What Britain’s treatment of the ‘Empire Windrush generation’ says about our society.

I have fought against prejudice and injustice throughout my adult life and I really thought that in Britain we were, in recent years, seeing the back of it.

But I have been shocked at the stories coming to light in the past week of the treatment of some of those who came over from the Caribbean in the early days of the migration after the Second World War. I lived and worked among them in West London in the 1950s and in Tottenham in the 1960s.

I found the first generation of migrants to be extremely friendly, hard-working and trustworthy people and I had a great love and respect for them. Some of them are still my friends today. Many times I was shocked and angry at the treatment some of them received in London. I used to feel ashamed when I saw the street corner newspaper shops with their adverts for rooms or flats to let with the inevitable caveat, “No coloured, No pets, No Irish”.

The Windrush Generation

The early migrants from the Caribbean faced an enormous amount of prejudice, but they bore it with great patience and humility that won the admiration of those who took the trouble to get to know any of them on a personal basis. They played a vital part in the re-building of Britain after the Blitz, both physically and in terms of its economy which was booming in those days, but there was a shortage of manpower as so many men had been lost during the war.

Many hundreds of worker migrants came to my church in West London in the days before and after the Notting Hill riots of 1958. They not only brought fresh culture and enthusiasm into the fellowship but they also enriched our worship with their singing. We had a quartet that sang beautiful four-part harmony and they took part a number of times in broadcasts from the church.

The large number of migrants coming to my church, however, attracted opposition from the National Front who picketed the church and then attacked my house, throwing white paint over the front door and painting abusive words (‘NIGGER LOVER’) on the pavement outside the house. This atrocity backfired against them as it attracted a huge amount of local support as well as publicity in the press.

Left: Commonwealth Sunday Service 1962, High Cross Church Tottenham. Right: Workmen turning over the paving stones outside the church house, Tottenham, August 1962.

A Prejudiced System

I was a member of the Home Office-sponsored ‘Commonwealth Immigrants Committee’ and I saw at first hand the prejudice in the system that the migrants faced. It was strong in the 1960s because the Home Office was involved in framing the Immigration and Race Relations Acts.

Both the Labour and Conservative parties supported the immigration controls which sent a message to the public that there must be something wrong with these people because their numbers had to be limited. That prejudice continued for decades and became increasingly hostile in the run-up to the 2016 Referendum.

The early Caribbean migrants faced an enormous amount of prejudice, but they bore it with great patience and humility.

Evidence of Discrimination

This past week has seen the 50^th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of blood’ speech that attracted massive publicity and revealed to the world the level of racial prejudice in Britain. The speech shocked many people and was denounced in Parliament by Powell’s own party, but evidence at the time showed that Powell was expressing the views of millions of ordinary people in Britain such as the London dockers who exercised a ban on black workers.

There was plenty of evidence of discrimination in employment, such as black bus conductors being permitted but not black drivers, and it was many years before the first black inspector of buses was appointed by London Transport. There were lots of surveys of prejudice in Britain and many activists calling for social change, but cultural attitudes change slowly.

Heart-Searching Needed

In Britain we don’t like to admit it but we have lots of prejudices: like between north and south – northerners don’t like southerners and Londoners think that civilisation ends at Watford - or over regional accents. And of course, Scots stereotypically don’t like Sassenachs and would like to be independent of the English - while the English have historically not been too keen on foreigners of any origin (hence Brexit can’t come too soon!)!

But our treatment of the ‘Empire Windrush’ generation whose landing passes and other documents were destroyed by the Home Office has really been unforgivable. It is amazing that it has taken so long to come before Parliament and it is only because of media publicity that apologies have been tumbling out of the Government.

Men and women who have lived in Britain for more than 50 years and greatly contributed to this nation have been issued with deportation orders or even locked up in detention centres. Surely this is more than just an administrative error! It means we have never really valued many of those who have come to Britain from the Commonwealth.

In Britain we don’t like to admit it but we have lots of prejudices.

Acknowledging Past Injustice

Our mistreatment of people from the Caribbean islands goes back at least 200 years to the days of slavery under British colonial rule. This legacy of slavery has never been finally expunged from our social attitudes and culture, as we remarked just two weeks ago on Prophecy Today UK.

It is the legacy of slavery that the Movement for Justice and Reconciliation (MJR) is working to overcome. MJR’s Chairman sees this legacy as fuelling knife crime on our city streets (see his article, also in this week’s issue). Why is it that more young men of Caribbean origin are in British prisons than in our universities?

The Bible says “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God” (Prov 14:31). It is surely time to take a hard look at our inner cities to see how we can improve life for those who are often stuck in ghettos of poverty, lacking hope and opportunity. This is not a call for compassion - it is a call for justice and righteousness, because “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov 14:34).

More analysis on this issue can be found in ‘Free at Last: The Tottenham Riots and the Legacy of Slavery' (Hill, C, 2014, Wilberforce publications Ltd, London), particularly pp72-74.

MJR exposes a root cause of violent crime in the capital.

The publicity surrounding the rising incidences of knife crime on the streets of London, which has brought about the tragic deaths of 50 (mostly young) people since the start of the year, has led to much questioning and heart-searching about causes.

The Movement for Justice and Reconciliation (MJR) believes that these are rooted in the legacies of the past. In 2019 MJR will be sailing a replica slave-ship around the UK to bring this legacy to the attention of the public.

Unacknowledged Injustice

While not condoning or excusing knife crimes, MJR wants the general public to be aware that these events are not isolated, and that they cannot be simply explained away as ‘criminality’. For them to be dealt with, they and their mostly young perpetrators need to be understood: and that means looking into context.

We believe this context includes issues of historic cultural legacy, where particular pre-dispositions or mind-sets have been passed down through the generations unseen.

Chair of MJR, Rev Alton Bell, said: “An increasing body of academic research is showing that certain negative behavioural symptoms manifesting in modern society can be traced back in our history to the twin oppressions of colonial slavery and industrial exploitation. These symptoms can include violence such as is being currently witnessed on our streets.”

In 2019 MJR will be sailing a replica slave-ship around the UK to bring the legacy of slavery to the attention of the public.

Wide-Reaching Implications

For those of our communities descended from slaves these legacy issues can include personal problems with identity and belonging but, importantly, the legacy problem is also far more wide-reaching, even systemic.

The racist attitudes – structural, organisational and personal – with which our wider society struggles, and which result in black people being far more likely to be poor or in the prison system, can also be shown to be part of this legacy. The fact that it remains largely unacknowledged, let alone addressed, is a massive injustice.

MJR trustee Paul Keeble said: “Our historical amnesia about the exploitation of African slaves that helped make this country rich, has been an attempt to sweep an injustice under the carpet, but it has just left a huge lump that we keep tripping over as a society. Until we admit it is there and seek to address it, these legacy-related tragedies will continue. We cannot simply ‘move on’.”

Raising Public Awareness

In an attempt to bring the issues of legacy to wider public attention, in the summer of 2019 MJR will be sailing a replica slave-ship, called the ‘Zong’, to a number of key ports with associations with the slave trade.

Through on-board and dockside exhibitions, MJR will seek to inform people about the brutality of slavery and the human cost of the Industrial Revolution that has benefitted us all.

Notes

1. The Movement for Justice and Reconciliation is a registered charity, no. 1161441. More information on the MJR website, or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
   
2. The original ‘Zong’ was infamous for the owners claiming on their insurance for the loss of ‘property’ after 133 slaves were thrown overboard when the ship had apparently got into difficulties.
   
3. The 2019 Zong tour schedule is currently being finalised and is subject to confirmation of funding. Ports of call being prepared include Plymouth, Scilly Isles, Bristol, Ilfracombe, Liverpool, Manchester, Whitehaven, Lancaster.

After being treated like dogs ourselves, my wife and I can empathise with our West Indian friends

The scandal of bungling Home Office bureaucracy involving Britain’s West Indian community comes just months after my wife and I were subjected to the humiliation of being refused re-entry to the UK because I had no visa in my South African passport.

Our experience clearly mirrors something of what the so-called Windrush generation are suffering, with threats of deportation amid a general immigration crackdown that has apparently misfired and hit many soft targets.

In our case, it meant we could not board our El Al flight to London from Tel Aviv in Israel. It left us in a great dilemma, with possibly nowhere to go (beside expensive hotels).

Vast Labyrinth of Bureaucracy

Apart from three months on a South African newspaper, I have worked my entire career in this country, paying tax all that time and I even now draw a state pension for my troubles. I also own property (fully paid off) and have lived in Britain for 47 years! As an embassy official admitted to me, the Home Office could easily have made a quick check to verify my credentials. But they deliberately chose instead to make life difficult for me.

Fortunately, we trusted the Lord and he enabled us to cope; in fact, in the end we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we basked in his goodness (even on the beach).

My wife and I were subjected to the humiliation of being refused re-entry to the UK. The Home Office could have helped, but deliberately made life difficult.

I realised that it was part of a new clampdown on immigration designed to persuade the general public that they were seriously doing something about it. But as Home Secretary Amber Rudd has been forced to admit, the vast labyrinth of bureaucracy diverts focus from the individual.

Because of our dilemma, we were forced to stay an extra 11 days in Israel until neighbours were able to mail my old cancelled passports (duly stamped with indefinite leave to stay here) to Beit Immanuel, the CMJ (Church’s Ministry among the Jewish people) guesthouse kind enough to take us in.

Working All Things for Good

A view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa (biblical Joppa) where we spent our enforced extra stay in Israel. Photo: Charles Gardner

Yes, the Lord blessed us mightily in the end, but it was a scary experience and it did cross my mind that I might well be deported to South Africa, and thus be separated from my beloved (British) wife and family.

It was only thanks to our MP, Dame Rosie Winterton (Labour, Doncaster Central), that we managed to get back at all without having to go through the laborious process of applying for a visa (in Tel Aviv) which we were told could take up to six weeks.

The British Embassy there were not much help, apart from offering us use of a computer and phone for a few brief hours. A minder initially treated us like dogs as he tried to shoo us away. We made a number of calls to the Home Office, but were passed from pillar to post as we went round in circles.

I do hope our lovely West Indian friends get the justice they deserve in this appalling situation which shows how little we care about people these days; to Government departments, they are just numbers on a computer register.

In fact, I pray they will experience – as we did – the truth of the Bible promise that “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

The Lord Our Vindicator

During some of our more trying moments as ‘banned’ citizens, I vowed to send the bill for extra expenses incurred to the Home Office, but when I had calmed down and turned my attention back to higher realms, I felt the Lord assuring me that he would both vindicate and compensate us.

When we did finally return home, I discovered that my bank balance was as healthy as it was when we left. God had abundantly provided for us, and met all our needs.

This appalling situation shows how little we care about people these days.

As to vindication, reference the dilemma now faced by the West Indian community. That says it all! Like them, I was a victim of political correctness gone mad.

The case of Sarah O’Connor (Daily Mail, 17 April 2018) is similar in some ways to mine. On recently losing her job, she was denied benefits because she did not have a valid British passport. Like me, she had never got around to applying for one – in her case because she hasn’t left the country in 50-plus years of living here. In my case, I have travelled successfully on a passport issued by my fatherland, of which I am still proud.

As a touching footnote, my half-Jewish grandmother came out to England from Jamaica in 1919; I guess marrying a British officer qualified her for citizenship. So I too have roots in the Caribbean – I used to listen to endless tales of waving palms and beautiful beaches, and of the terrible earthquake my family survived in 1907.

I suppose, compared to that, 11 extra days in sunny Israel was no great hardship!

Paul Luckraft reports on Melanie Phillips’ Yom Hashoah lecture.

This year’s Simon Wiesenthal Memorial Lecture was given by journalist and author Melanie Phillips at St John’s Wood Synagogue on 12 April. The theme, as indicated by the title - ‘Time to Leave? Jews in Britain and Europe’ - was an exploration of anti-Semitism, its main causes and current trends.

The talk was powerfully presented and passionately received by a large audience – present among which was our Resources Editor, Paul Luckraft, who brings us this report.

Storm Clouds Over Europe

Renowned social commentator Melanie Phillips, of Jewish heritage, started her lecture by painting a picture of the current climate for Jews in Britain and Europe. The recent realisation that the Labour Party is riddled with anti-Semitism from the top downwards and the latest atrocities in France mean that these are alarming times for Jews. Fear is on the rise again. In 2017 there was the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK since 1985 when records began. Surges like this usually occur in response to Israeli military action - but not this time.

Equally alarming, she noted, are the increasing numbers of synagogues being attacked and Jews being taunted in the streets in countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. This is against the backdrop of the rise of nationalistic parties in Europe and surveys showing that in many countries there is a significant percentage of the population who don’t wish to see Jews in their country - certainly not on their street!

These are alarming times for Jews in Britain and Europe.

Phillips’ sobering conclusion was that it is possible to see clear signs of history repeating itself - a gathering storm similar to that within the Weimar Republic of the 1930s. But this time there are significant differences. In Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism was state policy. This is not the case in modern European countries, but the parties in power seem to be ineffectual in combatting the evident rise in this, the oldest of all hatreds.

Islamic Jew-Hatred

The reasons behind this rise, Phillips argued, also seem more complicated and interconnected than in the 1930s. Some come from the political left, some from the political right and some from the arrival and growth of Islam.

The fruit of the latter, she posited, is growing increasingly apparent in many areas of Western society. For instance, the large number of jihadis now in the UK (25,000), of which 3,000 are under constant investigation or monitoring. Or the level of sexual violence targeting white girls - as highlighted by the Rotherham case, merely one of several such cases in the UK as well as in other countries such as Germany and Sweden. But, she rightly noted, these incidents cannot be adequately reported or tackled nowadays without facing accusations of racism or Islamophobia.

The UK and Europe generally refuse to accept these sorts of incidents (as well as other, directly anti-Semitic ones) as being based on religion. The threats are not acknowledged as being basically Islamic. The charge of being Islamophobic makes it difficult to draw attention to any kind of Islamic hatred – including Jew-hatred.

Not all Muslims, of course, adopt these views, nor would consider doing so. Some also feel under threat from Islamist groups, and do not want to see anti-Semitism increase either. This needs to be constantly stressed, yet these Muslims also feel restricted in speaking out and objecting. Nevertheless, Islam more broadly holds that modernity as found in the West must be destroyed if Islam is to flourish here, and that Jews are a fundamental part of this problem.

The charge of being Islamophobic makes it difficult to draw attention to any kind of Islamic hatred – including Jew-hatred.

Intriguingly, present within European politics and culture is a different, but no less toxic, anti-Western sentiment – the inevitable result of the continent dismantling its own traditional cultures and values. This undermining from the inside out is a threat against which the West, at present, cannot defend itself.

The West’s Cultural Suicide

Phillips argued compellingly that we cannot fully understand anti-Semitism in the UK and Europe unless we realise that the West has ripped up its own cultural foundations. Moreover, the West is now seen as the main oppressor in the world (a view held most strongly by those on the political left). These two facts have changed everything in recent times.

The key driver behind the ascent of these beliefs about Western civilisation was, in Phillips’ view, the Holocaust, which smashed Europe’s belief in itself as a continent of enlightenment and high culture. It wasn’t just the Jews who died in the concentration camps - but the West’s own self-confidence in its values and civility.

As a result, she suggested, the West took an axe to its own roots and began to radically alter the way it operated - especially in areas such as education and the family. Transnationalism became viewed as the best way forward, as nationalistic views were considered too parochial and likely to cause more harm. International groups, such as the UN and EU, were to take precedence over national governments.

This new globalist way forward also meant incorporating a different morality and a sense of multiculturalism as an idealistic norm. Politically, the extreme left became mainstream, as a new version of Marxism was called upon to help reshape our society and culture.

Anti-Zionism: The New Anti-Semitism

Another key event Phillips brought to the attention of the audience was the Six Day War (1967), which fomented a new kind of anti-Semitism centred upon the state of Israel. No longer the victims, Jews were recast as the aggressors. Israel was now to be delegitimised and demonised - not through rational arguments but with a torrent of dehumanising abuse and irrational malice.

Phillips was quick to stress that though this anti-Israel fervour could be called anti-Zionism, in reality it is just anti-Semitism in another form. Any distinction is bogus: the new anti-Zionism cannot be split from its anti-Semitic roots.

Phillips was quick to stress that though this anti-Israel fervour could be called anti-Zionism, in reality it is just anti-Semitism in another form.

Israel is now seen as menacing and powerful, but this, she maintained, is a paranoid delusion. In reality, Israel has only become powerful in order to defend itself. Initially the Jewish nation was accepted by the West, which was crippled with guilt and self-doubt after the Holocaust. Now though, Israel can no longer claim victimhood. They are the aggressors, while the Palestinian Arabs have become the new victim group which demands our support. And this changes everything.

Activists protest in support of the Gaza 'March of Return', New York. See Photo Credits.According to Phillips, victims, by definition, cannot be victimisers. Nor are they held responsible for their own shortcomings. They have a ready-made excuse for their actions – “we’re the victims here!” They are placed beyond criticism and are effectively handed a ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ to react however they like to those who are perceived to be victimising them.

Meanwhile, Jews can no longer be regarded as victims. When they emerged from the Holocaust, they were the supreme victims, but since then they have gained power and wealth throughout the world. And this is now resented. Obviously they are intent on taking over the world (and so the old anti-Semitic conspiracies are revived)!

One incredible feature of this diatribe highlighted by Phillips is the appearance of the claim that Jews burnt Arabs in the concentration camps! Here is not just Holocaust denial, but Holocaust reversal.

Victim culture is now at the heart of left-wing politics, and victim culture is essentially anti-Jew. So, Phillips concluded, the Labour Party is caught up in anti-Semitism which is intrinsic to its politics - and will remain so even with a change of leader.¹

Europe’s Lost Soul

Why is anti-Semitism so much on the rise in the West? Because, Phillips argues, the West is in cultural disarray. It is starting to disintegrate, bringing this trouble upon itself.

According to Melanie Phillips, Europe lost its soul after the Holocaust and is now floundering. Immigration policies are creating turmoil, as migration is viewed as inherently a good thing (to say otherwise would be racist). As a result, Islamic ‘no-go zones’ have started appearing in many countries. Traditional cultures have become fragmented and weak. Real threats abound, but governments are helpless, hamstrung by their own policies and beliefs.

Europe lost its soul after the Holocaust and is now floundering.

In such times of transformation and confusion, she noted, prejudices easily arise and old ones will always re-surface. One reason why there is so much Jew-hatred is simply because there is now much more hatred in general.

Europe may be becoming increasingly Islamic, but it will not go down without a fight. Either way the Jews will be caught in the middle and are likely to suffer accordingly. They will continue to be accused of many things, including of fuelling claims of anti-Semitism in tactical pursuit of their own malicious aims.

Is it Time to Leave?

So, is it time for the Jews to leave Western Europe? According to Phillips, it could be said this question is an overreaction based on paranoia, rather than a fair one. Yet the final choice of whether to leave or stay is always a personal one. For individual Jews, the key question may well be, ‘where do I feel safer?’

Although Israel is surrounded by enemies with thousands of missiles pointing in its direction, it is increasingly being said by Jews that they feel safer there than in a continent which seems to be in danger of repeating the grave errors of its past.

A sobering thought indeed.

A video of the Simon Wiesenthal Memorial lecture is now available online. We welcome Melanie Phillips’ insightful social commentary, more of which can be found on her blog, www.melaniephillips.com.

You may also be interested to watch this week’s fiery Parliamentary debate on the rise of anti-Semitism – click here for the full debate.

Notes

1 Moreover, the left asserts that to be anti-Semitic you must be fascist and hence on the right. On that basis it is impossible for those on the left to be anti-Semitic: they exonerate themselves.

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.

Today’s community problems through a historical lens.

This week has seen the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, the great American civil rights campaigner. His famous speech ‘I have a dream’ the day before his death is one of the iconic moments in American history. Dr King’s dream of equality that would be enjoyed by his children has not yet come true, despite great strides of progress that brought a black President to power in the USA.

In those days, I was involved in race and community relations at an international level and I was jointly responsible with the late Canon John Collins for organising a Memorial Service in St Paul’s Cathedral at which Coretta King, MLK’s widow, gave a passionate and moving address. It seems ironic that 50 years later more people have died violent deaths on the streets of London already this year than in New York and many of these have been linked with London’s black minority population.

Why is this? I have lived and worked in the ethnically mixed areas of London throughout my working life and I’m well aware of the complexities of social issues linked with poverty, deprivation, family breakdown, fatherlessness, gang life, poor education, low employment expectations and many other factors.

Anti-knife/gun protests in Hackney, Thursday 5 April 2018. See Photo Credits.

I understand the frustration and anger that brought residents out onto the street yesterday in Hackney with their demands for major policy changes to make the streets safe for their children – seven more people were stabbed in London last night!

But there is one outstanding factor that no politician and few social reformers want to touch. That is the legacy of slavery – especially to be found in communities with links to the Caribbean islands which suffered centuries of extreme cruelty under British colonial rule.

A Stain on British History

A new revelation in the past month has thrown fresh light on this subject, thanks to a Guardian article published just last week. It referred to a Treasury tweet (since withdrawn!) showing that when slavery in the British Caribbean was abolished in 1833 the British Government took out a huge loan to raise the £20 million required to accomplish the abolition.

That huge sum - £300 billion in today’s money - was needed to pay compensation: not to the slaves who had been captured in Africa, transported across the Atlantic and forced to work on the sugar plantations of the Caribbean islands, suffering indescribable cruelty, but to the owners of the slaves. Thousands of people in Britain were paid from this fund for the loss of their ‘property’, but not a penny was paid to the slaves themselves.

50 years on from Martin Luther King’s death, more people are dying on the streets of London than in New York.

That colossal injustice, a stain on our national history, has never been acknowledged in Britain. As a nation, for 200 years we have either ignored or carefully hidden our involvement in the slave trade and the extent to which British prosperity was built upon the proceeds of slavery. 

In 1800, seven years before the abolition of the slave trade, some two thirds of the British economy was said to be in some way linked with slavery and it undoubtedly fuelled the growth of the Industrial Revolution that prospered great cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and London.

Generations of children in British schools, right up until 2007, were taught nothing about the slave trade. Any mention of slavery was usually taught in the context of the USA and slavery in the cornfields of the southern states of America, but never any mention of Barbados or Jamaica or Trinidad or the other Caribbean islands.

But the zenith of British hypocrisy and injustice has only just come to light.

The Price of Injustice

The great conspiracy of silence of our Government has only just been revealed in the Treasury tweet. It is that the massive loan raised to pay compensation to the people who owned slaves or shares in a slave plantation has taken nearly 200 years to be paid off and was only cleared three years ago, in 2015! And it was paid off by the Treasury using British taxpayers’ money!

This means that millions of people in Britain today have been paying to reward people who trafficked and abused thousands of human lives.

Millions of modern Brits have been paying to reward people who trafficked and abused thousands of human lives.

It is therefore an historical fact that the African Caribbeans who first began coming to Britain on the Empire Windrush in 1948 as ex-soldiers who had fought for Britain in the Second World War and were invited to come to help re-build our cities after the Blitz, have actually been paying for the freedom of their forebears.

A replica slave ship was sailed up the Thames to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, 2007.Generations of tax-paying Caribbeans in Britain have been contributing to paying off the money that was paid to white people in Britain who prospered from the suffering of their great-grandparents (who were not actually given their freedom until 1838, five years after the Act of Emancipation in Westminster).

This is the legacy of slavery that hangs over the Caribbean islands and the Caribbean community in Britain today. In 1838 slaves were given their freedom but there was no attempt to give them any compensation for their suffering or even any help to make a living! In all the years since then there has been no attempt to invest in schools or industry or community development, or any other means to stimulate prosperity for the people.

They have just been left to themselves to build their economies and to shape their societies by whatever means they could find in the modern, competitive, international world.

Quiet Cover-Up

This colossal injustice is part of the legacy of slavery that has been quietly covered by successive British governments and has only now become known through an accidental tweet from the Treasury.

It was actually in 2015, when the loan was finally cleared, that the British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Jamaica and promised to help – what was his promise? – to build a prison! No promise of help with economic or community development or educational grants – and of course, no mention of an apology for 300 years of enslavement!

This is the one great thing that our politicians will not do – say sorry! To say how much we, as a nation, deeply regret that period in our history when we enslaved our fellow human beings from Africa.

The one thing that our politicians will not do is say sorry!

 Let Justice Roll On!

One of the great truths that is revealed through the prophets in the Bible is that God hates injustice. The Prophet Amos thunders against those who despise the truth, who trample the poor, who oppress the righteous and take bribes, who deprive the poor of justice in the courts. He says: “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24).

The time has surely come not only to recognise the injustices of the past, but to do something in the present day: to see what measures can be taken to stimulate prosperity and well-being in the Caribbean islands and, most importantly, to consult community and church leaders in the Caribbean communities in Britain, to say how sorry we are as a nation for the injustices of the past, to listen to them and to take positive measures to deal with the complex social issues they face.

It is not enough to condemn knife crime or to bemoan the killings in London. We have to do something to deal with the real issues that no politician has so far had the courage to face.

Read The Guardian’s article here.

Issachar Ministries, our parent charity, is involved in a budding work to address the issues outlined in the article above, called the ‘Movement for Justice and Reconciliation’, or MJR. Click here to find out about the work that MJR is doing.

David Noakes continues his commentary on the state of the charismatic movement.

Having considered how counterfeit spiritual activity has infiltrated the church, David now turns to the dangers of false doctrine, before applying these insights to the Kansas City Prophets.

Warnings of False Doctrine

Jesus, Paul and John have all warned us concerning the dangers of counterfeit spiritual activity. There is also, however, a second major aspect of deception about which the Scriptures warn, and it is that of false doctrine.

Paul speaks about it numerous times in his letters, for example in 2 Corinthians 11:1-4, in Galatians 1:6-9 and in Colossians 2:8-23. He warns in 1 Timothy 4:1 that “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars...”.

Let us be clear about what Paul is saying: it is a warning principally for the closing days of the age - 'later times'. It is a warning that Christians will fall away: you cannot abandon a faith unless you have first been a party to it. The false teachings will not be man-made, but demonically-inspired by deceiving spirits, and they will come through people who are hypocrites and liars; like the 'savage wolves' of Acts 20:29-30, they will be falsely motivated so as to draw people away from the truth in order to obtain a following for themselves.

It is of vital importance in these days that we are alert to the dangers of false teaching. Those of us who teach must be diligent to declare the whole counsel of God; it was only on that basis that Paul was able to declare himself innocent of the blood of all who had heard him (Acts 20:26-27) and he was warning the elders of the church at Ephesus to be equally diligent.

It is of vital importance in these days that we are alert to the dangers of false teaching.

All believers should cultivate the habit of the 'noble Bereans' (Acts 17:11), who did not accept even the teaching of Paul as being true until they had examined it in the light of the scriptures. How we in the church need in these days to re-examine our diet of the seemingly-endless flow of books and magazines, and to ensure that above all we are fully acquainted and familiar with the whole of the Bible. Only by knowing what is in God's word can we walk in safety. 

A Time Will Come…

Paul's chief warning concerning false doctrine is found in 2 Timothy 4:1-4. He has just encouraged Timothy at the end of chapter 3 concerning the importance of holding fast to Scripture, underlining that “all Scripture is God-breathed...so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv16-17, emphasis added). We need to note that there are those in leadership in the Church of God in these days who do not believe in the inspiration of Scripture; if they thus declare the word of God to be untrue concerning itself, we must then question the validity of whatever else such men may say.

In chapter 4, Paul urges Timothy to preach the Word “with great patience and careful instruction” (v2), particularly in the light of the fact that “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (vv3-4). 

I believe we are now living in such days. A factor which has lately become of particular concern is the coming together of the two major facets of deception - counterfeit spiritual activity and false doctrine - in such a way as to support and reinforce one another. This brings great danger to the Body of Christ, particularly as many believers now have only a very limited knowledge of what is contained in the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, the warning of Moses to the people of Israel is that they may encounter a prophet who predicts signs and wonders which do in fact come to pass but that this in itself is not sufficient to validate him as a true man of God; for if he then teaches them falsely so as to lead them astray, he is to be regarded as a false prophet.

Biblically, therefore, the acid test of the genuineness of a man's ministry lies not in signs and wonders, nor even in accurate predictions, but in his faithfulness to the Lord in declaring doctrine which is in accordance with God's word.

How we in the church need in these days to re-examine our diet of books and magazines, and to ensure that above all we are fully acquainted with the Bible.

The Kansas City Prophets

In recent years, this biblical principle of giving pre-eminence to the revealed word of God has been turned upside down. In 1990 came the experience of the ‘Kansas City Prophets’.

These men were brought to the charismatic church in Britain that year on a wave of publicity concerning their outstanding prophetic ministry, and particularly of a specific predictive prophecy that a great revival would break out in this country in October 1990. It did not, to the dismay and embarrassment of many church leaders who had publicly endorsed this ministry, and to the great disappointment of thousands of believers who had believed that their longings for revival were about to be realised and that they would see dramatic events.

This sort of happening is dishonouring to the name of the Lord, bringing his Church into ridicule in the eyes of those who had been exposed to the extensive publicity, particularly in the mass media. It also undermines the belief that the Holy Spirit does bring genuine prophecy to the Church for our up-building and enlightenment.

Furthermore, the shock and disappointment has damaging and far-reaching effects. For many years God's people in the charismatic churches have been given by their leaders specific words of prophecy and much teaching of a prophetic nature which has been triumphalist in flavour, encouraging expectations of mighty visitations of God, of great numerical increase, and of the Church enjoying an experience of exercising power and authority in the world, equipped with unparalleled supernatural spiritual power.

This kind of teaching has been entirely at odds with the biblical picture of a suffering servant Church displaying the humility of her Master, preaching the Gospel in the last days under increasing pressure and persecution. It brings with it a particular danger from which we are now, I believe, beginning to reap harmful results.

Triumphalist teaching and words of prophecy is entirely at odds with the biblical picture of a suffering servant Church.

Where leaders have continued to promise great things to the people and those promises have gone unfulfilled, the leaders come under an increasing sense of pressure to deliver the goods which have been promised; and the people's experience of disappointment, of hope continually deferred, leads to disillusionment. 

The scene is thus set for the entry of deception, because both leaders and people become desperate at the failed predictions and dashed hopes, and both are increasingly likely to grasp at any straw which appears at last to bring fulfilment.

In such circumstances the counterfeit can all too easily succeed, because the need for something, anything, to fill the gap overrides the Godly caution which should test and discern the source of what is being offered, before it is accepted as genuine.

Triumphalist Teaching

The doctrine brought by the Kansas City Prophets was very much in line with the triumphalism of Restorationist teaching and expectations. The teaching was based upon specific prophecies which have been reproduced in articles 15-19 in this series. It was that God was raising up in the Church an ‘end-time breed of dread warriors', before whose power and authority nothing would be able to stand. They would be an all-conquering army; and the scriptural basis for that teaching was taken from Joel 2:2-11.

To base such a doctrine on that passage of Scripture, however, is entirely fallacious. Arising immediately from the preceding description of the effects of a great plague of locusts, the passage describes an all-consuming army invading the Land of Israel, and taken in its context of “the day of the Lord” (vv1-2, 11), it is speaking prophetically of an invading army sent by God to execute his final judgment against Judah and Jerusalem at the end of the age. Certainly its fulfilment is yet in the future, at the time of Jacob's tribulation (Jer 30); but it does not refer to the Church.

Nowhere in Scripture does God call his Church to be an invading army to execute judgment. Nor does it speak of a worldwide domination; the specific geographical setting is the Land of Israel and in particular the City of Zion.

Such teaching, based on a complete distortion of this passage from the word of God, displays the worst sort of error in interpretation. It takes specific predictive prophecy, converts it into an allegory which is not to be found in the text that the invaders represent Christian 'dread warriors' and then bases a doctrine upon that allegorical fancy. It is not merely nonsense, however. It is also dangerous to the Church because of the numbers of leaders who received it with gladness and were willing to let their people believe such teaching.

Where leaders have promised great things to the people and those promises have gone unfulfilled, there is increasing pressure on leaders to deliver the goods – setting the scene for the entry of deception.

Why should such false doctrine be so gladly and easily received? It was received gladly because it reinforced all the false doctrine and false prophecy which had been accepted during the previous 15 years. 

It was also received easily, I believe, for a subtler and deadlier reason, which is to be found in the coming together to reinforce one another of the two main strands of deception - counterfeit spiritual manifestations and false teaching - to which I have already referred. Let us now consider the topic a little further.

Put to the Test

The Kansas City Prophets came to Britain as guests whose ministry was being invited and welcomed by many prominent church leaders in the country. Some of us had been unhappy about this visit, because we were not at ease with their style of ministry or their doctrine, and in particular we had said publicly that we did not believe the specific prophecy concerning the outbreak of revival in October 1990 to have come from the Lord.

During the summer of 1990 there was a preliminary gathering where the ministry of these men was presented to an invited group of national charismatic church leaders. Some remained unhappy and unconvinced, but others were willing at the end to sign a statement approving of the ministry as being valid. In view of the doctrine already mentioned, one might have expected the ministry to be regarded as questionable on those grounds with no further evidence being necessary; but there was a further ingredient involved.

An outstanding and spectacular feature of the ministry lay in the singling out by name from the public platform of individual members of the audience with whom the speaker was apparently not acquainted. Words of knowledge were given concerning those individuals, relating to aspects of their past life and their present circumstances, and usually completed with encouraging prophecy concerning their future. The accuracy of the words of knowledge brought amazement and served to convince many that they should attest the ministry as being from God.

To be convinced on these grounds alone, however, is to make an assumption which can be dangerously misleading. There is, of course, no question but that such words of knowledge could certainly have been given by revelation from the Holy Spirit; but we need to be alert to the fact that this is not the only possibility where supernatural spiritual activity is being manifested. It is essential also to take other factors into account in order to be sure of the source from which the manifestation originates.

One factor, the nature of the doctrine, we have already mentioned; in addition there is the scriptural injunction to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1), and a further matter of vital importance is whether what is happening is consistent with the revelation of Scripture: is it in character for the God of the Bible to be acting in this sort of way? An understanding of the ways of God as revealed in his word is of great importance: according to Psalm 95:10, quoted again in Hebrews 3:10, the hearts of God's people go astray when they do not know his ways.

We charismatic Christians can be terrifyingly gullible when it comes to supernatural spiritual manifestation. We assume that because a thing looks right, it is right. A good counterfeit always looks right unless and until it is put to the test.

We charismatic Christians can be terrifyingly gullible when it comes to supernatural spiritual manifestation.

When a word of knowledge is true, we assume that this means that it must have come from God. That is an assumption which is unsafe to make, and one which the word of God demonstrates to be so. In Acts 16:16-18, we find the following account of the experience of Paul and Silas with a slave girl who had a spirit of divination:

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved”. She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned round and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

There was not one false word in the slave girl's statement about Paul and Silas. The spirit of divination was speaking absolute factual truth through her. Yet Paul discerned that the source of her knowledge was false and commanded the evil spirit to leave her.

What a lesson this contains for us in these days. How much we need to be alert and discerning, aware of the subtleties of the Adversary. satan has no objection to presenting us with any amount of factual truth, but always with a false motive. If true statements will cause us to lower our guard and be lulled into a false sense of security, then he will willingly use them to pave the way so that when the lie finally comes we will not detect it.

If, by a spirit of divination, he can give us a number of accurate words of knowledge so as to convince us that God is the source from which this spiritual manifestation is coming, then he will gladly oblige; once we have made the mistaken assumption that all is from God and all is well, we will then without hesitation accept the false teaching which follows.

It is imperative that we learn the ways of God from Scripture. The doctrine of Joel's Army was false and the ministry should have been questioned on those grounds alone. In addition, however, we need to ask the question: 'Would Jesus in person be doing such a thing in such a way?', specifically in this case: 'Would Jesus personally stand on a public platform and dispense words of knowledge for no apparent reason other than to display the fact that he had the ability to do so?'

The answer in light of Scripture would be a resounding NO! Jesus was never willing to perform spiritual signs to order, as a performance for its own sake. He did so when it was necessary for the purpose of exercising the compassion of God towards the needy; the signs confirmed the truth of the word which he spoke and they were certainly indications of his Messiahship, but he chose to communicate his authority through the words which he spoke, not through the signs and wonders.

satan has no objection to presenting us with any amount of factual truth, but with a false motive - to lower our guard so that when the lie finally comes we will not detect it.

Indeed, Jesus often told those whom he healed to keep quiet about it. In these days, however, we are more impressed by the signs than by the truth of the word and it brings us into great danger of deception. 

Believing without question or testing that the source of origin of the signs is genuine, we easily swallow the bait which has masked the hidden hook of false doctrine to bring us into error.

A Vivid Picture

During the summer of 1990, the members of the ministry team of which I was part met together for a day to pray and wait upon the Lord about this perplexing matter of the then-impending visit of the Kansas City Prophets. During that time, I received and shared a vivid mental picture.

I saw first a large, flat, empty expanse of sand on a seashore. The sea was a very long way back down the beach, and scattered about on the sand were a number of large rocks, all of which seemed to be about four to five feet high. Each rock had a flat top on which was a small lighthouse.

The picture then changed. The rocks no longer supported lighthouses but were otherwise unaltered. The sands were covered with many people, enjoying themselves on the beach on a fine warm day. Then, as I watched, there came sweeping in across the sand a sudden very swift flood-tide. Nobody had time to get out of its way, except for some who scrambled onto the tall rocks and stood there, above the level of the water, which seemed to be about three to four feet deep.

There was no panic from those in the water. After momentary surprise, they were splashing around and shouting to those who were up on the rocks: “Come on in, the water's warm and it feels lovely”, but those on the rocks were refusing, saying “we don't trust it”.

Then, as suddenly as the flood-tide had come in, it receded back across the sands and all those in the water were swept out with it. The sands were now empty again except for those standing on the rocks, who I saw had now become the lighthouses which I had first seen.

Asking the Lord what this meant, I received the understanding that the flood-tide signified a coming wave of deception; it was not the first and it would recede, but it would not be the last, and further, more potent waves of deception would come. Those who remained happily in the water were deceived by the fleshly appeal of what was happening to them, and their failure to discern the true nature of it and withdraw would mean that they would be easily swept into the next wave when it came, and further deceived.

Those who stood on the rocks were those who stood on the rock of God's word and distrusted what was suddenly happening, and they would continue to be as lighthouses of warning when further flood-tides came in to try to deceive God's people.

Next week: David offers his testimony of his personal encounter with the Toronto Movement.

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’. Click here for previous instalments. References to time spans have been edited where necessary.

East-West relations hit a new low.

The attempted assassination of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury last week has created dangerous worldwide repercussions.

Theresa May’s forthright condemnation of Russia as being responsible for the attack upon British soil has quickly led to the support of other Western nations, creating the possibility of an East-West split such as we have not seen since the end of the Cold War.

There were heated exchanges in the UN Security Council in which Russia strongly denied any involvement in the Salisbury incident that also left a policeman seriously ill. Russia demanded absolute proof of the material in the attack as claimed by Britain. Speaking on behalf of the United States, US ambassador Nikki Haley said:

Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: The United States stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a ‘military-grade’ nerve agent.

Earlier, in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Theresa May had said that there were only two possible explanations for the nerve agent being used in the UK: either Moscow was directly responsible for the attack, or it has lost control of its stockpile of chemical weapons.

A Defining Moment

This is clearly a defining moment in East-West relationships as Britain is a member of NATO and under that agreement, an attack upon one member is regarded as an attack upon the whole organisation. The four major NATO nations - Britain, the USA, France and Germany - have jointly declared Russia to be guilty of the attack.

There is mounting anti-Russian propaganda in the Western press and on social media which could get out of hand and even escalate into war with Russia. I know this sounds highly improbable but we live in unstable times, and there are some very unpredictable politicians currently leading the nations.

This is a defining moment in East-West relations that could easily escalate.

President Putin has recently been boasting that Russia’s latest weaponry is capable of detecting and destroying American Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and in an interview with NBC, and he said that nuclear retaliation would be immediate for any attack on Russia or its allies - nuclear or 'conventional'.¹ Fighting words! He has been raising the temperature of international relationships. All of this is highly dangerous in a world with so many nations having weapons of mass destruction.

Fears of Armageddon

Inevitably, fears of some kind of Armageddon are being raised. There are many warnings in the Bible of worldwide destruction. The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the earth being broken up: “The earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind” (24:19).

In former generations, biblical scholars usually interpreted these scenes of mass destruction as being metaphorical, because it was unimaginable that destruction on such a scale could ever become a reality. Today we know that the weapons of mass destruction now in the hands of the nations, if they were actually used, could in a few minutes cause the widespread devastation described by Isaiah.

The Day of the Lord?

The difficulty we face is that there is no timeline linked to the eschatological passages in the Bible. Sometimes it is unclear whether descriptions of destruction refer to the time leading up to Jesus’ return, or God’s final act of wrapping up the whole of Creation at the end of Jesus’ thousand-year reign on the earth. This is the case for 2 Peter 3:

The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare…That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.

Historically, biblical scholars usually interpreted scenes of mass destruction in the Bible as metaphorical – but now weapons of mass destruction have made them a distinct possibility.

Jesus himself spoke of times of great distress in the period leading up to his own Second Coming when he will establish the Kingdom. He said “There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars. On the earth nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world for the heavenly bodies will be shaken” (Luke 21:25). And this is elaborated in Matthew 24 where Jesus speaks of “nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom”.

What are we to make of all these predictions of worldwide destruction? The big question we have to face when dealing with biblical prophecy is whether or not the events revealed are given as foretelling facts that will undoubtedly happen, or whether they are given as signs to give human beings the opportunity of changing direction - in accordance with God’s promise in Jeremiah 18 – to avoid the massive devastation foreseen.

I personally believe that some of the threats of judgment such as Isaiah 2:12-22 and Isaiah 24 are given to us in the Bible as warnings of what could happen. My reason is because I believe in the sovereignty of God – that he holds the nations in his hands “as a drop in a bucket” as Isaiah says (40:15). Despite all human activity, God is still in ultimate control and he is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2:13).

To the Ends of the Earth!

It may be that the times in which we are living, when there is increasing risk of the nations plunging into the horrors of World War III, God is saying something very special and very urgent to those of his people who are watching and listening.

God is drawing our attention to the warnings that he has given through the prophets and through Jesus and the apostles. And through the Holy Spirit, the Father is empowering us, his children, to warn the world of the direction in which it is heading and to bring a message of salvation that points to “a new and living way”. This is the message of the Gospel that has been entrusted to us, his people.

God’s stated intention is that his message of salvation should be taken to the ends of the earth. If ever there were a day when those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour should each be active in our own sphere of influence to declare the truth of the Gospel, it surely is today!

Author’s Note: I know that this brief excursion into biblical eschatology is far from adequate; but my major intention here is simply to open up the subject of the great threat that confronts our world today, to stimulate discussion among our readers in the hope that the Gospel message may reach many, including the leaders of the nations.

References

1 See the full interview transcript here. Excerpts are available on Youtube.

The Government’s sticking-plaster solution for domestic abuse.

Our Victorian forefathers used to boast “An Englishman’s home is his castle”. What went on in the home was nobody’s business outside the family. Family life was closely guarded and anything that damaged the image of the family was considered a public disgrace.

That desire to keep family life hidden from the public is still very much evident today but it presents great danger for many women and children. This is highlighted by a Government bill on domestic violence drafted this week. The intention is to increase the penalty for domestic abuse through tougher sentences on offenders. But is tagging offenders and longer prison sentences the right way of dealing with this issue?

Shocking Statistics

The statistics are quite shocking – some 2 million women in England and Wales suffer some form of domestic violence every year, according to the ONS. They say that one in four women will suffer abuse at some point in their lives. So what goes on behind closed doors and shutters is far more serious than is generally recognised.

Most women who suffer abuse do not report to any of the authorities; they keep quiet. It usually takes numerous acts of violence before a woman goes to the police to report her partner. Statistics show that on average two women are killed every week in England and Wales by their partner or ex-partner.

Clearly this is a situation that cannot be ignored and greater protection needs to be offered, not only to victims but to children growing up in family homes where there is constant violence. Untold harm is done to these children that affects their education and their emotional and mental health, and leaves lifelong scars.

The ONS says that one in four women will suffer abuse at some point in their lives – but most do not report it to the authorities.

We Reap What We Sow

How have we reached this point where a quarter of all households shelter a violent abuser? I can remember the strong warnings that Mary Whitehouse used to give when she constantly opposed violent programmes on TV and scenes of extreme violence on film and video. She was vehemently opposed by secular humanists and libertarians who said that there was no harm in watching violent films – it was just harmless entertainment.

But the statistics for violent crime tell a different story. The plain fact is that we reap what we have sown! If the public absorb a regular diet of violence, pornography and various forms of perversion, this will be reflected in the behaviour of a significant proportion of the public – particularly those who do not have happy and stable family home lives.

It’s probably much too late to do anything about curbing the vast quantity of obscene material available on the internet and other sources of entertainment, including violent video games for which many young people have an obsession. But sadly, even the Government’s bill, hailed by both the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister as a ‘ground-breaking’ piece of legislation, will do little to solve the continuing problem of domestic violence.

A Much Bigger Problem

The new law will allow offences committed by British citizens anywhere in the world to be prosecuted in UK courts. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said “These measures will help bring us justice to women who experience these abhorrent crimes anywhere in the world and shows perpetrators there is nowhere to hide”. Theresa May said that the new law would “completely transform the way we tackle domestic abuse.”

Of course, we welcome measures to strengthen the law dealing with offenders but we cannot share the optimism of the Home Secretary or the PM. If we are really to see ground-breaking changes in behaviour, we have to change the culture that gives rise to domestic violence and abuse in family life.

If the public absorb a regular diet of violence, pornography and various forms of perversion, this will be reflected in behaviour.

If we are to tackle the problem of domestic abuse, we have to recognise that in a single generation we have grossly devalued marriage and family life in the nation! What we are suffering from today is the deliberate destruction of the biblical values of the sanctity of life – of human beings, both male and female created by God in his own image – and of the covenant of marriage that unites a man and a woman in a lifelong bond of love, providing the ideal environment for the procreation and nurture of children.

These biblical values, part of Britain’s godly heritage, have been deliberately destroyed by powerful secular humanist lobbies whose objectives are to create anarchy, breaking down the mores that have given stability to the nation for centuries. What we are seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg of the lawless chaos of the next generation, when all restraints on the behaviour of individuals are removed.

One Hope for Salvation

The churches in Britain have been complicit in the corruption of society and the destruction of national biblical foundations by allowing liberal values to corrupt and weaken the proclamation of the Gospel.

At Billy Graham’s funeral last week his daughter Anne Graham gave a strong and courageous call to Christians to recover confidence in the Gospel and declare the word of God fearlessly in a corrupt generation. We echo this call for Christians no longer to be bound by political correctness, but to declare the truth that will set people free from the tyranny of moral and spiritual corruption that is driving the nation to national suicide.

Christians need to no longer be bound by political correctness, but declare the truth that will set people free.

What will save Britain? Not a hard Brexit, or a soft Brexit, or remaining under the dominance of the EU! Those who are listening to the Lord today are hearing warnings similar to those God gave to Jeremiah:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth” (Jer 25:32)

The only thing that will save the nation from destruction is to hear the word of God and for the light of its truth to shine upon the great issues of state that confront us. We need to hear the word of the Lord proclaimed - in Parliament, in the public square and in the churches!!