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Christians pay the ultimate price as biblical prophecies are played out

The shocking story of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, and the persecution of Christians generally in that country, alongside the alarming news of plans to implant microchips in humans, is convincing evidence that we are surely living in the last days.

It was apocalyptic scenarios like this that the risen Jesus graphically conveyed in his Revelation message to the Apostle John, in exile on the Isle of Patmos, as a picture of what life would be like towards the end of the age, shortly before his return.

It would be particularly marked by vicious persecution of his followers, who would nevertheless be rewarded with eternal bliss in his presence by standing firm in refusing to bow to worldly pressure.

Ready to Die?

Asia Bibi was a poorly paid farm labourer who has incurred the wrath of an entire nation for apparently insulting Muhammad – a nation, it seems, that appears unable to protect her from being lynched by angry mobs after the Supreme Court acquitted her of ridiculous charges of blasphemy for which she has endured the best part of the last ten years on death row.

Her alleged crime was committed during an argument with colleagues who accused her of contaminating a vessel used for drawing water from a well – simply because she was an ‘infidel’. Now, finally, she has been freed – or has she?

The Pakistani Government, led by former cricket international Imran Khan, claims no country has so far offered her asylum – we know, shamefully, that this is so far the case with Britain, who fear reprisals from Islamists here – so she is being held in a ‘safe house’.

But she and her family remain in fear of their lives. In fact, at least two of those who have stood up for her, including a former state governor and a Government minister, have already paid with their lives for doing so.

Asia Bibi was a poorly paid farm labourer who has incurred the wrath of an entire nation for apparently insulting Muhammad

Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer was gunned down by his own bodyguard – shot 27 times in central Islamabad – who was subsequently hailed a hero with an estimated 100,000 mourners attending his funeral.¹

Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister for minorities and himself a Christian, also protested against Asia’s conviction and sentence. And less than two months after Governor Taseer’s death, his car was riddled with bullets as he drove through Islamabad. He died in hospital.

But he had evidently known what was coming, as was learnt through a video released after his assassination. Speaking to the camera, he said: “I believe in Jesus Christ who has given his own life for us, and I am ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community…and I will die to defend their rights.”²

Persecution…and Then the End

Christians in Pakistan have suffered dreadfully, with hundreds of lives lost through suicide and other bomb attacks on churches. It is a despicable situation which none of our weasel Western governments have the spine to address.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus warned: “The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me” (John 16:2f).

And in his revelation to John, this was spelled out a little more graphically: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been” (Rev 6:9-11).

Later on, a great multitude appeared from every nation, tribe, people and language – all dressed in white robes and worshipping God who would “wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7:9-17).

Speaking of the last days, Jesus had earlier said:

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:9-14)

Alarm Bells Over Implants

Meanwhile alarm bells have been ringing over the prospect of British companies implanting staff with microchips to improve security, according to a report in The Guardian.

UK firm BioTeq, which offers the implants to businesses and individuals, has already fitted 150 in the UK. The tiny chips, implanted in the flesh between the thumb and forefinger, are similar to those for pets. They apparently enable people to open their front door, access their office or start their car with a wave of their hand. Another company, Biohax of Sweden, also provides human chip implants the size of a grain of rice.

Christians in Pakistan have suffered dreadfully, with hundreds of lives lost through suicide and other bomb attacks on churches.

In earlier articles I explained that we would appear to be approaching the days when the biblical warning, also in Revelation, against taking the Mark of the Beast is about to be fulfilled. The prophecy reads: “It [the Beast] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark…” (Rev 13:16f).

One of our readers, Patricia Jelbert, has already witnessed moves towards using this kind of technology in South Africa, where she warned politicians, churches and schools about it. She writes: “We need to teach our children and grandchildren to say ‘no’. The cost will be high, eventually with no access to anything money buys, but the need not to succumb is vital.”³

In another alarming step towards this apocalyptic scenario, the BBC were recently reported to be encouraging ‘straight’ staff to wear badges indicating their support for LGBTQ+ colleagues, which is likely to ensure that those whose conscience will not allow them to back a gay lifestyle will be discriminated against.

I rest my case. We are living in the last days. Christians, look up, for your redemption is near (Luke 21:28).

References

1 Pendlebury, R. Row over a cup of water that led to murder, riots and global outrage with a Christian mother sentenced to death over blasphemy charges in Pakistan. The Daily Mail, 14 November 2018. 

2 Ibid.

3 Private email communication, 14 November 2018.

UK hi-tech company ARM Holdings has been sold to Japanese firm SoftBank - but should we care?

'STORM OVER JAPAN RAID ON WORLD CLASS UK TECH GIANT', ran the p1 headline in the Daily Mail.¹ The story described how, for £24bn, top UK microchip technology company ARM was to be sold to the Japanese firm SoftBank.

Hard Won, Easily Squandered

Whilst one Member of Parliament likened the deal to a football club flogging off its best players, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, claimed that the deal would turn "a great British company into a global phenomenon" (in fact, it already was a 'global phenomenon').

He was clearly anxious to cash in on what was promoted as the great advantages to the UK economy of new world-class deals resulting from the decision to pull out of the European Union. Shares inevitably soared sharply upwards as investors interested in making money licked their lips.

But this deal wasn't about selling abroad a quantity of finished products (e.g. ten million chips). It was about the one-time disposal of what is called 'intellectual property rights' held by ARM - the hard-won skills and know-how across a wide range of technical disciplines required to bring such products to market. The long-term worth of such know-how can amount to hundreds of millions of pounds over decades.

During the last few days a technically naïve political class - goaded on by the press - has, too late, begun to sense the importance of such a decision and, at the time of writing, efforts are being made to claw back the deal.

This deal wasn't about selling a quantity of finished products – it was the one-time disposal of hard-won skills and know-how.

Common Folly

Tragically, such deals are now commonplace in Great Britain. They go largely unreported, making news only in the financial press. They are commonplace because the nation is unaware of the value of the work done by skilled scientists and engineers collaborating closely, as in this case with Cambridge University, with bodies having universally acclaimed academic skills.

Industry in the UK is generally privately owned and thus able to act in its own interest. In the USA, in France and Germany, state oversight bodies are set up to ensure that technology essential for a nation's future wellbeing is protected, and to scrutinise such deals to permit or disallow them. But not in the UK.

Historic Precedent: Rolls-Royce Jet Engines

Careless disposal of such knowledge for short term financial or political gain began with the sale of a few Rolls-Royce jet engines, the brain child of Frank Whittle (later Sir Frank), to the Soviet Union just after the war. In 1946, Soviet jet-engine designers asked Russia's leader Josef Stalin to acquire proprietary technical information on Britain's jet engines needed to leapfrog the technically steep, expensive and lengthy learning curve associated with the huge, new technology challenges and so position itself into technical equality or superiority with the West.

The Russian Government approached Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade and a Cabinet Minister in the post-war Labour Government, who prior to that had been Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Soviet engineers visited England to negotiate for the rights to build the engine originally designed by Whittle and his small Power Jets company, which had built the first Allied jet engines under the most severe financial constraints. Whittle's engine technology had subsequently been taken over by Rolls-Royce for development and mass-production to power the very first Allied jet fighters, the UK's straight-winged Meteors and Vampires.

Careless deals disposing of knowledge for short term financial or political gain are now commonplace in Britain.

Agreement was reached, and a handful of engines were supplied. Russian engineers rapidly reverse-engineered the design to produce their own version. The pay-off occurred in the early 1950s, when American heavy bombers tasked with destroying North Korea's industrial infrastructure were attacked by a new Russian swept-wing, transonic fighter (the MiG-15) powered by the new engines. The West had nothing to touch it. The Americans lost aircrews and were very upset.

More Recently: Astra-Zeneca vs Pfizer

A host of innovative, high-tech technology, the UK's life-blood, has subsequently been sold off over the years to the benefit of company directors and investors.

One deal was remarkable because its directors refused to give way to would-be hostile take-overs. In 2014, pharmaceutical company Astra-Zeneca was approached by US firm Pfizer to accept an offer. Top-level UK Government officials, including Prime Minister David Cameron, cheered Pfizer from the side-lines. Their argument was that in a global marketplace it doesn't matter who owns what. The battle became prime-time 'must see' TV coverage of the Government's Select Committee in which the US company was described as an asset-stripper.

Astra's directors—among them Swedish chairman Leif Johansson and French chief executive Pascal Soriot, who could between them have made around £60m from the deal - steadfastly resisted four successive offers by Pfizer's Scottish-born chairman and chief executive Ian Read. Finally, after some five or six weeks in the glare of knowledgeable and intensive press and BBC commentary, Pfizer admitted defeat and said that it would not again attempt to take over Astra. The American offer, finally standing at an eye-watering £70bn, collapsed.

A Fool and His Money

The Bible has much to say in warning about such deals. Abraham grew immensely wealthy because he was a man of faith and recognised the source of his wealth. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 says that the true dispenser of wealth is God himself (1 Chronicles 29:12 says much the same thing).

Solomon (2 Chron 1:12) was promised wealth, riches and honour such as no other man before him had enjoyed and no other later one would have – because he had first chosen to seek the way of wisdom. The benefits of wisdom are extolled in the Book of Proverbs, which promises prosperity for all who seek her (Prov 3:2).

Precious assets are given by God for the good of the nation, not to satisfy the greed of a few individuals.

God's people are not to give away what he has given to them. Proverbs 5:15-16 gives us the picture of a man drinking water from his own well and not allowing his springs of water to overflow casually onto public squares. These water supplies, precious in a semi-tropical environment, were intended to bless the local community, not to be scattered around and lost.

Selling off the precious assets that God has given to Britain may satisfy the greed of individuals in the short-term, but its long-term effects are to reduce the wealth of the nation and to reduce national ability to help its citizens and bless others in less developed parts of the world. This is surely sinful in the eyes of God.

References

1 18 July 2016.