Thanksgiving and Mourning

• Monica Hill: A life well lived. The entire team at Prophecy Today and Issachar Ministries is mourning the death of Monica Hill, the wife of Dr Clifford Hill, founder of Prophecy Today. Monica went to be with the Lord on 24th December, aged 90, after having taken ill the previous evening. Having been married for 68 years, Cliff and Monica were virtually inseparable, combining their family life with long years working side by side in ministry.
• Cliff and Monica served together in pastoral ministry for many years in the East End of London, and later went on to found many significant ministries. These include the Newham Community Renewal Programme, Trinity Centre East Ham, The Centre for Contemporary Ministry, Family Matters Institute, the Movement for Justice and Reconciliation and Issachar Ministries.
• After establishing Prophetic Word Ministries and the magazine Prophecy Today in the mid-1980s, Monica wrote a full-page report in every issue of the printed magazine from its inception, under the heading ‘The World Church Scene’. Another prominent role was her leadership of the British Church Growth Association over the course of 25 years, while she also served as President of the European Church Growth Association.
• Monica co-authored several books with her husband, including the pioneering ‘Living in Babylon’ and the accompanying handbook ‘Living Victoriously in Babylon’. She also wrote several books of her own, such as ‘Rich Christians, Poor Christians’ (1989) and the recent publication, ‘Reaching Out – A fresh look at Need Oriented Evangelism’.
• Thoroughly practical, utterly indefatigable – even into her nineties, Monica was always full of the joy of the Lord and sought to serve Him faithfully and to the very best of her ability – which she did to the very end; notably, she collapsed at her computer, doing Kingdom work. Whilst she has gone on to glory, her sudden loss to Clifford and his family is immeasurable and will be keenly felt by all who knew her.

Israel – Hamas War

• Fresh perspective on Gaza hospital dilemma. As western media unanimously lambasts Israel for invading a Gazan hospital and putting hundreds of patients at risk, Melanie Phillips has outlined some important points which the media has conveniently ignored. Phillips claims that at the Kamal Adwan hospital “the IDF arrested no fewer than 240 terrorists, 15 of whom had participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel. Inside the hospital, they found weapons including grenades, guns, and military equipment. The IDF killed 19 terrorists there; 700 civilians were evacuated and none was killed. Some of the terror operatives, said the IDF, posed as medical staff and patients. Some tried to leave on stretchers and in ambulances .... The IDF also said that before the raid, 350 patients as well as caregivers and medical personnel were evacuated to other hospitals. The Israelis delivered thousands of litres of fuel, food, and medical supplies for the essential functioning of the hospital.” Read also here.
• Evidence hospital used as Hamas command and control centre. Phillips wrote that in an interview recorded a year ago, a senior member of Hamas revealed that Kamal Adwan hospital had been turned into a military facility under Hamas’s control and that at one point it had even housed a kidnapped Israeli soldier. The Palestinian Authority has also admitted that Hamas turns hospitals into military interrogation facilities, while even Hamas has said the same, acknowledging that Kamal Adwan hospital is a Hamas terrorist hub. The hospital’s director, Dr Hussam abu Safiya, had described the Hamas Oct 7th attacks on Israel as an act of God and he was known to have had meetings with top Hamas officials. Phillips concludes by reiterating that using a hospital for military purposes is a war crime, yet on all these matter, the media and the WHO remain silent.

Society and Politics

• Dawkins quits atheism foundation for backing trans ‘religion’. Richard Dawkins has resigned from the board of the US-based atheism foundation Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) after it censored an article supporting the belief that gender is biological. Prof Dawkins accused the group of caving to the “hysterical squeals” of cancel culture – two other scientists who resigned said the foundation was imposing an ideology with the “dogma, blasphemy, and heretics” of a religion. Some years ago, the FFRF engaged in a campaign to remove Christianity from Christmas celebrations in American state schools.
• Jordan Peterson – ‘a new kind of Christian’? In an interview with Michael Gove, Editor of The Spectator, influential Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson said he was a Christian “in the deepest sense.” But he said he wasn’t “a typical Christian because I’m striving for understanding above all.” Ultimately, he classed himself as “a new kind of Christian.” He said he goes to church regularly with his wife, who has “become a very committed Catholic”, and that he had “watched what her conversion has done for her and it’s been nothing but good.” Peterson went on to say, “The fact that the Catholic Church has managed to sustain Christianity for 2,000 years is nothing short of miraculous. I would say the same thing about the Protestants who brought literacy to the entire world and the Orthodox whose tradition-based worship has proved remarkably resistant to the idiot postmodernists.”
• Aliens gave Jesus his power to perform miracles, claims Geller! Controversial illusionist Uri Geller says he has been carrying a ‘secret’ for the past 70 years. He claims that when he was playing outside at the age of six, a beam from an extraterrestrial reached out to him, and zapped his forehead with force, imparting paranormal abilities to him. More controversially still, he believes Jesus too could have received his unique powers of performing miracles from aliens. Although he’s Jewish he says he is fully convinced by accounts of the miracles Jesus performed. Geller even claims to have turned a bottle of Mateus rosé into red wine in front of a group of Greek Orthodox clergymen. Sceptics have repeatedly questioned Geller’s paranormal abilities over the decades.

Syria

• Muslims threaten to seize Christian lands. It has been claimed that after the fall of the Assad regime, Muslims returned to the town of Maaloula from which they had been expelled due to previous attacks on Christians, and made attempts to seize the agricultural lands of Christian families. Some Christians were forced to leave their homes and the town on the threat of being killed. Two houses were reputedly broken into and robbed. Other provocations included the firing of a gun near a priest while he was distributing Christmas gifts to children, and Christians being spat upon.

Christmas

• Bear Grylls calls Jesus 'a refugee' and Mary 'a Palestinian'. Explorer and committed Christian Bear Grylls has been labelled 'embarrassing' after saying that Mary was a Palestinian refugee in a Christmas message to his followers. The Campaign Against Antisemitism responded by noting; “Maryam (Mary) was a Jewish woman from Judea, under Roman rule … calling her a “Palestinian refugee” not only imposes modern terminology on ancient history, but completely eradicates her Jewish identity … The region wasn’t called "Palestine" until 100 years later ….”. Grylls subsequently corrected his mistake, saying Mary was “clearly Jewish”. Read also here.
• Attempts to expunge the Jewishness of Jesus and Mary. The incident closely follows the pre-release of Netflix’s upcoming movie, Mary, which was attacked on social media because the title character and her husband Joseph are played by Israeli actors. It also follows Pope Francis attending a seasonal nativity scene that featured a baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh, the scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol. "How dare they have a Jewish woman play a Jewish woman? Whatever next? There's an attempt to expunge the Jewishness of Jesus and that has led to anti-Semitism”, noted actress Noa Cohen, who plays Mary in the Netflix drama. Read also here.
• Meanwhile, The Guardian has controversially claimed that had it not been for a devastating pandemic that swept through the Roman empire in the third century AD, the birth of Jesus would probably have been forgotten.

World Events

• Christmas slaughter in Nigerian churches. Three days before Christmas, on December 22, suspected Fulani Islamic terrorists in Nigeria’s Plateau state ambushed and murdered 14 Christians, including a pregnant woman and her 1-year-old daughter, shortly after a carol service at an evangelical Church. On Christmas Day itself, Islamic militants slaughtered 33 people during murderous raids in a cluster of five predominantly Christian villages in Benue state. Christmas attacks on Christians are notorious – last year at least 160 people were killed in such attacks in Plateau State alone. As in previous years, this year’s slaughters have been almost completely ignored by the international media.
• Further curtailing of women’s rights in Afghanistan. In the latest warped crackdown on women in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s supreme leader has banned windows so that “women can’t be seen” inside their homes and other residential buildings. New buildings have to be constructed without any windows. Just a few weeks ago, the Taliban banned women attending nursing and midwife courses. The country was already one of the worst in the world for deaths in childbirth, with one woman dying every two hours. Meanwhile, education for women has become virtually non-existent, with the terror group banning school for girls beyond Year Six and prohibiting women from studying at universities.

Archaeology

• Ruins of ancient palace found at important biblical site. Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a 2,800-year-old palace at a site which Professor Israel Finkelstein of Haifa University believes 'may be the biblical Mahanaim'. Mahanaim is mentioned 13 times in the Old Testament, and is the place where Jacob grappled with God from sundown to dawn (Gen 32:22-32). Although the palace has not yet been fully excavated, the team believes it was a rectangular-shaped residence built on a platform by Jeroboam II, the 13th king of Israel (2 Kings 14:23–29). The ruins are thought to be from the Kingdom of Israel, aligning with scripture which suggests ancient Israelites once controlled the region. Read also.

Upcoming Events

• The Bowler Hat Farmer. There is an ongoing assault on our farmers, farms and food supply. Mark Byford is a farmer who has been speaking out in a very public way. His YouTube channel has over 11,000 subscribers. Mark is what might be termed a 'secular prophet'; you are warmly invited to connect with this meeting and hear directly from Mark on Monday, 6 January at 7.30pm.
• Live Not By Lies. A redminder of the group/parallel read of Rod Dreher's excellent book Live Not By Lies. It is planned to have an initial online meeting on Thursday, 9 January at 7.30pm. To attend either this or the Mark Byford event, pls contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. well in advance of either meeting.