Amongst all the trouble, God is doing something among his people.

In last week’s editorial, ‘Days of Confusion’, we looked at the complex forces of change that have created the strife and uncertainty in the nation today.

During the past week we have seen George Soros, the arch secular humanist, adding to the confusion by trying to undermine the democratic vote of the British people to get out of the European Union. Volatility on the stock market and demands for Brexit clarity from the business world have all added to the clamour in the nation. But, of course, none of our leaders ask the most obvious question – “Is there any word from the Lord?”

I was really encouraged by the comments on last week’s editorial. They confirm my own sense of excitement that despite all the bad news and the trouble in the nation, God is doing something among his people – those who are not just praying, but who are also listening to him.

I’ve been drawn to Psalm 127 with the familiar words “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.” The second part of that verse is of great significance for us today: “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” From this we can derive the biblical truth that unless the Lord watches over the nation we will be wide open to every spiritual attack of the enemy.

This is precisely what happens when a nation such as Britain has a heritage of centuries of biblical truth; but in a single generation discards that truth, turns its back upon God to go its own way, and then is surprised when everything goes wrong.

What Can We Do?

What can we do about this? Well, first we can turn to what the Bible says about a nation that is facing disaster. A significant promise was given by God to the Prophet Jeremiah:

If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. (Jeremiah 18:7-8)

This promise was not just for the nation of Israel in a covenant relationship with God, but for any nation at any time, which makes it the most significant promise in the Bible for Gentile nations. It is of particular significance for nations such as Britain, the USA, Europe and other Western nations that have a Judeo-Christian heritage.

Unless the Lord watches over the nation we will be wide open to every spiritual attack of the enemy.

The reason for this is that the promise speaks about God having warned the nation.¹ It is only nations that know the God of the Bible that could recognise a warning from God. It is only nations that have known the truth that could justifiably be charged with having deliberately turned their backs upon truth and embraced false values.

Just look at the values that our politicians are promoting as ‘British values’: “equality, tolerance and the rule of law”. These are not British values! They are an invention of secular humanists drawing on atheist philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Marx!

Traditionally, British values have been drawn from the Bible. They are: JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH and INTEGRITY, FAITHFULNESS and LOVE. These used to be the values upon which all our political relationships, our business relationships and our personal relationships were founded! They are fundamental and eternal: not the trivial rubbish peddled by politicians!

One Example: Britain and Israel

Today, I want to take just one example of the way Britain has forsaken godly standards of truth, leading to the situation in which we now find ourselves.

It’s a well-known fact that the British Foreign Office is anti-Semitic and always votes with the Arabs against Israel in the United Nations. They even voted against the USA when President Trump had the courage to declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, which every Bible-believing Christian, every Jew and every educated person knows is simply a plain statement of fact: Jerusalem has been Israel’s capital since the time of King David, 3,000 years ago!

Traditionally, British values have been drawn from the Bible – they are not the secular humanist rubbish being peddled today.

Records show how the Foreign Office civil servants fought against Churchill in the 1920s when, as Colonial Secretary, he strove to implement the 1917 Balfour Declaration that the historic land of Israel should be a homeland for the Jews. In 1938 and ‘39 when the Jews were being murdered on the streets in German cities, Britain refused to let Jewish families come as refugees. We took several trainloads of Jewish children but let their parents go to Auschwitz to be murdered in the Nazi gas chambers.

The Exodus, after the British boarded in 1947. Public domain.An even more horrible crime was committed immediately after the Second World War, when the survivors of the death camps from around central Europe fled to Palestine but were prevented from entering by the British army. A leaky old ship called The Exodus carrying 4,500 survivors was rammed by two British cruisers and forced to turn away from Haifa. The most heinous crime was that all these people were deported back to prison camps in Germany! This was at the time when Britain was beginning to reject its biblical heritage and its values of truth and righteousness.

It was just at this time that the British Empire began to unravel. The greatest Empire the world had ever known began to collapse when it started to despise its own heritage, despite the miracles we had seen during the war that saved Britain when we stood alone.

Of course, I’m not saying that the Empire was perfect – we made lots of mistakes, but from my extensive travels around the world I have seen at first hand some of the good things that British rule brought to those countries. Also, today there are countless millions who embrace the Gospel because it was brought to them through the British Empire: that in itself is a godly heritage.

The Way Ahead

The peace and prosperity Britain enjoyed until the present generation was the fruit of a nation that honoured its biblical heritage. God watched over this nation because of its faithfulness.

This is surely significant: the hope for the future lies in the chaos and confusion in the nation forcing a recognition that we have departed from the ways of righteousness and truth.

If this recognition leads to repentance, there is no doubt that God will honour his promise not to destroy the nation, but to restore times of peace and prosperity…“If that nation that I warned repents of its evil…” As I said last year: I cannot just pray unconditionally for God’s blessing on the nation. But the promise of Jeremiah 18:7-8 is something worth praying for!

Notes

1 A possible exception to this is Nineveh. But there were significant settlements of Israelites in the region around Nineveh since the time of Shalmaneser in 722 BC (See 2 Kings 17:6). So the Ninevites might have known the God of Israel from them which would have prepared the way for Jonah’s warning.

The crisis through the eyes of a patient.

Our editorials have long warned that British society is vulnerable to the shaking prophesied by Haggai and re-iterated in Hebrews 12. We have taken the stand that it is no use praying against this shaking because we would be praying against what God has determined to do.

We have already witnessed the collapse of many businesses in this country following the recession of 2007-8, which now looks more like an initial tremor than the major earthquake. The recent downfall of Carillion is a further sign of the continuing vulnerability of industry and our financial sector.

Yet, as was pointed out the week before last, we seem to worship our institutions as golden calves, looking more to establishing financial security than we look to the Living God. It is as if, as milk is drawn from a cow, our institutions might become healthy through the flow of our money (this also goes for our planned withdrawal from Europe). The National Health Service is one such institution.

It so happens that, over recent months, the NHS has had a major influence on my family life; but for the care we have received, my wife would not be alive today. So I would like to keep focusing on this as an example of where our society is and as a prompt for prayer.

Through the Eyes of a Patient

It is one thing to assess the NHS from frequent news reports of its struggles through the high pressure periods of Christmas and the New Year. It can be quite another to consider the inner workings of the system through the eyes of a patient.

It is one thing to assess the NHS from news reports of its struggles – it is quite another to consider its inner workings through the eyes of a patient.

Over the last few years our family has experienced almost every aspect of the NHS because of the developing chronic illness that befell my wife. We have needed, at various times, the support of our local GPs, pharmacists, health visitors, provision of aids for home support, outpatient hospital visits, and emergency ambulance service and hospital care during the intensely busy holiday period. I was even visiting my wife in hospital during the time when the Health and Social Care Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was visiting the same hospital (though not our ward!). Presently, we have need of social services and social care.

As a result of all this, personally I have arrived not to a point of judgment, but to the point reached by Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ (e.g. Jer 9:1). Jeremiah was a forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, who himself wept over Jerusalem and at the tomb of Lazarus.

Why? Because if you get into the heart of the NHS as a patient, you still find dedicated doctors, nurses and medical specialists, just as through all the years since its beginnings after World War II. If God is shaking the nation and if the NHS will be shaken as part of this, therefore, it must not be seen as a punishment to a totally ungodly system.

Appreciating Complexity

Indeed, if there is an element of judgment, perhaps we should all consider the part we have played in allowing things to get to this point. The NHS is vulnerable and some of us have taken it so much for granted that we put needless pressure on it.

As I waited for my wife to be taken from the ambulance to A&E on one recent visit, I had the opportunity of spending several hours ‘people watching’ in the waiting-room. Some clearly need not have been there, with transient troubles that could have been dealt with at home. Of course this is only part of the picture, but a pressurised system could be eased a little if we cherished it a little more and thought of one another more than ourselves sometimes.

Personally, I have arrived not to a point of judgment, but to the point reached by Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ (e.g. Jer 9:1).

Having said this, to me, the major problem for the NHS lies on its administrative side, from local management right up to parliamentary structures of oversight and planning. Adding to the pressure is the centralisation of hospital care and the closure of smaller regional healthcare centres, so that what was once personal and caring seems to be becoming more and more impersonal. Similarly, the separation of what is called ‘social care’ from the NHS seems wrong to me - finance-driven more than care-driven in its design.

These are enormous issues to consider but I touch on them to suggest that any shaking of our society in the coming days, which will likely impact the NHS as much as other national institutions and businesses, cannot be understood in a broad-brush way.

Getting to the Heart

How, then, are we to discover a path of prayer into the future? We need to find God’s heart, and obtain his perspective, which perhaps are hidden from us if we only observe our nation in worldly terms. The NHS is just one example; if we delved into any of our institutions we would find our hearts torn by their continuing potential and momentum for good, but with God written out of the balance sheets.

Intercession for Britain involves gaining a heart perspective; feeling the hurts more than judging the failures.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the film The Darkest Hour, portraying Winston Churchill’s struggles to lead Britain through the last world war, is currently being shown in cinemas. For anyone who was alive at that time and after, when people pulled together to rebuild and re-establish first a near-defeated and then a near-bankrupt nation, this must be a stirring film.

Yet the story behind the scenes is even more stirring. We must remember those who engaged in intercessory prayer for our nation through the war years and afterwards, who were given God’s own insights into the reality of the battle, physically and spiritually. Such prayer warriors, if alive today, would undoubtedly testify to their call to identify the true heart of a nation in crisis.

To know how to pray, we need to seek God’s heart, and obtain his perspective.

A Journey of Prayer

How then should we pray through our current crisis? God will show us if we are willing. My own path of learning has been through the illness of my wife, which has led me into the heart of Britain’s caring systems to experience both the pains of illness and the pains of the system – and also to witness rays of hope.

Are we willing to let the Lord show us his heart of compassion, as well as his displeasure, for the people of this nation? If so, he will lead us into experiences – perhaps quite unexpectedly - that draw us each into new depths of prayer. God is looking for those who will be willing to respond to this call.

People power and the hand of God.

This week we have seen the fall from favour of two powerful politicians – Mugabe and Merkel. They have each held power in very different societies but their downfalls are both linked to the rise of people power.

People power signals the awakening of ordinary people to the misuse of power among the ruling elite that has been the source of oppression for far too long. It is now even affecting cruel dictatorships such as the Mugabe regime, which has dominated Zimbabwe for decades.

The popularist backlash has begun: where will it end?

Angela Merkel’s problems stemmed from her unwise single-handed decision to welcome more than one million asylum seekers from the Muslim world and to try to force other EU nations to follow the same policy. Her nearest neighbours - Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria - have all resisted this pressure.

Populist Revolts

Other parts of the EU are experiencing something similar - a populist reaction against decisions made by those in power. In France, Macron’s sudden rise to prominence reflected a workers’ revolt against both left and right traditional political parties. But his failure to please the workers has brought them out onto the streets in protest.¹

It remains to be seen whether a similar pattern will be followed in Zimbabwe if the vast army of unemployed do not see radical change with their new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Politicians in traditional parties throughout the EU are watching the growth of anti-establishment, populist movements with trepidation.

And what about the European Union itself? The cracks we have been forecasting in Prophecy Today UK are beginning to widen. The corruption at the heart of this evil institution with the gross rewards it pays to its unelected officials is becoming widely known and will bring its inevitable consequences. Politicians in the traditional parties throughout the European Union are watching the growth of anti-establishment, populist movements with trepidation.

The God Factor

Angela Merkel announces the failure of her coalition talks. See Photo Credits.

But the major factor that the Establishment does not recognise is the God factor!

Yes, certainly, the forces of social change that are sweeping Europe and other parts of the world, including traditional monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, are of sociological significance, but they also have theological significance! They are not simply generated by human ambitions or discontent: they all show signs of the guiding Hand of God!

The Prophet Haggai prophesying in the year 520 BC may not have known God’s timetable, but he certainly received a clear revelation of the purposes of God when he declared, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations…”.

We are certainly seeing a great shaking of the world of nature through storms, hurricanes, floods, droughts and earthquakes – arguably more than in any other period in recorded history; and we are also seeing a great shaking of the nations.

The forces of change that are sweeping Europe and other parts of the world all show signs of the guiding Hand of God.

This is where we need our Bibles more than sociological and political theory to give us a steer about what is happening and the likely outcomes of the forces of change that are driving the nations.

When we get a clear view of the nature and purposes of God, we have the necessary tools of analysis to enable us to understand what is going on in our world today. Without this knowledge we are left with our secular human frailty; alone in the universe, facing the gathering storms with winds of change reaching hurricane force and no compass or rudder to guide.

The two fundamental assets of the biblical prophets were: revelationary knowledge of the nature and purposes of God; and understanding of the sovereignty of God - that everything that happened was either because God directly willed it, or because he allowed it.

Exposing Injustice

So, what’s happening among the nations today? Certainly, we can see that in Europe and the West, God is exposing the corruption, injustice and oppression exercised by the ruling elite who misuse their riches and their power to pursue selfish aims and objectives.

As Jeremiah stated in his famous ‘Temple Sermon’ (Jer 7), God hates injustice and oppression. There is something in our fallen human nature that still reflects the image of God, in which we were created, that enables us to recognise injustice and oppression and to reject them. This is what is happening today as God turns on the light, exposing the corrupt financial, political and social systems of the modern world.

Mrs Merkel’s fall from power is likely to trigger elections in the new year which will benefit the far-right nationalist ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) party, or even the ex-Communist Left Party. This will further destabilise Germany and could possibly trigger the collapse of the European Union, already under threat because of Britain’s withdrawal.

The two fundamental assets of the biblical prophets were: revelationary knowledge of the nature and purposes of God; and understanding of the sovereignty of God.

This gives an enormous opportunity to Britain to review the whole policy of offering enormous sums of money to the EU to allow us to come out from under its oppressive regulations.

But is the British Government sufficiently spiritually aware of what is happening in the world that political decisions can be made in line with the purposes of God? This is evidently not the case – unsurprisingly, given how few MPs are biblical Christians. This is where Christians are greatly needed to make their voice heard in the nation and to bring a ‘God-perspective’ into national decision-making.

Church, Arise!

At present there is very little indication that God-centred direction will come from the Church. But it is the Church that should be the prophet to the nation. In the absence of the word of God thundering through the naves of our cathedrals and from the pulpits of our churches, perhaps people power may yet emerge from the pews!

It is surely time for Bible-believing Christians to find every opportunity in this media-saturated world to declare the word of the living God to this godless generation!

The authorities in Israel were forced to take note of the disciples: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). May the backlash not only be seen on the streets, but in the churches as well!

Notes

1 E.g. Read more here.

Some thoughts about Hurricane Harvey.

The fierce storm with hurricane-force, 120 mph winds that hit the State of Texas in the USA last week has been headline news in the UK as well as in America.

The unprecedented quantity of rain that has been dumped on and around the city of Houston has caused enormous damage and left thousands homeless, triggering a major rescue operation. Amazingly the loss of life has been very small but the damage to property has been colossal.

We would like to express our condolences to all those who have suffered. Texas is known for its Christian population – so what is God saying to his people, especially those in the ‘Bible Belt’ of the USA? Many of the volunteers taking part in rescue operations expressed thanks to God for their own survival as they rescued others, which was a good witness on British TV.

We know that only those who are resident in Texas and who both know their Bibles and are aware of the moral and spiritual condition of their communities are able to know what God is saying through this natural disaster. But as a Brit who has family ties to the US and a genuine love for the country, I would like to offer some thoughts in this editorial.

The 1987 Hurricane

Back in 1987, on 16 October, a mini hurricane hit the south-east coast of England with winds gusting well over 100 mph causing enormous damage to buildings and ripping up some 15 million trees, smashing cars and power lines, blocking roads and rail travel from the south coast to London. It affected the richest area of the UK and for the first time in history the stock exchange in London was unable to open as its workers could not reach the capital.

The storm struck at 4am when hardly anyone was out of doors, so there was a minimum loss of life. But the damage to property was immense, affecting many of the richest houses in Britain, with trees crushing Rolls-Royces and Ferraris. If the storm had struck a few hours later in rush hour, the death toll would have been enormous. Amazingly also, the storm only affected the south-east area of England – 50 miles north of London there was hardly a breath of wind!

Texas is known for its Christian population – so what is God saying to his people through Hurricane Harvey?

We wrote about this at the time in the magazine Prophecy Today, asking if there was any word from the Lord. 48 hours after the hurricane, world stock markets began tumbling and London experienced the worst crash of all with millions of pounds wiped off share values. ‘Hurricane Friday’ was followed by ‘Black Monday’ in the City as winds of panic swept through the world’s financial markets and judgment on the rich nations began.

Hurricane damage, 1987. See Photo Credits.We saw this as the final warning about greed and corruption in the financial affairs of the nations. There had been many other warnings but this one was so specific, confined to property and in the richest area in the UK – its message should have been obvious even to those who never read the Bible.

History shows, however, that the warnings were ignored which eventually led to the great economic upheavals in 2008 when many great financial houses collapsed – and from which the economy has still not recovered.

The Rich in Laodicea

Today the oil-rich state in the richest nation in the world has been hit by a far greater hurricane and storm than the one that hit Britain 30 years ago. Also this week, floods have done enormous damage in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. Is this just coincidence, or is God saying something significant about the financial affairs of the world?

Here is another ‘coincidence’ – in the year AD 17, exactly 2,000 years ago, an enormous earthquake hit Asia Minor (now part of Turkey) destroying the great city of Laodicea, the richest city in the region. It was part of the Roman Empire at that time and Rome offered financial help in rebuilding, but the city elders refused saying that their own resources were perfectly adequate! They were adamant that they had sufficient wealth to meet their own needs and had no need of any help!

We saw the 1987 hurricane in England as the final warning about greed and corruption in the financial affairs of the nation.

40 years later the Apostle Paul, on the road between Antioch and Ephesus, stopped at Laodicea, newly rebuilt with amazing buildings. The people were rich, proud and self-sufficient. Paul planted a church there leaving a man called Epaphras in charge, who also oversaw the nearby congregations in Hierapolis and Colossae.

The three cities were joined by a huge stone aqueduct carrying water from the hot springs of Hierapolis at the top of the mountain to Colossae in the valley.¹ The water would have been lukewarm when it reached Laodicea and when writing his letter to the church in Laodicea the Apostle John charged the Christians with being lukewarm in their faith (Rev 3:16).

The message at that time was, “You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Rev 3:17). This must have been a devastating message for the Christians in Laodicea who were all living nice comfortable lives very similar to those of their non-Christian neighbours. The message to them was a call for repentance and to recognise the extent to which they had imbibed the values of their rich neighbours, ignoring the plight of the poor down in the valley at Colossae.

Take Note!

I wonder if this is saying anything to our Christian friends in Texas? It is for them to take it before the Lord in their prayer times and it is not for us to judge. But in Britain we know that there is still huge corruption and unrighteousness in the financial affairs of our nation where top businessmen, officials and celebrities are paid vast sums of money while the poor struggle to make ends meet.

This same injustice can be seen on a vast scale on the world scene where two thirds of the world’s population go to bed hungry every night. The rich nations with their control of global monopolies, patents and copyrights wield power over other economies, ensuring that wealth stays concentrated in the hands of the rich and the poor are kept in their place.

In Britain we know that there is still huge corruption and unrighteousness in the financial affairs of our nation.

The God of Creation who holds the nations in his hands as a drop in a bucket (Isa 40:15) scoffs at the nations, according to Psalm 2:4, when they do not realise their feeble situation and attempt to throw off all restraint in their greed and avarice. But to ignore the laws of the God of the Bible who hates injustice and oppression (Jer 7:3-11) is foolhardy and dangerous: it leads to disaster which comes suddenly without further notice when all the warning signs have been ignored.

Christians throughout the rich nations of the West should be taking note of the warning signs of the great storms that hit Texas and the financial centre of India this week. When God gives warning signs they should never be ignored. The message Isaiah received was, “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly in an instant” (Isa 30:12-13).

May the rich nations of the world take note!

References

1 See: Hill, C and Hill, M, 2005. Ephesus to Laodicea. Handsel Press, Edinburgh, p94f.

What can Christians expect from the coming times of volatility - and how can we prepare?

As was announced last week, we at Prophecy Today believe that God will not now hold back from shaking Britain. For many years his warning signs have not been heeded - signs of the very same nature that Amos highlighted when he warned Israel of their departure from the ways of God (Amos 4).

In Britain there has been a long-standing expectation of a severe economic shaking - even in secular circles. This financial shaking will surely be more severe than that which accompanied the hurricane which hit the south of England in 1987, impacting the markets in the following days.

One might have thought the recession of 2007, seen as the greatest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, was the severe shaking that we were expecting. Now it seems that even this was a warning shock pointing to something much more severe ahead.

God’s Shakings Are Immense

The Book of Revelation predicts the fall of all the cities of the nations (Rev 16:19) and some see in Revelation 18 the foretelling of a total, global financial collapse in the space of just an hour (Rev 18) – a phenomenon which would not have been possible just a few decades ago, but which today could happen very easily. Whatever shaking is coming to Britain in the near future will likely be a precursor of this, though not the final woe that impacts the world.

In Britain, even in secular circles, there has been a long-standing expectation of a severe economic shaking.

God’s shakings are immense, nevertheless. Clifford Hill, in last week’s editorial, took us back to the times of Jeremiah to liken what is happening in Britain to the judgment that was about to fall on Judah. Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem just as Jesus did around 600 years later, when he prophesied its fall under the Romans, including the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

The return of Israel to God following this major shaking and her second exile into diaspora is still not complete.

So let’s take the fallout of an imminent shaking in Britain very seriously. If Jerusalem was not preserved, who are we to say that a dramatic collapse could not occur to once-protected Britain?

Obvious Weaknesses

A financial recession or collapse would, of course, impact incomes, savings, businesses and investments, with enormous consequences. People would fall on hard times. But there is a possibility here of even greater fallout: a breakdown of law and order.

There is already an atmosphere of discontent with and distrust of authority enveloping the country, especially among young people. This could easily turn into resentment, and violence could erupt on our streets.

A brief perusal of the political scene in Britain reveals a landscape ripe for volatility: a perceived weak Conservative Government appearing to fail with Brexit (or even appearing to succeed!), Government failure to fulfil election promises, health and care systems on the brink of collapse. There is also the possibility of another general election and the Labour Party led by Corbyn coming to power, which itself could dramatically fail, further dampening the hopes of many. The weaknesses are many and obvious, with tragedies like the Grenfell Tower fire brewing up to a fervour problems that have already been bubbling away for some time.

Yet, for the Church, this is not an entirely negative picture. We must see it as a day of opportunity for the Gospel. But how will it be to minister in such troubled times?

Prepare!

Consider the interval between Malachi’s prophecies and the coming of Jesus – the 400 ‘silent years’ when God seemed to be inactive. We know that by the time Jesus came to minister to the poor and proclaim the Kingdom, many were demonised and many were sick with incurable diseases. Surely we will find the same when God opens the door for the Church to minister to the needy in Britain, during and after the coming shaking.

A brief perusal of the political scene in Britain reveals a volatile landscape – but this is not an entirely negative picture.

Already we see many people in our nation falling for the temptations of satan and living – or merely existing - outside of the protection of God. Family life is disintegrating, as in the time of Malachi, as a sign of this. The consequences are already telling on many lives, just as in the days of Jesus.

It will not simply be a case of food banks and extra financial support. We will need to be ready with the full scope of spiritual ministries at the time designated by God for a call to repentance that many may yet heed. For the events ahead will lie completely within the redemptive purposes of God.

We may have just a short time to consider this and so the word for the Church today, in this context, surely must be "PREPARE"!

But How?

I would suggest that the first part of our preparation be in our attitude. For those of us who have warned of the decline in our nation for so long, it is all too easy to have the judgmental attitude of Jonah who was sent to Ninevah. We should instead have the attitude of Jeremiah and Jesus who wept over the fall of Judah. When did we last weep for the people of our nation?

We must seek to understand the mindset of this generation, especially amongst young people. Why do they believe what they believe and do what they do? Through understanding and sympathy we will be more ready and able to help when doors of opportunity open.

Secondly, we must turn to prayer. The strategy of prayer triplets was very successful for the evangelistic ministry of Billy Graham (called Mission England) in the 1980s. What strategy for prayer will the Holy Spirit give us for the coming days of ministry in our nation?

We will need to be ready with the full scope of spiritual ministries at the time designated by God for a call to repentance that many may yet heed.

Thirdly, let us fan up the flames of the ministries in our churches. How will we deal with someone needing deliverance or healing as they make steps towards acceptance of the Gospel? How will we minister to those who will emerge with confusion and fear?

Let us be honest: if our spiritual life has dried up leaving a lifeless religiosity in its place, now is the time to seek God for personal revival and re-commissioning for the days ahead. Through watching and praying we must seek to understand the times we are in and the subtle tactics of our spiritual adversary who finds ways of deceiving Christians as well as unbelievers.

Fourthly, of course, we must prepare prayerfully for the practical helps that will be needed when this nation is shaken.

Being Ready

Some years ago, when I lived in Gorseinon close to where the 1904 Welsh Revival broke out, I asked an elderly neighbour about her experience of the revival. I had the following answer: “Oh dear no, that was in the chapels. It passed the churches by”.

Let us be sure that we are ready to serve and participate when the day of harvest comes to us. We do not want to let the opportunity pass us by.

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.

The only way to understand what is going on in the world is through the lens of Scripture and through prayer.

The great shaking of the nations continues unabated as Western post-Christian civilisation crumbles and scenes of carnage in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are almost too horrific to view or describe. Boris was right when, describing the situation in the Middle East, he said:

"There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region...that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area...There are not enough big characters, men or women, who are willing to reach out beyond their Sunni or Shia group to the other side and bring people together again..."¹

The Truth About Diplomacy

The Prime Minister had just returned from the Gulf where she had been promoting trade and had dined with the Saudi King, thanking him for the security services he provides to Britain. The last thing she wanted was her Foreign Secretary to tell the truth. The British Foreign Office is renowned for its diplomacy – not for speaking the truth!

So Downing Street stated firmly that Boris was not expressing the Government's view. The PM knows that there is too much at stake to speak so candidly: the more weapons Saudi uses in bombing women and children in Yemen, the more we can sell them and provide jobs for our workers. That's what diplomacy is all about! If Boris wants to keep his job, he will have to learn the art of not speaking the truth - just being polite and friendly.

The British Foreign Office is renowned for its diplomacy – not for speaking the truth!

But what is the truth about what is happening in the Middle East - and other parts of the world that are being ripped apart by violence, such as Nigeria and Pakistan?
What is the truth about the people who are living in fear of war in the Ukraine and the Balkan states where Russia is poised to retrieve her much-coveted Empire; or the people of South Korea and Japan as North Korea and China flex their nuclear muscles? What is the truth about the socio-political revolution that is taking place in Europe and the USA?

Political Instability in EuropeVirginia Raggi of the Five Star Movement, now Mayor of Rome.

Of course, our political journalists and social analysts will give us copious explanations. Austria and Italy are the latest nations to be shaken with elections during the past week. It was the first time in 70 years that the two main parties in Austria were unable even to field a candidate in their presidential election. Their candidates were eliminated in the early rounds of preliminary voting. Van der Bellen has become the first 'Green' to head a European state.

Sunday's referendum in Italy was bad news for Prime Minister Renzi who had staked his political future on proposed far-reaching constitutional reforms. Like David Cameron, he immediately resigned after a crushing 'no' vote which confirmed the rise of the anti-globalisation Five Star Movement, or M5S (now the second most popular party in Italy). Earlier this year, M5S won 19 out of 20 towns and cities where its candidates stood for mayor - including Rome and Turin.² 37-year-old lawyer Virginia Raggi, now Mayor of Rome, promises that the city is entering a new era in its history.

This surge in support for populist parties is likely to be reflected electorally right across Europe in the near future, with France, Germany and the Netherlands all due to hold parliamentary elections next year. 2017 promises to be a year of massive political change in Europe. Those EU politicians who have threatened to make Brexit very difficult for Britain may find themselves swept along by a tide of change and financial instability that will create a dramatically different political landscape across the continent.

2017 promises to be a year of massive political change in Europe – we may end up with a dramatically different landscape.

Uprooting to Build Up

Anyone seeking to understand the truth of what is happening in the world today will need to see the whole situation in the context of the purposes of God. The psalmist sets the scene when he says "The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations" (Ps 33:10-11).

It is God's desire that all people should know him and understand his nature and purposes – including his good plans for his covenant people, through whom the world will receive the message of salvation, as the Lord planned from the beginning of Creation. Habakkuk neatly sums this up when he says "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Hab 2:14).

In order to achieve his purposes, God sometimes has to do some demolition – to break down barriers and get rid of the things that are directly contrary to his will. Jeremiah was told this at the beginning of his ministry; God said to him, "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jer 1:10).

This is why God is shaking everything now. There comes a point where human beings, exercising the freedom he granted them from the beginning of Creation, are in danger of destroying the world through the wickedness and violence of their unredeemed nature. At that point God has to say, "enough is enough".

Out of Exile...for a Purpose

He had to do this with his chosen people Israel by allowing the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah perceived this and actually rejoiced to see God at work: "O great and powerful God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men" (Jer 32:18-19).
Out of the tragedy of the exile in Babylon God brought back a redeemed company of people who would be a light for the Gentiles, "that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isa 49:6).

Immediately after the exile, the Prophet Haggai foresaw the time coming when God would need to shake everything in order to carry out his purposes of salvation and bring his message of love to all people. "This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations" (Hag 2:6).

It is God's desire that all should know him – but in order to achieve his purposes, he sometimes has to do some demolition of barriers and things that are directly contrary to his will.

Great Opportunity for Us

Of course, it is uncomfortable when God is seemingly shaking everything around us. But this is where it is essential for Christians to understand what God is doing and to be active and vocal in teaching those who do not know the God of the Bible. We need to develop our trust in God, so that as things get more difficult, we will not be shaken from the knowledge that the battle truly belongs to the Lord.

This Advent season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the light that has come into the world to scatter the darkness, we have an immense opportunity to bring a message of hope, love and joy into the lives of our families, friends and neighbours - to all with whom we are in contact.

References

1 Published by The Guardian, Thursday 8 December 2016. Click here to watch the video.

2 Italy elections: Big win for Five Star protest party. BBC News, 20 June 2016.

Charles Gardner looks for security in a world of turmoil.

At a time of great turbulence, when all around is sinking sand, there is a rock of perfect security on which to stand. His name is Jesus. And those who fail to honour Him will stumble (Isa 8:14; Rom 9:33). In the world of politics, too, there is an "immovable rock" that will injure those nations wishing to move it (Zech 12:3). Could this mean that all who attack Jerusalem – "the city of the Great King" (Matt 5:35) – will themselves be terrorised?

Islamic Attacks

Best-selling novelist Jack Engelhard seems to think so, saying that the dreadful terror attacks enacted by Islamic fanatics in Paris, Brussels, Istanbul and Nice¹ all began in Israel. He said the nations kept telling Israel not to answer with force, but to make peace with them. Yet every such gesture was met with more demands and more terror; and the world refused to figure it out – that it had nothing to do with Israel.

The Jewish state was merely a laboratory for radical Islam who have murdered thousands of Israeli civilians with guns, knives, suicide belts, and now the automobile – reminding us that cars have been used to ram innocent pedestrians to death in Israel on a regular basis since last autumn. And referring to the summit called by French President Hollande to impose peace in Israel, Engelhard asks: "Is he calling for a peace summit with whoever came to Nice to mow down hundreds of celebrants?"²

The grim spectre of violence stalks the earth like a big black cloud

Also asking questions is evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy, who says terrorists continue to attack because the U.S.Government refuses to recognize the danger of Islam.³

Even in England, Muslim converts to Christianity require special protection in the face of threats and persecution from their own families.

Yes, the grim spectre of violence stalks the earth like a big black cloud. All this is surely a sign of the imminent return of our Messiah, Yeshua (Luke 17:26f, Matt 24:29f). But it's a time to fasten our seatbelts...I believe the Lord was speaking of these days when he said: "In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory" (Hag 2:6f).

And this theme is repeated in the New Testament when, in warning against godlessness and sexual immorality (Heb 12:16) – an apt summary of today's Britain – the writer to the Hebrews reminds us of what happened at the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai when the mountain shook in a terrifying spectacle accompanied by fire. This would happen again, though on a bigger scale, at the end of the age so that what cannot be shaken would remain.

Staying Strong

Hold on tight, for we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let's not buckle under the pressure of worldly wisdom, but press on as we look to Jesus, "the author and perfecter of our faith". (Heb 12:2) May I encourage you to "strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees" (Heb 12:12), a verse I have taken literally, as a result of which it has become a constant source of testimony to the power of God. If I had listened to worldly wisdom, I would have given up running when my knees got painful but instead, inspired by this scripture, I trusted God to heal them. It's interesting that the very next verse says: "Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."

Let's not buckle under pressure

Now I am able to continue running with perseverance the race marked out for me (Heb 12:1), both physically as well as spiritually.

Jesus said: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Matt 2435). He also said that "everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matt 7:24).

Notes

1 At the risk of being accused of bad taste, it is worth mentioning that the Nice massacre took place on Bastille Day when the French celebrate 'freedom' wrought through a revolution in which their royal family were mercilessly executed by guillotine. I am not suggesting that divine vengeance was being visited on the victims in Nice. But there is a sense in which the ruthless, merciless spirit that brought 'freedom' to France is still present in the land. I'm not so sure that celebrations are apt for the storming of the Bastille (prison); perhaps France needs to repent for taking the law into their own hands.

2 Engelhard J, Nice Terror: First they came for the Jews, Arutz Sheva, 15 July 2016.

3 Justice, J. Franklin Graham: This Is Why Terrorists Continue to Attack. Charisma News, 5 July 2016.

Clifford Hill surveys the Volkswagen scandal and asks: is God saying something to Germany - and to us?

Germany, the political and economic driver of Europe, has suffered one blow of dismay and humiliation after another in the past month. The country was still struggling with the fallout from their controversial migration policy when the Volkswagen scandal struck. What's going on in Europe's leading nation? Is there any prophetic significance in these events?

The Volkswagen Scandal

Volkswagen, the world's leading car manufacturer, has admitted that some 11 million of their cars distributed around the world have been fitted with a cheating device that gives a false reading of its engine efficiency when on the test pad. It cuts the emission of pollutants while the car is being tested but once out on the road the car can spew poisonous gases into the air, including nitrogen oxides, in amounts 40 times higher than regulation emissions standards.

So far investigations have been restricted to Volkswagen, but the spiralling scandal has led to calls for cars from other manufacturers to be checked for carrying similar devices deliberately designed to cheat when the cars are being tested. US authorities, who broke the news that they had discovered the sophisticated software which turns off pollution emissions on the test pad said that VW had admitted equipping about half a million cars in the United States. VW then admitted some 2.8 million cars in Germany also had the devices and that others have been distributed throughout Europe including in Britain.

Bankruptcy Threatened

The revelations, with their potential of creating the world's biggest corporate scandal, immediately hit the value of VW's shares. Some €25 billion, about 40%, was wiped off VW's share price in just two days. The US Government added to Volkswagen's woes by announcing that they would levy fines of $18 billion. But this is only the start of the cost to VW which may result in diesel engines no longer being used for domestic cars. It is a crippling blow to the worldwide sales of VW cars which include Audi, Seat and Skoda models, that could bankrupt the firm creating massive workforce redundancies that will affect the German national economy.

Blow to Pride

The VW revelations have dealt an enormous blow to German pride: Volkswagen is a national symbol of German character and has strengthened their economy since World War II.

The Volkswagen revelations not only have financial implications; they have dealt an enormous blow to German pride. Volkswagen is not just a carmaker; it is a symbol of the national character of Germany. Volkswagen began producing a 'People's car' in the Nazi era and played a significant role in the recovery of the German economy after World War II. It became the ambition of every German family to own a VW and the company's worldwide success symbolised the prosperity of the nation enabling it to exercise both economic and political power in Europe.

Suddenly all this prosperity and pride is now threatened. Germany has dominated the councils of the EU, successfully persuaded a group of nations to join the euro club putting their national economies under the control of the European Central Bank (mainly under German control), and forced crippling austerity programmes upon those with weaker economies. Now it is Germany's turn to be worried about their national economy and there are many Europeans who will say that they are getting their comeuppance.

London's ReputationLondon's financial heart - once a centre renowned for business integrity.

But we in Britain are in no place to point the finger. We too have suffered enormous blows to our national pride through cheating. Our bankers used to have a worldwide reputation for honesty in the days when London was renowned for business integrity and deals could be made on the basis of word-of-mouth and a handshake, without even reading the small print. That reputation for honesty has disappeared in a cesspit of banking scandals, Libor rate fixing, and massive rewards paid to failed executives.

It is not only in the world of finance that cheating has been exposed; our great parliamentary tradition that used to be the envy of the world has been humbled by the exposure of cheating by Members of both Houses of Parliament, with scandals involving their expenses and allowances, and selling their services for commercial gain.

The catalogue of cheating exposures does not end there but has included the sexual abuse of children and other scandals by celebrities and leaders in church and state that have shaken the nation.

We in Britain are in no place to point the finger at Germany, having suffered enormous blows to our national pride through cheating.

The Western World

Other European nations have also had their shocks and similarly in the United States cheating and corruption have been exposed, leading to the downfall of mighty financial institutions. So what's going on throughout the Western world among nations who share the Christian faith and a long biblical heritage?

Surely, the plain answer is that as nations we have deliberately turned our backs upon the word of God that historically has provided trustworthy foundations for personal and social morality. The spiralling revelations that have been shaking the nations throughout the past 40 years coincide with the increasing secularisation of the nations and the abandonment of biblical values. All of these things are prophesied in the Bible that speaks of a great shaking of the nations and a time of international turmoil and conflict.

Warning Signs

The revelations of cheating in the nations are not just coincidental, they are warning signs urging us to change course before bringing disaster upon our generation. The revelations are the deliberate action of God turning on the light to expose evil. His major purpose is to bring his salvation to the nations rather than to bring judgement.

Uncovering corruption is a salutary warning of the consequences of abandoning truth and deliberately turning upside-down the moral values which are part of God's act of creation.

Uncovering corruption is a salutary warning of the consequences of deliberately up-ending the moral values which are part of God's act of creation.

The word of God to our generation is "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight...For they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty" (Isa 5:20-24). The future history of the world depends upon whether or not we will take note of the warning signs!

Clifford Hill discusses the Europe-wide refugee crisis.

The whole of Europe is now being drawn into what is rapidly becoming a continent-wide crisis eclipsing that of the Euro and the Greek banking problems. More than 100,000 migrants are flocking into Europe per month, crossing perilous seas with inevitable loss of life. So far this year over 2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in numbers that have been overwhelming the authorities in Italy: last year that number was over 3,000.

TV news, websites and newspapers have been full of pictures of angry crowds in Budapest where the main railway station has been besieged by thousands of migrants and many others have been stranded in a train. Most of them have escaped from war-torn Syria. Hungary has been building a fence stretching the length of its eastern border in an attempt to keep migrants out, but their determination to reach Northern European nations has stretched EU laws to their limit. Hungary has been attempting to enforce the rule that migrants must register in their first country of entry into Europe but EU's borderless policy is in total disarray as the numbers coming in every day simply overwhelm authorities.

Shocking Pictures

The recent sight of a little boy's body washed up onto the beach in Turkey has shocked people right across Europe. It reminds us that these thousands of people on the move whom we label as 'migrants' are real people; boys and girls, men and women like us: and the majority of them (over 70%) are refugees fleeing from the horrors of conflict in war-torn areas.

The little boy was Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old refugee from Kobani in Syria, who died with his mother and five-year-old brother while attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos.

The recent sight of a boy's body washed up onto the beach in Turkey reminds us that these thousands of 'migrants' on the move are real people, like us.

Frank Augstein/AP/Press Association ImagesGermany expects to settle up to 800,000 refugees this year, while Sweden has declared 'open borders' to all those fleeing war zones. Austria has welcomed trainloads of refugees coming in from Hungary; but by contrast, of the 4 million refugees who have fled Syria Britain has so far taken only 216 – barely enough to fill two carriages of a train! But David Cameron seems to be bowing to public opinion and agreeing to take a share of the refugees.

Britain's Immigration Policy

The plain fact is that our immigration policy has for the past 50 years been in chaos. Ever since the great parliamentary debates of the early 1960s on what to do with the worker migrants coming in ever-increasing numbers from former colonial territories in the British Commonwealth, our politicians have not known what to do. The first Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 set the tone by simply restricting numbers, which sent out the xenophobic message that all non-white immigrants were a social problem.

Ever since the parliamentary debates about worker migrants coming in from the Commonwealth in the early 1960s, British politicians have not known what to do about immigration.

The greatest mistake was to say that any Commonwealth migrants who settled here had the right to bring in their spouse or other close dependants. This regulation is still in force today which allows migrants from the Indian subcontinent to send their young people back home for a marriage partner which doubles their migrant population each generation.

Hangovers from Colonialism

Our immigration policy has not been based upon offering a home to refugees or caring for those in need, but upon an outworn colonialist ideology of Britain being the 'Mother Country' who has an obligation to open her borders to all her children. This is regardless of the fact that many of those who have come from, say, Pakistan, have no love for Britain, make no attempt at integration, and share a long-term ambition of turning Britain into a Muslim country.

Now our politicians are scared of opening our borders to genuine refugees because of the social consequences of already having whole areas in some of our cities where English is hardly spoken and where health, welfare and education already present enormous problems. To bring in thousands more (mainly Muslims) from the Middle East exacerbates the problems we already have. Unless there is a radical change in public opinion, politicians do not want to make unpopular decisions - particularly in the run-up to the Referendum on Britain's relationships with the European Union. But even if there is a change in public opinion towards the refugees, will this affect our attitudes toward the EU?

Prosperity Threatened

Britain is not alone in fearing to open its borders to all-comers. There is already social unrest in Germany and a number of other nations within the Eurozone, where 18 million people are unemployed and youth unemployment is running at nearly 22%.

After centuries of European economic dominance where much of the wealth and prosperity has been derived through colonial exploitation, that prosperity is now under threat. With the Chinese market shrinking as their shares bubble bursts, the fears of economic collapse in Europe increase.Frank Augstein/AP/Press Association Images

What Does The Bible Say?

Does the Bible have anything to say about what is happening today? Way back in 1986, Prophecy Today began warning about a great shaking of the nations that was first prophesied by the Prophet Haggai in the sixth century BC, just after the return of the first wave of Jews from captivity in Babylon. Haggai foresaw a time coming when there would not only be tumultuous events in nature, the shaking of earth and sea, but there would be social and economic turmoil in all nations (Hag 2:6-7).

That prophecy was believed to be still in the future by the writer of the Book of Hebrews, near the end of the first century AD (Heb 12:26f). Of course, prophecies can have more than one fulfilment, but there are so many indicators today that something along these lines is actually happening in our lifetime. The increased frequency of earthquakes, storms and natural disasters plus the social, economic and political upheavals among the nations in every region of the world, surely have some significance! The reference in Hebrews says that when these things happen, God will use them to shake human confidence in our own cleverness and ability to solve every problem. This will prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus. Maybe that event is not so far in the future.

Is there anything that Christians can do to help in this situation with thousands of desperate people on the move across the world? Of course we can pray; and prayer does have a practical effect! We can also give to genuine charities that are working among refugees – particularly those on frontline camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. But maybe we should also be offering accommodation in our home to genuine refugees to enable them to have a good experience of starting life again in a safe environment. Here is an opportunity for some trusted Christian group to organise this.