Truth has stumbled in the streets – and in the pulpits.

For the second week running the BBC on its Radio Four Sunday programme interviewed a young woman who had been an evangelical and then changed her beliefs to become a homosexual.

It would appear that the BBC has got its researchers scouring the land for these unusual specimens to make a big display of presenting them as part of its programme of normalising the abnormal. Every programme from quiz shows and entertainment to soap operas and documentaries must have its token LGBTQ+ representative.

For the past 20 years the BBC has been infiltrated by LGBTQ+ people who now make up a significant percentage of the staff.¹ Their influence can be seen every day in programmes and reporting. Our official state broadcasting service has effectively been taken over by a powerful lobby group who, although only representing 1.7% of the population, are determined to force their views on the rest of society by brainwashing the nation.

I listened to the programme with my usual analytical antennae raised high; even so, I was shocked to hear some of the things claimed by a young woman who said she had been an evangelical until the age of 35. She had written many popular worship songs but she had always struggled with her sexuality until after a nervous breakdown she was counselled by a liberal theologian who helped her to read the Bible in a different way, so now she is happy to tell the world that she is a homosexual.

But the thing that really shocked me was that she said that she had since talked with Archbishop Justin Welby who encouraged her to apply for ordination, saying that she would be just the kind of clergy that he wants to see in the Church of England. So now we have not only the state broadcasting service but also the state Church promoting LGBTQ+ agendas!

Now we have not only the state broadcasting service but also the state Church promoting LGBTQ+ agendas!

Friendship with the World

This is not the first time the Archbishop has said similar things. He told the Church Synod last year that he wanted the Church to become “more inclusive” (code for more open to compromising with secular humanists, other religions and the LGBTQ+ lobby) and he wrote to all CofE primary schools telling the teachers to encourage the children to cross-dress if they wanted, in order to prepare them for the kind of world in which they are growing up. It would appear that the Archbishop’s objective is to make the Church acceptable to the world.

This is surely the exact opposite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ where the object is to transform the world, not to befriend the world! Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth…Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division” (Luke 12:49).

The plain fact is that the Gospel offends the world. It brings division because those who love the world and its values hate the values of the Kingdom of God (James 4:4). The Gospel offends the world because the world hates truth. If the Church seeks friendship with the world, the Church ceases to proclaim the Gospel!

Denying the Nature of God

Of course, there is a cost to discipleship. There always was and there always will be. The 3^rd Century Church leader Tertullian said that ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’.² The Christian Church was born in blood, which is both a theological and an historical statement.

The Roman Empire persecuted the Church and cruelly executed Christians because they could see that the Christians were proclaiming a Gospel that was diametrically opposed to the values of the Roman world. Once the Church begins to compromise with the world it ceases to declare the word of God and it ceases to be the bearer of truth.

It would appear that the Archbishop’s objective is to make the Church acceptable to the world.

Truth is an essential part of the very nature of God. Isaiah recognised this when he heard God say “I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right” (Isa 45:19). And Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He described the Holy Spirit who would come from the Father as “the spirit of truth” (John 14:16). But the world hates truth because it exposes the evil and corruption of its ways.

When truth and its associated values of justice and righteousness are abandoned, disaster falls upon that nation. There is a telling verse in Isaiah 59: “Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey” (v14). This is exactly what has happened in Britain over the past two or three decades. Once you abandon truth, you put yourself outside the protection of God and disaster soon follows: hence the mess we are in today.

Truth Turned Upside-Down

But it is not only the politicians and the media who are peddling fake news and corrupt values. We now have the Archbishop of Canterbury as head of the state Church saying that a lesbian woman is just the kind of clergy the Church of England needs!!

Does he not realise the terrible damage he is doing to family and marriage by promoting the LGBTQ+ agenda? Truth has indeed not only stumbled in the streets, but in the pulpits of the Church of England under a disastrous Archbishop. Has he not read the Scripture: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness”?

You cannot turn truth upside-down without incurring the wrath of God and that goes for archbishops as much as it does for corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen. Back in the 1980s in Prophecy Today we criticised Archbishop Robert Runcie for promoting New Age teaching and liberal unbelief. We said we could not imagine a worse Archbishop – maybe we were wrong!

Truth has indeed not only stumbled in the streets, but in the pulpits of the Church of England under a disastrous Archbishop.

We are all accountable to God for our lives and those who carry great responsibility should take the greatest care to guard the truth. If the Archbishop leads the Church of England further into apostasy, he will be depriving the nation of a potential prophetic voice that could yet declare the truth in an age of scepticism and corruption. He will surely be held accountable before God.

Signs of Revival?

Many ordinary people across Britain are aware that the nation is in a mess. Even some newspapers are recognising that the nation is in trouble, with everything from political chaos, collapsing social systems (NHS) and rising mental health problems, to knife crime, drugs and gang warfare among young people.

What the nation desperately needs is a prophetic voice to declare that we have abandoned the word of the Lord and we are reaping the consequences! Church leaders need to declare the word of the Lord with simple direct authority and the Archbishop should lead the way.

If the institutional Church (not the true ekklesia of God) fails to lead in preaching the Gospel, God will bypass it and raise up prophetic voices elsewhere: as John the Baptist said, “I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” It may be God’s intention to raise up a grassroots movement by putting his word into the mouths of the faithful remnant of believers. This would fulfil the wish of Moses who said, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 11:29).

Guide to Christian Workers

Give us a watchword for the hour,

A thrilling word, a word of power;

A battle cry, a flaming breath,

A call to conquest or to death;

A word to rouse the church from rest,

To heed the Master’s high behest.

The call is given, ye hosts arise,

The watchword is EVANGELIZE!

To fallen men, a dying race,

Make known the gift of gospel grace.

The world that now in darkness lies,

O Church of Christ, EVANGELIZE!

(Our thanks to reader Penny Rutter for submitting to us this verse, taken from the back of her Bible)

References

1 11.5% of bosses and 10.6% of staff, surpassing an 8% quota. See here.

2 Original quote: “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.” Apologeticus 50, s.13.

Our leaders have a veil over their eyes.

Up to 50,000 people attempted to break through the border between Gaza and Israel this week according to press reports. Their use of smoke and mirrors, petrol bombs, incendiary kites and other weapons must have been a terrifying experience for the tiny detachment of Israeli part-time soldiers guarding the border to protect Israeli citizens from slaughter.

But far from giving a factual picture of events, the BBC, The Guardian and others¹ poured out their anti-Semitic invective against Israel.

The BBC had been preparing for this event for a long time and sent some of their senior reporters to give maximum cover to criticise Israel. In the event there was no breakthrough and no massacre.

Though each life lost is a heart-rending matter, it is to the credit of those defending the border that relatively few died, and most casualties were known terrorists. Hamas called off the protest the next day after Egyptian intervention; but not before they achieved their objective of getting anti-Israel propaganda into the Western media and calling for a UN enquiry - even at the expense of lives of their own people.

The Creation of the Gazan Refugees

The whole Gaza issue is tragic, both for the people who live there and for Israel. But it has been deliberately created as the front line in the drive to destroy Israel. The Palestinians themselves are despised by the Arab nations. Before they were brought together in the 1960s, there never was a Palestinian nation.

Historically, before the Jewish resettlement began in the early 20^th Century, Palestine was a largely barren land. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1900, there were less than 100 trees in the whole of Palestine with a sparse population of nomadic Arabs living in tents, whose goats ate every bit of vegetation. The absentee land-owning Arabs were only too willing to sell land to the Jews in those days.

The whole Gaza issue is tragic, but it has been deliberately created as the front line in the drive to destroy Israel.

When the state of Israel was created in 1948 the neighbouring states of Jordan, Egypt and Syria combined their armies, ordered any non-Jewish residents to leave their homes and go to two newly created refugee camps at Jericho and Gaza so that their forces could clear the land and drive the Jews into the Mediterranean. What they now call their ‘catastrophe’ was the failure of their armies to defeat the tiny group of Holocaust survivors who, in successive conflicts, went on to retake Jerusalem and to clear the whole land of foreign fighters.

With 70 years and a high birthrate the dreadful conditions in Gaza have been created by the Arab nations, who could easily have solved the situation by taking in the Palestinians. But even the small groups who succeeded in crossing the River Jordan and settling in Jordan and Syria were never accepted and today live in separate enclaves, denied citizenship. This is the measure of hypocrisy among the Arab nations who simply use the West Bank and Gaza situations for political purposes – in their drive to destroy Israel.

Leaders Without Knowledge

The Gaza issue was debated in the House of Commons this week with the usual mixture of anti-Israel and friendly comments. I was particularly disappointed to hear Alistair Burt, Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, whom I’ve counted among my friends for the past 25 years, making a politically-correct bland statement.

The UN Security Council has strongly condemned Israel's activity at the Gaza border. See Photo Credits.As a Bible-believing evangelical brother I was hoping that he would put some backbone into the Foreign Office and declare that the time has come for Britain to implement the policy it advocated 100 years ago in the Balfour Declaration and move the British Embassy up to Jerusalem, alongside that of the USA.

But postmodernism, with its Darwinian and Marxist roots, has not only driven radical change to the social and personal values of the nation, but has spread a veil over the eyes of the leaders of both Church and state, so that they are unable to perceive the truth. They are like the leaders whom the Prophet Isaiah referred to as ‘blind watchmen’ who “all lack knowledge” (Isa 56:10). They cannot see the big picture because they do not understand the purposes of God and what is happening in the world today.

Postmodernism has spread a veil over the eyes of the leaders of both Church and state, so they are unable to perceive the truth.

Our leaders are part of a generation of biblical eunuchs: they have no understanding of the ways of God because they have turned their backs upon the word of God. For years we have been living upon the spiritual capital of our 19^th Century Victorian Bible-believing forefathers; but it is not enough to support us today, as the world moves onto the cusp of the most incredible period of turmoil since the creation of the world. There is a desperate need for people to hear the word of God before it is too late.

Coming Judgment

In the spring of 1986 there was a gathering of men and women with prophetic insight who met in Israel for a time of prayer and seeking God, to understand what is happening in the world today. One day I was standing alone with Lance Lambert on the top of Mt Carmel looking up at a remarkable sight I’d never seen before, of a complete rainbow encircling the sun; although Lance said it’s not unusual in Israel. We both received words which we shared with others in the evening meeting.

I was led to the prophecy in Haggai 2:6:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty.

I said that the USSR, the mighty communist empire that appeared all-powerful in 1986, would very soon collapse. Three weeks later the Chernobyl nuclear power station blew up which began the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

That same evening Lance Lambert gave one of the most remarkable prophecies of our time. He said:

It will not be long before there will come upon the world a time of unparalleled upheaval and turmoil. Do not fear for it is I the Lord who am shaking all things. I began this shaking with the First World War and I greatly increased it through the Second World War. Since 1973 I have given it an even greater impetus. In the last stage, I plan to complete it with the shaking of the universe itself, with signs in the sun and moon and stars. But before that point is reached, I will judge the nations, and the time is near.

It will not only be by war and civil war, by anarchy and terrorism, and by monetary collapses that I will judge the nations, but also by natural disasters: by earthquakes, by shortages and famines, and by old and new plague diseases. I will also judge them by giving them over to their own ways, to lawlessness, to loveless selfishness, to delusion and to believing a lie, to false religion and an apostate church, even to a Christianity without me.

Our leaders are part of a generation of biblical eunuchs: they have no understanding of the ways of God because they have turned their backs upon the word of God.

Need for the Word of God

This next stage in the history of the world has now been reached. Most of the nations of the world are conspiring to hate Israel, as foretold in the word of God: “Come, they say, let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more” (Ps 83:4).

The Prophet Zechariah received a revelation that the day would come when the focus of the world would be upon Jerusalem. He said:

This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel…I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure [rupture] themselves.

Never has there been a greater need for biblical truth to be brought into the affairs of the nations than today, with the nations armed with weapons capable of destroying the world and driven by a spirit of hatred and destruction.

Jeremiah foresaw the fall of the mighty Babylonian Empire and that Babylon would become “a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals” (Jer 51:37), as it is today. So, in our lifetime, unless the nations of the world study the word of God and bring their policies in line with his truth, they will create a catastrophe that will engulf the world.

The great question is: – Will the Bible-believing faithful remnant in the Western nations break their silence and declare the word of the Lord to bring life and light to this generation, and hope for our children and grandchildren?

Notes

1 For further information on this, we recommend UK Media Watch, a watchdog seeking to hold the British media to account for their biased treatment of Israel.

It’s time to pray, not play the blame game.

As Londoners are left reeling with shock at a succession of terrible tragedies, angry residents and pundits inevitably start looking for someone to blame.

When children fight in the playground and someone gets hurt, it’s always someone else’s fault. But there is a sense in which we are all to blame – for we have, as a nation, turned our backs on truth, honesty and integrity in favour of the brave new world’s ‘anything goes’ mantra - as long as it feels right. How do we measure truth when it is so subjective? If it’s not found in the Bible, where do we look for it?

Truth Has Stumbled

After discarding our Christian heritage and throwing out God’s laws, it’s not surprising there are so many different versions of truth portrayed by today’s media.

The BBC, for example, has shown a propensity in recent times for turning terrorists into victims – particularly when reporting on violence in Israel. Thus, last Friday (16 June), when a 23-year-old Israeli policewoman was stabbed to death and four others injured in a Jerusalem attack which also involved shooting, the BBC tweeted: “Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem” – a shamefully misleading headline focusing attention on the attackers as if they were the victims.¹

How do we measure truth if it is subjective? If it’s not found in the Bible, where do we look for it?

The Prophet Isaiah wrote of how, when we have turned our backs on God, “truth has stumbled in the streets; honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found” (Isa 59:13-15).

Perverse Claims

At the rally following London’s Al Quds² march, the Iranian-inspired day calling for the destruction of Israel, one speaker perversely blamed the tragic West London fire on ‘Zionists’. “Some of the biggest supporters of the Conservative Party are Zionists”, he ranted. “They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell [the tower block].”³

As blogger Richard Millett asked: “How in 2017 is a terror organisation like Hezbollah, with a rifle emblazoned on its flag, allowed to parade through London? Is the British Jewish community so ill-considered, so small that we are so easily sacrificed? Would the authorities allow Al Qaeda or ISIS parades?”

The marchers have exploited a loophole in the law against flying the flags of proscribed organisations like Hezbollah by claiming that they are supporting its political (rather than military) wing even though they both use the same flag and support the same cause, which is the total destruction of the Jewish state, as their chants – “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – clearly indicate.⁴

Whatever happened to the law against ‘hate speech’?

After discarding our Christian heritage, it’s not surprising there are so many different versions of truth portrayed by today’s media.

Convened by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a British Muslim organisation with close ties to the Iranian regime, the march took place despite a petition calling for its ban signed by over 20,000 people which stated: “After the terrible recent terrorist events in Manchester and London, this display of extremism has no place on the streets of the UK”.

In the light of such a brazen demonstration of hatred, a backlash from unhinged members of society is hardly surprising, as in the tragic events outside the Finsbury Park mosque which left one dead and a number injured when a 47-year-old man ploughed into them with a van.

Unfortunately, this attack is being cynically used by jihadists as a call to war. But neither Britons as a whole, nor Christians in particular, have any quarrel with Muslims. We share their grief – Christians are suffering all over the world for their faith – and we reach out to them with the love of Jesus. They are our friends, not our enemies. And Jesus has told us to love even those, like jihadists, who wish us harm!

Hope Rises

But I see hope on three specific fronts, starting with the example of Christians in South Africa, to whom I have already referred on this site. Faced with corruption and violence in their nation, they came together in a farmer’s field to pray on 22 April; not just the faithful few, but a massive gathering of 1.7 million – more than the population of Birmingham, Britain’s second city. Many had travelled the length and breadth of that big country to plead God’s mercy on their troubles.

Isn’t it time British Christians got together to do something similar? Is our situation not desperate enough, with violence becoming endemic and truth turned on its head?

Isn’t it time British Christians got together to plead God’s mercy? Is our situation not desperate enough?

Secondly, not far from Birmingham, I visited a friend in prison whose Christian faith shines out so brightly that he is effectively working as a chaplain to many of his fellow inmates. He knows from his experience in the outside world how it is often difficult to get people to talk about or share their faith, even in churches. But now he struggles to shut people up as they all want to share the goodness of God, especially during Bible classes and chapel services packed with men praising the Lord in full voice. And another friend tells of a prison in the South-West where men, “feeling completely abandoned by society, are so ready to hear the Gospel”.

Many years ago I was told of a prophecy that revival in Britain would start in the prisons!

Thirdly, I have been profoundly moved by the response of churches in the Grenfell Tower area of London, scene of the tragic fire where an estimated 79 people perished and hundreds more were made homeless.

Churches such as the Tabernacle Christian Centre have opened their doors to victims and have been providing refuge, shelter and the wonderful truth of the Gospel ever since.

Sally Richardson, a friend of mine who visited them, remarks elsewhere in this issue of Prophecy Today, “Grenfell Tower has burned, but let’s pray that a candle will burn in North Kensington that will never be put out. May the surviving victims find Jesus to be their tower of refuge and strength (Proverbs 18:10)”.

References

1 Roberts, C. BBC apologizes for headline incitement. Arutz-7, 18 June 2016.

2 Al Quds means ‘Jerusalem’.

3 Cohen, B. Hezbollah Flags Fly at ‘Al Quds Day’ March in London as Islamist Agitators Blame Grenfell Tower Tragedy on ‘Zionists’. The Algemeiner, 18 June 2017.

4 Hezbollah flags fly in London on a Sunday afternoon anti-Israel march. World Israel News, 18 June 2017.

Parliament’s Christian witness will prevail.

As if London hasn’t seen enough tragedy of late, her weary eight million residents woke up to a veritable picture of Dante’s inferno on Wednesday morning. The sight of a West London tower block burning away all night was truly terrible, with all the loss of life, home and family that resulted. Our hearts go out to all the victims.

In truth, we are all reeling in shock, perhaps wondering why things just seem to have gone from bad to worse in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks. And though the Grenfell Tower fire did not fall into the latter category, the cause is as yet unknown.

Nevertheless, we need to take stock, and continue to pray for God’s mercy on our battered nation, now further rocked by the resignation as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party of Christian politician Tim Farron. More of that later…

Biblical Voice in Parliament Maintained

In fact, not everything is gloom and doom; there are real signs of hope, despite a General Election that left confusion and chaos as politicians jostled for power, the Conservatives winning most seats but with no overall majority, and thus in a seemingly weak place for negotiating our exit from the European Union.

The Bible says: “When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order” (Prov 28:2).

Christians had been dismayed as they found themselves having to choose between main parties who had all agreed that sexual ethics – and in particular same-sex marriage – was not an issue. So it seemed that the way was left open to continue running the country on secular humanist lines, with no thought for the biblical laws that have underpinned our civilisation for centuries.

We need to take stock, and continue to pray for God’s mercy on our battered nation.

But who would have thought the Conservatives would be forced to ‘get into bed’ with the strongly Christian Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland, in order to secure a still wafer-thin overall majority for carrying out planned legislation? The DUP’s ten seats add up to a coalition fractionally more than all the other parties put together. So they will clearly be beholden to their friends from across the Irish Sea, a fact provoking hysteria from many quarters – not least the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who is a lesbian.

It could certainly make for a rough passage for any new un-Christian laws. The DUP is thoroughly opposed to same-sex marriage and, in line with their Bible-believing basis, is also unreservedly pro-Israel.

So, for all the humanistic attempts to rid Parliament of its Christian witness, God has ensured that it remains – and that biblical thinking cannot be ignored. God will not be mocked.

The psalmist asks: “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them…” (Ps 2:1-4).

The fiercely Protestant DUP was founded in 1971 by the Rev Ian Paisley who, when he launched the Northern Ireland Friends of Israel group in March 2009, drew a parallel between his own country’s struggles against terrorism and that of Israel’s. And he also prayed for peace in Jerusalem!¹

Time to Plead with God

Last Sunday evening, as my wife and I contemplated the ongoing political turbulence, we suddenly noticed a worrying crack in the ceiling, with water dripping through. Our hot water tank was leaking and on the blink, and we have since had it replaced (at no small cost). Thankfully, disaster was averted by an emergency plumber.

It was very much a picture of the state of the nation with the drip, drip, drip feed of secularism (and in particular the LGBT+ agenda) on the point of bringing the house down. We are in serious hot water, and poison is leaking into the ship of state, which is on the verge of sinking.

For all the humanistic attempts to rid Parliament of its Christian witness, God has ensured that it remains.

I am sickened by the BBC’s continual obsession with depicting the ‘virtues’ of left-wing propaganda. As the country rocks with uncertainty, and in danger of collapse, a great show is made of a ‘gay pride’ march in York, described as a symbol of unity and love. Of course, I realise this is nothing compared to the 200,000 who marched through Tel Aviv, Israel’s major city, in celebration of the homosexual lifestyle. And that in what is universally known as the ‘Holy Land’! However, this only goes to prove that both Jews and Gentiles are prodigals whom the Father longs to welcome back.

And since we are talking numbers, it’s worth noting that a recent prayer meeting of Christians in South Africa drew a massive 1.7 million people (equal to Tel Aviv’s total population) to a farm outside the central city of Bloemfontein, where they pleaded God’s mercy for their beloved nation. We too, in Britain, need to pray – and how! Surely it’s time Christians got together, as they have done in South Africa, to plead God’s mercy for our land?

Truth Turned Upside-Down

Tim Farron. See Photo Credits.

Tragically, much of the West has not only rejected God and his laws, but has gone further by turning millennia-old precepts completely upside-down. The Prophet Isaiah, writing 2,700 years ago, said: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks…” (Isa 5:20-22). Ring any bells?

To put it another way, it would be like Monty Don reporting from the Chelsea Flower Show that weeds are the new flowers and rubbishing anachronistic gardeners who insist on showing their beautiful roses and lilies amidst finely-cut lawns and water features.

Exaggerating? Hardly – for one of the most disturbing aspects of the election campaign was the blatant anti-Christian prejudice promoted in much of the media, claiming that Christian candidates were unfit to hold public office because of their biblical views.² Even the Prime Minister was condemned by a major national newspaper for visiting one of the UK’s largest black churches – because the church opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.³

One of the most disturbing aspects of the election campaign was the blatant anti-Christian prejudice promoted in much of the media.

And now Tim Farron is the latest victim. After an insufferable media campaign directed at his Christian faith, in the words of Evangelical Alliance spokesman David Landrum, “he has found himself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader – and so he has resigned. And who could blame him? Politics has always been a tough business and general elections have always been rough rides. Tim was surely prepared for that. What he wasn’t prepared for, and what nobody really expected, was a vicious and sustained assault on his faith. And he wasn’t alone in this.”⁴

The Fields are Ripe for Harvest

Finally, on a more positive note: Rosaria Butterfield, a former lesbian and LGBT advocate, converted to Christ after reading large sections of the Bible as part of research into why the so-called religious right ‘hated’ people like her. Her first book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, details her conversion and the cataclysmic fallout which followed – in which she lost “everything but the dog”, yet gained eternal life in Christ.

We are the people of the Book, which holds the key to life and leads us to the ‘pearl of great price’ which can often cost us everything (Matt 13:46). Pearls are shaped through rough times, and we need to speak up for Christ in the face of the storm.

References

1 Teller, N. The UK balance of power – weighted towards Israel. Jerusalem Post, 12 June 2017.

2 E.g. The Daily Mirror, 4 May 2017, The Spectator, 18 May 2017, Buzz Feed, 27 May 2017. See here.

3 Robertson, D. The Independent, 30 May 2017.

4 Landrum, D. Farron’s fall – neither liberal nor democratic. Christian Today, 15 June 2017.

With new terror attacks happening almost daily across Europe, Western leaders still refuse to face the truth about Islam.

The sickening murder of a defenceless elderly priest in Rouen marks a new low point in Islam's relationships with the West. But none of the Western leaders are willing to face up to the reality of what is happening in Europe.

Even the Pope says that this attack is nothing to do with religion!¹ That is the standard politically correct statement that is made every time there is an atrocity carried out by Muslims in the name of their god.

Ever since the end of the Second World War the policy in the West has been to seek appeasement with the oil-rich Arab nations of the Middle East. The Islamic Revolution in 1979 that installed Ayatollah Khomeini as supreme ruler of Iran was a great shock to the West as Iran had been its main supporter under the rule of the de-posed Shar.

From that time Western leaders turned their attention to promoting the Saudis as the leading friend of the West and there has been a continuous effort in the Western media to paint Saudi Arabia in a favourable light despite numerous reports of brutality, persecution of minorities and strict enforcement of the ban on women driving cars or leaving home without a male escort.

Covering Up the Facts

Even the most atrocious acts of terrorism, such as the destruction of the twin towers in New York in 2001 and the bombing of the London Underground 2005, were deliberately downplayed in terms of their links to Islam. They were portrayed as the acts of 'extremists' who were not representative of mainstream Muslims and every effort was made by the media to stress that Islam is a religion of peace. This is still the politically correct policy.

The most atrocious acts of terrorism in recent years have been deliberately downplayed in terms of their links to Islam.

According to Brietbart,² last week the BBC appeared to go to extraordinary lengths to attempt to cover up the Muslim identity of the Munich killer. At 3pm on Saturday 23 July BBC reported the killer as Ali Sonboly, but within one hour this was changed to David Sonboly. In the 6pm news he was again referred to as David Sonboly although in the same bulletin the BBC's correspondent in Germany referred to him as David Ali Sonboly. Did the BBC make a high level decision to hide the reference to 'Ali', although it admitted that the teenager had dual German/Iranian citizenship?

Religion of Peace?Pope Francis, who has denied the religious nature of recent terrorist attacks.

The 'religion of peace' facade has been wearing somewhat thin in face of the recent wave of terrorist activities in Europe, but the latest pronouncement by the Pope shows that Western leaders are still not prepared to discuss the religious beliefs of those who commit atrocities. Whilst attack after attack is being carried out with cries of 'Allahu Akbar' ('god is great'), nobody is willing to ask questions about this god, whose greatness apparently demands or justifies the murder of innocent people.

What Westerners do not realise is that Islam not only condones violence but actually commands it against 'infidels', especially Jews and Christians. The Qur'an says

Let not the unbelievers think that they will ever get away. They have not the power so to do. Muster against them all the men and weaponry at your command, so that you may strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them who are unknown to you but known to Allah. All that you give in the cause of Allah shall be repaid to you. (8:59)

According to thereligionofpeace.com there are 109 verses in the Qur'an that call upon Muslims to wage war against unbelievers. They say "some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding." They also say that "there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to balance out the many that call for non-believers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam or are killed."

Western leaders are still not prepared to discuss the religious beliefs and agendas of those who commit the atrocities.

The Islamic Agenda

In order to understand what is going on today you have to examine the history of Islam and the life of its founder, Muhammad. Islam's supreme purpose is world domination. The propagation of Islam by force has been its policy right from the beginning.

Muhammad personally led many expeditions and wars plundering communities and slaughtering defenceless civilians. He personally set the example of violent conquest and forcible conversion that has been followed down the centuries.

Muhammad's dying wish in 632 AD was to clear the whole of Arabia of Christians and Jews – a policy of aggression that was immediately carried out by Abu Bakr, Muhammad's father-in-law, who became the first caliph of the Islamic state. Abu Bakr died in 634 and was succeeded by Caliph Omar, who was murdered in 644 and succeeded by Caliph Othman, who was murdered in 656 and succeeded by Caliph Ali, who was assassinated in 661.

All of these early caliphs led battles with the objective of expanding the Islamic state and forcing people to submit to Islam (the word Islam in Arabic means 'submission'), a policy which continued for centuries. Notable dates (some approximate) in the early years of Islam include:

• AD 647 conquest of the island of Cyprus
• AD 659 conquest of Egypt
• AD 700 military campaigns in North Africa
• AD 711 invasion of Gibraltar and conquest of Spain
• AD 716 invasion of Constantinople
• AD 732 Battle of Tours in France
• AD 777 Battle of Saragossa in Spain.

It does seem extraordinary that Western leaders can be so extraordinarily blind to the intentions of Islam. Our European forefathers who succeeded in stopping the advance of the Ottoman army at Vienna in 1683 were certainly under no such illusions. Could it be that this blindness is in fact a deliberate attempt by the secular humanist spirit driving modern Europe to look favourably upon Islam because of its hostility to the centuries of Judeo-Christian heritage that is so blatantly scorned by the European Union?

Is our blindness to the intentions of Islam connected to the secular humanist spirit at work across Europe?

If this indeed is the motive, the secular humanists are virtually committing social suicide because if Islam does become a majority movement in Europe, they will be the first to suffer along with LGBT communities. It is, of course, quite possible that Muslims will become the majority in Europe, given their extraordinary high birth rate and the number of young Muslims of childbearing age who have entered Europe as refugees or migrants.

Maybe Christians should accept responsibility for the confused spiritual state of Europe today. Clearly we have not been faithful to the Great Commission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations. Neither have we clearly demonstrated the love of God in our lives and in our teaching. If we had done, there could be no confusion between the God of the Bible and the Allah of the Qur'an. The greatest need today is to teach the truth of the Gospel. This is the only way to save Europe from catastrophe.

What is Ahead?

What does the future hold? A personal friend of mine whose ministry I value is Bill Wagner, who has lived and worked in Muslim countries for many years. Just before the invasion of Iraq he wrote perceptively:

Islam will continue to grow and will become more brutal in its attempts to conquer the world. There will be a rise of terrorism in all parts of the non-Muslim world since they have discovered how effective this can be. The nations of the world will be subject to suicide bombings. A number of wars such as those against Iraq and Afghanistan will take place but will be ineffective since Islam has learned to fight not from a position of military strength but from the shadowy back alleys of urban societies. Christians especially will be marked for death and persecution, although Islam will never completely take over the world.³

Many Christians believe that we have entered the days which Jesus foresaw when he warned his disciples about being deceived. He said, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom...Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matt 24:7-12).

It certainly looks as though a time of persecution lies ahead for Christians, but it is during times of persecution in the past that the Church has always grown. Maybe it is God's intention to allow the Church to go through a period of purging in the run-up to the second coming of our Lord.

References

1 E.g. Daley, K. Pope Says Terrorism Is 'Not A Religious War'. The Daily Caller, 28 July 2016.

2 Kassam, R. BBC 'Fixes' Munich Killer Article Following Breitbart Expose Of Muslim Name Cover Up. Breitbart, 23 July 2016.

3 Wagner, W, 2004. How Islam Plans to Change the World. Kregel Publications, Michigan, p216.

Monica Hill recommends a recent documentary on global population growth.

Do you switch off when statistics are mentioned? Are you concerned over their use or do you find them difficult to understand? This lecture to the Open University by statistician Hans Rosling, broadcast recently on BBC2 and still available on BBC iPlayer, is well worth watching. It deals with the tricky, controversial subject of trends in global population growth - but in an accessible, interesting way.

Watch the full programme here.

'David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Peter' (documentary), originally broadcast 3^rd/5^th April 2015, BBC1. Episode 1 available in full on Youtube. Full documentary available as a REGION 1 DVD (USA only) from Amazon.

In this DVD of a two-part series originally broadcast on the BBC, the well-known actor David Suchet invites us to join him on his personal quest to discover the nature and character of the man who became known throughout the world as St Peter.

There is so much to enjoy in these films as we are guided sympathetically and intelligently through the story of Peter's life from his early beginnings as a Galilean fisherman. We are treated to some wonderful locations and spectacular settings as well as lots of fascinating information which will reinvigorate familiar Biblical passages. And we get to hear David read from scripture in his rich and well-trained voice!

Skilful Presentation

The programmes follow a typical format. Our presenter spends a lot of time in discussion with a variety of experts: archaeologists, historians, Biblical scholars. By his intelligent questions and genuine desire to understand St Peter better, Suchet skilfully enables these experts not just to display knowledge, but to become instrumental to our own learning.

Then, addressing us directly in his pieces to camera, he muses over what he has discovered and shares what he now understands of the man behind the Biblical texts. Gradually the character of Peter comes to life in the mind of a character actor.

Suchet brings the character of Peter to life through his sympathetic, intelligent presentation and his own personal enthusiasm.

Galilee

We start in Galilee where Suchet samples St Peter's fish and visits Peter's house. The scene examining the 'Jesus boat' will fascinate many, as will the fishing trip on the lake in a modern boat. But it is as Peter is called to follow Jesus and be a 'fisher of men' that the story develops. His faith and failings show him as a flawed but committed disciple who knew the dangers of following Jesus but who comes to an inspired realisation that here indeed is the Messiah.

The scene at Banias is particularly well presented and overall we gain insights into the dynamic that must have existed between Peter and Jesus – again, a key interest of our actor-presenter.

Jerusalem

In Jerusalem we visit a yeshiva and witness how Jews debate and learn – a very informative section for those previously unaware of this. In Gethsemane we are shown the type of sword Peter would have carried. Naturally we visit the Holy Sepulchre but it is pleasing that by contrast we are also taken inside a typical empty family tomb, such as Peter ran to on Easter Sunday morning.

Acts

In the second hour we pick up the story after the resurrection and examine key passages in Acts. Peter's preaching at Pentecost is explained, as is his time in Joppa and Caesarea, with the household of Cornelius.

The mention of Cappadocia in the opening of Peter's first letter provides a perfect excuse to visit that extraordinary part of Turkey with its breath-taking landscape. Never mind if Peter didn't actually visit there himself - this is a wonderful opportunity to see examples of cave churches carved in the rock with their magnificent frescoes, typical of first century Christian communities that Peter will have ministered to. Here is one of the DVD's visual highlights.

A visual highlight is the coverage of Cappadocia's cave churches, which once held congregations to which Peter would have ministered.

Rome

We inevitably finish in Rome and the Vatican, with its own particular splendour. Here issues around Peter's death and whether he founded the church there are sensitively explored, together with the belief that he was the first Pope. As always our genial and thoughtful guide helps us unravel tradition from history and Biblical passages.

Fresh study material

This DVD can be watched several times and still remain fresh. It is so full of helpful background and insights, and would be particularly useful for small study groups and discussion groups, especially those just beginning to explore the Jewish roots of Christianity. Leaders can adapt the two 1-hour programmes into various lengths to provide visual material for several evenings, perhaps with the Scriptures being read and considered alongside the various scenes. The overall effect will remain long in the memory.