Resetting our compass from 1985...

The early issues of Prophecy Today in the mid-1980s frequently referred to a ‘move of the Holy Spirit’. They were exciting days. It was the height of the Charismatic Movement. House groups formed in the 1960s and ‘70s had spilled over into meetings in schools and community halls. Celebration events attracted large crowds with loud music and enthusiastic praise.

Party-time

I remember walking into a hall in 1987 with several hundred people singing and dancing and waving flags. The band and a group of singers were repeating a ditty to thunderous applause with increasing physical participation from the crowd, some of whom were swaying in the aisles and others falling down. I said to one of the leaders, “What’s going on here?” He responded, “Don’t worry! The Lord’s having a party!”

I remember thinking at the time, “I hope the Lord has been invited and that he hasn’t already left!” A decade before that, Monica and I were in the East End of London. The 1970s was the formative, more serious time of charismatic renewal. We had 1000 people on a Saturday evening to ‘Prayer, Praise and Healing’ meetings. At that stage we were still singing the great Bible-based hymns of Wesley and Watts, but by the mid-‘80s the musicians were driving the charisma.

Praise was the order of the day. We were marching through the land, re-claiming dominion over the nation. It was known as ‘Dominion Theology’. We bought into the popular teaching of ‘Power Evangelism’. Christians were going to seize control of the airwaves and the political and social systems of the nation in preparation for the second coming of Christ when we would present the Kingdom to him. It was all down to us!

Going Against Fashion

Right from the start of Prophecy Today we found ourselves going against the fashion. The popular teaching did not stand up to careful comparison with the Bible. We didn’t want to curb the enthusiasm of people who were genuinely caught up in the Holy Spirit, but we were aware of the dangers of deception, so we had to warn. We knew that unless the biblical teaching offered to the people was based upon the plumb line of truth in the word of God it would be deception. The devil who deals in lies is careful to present his teaching as close to the truth as possible, otherwise it would fool no one!

"Christians in churches and fellowships that had got caught up in the Renewal Movement were so enjoying their new-found spiritual liberty that they were taking their eye off the wider scene."

We could see that the Christians in churches and fellowships that had got caught up in the Renewal Movement were so enjoying their new-found spiritual liberty (which contrasted to the dead traditionalism they were offered in many churches), that they were taking their eye off the wider scene. A similar thing happened several times in the history of Israel when God sent prophets to draw the people back to the truth of the word of God, so that they could stand against enemy attacks. Isaiah had to warn against danger from the Assyrians and Jeremiah against the Babylonians.

Warnings of Danger

In the 1985 publications of Prophecy Today we warned of great danger coming from two directions – one from within the Western nations and the other from outside. The two dangers we identified were – the increasing confidence of secular humanists, and the rising power of militant fundamentalist Islam.

We saw that the secular humanists’ strategy of undermining the Judaeo-Christian heritage and biblically-based foundations of the nations could destroy the spiritual strength of the Church to stand against a religion that was teaching a very different concept of God. We believed that the peace of the world was under threat and that Christians were unaware. They were enjoying their party celebrations, saying “Peace, Peace,” when God was saying “There is no Peace”.

"Christians were enjoying their party celebrations and saying "Peace, Peace", when God was saying "There is no Peace".

In the lead article of the very first issue of Prophecy Today March/April 1985, I drew attention to the rise of fundamentalist Islam in Libya, Syria, Iran and Pakistan and I said “The threat from militant Islam may one day prove to be greater than the threat from atheist Russian Communism”. Thirty years later the truth of this can be seen on the streets of Paris!

First Issue of Prophecy Today

We rejoiced in the new life that the Renewal Movement was bringing into the Church. We said that God was re-arming his Church for spiritual battle against the onslaught of secularism and false religion. We warned against the failure to discern false biblical teaching which would have disastrous social as well as spiritual consequences.

"In the first issue of Prophecy Today, we rejoiced in the new life that the Renewal Movement was bringing into the Church. We said that God was re-arming his Church for spiritual battle against the onslaught of secularism and false religion."

Sadly, these warnings were not heeded and the Charismatic Movement became increasingly self-centred, with individuals exercising the spiritual gifts for their own self-aggrandisement and self-satisfaction, rather than recognising that the spiritual gifts were given to enable the Church to fulfil the Great Commission. That is the tragedy we have seen played out in the 1980s and ‘90s that has left the traditional churches bereft of the power that God had provided for the great battle he foresaw.

"Sadly, the Charismatic Movement became increasingly self-centred, with individuals exercising the spiritual gifts for their own self-aggrandisement and self-satisfaction, rather than recognising that the spiritual gifts were given to enable the Church to fulfil the Great Commission."

Will we Never Learn?

Today we see the spiritually bankrupt institutional churches with declining congregations selling their buildings for mosques or supermarkets, while the new churches are settling into the same patterns of institutionalisation that brought spiritual ruin to the denominations. Will we never learn? Will we never learn from the history of Israel that disaster always follows failure to heed the warnings God sends to us?

Only God can Heal

We believe God is raising up Prophecy Today at such a time as this, to bring his word to a rebellious generation through the faithful remnant of believers that still exists in the Western nations. We undertake this task, not with any confidence in our own ability, but only with a sense of obedience to God. Only God can heal the nations, and only he can protect his people in times of persecution and give them the spiritual strength to stand firm when all around them is being shaken.

Urgent

God is warning believers that we are moving into the most perilous time in the history of the world, with the nations armed with weapons of mass destruction capable of destroying all life on the planet. There is nothing more urgent than seeking the word of God for our times. That is what we are committed to doing in Prophecy Today, although we undertake this task with fear and trembling.