Status in the New Testament Church

Drama in the snow.

One of the most dramatic incidents in my life happened soon after Christmas high up in the Swiss Alps. My wife and I were walking through the little Alpine village of Adelboden to watch the Men's Downhill of the World Cup.

We are both poor skiers, but we were not there for the skiing. We were speakers at a conference at a local hotel and we had the afternoon free. On the way there I had a growing awareness of the presence of God: it was not just a spiritual response to the grandeur of the scenery.

Expectation

So, it was with a heightened sense of expectancy that we arrived at the foot of the slope and joined the crowd watching some of the world's most skilful young men risking life and limb to hurl themselves down the mountainside, trying to reduce record-breaking times by mere fractions of a second. We cheered the Swiss boys who were popular with the local crowd (there being no British competitors!)

I was sure that God had something to say to me so I carefully watched every competitor racing down the mountain but nothing of significance spoke to me.

Eventually it was all over. The presentations were made; the TV camera crews closed the eyes of the world and the crowd began to disperse. Several thousand people began to walk back into the village. I had a sense of disappointment and found myself silently saying, "Lord, have I missed something? Forgive me if I’ve not been attentive."

I had a growing awareness of the presence of God: it was not just a spiritual response to the grandeur of the scenery. I was sure God had something to say to me.

The footpath back into the village was narrow and winding. It was slow going with the large crowd threading its way along the snow-packed icy track which in some places was only four or five feet wide. At one point the pathway turned a sharp bend hugging the mountain face on one side, and on the other side there was a low wooden guard-rail protecting a steep snow-covered slope running down towards the edge of the ledge with a sheer drop onto rocks below.

A Near Tragedy

We had hardly turned the corner when the air was suddenly rent with a piercing scream of a child just behind me. She had evidently missed her footing coming around the bend on the outside of the crowd, slipped under the guard-rail and was now sliding helplessly down the steep slope towards the edge.

I swung round, and together with many others, stood frozen to the spot powerlessly watching the small figure of a three or four-year-old child sliding down the mountainside on her stomach, feet first, with arms outstretched screaming with the full power of her lungs and her eyes looking imploringly upwards. I doubt whether I will ever forget the look of helpless terror in that child's eyes as her body gathered speed on its way down towards almost certain death.

Before I could even take in the full horror of the situation another dramatic event occurred that was to leave an indelible picture in my mind. Within seconds, as the first screams from the child were echoing from mountains across the valley, a man hurled himself through the crowd, leapt the guard-rail and ran down the slope with such incredible speed that he rapidly began to overtake the child still screaming at the top of her voice.

It was little short of a miracle that he managed to keep his balance on the acute slope - actually running down the mountainside! A few more strides and he reached the child, sweeping her up into his arms, and then was lost from sight for a few moments in a flurry of snow as he stopped himself just yards short of the edge of the slope. He stood there for what seemed a long time with the child’s arms flung round his neck clinging tightly and sobbing loudly.

In that little drama of human love, we witnessed a tiny glimpse of God's great saving purposes for his children.

An Amazing Rescue

The man, later identified as the child's father, steadied himself in preparation for the dangerous climb back up the snow-covered slope. The climb seemed to take ages as he dug into the deep snow, testing each foothold before taking a step, ensuring that it was safe to take him with the additional weight of the child in his arms. Eventually he reached the guard-rail where there were plenty of willing hands stretched out to help him onto the pathway and to lift the little girl over the rail into the comfort of her mother's arms.

As I watched the father standing there so close to the sheer drop onto the rocks below and as I watched him on his slow ascent to safety I very clearly heard God say to me,

This is what I brought you here to see. You saw how that child was sliding towards certain death. You saw how her eyes were looking up to her father and you heard how she cried for help. You saw how her father responded immediately, not hesitating to assess the danger to himself, but flung himself down the mountainside to rescue his child. That is how I love my children.

A Message of Love

"Lord," I responded, "That is wonderful! Your love is just amazing!"

Immediately, I felt a sense of rebuke as though God was saying to me,

Why do you say that? Do you think that my love is less than that of a human father? Did I not create him? Did I not make him capable of such a love for his child? Am I less than my own creation? I am God. There is no other! I created the universe and I created human beings in my own image. My love is at least as great as human love and a million times more and a million times more.

It was then that I heard the words that were to have a long-term impact on my life. I very clearly heard the Lord say, "Tell my people I love them. Tell my people I love them." From somewhere in the back of my mind there came the words of a song:

Tell my people I love them,

Tell my people I care.

When they feel far away from me,

Tell my people I’m there.

We walked along the path back into the village, silently re-living the drama of the last few minutes, each of us conscious of the presence of the Living God, ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’. In that little drama of human love, we had both witnessed a tiny glimpse of God's great saving purposes for his children.

The fresh mountain air, the winding path, the breath-taking view across the valley, all seemed to take on a new significance of the God of Creation revealing his everlasting love for the people whom he had created in his image. I think we both felt a little bit like Moses standing on another mountain when he took off his shoes feeling that the very ground on which he stood was holy with the presence of Almighty God.

Only one man actually risked his life and ran down the mountainside to save the child - her father!

The experience on the mountainside transformed the evening message especially as we sang:

Mine is an unchanging love

Higher than the heights above

Deeper than the depths beneath

Re-Living the Drama

There have been many times during a sleepless night when I have re-lived that drama on the mountainside and asked myself the question, ‘If that had been my child would I have jumped the guard-rail and run down to save her?’ I would like to think that the answer is, ‘Yes I would!’ But I have never been in that position so I can't be absolutely certain.

The one certain thing I do know is that I made no attempt to go and save someone else's child. I don’t find that a very comfortable thought. There were scores of other men near enough to try to save the child, but only one man actually risked his life and ran down the mountainside to save the child - her father!

This powerful illustration of a father's love has given me so much more understanding of the love of God our Father; who so loved the world that he sent his only Son to teach us to know God as our Father. It’s his birthday we’re celebrating right now. Make sure you invite him to the birthday party!!!

Previously published in: Hill, C, 2010. Unbreakable Love. CCM, Bedford, pp18-22.

Why abortion matters.

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’" (Matthew 19:14) 

Today is a sombre day, marking 50 years since the Abortion Act was passed, since which some 8.7 million children have lost their lives – around one fifth of all UK pregnancies.¹ These silent millions, more than all the Jewish lives taken in the Holocaust, are being mourned and remembered this week.

On a recent trip to Banaias (Caesarea Philippi, where Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah) in northern Israel, a huge cave at the foot of Mt Hermon that was a pagan worship centre at the time of Jesus, I was reminded vividly of how child sacrifice formed a central part of ancient idol worship. Infants would be thrown – alive – into the cave known locally as ‘the gates of hell’, to appease the gods. Indeed, child sacrifice has always played a part in satanic rituals.

Today, the black plastic bag full of babies that is taken out of the back door of NHS hospitals after a day’s abortions and thrown into the incinerator is our modern equivalent of the Temple of Pan at Caesarea Philippi where babies were thrown into the fire.

Infant sacrifice is just as prevalent today as it was in Jesus’ time. The very same demonic spirits are powerfully active today in our ‘modern’, ‘civilised’ society. They may cloak themselves in medical garb, or encouraging words like ‘choice’, ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’, but their insatiable lust for the blood of the young continues unabated, just as it has throughout history.

The cave at Banaias. All rights reserved.

For Christians who recognise that our position on such issues must be built upon the sure foundation of God’s word, not on the shifting sands of human opinion, the last 50 years has not represented ‘progress’, but the tragic re-ascent of satanic hedonism - albeit in a more clinical garb, but no less barbaric in God’s eyes, and giving a strong demonic foothold in our society to spirits of death and destruction.

The Spiritual Significance of Abortion

For 50 years the battle has continued to rage over this divisive topic – and perhaps more fiercely now than ever before. Individuals such as disabled peer Lord Shinkwin² and pro-life activist Aisling Hubert³ continue their fights for legal and cultural change. Today, pro-life group Abort67 (in conjunction with Christian Concern) is launching its ‘Moving Truth’ truck in central London, a mobile display bringing graphic images of abortion back into the public eye.

However, these brave Christians are standing as Davids against a Goliath opposition of abortion giants like BPAS and Marie Stopes, along with the British Medical Association and RCOG, which are together putting their weight behind abortion’s full decriminalisation.

Make no mistake; the decriminalisation of abortion is but the next stage in a much larger agenda, paving the way for the total legalisation of abortion, up to full term, for any reason. While recent statistics show clearly that there is no appetite for this among the general public⁴ – this is not stopping change for the worse being imposed from the top down, from powerful lobbies within the Government, key institutions and the media.

Just this week, the BBC has been criticised for airing a supposedly neutral documentary on abortion that was ‘brazen’ in its pro-abortion stance.⁵ It is one example of many - the majority of mainstream media outlets subscribe to the same liberal position, meaning that pro-life arguments are casually side-lined, talked down and misrepresented on a daily basis.

The truth is also being suppressed on the streets, where pro-life campaigns outside of abortion clinics are being ruled ‘intimidating’ and ‘harassing’ by local councils.⁶ Meanwhile, just over the sea, enormous pressure is being put on Northern Ireland to change its long-standing anti-abortion laws. And our Government insists on exporting abortion overseas to less wealthy countries, using international development aid as a vehicle.⁷

For concerned Christians, therefore, at this 50-year milestone there is much work to be done.

The last 50 years has not represented 'progress', but the tragic re-ascent of satanic hedonism, giving a strong demonic foothold in our society to spirits of death and destruction.

The Terrible Reality

Nobody is disputing that abortion is an extremely difficult and sensitive topic. But for biblical Christians, the God-given right of every child to live is indisputable.

The importance of an unborn child's life to God is shown explicitly in Exodus 21:22-23: "If men struggle and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely...if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life." Outside of confession, and repentance towards God and forgiveness in Jesus, blood guilt lies on all who have carelessly shed the blood of the unborn.

So, it is unsurprising that whilst hard-nosed cries for abortion-on-demand are foisted on an unthinking public, hundreds of thousands of women exist every day under the weight of overwhelming guilt and shame, having aborted a human life because they felt they had ‘no other choice’.

The Guardian boasts that 1 in 3 women will have an abortion at some time in their lives.⁸ The effect this has on women cannot be underestimated. But under the weight of such a burden, people have a choice: they can either harden their hearts towards God, finding ways to rationalise and excuse their actions, or they can come, broken-hearted and mourning, into the arms of a God who will grieve with them, heal them, bring good from their suffering and ultimately wipe away their tears.

The only people who can fully understand the spiritual and moral significance of abortion - and therefore those who God will perhaps hold most responsible for taking action - are Christians.

What You Can Do

The only people who can fully understand the spiritual and moral significance of abortion – and therefore those who God will perhaps hold most responsible for taking action - are Christians. And yet since 1967, the Church has remained largely silent on this issue.

Most believers remain tragically unaware of the importance of taking a stand for life! – morally and spiritually, before God and on behalf of the nation, but also on behalf of voiceless and defenceless unborn infants. The Church needs to be educated, as well as the public!

There are plenty of ways in which we can all do our bit.

1. Read up!

Help bring abortion into the light by making yourself and others aware of what it involves and its implications. As a start, we recommend material from the following:

• Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC): click here.
  
• The Christian Institute: click here and here.
  
• Christian Concern: click here. 
  
• Abort67: click here. N.B. This website contains graphic images which many people will find very difficult to view. However, the intention of Abort67 is not to offend needlessly, but simply to expose the reality of abortion, which is intrinsically offensive – because abortion ‘protests itself’.
  
• ‘Why Pro-Life? Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers’ by Randy Alcorn (2004, repr. 2012, Hendrickson).
  

2. Take action!

Take a stand in the community and outside abortion centres:

• 40 Days for Life: a vigil of prayer, fasting and peaceful activism to spread awareness about the impacts of abortion in local communities.
  
• Helpers UK (Catholic): click here.
  
• March for Life.
  

Get involved in campaigning, education and public awareness:

• Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC): click here (England and Wales) and here (Scotland).
  
• Abort67: click here.
  
• Right to Life: click here.
  
• Alliance of Pro-Life Students: click here.
• Northern Ireland: Precious Life, the Life Institute, Youth Defence 

Leave an online tribute to the lost unborn with Voice for Justice.

3. Support financially and in prayer.

Most of the above groups welcome prayer and financial support. You can also give towards the work of Christian groups providing post-abortion counselling and healing, as well as alternative advice and support for pregnant women:

• Open: CARE's new initative to resource churches to support women through unwanted pregnancies and post-abortion/post-miscarriage concerns. Click here.
• Rachel’s Vineyard (healing retreats): click here.
  
• Revive Community (online and over the phone. Also provides training for those wanting to help friends or loved ones): click here.
  
• The Good Counsel Network (Catholic) (medical, practical and moral support during pregnancy): click here.
  
• Life Charity (support services for pregnant women, also campaigning and education): click here.
• Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH): click here.
• The Choices Community: a new community being launched by Dr Mark Houghton, in conjunction with his new book 'Pregnancy and Abortion: Your Choice' (2017, Malcolm Down).

References

1 Abortion: facts and figures. The Guardian, 9 August 2006. 

2 Lord Shinkwin has headed up a campaign for better legal protection for disabled babies, who are much more likely to be aborted, and can currently be aborted up to full term.

3 Aisling’s attempt to prosecute two doctors for illegally offering abortion on the grounds of gender made national headlines. Her case was overturned by the CPS as ‘not in the public interest’, but, she is now pursuing this to the European Court of Human Rights.

4 If anything, there is support for a reduction of the current limit of 24 weeks. See Poll: most Britons want abortion limit reduced to 20 weeks. Catholic Herald, 22 May 2017. 

5 See this report from the Christian Institute.

6 Ealing Council’s vote to take action against pro-life group The Good Counsel Network could set a precedent. See here.

7 E.g. UK to spend over a BILLION pounds of aid money on family planning and overseas abortion. SPUC, 11 July 2017.

8 See note 1.

Olave Snelling and Pippa Smith discuss pornography and the need to protect our children.

In the late 1980s, while filming at a school in Coventry for a series of ITV programmes on ethics and morality in the nation's life with Gerald Priestland, former Religious Affairs Correspondent for the BBC, an extraordinary and alarming finding was made.

In this deprived area of high-rise flats some distance from the city, request was made to film in the school playground, and later to talk to mothers and activists who were concerned to provide after-school activities for the children who otherwise had nothing. Filming completed, we talked to the headmistress, explaining to her that we had noticed a particular absence of the kind of 'playing' normally associated with large numbers of children in school playgrounds.

“I am not surprised,” said the headmistress, “My children do not know how to play.” She went on to explain that, in the large majority of households in the area, fathers were out of work. This was at a time when thousands lost their jobs because the machine tool industry (for which Coventry was famous) had hit the buffers, as had many other commercial and industrial enterprises. There was nothing for any of them, or their wives, to do. There was not even enough money to catch a bus into the city to do a little shopping.

Instead, they sat indoors and watched TV - but mainly explicit pornography, from early morning until late at night. Children watched this material before they went to school and would watch more when they came home. They were so de-sensitised to anything normal that they had no idea how to play as normal children would. That was in the 80s. Imagine what it is like now.

Children who had been exposed to explicit pornography were so de-sensitised to anything normal that they had no idea how to play as normal children would.

The Smartphone Generation – and its Consequences

Today, the situation is far worsened by the ubiquitous presence of technology. Smartphones, tablets and computers make even the youngest of children incredibly vulnerable to explicit and harmful material in circulation online – this is no longer an issue exclusive to television and ‘offline’ sources like DVDs and videos.

• 81% of 13-18 year olds have smartphones.¹ Smartphone ownership is now routine for children as young as nine.²
  
• At least 37% of 3-4 year olds go online; 28% of 3-4 year olds have their own tablet.³
  
• Within the 16-24 age group, 99% claim to use social media and say it accounts for 18% of all the time they spend using media and communications. On average, 16-24s spent 2 hours 26 minutes per day using social media in 2016; 61% use their smartphones to access it.⁴

Meanwhile, parents are trailing behind:

• 23% of parents say they have trouble controlling their children’s screen use.⁵
  
• 83% of parents have never received information about sexting (the sending of sexually explicit images of oneself via text or over the internet) and 84% of parents have never looked for it. 50% of parents want to learn more.⁶
  
• 42% have spoken to their children about sexting at least once, but 19% do not intend ever to have a conversation about it.⁷

Fighting to Block the Material

The effect of violent, horrific video material and pornography on children (let alone adults) is well-known, but little-recognised officially. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. It is highly addictive. It is utterly destructive. Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry and the exploitation of children and many adults caught up in the making of this material is a worldwide problem.

There are a number of heroes and heroines involved in trying to get this atrocious material blocked, not least Baroness Howe, CBE, who, after many years of trying, is seeing the Digital Economy Bill making its way through Parliament.

The effect of horrific video material and pornography on children (let alone adults) is well-known, but little-recognised officially.

This Bill would introduce Age Verification legislation, that would require all commercial providers of online pornography to have age verification controls in place to stop under-18s from accessing the material.

Where websites refuse to comply, the Age Verification Regulator (the British Board of Film Classification, the BBFC) would notify them and could, if required, disrupt them by cutting off their ancillary services. In the case of persistent infringement, these sites could actually be blocked in the UK. The Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, has declared the Government's interest to carry through legislation to protect under-18s and to make age verification compulsory for sources of this material in the UK.

But there are still problems.

Digital Economy Bill: Age Verification

Age verification is not a perfect, catch-all solution for the pornography crisis. If introduced as a legal requirement, it would only cover the 50 largest commercial porn websites operating in the UK, which the BBFC says is proportionate, but which is not exhaustive. It may also only cover the four major internet service providers (ISPs), leaving many other smaller ones left out.

This also leaves a lot of other media platforms (e.g. social media) unregulated, providing ready access to 18+ content. The majority of social media sites set a lower age limit of 13 for use of their sites, but 75% of all 10-12 year olds in the UK are on them anyway.

Internet service provider Sky has questioned the effectiveness of age verification checks and installed its own alternative solution: a Broadband Shield, which filters out harmful content automatically and is turned on for their internet customers by default (Sky is the only major internet service provider to do this). 62% of Sky internet users now benefit from its protection, compared to a much lower take-up of 4-10% when the default was set to 'off’.

Attempt to Hijack the Bill

The House of Lords.

Meanwhile, as reported last week by Prophecy Today UK, the Government is planning to table an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to further water down its suggested protections. Bowing to pressure from Labour and the Lib Dems, this amendment would make explicit material currently illegal in the UK (i.e. material that is so harmful it is considered beyond age classification) legally accessible to adults – and so theoretically accessible to children (given the weaknesses of age verification as described above).

And so, a Bill intended to protect children and young people from the terrible impacts of pornography could cause untold further harm.

The Digital Economy Bill was meant to protect young people – but it could cause untold further harm.

This is all deeply concerning and comes before the Lords on Monday 20 March. The problem within the House of Lords is that most Labour and Lib Dem Peers are libertarian and outnumber Conservatives.

After the vote, the Bill will return to the Commons, where the amendment must be resisted by MPs.

It cannot be beyond the wit of man to understand that even over-18s are going to be affected by the hideous material these Peers want to liberalise (indeed, the BBFC knows that they would be). It is important to note that sex crimes have risen by 50% in the last 10 years and violent crime is also rising. Women and girls, as well as boys and men, will be more vulnerable.

We desperately need protection at this stage – not further liberalisation.

The Terrible Fruit

There has been a tripling in numbers of children reported to police for indecent images offences in the last three years, to more than 2,000.⁸ According to IWF Research UK, “Girls as young as 7 are being targeted online and posting explicit images of themselves – in some cases the material was secretly recorded on internet calling services and then posted by a third party.”⁹

A generation of children and young people are being betrayed - internet service providers and platforms such as Google and social media must be challenged to be responsible and provide the best and most effective protection.

Online pornography is creating a public health crisis in our young people, whilst children are being driven to mental breakdown and even suicide by harassment on social media. The effect of consumption of pornography and violent material is a time-bomb waiting to go off. Our children are at risk.

Please consider emailing your MP – and/or a member of the House of Lords – today.

Olave Snelling & Pippa Smith
Working Party on the Family
Lords & Commons Family & Child Protection Group

References

1 YouGov’s SMIX Kids Report, February 2014.

2 DfE Research, 2016.

3 Ofcom, 2014.

4 Ofcom: Communications Market, 2016.

5 Action for Children, January 2016.

6 NSPCC Report, 2016.

7 Ibid.

8 1 in 6 reported to police for indecent images are under 18. NSPCC, 1 September 2016.

9 IWF Research UK. See also their 2015 report on this issue.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Has Anyone Seen My Father?’ by Marion Daniel (New Wine Press, 2008)

This is Marion Daniel’s first book and focusses on the important topic of fatherhood and other similar relationships. No-one would disagree that fathers hold a unique place in family life and that a person’s relationship with their father can have far-reaching consequences on their adult life especially in the area of emotional wholeness, so here is a book well worth investing in.

The author’s goal is not to preach or expound psychological principles but to allow God to bring healing and restoration through the truth of his Word. The book is in four parts, with each part ending in a helpful summary plus some prayers that readers can use if they have found that that particular section applies to them.

Gaining Perspective on Our Fathers

Part One explains the pattern of parenting and begins with an interesting outline of fatherhood during different phases of our national history. This is helpful as the age of each reader will determine when they were first in relationship with their father. For instance, older readers will need to know what it was like to be a father around the time of World War 2 and other periods of adversity and scarcity.

In more modern times, the emphasis may not be economic deprivation but rather that society has become more godless and time-consuming. Children today may be better provided for in material terms but starved of time and real love as the father is often absent through excessive work or other activities.

The author’s goal is not to preach or expound psychology but to allow God to heal through his Word.

The author stresses how important it is to realise what factors affected our father’s own upbringing and what traumas in his life made him the person he is. It could be “he was behaving in the only way he knew how given his own upbringing” (p22). Our dads were also children once, with their own unique experience of being parented.

Marion Daniel also makes us aware that our initial impressions of our fathers will inevitably have been childish ones, those of an immature person trying to come to terms with life and the world generally. A more adult reflection in later life is necessary to get a sense of reality and proportion into our thinking.

The Curse of Sin

At times the author is quite hard-hitting regarding the consequences of fathers who don’t know the Lord or walk in his ways. Their children will inevitably suffer in some way from such rejection or wickedness, and the effects can be disastrous.

Using Psalm 109, she states that “there is a very definite curse that comes upon the children of people who act wickedly before God” (p31). This might seem rather dramatic; however, she does continue that the power of any curse that results from the sin of our ancestors can be broken through Jesus.

It is important to realise what factors affected our father’s own upbringing.

Reconciliation and Adoption

Part Two examines Deuteronomy 6 in order to see what fathers should have done for their children in terms of direction and discipline. This is a useful section for Christians who are currently fathers or expecting to be fathers in the near future. Prevention is always better than cure!

Part Three covers the theme of reconciliation. Here the scripture to be drawn upon is the story of the prodigal son, obviously well-known to many but no doubt still able to speak powerfully into many situations. The section ends with three real life testimonies of those who have received God’s healing and restoration in this area.

Part Four is an important section in that it is intended to help those who never knew their father - either because they were adopted, or because their parents were “absent” (p75). It is to be assumed that this would include those who early in life became fatherless through death. We are reminded that God has a special concern for the fatherless and this is explained in terms of being adopted into his family.

One final point in this section is to explain how each local church needs ‘spiritual fathers’, those who can bring encouragement, consolation and direction to those who have missed out on these qualities from their natural fathers.

God has a special concern for the fatherless.

Practical and Useful Insights

Overall this is an important book that will help many people, though some may think that some of the statements made in it are rather simplistic and potentially misleading. For instance, “The emotion of anger is produced whenever a particular goal we have is blocked” (p21). It was commented to me that although anger may be a response to a blocked goal, this is not always the case. Perhaps matters are not always as straightforward as the book suggests, but certainly there are many practical and useful insights which, with God’s help, will produce healing in these areas.

One strong feature of the book is that it provides many scriptures to meditate on and refer back to once the book has been read. It would be well worth having a notebook handy to jot these down and also to note any pages of the book to re-visit at a later occasion.

Has Anyone Seen My Father (96 pages) is available for £5.99 from Sozo Books.

What do we learn from the current investigation into the hidden life of our former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath?

Sins of the Nation

It is interesting first to note our initial reactions, even before police enquiries are complete. Most of us are not at all surprised! We are getting used to exposure after exposure of the sinful hidden lives of those who should be trusted in the nation.

Already the well-known entertainers Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall and Jimmy Saville have been exposed as having dark sides to their lives: whilst having an acceptable public profile they were also involved in sinful acts that should not exist in a righteous nation. The recent conviction of Tom Hayes in the Libor banking fraud illustrates that the sins of our nation extend into other areas as well as child abuse. Now we wait to see if the accusations levelled against a former Prime Minister will reveal further dark secrets.

On the one hand we can be reassured that we still have a legal system that will bring justice relating to serious crimes. Our nation, despite all, may not have slipped beyond recovery. On the other hand we may be witnessing the tip of the iceberg of sin in our nation. Could it be that the Lord God himself is uncovering these sins to show us the danger that our nation is in, before he acts in further judgement?

Layer Upon Layer

During the 1990s, we carried out some research on the New Age Movement for Prophecy Today. In doing so, we discovered deep and demonic darkness taking footholds in the nation. Satan's lies usually start with harmless-looking temptations: after all he is called lucifer, the angel of light. His traps are subtle and what seems like 'fun' or even beneficial in some ways can gradually be a luring of a person into utter darkness and sin. Such sin is then kept in the secret recesses of a person's life – a trap.

That is how even a prominent leader can be drawn into ritual abuse of children and even into satanic rituals. That is how a banker can be tempted to exploit the wealth of the nation for personal gain. That is how any of us can turn from the ways of God to the ways of sin and evil. The thin end of the wedge of sin is very narrow, but the wedge thickens as sin deepens, sometimes imperceptibly to the one caught up in it.

Satanic lies usually start with harmless-looking temptations, but gradually and subtly lure people into utter darkness and sin. Such sin is then kept in the secret recesses of a person's life."

Consider, for example, the way the so-called 'New Age Movement' attracts a person through subtle means. Doorways include the lie that all religions lead to the one god, promises of healing through alternative therapies such as with crystals and counterfeit meditation, and a lie that "we are all gods" with no such thing as sin. Step by step, one can then be trapped, with the potential of believing ever deepening lies of satan.

A Tangled Web

When we carried out our research on the New Age Movement, one of the things we did was to draw a diagram linking together various organisations and activities. If we found something in common, such as a particular group of people who belonged to two seemingly separate organisations, we would draw a line to link the organisations together. By studying these links one could understand how a person involved in one activity would meet others belonging to another, thus enabling a person in one area of interest to move to another, and move deeper and deeper into areas of deception. On this basis we were also able to warn others of the traps that should be avoided.

In our research on the New Age Movement, we often found hidden links between seemingly unrelated organisations, groups and activities. We traced connections between apparently useful, innocuous activities and others of great concern."

This process of tracking potential links often showed up connections between seemingly useful, innocuous activities and others of great concern. A person, for example, could start with an interest in ecology, or some modern evolutionary science, or alternative medicine, and wander into other areas through personal contact with others or through widely circulated written material. A person could experiment with something relatively harmless and move on to other things, including false religions and even witchcraft and satanism. Of course this is not inevitable - but the potential is there.

The 'spirit of the age' is one of relativism and experimentation. Is it any wonder that some people end up in the deepest darkness when their guard is down and when they are personally vulnerable, and mix in circles that can mislead them?

Satan's Cleverest Trick?

One of Satan's cleverest tricks is to blind the eyes of people to his very existence. Then he can get away with almost anything, degree by degree. James had the weakness of men in mind and also the schemes of satan when he wrote:

...each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

Our Response

Whilst those being seduced may be blinded by satan to the consequences of their sins, even thinking the sins to be pleasurable, those who set up opposition enter an unrelenting spiritual battle. Those who sin may go into the dark depths quite unaware, whilst others fight a battle, knowing how dark these depths are.

The Lord Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by satan (Matt 4). By contrast he taught us to pray: "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt 6:13). Jesus disarmed satan for those who live by faith, so that the injunction of Paul might also be fulfilled:

...brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. (Phil 4:8)

For this reason, having sent our warnings out in Prophecy Today we have also turned to a positive response to the wickedness of the age in which we live, wickedness found even in our own nation. We will keep on warning but will also promote deeper Bible study and the ministry of prayer. Many may go astray in our nation but we must be stronger in the things of God. With many revelations of wickedness coming to the surface - even accusations concerning a past Prime Minister - repentance across the nation is still possible. Let us pray for the things of darkness to be exposed, as God has started to do. Let us also be strong in the Lord and ready to serve, as we are called to in this age of growing deception.