What Kind of People Ought We To Be?

In 2 Peter 3:11 Peter asks the early Christians, who were suffering more and more for their faith, “What kind of people ought we to be?” As two of the latest-written books to be included in our New Testament, 1 and 2 Peter carried a special message to encourage believers to hold fast in the faith, to know what they believed and to witness where they were placed.

Since then, this message has become precious to thousands of suffering Christians, including many Africans sold into colonial slavery (see bottom of page). It has encouraged believers that even when life gets hard, God is in control and is with us, using every circumstance for his purposes.

The teaching in these two books can change our attitudes so that we become positive witnesses where God has placed us. It gives new insight into the right priorities for communities of believers in every country and circumstance, inspiring effective living which positively influences the future not only of individual communities but also worldwide.

Similarly, there were occasions in the Old Testament as well as the New which brought messages of encouragement to people in hard times. Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jer 29) had a transforming effect upon the captives from Judah. Much of Jesus’ teaching was to prepare the disciples for hard times, just as the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Paul explores in his letters, were given to build up the believers for a purpose- not just for their own growth.

The Day of the Lord and the end of the age

There have been many times throughout history when people believed that the Day of the Lord, with the return of Christ and the coming judgement on the whole earth, was near or already upon them. The personal experience of famines, disease, natural disasters or wars which can destroy the infrastructures of a country can be catastrophic, and can either shake our faith or lead to the belief that the end of the age has come.

However, the Day of the Lord (spoken of in 2 Pet 3) and the end of the age are not necessarily one and the same. The Day of the Lord will come at the end of time, whilst over the centuries many ages have come to completion.

It is hard to maintain our faith when we see institutions we have created, or put our trust in, swept away by natural disasters such as tsunamis, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. It is also hard to keep our faith when our country is being overrun by another – particularly if it is by another religion. All these experiences can make us stop and think more deeply about the purpose of life. Trying to survive in a hostile social environment can create problems for all but the strong-hearted and those with a truly solid foundation to their faith.

"The teaching of Jesus is that we should always be living as though he will return at any moment."

But the teaching of Jesus is that we should ALWAYS be living as though he will return at any moment (Matt 25:1-13). It is helpful to know what the Bible says about the end times, but we are warned against trying to predict times and dates. In his speech on the Day of Pentecost Peter quoted the Prophet Joel indicating that he believed we were entering 'the last days' (Acts 2:14-26). 2000 years later we must be nearer the end of all ages now.

But God is never in a hurry and there are other things prophesied in Scripture that have yet to be fulfilled. God has a great love for his creation and especially for those he made in his own image. He longs to see everyone come into a right relationship with himself through repentance (John 14:6). He is, in fact, waiting for us to do our part.

A Future and a Hope

God’s ultimate purposes are for our good! So we are called to look forward, rather than backward, and we need to ensure that we ourselves live ‘holy and godly’ lives (2 Pet 3:11). We should be aiming to be at one with God, understanding his nature and purposes and being willing to do whatever he asks us to do.

  "The longer our Lord delays, the more people can be saved- and he equips us for this task."

Living in a holy and godly way is not subjective and inward looking – it is positively to embrace God’s concern for the ungodly and to share the Good News with others. Passing on the message to those of our own generation who have not yet heard the message and from one generation to the next are essential tasks. Everyone is needed – there is no retirement - the older generation are given a second chance as grandparents are mobilised to reach their grandchildren.

If we are looking forward to a time of righteousness and justice and to the establishing of God’s kingdom, this is all the more reason to be found doing what God wants, and not to be found lacking (Deut 10:12-13). The longer our Lord delays, the more people can be saved – and he equips us for this task.

Relating to Hard Times: 2 Peter 3 in the African American Jubilee Edition¹

I have a copy of the African American version of the Bible and 2 Peter 3 reads just as though it had been written specifically for those who had been taken into slavery and felt hopeless and I repeat this version below. Read it for yourself as though you were a slave in colonial times - knowing that nothing you could do would change the human situation.

My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to encourage you to do some honest thinking. I don’t want you to forget what God’s prophets said would happen. You must never forget what the holy prophets taught in the past. And you must remember what the apostles told you our Lord and Saviour has commanded us to do.

But first you must realize that in the last days some people won’t think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you and say, "Didn’t your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn’t changed a bit."

They will say this because they want to forget that long ago the heavens and the earth were made at God’s command. The earth came out of water and was made from water. Later it was destroyed by the waters of a mighty flood. But God has commanded the present heavens and earth to remain until the day of judgement. Then they will be set on fire, and ungodly people will be destroyed.

Dear friends, don’t forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day. The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

The day of the Lord’s return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will be seen for what they are.

Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honour God by the way you live. You should look forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should try to make it come soon. On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that!

My friends, while you are waiting, you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. Don’t forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul said when he wrote you with wisdom that God had given him. Paul talks about these same things in all his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy themselves by twisting what he said. They do the same thing with other Scriptures too.

My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don’t let the errors of evil people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance. Let the wonderful kindness and understanding that come from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen.

Slaves were not in a position to change their situation, but they knew that God could! – and that he would do it in his timing. So they looked forward to that day and adopted the lifestyle that they felt God would have wanted of them.

References

1 African American Jubilee Edition, Contemporary English Version, American Bible Society, 1995.

Below we have re-published Clifford Hill's lead article from the first print edition of Prophecy Today, March/April 1985. Entitled 'Take Off the Graveclothes!', it was a clarion call to the church to rise up and be counted, and is still highly relevant today.

These are exciting days to be a Christian!

We are living in one of the most significant periods in the history of mankind. There are many signs that these are the times that former generations have longed to see – the times of which Jesus and the prophets spoke. The need for clear discernment has never been greater in order that we may rightly interpret the signs of the times and rightly convey the Word of God to our generation.

In a world armed to the teeth with the most incredible weapons of destruction there has never been greater danger facing mankind. Yet with the mounting evidence of spiritual awakening around the world these are also days of limitless opportunity for the Gospel.

Spirit of violence vs the Spirit of God

There appear to be two mighty forces at work in the world today and moving towards a climax of confrontation. The contrast between the two is almost too vivid and blinding to comprehend. A spirit of violence has been loosed into the world; and, the Spirit of God is at work among his people.

The destructive forces of violence are to be seen in every part of the world. Assassination, terrorism, urban guerrilla warfare, revolution, plus 37 actual wars at present in progress are ample evidence of this. The threat of the world being plunged into a nuclear holocaust comes not only from the clash of the giant superpowers but from the smaller nations. The day is in sight when nations such as Libya, Syria, Iran, Pakistan - all experiencing an Islamic fundamentalist revival – will each have their own nuclear weapons (the threat from militant Islam may one day prove to be greater than the threat from atheistic Russian communism). The world is rapidly entering a highly dangerous and unstable period.

"The Holy Spirit is being poured out on people of all nations today just as the prophet Joel foretold and at precisely the right time when the forces of darkness are threatening to overwhelm the world."

At the same time the Spirit of God is at work in the world bringing new life and hope. In nation after nation there is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit bringing spiritual awakening and revival. Today the church worldwide is growing at a faster rate than at any time since the days of the New Testament church. The church in Africa, south of the Sahara, is growing at a rate of more than 7 million per year. The new birth rate has overtaken the natural birth rate; so that the day is in sight when most of the population of central and southern Africa will be committed Christians. Similar things are happening in Korea, in China and in many other parts of Asia, also in South America and in Central America. Even in Russia and Eastern Europe there is evidence of a fresh move of God.

The Holy Spirit is being poured out on people of all nations today just as the prophet Joel foretold and at precisely the right time when the forces of darkness are threatening to overwhelm the world.

Re-arming the Church

God has entered the battlefield against the principalities and powers! Through a fresh move of the Holy Spirit worldwide, God is re-arming his church for battle. The time is drawing near when the battle of the ages will take place, the battle of which Paul hints in Ephesians 3:10, when through the church God will take on the world rulers of darkness that have for so long been driving mankind.

The word God spoke to Jehoshaphat are a time when Israel was under threat of annihilation is relevant to us today:

"Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. The battle is not yours, but God's." (2 Chron 20:15)

Traditionalism dying

The greatest danger facing us today is that of missing the timing of the Lord through failure to understand the signs of the times and failure to understand what God is saying to us today. While many of the new and younger parts of the church are full of life and vigour and eager response to the Spirit of God, many of the older and more traditional parts of the Body of Christ are showing signs of geriatric decay and hardening of the spiritual arteries.

Right across Europe many of the traditional churches are sleeping peacefully, occasionally stirring to murmur, 'As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be' or are so caught up in the immediacy of institutional organisation and of social programmes that their spiritual eyes are blinded and their energies are diverted into unproductive cul-de-sacs.

The traditional churches with their centuries of scholarship ought to be the eyes and the ears of the church but they are failing to discern the dangers confronting our world today and the biblical significance of the days in which we live.

Prophecy neglected

For centuries there has been a neglect of the ministry of prophecy due in part to the very right and wholesome fear of being misled but also due to the Reformation emphasis upon Scripture as being not only the final authority on the word of God but also as being the final utterance of God, although this is contrary to the teaching of Jesus in John 14-16 on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church.

Jesus taught that through the Holy Spirit God would continue to communicate with the believers. He said:

"I have much more to say to you all, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…he will tell you what is yet to come." (John 16:12, 13)

In times of crisis God has always raised up prophets to speak to his people. The task of the prophet is to stand in the council of the Lord and to bring the contemporary word of God to the contemporary world (Jer 23:18, 22).

"God wants his whole church to be a 'prophetic people' to communicate his word to his world in these days of crisis."

Just as God spoke to his people of the old covenant through prophets to give them encouragement, warning or clear guidance in times of crisis, so God is speaking to his people of the new covenant through prophets today. The major task of the prophet is the forthtelling of the word of God. The prophet gives vision, clarity of purpose and understanding to the people of God. He enables the Body to discern the word of God for our times that it may rightly proclaim that word to the world. God wants his whole church to be a 'prophetic people' to communicate his word to his world in these days of crisis.

The Church constricted

The major blockage to the proclamation of the word of God to the contemporary world is the degree to which the world has infiltrated the Western church destroying its simple trust and expectancy and replacing it with all the complexities of institutionalism, unscriptural theology, materialism, secularism and unbelief. These are the graveclothes with which we have encompassed the Body of Christ. These are the constrictions that are imprisoning the word of God today. But the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit we are seeing today is a worldwide movement. God is longing to renew his church in the West that it may fully accomplish his mighty purposes in this critical period of world history.

The Lord Jesus is weeping over his church today as Jesus wept over the tomb of Lazarus his friend. He wept for the slowness of understanding and unbelief of those whom he loved. "Roll back the stone!" he commanded. Then followed the words that demonstrated his claim to be the resurrection and the life. "Lazarus come forth!" Slowly Lazarus shuffled out of the tomb, his body completely encased in the graveclothes that enwrapped him and impeded his movements. There he stood, filled with the new life given to him by the Lord but unable to exercise it because his body was imprisoned within the tightly wrapped graveclothes. He had already received the precious gift of new life but he was virtually paralysed by the graveclothes.

"Dead tradition, unbelief, sterility and institutionalism have put the Body of Christ in a straight-jacket as binding as the graveclothes around the body of Lazarus."

That is a picture of the Western church. The precious gift of new life in the risen Christ is imprisoned within the Body by dead tradition, by blind unbelief, by sterile scholasticism, by the complexities of institutionalisation that have put the Body of Christ in a straight-jacket as binding as the graveclothes around the body of Lazarus.

Take off the graveclothes!

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he did not rush forward to help Lazarus or remove the graveclothes from his body. He turned to his friends and said to them, "Take off the graveclothes and let him go!" (John 11:44). The Lord of the church is turning to his people today and saying, "l have already given you the new life in my Spirit, now you must remove the graveclothesl Let my church go into all the world with my word of life."

Let he who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches today.

"Take off the graveclothes! Let my church go!" If we do not hear and heed the word of the Lord today we will miss his timing in this most critical period of world history for 2000 years. Tomorrow may be too late!

Christians are again in danger of being silenced over Israel: Charles Gardner asks if we have truly learnt the lessons of the Holocaust.

Anti-Semitism alive and well in Europe

A controversial church leader has been severely reprimanded for posting a link on Facebook blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Rev. Stephen Sizer, Vicar of Christ Church in Virginia Water, Surrey, has since apologized for his “ill-considered and misguided” action¹ and removed the link. However, he has been banned from using social media for six months.

A Church of England spokesman said it was a matter of “deep sorrow and shame”² that the posts appeared in the same week as the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, when the full horror of Nazi crimes against the Jews was revealed to the world. The Bishop of Guildford, Rt Rev. Andrew Watson, said Rev. Sizer’s actions were “indefensible” and has set a series of conditions on him keeping his job.³

This small incident forms part of a much more widespread increase of anti-Semitism in recent months. The jihadist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen, where Jewish communities are now living in extreme fear, indicate another source of vehement hatred of Jews: fundamentalist Islam. These examples from within Europe do not touch on the world-wide increase of anti-Semitic action and feeling, most of which is not reported by mainstream media.

Remembering the Holocaust

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, when the full horror of Nazi crimes against the Jews was revealed to the world. Recently Sister Thekla, a German nun, has spoken of her shame at the suffering caused by her nation through the Holocaust: “It grieves me what my nation has done, especially to the Jewish people,” she told a conference in York on Israel and the Church.⁴

“We had touched the apple of God’s eye and saw God’s judgment poured out on our nation as a result,” she said, in reference to the repeated bombing of Darmstadt. One 1944 attack on Darmstadt killed 10 percent of its inhabitants and made 60 percent of its population homeless.

“We had touched the apple of God’s eye and saw God’s judgment poured out on our nation as a result” - Sister Thekla, German nun, regarding the Holocaust

The Darmstadt bombings prompted local resident Basilea Schlink to found the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, dedicated to reconciliation with the Jewish people. Mother Basilea and a group of fellow Christians wept under deep conviction of the terrible sins committed by Germany against the Jews, dating back to the time of the Crusades. Subsequently they went to Israel to volunteer their services as nurses, and to seek forgiveness from the Jewish people. She said:

We can never heal the wounds. Only Christ can do that. It is a painful memory, but I confess these crimes...If the German community had stood up as one man, the Nazis would not have been at such liberty to pursue their schemes. Where was the Christian church?⁵

She warned that today’s church was in danger of repeating history.

Will history repeat itself?

The tragedy of anti-Semitism is not just something in the past. It is flaring up again. And in the not-too-distant future we Christians will all be challenged about our relationship with Israel. Will Christians once more stay silent?

"In the not-too-distant future, Christians will all be challenged again about our relationship with Israel. Will we stay silent?"

Also addressing the York conference, organised by the Emmaus Group, was Sister Glory, a British member of the order with a Methodist background:

Israel is once again hated by the nations, which is a picture of our Lord Jesus, who was despised and rejected of men. We are called to pray for Israel. They need love, born out of repentance, the only kind that will open their hearts. We have often not presented the true image of Jesus to them.

Britain is complicit

Sister Glory also emphasised that the British have blood on their hands concerning Israel. She referred to 1190 when the entire Jewish community of York were herded into Clifford’s Tower, just across the river from the conference venue, and massacred. A hundred years later Jews were expelled from Britain altogether, before being welcomed back at the time of Cromwell through the influence of the Pilgrim Fathers (a radical Christian group who were themselves hounded out of the country before emerging as the founding fathers of the United States).

More recently, following Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 promising support for a Jewish national homeland, the Government reneged on its pledge by dividing the allocated land, and acting treacherously to appease the Arabs while forcing the Jews to disarm. Many Jews trying to escape the Holocaust to Israel were turned back and some died when their boat sank.

“We betrayed the greatest trust ever given to a nation”, Sister Glory added. And now Britain is in danger of repeating history, with the strong message of support Parliament has sent to the Palestinian Authority over its quest for state recognition.

Those who bless Israel will be blessed

In experiencing the fulfillment of Genesis 12:3 (that those who bless Israel will themselves be blessed, while those who curse her will come under judgment), Britain has suffered the loss of her Empire along with increasing brokenness within the nation itself.

Sister Glory ended by quoting former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.”

What will our response be? For if you really love Jesus, you will love His people, the Jews.

References

1 Sizer, S, Statement of Apology, released 30 January 2015.

2 Church of England, Statement on Rev Stephen Sizer, released 29 January 2015.

3 Bishop of Guildford, Right Rev Andrew Watson, Statement on Stephen Sizer, released 9 February 2015.

4 'The Messiah, the Church and Israel' conference, 22 November 2014, Park Inn York, Emmaus Group.

5 Ibid, quote by Sister Thekla.

Charles Gardner is a journalist originally from South Africa, now living in Yorkshire. He is part Jewish and writes for The Times of Israel.

Jews threatened with another Holocaust

...but does anyone care?

Charles Gardner considers the hatred mounting against Israel on every side.

Seventy years after six million Jews were slaughtered in the ovens of Nazi Germany, a new generation are in grave danger of another attempt at genocide. But just as Churchill’s warnings fell on deaf ears in the 1930s, so today the rest of the world is looking the other way, pretending such a threat does not exist.

This is a constant frustration for those who support Israel, because ignorance leaves people vulnerable to the lies, propaganda and deception spreading like cancer through the corridors of power.

Israel under attack

Israel has been surrounded by implacable enemies wishing to drive it into the sea ever since its re-birth in 1948. Now it is faced with an additional black cloud in the form of Islamic State terrorists who, when they are done with butchering Christians, Yazidis and their own people, plan to turn their full attention on the Jewish state standing in the way of their dream for absolute control of the region.

"Israel has been surrounded by implacable enemies wishing to drive it into the sea ever since its re-birth in 1948."

Israelis have been living under the constant threat of rocket attacks from Gaza and elsewhere for years, along with oft-repeated warnings of destruction from an Iranian government fast developing nuclear weapons. And even as they were diving for cover from Hamas missiles during the recent conflict, they were witnessing the nearby emergence of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), whose declared ambition is the creation of an Islamic Caliphate in the region, to which the Jewish state acts as possibly the only real barrier.

ISIS fellow-travellers Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab are currently concentrating their efforts on Christians and others in their way as, for the moment, access to the Jewish state is largely blocked by strong defensive tactics. Long may that continue, but when they manage to break through these barriers, as they did in Paris, we see what carnage results.

Western blindness

Through all this, Western leaders continue to deny Israel the right to defend herself. Following the massacre in France of twelve journalists at a satirical magazine known for ridiculing religion, terrorists thought to be linked with Al Qaeda turned on perfectly innocent Jews shopping in a kosher supermarket. Millions turned out in a subsequent rally in revulsion against such an attack on press freedom, but how many among them – including journalists – understood why Jews were a target?

Anti-Semitism did not die with the defeat of Germany in World War II. The baton of this demonic relay has been passed back to Islamic fundamentalists, who have previous form in this department and who relish the prospect of wiping out God’s Chosen People.

      "Through all this, Western leaders continue to deny Israel the right to defend herself."

Western civilisation, including its backbone of democracy and freedom, owes huge cultural debts to the Jews, who gave us the Bible, and who gave us Jesus. But Islamists think they are doing God a service by crushing every notion of freedom under the jackboot of 'Sharia Law', a particularly harsh code of ethics that includes the cutting off of limbs as moral punishment.

In the numerous strict Muslim countries across the Middle East, the populace is enslaved by Islam, prevented on pain of death from converting to Christianity or any other religion. The tragedy is that the Western media has largely fallen for a gigantic lie – that Arabs are the victims of bullying tactics from the likes of Israel, the only democracy in the region. Truth is thus turned on its head.

Duplicity at the top

Among the ‘world’ leaders taking part in the Paris march, in itself a tremendous display of support for freedom, was Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a sponsor of terror. What was he doing there – the man who refuses to recognise Israel’s sovereignty, who sanctions laws which condemn to death any Arab caught selling land to a Jew,¹ and who has also stated that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in his proposed Palestinian state?²

The sometimes duplicitous nature of Arab politics has been explained by former PLO terrorist Tass Saada, who says that lying, for example, is considered to be acceptable if it advances their cause³. As for Iran’s reportedly moderate new president, Hassan Rouhani, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly that “Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing...who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community.”⁴ 

He also reminded them that from 1989 to 2003 the new president headed up Iran’s Supreme National Security Council during which time opposition leaders were gunned down in a Berlin restaurant, 85 people were murdered at the Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires and 19 American soldiers were killed when the Khobar Towers were blown up in Saudi Arabia. Currently they are providing direct support for the murderous Assad regime in Syria.

Yet the West is quick to believe the duplicitous diatribe that speaks of a peaceful purpose for their nuclear programme. As journalist Melanie Phillips has put it, Iran has been protected ever since their 1979 revolution "by a mysterious cloak of denial and paralysis...with the West tragically still in appeasement mode"⁵. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli leader assures the world that he desires peace, but for this to be achieved Palestinians must finally recognise the Jewish state (which they constantly refuse to do) and Israel’s security needs must be met.

"There is no 'occupation' – that is a myth absorbed by a gullible media quick to dance to the anti-Semitic tune of left-wing propaganda."

Protestors campaigning on behalf of Palestinians show their ignorance by talking of 'stolen Palestinian land'. Actually, the coveted West Bank (Judea and Samaria) was originally re-captured from Jordan, not the Palestinians, in a war of self-defence in 1967 – Jordan having annexed the territory from Israel’s allotted land in the 1948 war of independence.

There is no 'occupation' – that is a myth absorbed by a gullible media quick to dance to the anti-Semitic tones of left-wing propaganda. The truth is that Israel is being crammed into a tiny state far smaller than the international community originally agreed upon, and now even long-term allies like Britain and the United States are trying to carve it up further. Shame on them!

However, with Islamic jihadists rapidly changing the game, who knows what future alliances may emerge? It is now not inconceivable that the United States could line up with Iran in a bid to stop the relentless onward threat to the entire region posed by ISIS, not to mention Russia. None of these possible scenarios will allay the fears of Israel.

Silence is not an option

In the face of all this, we dare not remain silent. The annual Jewish feast of Purim (March 4-5 2015) marks their rescue from an extermination plot nearly five centuries before Christ. Only the intervention of Queen Esther, the beautiful Jewish wife of the Persian King Xerxes, prevented the catastrophe. She had been warned by her uncle and guardian, Mordecai, that keeping quiet would be no guarantee she would escape the genocide herself and he suggested that her royal position may well have been “for such a time as this” (Est 4:14).

Behind the plot was Haman, the king’s chief minister (perhaps coincidentally, there is a group with a very similar name today – Hamas – still threatening to destroy the Jewish people). Haman had said to King Xerxes:

There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different…it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. (Est 3:8)

Likewise today, Hamas and many others within the Arab/Muslim world simply will not tolerate the existence of a Jewish nation, not least because they stand in the way of complete Islamic rule of the most strategic part of the world.

This is what the battle is all about: it has little to do with injustice suffered by the Palestinian people, and everything to do with Islamic rule. Hamas opposes all ‘peace talks’ and ultimately wants to establish an Islamic state of Palestine in the entire territory originally set aside for the Jews by international agreement.

"This is what the battle is all about: it has little to do with injustice suffered by the Palestinian people, and everything to do with Islamic rule."

We can choose to remain silent and complacent or, like Esther, we can decide to act and advocate for the rights and protection of both Christians and Jews.

For more on this subject read my book, Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon at £6.99.

Footnote: The Romans re-named Israel 'Palestine' (a corruption of Israel’s old enemies the Philistines) to add insult to injury after destroying their nation in AD 135. Jews themselves were known as Palestinians before Yasser Arafat, in an extraordinary act of identity theft, adopted it for his own fraudulent campaign designed to drive God’s chosen people out of the region.

References

1 PA court: Sale of Palestian land to Israelis is punishable by death, Ha'aretz, 20 September 2010.

2 Abbas: 'not a single Israeli' in future Palestinian state, Jerusalemn Post/Reuters, 30 July 2013.

3 Saada, T & Merrill, D, 2008. Once an Arafat Man. Tyndale House Publishing, IL.

4 Transcript of Netanyahu's UN General Assembly Speech, Ha'aretz, 1 October 2013.

5 Phillips, M, 2013. It's 1938 all over again, 22 November.

Charles Gardner is a journalist originally from South Africa, now living in Yorkshire. He is part Jewish and writes for The Times of Israel.

Passover is about flooding the memory, binding the mind to the eternal. In evoking the past, meaning is restored to the present and hope assured for the future.

The power of memory: the key to Jewish survival...

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” This is the ancient question the youngest child asks at the Passover meal. The short answer for this and most Jewish festivals is, “They tried to kill us, they didn’t succeed, let’s eat!” The serious answer is the same but more elaborate: it is a celebration of God’s deliverance, freedom and new life

Passover carries cultural resonance like no other festival, being powerfully evocative even for those who do not fully grasp its spiritual significance.

The celebration of Passover has helped to ensure the survival of the Jewish people, reminding each generation of the hope of deliverance during dark times. One of the names for Passover is the Season of our Freedom (Heb. translit. Z'man Cheiruteinu). Yet freedom for the Jewish people has been elusive. During centuries of exile and persecution, the dream of Zion was kept alive at Passover in the final poignant line of the haggadah¹: “Next year in Jerusalem”.

"Passover was a journey of hope for all generations: from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from exile to restoration."

Empires rose and fell but this tiny people survived through centuries of persecution and exile. Why? Because God has preserved them. One of his tools for their preservation is their continual re-enacting of his deliverance at Passover. Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in 1967, when the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, came back under Jewish control for the first time in 2000 years during the Six Day War:

Why did our hearts and minds throughout the ages turn to Eretz Israel [the land of Israel], to the Holy Land? Because of memory…There is a slow and silent stream, a stream not of oblivion but of memory from which we must constantly drink before entering the realm of faith. To believe is to remember. The substance of our very being is memory, our way of living is retaining the reminders, articulating memory.²

Passover was not simply about the preservation of the past; it was the key to the future. It was a journey of hope for all generations: from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from exile to restoration. Each generation is a link in the chain of the journey from slavery to redemption.

Reliving your memories

Passover is not just about recollection, but partaking. The story is revived each year with each generation taking its place as the subject of the narrative.

In every generation, every person must see himself as if he himself came out of Egypt, the haggadah instructs, because Moses commanded that when you eat the unleavened bread of Passover, “On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’” (Ex 13:8).

From the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Press, April 1, 1942, the eve of Passover:

We are still having the festival of freedom at a time of inhuman slavery. And even though freedom is being trampled underfoot every day by the boots of the most terrible monster in all generations, it continues to flourish in our souls, and we believe and hope.

Passover, the most beautiful festival in our history, returns and revives the eternal idea of freedom in our memory. For [our] tortured [people] these days, it is a recollection of redemption. We understand today [more] than before the meaning of the words, ‘In every generation, every person must see himself as if he himself came out of Egypt.’ It is the command of history. No generation may forget the experiences that the people underwent in the foreign diasporas.³

In Deuteronomy 25:17-19, Israel was instructed to remember their first national enemy who had attempted to annihilate them:

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

So they were to remember, but in order to forget. However, the Amalekite spirit persists and has not been blotted out. At the Jewish festival of Purim, deliverance from attempted genocide by Haman, a descendant of the Amalekites (recorded in the book of Esther), is celebrated. Hamans have continued to arise. “In every generation, they rise up against us to annihilate us” laments the haggadah.

So, as you remember what happened to your ancestors, you imagine that first flight from your persecutors as though you were there: you escaped Egypt, crossed the sea on dry land, and fled to safety following a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Hebrews 7:10, discussing priestly tithing, says that Levi could be said to have paid tithes through Abraham to Melchizedek even though he was not alive then, but because he was in the body of his ancestor. The implication of this curious idea is that because each Jewish life is inherited from another Jewish life, in a continual chain of descent, so with the author of Hebrews it could be said that each person was there at that first Passover in the body of their ancestors.

Leon Wieseltier writes:

It was one of the primary purposes of Jewish ritual and liturgy to abolish time, to make Jews divided by history into contemporaries (and Jews divided by geography into neighbours); in this way the many communities of Judaism were unified into a single people and the experiences of many Jews into a single story.⁴

Remembrance as a sign

God instructed Israel to observe this festival because it would be like a sign (in Hebrew, ot; in Greek, semion).

This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. (Ex 13:9)

This is one of the verses from which the command to wear tefillin (phylacteries) arose. Tefillin are small black leather boxes containing verses from the Torah on parchment that Jewish men bind with leather straps to their foreheads and hands. (Women may “lay” tefillin too, but were exempted from the commandment due to the demands of their maternal duties.)

The express command in Exodus 13:9 is to celebrate Passover; the implied command is to put on tefillin. The purpose of tefillin is to be a sign and reminder of the deliverance of God’s people from Egypt. The process of binding tefillin to the hand and the forehead is intended to remind the wearer that he is bound to the Lord in mind, action and speech - God’s Word “is to be on your lips”.

"Through centuries of shaking, the tangible reminders of God’s goodness in the Passover and tefillin have bound the Jewish people to each other and to their God."

So, celebrating Passover and putting on tefillin have become tangible signs of God’s goodness setting apart the Jewish people. In Exodus 13:16 the command is repeated: “And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” The Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) uses the word “unshakeable” (ἀσάλευτον) here to describe this memorial sign.

Through centuries of shaking, the tangible reminders of God’s goodness in the Passover and tefillin have bound the Jewish people to each other and to their God. Passover is about flooding the memory, binding the mind to the eternal. In evoking the past, meaning is restored to the present and hope assured for the future.

The power of shared memories

Repetition is the key to remembering and so Passover is repeated year after year by generation after generation.

The importance of linking the generations is demonstrated by the number of genealogies in the Bible. It was Jewish descent, rather than assent to a set of truths, that marked out God’s people before Messiah. Physical and spiritual heritage were intertwined. Names were remembered because of the important of physical heritage. It was vital to ensure that the inheritance of each tribe was not lost (see Zelophehad’s daughters in Numbers 27).

Remembering the names of your ancestors was therefore crucial for creating an unbreakable chain of memory and history to pass on so that the word of God was not forgotten.

To have your name blotted out was a terrible punishment. “May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous” is the curse in Psalm 69:28. Revelation 3:5 says: “The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.” So, all believers have memorial inscriptions: both Jew and Gentile.

Gentiles have always been part of the story of God’s people. Exodus 12:38 says about the flight from Egypt that, “Many other people went up with them”. Presumably Egyptians, possibly native slaves seizing the opportunity for freedom, clung to the Israelites, as Ruth the Moabite woman would later do, saying, “Your God is my God” (Ruth 1:16). So, Gentiles too have spiritual ancestors from the Exodus, the “Many other people” who left Egypt with the Hebrews.

Since Messiah came, Gentiles may join Israel by faith. They are included in God’s family by assent not descent, by faith rather than physical ancestry. Gentiles have a claim on the family inheritance because they have joined the family of God’s people and may share in its rich heritage: “…you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Eph 2:19).

"The call of Passover is to all people everywhere: join the Exodus, leave the Egypt of sin and death...be joined to God’s people"

So the call of Passover is to all people everywhere: join the Exodus, leave the Egypt of sin and death that is human life as we know it, be joined to God’s people, the “one new humanity” (Eph 2:15) of Jew and Gentile through faith in Messiah, so that you may know and be known by one Father, the God of Israel, who is ruler of all.

Neglected heritage

Celebrating Passover is powerfully resonant for Gentile believers: it adds richness and depth to a faith that is often abstract, referencing Bible history but as observers without ownership. Passover roots and grounds us in the history and memory of a real family, God’s family.

For some Jewish people, seeing Jesus in the Passover has revealed the true meaning of the redemption narrative. A non-believing Jewish friend realised during a Passover seder⁵ explaining its messianic significance that, “Jesus is one of us, he’s Jewish!” She is now a believer in Jesus as Messiah.

However, are Gentile believers neglecting this rich heritage? In our churches and homes, are we building on this powerful mnemonic which binds us to each other and our God? Are our homes places where precious memories are formed or, in our busy and fractured family lives, do we leave that to the minister and the Sunday School teacher?

"Celebrating Passover is powerfully resonant for Gentile believers: it adds richness and depth to a faith that is often abstract, rooting and grounding us in the history and memory of a real family, God’s family."

Perhaps the neglect of study, worship and biblical celebration in our homes is the root of our spiritual impoverishment and a cause of our fragmentation and rootlessness as families, churches and communities. In Britain, we have lost much of our rich Christian heritage, but we have a chance to recover a deeper, more resonant heritage from our ancient spiritual ancestors. This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’” (Jer 6:16)

Our shared biblical history is not just an abstract set of salvation concepts but a fixed reality that was lived, and is lived, in each generation. Do we count ourselves as having been there? This powerful, grand narrative of the Exodus should be the bedrock of our Christian experience, undergirding the transforming gospel message of freedom and new life. Instead, many churches are we offering a tepid, watered-‑down, people-pleasing faith.

What is the sign in our lives that we belong to the Lord? It should be the word of God on our lips, the Passover message of deliverance and new life written on every page of our lives. We are “living letters” (2 Cor 3:3), signs to the world around us, foreigners and exiles (1 Pet 2:11-13), who are “in the world but not of it” (Jn 17:14,16).

Just as the Jewish people have always been God’s signpost to the world by their very continued existence, and have suffered and been rejected for it, so believers in Messiah Yeshua, joined to Israel (Eph 2:11-18), should aim to write the truths of the gospel with the largest letters we can, just as Paul wrote in his large hand to impress on the Galatians (Gal 6:11) that the inscription required by God was no longer circumcision, but the marks of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, written in our lives in word and action.

"We are not required to circumcise or put on tefillin, but to bind the Lord’s commands to our minds and actions by the daily “putting on” of Messiah"

We are not required to circumcise or put on tefillin, but to bind the Lord’s commands to our minds and actions by the daily “putting on” of Messiah: “clothe yourselves with Christ” (Rom 13:14, Gal 3:27, Col 3:12). Is the writing in our lives clear enough so that our faith can be “read” by all and 'strangers' want also to follow us out of Egypt?

As already pointed out, the ancient Greek translation of Ex 13:16 uses the word “unshakeable” to describe the memorial sign that is Passover: “And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” During the shaking that is to come, believers need to cling to that which cannot be shaken.

The power of memory: hope for the future

Jesus is already established in the Passover – in plain sight but hidden. At the beginning of the traditional Passover seder (Hebrew for order) a mysterious custom takes place. Three matzot (pieces of unleavened bread) are placed in a bag with three compartments. The middle piece is broken, half is returned to its compartment and the other half covered in a cloth and hidden to be 'resurrected' later as a children’s hide and find game at the end of the meal where they 'ransom' it for sweets.

The origin of this custom is uncertain. The hidden piece of matzah is called the afikomen, the meaning of which is, 'he who comes' or 'the one who has arrived'. When the children find it they 'ransom' it in exchange for a prize. So, there is a trinity of unleavened bread (lack of yeast symbolising purity), the second piece of which is broken, then buried or hidden in a cloth, then ransomed and eaten by all, while those who find this treasure receive a prize.

Jesus' body was broken, he was buried, wrapped in cloth, and later brought back or resurrected. His sacrifice may be partaken of by all. His death is the ransom for sinners. He is the “pearl of great price” (Matt 13:45-6), a priceless treasure and the prize of salvation (Philippians 3:14), available to all who choose to partake (Jn 1:12). It is thought that the afikomen is the piece of matzah that Jesus broke and offered to his disciples when he said, "This is my body, broken for you" (Mk 14:22).

"At Passover, whether Jew or Gentile, we are invited to journey afresh with Messiah, whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed as our Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7)."

One Passover custom among Sephardi Jews is for the leader of the Passover seder to leave the room and return with the afikomen in a knapsack over his shoulder, carrying a walking stick and wearing a tightened belt.

The children ask, "Where are you coming from?"
The seder leader replies, "From Egypt."
Then the children ask, "Where are you going?"
The answer: "To Jerusalem."

When we turn to God we embark on a journey from Egypt, the old life of sin, to Jerusalem, our redemption in Messiah. As we journey we may limp, hence the walking stick, as some of our sinful ways still linger, hindering us. We have to deny the self, tightening our belts, so to speak. Yet the only burden we need to carry is that of Messiah, represented by the afikomen in this story. "Take my yoke upon you," says Jesus, "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matt 11:29).

At Passover, whether Jew or Gentile, we are invited to journey afresh with Messiah, whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed as our Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7). Let us no longer neglect our rich inheritance in Messiah. Remembering the past sets us on the right path for the future.

When we know where we have come from, then we know where we are going.

References

1 The haggadah (in English, telling) is a book of prayers, blessings and story-telling that is recited at the Passover meal.

2 Heschel, A J, 1967. Israel: An Echo of Eternity. New York, p60.

3 Roshkovsky, L. Pesach and the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, The International School for Holocaust Studies.

4 Wieseltier, L. Culture and Collective Memory, New York Times, 15 January 1984.

5 Seder is Hebrew for 'order'. It refers to the service that takes place in the home on the first night of Passover involving a meal and the eating of specific elements relating to the original Passover.

People often say they don’t watch the news because it’s too depressing. But it’s only depressing if you don’t understand what’s happening. If you know what’s going on and you can see some purpose being fulfilled, it takes away fear.

Understanding God's deeds...

The problem with most people is they don’t know the purposes of God and what he’s doing! Throughout the Bible God is known through what he does – the prophets called this “the deeds of the Lord”. They often reminded the people of Israel how God had brought them out of Egypt, saving them from slavery, and the many other times he had blessed the nation.

But the prophets also taught the nation that God is not only a God of love but also of justice, who expects his people to follow his teaching which sets boundaries for right behaviour. When we ignore the teaching and things start to go wrong he sends warning signs. If they are ignored we bring trouble upon ourselves.

When God commissioned Jeremiah to the prophetic Ministry he said, “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). There are six verbs in this sentence, four are negative (tearing down and destroying); two are positive (planting and building up). From this Jeremiah knew there was a lot in the nation that had to be uprooted before anything creative could be done.

"When greed, corruption and lies are widespread in national life, God lifts his cover of protection allows us to do as we please until we get into such a mess that we cry out to him for help."

When greed, corruption and lies are widespread in national life, they have to be faced and eliminated for the well-being and prosperity of society, otherwise destructive forces drive the nation. When we do nothing about it ourselves God lifts his cover of protection from a rebellious people and allows us the freedom to do as we please until we get into such a mess that we cry out to him for help. That’s what happened to Israel many times in history as recorded in the Bible.

God's allowance of disaster

The prophets did not distinguish between the direct will of God and his allowable will: the things he actually did and the things he allows to happen. They were so convinced that God is the Lord of history that they didn’t bother to distinguish between his actions and his permission. Hence you get statements such as:

“I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isa 45:7).

Of course, we don’t like to think of God creating disaster! But Isaiah was giving the reason why God had allowed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the exile of many people from Judah to Babylon. In the same chapter he said that God was going to anoint Cyrus, the pagan ruler of Persia, to overthrow Babylon and let his people go back to rebuild Jerusalem. They went back totally cured of idolatry and with a new commitment to prayer and teaching in the family and local community, rather than relying upon the rituals of animal sacrifice in the Temple.

The synagogue, which was born in Babylon not in Jerusalem, prepared the way for 2000 years of dispersal. But the experience of the great disaster – 56 years in Babylon (596 BC to 539 BC) was intended by God to produce “a redeemed people”. They would be “a light for the Gentiles” (Isa 49:6). They would teach the world to know the true God who created the universe, flung the stars into their orbits, and created human beings in his own image to have fellowship with him. From them would come a Messiah who would fulfil the purposes of God, making it possible for every individual to enjoy a personal relationship with God as their Heavenly Father.

Final shaking of all nations

This is God’s great purpose revealed in the Bible. But the Bible also teaches us that our human nature has the propensity to destroy us with greed and violence, as we discover more of the secrets hidden in nature and as our technology becomes more sophisticated and destructive. So the warnings that God sends when we are heading for disaster become more urgent.

There is a prophecy in the Bible that many scholars believe is actually being fulfilled in our lifetime. It was first given in the year 520 BC, just after the exile in Babylon. But it was repeated near the end of the first century in the Christian era when it was still in the future. The prophecy says:

“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 2:6-7).

The repeat of this prophecy nearly 600 years later says the great shaking will “remove everything that can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb 12:26). It also links the great shaking with God preparing the way for his Kingdom.

"The news is only depressing if you don’t understand what’s happening. If you know what’s going on, it takes away fear."

A foretaste of the danger facing us today began with the First World War in 1914 which slaughtered millions of men in the trenches. Millions more were slaughtered only 20 years later in the Second World War and many millions more were slaughtered in the Communist eras of Russia and China, making the 20th century the most bloody in the history of the world.

But the violence of the 21st century could eclipse that of the 20th century with the sophisticated mass-destruction weaponry now available. We have seen the ‘stop at nothing’ atrocities of the Islamic State fighters who mercilessly torture and slaughter: if the chemical weapons of Syria or the nuclear weapons of Pakistan fall into the hands of these terrorists, they could destroy the world.

Signs of the times

Is God warning us of the great danger facing the nation today? Is this the reason why he is shaking the nations and the world of nature? In the past 50 years there have been more earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, droughts, floods and plagues – from AIDS to Ebola – than for centuries past. The nations also are being shaken in their economic, political and social systems. Just look at what’s been happening in Britain in the last 10 years. All our social institutions are being shaken and hidden corruption is being exposed.

• 2008 began the financial crisis, banks went bankrupt, great financial houses collapsed, greed and corruption in the banking system was exposed. The City of London, known for its integrity, was shamed.
• 2009 saw Parliament rocked by the MPs’ expenses and allowances scandal that shook the 800 year old parliamentary system that was a model of democracy and integrity for the world.
• 2010 revealed the Rotherham child abuse scandal with the conviction of a gang of five Pakistani men. Rotherham Borough Council continued in denial until February 2015 when it was taken over by the Government following further revelations, raising questions concerning the integrity of local government in Britain.
• 2011 saw journalists and newspaper moguls shaken with revelations of the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone following her murder in 2002, which led to the collapse of the News of the World and ongoing revelations of media corruption.
• 2012 began the shaking of celebrities with the revelations about the sex crimes of Jimmy Savile in an ITV programme, that led to Scotland Yard launching a criminal investigation which spread across the celebrity world.
• In 2013 the ‘pleb-gate’ Andrew Mitchell row began the shaking of the police revealing corruption among police officers and adding to revelations of police lies in the Hillsborough disaster.
• 2014 saw a great shaking of the NHS, which became a battleground for politicians over long waiting times to see GPs, failing hospitals and overcrowded Accident and Emergency departments.
• 2015 began a shaking of Islam in Europe. This had begun in Tunisia in 2011, spreading across North Africa to Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State atrocities and the Paris shooting of Charlie Hebdo journalists prompted President Sisi of Egypt to call for a ‘revolution within Islam’ to determine its teaching, as Muslims throughout Europe began questioning their religion.

How are we to interpret all the great shaking that is taking place? Is this God warning us of the very grave danger we face? If so, what should we be doing?

In the first issue of Prophecy Today, 30 years ago, we carried an article under the title “A World of Inequality” which said that more than 10 million children had died of starvation during the previous year, 1984.

There were 500 million people in Africa suffering from malnutrition. It was at a time when huge swathes of eastern Africa were suffering from years of drought. 1 million people had died of starvation in Ethiopia and 7 million people in that country were living under the threat of starvation.

From 1985 to 2015

Prophecy Today joined others in sending out an urgent appeal for aid from the rich countries of the West to be sent to people facing death. In July 1985 Bob Geldof responded with the first ever Live Aid when pop stars freely gave a concert at Wembley to raise funds for the starving. Later that same year Comic Relief was founded on Christmas Day 1985 which was later linked with Sport Relief and Children in Need. These events, attracting huge television audiences, have raised hundreds of millions of pounds which have undoubtedly brought relief to many communities struggling with poverty.

"World poverty was halved between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank. But the world of inequality still exists."

World poverty was halved between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank.¹ But this does not mean that poverty has been eliminated. The world of inequality still exists despite the immense amount of aid that is poured into developing countries. One billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day.² Most of the world’s population still lack basic services which people in the developed nations take for granted – access to safe water, healthcare, electricity, schools and adequate food.

Inequality persists

In 1985 we said:

The rich nations use their muscle to protect their prosperity. They control the world’s capital investment. They control the price of basic commodities on the world markets, such as grain, seeds and fertilisers. They have a monopoly of technology which they deny to third world countries thus keeping them dependent on the West and limiting competition. They control interest rates and thus ensure that any aid given to poor countries comes back to the rich nations to increase their overflowing abundance.

That situation still exists today and should be a serious warning to us because justice and righteousness are part of the nature of God. When we deny justice to the powerless we are actually offending God who says “For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and iniquity” (Isa 61:8). There are plenty of instances in history where nations or communities have brought disaster upon themselves through injustice and oppression. Sodom and Gomorrah are two good examples.

"When we deny justice to the powerless, we are actually offending God"

Most people think Sodom and Gomorrah came to disaster because of sexual deviance but the Prophet Ezekiel says something different. He says there was another reason why God destroyed those two great cities. “This was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Eze 16:49).

Western wealth offensive to God

What are the things that are most offensive to a God of justice and righteousness? They are surely the vast wealth controlled by 1% of the world’s population while so many struggle with poverty. The enormous amount of money spent on slimming aids and reducing obesity in the rich nations while others die of starvation must be deeply offensive to God. He said to the Prophet Isaiah that the kind of justice and righteousness he wants is “to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wander with shelter – when you see the naked, clothe him...Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rearguard” (Isa 58:7-8).

"The nations have the power and the technology in our generation to feed the hungry and to care for all people, but we choose to indulge ourselves"

The monumental amount of money spent on weapons of destruction by the nations is deeply offensive to God. We are more concerned with destroying one another than with caring for the poor and those who are powerless to provide for themselves. “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter” (Isa 34:2).

The nations have the power and the technology in our generation to feed the hungry and to care for all people, but we choose to indulge ourselves, to pile up wealth that we can never use such as the grain mountains, the butter mountains, the meat mountains of Europe and America. We choose to maintain vast armies and vast stocks of weaponry and we turn a blind eye to the poor, the powerless and the hungry.

What will a God of justice and righteousness do with this generation?

References

1 World Bank Poverty Overview, 2011 data.

2 Ibid.

Prophecy did not cease after the First Century Apostles. We must consider, therefore, how the prophetic ministry is to be understood in our day compared with the days of the biblical Prophets.

Prophecy is a gift to the Christian Church...

God has always communicated with His people through His prophets. The prophetic ministry is as essential today as in every age. Paul made it clear in his letter to the Ephesians that this ministry is given for the strengthening of the body of believers:

He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting… (Eph 4:11-15)

Prophecy did not cease after the First Century Apostles. We must consider, therefore, how the prophetic ministry is to be understood in our day compared with the days of the biblical Prophets.

The Biblical Prophets were rooted in Torah

The Old Testament was traditionally divided into three main sections, the Torah, the Prophets and Writings. Torah is the foundation of all Scripture. The Hebrew word 'Torah' means teaching/instruction and refers specifically to the first five books of the Bible. These five books are the foundation of the Old Testament. They contain all the major themes of the Bible, including the account of Creation, the Fall, the call of Abraham to the life of faith, the Covenant with Abraham, the call of Israel, the Covenant with Israel and the teaching of Moses with conditions of the Covenant.

A careful study of the ministry of the Hebrew Prophets reveals that they do not add to Torah, but simply interpret the times in which they lived in terms of Torah. They look back to what the God of Israel covenanted with His people, and the conditions of the Covenant. The Hebrew Prophets also looked forward to the coming Messiah. The valleys and peaks of Israel’s history conformed to the terms of the Covenant, and Prophets arose when God’s people needed help to understand the times in which they lived, and prepare for the future.

   "Prophets of every age understand God’s ways through their understanding of Scripture"

The ministry of a prophet, in every age, is strengthened when the prophet has a mature understanding of the Bible, especially the promises and purposes of God revealed in His Covenant. Israel’s Prophets were able to interpret the signs of the times and discern the Word of God when they understood the Torah. It is the same today: we understand the situations of the world best when we are mature in our understanding of the entire Bible. The prophetic ministry is also subject to the call of God on a person’s life. Prophecy is directly from God and is given for the edification of God’s people through whom God Himself chooses:

No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Pet 1:20-21)

Responsibility and Privilege

The call of each of the biblical Prophets is set out in detail in the Books of the Old Testament and shows the awesome responsibility laid upon them. The prophetic ministry in our day is no less serious and the call is equally clear, as borne out by testimonies of those who have been called by God.

The prophetic ministry is as essential in our day as in former days. These words of Amos are still relevant – Surely the Lord does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)

Modern Day Context

What has changed in our day is that the Covenant is to be understood in terms of the Sacrifice of Jesus the Messiah. Also the Gospel has gone to the whole world so that men and women from all nations are being called into the covenant community of faith.

In addition, the body of believers is now called to act together as a prophetic people within whom the prophetic ministry has a specific role. We no longer stand alone in ministry as in the days of the biblical Prophets. Moses prayed for the day when the Spirit of God would raise up a body ministry – Oh that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them. (Num 11:29)

Joel prophesied that this would indeed happen. Peter identified the beginning of the outpouring of the Spirit according to Joel’s prophecy. This was on Temple Mount on the special Day of Shavuot (Pentecost) when the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit began to be fulfilled: "...and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams, and on my menservants and maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy." (Joel 2:8-32, Acts 2:17-21)

A New Era in our World

We are in days of great significance and the God of Israel is working out his end-time purposes across the entire world. The prophetic ministry is given for building up believers to understand these purposes and prepare for the future. There is continuity in the role of the prophet and the call is no less serious than in former days. Maturity is gained through study of the entire Bible, and through prayerful consideration of the times in which we live.

We do not stand alone and are to submit ourselves to one another because everything must be determined through the witness of others with like ministry. The Bible- New and Old Testaments -states it this way: everything is determined by the witness of two or three witnesses (eg Deut 19:15, 2 Cor 13:1).

As in every ministry appointed by God, we do not volunteer for the ministry of the prophet within the congregations of believers, but when called, we begin a journey to maturity. We must root ourselves in the Scriptures and in prayer, being ready to speak or write when moved by the Holy Spirit. We are entering turbulent days on this earth and, as a body, it is time for the covenant people of God to help one another understand the times and prepare for the future. Is there anything more important?

As the ministry of Prophecy Today moves into a new era, it is good to look back to what we were saying thirty years ago.

The ministry of Edmund Heddle...

From the very first issue, through many years, the late Edmund Heddle was a regular contributor, writing on the Biblical Prophets and what they teach us. Edmund was a Baptist Minister whose ministry culminated as Warden of the prayer centre at Ashburnham Place.

His Bible teaching brought a major contribution to the PWM regional conferences as well as to Prophecy Today. He was a pastor to the PWM team as well as a Bible teacher.

I recall his preparations for the next topic for his Prophecy Today article as we travelled from town to town. He would sit quietly in the back of the car and prayerfully ponder his way through the countryside. Then after each regional meeting he would remind us that it was our responsibility to pray for the people in the town we had just visited.

Good memories of Edmund come flooding back. He is missed as our work goes forward into the next generation. Yet, he has left a heritage. His teaching articles are still with us and are as relevant today as they were thirty years ago.

The early articles

In the first edition of Prophecy Today (March/April 1985), Edmund asked the question, “what is a Prophet?” This article reflected an important principle, which continues to underpin our work: a prophet is not to be seen as a foreteller predicting the future like astrologers seek to do, but a forthteller, a spokesperson for the God of the Bible.

A prophet is found listening to God and speaking or writing accurately what has been commissioned. The Biblical Prophets were men anointed with God’s Spirit. They stood in the Lord’s council and were privileged in that the Lord shared His secrets with them. As Edmund said, they were,

…men called by God, on whom the Spirit had fallen, becoming a ‘mouth for God’ in their generation. Today as never before, there are homes, communities and nations that desperately need to hear what God in his love is yearning to say to them. Nothing, therefore, could be more important than the recovery of the ministry of prophecy today.

In the second issue (May/June 1995), Edmund considered the calling of a prophet. He took the examples of Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah and Ezekiel to illustrate the variety of circumstances and characteristics of God’s chosen ministers. The central teaching was that no prophet is self-appointed. God chooses them. They are commissioned by God and made directly responsible to Him. Edmund made it clear that the expectations on the character of the prophets were very high, and concluded,

No prophets could ever meet such demands from their own resources. It is essential to the carrying out of their calling that the anointing of the Spirit has come down upon them (Zech 4:6). All we have discovered about the prophets of the Old Testament applies equally to those whom God is calling to the ministry of prophecy today.

In the third issue of Prophecy Today Edmund considered the Spirit of Prophecy. He delved deeply to bring understanding that the central role of a prophet is understood through Revelation 19:10 – “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”, thereby urging us to understand that,

all true Christian prophesying will be distinguished by the fact that it points to Jesus and promotes his honour. For this is what the Spirit of prophecy is constantly urging all true prophets to do.

Still relevant today

Issue after issue of the ministry of Prophecy Today has been anchored by such teaching – a teaching that is as relevant today as it was then. It is good to look back as we go forward once more, so we will be re-publishing selected articles from the original print issues in an online archive.

Looking back to go forward in the right way

Edmund’s teaching is reliable because it is firmly rooted in the Scriptures, drawing on what we learn from the Prophets of Israel and Judah. We look back to his teaching and in so doing find ourselves looking back into Biblical history. This is the way that God would have us go.

A disciple of Jesus, whether called to the prophetic ministry or called to some other ministry, has been likened to a man rowing a boat. As he rows forward he is always looking back to where he has come from. Our present and future history is connected with our past. Our ministry is defined through what God has said and done through His people over all ages.

Prophets of former ages point not to themselves but to the God of history who gave us the Bible as the essential written record of His Story (as Edmund Heddle would put it). That is still to be the hallmark of prophecy today.

A Tribute to Chief Solomon Lar, Governor of Plateau State: Clifford Hill looks back on how God used Prophecy Today to help bring about huge transformation in Nigeria.

A presidential prophecy...

It was the final day of a conference in Port Harcourt Nigeria on 28 December 1987. A small team from Prophecy Today were speaking. There was a sudden stir among the large company present. Into the hall came an imposing-looking man in the traditional dress of a Nigerian Chief. He slowly made his way through the hall accompanied by a small group of attendants, mounting the platform to huge applause from the delegates and warm embraces from the platform party. Our Prophecy Today team had no idea who this man was, but clearly he was well-known and well-loved by the 1,000 Christian pastors in the hall.

The conference chairman extended a warm welcome to him, explaining that as a political prisoner he had just been released by the military junta ruling Nigeria. He was invited to speak and did so without making any reference to his personal circumstances or to the political situation. He simply expressed great joy at being in there and his prayers for God to extend the work of the gospel and to bless the preachers and evangelists.

The chairman then asked me to pray for this man whose name I had not even been told. I began to pray asking God's blessing upon the man while at the same time I was desperately seeking divine inspiration. Suddenly I found myself prophesying over him and saying that the day would come when great power would be bestowed upon him and he would be the ruler of the nation. I also prophesied that God would intervene in the affairs of the nation and that before the end of the century Nigeria would have its first Christian President.

"Suddenly I found myself prophesying over him and saying that before the end of the century Nigeria would have its first Christian President!"

The prophecy was received with great joy and acclamation by the conference although I myself was immediately assailed with anxieties and doubts. There have been very few occasions in my life when I have given a prophecy with an actual date for its fulfilment. My anxieties were increased by a conversation I had after the meeting with the man whom I learned was Chief Solomon Lar from Jos in Plateau State. He explained that he had come to the conference because he wanted to meet the Editor of Prophecy Today and he knew that we were speaking there.

We sat and talked a lot about the political situation in Nigeria and he said that he greatly appreciated my prayer for him but unless God specifically worked a miracle the prophecy could not be fulfilled. The military rulers had decreed that none of the politicians who had previously been in government would ever again be allowed to hold power. Solomon stayed for the remainder of the conference and we promised to keep in touch. I was, nevertheless, surprised to receive a letter from him the following year inviting Monica and me to visit him in his hometown of Jos and to speak at an Easter Monday Christian celebration as well as to fulfil other engagements in Lagos.

Chief Solomon Lar, with Clifford and Monica Hill and Dr Mary Lar

Chief Solomon of Jos

The Easter Monday celebration was amazing with the main city street filled with more than a quarter of a million Christians and non-Christians in this ethnically mixed city. There were a number of musical events with local choirs and a time of inspirational worship before the speeches. Both Monica and I spoke through interpreters. The man who interpreted my message was also an evangelist who added to the word that I had given, concluding with a powerful call for salvation to which hundreds responded.

It was when we visited their home that Solomon told us of the circumstances that had led to his imprisonment and the reason why he had made the journey to Port Harcourt to meet us soon after his release, after four years in jail as a political prisoner of the military Government. Solomon was a Member of the first Government of Nigeria elected in 1959 just ahead of independence from Britain the following year. He served faithfully in several different positions and was a popular Governor of Plateau State.

In 1966 the democratically elected Government was overthrown by a military coup. This led directly to the Biafran Civil War which lasted from July 1967 until January 1970. Military government continued in Nigeria until the assassination of the military head of state in 1976. His successor, General Muhammadu Buhari, initiated a process of transition to a democratically elected Government in 1979. Solomon was a Minister in this Government which lasted until 1983 when another military coup brought General Ibrahim Babangida to power. He was overthrown in 1985 by the worst dictator of all Nigeria’s rulers, General Sani Abacha.

Imprisonment

Following the 1983 coup most of the Government Ministers were either executed or imprisoned. Solomon was sentenced to 88 years on 31 December 1983. He shared a prison cell with a British pilot who had been attempting to rescue members of the Government when the military rebels intervened. It took the British Government more than two years to obtain the release of the pilot during which time he complained about the food and succeeded in getting the Red Cross to send him food parcels.

"Following the 1983 coup most of the Government Ministers were either executed or imprisoned. Solomon was sentenced to 88 years in prison."

A British missionary heard that Solomon was in prison. She had been his teacher at primary school in the northern town of Langtang and had kept in touch with him from boyhood. Somehow she got get letters into the prison and Solomon told her he was sharing a cell with the British pilot. When the next food parcel was being prepared by the Red Cross she took a copy of the first issue of the magazine Prophecy Today which fitted exactly inside a cornflakes box. She included a letter to Solomon urging him to read the magazine. It was to be a life-changing experience for Solomon and he says that the magazine was passed all around the prison and read by many of the thousand men.

That issue of Prophecy Today had two articles that particularly spoke to him. One was about injustice and inequalities whereby the rich Western nations are overfed and millions in the poorer countries die from malnourishment and preventable diseases. This was a cause close to Solomon's heart. The second article was about listening to God and how the great biblical prophets learned to discern what God was saying to them. Solomon had been a Christian all his life but he had never before had time on his hands to study the Bible in depth. Slowly he learned to take things before God, to intercede, and to listen.

God's faithfulness

One of his fellow prisoners, also a Minister in the Government, was condemned to death. Although a Muslim he was a particular friend of Solomon who had worked with him in the Cabinet. Solomon began to intercede on his behalf and he heard God say that his friend would not die at the hands of the military junta. Solomon reported this and the man gladly received it; but no word of reprieve came and the day was set for his execution. Solomon prayed all the more fervently and he was convinced God would save his friend. He continually reassured the man that God is faithful and he never breaks his promises.

The day prior to his execution arrived. He was due to be executed at dawn. Solomon prayed throughout the day and right through the night. Then the most amazing thing happened. During that night another military coup took place. The Military Government was overthrown by another group of power-hungry colonels. The first thing they did was to cancel all political executions. News reached the prison one hour before dawn.

In the morning Solomon's friend came to him and threw himself on the ground in front of him saying, "How did you know?" Solomon said quite simply that Jesus had told him. His friend said he wanted to know Jesus and Solomon had the joy of leading him to the Lord. This man later became a powerful evangelist with a great testimony to the faithfulness of God who answers prayer, even at the 11th hour!

Nation-wide oppression

We visited Nigeria several times in the next few years doing missions in Lagos, Ibadan and other parts of the country. Solomon and Mary also visited us in England and our friendship grew; so too did our love and concern for Nigeria. We went a number of times, always with an armed escort, but it became too dangerous to take a team to Nigeria where social unrest was widespread. Throughout the 1990s the Military Government in Nigeria became increasingly oppressive and corrupt. Foreign aid was siphoned off into the pockets of the military rulers, and bribery and corruption were present at all levels in Government and among petty provincial officials.

General Abacha reportedly siphoned off £5 billion from the national purse into his own offshore accounts, aided by members of his family. Social unrest in the 1990s became more violent with high rates of unemployment and poverty. The British Government put great pressure upon the military rulers to allow the country to return to democratic rule, but they continually broke their promises. Nigeria was suspended from the British Commonwealth and the UN imposed severe economic sanctions, but General Abacha refused to relinquish power.

The whole country was rapidly degenerating into social and economic chaos and there was grave fear that, unless there was a complete change of Government, Nigeria would slide into civil war. From the mid-1990s Solomon had been secretly meeting with former members of the last democratically elected Government. Their communications were always exchanged with great care as they all knew they were risking their lives. If Abacha had heard of their secret liaisons they would undoubtedly have been executed.

"The whole country was rapidly degenerating into social and economic chaos- there was grave fear that Nigeria would slide into civil war."

In 1998, the 'Group of 18', as they called themselves, resolved that the national situation was so serious they could no longer delay. They decided to challenge the President that if he did not resign and give way to an elected Government they would bring the whole country out on strike and force his hand. But how could they get the message to Abacha? They decided to write a letter setting out their demands. One of the 18 had to take the letter and confront him. The group all asked Solomon to do this, and after much prayer and discussion with Mary, Solomon agreed to take the letter.

God's intervention

Solomon said goodbye to Mary, not knowing if he would ever see her again, and set off for Abuja, the new capital of Nigeria. He was kept waiting for six days before being granted an audience with the President. On the sixth day he went into the closely guarded presidential palace and came face to face with the General. He told him he had come to read a letter to him. As he read the letter Abacha flew into an apoplexy of rage and shouted "Treason! Treason!" He called the guards and ordered them to arrest Solomon and hold him overnight. He said that he would pronounce sentence in the morning.

Solomon was led away and spent the night in prayer in a police cell, expecting this to be his last night on earth. But during that night God intervened. General Abacha often used the presidential jet to fly Asian prostitutes for his use. That night he had two Indian girls flown in from Dubai cavorting in his bed. He suffered a massive heart attack at 4:30am and by 6:30 he was dead.

In the morning the guards came to Solomon with the news of Abacha's death and senior officials from the military junta implored him for the sake of the nation to take control. Solomon immediately went on air and broadcast to the nation announcing the death of the President who was buried that same day according to Muslim tradition. Solomon promised that political parties would once more be legalised and there would be a swift return to democratic government.

Solomon himself led an Interim Government. He ruled the nation for a year; overseeing preparations for a General Election in 1999. He became Chairman of the People's Democratic Party and when elections were held his Party won a clear majority. Solomon did not wish to become President himself. The years of imprisonment had taken their toll on his health and he asked his friend Olushegun Obasanjo to become President. He was installed in July 1999.

The prophecy fulfilled

Six months before the end of the Twentieth Century Nigeria had its first Christian President. The prophecy I had given in Port Harcourt in December 1987 was fulfilled. That prophecy had been widely circulated throughout Nigeria and soon after the new President had settled in Abuja, Solomon (as chairman of the ruling Party and close confidante and adviser to the President) invited Monica and me to come to Abuja to meet the new President. We were impressed that among his first actions he had built a church in the grounds of the Presidential Palace where a former president had built a mosque.

"Six months before the end of the Twentieth Century Nigeria had its first Christian President: the prophecy I had given was fulfilled."

President Olushegun Obasanjo was a devout Christian who had a room in the church set aside for his daily quiet time. It was plainly furnished with just a table, a chair and a Bible. Faced with huge social and economic problems, the legacy of years of political corruption, plus the tensions of a racially divided nation, he knew that it was only divine guidance that would enable him to survive. We spent some time talking and praying with him as well as enjoying a family meal at his table. The next time we visited Nigeria we had a meal with two presidents: the President of Nigeria was hosting the President of the USA, Bill Clinton. So we had dinner with him and his daughter Chelsea.

President Obasanjo strove to root out the corruption endemic in Nigerian society but he was constantly impeded by Parliament who even attempted to impeach him. It is a deeply divided society between Christian and Muslim and although President Goodluck Jonathan is a Christian, he has been powerless to control the army which has always been controlled by Muslims from the Northern states. Today that is the home territory of Boko Haram, the jihadist terrorists who kidnapped 200 girls in 2014, and in January 2015 razed to the ground a whole area of villages around the town of Maiduguri, killing an estimated 2000 men, women and children.

Goodluck Jonathan also failed to deal with the widespread corruption in Nigeria. When the Governor of Nigeria’s central bank reported that $20 billion had been stolen, Jonathan sacked him. It is because of these failures that many voters deserted the PDP and voted for former General Muhammadu Buhari, who briefly ruled Nigeria some 32 years ago. His human rights record at that time was appalling and political opponents were executed, but as a Muslim from the North he may be able to deal firmly with the jihadist terrorists. His election on 1st April 2015 is a triumph of democracy for which Solomon Lar laid the foundation.

Solomon Lar died in October 2013. His moderating influence is greatly missed in Nigeria today, but there are many who still thank God for his great contribution in saving the nation from military dictatorship and establishing the principles of godly democracy. The whole of Nigeria has much to thank God for this courageous man of prayer who learned to listen to God and to be obedient even when it put his own life at risk. We thank God that Prophecy Today was helpful to him in his hour of need. We continue to pray that violence against Christians will cease and that a new era of peace and prosperity will come to Nigeria.