Reflections on the recent UK riots

The Church’s potential as a revolutionary force

People power and the hand of God.

This week we have seen the fall from favour of two powerful politicians – Mugabe and Merkel. They have each held power in very different societies but their downfalls are both linked to the rise of people power.

People power signals the awakening of ordinary people to the misuse of power among the ruling elite that has been the source of oppression for far too long. It is now even affecting cruel dictatorships such as the Mugabe regime, which has dominated Zimbabwe for decades.

The popularist backlash has begun: where will it end?

Angela Merkel’s problems stemmed from her unwise single-handed decision to welcome more than one million asylum seekers from the Muslim world and to try to force other EU nations to follow the same policy. Her nearest neighbours - Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria - have all resisted this pressure.

Populist Revolts

Other parts of the EU are experiencing something similar - a populist reaction against decisions made by those in power. In France, Macron’s sudden rise to prominence reflected a workers’ revolt against both left and right traditional political parties. But his failure to please the workers has brought them out onto the streets in protest.¹

It remains to be seen whether a similar pattern will be followed in Zimbabwe if the vast army of unemployed do not see radical change with their new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Politicians in traditional parties throughout the EU are watching the growth of anti-establishment, populist movements with trepidation.

And what about the European Union itself? The cracks we have been forecasting in Prophecy Today UK are beginning to widen. The corruption at the heart of this evil institution with the gross rewards it pays to its unelected officials is becoming widely known and will bring its inevitable consequences. Politicians in the traditional parties throughout the European Union are watching the growth of anti-establishment, populist movements with trepidation.

The God Factor

Angela Merkel announces the failure of her coalition talks. See Photo Credits.

But the major factor that the Establishment does not recognise is the God factor!

Yes, certainly, the forces of social change that are sweeping Europe and other parts of the world, including traditional monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, are of sociological significance, but they also have theological significance! They are not simply generated by human ambitions or discontent: they all show signs of the guiding Hand of God!

The Prophet Haggai prophesying in the year 520 BC may not have known God’s timetable, but he certainly received a clear revelation of the purposes of God when he declared, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations…”.

We are certainly seeing a great shaking of the world of nature through storms, hurricanes, floods, droughts and earthquakes – arguably more than in any other period in recorded history; and we are also seeing a great shaking of the nations.

The forces of change that are sweeping Europe and other parts of the world all show signs of the guiding Hand of God.

This is where we need our Bibles more than sociological and political theory to give us a steer about what is happening and the likely outcomes of the forces of change that are driving the nations.

When we get a clear view of the nature and purposes of God, we have the necessary tools of analysis to enable us to understand what is going on in our world today. Without this knowledge we are left with our secular human frailty; alone in the universe, facing the gathering storms with winds of change reaching hurricane force and no compass or rudder to guide.

The two fundamental assets of the biblical prophets were: revelationary knowledge of the nature and purposes of God; and understanding of the sovereignty of God - that everything that happened was either because God directly willed it, or because he allowed it.

Exposing Injustice

So, what’s happening among the nations today? Certainly, we can see that in Europe and the West, God is exposing the corruption, injustice and oppression exercised by the ruling elite who misuse their riches and their power to pursue selfish aims and objectives.

As Jeremiah stated in his famous ‘Temple Sermon’ (Jer 7), God hates injustice and oppression. There is something in our fallen human nature that still reflects the image of God, in which we were created, that enables us to recognise injustice and oppression and to reject them. This is what is happening today as God turns on the light, exposing the corrupt financial, political and social systems of the modern world.

Mrs Merkel’s fall from power is likely to trigger elections in the new year which will benefit the far-right nationalist ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) party, or even the ex-Communist Left Party. This will further destabilise Germany and could possibly trigger the collapse of the European Union, already under threat because of Britain’s withdrawal.

The two fundamental assets of the biblical prophets were: revelationary knowledge of the nature and purposes of God; and understanding of the sovereignty of God.

This gives an enormous opportunity to Britain to review the whole policy of offering enormous sums of money to the EU to allow us to come out from under its oppressive regulations.

But is the British Government sufficiently spiritually aware of what is happening in the world that political decisions can be made in line with the purposes of God? This is evidently not the case – unsurprisingly, given how few MPs are biblical Christians. This is where Christians are greatly needed to make their voice heard in the nation and to bring a ‘God-perspective’ into national decision-making.

Church, Arise!

At present there is very little indication that God-centred direction will come from the Church. But it is the Church that should be the prophet to the nation. In the absence of the word of God thundering through the naves of our cathedrals and from the pulpits of our churches, perhaps people power may yet emerge from the pews!

It is surely time for Bible-believing Christians to find every opportunity in this media-saturated world to declare the word of the living God to this godless generation!

The authorities in Israel were forced to take note of the disciples: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). May the backlash not only be seen on the streets, but in the churches as well!

Notes

1 E.g. Read more here.

Hope in the midst of scandal, shaking and scepticism.

“You are...terminated!” No, this was not a line from Doctor Who and his eternal battle with the Daleks. It was a message from the President of the USA to the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, given to him whilst he was speaking to his staff.

To British ears this sounds unreal. No British employer would dismiss a member of staff in this peremptory manner. “You’re fired!” only happens on TV shows like The Apprentice. In fact, employment law in Britain protects employees from arbitrary dismissal.

So what’s going on in America? It was known that the FBI were investigating the links between Trump and Russia during the presidential election campaign. Were the FBI getting too close to the truth for President Trump? Political commentators in the USA began immediately to compare this dismissal to when President Nixon did the same a year before the Watergate scandal caused him to resign the presidency.

Even the smallest whiff of a similar scandal is immensely damaging to the President – but it is more than that, it comes at a time when the whole political establishment in Europe and America is sailing in troubled waters that are likely to produce some notable shipwrecks.

France: The People’s Choice?

Just look at what’s happened in France this week! The people have just elected a new president, but nearly half the population either did not vote or spoilt their ballot paper in protest at the choice they were offered. All the candidates from the main parties failed to get popular support in the first round of voting so the choice was between two rank outsiders.

The winner, Emmanuel Macron, only formed his En Marche! party last year. But, Surprise! Surprise! The man who was supposed to be a rank outsider - the populist ‘people’s choice’(especially young people, who have flocked around him) – has been endorsed by the outgoing Labour Party President Hollande and even more emphatically by the former Labour Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who says that the Labour party in France is finished and dead - and he has now joined En Marche!.¹

The whole political establishment in Europe and America is sailing in troubled waters that are likely to produce some notable shipwrecks.

Emmanuel Macron. So, what’s going on? It looks as though the people of France have been fooled by a gigantic con trick. The populist choice, the man who the people have embraced, turns out to be an ex-banker who made a fortune through investment banking, became the Minister for the economy in the outgoing Labour Government and is a stooge of Brussels, an enthusiastic supporter of the EU! How long will it be before the French people wake up and realise that they’ve been conned - the old political elite that has governed the country for decades is still in power!

The USA: Increasing Disillusionment

Is the same thing already happening in the USA? Trump’s 100 days’ honeymoon is over. His election promises have not yet been fulfilled: he hasn’t built his wall and Mexico are not going to pay for it. He has not reformed Obamacare and he’s not even managed to control immigration. The people put their trust in a rich businessman rather than a politician, but will he do any better than the politicians?

We are living in a day of disillusionment. Throughout the Western world, people are expressing dissatisfaction with the ruling elite who have held power for decades. ‘Change’ is in the air. It’s the one thing everyone wants. No one quite knows what it is they do want – they just know what they don’t want: they don’t want what they’ve got!

It’s this air of uncertainty that is hanging over most of the Western nations and can be seen especially in Europe, in America and in Britain, where we are facing a Brexit-driven General Election. But surely Christians should be seeing this as an enormous opportunity! It is an opportunity to present a new and living way! Why are not churches actively leading the way and presenting the way of righteousness, truth and prosperity to the people? Why is there so little evidence of the Gospel in the marketplace?

Declaring the Whole Will of God

We frequently hear from people all over the country who say that in their church they never hear the preacher refer to current affairs or apply the Gospel to the great issues of the day.

No one quite knows what it is they do want – they just know they don’t want what they’ve got! Surely Christians should be seeing this as an enormous opportunity!

I had a Sunday off last month and I went to worship at a local Baptist church, where the Minister preached a message from Ephesians. This was fine - but afterwards I learned that he had been working his way through Ephesians, line by line, for the past two years! However good Ephesians is, it does not give a rounded gospel. Paul, speaking to the Ephesian elders on his last visit to the region said, “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27, emphasis added).

Surely it is the whole word of God that is needed in the Church today, if we are to understand what is happening in the world around us and what God is requiring of his Church. There are many churches where the preachers never use the Old Testament, so the whole word of God, especially that delivered through the Prophets, is never heard.

Shaking All That Can Be Shaken

Christians will never be able to understand the word of God for today if they are cut off from the Hebraic roots of our faith. In this magazine, for many years, we have been warning that the days were coming when God will shake everything. There’s plenty of evidence of this happening now, in our lifetime.

Many people have said to us that God would never shake the Church because it is the Body of Christ. But surely it is the people, the disciples of Jesus, who are the Body of Christ – not the institutions that we call churches!

It is the whole word of God that is needed in the Church today, if we are to understand what is happening and what God is requiring of us.

In Hebrews 12:26f we are told that it is God’s intention to shake everything that human beings have created, “so that what cannot be shaken may remain” which will prepare the way for the Kingdom of God.

One of the principles that is embedded in the world of nature, part of God’s Creation, is that seeds have to fall into the ground and die before new life can be produced. It may be that the whole of Western civilisation has become so corrupted that all its major social institutions – the economy (banks), society (political parties) and even the denominations that we call ‘churches’ will have to die for genuine new life to spring from them.

Signs of Hope

But in this time when God is shaking the nations, there are also many signs of new life - especially in the vast and rapid growth of the church in China and Indonesia and other places where Christians have been suffering hardship and severe persecution.

Meanwhile, though traditional denominations continue to decline in the West, there are encouraging signs of new life here as well. In Britain we see:

• The churches that are growing are ones where the whole word of God is preached, where worship is lively and prayer is focused and meaningful.
  
• Increasing numbers of believers are meeting in house fellowships for prayer and Bible study.
  
• Many Christians are involved in practical programmes of outreach into the community, such as street pastors, food banks and holiday clubs for children.
  
• Many are also active in a wide range of voluntary organisations seeking to promote Godly values in society.
  

In these times of enormous social change and upheaval, we not only need to note what is happening in the socio-political and economic spheres, but also to note (and celebrate!) what God is doing through his people.

In our continuing series on the relevance of the message of the prophets for today, Jock Stein looks at the Prophet Micah.

Micah was a seer (Mic 1:1), looking from God's perspective at cities, leaders and the events of three reigns that spanned some 50 years, from 740 to 690 BC. It is the lot of a prophet to see things and people as they really are before God, and that can be painful (Mic 1:8).

Judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem

The book of Micah begins with a word addressed to all the world but concerning two small parts of it, Samaria and Jerusalem. What God does in one location is to become a sign to many, just as Micah's weeping and wailing is to be a sign to all people (Mic 1:8). His actions are a prelude to judgment, for Samaria and Jerusalem are to be destroyed (Mic 1:6; 3:12).

It is a long time since a British city faced destruction – but the Lockerbie disaster and, more recently, the 2005 terror attacks in London are just tiny hints of what could so easily occur to our major cities. For decades the ultimate threat has been that of nuclear war, but many have chosen to ignore such dangers. In God's providence, nuclear catastrophe has so far been kept at bay.

The threat of global disaster is still there, however, as nuclear know-how proliferates, environmental pollution grows, and information systems become ever more vulnerable to 'knock-out'.

But Micah warns us that the reality of judgment is not some vague and distant threat, but comes at specific times to specific cities. It is unexpected, although not unheralded, and will come at a time when people are eating, drinking and getting married (Matt 24:38). It occurs as a result of the sins of a nation's leaders (Mic 2:1-2).

It is the lot of a prophet to see things and people as they really are before God.

Calling Leaders to Account

The prophet looks the leaders of Israel squarely in the eye, calling them to account (Mic 3). Many different elements go to make up the life of a nation, each one the responsibility of leaders whose job it is to know what is right, to love that which is righteous, and to do the right thing (Mic 3:1-2; 6:8). Those with responsibility could be categorised as follows:

• Those with political power (princes, elders and military officials)
• Those with economic power (landowners, accumulators of wealth and merchants)
• Those with judicial power (judges and elders)
• Those with religious power (prophets and priests)

But who would fit into such categories today?

The 'Movers and Shakers'

These are the people who make things happen: the cabinet ministers, captains of industry and so on. Others are less well known, but make up what used to be thought of as the 'Establishment'.

However, the scene has changed in Britain, not least with the incursion of 'European' directives, the Thatcherite revolution, the decline in power of the Trade Unions, the royal family's loss of credibility, and the demise of 'consensus government'.¹

For years, Britain has relied for its ethical stability on a moral consensus among 'the good and the great'. This would no longer appear to hold - indeed, sadly, today's 'movers and shakers' are more likely to reflect the interests of the rich and powerful than the poor.

It may well be that Christians within politics and the media, like the Jews in exile, have few options. But those in leadership - whatever their religious beliefs - are called to know, love and follow that which is good.

For years, Britain's ethical stability has relied on a moral consensus among 'the good and the great' – but this no longer appears to hold.

Police, Legislators and the Courts

Britain once had an excellent reputation for its legal system, judges and police, a reputation now tarnished through allegations of corruption and cover-ups. Many who work in the inner city, or on marginalised council estates, are quick to point out similar instances of injustice.

Our assessment of the situation may partly be coloured by the unreasonable expectations we have of the police to contain problems that in fact stem from decades of neglecting the moral and social fabric of society. It is clear that Britain's laws tend to favour the rich rather than the poor, though we have not yet reached the cruelty of 19^th Century France as portrayed by Victor Hugo in the novel Les Miserables. Micah reminds us that true justice is a matter of practice as well as of theory - that even good laws will fail to provide blessing unless those who carry them out act justly. In Micah 6:8 we read, "The Lord has told you mortals what is good, and what it is that the Lord requires of you: only to act justly, to love loyalty, to walk humbly with your God" (Revised English Version).

Church Leaders

Micah's word in 3:11 is most obviously addressed to those who preach a gospel of 'health and wealth', claiming the authority of Scripture for promises of blessing, when in reality judgment is about to fall.

And yet, when judgment occurs, the people "must go to Babylon", into the place of exile, in order that they might be saved. There is no easy road to blessing. So it is today, the rich Christians in Britain who "spin words" (Mic 2:6) may be saved, yet only just (1 Cor 3:15).

Micah's word is addressed to all leaders, not just the religious ones. Government can never be morally neutral, with politicians simply acting as referees, holding the ring for different sectors of society to have a 'fair fight'. Instead, those in authority are to look after the poor, restrain evil and promote what is good. It is this which creates conditions for prosperity and peace.

Christians Have a Special Responsibility

Yet no government can change the heart of a nation. Only the Lord can "lead the way" (Mic 2:13). That is why Christians, and Christian leaders in particular, have a special responsibility for the life of the nation. They should intercede, speak out and be a prophetic people, living out the word of God in such a way that unbelievers who see their lifestyles are challenged.

The book of Micah is not a weapon with which Christians can self-righteously knock the Government - is a call for us to repent.

The book of Micah is not a weapon with which Christians can knock the Government in self-righteous fashion, but is a call for us to repent. We need to see clearly that the result of disobedience is the withdrawal of God's hand. We need to embrace the promise of God (Mic 4), that beyond the days of exile lies a blessing for the world, a peace and prosperity born of loyalty to the Lord.

The word of God comes from Jerusalem (Mic 4:2). It is anchored in the specifics of God's revelation through Israel. What light still has to come from the book of Micah may not yet be clear to us - but we need to "watch for the Lord" (Mic 7:7), and intercede with him, for it is written, "You do not stay angry for ever, but delight to show mercy" (Mic 7:18).

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 10 No 2, March 1994. Revised July 2016.

Notes

1 These examples date from when the article was first published. Time has now moved on – more recent trends include the move to globalism, centralising world government and creating notable weaknesses in national leadership across the world. Even though the UK is withdrawing from Europe, we are still experiencing weakened leadership through division in our political parties and across the nation, accompanied by a rise in 'people power' fuelled in part by rapid communication through social media.