Clifford Hill asks: has the UK just joined an unholy alliance?
To bomb or not to bomb? That was the question faced by our Parliament this week and the bombers won the day. But was it really a victory that increases the security of Britain from terrorist attacks? When the Prime Minister decided to call the crucial debate after he'd done his mathematics, I asked the question, "Is there any word from the Lord?" I turned to my Bible and it fell open to Isaiah 30: "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."
This caused me to look at the alliance we will be joining. On the one hand there is America, France and Australia and on the other hand there is Russia, Iran and Iraq plus Assad's part of Syria. Together these are strange bedfellows; one might almost say they are an unholy alliance with little in common except a shared opposition to the Islamic State.
Unholy Alliance
What are we doing joining such an alliance? If our intention is simply to add a few more bombs to the thousands already dropped by America and France and Australia and Russia, without any intention of sending in an army to clear IS out of the territory and to establish a lasting peace, there really isn't much point.
In fact, it could be a disastrous decision, for Britain already has sufficient resident potential terrorists to create havoc in our cities, as happened in Paris last month. Our bombing might even radicalise some more young Muslims. The security services report that they have recently successfully countered seven terrorist plots; but how much longer will it be before one of these groups evades our counterterrorist forces?
The Search for a Solution
What is the answer? Do we just do nothing and wait for the different factions within Islam to slaughter each other; or do we urge the formation of a united army of which we are willing to take part to confront the Islamic State on the ground? But even if such a united army was successful in defeating IS and liberating those who are suffering under the barbaric mediaeval regime, this will not solve the problem of the Middle East. What we are facing is an ideological and spiritual battle rather than conventional warfare. It is a battle that cannot be won by force of arms.
Of even greater significance is the possibility that by joining this alliance against the Islamic State we might actually be putting ourselves against God!
In the scripture just quoted from Isaiah 30:1 God speaks about "those who carry out plans that are not mine". This is the great danger facing us if we have not truly sought to know and to understand what God is doing today.
Scripture warns us of the danger of putting ourselves against God and trying to carry out plans that are not his.
Exposing the Wickedness of the Nations
In last week's editorial comment Clifford Denton quoted the prophecy from Haggai 2:6-7 which we were quoting back in the 1980s in the old printed magazine Prophecy Today, saying that God had revealed that he would soon be unleashing a great shaking of the whole world of nature; and the political, social, and economic institutions of all nations would be shaken. In numerous articles on the subject we said that God's purpose was to expose the corruption and wickedness of the nations in order to prepare the way for the kingdom of God as stated in Hebrews 12:26f.
We have now reached the point in the history of the world where we are actually immersed in the great shaking – and of course, we don't like it! We are tempted to cry out to God to stop the shaking: but if God says "I am shaking the nations" and we pray for it to stop, we are actually putting ourselves against God! We are praying against his will.
Asking the Right Questions
We have to ask some fundamental questions, "What are God's plans? What is he doing today?" When we discover the answer to these questions, then we will know how to pray and what we should do. We will be like the tribe of Issachar in the time of King David; understanding the times and knowing what to do (1 Chron 12:32). This, in fact, is God's will for his people: those who know him, who love him and want to be his servants.
We need to find out what God's will is and pray it - not be tempted to pray against it by asking for what we want.
God has already provided all the answers to these fundamental questions through the revelation of his nature and purposes in the Bible that climax in "the Word became flesh" at the season of Advent which we are celebrating right now. At Advent we not only celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world but we look forward to his Second Coming when "All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats" (Matt 25:32).
The Preparation is Now
What we are seeing now is in preparation for this event which is clearly drawing nearer. For a number of years God has been turning the light onto the nations of the West who have had the gospel for centuries and who have allowed greed and corruption to distort his purposes in using them to reveal his love and his salvation to all nations. The shaking of the Western nations has intensified in the 21st century as the proud economic institutions of the bankers crumbled and the misdeeds of politicians and celebrities were exposed.
God also began to use Islam as the 'rod of his anger', allowing atrocities in the great cities of the Western nations such as the fall of the Twin Towers in New York, the bombing of the Underground in London and most recently, the atrocities in Paris.
Understanding God's Purposes
But just as God allowed Assyria and Babylon to bring judgment upon his covenant people of Israel, when that was completed he destroyed both aggressors for their savage cruelty. Today God is allowing the Islamic State to carry out similar atrocities in the very same places (Mosel in the Islamic State was Nineveh the capital of Assyria, and Baghdad was Babylon, capital of the Babylonian Empire).
Just as God allowed Assyria and Babylon to bring judgment upon his covenant people of Israel, when that was completed he destroyed both aggressors for their savage cruelty.
But the barbaric acts of IS are shaking the whole world of Islam and causing millions to question their faith in the teaching of Muhammad. The implosion of Islam has begun. It will gain momentum, particularly as the hundreds of thousands of migrants integrate into Western society and as the acts of terrorism continue to expose the darkness and violence that stems from the Qur'an and lies at the very heart of Islam.
This is why it is essential that we understand God's plans and we do not enter into an ungodly alliance with those whose ultimate purpose may be to destroy Israel and the Western nations. Isaiah 30 not only has a warning for the West; it also has a lovely promise, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" (Is 30:15-18)
