The demise of Thomas Cook.

Yochana Darling shares the vision of a Mediterranean safe house for God’s persecuted people.

Christian love for Israel displayed on Welsh heights

Beautiful feet have once again ascended the mountains of Wales to announce good news for the people of Israel.

For the fourth year running, the North Wales-based Fathers House Sabbath Congregation has incorporated a strong message about Christian support for Israel with a great deal of fun, at the same time bringing extra meaning to the Prophet Isaiah’s statement: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’" (Isa 52:7).

Wonderful Display of Advocacy

Christians from Holland joined believers from the Shotton, Deeside, congregation as they ran or walked 8km across the lovely Clwydian range carrying Israeli flags and dressed in Run for Israel t-shirts. The event was followed by a barbecue at a nearby mountain orchard.

Fathers House pastor Mike Fryer explained: “This mountain range draws over three quarters of a million walkers a year from all over the world and the wonderful display of Christian advocacy for Israel was seen by tourists who had come to visit.

“There was of course the odd anti-Semitic comment but the majority of tourists thanked the participants for such fun-loving and passionate support for Israel. Israeli flags and directional signs with Israeli insignia, displayed throughout the area, were left undamaged – re-enforcing the understanding among leaders of the event that anti-Semitism is a minority view in Wales for whom Israel is generally seen as a respected nation.”

Mike’s statement is borne out by a colleague of mine who tours churches around the UK teaching on God’s purposes for the Jews and finds the people of Wales particularly knowledgeable and responsive.

9^th Av

In another show of support for Israel, Christians are taking part this weekend in an initiative called the Nations’ 9^th Av – a date on the Hebrew calendar associated with many tragedies and thus used as a traditional day of Jewish mourning (falling in 2019 on this weekend, 11 August).

Followers of Jesus are using it as an opportunity to confess and pray through the atrocities committed against the Jewish people in the name of Christianity over the past 2,000 years.

Find out more at https://9-av.com/. 

Clifford Denton reviews ‘Beloved Warrior’ by Gail Dixon (ICT Media Tech/Print, 2019)

Gail Dixon has been in Christian ministry and missionary work for nearly 40 years, first with World Horizons and more lately leading its sister organisation, Nations Trust. This inspiring devotional book emerges from her wide-ranging experiences and is based on personal reflection over a long life of discipleship.

One imagines her sitting before the Lord, after all these years of walking with him and praying to him, and being inspired to share the most central aspects of her relationship with him. What has resulted is a book is about the covenant love of Jesus within the battle for the salvation of many - hence the title, Beloved Warrior.

The Battle and the Warrior

Gail includes some remarkable accounts of the intensity of this wider battle, which have resulted in fruit being borne for the Kingdom in lives saved and transformed by Jesus’ love. The accounts draw on both scriptural examples, of those who have gone before, and a multitude of modern-day examples.

But even though the book is about the battle for salvation, the book is structured around and focused on Jesus, the Beloved Warrior. Each of its ten chapters focus on a different characteristic of our Saviour and our relationship with him, including prayer, worship, rest, perseverance, faithfulness and surrender.

Beautiful Writing

Gail seeks to draw the reader into experiencing the Lord’s love and sharing it with others, whatever the commitment and cost. Her writing is scriptural, tender and powerful:

His warfare is full of mercy, full of healing, because the weapon is love. He woos us, through our bruising, and breathes onto us when our flame is dying. He longs for us to know that we are His beloved. He is never discouraged, and as we stand into His love, so we too will discover that we are warriors. His love, His power, flows through us. (p271)

All income from the book will be donated to the work of Nations Trust.

Beloved Warrior (158pp) is available from Amazon as a paperback (£10) and on Kindle (£2.65).

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘It’s not about the music’ by Dan Lucarini (EP Publishing, 2010)

Subtitled ‘A Journey into Worship’, this is an excellent book for those who want to understand better the nature of worship – especially in relation to what has been happening in our church services in recent times.

In his previous books, the author explained why he left the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) movement. Here Lucarini examines the subject of worship from a biblical perspective and comes to the conclusion that ‘it’s not about the music’. He is aware that this will be a challenging statement for many, but his case is well-argued and well-established from Scripture.

Worship in Scripture

Lucarini warns that people can tell a lot about the God we worship by the way that we worship him. Getting that right should be a priority. In the first chapter, he sets out the aims of his book; primarily, it is to explore what the Bible teaches about worship and from there understand the type of worship that pleases God most. Through this, we will develop a resistance to worldly fashions and styles “that are like viruses infecting our personal and public worship” (p22).

Biblically, the author starts with Jesus’ statement about worship in John 4:21-25. The need to worship ‘in spirit and in truth’ provides the main focus. Here is the ‘strong meat’ of worship that will guide our thinking in coming chapters.

In chapter 3, Lucarini examines the Hebrew and Greek words usually translated as ‘worship’. These words have very specific meanings and should not be changed to suit us. We should change our methods and styles to fit what God has decreed - then we will discover the true essence of worship: namely, the total submission of our minds, hearts and flesh to God.

The most common biblical act of worship was to bow down, often flat on one’s face. While this doesn’t have to be a physical action, it should be the dominant attitude in our worship.

Lucarini warns that people can tell a lot about the God we worship by the way that we worship him.

Critiquing ‘Worship Inc.’

In the next few chapters the author explores the role of sacrifice in worship. He shows that the New Testament reveals three sacrifices expected of worshippers: our body, praise and koinonia (fellowship). It is in these pages that we discover what Lucarini means by his title. Praise is not primarily about music, but about “the fruit of our lips” (Hos 14:2). “The words that come from our lips are the most important part of the offering” (p61).

Lucarini goes on to explain how many modern songs start with the music, then add words to fit the rhythms and moods that the music has created. Most songwriters, he claims, are musicians - and so music dominates their output. The words are often secondary and hence trite or misleading (even biblically inaccurate). He compares this to some of the great hymn-writers of the past who started with the words, producing great poems of praise which could stand alone as worship without any music. Only later was a tune written or found as a setting for the words.

The author is particularly scathing of the contemporary Christian worship scene, which has become an industry dominated by the need to produce albums that outsell others. He calls this ‘Worship Inc.’, a market-driven enterprise designed to pour profits into the coffers of those who produce and promote such ‘worship’. Driven by musical performers, this entertainment business uses all the latest gimmicks to stimulate demand for new products. It also introduced the concept of the modern worship leader - someone who produces a ‘track list’ of songs for the rest of the congregation to follow.

In the latter part of his book, Lucarini draws “with much honour and respect” upon the classic writings of AW Tozer, picking up on his theme of worship as ‘the missing jewel’. In line with Tozer, Lucarini believes that prayer, the public reading of Scripture and the breaking of bread should be as much part of worship as songs and musical items.

The author is particularly scathing of the contemporary Christian worship scene.

Plea for Reform

If we have fallen well below the ideals outlined in Scripture, then what should be done to restore biblical worship? Lucarini offers many solutions, but in particular invites us to go on our own journey into worship to discover for ourselves what the Bible teaches.

There is much more to commend in this well-written and thought-provoking book on a vital topic. Each chapter concludes with a summary and the book ends with three very useful appendices. The first two provide a complete list of Old Testament and New Testament verses on worship (110 and 72 verses respectively – plenty to keep you busy!). The third appendix contains guidelines to choosing music for use in church. Eight biblical guidelines are provided, with Scripture references, together with useful questions such as “Does it appeal mainly to the spirit or the flesh?” and “Does it promote the things of this world?”

The author has succeeded in making an impassioned plea for reform wherever our worship practices have gone astray and followed the world rather than the Word. His book should be read not just by worship leaders and pastors, but by everyone involved in worship – which means every one of us!

‘It’s Not About the Music: A Journey into Worship’ (220pp) is available from Amazon for £9.99.

How the West was lost – and what God's people ought to do about it.

Editorial Introduction: In the first of a two-part interview by Randall Hardy, the former Queen’s Chaplain Gavin Ashenden gives his perspective on the spiritual state of Britain.

Part 1: Counting the Cost

RH: Many people/Christians in the West are confused by the rapid changes which are happening in society. What is your understanding of the times in which we live?

GA: We've been used to a period when Christianity has profoundly influenced the world we've lived in, but its influence has ebbed and flowed, so we've had, if you like, almost eddies of influence. To continue with that metaphor and to use tide instead, the tide of Christian influence is in our day running out fast and the extent to which it's run out has surprised everybody.

It's almost as if Christian influence has crumbled overnight for some of us, in the last couple of decades, in a way that would have been shocking if we could have foreseen it. So I think the effect it's had on us is to challenge our assumption that we could take the Christianisation of our culture for granted.

We clearly can't, and its disintegration in our own lives has been a cultural and spiritual shock, and I think also a theological warning.

RH: How far back in history do you see the roots of today's rapid changes reaching?

GA: I think it's helpful to have a bird's eye view of the last 2,000 years…if we do that from the perspective of our island, what we see is Christianity locked in a struggle with autocratic Roman culture and then, as it succeeded in converting the Roman Empire, it found itself facing paganism in Europe.

It converted paganism and set up the foundations for a deeper Christianisation of society. I'm one of the people who look to the Middle Ages as being an immensely impressive period, [when] the Christianisation of society went deep, with houses of prayer at the centre of society's life and the rulers being held to account for Christian values.

Like all life cycles, it was cyclical and the Reformation sought to bring new life to it, but the problem for the Reformation was it was overtaken by the Enlightenment.

The tide of Christian influence is running out fast - and the extent to which it's run out has surprised everybody.

So for the last 300 years we've been struggling with a growing rationalism which has fed human pride and amplified the theological question posed in the beginning of Genesis – ‘Just because you can achieve something, are you sure you can live with the consequences of taking those actions?’

What we discovered in the 20^th and 21^st Centuries is that we can't live with the consequences of our skilfulness.

So from the perspective of the end of the Age of Enlightenment, where we are now, we see that we've been overcome by a love of human cleverness, which has eclipsed people's sense of the need in their own hearts, and that's one of the reasons why it's so difficult to communicate the Gospel at what I think I might want to call the end of the Age of Enlightenment - which is where we live now.

RH: We have seen many churches embracing these changes and seeking to claim they are Christian values. Why do you think this is happening and where do you think it is a leading?

GA: When asked this kind of question, we need to agree what category of diagnosis we are going to use. We have the options of spiritual discernment on the one hand, or an analysis that flows from a reading of political and historical development on the other.

Christianity always needs to interpret itself in a way that the contemporary culture can hear. But that immediately throws up a danger. It makes it more vulnerable to taking on board the assumptions of that culture. It takes a very healthy and confident faith to preserve its roots in revelation, whilst still finding imaginative ways of communicating it to people who don't accept that source.

In our age the Church has become over-impressed by the intellectual and technological accomplishments of the last 200 years. To some extent, it has lost confidence in the miraculous and transcendent. So when society begins to experiment with different ways of understanding gender and sex which have nothing to do with the protection or nurture of the family, a misplaced vulnerability to the unbiblical ideas of social progress combined with a desire to be compassionate can produce a different matrix of theological priorities in the Church. Wanting to be seen as loving, we become instead indulgent and in need of approbation from those we live amongst, instead of challenging and helping them.

Using spiritual discernment, we find in Romans chapter 1 that there is a close correlation between idolatry in a culture and sexual and gender disorder.

It is no surprise that our idolatrous culture is experiencing profound confusion in matters of sexual identity and morality.

If we put these two things together, it is no surprise that our idolatrous culture is experiencing profound confusion in matters of sexual identity and morality. Sexual incontinence and confusion is one of the foremost by-products of idolatry. It is as if the ‘being made in the image of God’ becomes more obscured and society begins to image darker, more dangerous and disordered other ‘gods’ - in other words, the distortions that flow from the gravitational pull of the ‘ruler of this world’.

It will lead further and further away from an authentic Christianity into one of the usual perversions or diminutions of the faith; a ‘Christianity of convenience’. There is always the danger that Christianity becomes a kind of religious or spiritualised veneer used to give a kind of false comfort to genuine religious longings, but one which actually reinforces the selfish wills of the human heart rather than challenges and transforms them.

In my judgment, that is exactly the situation the Church of England has got [itself] into today. It refuses to allow its comfortable presuppositions to be challenged by the authority of Scripture and the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, without which formative faith becomes relative religion.

RH: What do you believe are the implications for Western societies in the future?

GA: Western society appears to have run out of both inspiration and energy because it has put its eggs all in one basket. That basket is an inflated sense of what it can achieve. Western society has bought into a philosophy of improving utopianism - which is a misdiagnosis - and so Western society at the moment is faced with a choice, because it's challenged by two great religious solutions.

The first one is Christianity, which invites it to have a more realistic sense of its own fragility and to repent and throw itself into God's hand for re-making. And the other is Islam, which requires it to submit to an authoritarian re-ordering of society on theocratic terms, with power rather than mercy at the heart of it.

Secularism, which is effectively self-indulgence and intellectual pride, cannot stand in the way of Islam simply because Islam is so politically ambitious and so militarily equipped that secularists will find themselves unwilling to die for convenience's sake.

In that sense I've always believed that a secular society runs out of steam, unable to sustain its own utopianism. It's faced essentially with a choice between Mohammed and Jesus. It appears to have rejected Jesus, so it looks like it's going to get Mohammed.

RH: You've mentioned Islam and many people are concerned about its influence on Western nations in its variety of forms. You could say in many ways that this has become the fly in secularism's ointment. How do you see the relationship developing between secularism and Islam in the future?

GA: The real problem for secularism is it wholly misunderstands what Islam is. In its reliance on badly-educated secular Religious Education teachers, it's made the category error of seeing Islam as a kind of Arabic form of Judeo-Christianity. It's nothing of the kind. So far from being a cousinly Abrahamic faith, it is in fact the opposite of Christianity.

As a result of that, secularism has entirely underestimated both what Islam's ambition is and its determination to fulfil that ambition in a series of strategies which begin with mass immigration and end in force. By misunderstanding Islam, secular society finds itself undefended against it and worse than that, in its antipathy towards Christianity, it has decided to use Islam and Islamic immigration as a weapon to take what I think is revenge on Christianity.

Secular culture [cannot] sustain its own utopianism. It's faced essentially with a choice between Mohammed and Jesus. In rejecting Jesus, it looks like it's going to get Mohammed.

What it's done is to make a pact with a religious and political force that will in the end overcome it. Not unlike, I suppose, in one sense, the way in which the Anglo-Saxons paid a Danegeld to protect themselves against one enemy, only to find themselves overwhelmed by the very people they were seeking protection from.

RH: You have outlined the reasons you see behind the cultural changes in Western societies in recent decades. Are there any passages in the Bible which in your opinion shed light on these developments?

GA: The Bible ought to shape all our views - and does, of course. But I find myself looking particularly to the Gospel of John and to the Book of Revelation as providing ways to best understand the dynamics of the rapid shifts that we're experiencing during my lifetime.

And so I think I'd want to make a bridge between the Lord's Prayer and Revelation chapter 21, and say that I've increasingly come to see what Jesus taught us to pray for in the words "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" not as something that can be achieved on the earth, where St John tells us that the main influence is the ‘ruler of this world’ and the Book of Revelation tells us that the earth is, if you like, the remedial Borstal for Satan and his angels after they lost the metaphysical fight with St Michael.

Instead, I see the new Heaven and the new earth as the place that we're being pointed to in Revelation 21 in a way that should direct our prayers and our energies. That's not to say that what takes place in time and space and history is unimportant, but it is to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is beyond time and space, and we're called to make the most direct journey possible towards it, living out all the Gospel values we can as we do so.

Next week: Part II: Paying the price.

Author Biography

Gavin Ashenden read Law at Bristol University, before studying theology at Oak Hill Theological College in London. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1980, subsequently serving in a London parish for 10 years. He spent 23 years at the University of Sussex as a senior lecturer and senior chaplain, lecturing in the Psychology of Religion and Literature.

Over the years he has written occasional newspaper articles and worked for the BBC on a freelance basis presenting a weekly faith and ethics radio programme.

In 2008 he was appointed a Chaplain to the Queen. In 2017 he resigned from this position in order to be free to speak out for the faith in public. Later that year he resigned from the Church of England, convinced that its leadership was replacing apostolic and biblical patterns with the alternative values of Cultural Marxism.

He is now a Missionary Bishop to the UK and Europe in the Christian Episcopal Church.

You can find out more about Gavin’s extraordinary life, journey and ministry on his blog.

Christian envoy pays tribute to music teacher whose harmonica saved him from the Holocaust

The appointment of Israel’s first ever Christian Arab ambassador is partly thanks to a Jewish musician who, alone among his family, survived the Holocaust.

In a recorded speech following his installation as the Jewish state’s top envoy to Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, George Deek paid tribute to the man he named only as Avraham who became his music teacher.¹

It was because he played the harmonica so beautifully that his life was spared; a Nazi officer took him home to entertain his guests.

When he finally found refuge in Israel, he chose to use the means of his rescue – his music – to bring hope to others including Arab children like George, who duly learnt both flute and clarinet.

Responding to Tragedy with Hope

George’s moving story contradicts much of the narrative spewed out by the mainstream media about the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially the refugee crisis.

His family, who have lived in Jaffa (or Yafo) for 400 years, fled the city in 1948 in response to the warning from Arab leaders that Jews would turn on them when the new-born nation was attacked by the surrounding states, but that they would be free to return when Israel was defeated.

His grandfather, also George, had married in haste before fleeing to Lebanon, but when he realised that Israel had not been defeated and Arabs were not being persecuted, he managed to return and even got his electrician’s job back from Jews he had befriended before independence.

While acknowledging that it was indeed disastrous for the 700,000+ Palestinians who subsequently became unwanted refugees, he noted that 800,000 Jews had been more or less forced out of Arab nations at the same time – a fact that is now conveniently forgotten.

George’s moving story contradicts much of the narrative spewed out by the mainstream media about the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially the refugee crisis.

The Jews were absorbed into Israel, but the Arabs were not accommodated in the same way by the very states whose leaders had persuaded them to leave, thus creating an ongoing UN-backed stalemate in which the refugees are being used as political pawns.

“The Palestinians are held captive by chains of resentment,” he said.

By contrast, the Jews had responded to the tragedy of the Holocaust by securing their future. With respect to his music teacher, “he chose life, not death; hope rather than despair” and began teaching the very thing that saved his life to bring hope to others – especially amidst the tension that existed in Jaffa between Arabs and Jews.

Referring to the way in which Avraham spoke little and reluctantly of his tragic past, which he suggested was reflective of the general response of Jews to the Shoah, he said: “Only when they had secured their future did they allow themselves to look back at the past.”

By God’s Grace

Under the shadow of that great tragedy, Jews were able to build a country that leads the world in many areas. At the same time Israeli Arabs are the most educated Arabs in the world, occupying highly influential positions as judges, doctors, MPs enjoying the right to criticise the Government, and diplomats like him.

George is not Israel’s first Arab ambassador – that distinction went to Ali Yahya, who was appointed Ambassador to Finland in 1995. And I have personally met Ishmael Khaldi – Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat.

Towards the end of his speech, George quoted the words of the Jewish patriarch Joseph, who reacted to the betrayal of his brothers in selling him to slavery by forgiving them and saying: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20).

Israeli Arabs are the most educated Arabs in the world, occupying highly influential positions

Joseph emerged as saviour of his people, rescuing them from famine after becoming Prime Minister of Egypt. He was a picture of the Messiah to come, who would be given over by his brothers to being nailed to a cross but who will also one day reveal himself to them as “the one they have pierced” (Zech 12:10), forgiving and cleansing them of their past sins.

Like so many of his cousins, George might well have become a Palestinian refugee without rights or citizenship, but – through God’s grace – he is an Israeli diplomat representing one of the most thriving economies on the planet.

Joppa: Start-point for Reconciliation

Jonah's Jaffa - a tribute to the whale that brought him back. Photo: Charles Gardner

I particularly like this story because of the crucial part played by the harmonica, an instrument I love to play myself and which can wonderfully enhance worship of God. And I also like it because of its setting in Jaffa, known in Bible times as Joppa.

It was this time last year that my wife Linda and I got to know the city, which lies at the southern end of the Tel Aviv metropolis. And it was an awesome experience to discover afresh the vital role it had played in the biblical era.

It is where the Prophet Jonah caught a ship for Tarshish in his vain attempt to run away from God’s call to preach to the cruel Ninevites – there is a life-size sculpture of a whale (complete with fountain) near the seafront.

Jonah too was a picture of the Messiah to come. For Jesus declared to his opponents that his credentials would be proven through the ‘Sign of Jonah’ (Matt 12:38-40), who was buried for three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish before being resurrected on the beach.

Joppa could hardly have been a more strategic place, leading to reconciliation at the Cross for both Jew and Gentile.

The harbour at Jaffa where Jonah boarded ship. Photo: Charles GardnerJoppa was also a key location for the early Church, and of another resurrection – Tabitha (or Dorcas) was raised from the dead there through the prayers of Peter (Acts 9:36-43). It was also the town of Simon the Tanner, in whose home Peter had the heavenly vision that was to open the way for the Gospel to the Gentile world with his visit to the Roman centurion Cornelius some 40 miles up the coast in Caesarea (Acts 10).

It could hardly have been a more strategic place, leading to reconciliation at the Cross for both Jew and Gentile. And now, 2,000 years later, an Arab Christian there finds hope – and status – in a Jewish world.

Who would have thought a Jewish state would appoint a Christian envoy to a Muslim country! Pray for George. God is surely at work.

Watch George Deek’s testimony here.

References

1 Israel appoints its first ever Christian Arab Ambassador. Christians United for Israel, 16 November 2018.  

It’s time to take back territory from the enemy

The Gospel message comes to Britain and beyond.

It began around 4,000 years ago. Abraham’s obedience to God was accounted as righteousness and God cut a covenant with him (Gen 15). At the time, though the nations who had scattered across the world from Babel knew nothing, God committed himself unconditionally to establishing for himself one day a community of faith drawn from every nation.

While Abraham was learning to be God’s friend, tribes who settled on the island later to be called Great Britain worshipped gods of their own imagination. They congregated for human and animal sacrifice at such structures as Stonehenge, without fellowship with the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were neglected and lost, like all other nations across the world.

History moved forward. As God strove with his chosen people Israel through the times of the judges, prophets and kings, the Celtic tribes of Britain warred with each other - sometimes, perhaps, looking up into the universe wondering if there was a great god of Creation, but still having no means of becoming included in God’s covenant people.

But God did not forget his covenant with Abraham. In the fullness of time he sent his Son into the world and, through his sacrifice for sin, made forgiveness and salvation available to all.

While Abraham was learning to be God’s friend, tribes who settled on the island later to be called Great Britain worshipped gods of their own imagination.

Had this not happened, the tribes of the earth, including those in Britain, would no doubt have moved ever further away from God, and more quickly towards an ungodly alliance like the one at Babel. But God restrained their decline, dividing the nations in such a way that there would be a readiness for multitudes through history to hear the Gospel message and receive the truth gladly, by the same faith through which Father Abraham received the initial covenant promise.

Reminders still exist of Britain's pagan beginnings.Soon after the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, apostles trod the Roman roads in obedience to God, who had remembered his oath to Abraham. The history books are not clear just how and when it happened, but before Christianity was systematised in Britain by the Romans, the Gospel began its work of salvation among the Celtic tribes, having been brought to our shores perhaps barely a century after Jesus walked the earth.

This Sceptred Isle

Surely in this time of accelerating spiritual decline in Britain, which seems increasingly tribal and prone to strife, it is honouring to God for us to remember the great act of grace that established our nation, transforming it from pagan tribes to a kingdom avowedly under God. So magnificent was this transformation perceived that Shakespeare by the 16^th Century could describe our country as ‘this sceptred isle’.

Putting aside the often lukewarm or shallow responses our island people have displayed through the generations, there is nonetheless a thread of God’s grace that can be traced through 2,000 years to the present day. God found sufficient faith among our people to raise our nation high in the world. Is it not time to remember this and to study our history to uncover the multitude of testimonies of God’s goodness, putting aside all our pride, so that we might thank him afresh?

Going to the Nations

Not only did God bring the Gospel to Britain, but he also used our nation as a staging post to pass it on to other nations. There are many examples of the missionary zeal cultivated among those saved by grace in Britain. We can hear too much about the achievements of men in the establishment of the British Empire, but it was often despite man’s best efforts that God used us to take the Gospel to the rest of the world.

Consider, for example, the contending for the faith that led to the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ abandoning Britain to set up new colonies in what was called the ‘New World’, later the United States of America. The Mayflower Compact illustrates the way the truths of the Bible were by then so ingrained in the consciousness of British people that men and women would not settle for anything less than the pursuit of purity and the establishment of a truly Christian nation.

In this time of accelerating spiritual decline in Britain, it is honouring to God for us to remember the great act of grace that transformed our nation from pagan tribes to a kingdom avowedly under God.

The Pilgrims on board the Mayflower signed a document before landing on the shores of America. William Bradford was a key leader who recorded the resolution of intent regarding the new colony, which in more modern English reads:

The Mayflower at Plymouth Harbour (Halsall, 1882)."IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620."

In the following decades thousands more followed, among whom was the future first Governor, John Winthrop, on the ship Arbella. The passengers of the Arbella who left England in 1630 with their new charter had a great vision, which could be built on the foundation of the first pilgrims. They were to be an example for the rest of the world in right living according to biblical teaching. Referring to the Sermon on the Mount, John Winthrop stated their purpose quite clearly: "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us."

The Mayflower Compact became a foundational document that inspired the writers of the American Constitution over a century later, when the first 13 colonies along the east coast, from New Hampshire to Georgia, became the forerunner of the USA.

Not only did God bring the Gospel to Britain, but he also used our nation as a staging post to pass it on to other nations.

In Praise of God

Surely we can see God in all of this, not leaving us as pagan warring tribes to unite in some new form of Babel-worship one day, but to send us his Gospel and privilege us to be those who passed it on to others.

There are multitudes of details and testimonies from history which, if we remember them together, might fill us with a new humility and zeal of faith in this generation of decline.

Let us record our remembrances together in praise of God.

Britain is lost unless Bible-believing Christians speak up.

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

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

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

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

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

Battle Between Good and Evil

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

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

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

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

Nations Torn Asunder

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

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

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

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

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

Rejecting the Nature of God

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

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

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

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

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

Answer to Prayer

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

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

A Prophetic Voice?

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

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

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