Why American Jewish attitudes need to change.

The results are in – and everyone is talking about how the mid-term elections have affected the balance of power in Washington.

Amongst Jewish communities in the US and abroad, understandably, questions are being asked about how the results affect Jewish interests: for instance, five Jewish Democrats were elected to senior House of Representatives positions, and the House’s leadership looks likely to remain staunchly pro-Israel, despite the election of some pro-BDS candidates.¹ And so on, and so on.

This is all interesting in its own right, but for those of us who take an avid interest in Israel and the Jewish people, there is a broader dimension that matters more than who is heading up the House Committee on Appropriations: the state of American Jewish political culture in general, and how this intersects with God’s purposes for the Jews, Israel and the whole world.

American Jewish Politics

Despite the obvious commitment of the Trump administration to Israel, American Jews notoriously lean left, with upwards of 70% identifying with the Democratic Party. This outstrips the general US public and starkly contrasts Israeli Jews, historically socialist, but who now lean to the centre and right.

American Jewish liberalism is strongly secular and includes a stereotypical left-wing rejection of Trump. Indeed, a poll caught my eye this week: 72% of American Jewry reportedly blame Trump for October’s awful synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, believed to be the deadliest anti-Semitic atrocity in US history.²

Their logic is much the same as that of Corbyn and much of the left-wing in Britain (see Charles Gardner’s article this week): anti-Semitism is seen as a purely far-right phenomenon; right-wing populism is seen as fanning the flames of the far-right; therefore, right-ring populists like Trump are solely and directly to blame if anti-Semitism is on the increase.

American Jewish liberalism is strongly secular and includes a stereotypical left-wing rejection of Trump.

But, there is an important difference emerging between the situations in Britain and the USA. In Britain, the penny is dropping amongst Jews that the left-wing is not immune to anti-Semitism either. The all-too-plentiful, high-profile scandals within the Labour Party have exposed this, and British Jews are getting the message: 90% now associate Labour with anti-Semitism and 40% are considering leaving the country, fearing for their own safety.³ The Campaign Against Antisemitism poll showed that British Jews now fear the far-left more than the far-right, with its chairman Gideon Falter remarking: “Many British Jews are mentally, if not physically, packing their bags.”⁴

In the US, however, no such comparable scandal has yet erupted on the left, and despite left-wing support for BDS and problems of anti-Semitism at left-wing rallies and on university campuses, American Jewry remains fixed upon the threat posed by the neo-Nazi far-right, though a comparatively tiny number of people. This is not to belittle the far-right’s capacity to wreak terror – as the Pittsburgh massacre shows – but it is to say, along with other commentators recently,⁵ that American Jews need to wake up to the fact that anti-Semitism can be found on both sides of the political spectrum, and that the left-wing isn’t necessarily their natural home.

Indeed, that American Jews embrace liberalism so unconditionally is cause for real concern. They end up blinding themselves to left-wing anti-Israel/anti-Semitic animosity and boosting a Party that has “embraced the identity politics, grievance culture and enraged narcissism that threaten to destroy American society”⁶ – and we might add, has brought the world the Iran Deal and repeated attempts to carve up Israel in the name of a ‘two-state solution’.

In the name of ‘authentic’ Jewish values they are actually embracing “the very antithesis of Judaism”, putting themselves “on course to destroy themselves as a community while aiding the left in the undermining of America”.⁷

This is the domestic picture. But there is another dimension to which all this matters even more: the global.

In Britain, the penny is dropping amongst Jews that the left-wing is not immune to anti-Semitism.

God’s Redemptive Purposes

We live in an extraordinary, unique period of human history: we are the generation chosen by God to witness the miraculous and final restoration of Israel to her historic homeland. In the last 150 years, we have seen wave upon wave of Jewish immigration back to the Land, legally signed over to them in 1948. As we write frequently in Prophecy Today UK, Israel’s journey since has been one of truly divine restoration, protection and blessing, despite enemies all around.

We also make frequent mention in Prophecy Today of how this fits with God’s covenant purposes for the Jewish people and his redemptive purposes for all Creation. While we will not discuss these in depth here, suffice to say that we believe it to be God’s purpose that the majority of the world’s Jews now return to their homeland, and that he is at work in the political and social affairs of the nations to this end.

Last year, we reached the tipping point: now, the majority of the world’s Jews do reside in Eretz Israel, in fulfilment of biblical prophecy.

Meanwhile, the largest group of diaspora Jews remains in the USA, and their political attitudes and voting habits bely a group that is highly secular, ultra-liberal and astonishingly out of touch with both domestic and global realities. Populous and prosperous, it is unsurprising that rates of American Jewish aliyah to Israel remain relatively slow. For this reason, I believe that God’s focus will be particularly on American Jews in the next few years.

Aliyah Rates Too Slow

At the current (relatively stable) rate of some 3,500 American Jews making aliyah per year, it will take well over 1,500 years for most of America’s 5.7 million Jews to transfer to Israel. If they are to be persuaded to uproot from a country that has been so welcoming and supportive for so long, the Lord might need to jolt them out of complacency.

Historically, he has done this in other countries by permitting anti-Semitism to proliferate until the Jewish people start to get the message – as we see at present in Britain. Far from anti-Semitism being a good thing, of course, it is woeful and a deep curse for those countries who fan its flames. However, that doesn’t mean that it does not have a stimulating side-effect on Jews that is ultimately positive, encouraging emigration back to the Land. There is a Christian parallel here: times of persecution are terrible, but they also classically unite, strengthen and grow the Church, furthering God’s purposes.

If our reading is correct, we may see many more events like Pittsburgh over the next years, as well as worsening anti-Semitism on campus, in the media and in US corridors of power.

Cultural Sea-Change Needed

Putting all these jigsaw puzzle pieces together, the emerging picture is very sobering: if our reading of the situation is right, then we are likely to see many more events like Pittsburgh over the next years, as well as worsening anti-Semitism on campus, in the media and in US corridors of power.

We cannot possibly rejoice in this. But we can at least pray that it would stimulate a cultural sea-change amongst American Jewry and a resurgence of conservative, biblical values, which (the statistics bear out) predispose greater support for Israel. This would lay the groundwork for the Lord to work his purposes out amongst this last great Jewish diaspora group, and one day lead them safely home.

References

1 Post-midterms: With Democrats retaking the House, Jewish leaders still see strong Israel support. JNS, 7 November 2018.

2 J Street poll: 72% of US Jews find Trump partly to blame for Pittsburgh shooting. Times of Israel, 7 November 2018.

3 Poll: 40% of British Jews Consider Emigration, 90% Cite Anti-Semitism. Breaking Israel News, 25 September 2018.

4 Ibid.

5 E.g. Jonathan S Tobin at JNS, Abraham H Miller for JNS, and Melanie Phillips.

6 Phillips, M. Jews and Conservatism: an idea whose time has come. 1 November 2018.

7 Ibid.

Simon Pease reviews ‘Kundalini Warning’ by Andrew Strom (2015, Revival School Publications).

Britain is lost unless Bible-believing Christians speak up.

It is not easy being a Bible-believing Christian in Britain or any of the Western nations today. 30 years ago there were prophecies that Christians would soon be facing persecution. These seemed like wild predictions – such things could never happen in nations with centuries of Christian tradition!

Today, every day there is news of Christians losing their jobs because of taking a stand upon biblical principles, or Christians being taken to law charged with so-called ‘hate’ offences because they’ve quoted the Bible or refused to bake a cake with an LGBTQ+ slogan on it.

For British Christians an increasing problem is discerning between ‘fake news’ and the truth. Our national broadcaster, the BBC, once world-famous for trustworthy reporting founded upon biblical principles of truth and integrity, has been taken over by a consortium of secular humanists, including LGBTQ+ activists and Israel-haters. Their influence can be seen in everything from soaps and entertainment programmes to news broadcasting.

The search for truth is becoming increasingly difficult in an age when we are battered on every side with different media reports that are usually more ideological than factual. Where can we find truth and integrity today?

Today, every day there is news of Christians losing their jobs because of taking a stand upon biblical principles.

Battle Between Good and Evil

Of course, there are plenty of warnings in the Bible such as:

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Tim 3:1-5)

We all know people like this and we read about them every day in our newspapers and on the internet. But we also know of people from around the world who responded to the call for help to go and rescue boys trapped underground in a Thailand mountain. They willingly risked their own lives - and one of them actually died - in an effort to save the boys. It is an inspiring story of human bravery and self-sacrifice. Clearly there is something of great worth in our human nature that responds to such needs (as our Managing Editor describes in her article this week).

It is these two sides of our human nature, the good and the bad, that are reflected in the national life of both Britain and the USA at the moment. We are witnessing a conflict between the opposing forces of light and darkness.

Nations Torn Asunder

Both nations are being torn asunder by battles over God’s instituted truths - including gender. In the USA there are numerous legal cases being fought over the rights of transgender people to use public toilets or attempts to ban therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction.

In Britain our Government is considering a similar ban and Prime Minister Theresa May last week pledged support for making transgender processes easier. She either doesn’t understand the nature of the battle or she is deliberately forsaking her professed Christian principles for the sake of alleged political gain.

Both Britain and the USA are being torn asunder by battles over God’s instituted truths.

It is small wonder that the British Government is in disarray, the Cabinet torn apart by resignations and disagreement over the proposed Brexit terms to be offered to the EU. Once biblical standards of truth are abandoned, chaos and confusion inevitably follow: everyone makes up their own rules. This is what is happening, not only in Britain, but in all the Western nations, where their biblical heritages are being deliberately challenged.

The fundamental issue is a clash between human beings and God: do we follow our own human rules or do we accept the word of the Lord?

Rejecting the Nature of God

Paul neatly sums up the issue: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godliness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom 1:18). Paul says that the nature of God has been revealed in Creation and that once we reject the God of Creation we are driven by the destructive powers of darkness. This is why we are beginning a short series of study articles on Creation today, which we hope all our readers find helpful in their search for truth.

The Apostle Paul says that once we stop believing in God we don’t believe nothing, we believe anything! We worship all kinds of images in our idolatry. In Romans 1: 24-31, Paul outlines three stages in the degradation of humanity:

1. Human beings exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship created things rather than the Creator, which leads to engaging in all kinds of sexual impurity.
   
2. The second stage is “exchanging natural relations for unnatural ones” which includes all kinds of homosexual acts.
   
3. The third stage is when God gives human beings over “to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice”
   

I leave our readers to decide which stage we are in but we cannot ignore the fact that Britain and all the Western nations are immersed in an intense spiritual battle for their very souls, which will determine the history of humanity for the next 100 years or more.

Britain and all the Western nations are immersed in an intense spiritual battle for their very souls.

Answer to Prayer

I believe that it was in answer to prayer that God enabled the British people to vote to leave the secular humanist European Union. But the rich and powerful are combining with big businesses in a campaign to try any way they can to force Britain to reverse the decision – thus keeping us under the yoke of Brussels.

There are powerful forces in the media sponsored by big business feeding fake news and lies to the British public in a desperate attempt to keep us shackled to the EU. They say that our economy will collapse, whereas the reverse is more likely to be true! It is the profits and investments of the global conglomerates that may be hit by Brexit, but small businesses will be released from EU rules and regulations that inhibit their growth.
I believe that a time of great prosperity under the blessing of God awaits Britain if we can only shake ourselves free from the European Union.

A Prophetic Voice?

But why do we never hear a prophetic voice from the churches in Britain? Is it because the preachers don’t take the trouble to study what’s going on in the nation, or do they care so little about the word of God that they never apply the Gospel to current events? Why do we not hear the words of Amos thundering from every pulpit in the land, “Let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like a never-ending stream!” (Amos 5:24).

Surely it is time for Christians to wake up and recognise the severity of the great spiritual battle that is raging in the heavenlies and on earth as the forces of darkness seek to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Wake up, Bible-believing Christians! Speak up in the ‘silent’ churches! Come together in small groups to spread these things before the Lord and join the battle for truth before it is too late!

The war in Syria is moving in a very dangerous direction.

With Al Qaeda and associates on one side and Assad on the other, another screw has suddenly turned in this all-out conflict without any rules of behaviour.

It is reported that the chlorine gas dropped upon women and children this week was made in Germany, sold to Iran and used by Assad’s Syrian Government forces backed by Russia.¹ How strange! The rebels had almost been driven out of Douma; Assad was on the verge of victory, why use chemical weapons? Madness! Or is it all fake news? Who can we trust?

What a mess! The Western nations are saying that a red line has been crossed. But how many red lines have been crossed in the past seven years of war in Syria? Are there no limits to the inhumanity and destructive forces that have been let loose in the Middle East?

World War, No Rules?

Today we have reached what is arguably the most dangerous point in world history since the end of World War II, with nations primed with weapons of mass destruction taking sides in a local civil war that could suddenly explode into global destruction.

Neither side can claim to be righteous; both sides have committed terrible atrocities. Whichever side we in the West back, it seems, we are aligning with demonic forces whose adherents have departed from any elements of common humanity in their intensity of hatred and determination to shed human blood.

Today we have reached what is arguably the most dangerous point in world history since the end of World War II.

There are no longer any rules, there is no longer any compassion, no longer any consideration for helpless babies and little children – all are regarded as legitimate targets for unlimited aggression. What has happened to humanity?

Humanity Corrupted

The Bible declares that human beings are created in the image of God. Have we reached a stage in our descent into corruption whereby there is no longer the least hint of the divine recognisable in our humanity? Have we reached the point of absolute degradation?

The Prophet Isaiah foresaw a time when humanity would descend into such depths of utter corruption that God would bring judgment upon all nations.

“Come near,” he said. “Come near, you nations and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! 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. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood” (Isa 34:1-2)

It’s a terrible picture but it is one that we are already seeing little glimpses of on our TV screens and iPads as news from Syria comes in. But what of the future? Where will all this lead?

With unpredictable leaders at the helm of the nations, no-one can answer these questions. One false move or miscalculation could rapidly escalate the situation into worldwide destruction – such is the depth to which humanity has descended.

Is There Any Hope?

Is there any hope for humanity? Certainly, there is! This is the whole point of the stark warnings that God gave to the biblical prophets. The warnings are there for anyone to read if we want to know the truth and understand the answer to the present dilemmas facing humanity.

Have we reached a stage in our descent into corruption whereby there is no longer the least hint of the divine recognisable in our humanity?

Those warnings given in Isaiah 34 are immediately followed by some of the most beautiful words and promises in the Bible, in the next chapter, which refers to the wilderness blossoming, the glory of Lebanon and the splendour of Carmel already showing the glory of the Lord and the splendour of our God.

This is linked with good news to those who recognise the plight of humanity and turn to the Lord God for help – “strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come’” (Isa 35:3-4).

Sin and its Undoing

In the New Testament Paul recognises the plight of humanity that we all experience: we are all sinners. We all do things that we regret. We behave badly and say things and do things in the heat of the moment that we should not. Paul goes to the heart of the matter when he says “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Rom 7:15).

This is the strange thing about our human nature: the godly side can rise to sublime heights of self-sacrifice and self-giving. But the other part of our nature sometimes drives us to do things that we hate. This is because we are either led by the Spirit of God or we are driven by the forces of darkness.

Paul faces this dilemma and concludes that only Jesus is the answer to this internal battle inside each one of us, because only he can set us free from the forces of sin and death. He says:

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:11)

This brings us to the heart of the Gospel, that God in Christ has done something for us that we could not do for ourselves by actually dealing with the corruption of our human nature: as Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (1 Cor 5:17).

How Should We Pray?

So, what should Christians do in the present dilemma? Clearly, we must pray for our leaders, but how should we pray? Should we not also pray for the Syrian and Russian people and their leaders? It takes two parties to make a conflict (or in this case, many more than two!) and we should be praying that God will bring godly wisdom into the councils of human beings.

Only Jesus is the answer to this internal battle inside each one of us, because only he can set us free from the forces of sin and death.

Should we also be praying for God to hasten the day of the coming of Jesus? World events certainly look as though we are drawing closer to the times described in Scripture as leading up to the Parousia. But his coming will bring judgment upon all the nations and all people. Jesus said that before that time “the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world” (Matt 24:14) so that everyone has a chance to hear God’s truth.

It is not his desire that anyone should be lost and all of us have some loved ones who are not yet in the kingdom. We should be careful of praying for God’s judgment to come quickly: it is far better to trust our loving Father whose timing is always perfect, who knows all the circumstances and cares for all his children.

References

1 Behold Israel, Special update on Syria, April 11, 2018. Youtube.

Why are we often so different?

In response to Linda Louis-vanReed’s recent article ‘The War on Trump’, Jock Stein muses on the contrasts between American and British attitudes to life and liberty.

In earlier life I had an American colleague who, domiciled in Scotland, heroically adopted three children from Devon. The oldest had an inherited genetic condition and suffered from depression as an adult. Last year, living on his own in California, he took his own life – but not before seeking help from three hospitals who all refused him admission because he had an insurance card called ‘Obama Care’.

The hospitals all refused to use the Obama Care card because they had been purchased by large hospital conglomerates, who wished to pursue more expensive insurance options.

American Christians have a record second to none in dedicated missionary and humanitarian engagement. But it has always puzzled me why their attitudes to healthcare provision, as well as to other political issues, are often so different from ours in Britain. If it were a matter of Christians thinking differently from others, I would expect and understand that – but my impression is that these attitudes represent the majority of Christians as well as Americans in general.

This article is an attempt to explain why this may be the case; it draws upon conversations with Americans as well as past reading, but I am open to correction.

1 Separation of Church and State

The Declaration of Independence is premised on belief in God. But because the American colonies saw church affiliation as directed by the attitude of the reigning monarch (rather than based on theological principles) they decided to allow for a separation of Church and State, hoping that this would make differences between denominations less problematic. Indeed, America was big enough to allow what missionaries called a ‘principle of comity’, with some States being mainly Presbyterian, others Baptist and so on.

Those who signed the Declaration never intended this separation to rule God out of public life. They just wanted to avoid the ‘establishment’ model being replicated in America, so that Christians (especially Non-conformists) would have a freedom they had not enjoyed in Britain. This has resulted in thousands of denominations freely proliferating.

On the one hand, this has allowed a freedom of theological inquiry which is non-aligned to political identity. On the other hand, it has inevitably led to the emergence of ‘tribal’ political identities, with politicians courting ‘the Christian vote’, just as Britain has had ‘the Non-conformist vote’ and ‘the Catholic vote’.

Those who signed the Declaration of Independence never intended the separation of church from state to rule God out of public life.

Since the Constitution does not actually name God, in the 20^th Century atheists began to argue more strongly not just to keep church out of state business, but to keep God and the Bible out of it too. Abortion and religious education in schools became crunch issues. While much the same kind of situation has now been reached in Britain by a different route, nevertheless here there is not the same stark gap between faith and public life that exists in the USA.

For example, take the polarisation between Christianity and science. In the USA, believing scientists such as Francis Collins (who cracked the human genome) have to tread very carefully around this issue when they write (as Collins does in his latest book The Language of God, which includes his testimony), despite the fact that 70% of US scientists across the full spectrum of disciplines identify as being ‘people of faith’ (Christian or otherwise). In the UK, there has been a far greater historic acceptance of faith and science rubbing along together.

This modern American attitude to separation – keep faith out of public life – seems to have embraced aspects of service also, feeding the arguments (outlined below) that welfare and healthcare are private matters - the responsibilities of individuals and churches, rather than the state.

2 The Formation of American Identity

The century leading up to the First World War did a lot to found American values. It was a Cowboys-and-Indians century in which Americans drove the frontier westward, with a belief (parallel to the spirit of British Empire) that the United States had a destiny to subdue the entire continent in the name of God.

A nation of self-made people was in the process of forming its own identity, especially after the Civil War, which left the country shaken and wounded. During this century, the steel magnate and self-made multi-millionaire Andrew Carnegie wrote a book called The Gospel of Wealth. In it, he argued that economic inequalities then emerging in American society should be tackled by the wealthy upper class, who should put their hard-earned millions to good use, engaging in thoughtful, responsible philanthropy.

A sense of individual responsibility came to characterise white American society and its Christianity.

This sense of individual responsibility came to characterise white American society and its Christianity, while it was black people who began to identify the Gospel communally – i.e. with a people and a race.¹ This contrast between individual and communal aspects of Christianity is expanded later.

Both Britain and the US have struggled to work through their race issues, but in Britain the work of those like ‘the Clapham Sect’ extended far beyond slavery into other social issues, and eventually Christians and non-Christians formed a consensus to support ‘the welfare state’ after the Second World War, which included the provision of social care. The same did not happen in USA.²

3 Individual and Social Provision of Care

The Old Testament teaches that God’s justice and care for the poor does require some social provision, not just individual charity (e.g. Lev 25). Similarly, the New Testament teaches that equity cannot be left simply to the goodwill of individuals (e.g. 2 Cor 8:13-14). This has often been reflected in the teaching of Christian leaders – for example, Calvin’s concern for his neighbour led him to support low interest rates and a city-sponsored job creation programme.

The theological underpinning of this comes from the biblical idea that each individual human being is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26) and is in need of rescue from sin through the coming of Christ and his sacrifice (John 1: 14, 29). But we also see (e.g. in Hebrews 2:5-10) a social or corporate focus – Jesus taking on humankind as a whole and dying, once for all, on the cross.

That is why the early Church Fathers described the incarnation as having both an individual side - the Lord coming to earth as a specific individual (enhypostasia in Greek) – and a corporate side - the Son identifying with humanity by taking on human nature (anhypostasia). And it is why the illustration of the Church as the Body of Christ – one body with many parts – is so powerful.

In other words, both the social and the individual matter when it comes to salvation, and this affects how we see the Gospel impacting society. My impression is that Christians in Europe, perhaps more influenced by Calvin, have taken on both these aspects of our salvation, the corporate aspect which lends itself to socialism, and the individual aspect, favourable to capitalism. This has led (all told) to a centrist economic position incorporating aspects of both in the provision of social welfare, but without the exclusion of charity.

Both the communal and the individual matter when it comes to salvation – and this affects how we see the Gospel impacting society.

In the US, it is the individual emphasis which has largely prevailed, while socialism has often been identified with communism (seen as the great rival of the American way of life, especially since the McCarthy era), and so rejected.³

In Britain the founder of the Labour Party (Keir Hardy) was a Christian; and early Trade Union branches, especially in Wales, were known as ‘chapels’. While of course many Christians held other political views, socialism was respected in Britain and found political expression in a way that did not occur in the States. The US Democratic Party had very different roots.

Final Thought: How Far is Grace ‘Unconditional’?

Healthcare is expensive, and understandably all governments struggle to put a cap on cost in one way or another, especially in ageing societies like Britain and the US. Both countries continue to debate this.

Although the contexts are very different, there is one question about attitudes which both societies face: do you help the poor regardless, or only the ‘deserving’ poor? And – to pick up the story I began with – do people really have to be wealthy enough to afford a certain level of health insurance before they qualify for assistance?

In other words, should the State set ‘conditions’ for the receipt of benefits, and if so, what conditions should it set? This may be directed by cost, but it is also a moral dilemma. Responses on each side of the pond will, at least in part, reflect the cultural differences outlined above.

Christians face this with regard to their own giving: do you help the poor, whether they deserve it or not - whether they belong to your group or not? Or do you limit generosity to ‘those and such as those’? In Roman times, the Emperor Julian used to complain how Christians supported pagan poor as well as their own, even though they would also have known Paul’s priority expressed in Galatians 6:10. And beyond the Church, is ‘charity’ only a private and individual concern, or is taxation and welfare a proper concern of ‘charity’?

In the days of the New Testament, Christians had to work out these issues within a minority group of believers – and in many respects we are now back where they were then. But the laws of Western nations were drawn up when Christians were at least nominally in a majority.⁴ Our social and political witness does, I think, require us to put these questions on a wider canvas, while we still retain the freedom to do so.

References

1 The formation of this ‘evangelical identity’ is well documented (see for example George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, 1980, OUP).

2 A recent interesting book which explores the history of these ideas is by the American writer Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things (2016, Picador).

3 See Bob Goudzwaard, Capitalism and Progress: a Diagnosis of Western Society (1979, Wedge Pub. Foundation).

4 See The Evolution of the West, by Nick Spencer (2016, SPCK), Research Director of Theos.

Truth and consequence.

“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.” – Sir Karl Popper

It is an interesting time to be American. I sit, comfortably composing this article, the afternoon sunlight bouncing off my desk. I sip hot Twinings as the heater in the house where I grew up kicks on. The sounds and smells of my mother’s cooking (she is 90…) fill my senses.

This same sunny afternoon a US Marshall is shot during a standoff in a house about a mile down the road from my home near Ferguson. He is saved by his vest. A productive, long-term employee is sacked because he allegedly said something ‘offensive’. A family debates allowing their child to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. Another church closes its doors.

I sip my tea. Dinner is served.

Realising that America is and always will be intimately connected to the UK, I do my best to keep an eye to the political horizons of each nation. As the quest to move our rational, democratic societies away from God in pursuit of some global, utopian ideal weighs on my mind, I conduct a ‘flash’ overview of the ideological war being waged against the US President.

Recipe for a Coup

President Trump’s stated agenda is to restore to Americans many of our former cultural and societal freedoms and to rebuild the US as a sovereign, national republic. Despite his personal imperfections, his ideas and consequent taking of concerted and effective action to carry out his agenda represents a clear threat to the utopian global narrative that has been gathering momentum over the last 30 years.

Among those who have openly come against President Trump’s agenda are the mainstream media, certain financial entities, holdovers from the Obama administration, and establishment Republicans, many of whom are openly left-leaning. Celebrities and media personalities have openly declared that Trump should be assassinated, to the point that the idea is becoming common parlance.

Realising that America is and always will be intimately connected to the UK, I do my best to keep an eye to the political horizons of each nation.

Since the 2016 election, Trump has been labeled a Nazi, a fascist, a racist/sexist/xenophobe and as mentally incompetent to hold his position. Almost every attempt at staffing the departments under his control has been met with resistance on a ridiculous scale. Let us not forget myriad allegations concerning Russian collusion and election fraud; the Nunes memo, the Democrat memo, the ‘dossier’ (see Author’s Note, below).

From all that I have read and studied, such actions demonstrate the recipe for an internal coup, not just against a President, but against each individual citizen who voted for him - just as attempts to throw off Brexit represent a coup against those who voted Leave.

What is Freedom?

It seems to me that, in large part, there is a great misapprehension of key concepts on both sides.

Both sides declare that the endgame is ‘freedom’. Key to the concept of ‘freedom’ are the concepts of ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’. But the concepts and the words are open for interpretation (much like ‘love’ and ‘good’ and ‘justice’). We hear these words and immediately, libraries of mental pictures, interpretations and personal experiences come to mind. Ask ten people to describe their definition of ‘freedom’, ‘liberty’ or ‘equality’ and you will get ten different answers, each evoking mixtures of learned rhetoric, emotion, anecdotal evidence and fantasy.

Why? Because we are no longer a people trained and/or inclined to think critically or truly examine what we think we know. We are too busy attending to our phones, our possessions, our jobs and the pragmatic realities of this world to stop long enough to think or to seek wisdom. Concepts such as those I have mentioned, perforce, become two-dimensional. ‘Truth’ and our desire for it fades until we barely recognise it anymore.

The ideological war being waged against Trump amounts to an internal coup – not just against him, but against every citizen that voted for him.

To the average citizen, for instance, the concepts of ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’ appear to be closely related. We hear these words used alongside ‘freedom’ quite frequently, often from people we consider possessing more authority on the subject than might we, so we think no more about it.

But the devil is in the details. “Equality of the general rules of law and conduct…is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without destroying liberty,” writes Austrian-British economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek.

“Not only has liberty nothing to do with any sort of equality, but it is even bound to produce inequality in many respects. This is the necessary result and part of the justification of individual liberty: if the result of individual liberty did not demonstrate that some manners of living are more successful than others, much of the case for it would vanish”¹ (emphases added).

This is the classic liberal view: that a society must have certain freedoms in order to flourish, which must be protected by the law. But those freedoms necessarily mean that inequalities will also arise. This is a necessary outcome of people’s diversity and the world’s unpredictability – and makes space for compassion and mercy in relationships. But any top-down attempt to artificially re-balance these inequalities will inevitably lead to tyranny of one sort or another.

The Founding Fathers

The classic liberal view was where the USA started off. To broad stroke a bit, America’s founders (many of whom were of British heritage) believed that each individual was created by God, born in an imperfect state. Yet God gifted us with individual liberty. It is God’s wish that we might seek relationship with him and become reconciled with him for eternity, but liberty in this lifetime, however we choose to use it, is ours.

It was the original intent of the founders to respect and protect that individual liberty and by so doing, honour God. The US Constitution was created to express the ideal that each man (ultimately, each person) could marry, worship as he chose, own property and possessions, exercise his right to defend and protect his family, work at whatever suited him and prosper as much as he was able. The potential success of the individual was protected by general rules of law and conduct created to facilitate a stable, safe and prosperous society.

Classic liberal philosophy has very particular views on the concepts of ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’.

This Constitutional ideal has been the bedrock of our national identity since its acceptance into law. By defining equality according to general rules of law and conduct, the individual remains accountable to society for how he/she exercises that individual liberty. Societal accountability often drives the individual to recognise and pursue relationship with God.

So, for the Constitutional conservative, ‘liberty’ is defined as their God-given individual freedom, of which faith is often an important component. ‘Equality’ is defined as equality under the law of safety, opportunity and socio-economic mobility.

The Postmodern Left

However, the utopian ideals being promoted by the postmodern ‘liberal Left’ are based on a humanistic, often atheistic approach, which has Marxist origins. For them, man creates his own liberty, his own equality, and so must also control it. If that means gaining control of the liberty and equality of others through gradual, often nuanced, ultimately tyrannical means, this is a price worth paying.

For the liberal Left, enforced ‘equality’ is a way to achieve human perfection. It teaches that an individual should be free to best express their own version of ‘liberty’ by letting the state administer their foundational needs, leaving them free to explore, create, express and fulfil their ambitions – so long as the fruits of those endeavours ultimately benefit the state. Individual ‘liberty’ is encouraged if it results in ‘equality’.

But true individual liberty has the capacity to produce very different results – and so is viewed ultimately as an enemy to the cause. Anyone who is industrious, independent and successful, who demonstrates what is possible under America’s current social conditions – achievement, prosperity and fulfilment – contradicts this utopian campaign.

The Battle for Truth

The ultimate battle of Truth vs Untruth inserts itself into our lives every day, in practically every situation – though we may not notice it. Even the definition of ‘Truth’ seems to have changed from ‘that which is inerrant’ to ‘whatever will work best toward achieving an end’.

The utopian ideals being promoted by the postmodern ‘liberal Left’ view true individual liberty as an enemy to the cause.

The idea that Truth no longer really matters and that its interpretation is up for grabs, is particularly insidious. It has been introduced through lots of culturally acceptable, benign-sounding rhetoric (e.g. ‘live your truth’), and perpetuated on every frontier of media, business, and often, in the Church. Talk about ‘fake news’….

As for the war on Trump, major revelations are pending which may totally up-end the liberal Left’s agenda for the United States and vindicate embattled President Donald J Trump. It is also possible that the web of deceit will continue to grow stronger and God will allow our nation to be broken. Perhaps much of his decision will depend upon how we, his people, respond to this crisis. Where do we stand on Truth?

Tea, anyone?

References

1 Hayek, F, 1960. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p85.

Author’s Note: For those interested in following up the issues raised in this article, I recommend the following shortlist of sound resources:

• For the circumstances perpetuating the Nunes memo: Nunez Memo and Russian Collusion: The Dan Bongino Show (Ep. 628)
• For a list of attempts made against the Trump presidency: From Conspiracy Theories to Conspiracies
• For an overview of his achievements in spite of the ‘resistance’: The Big List of President Trump’s Triumphs

Knowledge and wisdom in an age of deception and unreality.

The Roman Governor of Jerusalem’s iconic question, “What is truth?” has probably never been more apt than it is today in the 21^st Century AD. Whether Pilate was being sarcastic or he was genuinely seeking for truth has been debated by scholars for 2,000 years. In light of the spat between the leaders of Britain and the USA over the tweeting of video clips, it would be good if all those involved paused to ponder his question.

We live in an age when technology has delivered the tools to create deception, whether by airbrushing photos or by deliberately producing deceptive videos, distorting the truth and creating fake news.

It is certainly unfortunate that the President of the United States should have retweeted video clips that had come from a doubtful source. It shows a lack of wisdom and a willingness to use material from a campaigning group to vilify millions of people who belong to a particular religion.

But it is equally foolish for the British Prime Minister to use the same medium of communication to point out the unreliability of the clips. Surely the more sensible approach would have been to make a quiet phone call. At least that way would have maintained personal relationships and not caused a rift between two friendly nations.

Knowledge AND Wisdom

The trouble with our generation is that we have enormous knowledge but we lack the wisdom in how to use it. There is good reason why Paul, writing to the church in Corinth where there was a lot of squabbling and disunity, referred to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The first two of these he linked together as ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ (1 Cor 12:8).

Celestial truth cannot be understood by the normal processes of human reason – it requires divine revelation.

There is surely a very good reason for linking these two. We can acquire an enormous fund of knowledge in our media-saturated world, where we have the whole internet at our disposal. But without the wisdom of how to use this knowledge, we can create chaos and confusion rather than promote enlightenment.

Jesus is the Light of Truth

As we enter the season of Advent it would be good to ponder on the prologue of John’s Gospel where he focuses upon the theme of light and darkness - also the theme of Hanukkah and Diwali at this time of the year. The unique feature of Advent, according to John’s teaching, is that although the light of truth came into the world at the birth of Jesus, the world did not recognise him.

John says that through the coming of Jesus, God actually came and “made his dwelling among us” – literally – “he pitched his tent among us”, as foretold by the Prophet Zechariah (2:10). But our human reason cannot cope with this. Despite all the accumulated knowledge of centuries of human development, this celestial truth cannot be understood by the normal processes of the human brain. This kind of knowledge requires wisdom that is actually a spiritual gift which can only be received through divine revelation.

God actually has to do something to our human nature to enable us to receive this wisdom, which enables us to perceive truth that goes way beyond the realm of human reason. This is what Jesus had to explain to Rabbi Nicodemus who was a devout scholar, a highly educated man and a senior academic. But his whole mindset was limited to learning on the level of human reason. Only a spiritual revelation would enable him to perceive ‘Kingdom truth’.

It was like opening the curtains in a darkened room, bringing a flood of light that shows all the things that were in the room but previously hidden by the darkness – things that you could stumble over in the dark.

The trouble with our generation is that we have enormous knowledge but we lack the wisdom in how to use it.

Deceit is Easy

In our world today, millions of people are going about stumbling over fake news, half-truths and blatant lies. They are easily deceived because they don’t know the truth that sets them free from all the duplicity, deviousness and unscrupulous machinations of the crooked generation in which we live. They are trying to see in the dark; trying to discern falsehood without having ever known truth.

It should be a salutary wake-up call to us when the leaders of the nations are found peddling fake news. How can we expect our children to discern right from wrong and to be protected from the multiple dangers of the internet and social media, if our leaders shows so little discernment?

It is small wonder that our children peddle nonsense and vilify one another over their mobile phones, sometimes with devastating effects upon their mental health.

Season of Opportunity

During this season of Advent, we have the opportunity in very practical ways to spread the true message of Christmas – the true light that has come into our dark world.

But so much depends upon our relationships with others, and how we use the tools of communication society has given us. If Donald Trump and Theresa May had only spoken to each other instead of tweeting, an embarrassing international incident could have been avoided. Surely this is a lesson to us all.

Postscript

Last week there were comments left on the editorial, speaking of the need for greater interaction between authors and readers. I warmly respond to this - we want to make this site much more open to constructive and thoughtful correspondence. Our Editorial Board are grappling with this subject and we are open to suggestions from any of our readers as to how we can improve such interaction so that we can all learn from one another in our search for the truth.

As part of this, don’t forget that we have established a secure site for such discussion, in partnership with the team at Issachar Ministries. If you would like to use this (there is a fee for joining) please contact Jacqueline at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Taking festive opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

We are delighted to bring you a prayer request from our friends Syd and Liz Doyle, inspirational evangelists from the US. Read on to be encouraged – and perhaps inspired to do something similar in your community!

Dear Praying Friends,

We are asking for special prayer as we go Christmas caroling in the Dearborn, MI area this Saturday afternoon and evening (2 December, 2017).

This year we are planning our annual ‘Caroling to our Neighbors’ on 2nd December, meeting at 1pm and also 5pm. It's our 13th annual Christmas Caroling Outreach. We are expecting around 200 carolers from many different churches and groups from southern Michigan and northwest Ohio to join us!

We begin with prayer, a bit of training, simple instructions on how to approach the doors and what to say and do - then we organize ourselves in groups of 6-8 and go out to assigned streets prepared to give out 500 gift bags and share the love of God with our Arab/American friends.

Christmas caroling is a tradition for many of us, but is a new experience for most Arabs. When they open the door they are delighted as they listen to us sing. They are very hospitable and often invite us in for delicious treats.

We also bring a present for them - a gift bag filled with Christmas material, a Jesus story DVD, a New Testament in Arabic, and some candy.

We ask each family if they have any prayer needs, then pray for them. Pray for receptive hearts as the Lord shows His love to them. Pray for the weather to be good, and for us as carolers to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as we sing, pray and give the gifts.

We are also inviting each family to a "Live Nativity" to be presented at church the following day. We hope the draw of the animals and the story of Christmas will bring many to the church and to Jesus Christ the Savior of the world!

Thanks for praying for safety, boldness, love, friendliness and peace for everyone.

Happy Christmas, prayer warriors!

Syd & Liz Doyle

Some thoughts about Hurricane Harvey.

The fierce storm with hurricane-force, 120 mph winds that hit the State of Texas in the USA last week has been headline news in the UK as well as in America.

The unprecedented quantity of rain that has been dumped on and around the city of Houston has caused enormous damage and left thousands homeless, triggering a major rescue operation. Amazingly the loss of life has been very small but the damage to property has been colossal.

We would like to express our condolences to all those who have suffered. Texas is known for its Christian population – so what is God saying to his people, especially those in the ‘Bible Belt’ of the USA? Many of the volunteers taking part in rescue operations expressed thanks to God for their own survival as they rescued others, which was a good witness on British TV.

We know that only those who are resident in Texas and who both know their Bibles and are aware of the moral and spiritual condition of their communities are able to know what God is saying through this natural disaster. But as a Brit who has family ties to the US and a genuine love for the country, I would like to offer some thoughts in this editorial.

The 1987 Hurricane

Back in 1987, on 16 October, a mini hurricane hit the south-east coast of England with winds gusting well over 100 mph causing enormous damage to buildings and ripping up some 15 million trees, smashing cars and power lines, blocking roads and rail travel from the south coast to London. It affected the richest area of the UK and for the first time in history the stock exchange in London was unable to open as its workers could not reach the capital.

The storm struck at 4am when hardly anyone was out of doors, so there was a minimum loss of life. But the damage to property was immense, affecting many of the richest houses in Britain, with trees crushing Rolls-Royces and Ferraris. If the storm had struck a few hours later in rush hour, the death toll would have been enormous. Amazingly also, the storm only affected the south-east area of England – 50 miles north of London there was hardly a breath of wind!

Texas is known for its Christian population – so what is God saying to his people through Hurricane Harvey?

We wrote about this at the time in the magazine Prophecy Today, asking if there was any word from the Lord. 48 hours after the hurricane, world stock markets began tumbling and London experienced the worst crash of all with millions of pounds wiped off share values. ‘Hurricane Friday’ was followed by ‘Black Monday’ in the City as winds of panic swept through the world’s financial markets and judgment on the rich nations began.

Hurricane damage, 1987. See Photo Credits.We saw this as the final warning about greed and corruption in the financial affairs of the nations. There had been many other warnings but this one was so specific, confined to property and in the richest area in the UK – its message should have been obvious even to those who never read the Bible.

History shows, however, that the warnings were ignored which eventually led to the great economic upheavals in 2008 when many great financial houses collapsed – and from which the economy has still not recovered.

The Rich in Laodicea

Today the oil-rich state in the richest nation in the world has been hit by a far greater hurricane and storm than the one that hit Britain 30 years ago. Also this week, floods have done enormous damage in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. Is this just coincidence, or is God saying something significant about the financial affairs of the world?

Here is another ‘coincidence’ – in the year AD 17, exactly 2,000 years ago, an enormous earthquake hit Asia Minor (now part of Turkey) destroying the great city of Laodicea, the richest city in the region. It was part of the Roman Empire at that time and Rome offered financial help in rebuilding, but the city elders refused saying that their own resources were perfectly adequate! They were adamant that they had sufficient wealth to meet their own needs and had no need of any help!

We saw the 1987 hurricane in England as the final warning about greed and corruption in the financial affairs of the nation.

40 years later the Apostle Paul, on the road between Antioch and Ephesus, stopped at Laodicea, newly rebuilt with amazing buildings. The people were rich, proud and self-sufficient. Paul planted a church there leaving a man called Epaphras in charge, who also oversaw the nearby congregations in Hierapolis and Colossae.

The three cities were joined by a huge stone aqueduct carrying water from the hot springs of Hierapolis at the top of the mountain to Colossae in the valley.¹ The water would have been lukewarm when it reached Laodicea and when writing his letter to the church in Laodicea the Apostle John charged the Christians with being lukewarm in their faith (Rev 3:16).

The message at that time was, “You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Rev 3:17). This must have been a devastating message for the Christians in Laodicea who were all living nice comfortable lives very similar to those of their non-Christian neighbours. The message to them was a call for repentance and to recognise the extent to which they had imbibed the values of their rich neighbours, ignoring the plight of the poor down in the valley at Colossae.

Take Note!

I wonder if this is saying anything to our Christian friends in Texas? It is for them to take it before the Lord in their prayer times and it is not for us to judge. But in Britain we know that there is still huge corruption and unrighteousness in the financial affairs of our nation where top businessmen, officials and celebrities are paid vast sums of money while the poor struggle to make ends meet.

This same injustice can be seen on a vast scale on the world scene where two thirds of the world’s population go to bed hungry every night. The rich nations with their control of global monopolies, patents and copyrights wield power over other economies, ensuring that wealth stays concentrated in the hands of the rich and the poor are kept in their place.

In Britain we know that there is still huge corruption and unrighteousness in the financial affairs of our nation.

The God of Creation who holds the nations in his hands as a drop in a bucket (Isa 40:15) scoffs at the nations, according to Psalm 2:4, when they do not realise their feeble situation and attempt to throw off all restraint in their greed and avarice. But to ignore the laws of the God of the Bible who hates injustice and oppression (Jer 7:3-11) is foolhardy and dangerous: it leads to disaster which comes suddenly without further notice when all the warning signs have been ignored.

Christians throughout the rich nations of the West should be taking note of the warning signs of the great storms that hit Texas and the financial centre of India this week. When God gives warning signs they should never be ignored. The message Isaiah received was, “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly in an instant” (Isa 30:12-13).

May the rich nations of the world take note!

References

1 See: Hill, C and Hill, M, 2005. Ephesus to Laodicea. Handsel Press, Edinburgh, p94f.

Catharine Pakington reviews ‘The New Civic Religion’ by Patrick Sookhdeo (2016, Isaac Publishing)

In the aftermath of the election I would recommend this book as a valuable aid to evaluating the agendas and culture of our main political parties.

In a recent Prophecy Today editorial, Clifford Hill highlighted how humanist beliefs are driving party policies and defining so-called ‘British values’. In this book, author and speaker Patrick Sookhdeo uses straightforward, clear language to introduce humanism as the religion of our age, particularly in the USA and UK.

Historical Context

He outlines historical influences from ancient philosophies through to the scientific and social changes of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the ‘Long 19th Century’ (1789-1914), all of which have culminated in a rejection of traditional Christianity.

The book is structured into 12 chapters, which take the reader through from the origins and content of humanism towards a Christian response. Bible studies and discussion questions on each chapter are provided, for individual or group use.

First, the core beliefs of humanists are presented along with their agenda to replace Christian morality. It is interesting to read the arguments for recognising humanism as a religion – something humanists themselves deny, since they oppose the teaching of religion in schools! How many Christians are aware of Tolerance, Equality, Reversal of Norms and then Aggressive Action as stages in a deliberate campaign to introduce humanistic values to education, the media, popular culture, government and law?

Sookhdeo uses straightforward, clear language to introduce humanism as the religion of our age.

The impact on education is particularly widespread. A time-line of the development of ‘hate speech’ law in the UK illustrates the growth of humanist influence up to now, and shows how biblical norms have been overturned.

Religion vs Science?

Turning to the relationship between Christianity and science, Sookhdeo demonstrates that though humanists would like to present faith and science as being incompatible, Christianity itself counters this with the Church’s history of promoting science. He highlights that far more scientists in the USA consider themselves to be Christian than humanist, atheist or agnostic. This is because Christians are encouraged to reason and think logically, whilst also being brought into the spiritual realm by a personal relationship with the triune God.

However, it is worth noting that in a related chapter on origins, there are times when the author does not uphold the authority of Scripture as consistently as on other issues.

Upholding Christian Identity

As the author compares humanist and Christian beliefs about God, Jesus and the Bible, we are challenged to review our own beliefs and then consider the identity and role of the Church in today’s culture.

A declaration of faith is suggested with the simplicity of the Jewish shema contrasted with historical creeds. All believers are urged to challenge today’s culture, just as the early Church stood against the Roman Empire (whose society shared many characteristics with our own).

Stirred to Respond

We are not left with a sense of helplessness after being presented with the extent of humanist influence today but are stirred to respond in our own areas of influence. If all of life is seen as worship, we can further the Kingdom of God wherever we are.

We are challenged to review our own beliefs and consider the role of the Church in today’s culture.

In addition to the helpful Bible study notes for each chapter, chapter 14 provides a useful summary of teaching about the authority of the Bible. As Christian creeds are quoted earlier in the book, two are given here in full and there is also a glossary, a list of references and sources including some key humanist documents.

Altogether this is a book that can be read quickly to introduce people to the extent of the influence of humanism in Britain (and possible responses to it), or it can be used as a more in-depth handbook for study, prayer and discussion. It is well worth reading as a primer, before other books that deal with related issues in greater depth, such as ‘What are They Teaching the Children?’ (ed. Lynda Rose), reviewed here.

‘The New Civic Religion: Humanism and the Future of Christianity’ (208 pages, paperback) is available from the Barnabas Fund for £10.05 (inc. P&P).
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Patrick Sookhdeo has doctorates from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Western Seminary and Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary. He is an author, lecturer and consultant.