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

Editorial Introduction: Randall Hardy concludes his interview with Bishop Ashenden, who speaks about how believers can respond in these turbulent days.

Part 2: Paying the Price

RH: Many Christians, from a broad cross-section of Bible-believing backgrounds, are holding on to a hope that the secularisation of the West could be reversed. The bolder ones expect this to be the case. Do you see such hopes to be realistic?

GA: I've spent the whole of my adult life trying to reverse secularism in the West. I've done it energetically and I've done it in its heartland, which is the university where I spent 25 years arguing - enthusiastically and joyfully - for the Kingdom and for belief. I enjoyed tripping up my atheist friends with the weaknesses in their own arguments, but I have to say that no matter how many arguments I won, they didn't often result in the change of the human heart.

If I look at the extent to which the churches have changed human hearts in the West, however, whatever you put it down to, we haven't succeeded very well. So some of us can enjoy scoring points philosophically, but that isn't the goal and it doesn't achieve very much.

We ought to give some thought and pray for discernment to understand why we've lost so many hearts, but I think you have to take into account…the notion of spiritual conflict…and also the inevitable hubris of technological innovation.

I'd like to think that as time [goes] on and secular society [begins] to collapse under the weight of its own ambition and cleverness, we could [make] more impact on hungry human hearts. But long before that will happen, [I believe that] Islam will overtake us and we won't have the opportunity.

RH: For centuries the Western church has considered itself to have a role in governing the state. Do you think this has been helpful in fulfilling its main mission? How do you think Christians can most helpfully engage with the state in the future?

GA: The role of Christians is always to Christianise people and, again, the human heart. The Gospels ought to have taught us the danger of hoping to produce a Christian state, because of the constant danger of imbalance between the life of the Spirit and the life of the flesh, speaking theologically.

So the best Christianity can do is to infiltrate and infect the state for good, but its influence grows and wanes. There have been times when we've done that very effectively, partly because our rulers have been hungry for God, and [there have been] times when we have done it very badly, partly because our rulers have had hard hearts. But it's always ebbed and flowed. The great temptation is to imagine that we can capture the state for the Kingdom of Heaven, and that's a category error.

We ought to give some thought and pray for discernment to understand why we've lost so many hearts.

What we now find is that we live in a period of time when the state [is] resentful of Christianity…to some extent the animus we experience as Christians in [Britain] is driven by hatred and resentment of moral constraints that Christianity offered as an understanding of the virtuous life.

And in that sense we're experiencing a delayed reaction of revenge from a culture that is in rebellion against God the Father and the transformation He calls us to. [The culture] takes some delight in taking that revenge out on a weakened Church.

RH: The rise of secularism in the West and globally suggests that we face a very uncertain future. What advice do you have for Western Christians as they look ahead?

GA: I think the first thing I would say is make sure you understand the history of Islam, and don't believe the propaganda about the convivencia in Spain. The suffering of Christians and Jews in Spain reached the most dreadful scale - until Muslims were driven out by force.

There are only two ways to deal with Islamic ambition in history - and they're either to convert Muslims from Mohammed to Jesus, or to meet force with force. I'm still puzzling and praying about my own response to these two ways. I obviously prefer the first, and I don't know to what extent the second is accessible.

I think if Christians want to preserve any kind of safe space to worship Jesus without interference from the state, we need to enter the public arena with more courage than we've found in the recent past and tell as much of the truth about the human heart, the prophet Mohammed and Jesus the Messiah as we can, in the hope that some secularists will listen and that this will buy us a bit more time.

I think as I look at the history of Islam and the weakness of hedonistic secularism, my own sense is that we have to prepare for a Europe entering a period of darkness in spiritual terms, with the Church having to go underground.

I say that in the appreciation that the Holy Spirit is bringing renewal and new life to people in Russia and in China, and astonishingly within the heart of Islamic culture: Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Whether we are paying the price of our faithlessness as a Church or the hubris of Enlightenment culture, it looks as though Europe is about to enter a period of darkness - so I'm grateful for the light that the Holy Spirit is bringing elsewhere in the world at the same time.

If Christians want to preserve any kind of safe space to worship Jesus, we need to enter the public arena with more courage and tell as much of the truth about the human heart, the prophet Mohammed and Jesus the Messiah as we can.

RH: You've just mentioned that Christians in places such as China and Iran, to name but a few, face intense persecution in various ways. How do you think their experiences can inform our thinking as Christians in nations where freedom is being eroded rapidly?

GA: Christians are always persecuted - even in Europe. As Christian voices have called rulers and populations to account; the Christian voices that have done that, whether they have been Catholic or Protestant, have always faced a reaction of anger and repression from the state.

When Christians aren't persecuted, it may be a sign that they're too deeply steeped in an accommodation to the culture around them. Jesus makes this very clear in the gospels.

So I think that when we look at people who love Jesus paying a very deep price in repressive states around the world, we ought to see them as an inspirational norm and perhaps count it as a privilege that we too may be called to suffer for him in ways that in our more relaxed society we have escaped up until this point.

You can read the first part of Randall's interview with Gavin by clicking here.

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.

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.

When the sadness of mourning is tinged with joy and gladness

With the tragic news of the teenager apparently encouraged by Instagram posts to commit suicide amidst evidence of the widespread availability of such material on social media,¹ here is a message of hope for depressed people desperately needing help.

I’m finally back home after a fraught and frantic, but fruitful, six weeks of saying goodbye to my dear mum, who died three days before Christmas, aged 95.

I am assured she is with the Lord as she made a personal confession in her last days while struggling with a combination of regret and pain. And if I had any doubt about the final state of her soul, my believing father-in-law confirmed matters in a call from his Hampshire home by telling us of a vision he had within minutes of her passing in the early hours of 22 December. He saw an angel covering her tomb as if to welcome her into the heavenly kingdom.

In Christ Alone

I had earlier encouraged mum to pray after me (out loud) something resembling a traditional sinner’s prayer, but with an emphasis on trusting in the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of her sins.

She had been a churchgoer most of her life but, as I shared with the congregation in her north London church at her funeral last Friday, her faith was more intellectual than personal and it was only because of what Jesus had done for her on the Cross that she was now safe in his arms.

There is hope for depressed people desperately needing help.

I realised many might have taken offence, but the Gospel is an offence – especially to our pride – as it teaches that the qualification for Heaven is not about ourselves or our own supposed goodness. It is entirely about Jesus, and the blood he shed for our sins. It was on this basis that the thief on the cross next to him qualified for paradise.

Such is the generosity of our Saviour who, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, paid those who were hired for the last hour of the day the same as those who had borne the burden of the work in the heat of the day (Matt 20:1-16).

Giving up our Lives

In a world preoccupied with self and doing things ‘my way’, it is not a popular message.

As I shared with my brothers, sister, son, daughter and in-laws who descended on the family home from Australia, New Zealand and the north of England, following Jesus is about giving up your life, your independence, and handing it over to him.

Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:34-36)

It is only in following this advice that you will find perfect peace, along with the power and presence of God in your life. And yet most of us opt for struggling on in our own strength, stubbornly refusing to give up our independence.

Such a choice leads only to death and destruction, disharmony and a disconnect with our Creator, who made us in his image so we could enjoy fellowship with him, both now and forever.

And yet because Linda (my wife) and I have experienced this wonderful relationship for a total of 87 years between us, we had the joy and privilege of being able to share its truths with family at a traumatic time in their lives, offering the “God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3) and the hope of eternal life to all who trust him.

Only when we follow Jesus, giving up our lives to him and handing over our independence, do we find perfect peace.

Sharing the Hope

I was even able to share this hope with the funeral director – that we are assured of mum’s eternal destiny only through her trusting in the blood of Jesus prefigured in the Jewish Passover.

My son was duly asked to read the New Testament lesson (1 Cor 12:1-11) last Sunday, which prompted a wide discussion on our faith, and of its Jewish roots. And I was asked to read the Old Testament lesson (Isa 62:1-5) – “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent…” How fitting that was, in view of my love for Israel!

And my elder brother was grateful for a copy of my book, A Nation Reborn,² to take back to Sydney.

I was also able to encourage a delightful Jewish mother and daughter to trust God in the midst of their anxieties over Brexit on one of several visits to a local Italian restaurant. As St Paul encouraged the Roman Christians through all the trials they had to endure, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8:37).

In a beautiful passage about the joy of those who trust in the Messiah, the Prophet Isaiah wrote: “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…to save you’” (Isa 35:3f).

References

1 Daily Mail, 23 January 2019.

2 Published by Christian Publications International and also available on Amazon.

Christmas carols sow seeds in Michigan.

This time last year, we brought you news of our evangelist friends Syd and Liz Doyle and their efforts to share the Gospel in Dearborn, Michigan, through Christmas carolling outreach. This year we are pleased to share another update from the same mission.

*****

Dear Friends and Family,

"Joy to the world, the Lord has come" echoed up the streets of the highest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East, Dearborn, MI., on the first two Saturdays of December 2018. Despite cold, wet weather, 185 people from many different churches, ages and ethnicities came with us to sing Christmas carols. We had 25 groups made up of our own international team of Koreans, Chinese, Canadian, English, Irish and Americans and gave out about 450 gift bags! We prayed with many families and had a great time sharing “Peace on Earth and goodwill to all people!”

We carolled in a beautiful Lebanese Bakery. A large gathering of Egyptian Christians joined in singing the well-known songs of Christmas. A woman in a hijab called us over to her table to talk with us about the lighting of the Christmas tree in her hometown, Bethlehem.

One young woman, driving by, saw us walking down the street with our Santa hats and tinsel wrapped around us and pulled over to ask for a song. After singing “Jingle Bells” to her little son in his car seat we sang “Joy to the World” while she recorded the whole encounter on her cell phone. It’s our custom to not only give a gift bag with a Christmas ornament, candy, a Jesus film DVD and this year a booklet especially prepared in Arabic and English to explain the Christmas story, but we offer to pray for any needs. She asked we pray for the safe delivery of a baby she was carrying.

At one Yemeni home, tears freely flowed as we prayed for family members still in that war-torn country beset with famine and cholera.

We met families from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan, and even Brazil. Some families invited us into their homes. Children often interpret for their parents. At one Yemeni home, tears freely flowed as we prayed for family members still in that war-torn country beset with famine and cholera.

Another reason we went carolling was to invite the neighborhood to a Live Nativity staged by the Springwells Church right in the center of Dearborn. The church was transformed into the scenes of Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Live animals were housed outside under a tent. Nearly 200 people attended and at least 75 Muslim people came to our feedback areas to ask questions and get more information. We were delighted to spend time answering questions and sharing together our understanding of the Christmas message.

OSyd and Liz Doyle.ne Afghan family, new to the USA, had never heard the Christmas story. When talking with some children from Yemen, we asked what they felt the most important gift ever given by God was. After visiting the Live Nativity the first child said “family,” the second, “love”. Finally a little girl of 10 said, “The most important gift God ever gave to us was JESUS!”

She is right: “For God so loved the WORLD that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that who ever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

There are many more stories - you can watch some of the action on cbn.com (coverage begins at 8:34) as CBN interviewed us for ‘The Global Lane’ programme.

Altogether: 9 gatherings, 185 carollers, 25 teams, 7 caroling times, a live Nativity, 3 parties, 550 gift bags given out, and CBN coverage! About 1600 people personally talked to and prayed with and 28 nations were touched as carollers from USA, China, Korea, Japan, Canada, Ireland and England sang to people of all ages from Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Iran, Algeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Syria, Italy, Lebanon, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Morocco, Yemen, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, & Kuwait! We prayed with some to receive Christ- only God knows the total outcome!

May you and yours have a safe and Happy Christmas!

Syd & Liz Doyle

Find out more about Syd and Liz Doyle at Nations Light Ministries website.

From roots to fruits – and the future.

In the second part of our two-part critique of The Turning evangelistic campaign, Tom Lennie looks at the fruits of the movement and its future. Click here to read Part 1.

Easy-Believe-ism

A common counter-argument to all the concerns raised last week is that even if just one or two people prove to have genuinely come to Christ through The Turning campaign, it will make the whole thing worthwhile. Surely just one person’s salvation is utterly priceless! I would respond: certainly we should rejoice over any genuine conversion, but how many are also being turned away from Christ by this instant-results methodology?

Consider all those who believe themselves to be saved because they once made an on-street ‘decision’, or prayed a prayer, and were told they are now in the Kingdom of Heaven. They might have no real understanding of salvation or its cost (because no-one told them there would be any) and there might be no change whatsoever in their lives. Consider also those who become more cynical and hardened to the true Gospel because their ‘decision’ or prayer didn’t lead to any significant personal transformation. In either case, where will they end up on Judgment Day?

The Turning script used for outreach in Wales during 2017.Such easy-believe-ism would have been deplored by the great evangelist-preachers of former ages, who stressed the essence of repentance from sin. I mentioned The Turning to a full-time evangelist friend recently and he was appalled by the approach.

The underlying problem is that the present-day Church seems infatuated with instant, impressive results. It’s as if we insist on them for our own encouragement and gratification and then we proudly brandish them around. I feel that reducing souls to statistics in this manner effectively cheapens the Gospel. We’re called to sow seeds; we have no right to necessarily reap and record a harvest a few minutes later. Leonard Ravenhill calls it plucking unripe fruit: we’re trying to get folk saved who don’t even know they’re lost. We need to leave the Holy Spirit to do his work, in his time.

The Fruits

Jesus said regarding a person’s character, ‘Ye shall know them by their fruit’. He never said ‘Ye shall know them by their decision’, or even ‘Ye shall know them by their sincerity’. It takes considerable time after seeds are sown for fruit to appear: far more time than modern evangelism is willing to wait, apparently.

In a report given at a local church meeting I attended, it was stated that one third of the 1,850 who initially responded to The Turning in Reading have subsequently become associated with churches and are moving on in their faith. Such a proportion would be any evangelist’s dream come true! A third works out at over 600 extra church-goers - a massive boost to Reading’s congregations.

I’ve had contact with someone on the leadership team of another Reading church, who said that 2, 3 or 4 people have been added to various churches across the city as a result of the campaign. Nothing approaching 100, let alone 600. Another good Christian friend of mine who lives in Reading, when I asked him earlier this year about The Turning’s success, had no idea what I was talking about. He had never heard of it, nor anyone who claims to have come to Christ through it.

And yet, the entire Turning initiative spreading all across the United Kingdom is based purely on the ‘phenomenal’ success of the supposed mighty ‘outpouring’ of the Spirit on Reading – as it was reported by The Turning’s own leaders. In his report, Yinka Oyekan claims that The Turning represents a similar outpouring to Azusa Street in 1906, and is comparable to Billy Graham’s mass outreaches – only better.¹

The significant hype that accompanies The Turning is, for me, another warning sign. As I often share in my talks on revival history, where you find a lot of puffed-up talk about a spiritual awakening, it’s a tell-tale sign there was no genuine revival in the first place. No true move of the Spirit requires hype.

Where you find a lot of puffed-up talk about a spiritual awakening, it’s a tell-tale sign there was no genuine revival in the first place.

Even if the above statistical claim is true, it still means that two-thirds of those who ‘made a decision’ on the streets of Reading have now, in Oyekan’s words, ‘brushed off’ attempts at follow-up and “not wished to continue the dialogue”.² Again, this speaks volumes about the types of ‘decision’ being made.

I’ve tried to engage politely with Yinka by email and on Facebook, thanking him for his heart for evangelism and sharing a few of my concerns, hoping to receive a constructive reply. He refused to answer me and quickly proceeded to block me completely.

The Future

We can only hope and pray that as The Turning gathers momentum (there is now an app, a network of regional hubs and plans for a nationwide mission in 2020) in conjunction with other mission groups, it will be developed into a helpful mission campaign. But at present, I am afraid I cannot put much store in what appears to be a quick-fix strategy.

To the extent that the Turning is inspiring Christians to get out and share the Gospel within their needy communities, it’s a positive thing. I have several friends who are involved in the initiative and in no way do I wish to dampen their genuine, compassionate, evangelistic enthusiasm. But how we do mission is very important.

I do believe the harvest is ripe. I long to see the people of my neighbourhood and city come to a true personal knowledge of Christ. But this will be by our obeying the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit for our own precious locality.

We need to be bold, and be ready to become the answers to our own prayers for our neighbourhoods. Lord, send the workers into the harvest field, following the leading of Your Spirit all the way.

About the author: Tom Lennie has a long-standing interest in revival and has authored a trilogy of historical studies on Scottish revivals: ‘Land of Many Revivals’ (1527-1857), ‘Glory in the Glen’ (1880-1940) and the newly-published, ‘Scotland Ablaze: The Twenty-Year Fire of Revival That Swept Scotland 1858-79’ (December 2018). His interest in The Turning was sparked by reports of the Reading ‘outpouring’ and fuelled further by its arrival in Edinburgh, his home city, as well as by the involvement of several acquaintances.

References

1 Oyekan, Y. The Turning Learning Review: ‘The Outpouring’, p6 and p8, respectively. This document is also available at http://theturning.eu/learning-review/.

2 Ibid, p20.

Times of refreshment: a look at historic revivals in Britain.

And we uncover its close connection with love for Israel.

Amid great expectancy of a renewed outpouring of the Spirit in the land of revivals, my wife and I were profoundly blessed and stirred by a recent visit to Wales.

We sat in the Moriah Chapel at Loughor, near Swansea, where the famous Welsh Revival broke out on 31 October 1904, and had a real taste of those momentous times as we were guided around the premises by a man whose uncle was a close friend of Evan Roberts, the human instrument used by God as the spark of that great movement.

I also noted the significance of the chapel’s name, as it was Mt Moriah where Abraham was prepared to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice and where, close by, Jesus died for the sins of the world at Calvary.

And this was not the only connection with Israel – more of which later.

Recalling the total surrender of those young men (the initial outpouring effectively started with a youth meeting), one of our group prayed “Bend us, Lord!” as she echoed the heartfelt cry of the revival’s 25-year-old leader for God to break their resistance to the Holy Spirit’s power.

It was an awesome moment as we became aware of the great need of our nation (in the UK as a whole) for restoration and reformation. Then we sang ‘Here is love, vast as the ocean’, one of the revival’s key hymns – first in Welsh, then in English.

People of Spiritual Stature and Faith

Our visit there was part of a weekend conference of the UK Fellowship of Full Gospel Churches, an international network of ministers dedicated to proclaiming Christ in all his fullness.

The event was hosted at the Bible College of Wales, which has itself been mightily used in world mission and was a product of the 1904/5 revival. We enjoyed glorious worship in the same room where legendary intercessor Rees Howells and his students prayed through to victory for Britain and the allies during World War II and later for Israel’s recognition at the United Nations.

One of our group prayed “Bend us, Lord!”, echoing the heartfelt cry of the 1904 revival’s 25-year-old leader Evan Roberts for God to break their resistance to the Holy Spirit’s power.

Participants had flown in from throughout the United States as well as from Holland, while others came from across the south of England and Wales – we were the lone visitors from the north.

Although a relatively small gathering with no more than 50 taking part, most of them were men and women of great spiritual stature and faith – at least one had met with US Presidents while others had walked with the likes of Billy Graham and had witnessed God’s miraculous guidance over many years.

Dick Funnell, from New Orleans, shared his extraordinary journey of how God had led him to come and live on the west coast of Wales where he and his Guatemalan wife Gladys now have keys to a small chapel where they have been praying daily for the past 13 years, convinced that revival is on its way.

As we prayed and lifted our hands in worship, we were aware of the crucial part played by Howells and his students who interceded day and night for a nation facing disaster at the time of Dunkirk. Their God-ordained prayers brought us back from the brink of destruction. They also prayed through to victory at the UN for Israel’s recognition in November 1947, having also made provision for Jewish children escaping the Nazi net.

100,000 New Births

A love for Israel was due not only to a proper understanding of the Bible, but also to the part the Jewish people had played in the founder’s conversion. Howells actually committed his life to Christ in America, where he had gone to seek his fortune, and it had come about through a Jewish evangelist, Maurice Reuben, who had paid a huge price for following Jesus, being disowned by his wealthy family and denied his part-ownership of a Pittsburgh store.

Maurice himself had found the Lord through the witness of a man he had asked – because he always seemed cheerful – if he had been ‘born happy’, to which the man had replied that his happiness only dated from his ‘second birth’.

Rees, who was the same age as Evan Roberts, returned to Wales to help with the revival.

Following a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit, he lived a radical life of faith as he reached out to drunkards and tramps – cutting down his meals in order to identify with them. And he took on formidable challenges such as praying for – and witnessing to – a village untouched by the revival and healing for sick people doctors had written off.

During the 1904 Welsh revival, an estimated 100,000 people were swept into the Kingdom over a four-month period.

Evan, meanwhile, was unschooled as, when his father was injured down the mine, he took his place, aged 11, in order to provide an income for his family.

Later, feeling called to pastoral ministry, he left home to acquire the necessary academic qualifications but before long had a deep experience of the Holy Spirit after hearing a speaker from the Welsh equivalent of the Keswick Convention.

Evan Roberts. Photo: Linda Gardner.He returned to his home village and asked if he could hold a youth meeting to which 16 youngsters turned up. Revival broke out, and services lasted virtually through the night. Miners coming off their shift would join the queues for the chapels; as soon as one was filled they’d tramp off to find the next. Lights would be burning through the night as tens of thousands throughout the principality were convicted of sin by the presence of God and the preaching of the Gospel. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 were swept into the Kingdom over a four-month period as people couldn’t get enough of being in God’s presence.

Impacts Beyond Asking or Imagining

It wasn’t the first time Wales had seen revival – Howell Harris and others had led a similar movement in the late 18^th Century, and even John Wesley had preached at Loughor in those days. Another revival broke out in 1859 – also touching many other parts of the world.

In fact, it was in the midst of the earlier movement that a hugely significant event took place that was to lead to the foundation of the Bible Society through which the word of God was translated into hundreds of languages and distributed throughout the world.

The event in question was a 26-mile walk over the mountains of North Wales by 15-year-old Mary Jones in order to purchase a copy of the Welsh Bible for which she had saved up for six years. Her extraordinary feat awakened the need for God’s word to become available to everyone in their mother tongue.

One of the effects of the 1904 awakening of dynamic Christianity was that the police and magistrates had nothing to do except help control the crowds queuing up for the Gospel meetings.

What was happening in Wales galvanised the prayers of American saints in California, leading directly to the Azusa Street revival of 1906.

The revival spread across the globe, even touching Asia and St Petersburg in Russia, and it inspired others praying for a similar move in their own localities. This was particularly the case in California, where news of what was happening in Wales galvanised the prayers of American saints and led directly to the Azusa Street, Los Angeles, revival of 1906, the beginnings of the modern-day Pentecostal movement, with a similar outpouring taking place in Sunderland, England, in 1907, led by Church of England vicar Alexander Boddy who had earlier come to witness the work of Evan Roberts in Wales.

The revival produced outstanding leaders including George and Stephen Jeffries and, of course, Rees Howells who went on to found his world-changing Bible College in 1928. One student, a young German called Reinhard Bonnke, graduated in 1960 and subsequently won millions of people to the Lord through his huge missions across Africa and other parts of the world.

A young Billy Graham also visited the Loughor chapel back in 1946 when he is understood to have had a profound experience of the Holy Spirit. Millions the world over benefited from that!

Part II next week.

Notes

Additional material sourced from Rees Howells, Intercessor by Norman Grubb, published by Lutterworth Press.

A selection of books to see you through August.

In case you are going to be relaxing poolside this August or just enjoying some extra spare time, here are a few recommended books to keep you company. Please see the base of each review for purchasing details.

‘Praying Like the Jew, Jesus: Recovering the Ancient Roots of New Testament Prayer’ by Timothy P Jones (Lederer Books, 2005)

In this delightful book, author, professor and pastor Timothy Jones opens our eyes to the Jewish background of the prayers of Jesus. Jones, author of many textbooks, professor of biblical languages and senior pastor of a Baptist church in Oklahoma, is well-qualified to explain the customs and traditions behind our Lord’s prayers and uncover the beauty and power of his prayer life.

This is a book that will inspire you to pray but also help you understand the true nature of prayer and of God himself.

With the help of historical vignettes and careful research, we are transported back to the historical Jewish world of Jesus, so that we gain wonderful insights into that world by studying his prayers (or, in the case of the first two chapters, the prayers of others around him ahead of his birth and during his early life).

Each of the ten chapters follows a similar structural pattern so you know what to expect and so the book could easily be taken a chapter at a time. Each begins with an imaginative re-telling of an event from Jesus’ life, weaving the original context of his prayers into the biblical stories in order to help you not only study the prayers but also experience their fuller meaning.

At the end of each chapter there is a meditation for readers to apply the lessons to their own lives, considering how God hears and relates to us. The endnotes are excellent and there is a usual glossary for the reader unfamiliar with the Jewish terms Jones uses.

If prayer is like breathing, then this book is “designed to help readers ‘breathe deeply’ as they enter into prayer” (Foreword, p.vi). Do read this book – it will inspire, bless and challenge you.

Maureen Trowbridge and Paul Luckraft

‘Praying Like the Jew, Jesus’ (122pp) is available very cheaply on Amazon. Kindle version is £5.86.

‘The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism’ by Dave Rich (Biteback Publishing, 2016, revised 2018)

If you are looking for a highly topical book that will help you understand a central crisis in modern British politics, we highly recommend Dave Rich’s exploration of left-wing Jew-hatred. Associate Research Fellow at the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism, Birkbeck College (University of London), Rich works for the Community Security Trust, briefing MPs, civil servants and police officers about anti-Semitism. Though he is not a believer, his insights into this phenomenon are well worth reading.

Beginning with a brief history of how the Labour Party transformed from the party of the working class to a mainly middle-class party championing identity politics, Rich demonstrates how Labour totally reversed its position on Israel in the space of a decade or two, from steadfast support to outright loathing.

Subsequent chapters trace this transformation through to the present day, including more recent alliances between the left-wing and Islam (much as Melanie Phillips does in her book ‘The World Turned Upside-Down’). Rich also exposes how the ideological left has adopted a radically wrong view of the Holocaust.

His research, originally a PhD project begun in 2011, is here brought further up-to-date and made suitable for a general readership. A 2018 update is promised in September covering the many high-profile developments that have taken place since the book was first published.

If the presence of virulent anti-Semitism within a so-called ‘anti-racist’ Party has taken you by surprise, or if you are aware that Corbyn is simply a symptom of a much longer-standing problem but are unsure why, this book is for you.

Paul Luckraft and Frances Rabbitts

The 2016 version of ‘The Left’s Jewish Problem’ (352pp) is available from the publisher for £12.99 (paperback) or from Amazon Kindle for £8.54. Read an interview with the author here.

The 2018 version is available for pre-order for £12.99 (paperback) or £10 (Kindle) – to be released in early September.

‘Left to Their Own Devices: Confident Parenting in a World of Screens’ by Katharine Hill (Muddy Pearl, 2017). With Foreword by Rob Parsons OBE.

In this clever, refreshing book, lawyer, writer and present Director of Care for the Family UK Katharine Hill explores the impact of a decade of the digital world on the younger generation.

Member of the Board of the International Commission for Couples and Family Matters, Hill is married with grown-up children and is also a well-known public speaker and columnist for a local newspaper.

In 15 chapters and a poignant epilogue, she “skilfully and sensitively tackles a thorny subject with razor sharp insight and unremitting authenticity” (Dr Samantha Callum, family policy expert), aiming her writing particularly at those involved in parenting, teaching and youth work. Practical advice is given on issues like screen time, social media and consumer culture, as well as more serious issues like cyber-bullying, grooming and pornography, making this an invaluable handbook for parents who not only want to ‘cope’ with today’s digital challenges but face them confidently. Over 20 cartoons provide a gestalt complement. For those wishing to explore these ‘thorny issues’ further, a helpful index is provided.

I recommend this important, timely book without reservation, as being of exceptional value.

M. Paul Rogoff

‘Left to Their Own Devices’ (143pp, paperback) is available from the publisher for £9.99. Also available from Care for the Family and Amazon. Watch an interview with the author here.

‘The Bible’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by David Hamshire (Faithbuilders Christian Books, 2018)

This short booklet (40 pages in length) follows on from two others by the same author, whose themes are all linked to the number seven: ‘Seven Days of Creation’ and ‘Seven Feasts of the Lord’. Whilst these previous two studies are on central and accepted themes, the exploration of how the number seven relates to wisdom (using Proverbs 9:1-6) breaks new ground.

The number seven binds much of Scripture together so, on the one hand, it is likely to have significance in ways yet to be found. However, on the other hand, the concept can be forced too far and become speculative. For this reason, I approached this particular study with caution. I did, nevertheless, find it well-written and thought-provoking.

I am not yet unconvinced that it leans more towards the speculative than the authoritative, but I can nevertheless recommend it as a good stimulus for study, especially in small interactive groups.

Clifford Denton

‘The Bible’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ is available from Christian Publications International for £9 inc. P&P, where you can also find more information and an extract from the Foreword.

‘More Drops: Mystery, Mercy, Messiology’ by George Verwer (CWR, 2015)

George Verwer met the Lord in 1955 in Madison Square Gardens, New York listening to Billy Graham, and started a life dedicated to evangelism. At the Moody Bible Institute, he learned that every student has to be an evangelist - for him, first in Mexico, where he married, and then in over 90 nations.

In 1962, Verwer formed Operation Mobilisation (OM), one of the most impactful mission agencies of the last half-century, known for its unrelenting preaching of the Gospel and its social action in Gospel-resistant countries like India, Nepal and the UK. From the 1970s, he obtained a series of ships named Logos to bring the Gospel to millions in coastal regions of the world.

2015 celebrated 60 years of this continuing passion. ‘More Drops’ (one of nine books by Verwer) is written in an auto-biographical style and is alive with refreshing honesty and pace, always giving God the glory through many successes and failures. Verwer’s reflection that most of what we touch includes messy situations (hence his term ‘Messiology’) - including theology, church life, leadership and people (!) – is followed up with the insight that God does wonderful things through the mess.

This is a book alive with the boldness and passion of its author, who lived to share Christ with as many people as he could. Helpfully, More Drops also recommends personal reading of nearly 50 other books, all classic works of Christian living, though Verwer always advocated getting into the word of God first and foremost, and allowing the Lord to transform your life from there.

Greg Stevenson

‘More Drops’ (136pp) is available from Amazon for £6.99 (paperback) or £6.64 (Kindle). Also available is the ‘George for Real’ DVD, a fast-moving, highly personal, encouraging and challenging story of a man on fire for the Lord and his Gospel. Highly recommended.

Charles Gardner reviews RT Kendall’s new book.

‘Whatever happened to the Gospel?’ is a question I have been asking for some time. And it is now the title of a brilliant new book by much-loved author and preacher RT Kendall, published by Charisma House.

In a very timely expose of the superficiality and error of much of Western Christianity, RT (short for Robert Tillman) attempts to rouse the Church from its slumbers with a passionate wake-up call.

Eternity Matters

Wielding his sharp, perceptive pen with the skill of a writer very much in tune with the Bible’s Author, he shows how the fear of God has been largely lost, with heaven and hell hardly ever mentioned from the pulpit.

John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus, spoke of the “wrath to come” when people flocked from miles around to hear him.

The neglect of preaching on hell, in particular, has lulled generations of believers and would-be Christians into a false sense of security, and to a lack of urgency in proclaiming the Gospel to a dying world.

This is a timely expose of the superficiality and error of much of Western Christianity.

We are too often allowed to bask in the sunshine of our Western comfort and prosperity with teaching about making the most of life in the here-and-now, rather than urgent calls to rescue those in danger of perishing in eternal fire.

After all, RT argues, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” – the words of Jesus himself (John 3:16, my emphasis added). It’s surely a matter of everlasting life or death. The wrath of God is coming upon all ungodliness and wickedness, and the only way of escape is through the blood of Jesus. This is the Gospel – not health and wealth, prosperity, social outreach or even happiness on this earth.

Not Ashamed

It’s a thrilling read – punchy, shocking, beautifully written, honest and full of fascinating anecdotes. The author is not afraid to tell stories against himself; he owns up to having made many mistakes but, as he says, he would stake his life on the truth expounded in this volume.

The Church urgently needs to rediscover the main thing!

I am greatly indebted to friends from London who sent me a copy, but not before travelling across the capital to get RT to sign it. Alongside his signature, he noted down the Bible reference Romans 1:16, which says: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”

‘Whatever Happened to the Gospel’ (240pp) is available on Amazon and elsewhere online, in paperback, Kindle and audio forms.

Please note that a review from Prophecy Today UK concerns the book only: in no way does it constitute support for official book endorsers such as shown on the image above.

Peter Sammons reviews ‘Heaven’s Dynamite’ by Mike Endicott (2003, Terra Nova).

Author Mike Endicott has a noted ministry in the field of Christian healing. At 128 pages this is a gentle but persuasive thesis, encouraging us to understand that gifts of healing are still for today.

Crisis of Confidence

The beginning of the book consists of testimonies – in the form of encouraging ‘thank-you’ letters - to the reality of miraculous healing. Endicott goes on to reflect on the “crisis of confidence” amongst so many Christians in Jesus’ ability and willingness to heal today. Yet the world of the 1^st Century Church was not so different to our modern world:

The apostles ministered, as we do, in a multi-spiritual choice culture, where truth claims competed for attention. In such a challenging environment they were not afraid to put themselves in the firing line, and to express complete confidence in the power of God to heal, save and deliver as they preached the cross.

Endicott expresses sorrow that modern Christians have too small and timid a view of God. With low expectations, we are not disappointed at low ‘results’ in terms of healing, or even of salvation for the masses! Endicott is convinced that these gifts are for today, and his own ministry bears out his confidence:

Believers have a clear mandate from the Lord to heal the sick. Jesus’ instructions to the twelve were: ‘As you go, preach this message. The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead. Cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons’ (Matt 7:10). The command to the disciples to heal the sick was never revoked, but was reiterated and reinforced.

This is a gentle but persuasive thesis, encouraging us to understand that gifts of healing are still for today.

Dynamite?

Why the title? Several times in the book Endicott expresses the firm conviction that when we move in faith, “heaven’s power explodes” in salvific action. “By his grace, says Endicott, “when we begin to move in expectancy, heaven explodes. Why? Because the preached word was, and still is, accompanied by miracles”. Endicott enthuses:

The power of God is moving amongst us even today. Every Christian, born again of the spirit of God, baptized and filled with the same Holy Spirit, has in himself or herself the power of the new creation; the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. To affirm that truth is not arrogant. On the contrary, it is to acknowledge that it is all by grace – the free gift of God.

So as we raise the expectancy of sufferers by declaring, like the apostles, the power and authority of Jesus, and as we persist in proclaiming the gospel of salvation, we shall see more of heaven’s ‘dynamite’. The Greek word ‘dunamis’ means power, and our God has the power to heal now – today! Miracles happen!

This is a really helpful introduction to the realities of healing in the name of Jesus. As a gentle and relatively easy read, this book does not ‘tax’ its readers, but it does provoke thought, prayer and excitement.

A minor quibble; it would have been helpful to have explored in more depth the difficulties we encounter on those sometimes inexplicable situations where healing either does not happen, or happens not in the way we expect. With that minor reservation, because this is a real issue that many have encountered, this is still a book that I am happy to recommend. Healing is still for today! Praise God!

‘Heaven’s Dynamite: God’s Amazing Power to Heal the Sick’ is available from CPI for £8.99 including P&P in the UK. Also available on Amazon.