Today we are witnessing the crumbling of Western civilisation. Every news bulletin brings further evidence that the nations are being shaken to an unprecedented degree. The days of upheaval of which we have been warning for many years in this ministry are now upon us.

Socio-political unrest

Revolutionary powers of social unrest have been set loose in America since Donald Trump stepped into the political arena. They have brought a form of individualism that has the potential of destroying the basis of law and order at a time when the forces of social change are opening great gulfs between large sections of the population that could undermine the stability of all the major social institutions in the nation.

The overturning of the abortion laws in the USA reveals the level of division and moral and spiritual instability in the nation. It is already having a dramatic effect in the destabilisation of the USA at a time when the whole system of law enforcement is under threat following the activities of the Black Lives Matter campaign in the wake of the untimely death of George Floyd at the hands of white policemen. In the coming days that will affect every part of the national life of America. With mass shootings occurring regularly, the social destabilisation of America is accelerating and will affect the whole of Western society.

In terms of economic stability, it has long been said that when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. But the socio-political instability in America is also likely to affect the whole of Western civilisation.

the socio-political instability in America is also likely to affect the whole of Western civilisation.

In Britain we are already seeing the outer skirmishes of the coming battle for wage increases that will have a profound effect upon the economy at a time when prices are increasing in every commodity and food shortages will be inevitable. With the BBC having actively collaborated with those who have succeeded in ousting the Prime Minister, it will not be long before we see times of enormous social upheaval and demonstrations leading to civil unrest and even to blood on the streets.

The sovereignty of God

But before all this happens and becomes part of our daily news, it is surely time to reflect upon the forces of change that are at work and their spiritual significance.

A central tenet of our Judaeo-Christian biblical heritage is the sovereignty of God, who holds the nations in his hands. Isaiah states this clearly when he reintroduces the God of Creation to the exiles in Babylon still grieving over why God had allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed.

He says: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” (Isa 40:12). He answers his own rhetorical question by speaking of God exercising control over the universe, including everything that happens on earth. “He stretches out the heavens like a canopy… He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing” (Isa 40:22-23).

Greatest abortion in history

So what is happening today and why is God allowing it?

We are witnessing the decay and disintegration of all the major social institutions of Western civilisation, including the Church. If we take a fully Hebraic understanding of the nature and purposes of God as revealed in the history of Israel, we see that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel said that God held the religious leaders – the temple priesthood – primarily responsible for the tragedy that befell the nation in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. (See Jer 23:13-14 and Ezek 9:3-6).

Constantine succeeded in carrying out the greatest abortion in history, through tearing Christianity away from its Hebraic womb.

From any objective standpoint we would be justified in saying that the Church of the post Constantinian era has been a major force in shaping the moral values as well as the foundational beliefs and principles of Western society and the fashioning of its carefully honed rule-based social structure. In Britain it is known as common law and in America it consists of their constitutional declaration and amendments.

Constantine succeeded in carrying out the greatest abortion in history, through tearing Christianity away from its Hebraic womb – even changing the calendar and discarding biblical feasts and festivals – cutting Christianity adrift in a sea of popular paganism at the mercy of a newly created group of religious professionals known as ‘clergy’. They were the only ones qualified to determine what Christians believe or how they were to behave.

Limited success of the Reformation

The Reformers tried to restore the biblical purity of Christianity, but they did not succeed in carrying out a root and branch transformation; they only swapped one kind of authority structure for another – it was still a law-based religion with a different set of rules and regulations but controlled by a similar group of professional theologians known as ‘ordained ministers’. The same rule-based intolerance and violence that characterised the Roman Catholic Church was transmitted into the Protestant churches.

The same rule-based intolerance and violence that characterised the Roman Catholic Church was transmitted into the Protestant churches.

So, a brilliant young theologian named Servetus was brought to the stake in Calvin’s Geneva because his teaching didn’t completely conform to Calvinist doctrine. He was offered a reprieve if he would confess that Jesus was the Eternal Son of God. He said, “I confess that Jesus is the Son of the Eternal God.” But that was not good enough for the Protestant theologians and he was committed to the unspeakable agonies of a slow fire. When he finally fell down into the flames, he cried out, “O Jesus, thou Son of the Eternal God, have pity on me.” That was certainly more than his torturers did.

In Britain we have a history of bloody deeds committed by Catholics on Protestants and Protestants on Catholics – even in our most recent history in Northern Ireland. We cannot say, even today, that we have outgrown the violence and intolerance of Christendom that has always been with us since the Council of Nicaea in 315 A.D. when Constantine’s hatred of the Jews fashioned the theology of the Church that justified the violence of the Crusades and the horrendous history of Christian treatment of Jews by both Catholics and Protestants.

The enforced conversions by the Catholics were matched by Luther, who advised his followers to destroy the homes and synagogues of Jews. He said, “Let us drive them out of the country for all time… That we may all be free from this insufferable devilish burden – the Jews.” It will never be known how much Hitler was influenced by this statement or whether it influenced many of the young men from Lutheran churches who were conscripted into the German army and participated in the Holocaust.

Fulfilling the purposes of God

When we look at the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and his specific rejection of the doctrine of ‘an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth’ in favour of loving our neighbours and praying for our enemies, it seems incredible that the Christianity of the Church should become so diametrically opposed to its New Testament and Hebraic roots. One wonders how many of the world’s wars might not have been fought if the Christianity of the Church had not been so violent and intolerant.

One wonders how many of the world’s wars might not have been fought if the Christianity of the Church had not been so violent and intolerant.

So, as we look at what is happening today, in the context of God’s promise to shake all nations and the biblical promise that judgement begins at the household of God, we have to ask questions about how God is working out his purposes. Have we now, in our lifetime, reached the point in the history of humanity where, for the first time, the purposes of God can be fulfilled?

It is God’s desire that the whole of humanity will come to know his salvation and come into a right relationship with him as Lord and Master through Jesus the Saviour. The purpose of God is clearly set out in Scripture in such statements as:

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, in the Lord alone are righteousness and strength. All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame” (Isa 45:22-24).

William Tyndale, in translating the Bible into English, expressed his desire to enable the ploughboy to know as much of the word of God as any cleric. This was a direct threat to the whole structure and function of the Church and was no doubt a major factor in Tyndale’s execution by strangulation and burning at the stake – a favourite practice of churchmen who feared the loss of their privilege and prestige.

Today for the first time in the history of the world we have a generation where vast numbers of ordinary people have sufficient education to be able to read the Bible in their own language. This is very likely what Jesus is referring to when he said in Matthew 24:14: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Jesus foresaw the end of the age, and the time of his second coming to judge the nations, which could not be carried out with justice until everyone had access to the truth.

Transformation of the Church

But how will Jesus judge his Church, which has distorted his teaching and the word of God for the past 1700 years? In a devastating pronouncement in Matthew 7, Jesus warns us to watch out for false prophets. He says, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven” (v.21).

There has arisen a multitude of small groups of Bible believing Christians meeting in each other’s homes as they did in the Early Church.

In our lifetime we have seen the rise of the charismatic movement and the recognition that spiritual gifts are given by God to all believers in Jesus. This recognition has coincided with the rise of a multitude of small groups of Bible believing Christians meeting in each other’s homes as they did in the Early Church.

This is preparing the way for a great transformation of the Church and the radical reformation of biblical teaching – moving away from a rules-based understanding of the word of God to a relationship-based understanding – in other words from law to grace. This is something that Paul tried to teach the Galatians – “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Gal 3:25).

Perhaps a major purpose in God shaking the whole of creation is to break the power of the Church as a human institution masquerading as the Body of Christ and distorting the teaching of Jesus. In which case we should be rejoicing in the downfall of institutional Christianity, which we now see as a triumph of the justice of God.