The border fence was constructed in 1994 as part of the Oslo negotiations, to provide a security barrier limiting the movement of people and arms. It quickly became a hot spot for clashes.

The promised break-through and subsequent flooding of Israel with millions of Gazans has not yet materialised.

Since the relinquishment of Gaza and its wresting from the PA by terrorist group Hamas in 2007, the Strip has become a base for rocket attacks and tunnel warfare. But successful Israeli combating of these strategies has meant that Hamas is now resorting to higher-profile tactics, namely, people power.

Since 2007, the situation in Gaza under Hamas rule has deteriorated to the point, many say, of imminent infrastructural collapse. Relations between Hamas and the PA in the West Bank are extremely poor, and it is likely that the current protests represent a desperate, last-ditch attempt to draw global support.

Six Weeks of Violence

The ‘March of Return’ was timed to begin on what the Palestinians call ‘Land Day’, the anniversary of Israeli-Arab clashes over land in 1976 (it was also the start of Passover) and run until so-called ‘Nakba Day’ (‘Catastrophe Day’), or Israel’s independence day, with spikes each Friday.

Hamas has spent more than $10 million organising the protests, laying on free transport, meals and tented accommodation to encourage attendance. There are questions over how many of the protestors are peaceful¹ as well as how many have come voluntarily.²

Firebomb kites have been causing extensive fires in Israeli farmland. See Photo Credits.

The IDF has repeatedly warned that those getting close to the fence and trying to break through will be fired upon, seeing this as a major attempt to storm Israel and attack civilians.³ Of the 40 killed so far, at least 32 had known terrorist connections – 80% of the fatalities. All those injured and families of the deceased receive financial rewards from Hamas.

Though many have been quick to label this a massacre of peaceful innocents, photos and videos from the border tell a very different story: Palestinians throwing rocks and fire-bombs, burning tyres, planting explosives, employing automatic fire and using children as human shields.⁴

Hamas promised 100,000 on Land Day, but only about 30,000 came. The four Fridays since have seen a much lower turnout – about 10,000 each time – and reports this Friday suggest even less, around 7,000. The threat is that a million will come for Nakba Day, but this estimate is likely also over-hopeful. But what they’ve lacked in attendance, protestors have made up for in creativity, including dramatic faking of injuries to get media attention,⁵ use of literal ‘smoke and mirrors’⁶ and, latterly, kites manned with pipe bombs and marked with swastikas, reportedly in honour of Hitler’s birthday.

Though many have been quick to label this a massacre of peaceful innocents, photos and videos from the border tell a very different story.

Despite all of this, left-wing media in the West have had a field day at Israel’s expense. To them, the Palestinians can do no wrong – they are the ultimate victim group, driven to violence by the aggression of Israel. This means that Palestinian terror is excused or ignored while Israeli defensive reactions are chastised with claims of brutality.

Why?

Through all the drama, the ‘March of Return’ - by Hamas’s own admission - has several goals. One is to provoke Israel to war. Another is to pressure the Israeli Government to the point of collapse.

In the latter respect Hamas has won some PR points. Painting the protests as peaceful makes any kind of forceful response immediately look disproportionate. Indeed, if the fence were to be breached, as has happened before, it would lead to a diplomatic crisis for Israel, forced to fire on civilians marching ostensibly for freedom. However, an internal Israeli collapse remains highly improbable.

A more realistic goal is to engage the IDF in a war of attrition that will detract resources and attention from its northern border, where the threat of war from an Iran-backed Hezbollah is very real and imminent. In fact, Iran’s relationship with Hamas in Gaza suggests co-operation towards this end.⁷

Hamas’s least realistic goal is to break down the borders and march en masse into Israel, flooding it with millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees. Claiming the Land remains a fundamental part of Palestinian mindsets, which conceive of it as theirs by divine right, which is why Hamas rhetoric over the last few weeks has consistently used the phrase “right to return”.

However, the unrealistic nature of this goal is not the point – it reflects something ideological, and spiritual, which is important to understand.

The Right to Return?

The claim to a ‘right to return’ hinges on the argument that Palestinians, as the indigenous people of the area, were cruelly and unfairly forced to flee their homes in 1948 when Israel was created. Factually, of course, this is hotly disputed.

The refugee crisis in Gaza was indeed created in 1948, at Israel’s birth. However, contrary to popularly accepted propaganda, this was not due to Palestinians being forced off ‘their land’ by ‘settler-colonialist’ Jews. Nor was it due to any kind of ethnic cleansing on behalf of the Israeli authorities.

The claim to a ‘right to return’ reflects something ideological and spiritual which is important to understand.

The very claim that Palestinians were somehow a coherent people in 1948 and represented the indigenous population of Israel is bogus.⁸ But that aside, the majority of Palestinians who fled in 1948, ending up in refugee camps in Arab-controlled territories, did so because they were fleeing the coming war on Israel, which the surrounding Arab countries were sure would be won in a matter of days. Many residents were deliberately evacuated by Arab leaders. Israeli authorities made efforts to persuade people to stay – but with little success.⁹

Even PA leader Mahmoud Abbas admitted that the refugee problem was a crisis of the Arabs’ own making:

The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny, but instead they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live.¹⁰

Against all odds, Israel won the 1948 war, with Egypt left occupying the Gaza Strip.¹¹ Since, it has become in the strategic interest of Palestinian leaders to keep their people languishing, to garner international support for their cause and to stir up anger and desperation among ordinary Palestinians. This hypocrisy is written from an insider perspective in testimonies such as ‘Son of Hamas’, by Hamas ‘prince’ Mosab Hassan Yousef.

Do the Facts Matter?

Of course, factual arguments aren’t as important as ideology when it comes to the Palestinian cause. Although a large part of their international appeal rests on people thinking otherwise, the ‘right to return’ does not actually refer to a few thousand refugees reclaiming small parcels of land here and there across Israel that they once used to call home.

Neither is Hamas today’s version of the US civil rights movement - those who imply otherwise are imposing Western logic onto an Islamic issue.

The ‘right to return’ is actually a broader reference to the pan-Arabic re-claiming of the whole Land of Israel – by whatever means necessary - until Israel as a state ceases to exist and its Jews (and Christians) have either been eradicated or subjugated to Islam. This has less to do, then, with specific Palestinian lived experience and more to do with general Islamic enmity towards Jews and the religious imperative to ‘liberate’ the Land from Judaism/Christianity and for Islam, “from the river to the sea” as Hamas loves to put it. According to the Palestinians, the Land is ‘waqf land’ – land eternally belonging to Islam and only temporarily ‘occupied’ by Jews.¹²

The ‘right to return’ has less to do with specific Palestinian lived experience and more to do with general Islamic enmity towards Jews and the religious imperative to ‘liberate’ the Land for Islam.

In short, the ‘March of Return’ is about the obliteration of Israel. It’s a literal walking out of anti-Zionism – the belief that the Jewish state has no right to exist and that Jews have no claim to the Land.

Of course such an obliteration is not only based on lies, it is also practically impossible, as the Bible makes clear that Israel has been resettled permanently in the Land – never to be uprooted again (Amos 9:15).

Bible Lens

Whilst of course Israelis don’t get everything right and few yet know their Messiah, it is indisputable that God has set them back in their Land, re-gathering them from around the world in fulfilment of his word, and protecting them miraculously from incessant onslaughts ever since.

It is also indisputable that the Palestinians, dreadfully abused by their own leaders and indoctrinated to hate Jews, are fundamentally setting themselves against God. Though each are loved by the Lord, and he sees the complexities of their individual predicaments, the sum of their activism represents and channels demonic hatred of God’s covenant people and covenant Land. The Bible makes it clear that ultimately this is completely futile (e.g. Ps 2) and worse – brings a curse (Gen 12:3).

Scripture does not clearly predict this current protest (really just the latest manifestation of a very long-running campaign), but it does foresee various attempts to make war on the Jewish state.

As successive storm-clouds gather and burst in the Middle East, it is not difficult to see that the Palestinians are aligning themselves with those Arab nations, such as Iran, that actively plan to wipe Israel off the map. Again, the scriptures make clear the end of those who come against Israel in this way: shame and perishing, becoming like the “whirling dust” (Ps 83:13).

The Bible foretells that the nations of the world will one day gather to make war against Israel (Zech 12). Undoubtedly, the Palestinian ‘cause’, complex though it may be, has done a huge amount to spread anti-Israel hatred around the world, and to deceive many into believing that Israel’s very existence is illegitimate. Thus, however far away we are from the coming global war on the Jewish state, these protests are helping to lay its foundations in people’s hearts, today.

However far away we are from the coming global war on the Jewish state, these protests are helping to lay its foundations in people’s hearts, today.

Watchmen on the Walls

In keeping track of this unfolding drama, it’s important that we do not become passive onlookers, for there is much we can do.

We can use the opportunity to avail ourselves of the facts and disseminate and defend the truth, engaging people in conversation and challenging wrong assumptions and bias.¹³ There are many resources and books available to this end, with more being reviewed on Prophecy Today UK in coming weeks.

We can make sure that we ourselves have built up our own understandings of the conflict from the bedrock of Scripture, more than from media reports. What we see in the flesh is symptomatic of an invisible spiritual battle that the secular media cannot comprehend.

And, not least, we can pray: that Britain will choose her side in this conflict wisely, that God will work to protect his people and Land in ways that bring great glory to his name, and that he will have a huge harvest amidst all the chaos – including from among the Palestinian people.

Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; yes, let them be put to shame and perish, that they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth. (Psalm 83:16-18, NKJV, emphasis added)

References

1 Snapshots from Gazan media outlets are illuminating in this respect: see here.

2 E.g. see here.

3 Read this article for a helpful analysis from an Israeli strategic viewpoint.

4 A case is currently before the International Criminal Court to prosecute Hamas in this respect.

5 The unofficial term for this is ‘Pallywood’. E.g. see these rehearsals and this page under ‘Myth: Israel is shooting people in the back or while they are running away.’

6 Mirrors to blind IDF soldiers and huge piles of tyres set ablaze to create a smokescreen covering attempts to storm the fence. The resulting tyre shortage in Gaza was blamed on Israel.

7 See here.

8 Most Arabs living in Palestine before 1948 were immigrants from surrounding countries. Zionist pioneers brought prosperity in the 20^th Century, attracting more in-migration. The uniting of these into a coherent ‘Palestinian’ people group happened in the mid-20^th Century, chiefly out of opposition to the new Jewish state.

9 Those who did stay enjoy full citizenship rights today and a much higher standard of living than in surrounding countries.

10 Falastin a-Thaura, March 1973. Quoted here. There was unavoidable collateral damage during the 1948 war and some inexcusable instances of Jewish aggression. However, Israel denounced these latter events and sought to compensate victims. For more on this issue, we recommend this page as well as Sandra Teplinsky’s book, ‘Why Still Care About Israel?’ (2013, Chosen Books).

11 Read a brief history of the Strip here.

12 See here (Article Eleven) and here.

13 CUFI are currently encouraging people to email the Foreign Secretary, urging him to condemn Hamas’s behaviour.

There’s a solution to the murder and mayhem on our streets

Plans have been revealed for the launch of a new party to ‘break the mould’ of British politics. But we don’t need a new party. We need a new heart, awakened by the Spirit of God from dreams of a man-made paradise in which we all sing from same the secular ‘hymn sheet’ where nothing is absolutely right or wrong.

This kind of thinking has only ever produced a nightmare scenario of violence, lawlessness and utter selfishness.

Britain has been hit by the terrifying news that the streets of London have now become more dangerous than those of New York. And in the Middle East, the Syrian Government would appear to have unleashed chemical weapons on its own people, killing 200 and wounding 1,000 more – mainly women and children. And Russia responds by calling this a fabrication.

A little further south, on the border of Gaza, rioters provoke the Israeli Defence Force with a so-called ‘March of Return’. Some would have us believe this is a legitimate protest at Israeli brutality and oppression, and for the right of refugees (and their descendants) to return to the Jewish state. But what is the truth?

Self-Inflicted Crisis

Well, the protestors deliberately chose the Jewish feast of Passover to mount their frustration, no doubt particularly mindful of the imminent 70-year celebration of Israel’s re-birth as a nation.

Actually, the refugee situation affecting the Palestinian people is a crisis of their own making, resulting from fierce opposition to the creation of modern Israel by her surrounding Arab states who immediately set upon the newly-born nation with the full force of their armies (like the dragon depicted in Revelation 12), warning Arabs living there to flee the country so they wouldn’t get caught up in the impending invasion.

The refugee situation affecting the Palestinian people is a crisis of their own making.

Israeli leaders, however, tried to persuade their Arab residents to stay, but to no avail – hence creating a totally unnecessary humanitarian crisis. And those who promised their swift return in the wake of Arab victory refuse to take any responsibility for their welfare. They are simply used as political pawns enabling anti-Semites to point the finger of blame at Israel for almost everything wrong with the world.

Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border. Stringer/Xinhua News Agency/PA ImagesMalcolm Powell, who was 12 at the time of Israel’s re-birth (in 1948), recalls reading and hearing at the time “that the Israelis were touring the Arab Muslim villages with loudspeakers urging them to remain, and to ignore orders to flee from the Muslim countries about to attack the new state.”

And while these self-inflicted refugees are estimated to have numbered some 800,000,¹ little is discussed in media circles about the 846,000 Jewish refugees forced out of Arab countries at the same time, who lost land and property equivalent to four times the size of Israel² - not to mention the many Holocaust survivors from Europe who had lost everything.

Land for Peace?

Quite apart from the refugee issue, Gaza was very much part of Israel until the world’s politicians managed to persuade former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out of the enclave in a ‘land for peace’ exchange.

But ever since the 2005 withdrawal, terror group Hamas has used Gaza to launch a constant volley of rockets into Israeli territory, where frightened residents have hardly had a moment’s peace in more than a dozen years. They have also been subject to the constant fear of terrorists tunnelling under their homes with the intention of taking hostages and killing civilians.

Little is discussed in the media about the 846,000 Jewish refugees forced out of Arab countries in 1948.

Welsh photographer Grace Fryer has just opened a month-long exhibition depicting the suffering of children in Israeli communities close to the Gaza border.³ Some of those pictured are totally traumatised and unable to live normal lives. Grace witnessed mortar and rocket attacks herself when visiting the area as a child and returned as a student photographer in May 2016 to help others understand what these people are suffering. What sort of peace is this?

Truth Turned Upside-Down

Wherever you look in world politics, truth is being turned on its head. In my country South Africa, for example, Palestinians are being depicted as “the crucified, hanging body of Jesus today”.⁴ This was part of a ‘Good Friday statement’ by the Economic Freedom Fighters political party which ACDP (African Christian Democratic Party) leader Rev Kenneth Meshoe has described as “insidious, inflammatory, highly offensive and blasphemous”, adding:

Jesus was a Jew. Jerusalem has belonged to the Jews for over 3,000 years, from the time King David first established it as a city of Israel…I encourage persons not wanting to be deceived to research the truth for themselves and, if given the opportunity to travel to Israel to see the vibrant democracy that she is, to do so!

He further rounded on the “hypocrisy” of Palestinian leaders “who would rather spend the billions of dollars they receive from the international community to fund a mission to destroy Israel instead of investing in the health, education and economic development of their own people.”

What is the Problem?

We could all do with following the wisdom of legendary author GK Chesterton who, in response to a question from a major newspaper – “What is the problem with the world?” – is reputed to have submitted a brief handwritten note to the editor, saying: “I am. Sincerely yours, Chesterton.”⁵

We are the problem! We are all sinners, but there is a remedy for our sin, and his name is Jesus, who died on a cruel cross to take the punishment we deserved. Trusting in his death brings us life, health and peace – and, yes, it is also a recipe for changing a world gone wrong.

As Rev Meshoe put it, “Jesus’ death on the cross was an expression of the highest form of love; he gave his life for the salvation of all mankind. Palestinians are not being crucified.”

The answer to the problem of “I am” is the great “I AM” – the name God applied to himself and which Jesus also owned, as suggested by his many divine claims, such as: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The answer to the problem of “I am” is the great “I AM”.

The Ultimate Answer

As for the streets of London, where more than 50 people have been murdered in the first three months of this year, the ultimate answer to the problem is just the same as outlined above. And for a helpful illustration, reference what has been happening in recent weeks just down the road from where Rev Meshoe has been speaking so courageously in the South African Parliament.

A huge prayer rally called It’s Time drew up to 150,000 people to Cape Town. It was the biggest recorded event in the city’s history, but when the organiser assured police there would be no incidents, the police chief laughed at him, explaining that 10,000 had attended the Mitchells Plain venue only a fortnight earlier and there had been 48 stabbings and over 100 robberies.

What’s more, he added, those attending the prayer event would have to park up to 4km away and walk through some of the district’s most dangerous areas.

But at the de-briefing following the rally, held to confess the country’s sins, the same police chief reported, with tears in his eyes, that not one single incident – no assaults, no robberies, nothing – had been recorded!⁶

Stop blaming everyone else for all the problems around you, and start to build a new world by dealing with your own sin. Jesus said something similar, telling his listeners to take the plank out of their own eye so they could see clearly to take the speck out of someone else’s eye (Matt 7:3-5). But don’t try doing it by yourself; only Jesus can help you!

Notes

1 Hancock-Watts, C. Understanding Gaza. ASSIST News Service, 11 April 2018.

2 Leaflet promoting The Hope photographic exhibition – see www.fathershouse.wales

3 The exhibition, opened on 12 April, is being held at the Theatre Clywd Education Gallery, Mold, North Wales.

4 Gateway News (South Africa), 3 April 2018.

5 Mohler, RA, 2018. The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down. Nelson Books.

6 Joy Digital, 9 April 2018.