Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Mount Sinai in Arabia’ by Joel Richardson (Winepress, 2019)

The only way to understand what is going on in the world is through the lens of Scripture and through prayer.

The great shaking of the nations continues unabated as Western post-Christian civilisation crumbles and scenes of carnage in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are almost too horrific to view or describe. Boris was right when, describing the situation in the Middle East, he said:

"There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region...that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area...There are not enough big characters, men or women, who are willing to reach out beyond their Sunni or Shia group to the other side and bring people together again..."¹

The Truth About Diplomacy

The Prime Minister had just returned from the Gulf where she had been promoting trade and had dined with the Saudi King, thanking him for the security services he provides to Britain. The last thing she wanted was her Foreign Secretary to tell the truth. The British Foreign Office is renowned for its diplomacy – not for speaking the truth!

So Downing Street stated firmly that Boris was not expressing the Government's view. The PM knows that there is too much at stake to speak so candidly: the more weapons Saudi uses in bombing women and children in Yemen, the more we can sell them and provide jobs for our workers. That's what diplomacy is all about! If Boris wants to keep his job, he will have to learn the art of not speaking the truth - just being polite and friendly.

The British Foreign Office is renowned for its diplomacy – not for speaking the truth!

But what is the truth about what is happening in the Middle East - and other parts of the world that are being ripped apart by violence, such as Nigeria and Pakistan?
What is the truth about the people who are living in fear of war in the Ukraine and the Balkan states where Russia is poised to retrieve her much-coveted Empire; or the people of South Korea and Japan as North Korea and China flex their nuclear muscles? What is the truth about the socio-political revolution that is taking place in Europe and the USA?

Political Instability in EuropeVirginia Raggi of the Five Star Movement, now Mayor of Rome.

Of course, our political journalists and social analysts will give us copious explanations. Austria and Italy are the latest nations to be shaken with elections during the past week. It was the first time in 70 years that the two main parties in Austria were unable even to field a candidate in their presidential election. Their candidates were eliminated in the early rounds of preliminary voting. Van der Bellen has become the first 'Green' to head a European state.

Sunday's referendum in Italy was bad news for Prime Minister Renzi who had staked his political future on proposed far-reaching constitutional reforms. Like David Cameron, he immediately resigned after a crushing 'no' vote which confirmed the rise of the anti-globalisation Five Star Movement, or M5S (now the second most popular party in Italy). Earlier this year, M5S won 19 out of 20 towns and cities where its candidates stood for mayor - including Rome and Turin.² 37-year-old lawyer Virginia Raggi, now Mayor of Rome, promises that the city is entering a new era in its history.

This surge in support for populist parties is likely to be reflected electorally right across Europe in the near future, with France, Germany and the Netherlands all due to hold parliamentary elections next year. 2017 promises to be a year of massive political change in Europe. Those EU politicians who have threatened to make Brexit very difficult for Britain may find themselves swept along by a tide of change and financial instability that will create a dramatically different political landscape across the continent.

2017 promises to be a year of massive political change in Europe – we may end up with a dramatically different landscape.

Uprooting to Build Up

Anyone seeking to understand the truth of what is happening in the world today will need to see the whole situation in the context of the purposes of God. The psalmist sets the scene when he says "The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations" (Ps 33:10-11).

It is God's desire that all people should know him and understand his nature and purposes – including his good plans for his covenant people, through whom the world will receive the message of salvation, as the Lord planned from the beginning of Creation. Habakkuk neatly sums this up when he says "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Hab 2:14).

In order to achieve his purposes, God sometimes has to do some demolition – to break down barriers and get rid of the things that are directly contrary to his will. Jeremiah was told this at the beginning of his ministry; God said to him, "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jer 1:10).

This is why God is shaking everything now. There comes a point where human beings, exercising the freedom he granted them from the beginning of Creation, are in danger of destroying the world through the wickedness and violence of their unredeemed nature. At that point God has to say, "enough is enough".

Out of Exile...for a Purpose

He had to do this with his chosen people Israel by allowing the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah perceived this and actually rejoiced to see God at work: "O great and powerful God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men" (Jer 32:18-19).
Out of the tragedy of the exile in Babylon God brought back a redeemed company of people who would be a light for the Gentiles, "that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isa 49:6).

Immediately after the exile, the Prophet Haggai foresaw the time coming when God would need to shake everything in order to carry out his purposes of salvation and bring his message of love to all people. "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" (Hag 2:6).

It is God's desire that all should know him – but in order to achieve his purposes, he sometimes has to do some demolition of barriers and things that are directly contrary to his will.

Great Opportunity for Us

Of course, it is uncomfortable when God is seemingly shaking everything around us. But this is where it is essential for Christians to understand what God is doing and to be active and vocal in teaching those who do not know the God of the Bible. We need to develop our trust in God, so that as things get more difficult, we will not be shaken from the knowledge that the battle truly belongs to the Lord.

This Advent season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the light that has come into the world to scatter the darkness, we have an immense opportunity to bring a message of hope, love and joy into the lives of our families, friends and neighbours - to all with whom we are in contact.

References

1 Published by The Guardian, Thursday 8 December 2016. Click here to watch the video.

2 Italy elections: Big win for Five Star protest party. BBC News, 20 June 2016.

Thousands of refugees and migrants continue to pour into Europe every day, fear of terrorism grows daily and the nations struggle to find a long-term solution. What does the future hold?

The boats keep coming. Overcrowded, unsafe boats flounder and capsize in the rough seas of the Aegean and still they keep coming – this autumn the number reaching Lesbos and other small Greek islands topped 7,000 per day.¹

People smuggling from Turkey to Greece across the dangerous seas is a multi-million dollar business. The people smugglers care nothing for humanity. They are making a fortune from the human misery of those who have lost everything in the war zones of Syria and Iraq – people so desperate that they will risk their lives boarding unsafe boats.

Looking for a Solution

Thousands are plucked from the sea every day and hundreds more simply drown, nameless victims of the greatest tragedy the Middle East has ever witnessed. This is the scene at the Eastern extremities of Europe.

At the other end of Europe, leaders of the EU nations are meeting to discuss desperate measures to deal with the crisis. How can they cope with the million strong flood of humanity that has descended upon Europe this year? How can such a human avalanche be absorbed among the nations? Even more urgently, how can it be halted, or even put on hold for a period, to give time for dealing with the situation in the war zones?

The humanitarian crisis engulfing Europe has no easy solution: neither is it a short-term problem that will be all over in a few weeks or months. Whole populations are on the move and there appears no end to the conflict that is destroying cities and towns across the Middle East and inflicting homelessness, injury and death on vast numbers of people.

The humanitarian crisis engulfing Europe has no easy solution – neither is it a short-term problem.

Europe on High Alert

The complexity is confounded by the mixture of migrants and refugees. The numbers are so great that it is impossible to discover who are the genuine refugees, who are the economic migrants and who are the jihadis slipped in among them by the Islamic State fighters.

Ever since the Paris atrocities on that notorious Friday 13 November, when at least one of the bombers had entered Europe through Greece posing as a refugee, the whole of the EU has been on high alert. The fact that the Paris bombers were a mixture of home-grown and migrant terrorists has added to the sense of fear and confusion.

Mass Fear

That fear and confusion is not confined to Europe but has spread to America as well. Just weeks after the Paris slaughter, a couple went on the rampage with automatic weapons in San Bernadino, California, slaughtering people as they were eating a meal together. President Obama used the occasion for an impassioned appeal for gun reform in the USA where he said that these mass killings were becoming routine.

The danger facing Europe is that mass killings will also become routine in the EU - unless the source of the problem in the killing-fields of the Middle East is dealt with effectively.

The danger facing Europe is that mass killings will also become routine here – unless the source of the problem can be dealt with.

Islamic 'Alliance'

Saudi Arabia has now announced the formation of a new military alliance of 34 Arab nations to fight terrorism. But who will they fight? Who do they define as 'terrorists'? Saudi Arabia has already beheaded more people this year than the Islamic State.² Their branch of Sunni Wahhabi Islam based upon the strict observance of Sharia law is rejected by half the Islamic world, including the coalition led by Iran which is presently fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have been locked in a proxy conflict for several years, with Iran backing the rebels in Yemen who the Saudis have been bombing. So the chance of this new initiative bringing peace to the Middle East is virtually nil. The most likely outcome is to extend the conflict between the different branches of Islam.

But could this be within the purposes of God?

Though all-out war between Islam and the Western nations (which in some respects would be a war between Christianity and Islam) looks ever more plausible, it could be that internal conflict between the different sects of Islam will save us from World War III.

All-out war between Islam and the Western nations could be avoided – if Islam implodes due to the internal conflict between its various sects.

Looking Forward

In the New Year's Day issue of Prophecy Today we will look more closely at what is happening in the Middle East, particularly in the context of biblical prophecy. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has gone quiet - the world's attention is upon Syria. But what does the future hold?

References

1 IOM Monitors Mediterranean Migrant Flows: 7,000 Crossing Daily to Greece. International Organization for Migration, Press Release, 10 September 2015.

2 Saudi Arabia Beheads Nearly Twice As Many People As ISIS So Far This Year. MintPress News Desk, 25 August 2015.