Derek Bownds and Paul Luckraft review ‘The New Creationism’ by Paul Garner (Evangelical Press, 2009).

Topics like Creationism can often be daunting to many, including those with a strong desire to understand but who lack a scientific education. Here is an accessible book on the topic - although, by the author’s own admission, it is still challenging in places. However, on the whole Garner has succeeded in laying out an oft-confusing topic in a digestible way for lay readers, providing a sufficient summation without overplaying the detail.

Dual Approach

His general approach is to start with the scientific evidence and ask which worldview it best fits: Creationism or evolutionism. For instance, he tackles the Big Bang by outlining the three main pieces of evidence that support this generally accepted theory (weak radiation, red shift expansion, the light elements) and then explaining deficiencies – often overlooked - which cast doubt on it. He follows this up by proposing a Creationist theory of cosmology (pp23-31).

His secondary approach is to start with statements proposed by evolutionists and test them - scientifically, critically and objectively. Together these two strategies provide a very satisfactory methodology which every reader should be able to appreciate.

Topics of Interest

As part of his overall argument in support of a Creationist worldview, Garner provides several smaller sections on specific topics. There is a useful summary of the uniqueness of the earth (the ‘Goldilocks planet’ – with conditions ‘just right’ for life) and its atmosphere relative to other planets in the solar system.

There is also a helpful mention of the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth) project – perhaps unfamiliar to many, but undoubtedly of great importance in shedding new light on the problems with radiometric dating techniques. In Garner’s words, RATE is “one of the most ambitious creationist research initiatives ever undertaken” (p98).

Garner has succeeded in laying out an oft-confusing topic in a digestible way for lay readers.

The chapter entitled ‘A Youthful Creation’ is particularly helpful, easy to understand and convincing. In this section the author argues that an average population growth rate of just 0.5% (half of what it is today) “is sufficient to generate the present world population from just two people in a mere 4000 years” (p116).

Two chapters are devoted to the Flood as a global catastrophe, with a robust defence of the biblical record. The Ice Age is also examined in detail - it is fascinating to be taken through the argument for just one Ice Age, post-Flood (as opposed to the common view of multiple ice ages). Garner concludes that the pattern of extinctions in the scientific record is more consistent with a single ice age, casting doubt on the idea that these creatures survived up to 50 earlier ice ages before becoming extinct in the last one.

Regarding the origin of life, the author includes some interesting observations from those engaged in such research but who discount the biblical position. For some, the search for the origin of life is ‘a kind of religion’ in itself, albeit an immensely frustrating one, since it remains one of the great unsolved riddles of science. Every step forward simply creates another alternative theory instead of a solution. All that is gained is a greater sense of the magnitude of the problem of explaining the origin of life without reference to God.

The book ends with a short epilogue reminding us that there are over 200 New Testament quotations from, or references to, Genesis, many from Jesus himself, with 63 being concerned with its first three chapters. There follows an extensive glossary (to help with scientific terms), good endnotes, a substantial bibliography including websites, and an index.

What Garner does so well is to make it legitimate to query some of the fundamental claims of evolution, while positioning Creationism as a truly viable alternative.

A Welcome Addition

Overall, what this book does so well is to make it legitimate to query some of the fundamental claims of evolution, while positioning Creationism as a truly viable alternative. Although mostly concerned with scientific arguments, Garner ventures a little into the field of biblical interpretation, though his use of the King James Version for Scripture quotes may not help in communicating to a more modern generation.

Garner is humble and gracious when it comes to big, divisive issues, recognising that “there are fellow believers who see these matters differently” (p74). He is also realistic about the nature of scientific enquiry, acknowledging that there are often scientific arguments and observations that support a different view from the one he is proposing, and that in many areas “there are bound to be large gaps in our understanding” (p87).

The New Creationism is a welcome addition to the ongoing debate and should help put the topic back on the agenda for the whole Church community.

‘The New Creationism’ (300pp, RRP £10.99) is available here for £7.79 – also on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Faith toward God.

We now come to the second truth in the foundational series. Having turned from dead works, that is everything not initiated by God, we are called to a life which looks to God for everything - totally trusting him - for, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb 11:6).

When a person first becomes a Christian he usually has very little knowledge of God or his Son Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a continual exploration of the knowledge of God. Obviously you cannot trust anyone you do not know well, and the more you get to know God the more you can trust him.

Faith toward God develops and grows by us using the means available to us to increase in this knowledge. Daniel the Prophet wrote, “the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits, and those of the people who understand shall instruct many” (Dan 11:32-33, NKJV). Next week we will pursue the means by which we get to know God, but this week let us briefly consider the subject of faith itself.

Faith unto Salvation

In the Bible, faith is spoken of in three main ways. First, what is termed ‘saving faith’, is the initial faith which brings us into relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul puts it this way, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast” (Eph 2:2-3).

Although one can be told the Gospel message which is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16), it is not possible to explain fully what happens when a person believes. Salvation is a miracle and you cannot explain miracles because they are supernatural.

The whole Godhead is operative when a person comes to Christ:

• Father: Jesus said, “No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44).
• Son: God draws us to Christ. The Lord Jesus gives us eternal life. He said. “For you granted him [Jesus] authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him” (John 17:2).
• Holy Spirit: When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he told him that it was the Holy Spirit who brings about the new birth, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6). The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and when we respond to the Gospel message he comes to dwell within us, thus giving us life.

Although we cannot explain it we know that when we responded to the conviction of sin and came to that place where we were ready to turn from sin, believing that Jesus died and rose again and willing to submit to his Lordship, God gave us the faith by which to receive his Son, Jesus. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews describes it as, ‘so great a salvation’.

The Christian life is a continual exploration of the knowledge of God.

Faith by Which to Live

Second, there is faith by which to live. We have seen that when we become a Christian the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, and the “fruit of the Spirit is faith”. Not only is there a God-given faith by which to come to the Lord Jesus, but also a God-given faith to live the Christian life: "the righteous will live by faith".

Our faith is in God, who is the Faithful One. God can be trusted because of the perfection of his character. It is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God ever to do one thing which is unrighteous or unfair.

Circumstances can come into our lives which we do not understand and God is not obliged to give us an explanation of everything that happens. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow the words of this law” (Deut 29:29). But even though we sometimes cannot understand, we can be totally confident in the fact that as long as we seek to live in obedience, then “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

Jeremiah the Prophet, out of his experience of trusting God, proclaimed “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23).

The Bible contains a great many stories which confirm God’s reliability. A few examples are the miracle of the partings of the Red Sea and the River Jordan; the feeding of over two million people each day in a wilderness; the sun standing still in the days of Joshua; the closing of the mouths of lions in the den where Daniel was incarcerated; the miracles of Jesus; his resurrection, and so many more. God will allow or ordain circumstances in all of our lives to show us what a wonderful Father he is and how much he loves and cares for us so that we can fully trust him.

The Gift of Faith

Third, there is what is termed ‘the gift of faith’. This is included in the list Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 12 when he is leaching on the different kinds of gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of faith is a supernatural endowment of faith given by God for some specific circumstance, or need, or event.

This gift was obviously given to Peter and John while they were both going to the Temple after the day of Pentecost. There at the gate was a crippled beggar who asked them for money. Peter said to him, “Look at us…silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk” (Acts 3:11-8).

God will allow or ordain circumstances in all of our lives to show us what a wonderful Father he is and how much he loves and cares for us so that we can fully trust him.

This special gift is sometimes given to initiate some work or mission, such as the establishment of orphanages by George Muller in Bristol; the launching of the China Inland Mission by Hudson Taylor, etc. It can be given by God to remove some mountain, some obstacle. It can be given to you as he sees necessary for some specific purpose or ministry.

The next step is to explore how we can go on to know this wonderful, powerful, loving, just, and faithful God.

Next week: Exercising faith to know God better.

This article is part of a series, first published as a booklet in 1992. It has been edited for online publication. Click here for previous instalments.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘A New Heaven and a New Earth’ by J Richard Middleton (Baker Academic, 2014).

In writing this book, the author has performed a great service for scholars, clergy and lay people alike, by providing a comprehensive analysis of what the Bible teaches on the final destiny of the redeemed.  

Middleton’s contention is that the traditional view that we ‘die and go to heaven’ does not have its origin in the biblical texts rather it comes from the Greek thinking that permeated Christian doctrine from the 2^nd Century onwards. His aim is to replace this error with the more Hebraic understanding of how God’s plan to redeem the whole of Creation culminates in a new heaven and a new earth.

Accessible Theology

After a preface and an excellent opening chapter which serves as an introduction, the book divides into five parts containing a further 11 chapters. The book concludes with a substantial appendix entitled ‘Whatever happened to the new earth?’ in which the author attempts a historical review of how the biblical teaching of a redeemed cosmos had to battle against other views which emerged during the course of Christian history, views which promoted an eternal bodiless existence in an ethereal realm.

Finally, the book is well indexed both in terms of subjects and scriptures.

The first part, ‘From Creation to Eschaton’, sets up the plot of the biblical story, and is followed by a sections on ‘Holistic Salvation in the Old Testament’ and ‘The New Testament’s Vision of Cosmic Renewal’. Don’t be put off by these rather theological titles. There is nothing stuffy or overly academic in the way he writes.

Middleton’s contention is that the traditional view that we ‘die and go to heaven’ does not have its origin in the biblical texts.

Part 4 examines ‘Problem Texts for Holistic Eschatology’ before in the final part, ‘The Ethics of the Kingdom’, the author basically asks ‘So what?’ How does this make a difference to the individual Christian life and the way the Church should operate in the world today?

Separating Truth from Myth

The author is a lecturer and professor of theology, but his writing style suggests he is more than capable of putting things across in a way that is accessible to anyone keen to listen and learn.

He tells in an amusing way how he frequently offers a monetary reward to anyone in his classes who can “find even one passage in the New Testament that clearly said Christians would live in heaven forever or that heaven was the final home of the righteous” (p14). He is happy to report that he still has all his money. “No one has ever produced such a text, because there simply are none in the Bible” (p14).

For the author the key question is, “Where, then, did the idea of ‘going to heaven’ come from? And how did this otherworldly destiny displace the biblical teaching of the renewal of the earth and end up dominating popular Christian eschatology?” (p30).

The answer, he suggests, lies in the innovative teaching of Plato in the late 5^th and early 4^th Centuries BC. This Gnostic emphasis on ‘physical bad, spiritual good’ laid the foundation for redemption being simply an escape policy from a material existence into an other-worldly ‘heaven’.

One eye-opening section of the book makes us realise how our Christian songs (hymns, carols and modern choruses) have, perhaps unwittingly, endorsed this. Wesley’s Love Divine, All Loves Excelling tells us we will be “Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place”. In one of our favourite carols, Away in a Manger, we sing “And fit us for Heaven, to live with Thee there”.

It was Plato who laid the foundation for redemption being simply an escape policy from a material existence into an other-worldly ‘heaven’.

What Happens When We Die?

The author does take seriously the question of whether we go to heaven temporarily once we die. He asserts that the hope of a period of blessedness while awaiting our new bodies does not contradict the final hope of being part of a restored cosmos.

He also tackles the thorny question of the rapture, cutting through the speculation and confusion of more recent times and providing a simple explanation of what it meant in biblical times.

Overall there is much in this book to commend. It promotes a view of God who is committed to his original plan and its full restoration. It shows how eternity in a new body, in a new heaven and a new earth, is a better hope to live for, a better future to move toward, and a better Gospel to proclaim.

The author’s exegesis of Biblical passages is sound and compelling. The result of his considerable labours is a resource that will inform, inspire and correct. Highly commended.

A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (332 pages, paperback) is available on Amazon for £11.42. Also on Kindle.

An extraordinary testimony of God’s kindness.

We live in a strange and worrying era, when the value of life is in deep recession.

On the one hand there is the so-called morning-after pill, an insurance against unwanted conception, and - worse - the escalating use of abortion to destroy unwanted, unborn children. On the other hand, at the other extreme we hear of new scientific ‘advances’ in the way eggs can be cultivated outside the womb for women who find difficulty in conception.

Add to this ever-increasing rates of family breakdown, the general acceptance that one’s gender (even that of a child) can be manipulated and re-configured, and the mounting pressure to legalise assisted suicide, and we begin to realise how far our society’s value of life is being eroded.

Sometimes I have wondered how the wastage of life might be made clearer to those blind to what they are doing. Perhaps someone could write a story that imagined the potential of lives lost in the womb, following the imagined life story of those who might have been born, grown up and contributed to our society, but who never made it past the start-line.

Could one illustrate this in a powerful enough way to touch a generation like, say, Uncle Tom’s Cabin challenged a whole nation to reconsider slavery and eventually reverse that tide of evil?

I don’t have the skill to write such a book, but recently I discovered something in the testimony of my own life that, at least for me, illustrated these things in a deep way.

A Blessed Childhood

My life has been wonderfully blessed. I grew up in the era immediately following the Second World War, conceived in 1945 and born in 1946. My earliest memories are of the hard winter of 1947, with its deep snow up to my waist, at a time when we had been temporarily housed with other families in a village in South Wales.

Sometimes I have wondered how the wastage of life might be made clearer to those blind to what they are doing.

My father returned from Belgium in 1946, was demobbed and resumed work as a plumber, enjoying plenty to do in those days of rebuilding a nation and building houses. My mother kept house and was always the anchor of our security as children (my older sister and I).

What followed was a blessed and stable childhood through the 1950s - the era of rationing and austerity but hope, strong families and supportive community, when Sundays were kept special, when there were few phones and few cars. That era lives with me to this day.

A Fruitful Life

I did well at school and was optimistic about my future career. When my father asked me if I would join him in his plumbing business, that he might write SF Denton and Son on the van, I rather bluntly turned him down, having plans to join the RAF.

I did indeed become an RAF pilot, followed by studying for a maths degree at Kings College Cambridge, followed by teaching Maths and Computer Science at Banbury School, and then Educational Research at the University of Oxford where I also picked up my DPhil in the study of the educational of able children. Since the mid-1980s I left all that to go into full-time Christian work, which has, since then, taken me all over the world. It has been a wonderful and fruitful life.

One thing that typified my life from as early as I can recall, was my commitment to serve God, which I brought to prayer every single night in my years of growing up. Much later, I recall a day when the Lord spoke to me on my way back home from a ministry meeting. I was recalling how blessed and encouraged my early life had been, when the question came into my mind: ‘You thought that was your parents encouraging you, didn’t you?’ “Yes,” said I. ‘Well, that was Me’, said God.

It was like a Bar Mitzvah experience at a time when perhaps the Lord wanted me to turn more fully to him as Father and recognise the quiet but significant role he had played in my life all through those blessed years of growing up. Amazing.

Searching for My True Father

Yet the story has become even more amazing recently, ever since a friend put together a genealogical tree for both sides of my family. I was quite pleased to discover a fairly normal set of ancestors from the working class – labourers, agricultural workers, domestic servants and so on - going back through the 19^th Century.

I recall a day when the Lord spoke to me, urging me to recognise the quiet but significant role he had played in my life through those blessed years of growing up.

At this time a thought came back to my mind that had, despite having wonderful loving parents, often posed a question during my early years: was my father really my father? It is remarkable what a DNA test can show, so I took up the offer of one towards the end of last year. The results confirmed my hunches and so began an incredible period of investigation to see if I could find my true father.

Amazingly, my DNA results strongly linked me paternally not to the Midlands where my supposed father came from, but to the USA.

Piecing together clues I picked up from other known relatives, I went looking on US genealogy trees for the person most likely to be my real father. I was looking for someone who would have been serving in the US forces, stationed in the UK near where my mother lived in 1945 with my baby sister, at a time when my presumed father was away serving in the RAF.

Surely that should have been like a needle in a haystack to find; but miraculously, with the help of an historical society, I was able to locate a man who ticked all those boxes. More than that - I have obtained a photograph of him and have discovered that he is still alive in the USA - a frail 96-year-old, but alive. I may yet have personal contact with him, though he will probably be quite surprised at my existence!

What Really Happened

The true story is that I descend from a Native American tribe in Mexico (perhaps the Pima tribe). In the days of immigration and of pioneering (including the California Gold Rush no doubt), beginning around 1800, an Italian went to Mexico and married a young Indian squaw (I imagine her living in a tepee) - and so the line from which my true father came was launched.

In 1942, when America entered the war, a young Italian with Native American roots enlisted and became one of those GIs who came to the UK with bars of chocolate for the children and nylons for the women. Amazingly, it was on the exact day that my deceased mother would have been 100 years old that I discovered this man’s name.

Despite finding him after all these years, I find myself not so much drawn to know my real father as being drawn closer to my heavenly Father.

History of the closing days of the war describe the way GIs linked up with local young women. During those uncertain days, my mother formed a temporary relationship and I was the unplanned result. Soon the GIs went home and eventually my (adopted) father came back from Belgium. It was all covered up and we got on with that life that turned out to be blessed.

I think about this, having complete forgiveness for my mother, and being aware that but for the events which took place, neither I, nor my own children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, nor the consequences of my life (good or bad), would have happened.

In fact, despite finding him after all these years, I find myself not so much drawn to know my real father as being drawn closer to my heavenly Father.

A Father to the Fatherless

The point of describing all this is that, in raw terms, my origins were from the unwanted of the developing USA, descending from a ‘half-breed’ (as they would be called in the cowboy films), a nobody, then later born in sin, the unplanned and unwanted result of a temporary fling. An accident with a questionable background.

Yet, God did not leave me in my vulnerability. He put his mark on me even as I was a young child. As Psalm 68 says, he is a father to the fatherless and puts the isolated in families.

If I had been conceived today, I would very likely have been eradicated by the morning-after pill or through abortion.

I only boast about this to highlight what God has done with my life, for there has been some fruit, for example in the education of gifted children, the establishing of Bible colleges, participating in the eradication of polio from Morocco, to name a few highlights. For his glory it is important to see the potential in my life that God planned to use, and which he is still bringing to fulfilment.

My origins, in raw terms, are an accident with a questionable background. Yet, God did not leave me in my vulnerability.

God Values Life

This is a story with two-fold application. One is to highlight the utter waste of potential in our generation, when life is allocated such little value as to wipe it out before birth. My life is unique and colourful in its origins, but there are many such from our generation. There are many lives from the current generation who never had the chance to find God’s love or to fulfil their potential. They simply weren’t born.

The other is the way Almighty God cares for us when we ask him to help us. In an unseen, sometimes hardly perceptible way, God has been alongside me wonderfully all these years. He will do and is doing the same for others who reach out to him in hope and in growing faith.

God values life so much that he gave his life so that we might live and, as he said, that we might have life in all its fullness. How many of those children destroyed before birth might have grown to have their own testimony, we can only imagine. But here is one who could have been at the bottom of the pile, who might have been lost, but was spared for this life, shared in the work of God, and saved for eternal life.

That is my testimony – still developing and hopefully worth sharing. How about yours? It is the sum of our personal testimonies about what God has made of our lives that could be that ‘book’ I was imagining.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Time: Full Stop or Question Mark?’ by Stephen Bishop (Zaccmedia, 2017).

This is a very readable and thought-provoking book on a key issue. Is time a constraint upon us and our enjoyment of life, or a God-given means of exploring life to the full before we enter eternity? We may (at times!) feel controlled by time, but God is not. He controls it. The aim of the book is to explore “some of the implications of God’s control of time and seasons described in the Bible” (p.ix).

The book contains 17 short chapters, each ending with some questions ‘For Reflection’, suitable for personal reflection or group study. These chapters divide into two roughly equal halves.

Section One covers the general aspects of time and aims to have a practical focus. Section Two is a short study on Ecclesiastes 3 and takes us through each of the first eight verses, one per chapter.

In a society that wants to speed everything up and get instant results, the idea of slowing down, waiting and preparing ourselves while God works through his plans at his pace seems to go against the grain. The final chapter of Section One is called ‘Taking a Break’ and looks at the concept of a time of rest without quite going so far as to mention ‘Shabbat’. To explore this theme in more detail you will need to look elsewhere. Another interesting chapter considers how God often does things ‘last-minute.com’.

It must be stressed that this is not another book on time management. Rather it mixes a sense of personal devotion to God with thorough biblical analysis and exposition. Here we find a gentle persuasion to make time our (new) friend and not our old enemy. It should make us more ready to meet God at the times of his choosing and not according to gaps in our schedule.

‘Time’ (146pp) is available from the publisher for £6.99. Also available elsewhere online. Click here to watch a short Youtube video from the author, about the book.

Also by Stephen Bishop:

Dialogue with a Donkey (2014) (Balaam)

Fleeces, Fears and Flames (2014) (Gideon)

Finding a Place to Settle (2016) (Ruth)

Why abortion matters.

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’" (Matthew 19:14) 

Today is a sombre day, marking 50 years since the Abortion Act was passed, since which some 8.7 million children have lost their lives – around one fifth of all UK pregnancies.¹ These silent millions, more than all the Jewish lives taken in the Holocaust, are being mourned and remembered this week.

On a recent trip to Banaias (Caesarea Philippi, where Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah) in northern Israel, a huge cave at the foot of Mt Hermon that was a pagan worship centre at the time of Jesus, I was reminded vividly of how child sacrifice formed a central part of ancient idol worship. Infants would be thrown – alive – into the cave known locally as ‘the gates of hell’, to appease the gods. Indeed, child sacrifice has always played a part in satanic rituals.

Today, the black plastic bag full of babies that is taken out of the back door of NHS hospitals after a day’s abortions and thrown into the incinerator is our modern equivalent of the Temple of Pan at Caesarea Philippi where babies were thrown into the fire.

Infant sacrifice is just as prevalent today as it was in Jesus’ time. The very same demonic spirits are powerfully active today in our ‘modern’, ‘civilised’ society. They may cloak themselves in medical garb, or encouraging words like ‘choice’, ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’, but their insatiable lust for the blood of the young continues unabated, just as it has throughout history.

The cave at Banaias. All rights reserved.

For Christians who recognise that our position on such issues must be built upon the sure foundation of God’s word, not on the shifting sands of human opinion, the last 50 years has not represented ‘progress’, but the tragic re-ascent of satanic hedonism - albeit in a more clinical garb, but no less barbaric in God’s eyes, and giving a strong demonic foothold in our society to spirits of death and destruction.

The Spiritual Significance of Abortion

For 50 years the battle has continued to rage over this divisive topic – and perhaps more fiercely now than ever before. Individuals such as disabled peer Lord Shinkwin² and pro-life activist Aisling Hubert³ continue their fights for legal and cultural change. Today, pro-life group Abort67 (in conjunction with Christian Concern) is launching its ‘Moving Truth’ truck in central London, a mobile display bringing graphic images of abortion back into the public eye.

However, these brave Christians are standing as Davids against a Goliath opposition of abortion giants like BPAS and Marie Stopes, along with the British Medical Association and RCOG, which are together putting their weight behind abortion’s full decriminalisation.

Make no mistake; the decriminalisation of abortion is but the next stage in a much larger agenda, paving the way for the total legalisation of abortion, up to full term, for any reason. While recent statistics show clearly that there is no appetite for this among the general public⁴ – this is not stopping change for the worse being imposed from the top down, from powerful lobbies within the Government, key institutions and the media.

Just this week, the BBC has been criticised for airing a supposedly neutral documentary on abortion that was ‘brazen’ in its pro-abortion stance.⁵ It is one example of many - the majority of mainstream media outlets subscribe to the same liberal position, meaning that pro-life arguments are casually side-lined, talked down and misrepresented on a daily basis.

The truth is also being suppressed on the streets, where pro-life campaigns outside of abortion clinics are being ruled ‘intimidating’ and ‘harassing’ by local councils.⁶ Meanwhile, just over the sea, enormous pressure is being put on Northern Ireland to change its long-standing anti-abortion laws. And our Government insists on exporting abortion overseas to less wealthy countries, using international development aid as a vehicle.⁷

For concerned Christians, therefore, at this 50-year milestone there is much work to be done.

The last 50 years has not represented 'progress', but the tragic re-ascent of satanic hedonism, giving a strong demonic foothold in our society to spirits of death and destruction.

The Terrible Reality

Nobody is disputing that abortion is an extremely difficult and sensitive topic. But for biblical Christians, the God-given right of every child to live is indisputable.

The importance of an unborn child's life to God is shown explicitly in Exodus 21:22-23: "If men struggle and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely...if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life." Outside of confession, and repentance towards God and forgiveness in Jesus, blood guilt lies on all who have carelessly shed the blood of the unborn.

So, it is unsurprising that whilst hard-nosed cries for abortion-on-demand are foisted on an unthinking public, hundreds of thousands of women exist every day under the weight of overwhelming guilt and shame, having aborted a human life because they felt they had ‘no other choice’.

The Guardian boasts that 1 in 3 women will have an abortion at some time in their lives.⁸ The effect this has on women cannot be underestimated. But under the weight of such a burden, people have a choice: they can either harden their hearts towards God, finding ways to rationalise and excuse their actions, or they can come, broken-hearted and mourning, into the arms of a God who will grieve with them, heal them, bring good from their suffering and ultimately wipe away their tears.

The only people who can fully understand the spiritual and moral significance of abortion - and therefore those who God will perhaps hold most responsible for taking action - are Christians.

What You Can Do

The only people who can fully understand the spiritual and moral significance of abortion – and therefore those who God will perhaps hold most responsible for taking action - are Christians. And yet since 1967, the Church has remained largely silent on this issue.

Most believers remain tragically unaware of the importance of taking a stand for life! – morally and spiritually, before God and on behalf of the nation, but also on behalf of voiceless and defenceless unborn infants. The Church needs to be educated, as well as the public!

There are plenty of ways in which we can all do our bit.

1. Read up!

Help bring abortion into the light by making yourself and others aware of what it involves and its implications. As a start, we recommend material from the following:

• Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC): click here.
  
• The Christian Institute: click here and here.
  
• Christian Concern: click here. 
  
• Abort67: click here. N.B. This website contains graphic images which many people will find very difficult to view. However, the intention of Abort67 is not to offend needlessly, but simply to expose the reality of abortion, which is intrinsically offensive – because abortion ‘protests itself’.
  
• ‘Why Pro-Life? Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers’ by Randy Alcorn (2004, repr. 2012, Hendrickson).
  

2. Take action!

Take a stand in the community and outside abortion centres:

• 40 Days for Life: a vigil of prayer, fasting and peaceful activism to spread awareness about the impacts of abortion in local communities.
  
• Helpers UK (Catholic): click here.
  
• March for Life.
  

Get involved in campaigning, education and public awareness:

• Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC): click here (England and Wales) and here (Scotland).
  
• Abort67: click here.
  
• Right to Life: click here.
  
• Alliance of Pro-Life Students: click here.
• Northern Ireland: Precious Life, the Life Institute, Youth Defence 

Leave an online tribute to the lost unborn with Voice for Justice.

3. Support financially and in prayer.

Most of the above groups welcome prayer and financial support. You can also give towards the work of Christian groups providing post-abortion counselling and healing, as well as alternative advice and support for pregnant women:

• Open: CARE's new initative to resource churches to support women through unwanted pregnancies and post-abortion/post-miscarriage concerns. Click here.
• Rachel’s Vineyard (healing retreats): click here.
  
• Revive Community (online and over the phone. Also provides training for those wanting to help friends or loved ones): click here.
  
• The Good Counsel Network (Catholic) (medical, practical and moral support during pregnancy): click here.
  
• Life Charity (support services for pregnant women, also campaigning and education): click here.
• Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH): click here.
• The Choices Community: a new community being launched by Dr Mark Houghton, in conjunction with his new book 'Pregnancy and Abortion: Your Choice' (2017, Malcolm Down).

References

1 Abortion: facts and figures. The Guardian, 9 August 2006. 

2 Lord Shinkwin has headed up a campaign for better legal protection for disabled babies, who are much more likely to be aborted, and can currently be aborted up to full term.

3 Aisling’s attempt to prosecute two doctors for illegally offering abortion on the grounds of gender made national headlines. Her case was overturned by the CPS as ‘not in the public interest’, but, she is now pursuing this to the European Court of Human Rights.

4 If anything, there is support for a reduction of the current limit of 24 weeks. See Poll: most Britons want abortion limit reduced to 20 weeks. Catholic Herald, 22 May 2017. 

5 See this report from the Christian Institute.

6 Ealing Council’s vote to take action against pro-life group The Good Counsel Network could set a precedent. See here.

7 E.g. UK to spend over a BILLION pounds of aid money on family planning and overseas abortion. SPUC, 11 July 2017.

8 See note 1.

Charles Gardner and Maureen Trowbridge review ‘Beyond the Final Curtain: What Happens When We Die’ by Richard Roe (Zaccmedia, 2014).

As a journalist of more than 40 years, I am well used to deadlines. But I take my hat off to fellow writer Richard Roe for daring to tackle the ultimate deadline. In his excellent book, Beyond the Final Curtain (Zaccmedia), he addresses an issue most of us try all our lives to avoid – what happens when we die.

It may well be a taboo subject not suited to livening up a party, but it’s not as morbid as it sounds, and the book is both well-written and hugely insightful.

Man’s Greatest Enemy Defeated

Basically, Roe’s thesis is that the resurrection of Jesus has dealt with man’s greatest enemy, if only we will have the sense – and humility – to believe and act upon it. As Richard puts it, “Jesus is God’s solution to the problem of death; He has conquered death.”

But at the same time the author pulls no punches, asserting that Jesus is the only way to heaven and the only means of avoiding hell.

The resurrection of Jesus has dealt with man’s greatest enemy – if only we will have the sense to believe and act upon it!

His reasoning is intelligent, sound and practical, but essentially biblical, concluding that the word of God – the source of all wisdom and knowledge, and authenticated by Jesus himself – holds the key to the hereafter. And the Bible says that all of us are serving a ‘life sentence’ of being ‘enslaved’ by our fear of death (Heb 2:15).

Jesus the Ultimate Sacrifice

When faced with a deadline to complete a task, our minds become focused and we won’t rest until it is finished. Yet with a deadline we will certainly all face sooner or later, we pretend it will never happen and thus refuse to face the inevitable questions of life and death.

Endorsed by famous preacher RT Kendall, the book is a stirring challenge to that mindset. But it’s also a clear and beautiful presentation of the Gospel that tells us Jesus has paid the price for our sins, which would otherwise condemn us to everlasting torment.

And for those familiar with the Jewish Tanach (what Christians call the Old Testament), the author ably demonstrates how so many well-known Bible passages point to the role of their future Messiah, so perfectly fulfilled in Yeshua (Jesus). For example, the Passover lamb of Exodus, whose blood protected the Israelites and set them free from slavery in Egypt, foreshadowed the crucifixion of Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb, who freed us from slavery to sin.

The word of God – the source of all wisdom and knowledge, and authenticated by Jesus himself – holds the key to the hereafter.

In the same way the bronze serpent Moses raised on a pole for those suffering snake-bite foreshadowed the ‘healing’ of our sin and sickness by Jesus, for “by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

Signs of the Messiah

Another such sign cited by the author (and Jesus himself – see Luke 11:29-32) is the Prophet Jonah, who was in the belly of a whale for three days before being spewed up on a beach. As with Jonah, Jesus died and was buried before being raised to life after three days.

And in his gospel, the Apostle John records Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine, which the author asserts as proof enough that he is the God of Creation, the Lord of the Universe to whom Jews pray every Sabbath.

This miracle also indicates that, when you put your trust in Jesus, life will taste sweeter. And if you read the account in John chapter 2 (verses 1-12), you will see how the Messiah saves the best wine till last!

Just taste and see that the Lord is good! (Ps 34:8)

Charles Gardner

Further comment from Maureen Trowbridge:

Richard Roe writes much about the assurance of eternal life after death for those who believe, quoting the words of Jesus. The book goes through the Old and New Testaments commenting on the lives and beliefs of the characters with much research and depth.

This is a helpful book for any who are uncertain about their future. The end of the book includes a prayer for any who do not yet know Jesus, which is adapted from RT Kendall’s tract ‘Can you know for certain that you will go to Heaven when you Die?’ (Westminster Chapel, 1986).

Beyond the Final Curtain (140 pages) is available from Amazon for £7.99 + P&P. Also available on Kindle.

Hope in the midst of scandal, shaking and scepticism.

“You are...terminated!” No, this was not a line from Doctor Who and his eternal battle with the Daleks. It was a message from the President of the USA to the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, given to him whilst he was speaking to his staff.

To British ears this sounds unreal. No British employer would dismiss a member of staff in this peremptory manner. “You’re fired!” only happens on TV shows like The Apprentice. In fact, employment law in Britain protects employees from arbitrary dismissal.

So what’s going on in America? It was known that the FBI were investigating the links between Trump and Russia during the presidential election campaign. Were the FBI getting too close to the truth for President Trump? Political commentators in the USA began immediately to compare this dismissal to when President Nixon did the same a year before the Watergate scandal caused him to resign the presidency.

Even the smallest whiff of a similar scandal is immensely damaging to the President – but it is more than that, it comes at a time when the whole political establishment in Europe and America is sailing in troubled waters that are likely to produce some notable shipwrecks.

France: The People’s Choice?

Just look at what’s happened in France this week! The people have just elected a new president, but nearly half the population either did not vote or spoilt their ballot paper in protest at the choice they were offered. All the candidates from the main parties failed to get popular support in the first round of voting so the choice was between two rank outsiders.

The winner, Emmanuel Macron, only formed his En Marche! party last year. But, Surprise! Surprise! The man who was supposed to be a rank outsider - the populist ‘people’s choice’(especially young people, who have flocked around him) – has been endorsed by the outgoing Labour Party President Hollande and even more emphatically by the former Labour Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who says that the Labour party in France is finished and dead - and he has now joined En Marche!.¹

The whole political establishment in Europe and America is sailing in troubled waters that are likely to produce some notable shipwrecks.

Emmanuel Macron. So, what’s going on? It looks as though the people of France have been fooled by a gigantic con trick. The populist choice, the man who the people have embraced, turns out to be an ex-banker who made a fortune through investment banking, became the Minister for the economy in the outgoing Labour Government and is a stooge of Brussels, an enthusiastic supporter of the EU! How long will it be before the French people wake up and realise that they’ve been conned - the old political elite that has governed the country for decades is still in power!

The USA: Increasing Disillusionment

Is the same thing already happening in the USA? Trump’s 100 days’ honeymoon is over. His election promises have not yet been fulfilled: he hasn’t built his wall and Mexico are not going to pay for it. He has not reformed Obamacare and he’s not even managed to control immigration. The people put their trust in a rich businessman rather than a politician, but will he do any better than the politicians?

We are living in a day of disillusionment. Throughout the Western world, people are expressing dissatisfaction with the ruling elite who have held power for decades. ‘Change’ is in the air. It’s the one thing everyone wants. No one quite knows what it is they do want – they just know what they don’t want: they don’t want what they’ve got!

It’s this air of uncertainty that is hanging over most of the Western nations and can be seen especially in Europe, in America and in Britain, where we are facing a Brexit-driven General Election. But surely Christians should be seeing this as an enormous opportunity! It is an opportunity to present a new and living way! Why are not churches actively leading the way and presenting the way of righteousness, truth and prosperity to the people? Why is there so little evidence of the Gospel in the marketplace?

Declaring the Whole Will of God

We frequently hear from people all over the country who say that in their church they never hear the preacher refer to current affairs or apply the Gospel to the great issues of the day.

No one quite knows what it is they do want – they just know they don’t want what they’ve got! Surely Christians should be seeing this as an enormous opportunity!

I had a Sunday off last month and I went to worship at a local Baptist church, where the Minister preached a message from Ephesians. This was fine - but afterwards I learned that he had been working his way through Ephesians, line by line, for the past two years! However good Ephesians is, it does not give a rounded gospel. Paul, speaking to the Ephesian elders on his last visit to the region said, “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27, emphasis added).

Surely it is the whole word of God that is needed in the Church today, if we are to understand what is happening in the world around us and what God is requiring of his Church. There are many churches where the preachers never use the Old Testament, so the whole word of God, especially that delivered through the Prophets, is never heard.

Shaking All That Can Be Shaken

Christians will never be able to understand the word of God for today if they are cut off from the Hebraic roots of our faith. In this magazine, for many years, we have been warning that the days were coming when God will shake everything. There’s plenty of evidence of this happening now, in our lifetime.

Many people have said to us that God would never shake the Church because it is the Body of Christ. But surely it is the people, the disciples of Jesus, who are the Body of Christ – not the institutions that we call churches!

It is the whole word of God that is needed in the Church today, if we are to understand what is happening and what God is requiring of us.

In Hebrews 12:26f we are told that it is God’s intention to shake everything that human beings have created, “so that what cannot be shaken may remain” which will prepare the way for the Kingdom of God.

One of the principles that is embedded in the world of nature, part of God’s Creation, is that seeds have to fall into the ground and die before new life can be produced. It may be that the whole of Western civilisation has become so corrupted that all its major social institutions – the economy (banks), society (political parties) and even the denominations that we call ‘churches’ will have to die for genuine new life to spring from them.

Signs of Hope

But in this time when God is shaking the nations, there are also many signs of new life - especially in the vast and rapid growth of the church in China and Indonesia and other places where Christians have been suffering hardship and severe persecution.

Meanwhile, though traditional denominations continue to decline in the West, there are encouraging signs of new life here as well. In Britain we see:

• The churches that are growing are ones where the whole word of God is preached, where worship is lively and prayer is focused and meaningful.
  
• Increasing numbers of believers are meeting in house fellowships for prayer and Bible study.
  
• Many Christians are involved in practical programmes of outreach into the community, such as street pastors, food banks and holiday clubs for children.
  
• Many are also active in a wide range of voluntary organisations seeking to promote Godly values in society.
  

In these times of enormous social change and upheaval, we not only need to note what is happening in the socio-political and economic spheres, but also to note (and celebrate!) what God is doing through his people.

Terror attack sadness points to resurrection gladness!

“He laid down his life for each one of us.”

An appropriate comment to hear around Easter/Passover, I’m sure you’ll agree.

The words are those of Jonathan Osborne, senior chaplain to London’s Metropolitan Police, speaking about the brave officer who died confronting a terrorist trying to attack Parliament.

Khalid Masood stabbed PC Keith Palmer after mowing down pedestrians with his car on Westminster Bridge. Monday’s funeral of PC Palmer was a sad day indeed for all of us, and for me it coincided with the funeral of a much-loved pastor as well as with the anniversary of my late wife Irene’s burial 17 years earlier.

But then I realised how it was all happening around Easter when Jesus, the Jewish Messiah and Saviour of the world, also laid down his life for us all. As the innocent Passover Lamb without blemish, he was led to the slaughter for our sake. For “we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6).

I don’t wish to belittle what PC Palmer did – it is true that he gave his life to preserve our freedom, as so many soldiers have done over the years. And he is worthy of being called a hero. But our nation needs to remember afresh the debt we owe to our Lord Jesus, who gave his life that we might truly live, knowing and serving God without fear because of our certain hope in the resurrection to come, for which Christ has paved the way.

Certain Hope

That’s why neither of the two personal funerals to which I have referred was without hope. There was sadness, of course, at the earthly passing of loved ones, but it was accompanied by the joy of knowing they have gone to a better place and that we who believe will one day be reunited with them in glory.

PC Palmer is worthy of being called a hero. But our nation needs to remember the self-sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, who gave his life that we might truly live.

Yes, Jesus suffered the cruellest possible execution – and could have summoned legions of angels to rescue him. But he hung there for our sake. “For he was pierced for our transgressions…” (Isa 53:5). But “after he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied” (Isa 53:11).

The risen Jesus appeared to more than 500 witnesses (1 Cor 15:6). That he conquered death is a fact of history. But if you too want a certain hope of the resurrection, you must believe in Him (John 3:16).

The Apostle Paul writes of Christians: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:19f).

That fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah 25:8 – that “he will swallow up death forever” – and of Hosea 13:14: “Where, O grave, is your destruction?” And Paul answers the rhetorical question with a resounding: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor 15:54-57).

I am so encouraged that the words of Jesus will be displayed on many London buses this Easter, thanks to the vision of Revelation TV founder Howard Conder. How appropriate too, coming in the wake of the London terror attack, that the iconic red buses should be reminding us all of how Jesus died for us.

Lighting a Flame for the Gospel

As we continue to celebrate 500 years since the start of the Reformation, we would do well to remember one of England’s greatest heroes, William Tyndale, who gave his life so that the entire English-speaking world would be able to know the resurrection power of Christ. He defied the leaders of Church and state by translating the Bible (then only available in Latin) into English so that “even a ploughboy” could understand it.

He was burnt at the stake for his troubles. But in doing so he lit a flame for the Gospel, and for freedom, that has since fired the hearts of millions to know, love and serve the Saviour who died on a cross in Jerusalem that first ‘Good Friday’.

How appropriate, in the wake of the Westminster terror attack, that London’s iconic red buses should be reminding us all of how Jesus died for us.

The Roman authorities, religious Jews and our own sin all played a part in the crucifixion of Christ. But ultimately it was God’s doing for, as Isaiah foretold, it had to happen – because “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6) and “it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” (Isa 53:10).

When Irene died all those years ago, I remember so well how, at the funeral, I looked at the coffin and wondered how I was going to bear up, especially in giving the eulogy, when God spoke clearly into my spirit: “She is not here; she is risen!”

May that be your hope too this Easter and Passover tide!

2016 saw an unusually large number of 'celebrity' deaths. Does God want us to take something from this?

For some reason, 2016 was characterised by an unusually large number of deaths of well-known people, whose lives were brought close to ours through the media. This is thought-provoking for a celebrity-conscious, media-driven generation, but in what way?

Suddenly many household names who seem so familiar and even dear to us, have gone – and many at relatively young ages. This in a world where terrorism and war are also constantly focussing our attention on lives cut short through death. Do we look on life and death as we ought, or is there something unreal in our perceptions of the world?

Distant Worlds Brought Near

On 30 December 2016, a summary was published by the BBC featuring 34 pictures of some of the most widely-known celebrities who died during the year, as well as a list of two to three hundred others. The list includes figures from the worlds of music, film, TV and theatre, comedy, writing and publishing, broadcasting, politics, society, science, sport and public service - all seemingly distant worlds brought close to us through modern electronic facilities.

In some ways this instantaneous digital world can be artificial, whether we immerse ourselves in music, sport, comedy or even politics. Its artificial nature suddenly becomes more palpable when so many people, whose lives impacted a generation, have been taken away.

In our somewhat artificial, media-driven culture, do we look on life and death as we ought?

The End of an Era?

Many of these deaths seemed to herald the end of an era, often bringing shock to ordinary members of the public. The deaths of popular musicians and singers including David Bowie and Prince, also Jimmy Young, brought a sense of deep loss for some and nostalgia for others. A few years ago, sportsmen like Muhammed Ali seemed invincible as he caught the attention of a generation in the boxing ring.

Familiar faces have suddenly disappeared forever from our TV and film screens, including Ronnie Corbett, Alan Rickman and Gene Wilder, also Terry Wogan – whose warmth of character made him a national treasure. World leaders and generation changers including Fidel Castro and Shimon Peres have gone. Some religious leaders whose thinking influenced their generation (sometimes controversially), such as Rabbi Lionel Blue and Bishop David Jenkins, are no longer with us.

Some of those who have passed away did so with particular poignancy. Among these was film star Debbie Reynolds, who died on 28 December - one day after her actress daughter Carrie Fisher (known for her role in Star Wars). Carrie had told "her Mom" of her love for her shortly before she died on 27 December.¹ Debbie told her son shortly before her stroke a day later, "I miss her so much. I want to be with Carrie". So mother and daughter died on consecutive days, expressing their desire to be close in this world or a world to come. So near to the end of a difficult year with many other losses, this news story seemed to have special resonance.

Many of these deaths seemed to herald the end of an era.

It is not my purpose here to comment on the contribution to our lives made by any of these people - although it must be said there were many of true faith on the list. The title 'celebrity' does not necessarily imply a life that is of itself a bad or a good influence on the rest of us.

Why not look over the entire BBC list and see what thoughts and emotions are inspired in you? It will be different for all of us, prompting memories of times of laughter or of serious thought, or stimulating respect, maybe nostalgia, or thankfulness.

Is God Speaking?

But why so many in one year? One answer lies in the fact that the 'baby boomer' generation has put more people in the public eye – as has more prolific and immediate media technology. So in human terms, we can rationalise the fact that so many well-known people have died in one year. Even though that is so, is God also saying something to us?

One danger in our media age is an element of unreality. The various presentations of celebrity, from huge music festivals and concerts to social media gossip, to the imaginary stories of TV or film, create a different sort of reality from that experienced by previous generations.

Even though these people have passed away they will continue to 'come back to life', in a way, when we see them again on the screen. Might this lead to an unrealistic view of death – even a denial of it - in our celebrity-conscious generation (have they really died? Are they actually immortal?)? Many people could not accept the sudden death of Elvis Presley in 1977, for example, and some people continue to think he is still alive now.

Does our celebrity-conscious culture lead to an unrealistic view of death – even a denial of it?

The large number of deaths this year prompts us to consider whether or not there is a growing attitude of unreality in our culture towards issues of life and death. This might especially be the case amongst young people, who increasingly live their lives immersed in different kinds of virtual reality through their phones and tablets.

Facing Up to Mortality

God's time came for so many well-known people this year, whatever their eternal destination. They were mortal just as we are, yet our artificial culture can blur this truth.

In all this, particularly at the turn of the year in a shaking and confused world, are we being reminded that all are mortal and that there is a serious side to life (and death) that media presentations do not always convey? Is God intending us to think on this mortality and the real priorities of life and death, which can often be masked by the more artificial aspects of our lives?

What do you think?

References

1 Wheat, A. Singin' in the Rain Star Debbie Reynolds Dies One Day After Daughter Carrie Fisher. People.com, 29 December 2016.