THE ANGELS’ LOVE SONG

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man at war with man hears not
The love song which they bring;
O hush the noise, you men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!”

The verse quoted above comes from the carol, “It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old …” It’s a carol which speaks in every verse about the presence of angels at the birth of Jesus and what they sang, namely a love song. It’s beautiful to read as well as to sing. (if you want carols to come fresh to you, try simply reading them, pondering as you do)

Apart from anything else, I am thrilled with its acceptance of the “full on” testimony of Luke to the major manifestation of angels at the birth of Jesus. It’s inconceivable to me that this tiny baby into which God poured himself would have been born without the glory of the presence of angels. They were there to announce and they were there to protect, exercising their two wonderful ministries to humanity, which humanity the Word had now taken upon himself. No, they could not possibly be missing, and neither could they have been been anything less than a great multitude in number! Heaven itself was giving witness to the Son of God in the manger. This was a stage and a spectacle where heaven must break through and be seen.

This was no fairy story, but a massive revelation of the supernatural world to which we remain too often desperately blind and which we find difficult to grasp. The Christmas story has many challenges but the challenge to press beyond what we see in this world and to recognise a supernatural world is one of its biggest. We really must press through in our spirituality into the glorious things that are just beyond our humanity, yet for which we are bound. A revelation of the supernatural is imperative for the depth and wellbeing of our faith.

The song of the angels was a love song, which the carol makes abundantly clear. Their song enshrines an offer of peace, goodwill and joy to all mankind. The offer is given not just in words, but incarnate in a human person, a Saviour who will give to humanity the peace which it simply cannot find for itself. Here, in Jesus, is the love gift of which the song speaks. It is a song which is still being sung. He and his salvation is a gift for all, free and life-changing.

The saddest and most poignant part of the carol is the verse I quoted at the beginning. It tells us that “man at war with man hears not the love song ….”. E.H. Shears, the author, wrote that verse about a century and a half ago, and the sentiment remains true today. One can feel his aching heart beat as he pens the words, “O hush the noise you men of strife and hear the angels song”; a sad heart beat, but one we need to take up at Christmas in prayer.

Yet in the midst of our dismay at so much human futility, I pray that the reality of the peace and joy and the wonderful supernatural power of our God in Jesus may bring you that same sense of deep wonder which the angels’ song brought all those years ago. That’s what Christmas should bring us – a deep sense of spiritual wonder.


Bob



To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

CHRISTMAS and THE POWER OF PROPHECY

Advent and Christmas are seasons which are magnificently full of prophecy. The prophet was literally a “mouthpiece”, a mouthpiece for the voice of God, and, as Amos so pointedly stated, his importance lies in the fact that “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Thus the purposes and plans of God are to be found in the prophecies of Scripture, and nowhere is this truth more evident than in prophecies of the coming of Jesus.

I have little doubt that virtually every church this Christmas will hear the prophetic words, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given … And he will called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his rule and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6-7). These words were written several centuries before Jesus was born, words drawn out of the heart of Isaiah the prophet by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and looking to a future long off. Though so few in number these words encapsulate precisely what was to happen in the birth of Jesus. A child would be born by the normal birth process, he would become a ruler and he would carry the names and descriptions that belonged to God himself, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Prophecy frequently merges with the poetic and here in an extraordinary poetic way the vital truth of incarnation is captured. I think myself that the poetic capture of so profound a mystery is worth considerably more than overmuch theological dissection. Certainly the Christian church did not have to invent the idea of incarnation – it’s there, loud and clear, in the prophets, announced centuries before it happened.

This prophetic utterance, magnificent in itself, nevertheless gains from the verses in Isaiah which precede it and which are also normally read at Christmas though not so readily understood; “In the future he will honour Galilee of the Gentiles…. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned … You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy.” It is a prophecy which speaks of the future of Galilee of the Gentiles. It describes that land as one of darkness and distress. This was certainly to be the case in Isaiah’s own era when it was overrun and destroyed by the merciless Assyrian armies and largely repopulated by gentiles, and it was to remain like that right up to the birth of Jesus, always looked down on by the Jews of Jerusalem as a place of spiritual darkness. But the prophecy does not stop there and goes on to say that Galilee would see a great light and resound to great joy.

Even more significant is the fact that the emergence of this great light and subsequent joy was directly connected with the human/divine child who was to be born since the exact words of Isaiah are, “the people who lived in darkness will see a great light FOR (because, on account of) to us a child is born”. The child would bring the light. What an extraordinary fulfilment of that prophecy took place when Jesus grew up and actually became that great light to (of all places) Galilee in his earthly ministry. If the land had been spiritually dark over several centuries it ceased to be so when Jesus walked its towns and villages with his preaching and miracles, and leaving in his wake profound joy and hope among so many people. The light of the kingdom had never shone so brightly before in such a needy place. How astonishing that Jesus actually had his home in Galilee (first Nazareth and then Capernaum) and that not a few of his apostles were Galileans. What a devastatingly accurate prophecy of God’s intentions.

I say that this earlier part of Isaiah adds to the prophecy of the birth simply because of the fact that if we should be tempted to believe that the idea of a human/divine incarnation might be a bit of poetic and imaginative fancy then the accuracy of the prophecy about the great light in Galilee brings us up sharply to recognise that this passage (which is one piece) is moving in the realms of provable reality. The very light shone by his teaching and his power, authority and miracle demand one who is uniquely from above even if he was born so humbly below.

We need always to remember with prophecy that it is given precisely so that our faith and understanding might be strengthened as we see it fulfilled. God speaks, and then he fulfils his words so that we might respond from our depths, “He really is there, and the whole world and its direction are in his hands”. So let's rejoice in the prophetic at this time of the year.


Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

THE ENIGMA OF ISRAEL

This is the last of three successive columns on the Middle East. This final focus is on Israel which I described in the last column as being in the eye of the storm and watching the confusion of her detractors.

I also said that the outcome of most of what we see is uncertain. However, I make exception for one thing, about which I feel absolutely certain; that is that the intense and bitter hatred towards Israel shown by her neighbouring nations will not go away, no matter what the outcome of their political struggles might be or who may gain power or in what way they may rule.

The reason I am so sure about this is that such antagonism is a spiritual issue, not a political issue, and its certain continuance is an ongoing fact underlined indelibly by the witness of history. The most extraordinary and ironic part of that historical witness lies in the very story of the secular Zionist movement that propelled the Jews into statehood from the late 19th century until the mid 20th century. The founders of that movement were driven by the secular, pragmatic belief that the only way that the Jews would escape the storm of anti-Semitism which raged in Europe in the 19th century would be to find a country of their own in which they could settle. That alone would bring peace, and it would definitely bring peace. Such was the profound conviction that was voiced in Theodore Herzl’s epoch making book “The Jewish State” and inspired his World Zionist Movement at the end of the 19th century. It was the same belief which drove the continued Jewish settlement of Palestine throughout the first half of the 20th century. Thus for sixty years it was the flag of Jewish hope – a new nation of their own in which there would be peace. The bitter fact is, however, that on the very day of the proclamation of the state of Israel, the Jews found themselves locked into an armed struggle for survival against Arab nations determined to repeat the Holocaust and drive them into the sea. They have been locked into it ever since. The failure to find peace is the fundamental failure of Zionism, even though God used Zionism to bring his people back to their historic land.

Israel survived the attempted destruction in 1948 and has survived other concerted attempts since to destroy her. Israel has now had over 60 years of history as a state, but it has been anything but a story of peace in their own land. They remain the butt of a hatred as strong as it has ever been at any time in their history. The essence of the Zionist dream, peace and acceptance, has never been fulfilled. Israel is hemmed in by a ring of nations seeking its destruction, and which at this very moment are targeting her cities and people with any number of missiles.

The failure of the Zionist hope lies in the fact that it was a purely secular and political hope. The Zionists certainly knew how deep the roots of anti-Semitism were, and they knew that for two thousand years the Jews had suffered from it; but they never appreciated the deeper spiritual root of the problem and never countenanced the hand of God in it. They vainly looked for a human and political answer to a problem only God could answer.

Sadly the Jewish state and its leaders are as secular as its Zionist forebears, and can look no further than political answers and sheer force to maintain their existence. This they have done with all the ingenuity that they have showed throughout their history. However, in their unbelief they remain blind to any true spiritual understanding that it is only God who can give them true deliverance from hatred.

A second certainty follows from this first, namely that God will not allow them to be completely destroyed no matter how much pain, hatred and threat they go through. The last 60 year of the history of Israel has amply demonstrated how the providence of God has kept that nation from destruction. He will continue to do so. He will continue to show his “holiness” (i.e. his complete commitment to his promises) among the nations by what he does for his people.

Where will it all end? I have no better guide than Zechariah 12:2ff and 14:2ff. In that prophetic scenario all the nations of the world, led by the spiritual principalities and powers of the world will come against Israel in a final attempt to destroy the nation and frustrate God’s purposes. They will appear to succeed but will be finally met and destroyed by the intervention of God. At the same time the Messiah will be revealed to Israel. That will be the moment of peace. We have seen enough in the last 60 years to make to Zechariah prophecies entirely credible.

When this will happen and what lies between now and then I have no certainties whatsoever except that we shall be watching an unparalleled end time period of history as the process unfolds.



Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.

To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

HEAVING VOLCANO (Continued)

Last week I referred to a prophetic picture of the Middle East which had Israel at its centre and encircled with hurricanes representing its neighbouring states. The hurricanes were getting ever stronger and more violent and were building up into a huge whirling vortex. That picture was given just a few months before arrival of the widespread uprisings that have been called the “Arab Spring”. It is a picture that has proved genuinely prophetic.

Those uprisings began in Tunisia, whence they spread to neighbouring Libya. Yemen was also thrown into turmoil and Bahrain was threatened. Iraq was already in turmoil due to the US invasion. But the critically important developments have been in Egypt and, more recently, in Syria. These two countries are the most influential of the Arab states and form the cornerstone of the Arab League of 22 nations. The situation in both these countries is at a highly critical stage of impasse, with violent revolution and brutal response evident on the streets of their cities. A major split in the Arab League has emerged as the league has censured Syria. It is not at all the sort of things most observes would have imagined twelve months ago.

So what exactly is happening, and why? In historical terms the unrest constitutes a popular movement against the self-serving and brutal autocratic governments that gained power in the ‘60s and 70s, mainly through army intervention, and deposed the corrupt kingships left over from World War 2. It is a movement for greater freedoms and for political re-structuring that will deal with poverty and injustice. This is genuinely the case even though there are among the “revolutionaries” elements which would like to impose their own brand of dictatorship. It is fundamentally a widespread challenge to the old political order, “l’ancien regime” of the Arab world. It is a challenge to autocracy and a call for something more akin to genuine democracy. That is why it has earned the title of “Arab Spring” – a new birth.

The origin of the movement is very deep and widespread. It is the fruit of a globalised world, of new technological information channels and a new sense of awareness among a growing and vocal middle class. It will not go away. Even Saudi Arabia, despite the immense wealth and power of its princes, is an autocracy that will not ultimately hold out. In the long term some kind of popular rule will be achieved. But if it follows the European nineteenth century experience, that could be another fifty years or even more.

In the short term, however, the outcome is anything but certain. Egypt has just had its first election for a popular government, but extraordinarily the result will not be known until next March! Meanwhile the army is determined to write itself into a place of power in any new constitution, and is not averse to using its muscle on the streets. Alongside that it is clear that the only Egyptian grouping or “party” which has any real cohesiveness is the Moslem Brotherhood, and it looks pretty certain they will get a sufficient number of candidates elected to have the largest say in the proceedings. It is extremely difficult to say just how much the Brotherhood will stick to its original militant and fundamentalist Islamism. There is an old core of hardliners, but there is some evidence that a younger generation of the Brotherhood seem to appreciate that an Islamic take over of the kind that happened in Iran under Khomeini is not really an option. So everything is “up in the air” and will take time to clarify.

Syria is a much more difficult case. Unlike Egypt its autocratic president has not yet been toppled; he is deeply entrenched and threatens all out attack on Israel if the West intervenes as it did in Libya. A much stronger Islamic fundamentalist influence is evident with close links to Iran. All this makes Syria a very violent and unpredictable storm centre.

The worst outcome would be a replacement of Arab autocracies by fundamentalist theocracies, but, though that sort of battle threatens, it is by no means a certainty.

Israel lies, so to speak, in the eye of the storm. I think I’m correct in saying that the eye is actually the calmest part of the storm. Those who would destroy Israel are in confusion around her. It is an extraordinary counterbalance to the threat of annihilation coming from Iran, and even there the rumblings of a popular movement are not far below the surface.

For me, I have a deep sense that God is palpably at work in the history of our generation in this part of the world. For that I am profoundly thankful, even if the outcomes are as yet obscure.


Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

HEAVING VOLCANO

Any attempt at “understanding the times” must include watching the events in the Middle East. That part of the world reminds me of a heaving live volcano, constantly drawing attention to itself with outbursts of fiery and dangerous lava, and ever threatening to burst open with a massive explosion. I have a further image of that area: some time ago I had a prophetic picture of the Middle East with Israel at its centre, encircled with hurricanes representing its neighbouring states. The hurricanes were getting ever stronger and more violent and were building up into a huge whirling vortex. Whether you take the image of a volcano or a huge hurricane, however, the meaning of both is the same; the Middle East has huge potential for destruction in the world.

I have been asking myself one question in particular. Why is it that events over the last few years in the Middle East have brought about a huge exodus of Christians from the area?
At one level this seems easy to answer. For example, the decade-long war in Iraq has actually made that country unsafe for Christians. Whereas under Saddam Hussein, a secularist, they had some protection, now, despite the U.S. presence, Christians have been openly and violently targeted by Islamists and some two thirds have had to leave, fleeing largely to Syria and Turkey. Over this last year, with the overthrow of Mubarak, Egypt has now become less safe for Christians for the same reason as in Iraq, and again large numbers of them have fled, many to the West. The trend can be seen elsewhere in the Middle East.

However, one can ask the question, Why this exodus of Christians? at a another level. Does it indicate the development of a deeper purpose in the mind of God? The region has been, of course, for a long time violently and profoundly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel; there is no readiness to accommodate any Jewish national presence. This antagonism, centred in great measure in Iran, is much deeper even than the bitter antagonism directed at Jews in Twentieth century Europe. And now the region is becoming increasingly hostile to Christians (oddly enough this is true even in Israel, despite the large increase of Messianic Jewish Christians). This hostility is real and growing even though reports are constantly coming through of many conversions of Muslims to Jesus in the most extraordinary and miraculous of ways. Is God taking his people out of a cauldron? I hesitate to offer any answer.

However, as far as I can see, all this intense hostility and antagonism both to Jew and Christian can only be indicative of some profound spiritual undercurrent, or, more accurately, some profound spiritual struggle – even an “end time” struggle. The deeper question is, therefore, where is this struggle leading and how will it develop? How violent will it become and how widespread will be its effect? Will it actually lead to a major crack in the Muslim world? To attempt an answer to these questions would be pure conjecture and speculation. The only thing that is certain is that we must keep our eyes and prayer on this part of the world, constantly giving it up to God since clearly it is here that he is working out some major purpose as history inexorably gets closer to its end. We might well pray something along the lines, “Lord, we are watching a volcano about to erupt. Thank you that you are controlling it, watching over your people and are ready to show mercy in the world”. We should certainly pray for the Christians who are homeless and suffering.


To be continued.



Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY

When I wrote the booklet “The Contemporary Countdown to Chaos” during the summer the spectre of national bankruptcy over Europe began to appear very menacingly. This last week, after two months of relative absence, it has returned with more menace than ever. Previously it had been confined to smaller countries like Iceland and Southern Ireland, now it is looming over larger countries, most notably Greece and even Italy.

I was utterly taken aback by stark reality of what was happening, "rich" European nations actually facing bankruptcy. When nations go bankrupt, there is no place to run to for help. They can be too big to “bail out”. Italy certainly is. Perhaps in the light of what I had written in the pamphlet, I should not have been taken aback at the development. But I was. It wasn’t so much that I was surprised as that I was appalled, appalled at nations so steeped in debt that they could no longer afford the interest on their debts; nations enjoying standards of living that they could no longer afford, whilst, at the same time, these standards were being perceived as basic “rights”, and civil disturbance was threatening. The “fall out” from the economic explosion of 2008 really was widely and very dangerously making itself felt. I suppose I knew it would happen, but it came none the less as sickening confirmation of the severe word of judgement which rests on the western nations.
This week there is a lull whilst the new Greek and Italian governments try to get organised, but the spectre will be back.

Whereas clear thinking and wisdom belong to God and are his gifts, confusion is always a mark of God’s displeasure, and confusion is so evident in the European leadership. It arises from a fundamental failure to know what really needs to be done with this collapse of solvency. Should solvent nations risk the “bail outs” that might well drag them under water? Are those “bail out”s simply throwing good money after bad? Is there sufficient money anyway for a big enough “bail out”? Even if the countries which need such help agree to put austerity measures into place, will those measures actually restore prosperity? There is, therefore, a veritable maelstrom of uncertainty and confusion facing European leadership, as it walks an uncertain road where it has not walked before.

We should not presume there is some easy economic answer to the problems, not even on the issue of what austerity measures should be imposed to restore economies. The very people who we might think ought to know the answer to that last question, the economists, are themselves divided. Even the IMF (International Monetary Fund) itself, with all its expertise, has destroyed economic growth in a considerable number of nations on which it has imposed restrictions that have proved too severe. So even the IMF has many and powerful critics. The truth is that pulling the economic levers to put a nation back on its feet is a very delicate process and a process for which there is no definitive text book. Thus getting the austerity measures wrong in Europe (and Britain) could do more damage than ever. The problem is not just an economic problem either. Austerity measures inevitably involve huge social issues of anger and discontent, making it a very difficult political problem. That has been immensely evident in the last week or so in the Euro-zone. Yes, confusion and uncertainty are everywhere.

All this gives me a deep sense of the European nations “hanging in the balance” before God. One feels the bottom could fall out. The scenario is a fearful one.

Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

GOOD GOVERNMENT

“The powers that be are ordained of God”, writes St. Paul. That means God conceives of government as a necessary thing for humanity. Why is it necessary? The simple answer is that built into humanity is a terrible tendency for people to hurt each other. Government in the purpose of God is there to prevent that happening. However, there are powers that seek to frustrate that purpose, and all too frequently we see bad government as well as good government, bad government which is self-seeking, fear inspiring and ruthless. When that happens the hurt becomes multiplied.

What makes for good government? Essentially there are two sides to that question, each seemingly opposite to the other. On the one hand good government seeks to release people into freedom. It seeks to provide space and opportunity where people may fulfil their lives. On the other hand government is there to restrain people. People are to be restrained when they pursue what is evil and unjust. In Paul’s words, government “bears the sword”, in order to bring restraint, and to do so forcibly if necessary. These two different sides of government, release and restraint, are not really opposed, however, but belong together since people can never be truly free if evil is not restrained.

Good government cannot operate properly, therefore, without a clear outline of what is evil and to be restrained and what genuinely belongs to human freedom and is to be promoted. That outline is provided by Law. So, in the case of ancient Israel, fundamental to the exercise of good government was the Law God gave at Sinai. It was essentially a “moral” law, a law of behaviour. It was a law of moral restraints designed to secure genuine freedom. At the heart of all good government there must always be this “moral” law. Good government cannot opt out of “moral” law. If it tries to do so it ceases to be effective as true government. There can be no hazy, “please yourself” moral law. There are many areas where choice is legitimate but moral law is not one of them.

The obligation laid on good government is first and foremost to make sure the nation is educated in the precept and practice of its moral law. It is then obliged to restrain behaviour which does not conform to its law and is harmful.

When government becomes confused about moral law it is in danger of becoming bad government. The modern secular government is confused. One of those areas of confusion has to do with sexual behaviour. It has effectively abandoned any kind of restraint. It has encouraged the notion that sex is a private and personal matter for each person to do as they please; permissiveness is a freedom! This is maintained not withstanding the obvious hurt and harm that results. In this way moral law has become personal moral permissiveness. Sex education bears the stamp of this confusion, and is actually an education for permissiveness – it deals with the how but never the why and the when of sex; restraint and self-control are notions not to be mentioned. There is no control over the exploitation of sex in the culture of the times. It contrasts very sharply with the law as we have known it for many generations, “do not commit adultery; do not commit fornication”.

Government is equally confused about coveting and stealing when it comes to the world of finance and business. When coveting and sharp practice becomes institutionalised in our financial structures it is time for government to restrain.Good government is obligated to do so. The opposition against such restraint is of course extremely strong and among the influential and powerful people who benefit. But government needs to be stronger. Over the last two or three decades it has actually acceded to the removal of carefully built laws of restraint on the indulgence of financial greed, so that regulation is virtually non existent. All this has been done under the specious cloak of reformed and liberal economic theory, in the same way that sexual permissiveness has been allowed under the cover of specious theories of what really belongs to human freedom. More to the point here, the confusion over sexual morals has actually been caused in no small measure by the failure to restrain the world of money making from making full use of sex in its quest for profit and riches.


Pray for good government.




Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

THE CHURCH ON THE FRONT LINE

It was heartening reading this week to learn that the Church of England is considering withdrawing the large financial investments it has in Internet Service Providers like Virgin Media, BT Broadband, AOL and Sky unless they take more serious steps to curtail the huge and unregulated flow of internet pornography and especially where it might become available to children. This is in line with the Church’s policy not to help fuel the very problems which it is seeking remove from society. I very much hope that the church authorities will act very strongly here, even if it can only bring partial pressure.

It’s a move which has certainly helped to highlight the enormity of a very nasty and corrupting force in the modern world of communications. The most immediate and glaring example of this problem is that presented by the Dutchman, Tabak, who was convicted of murder in the recent high profile case. He was shown to have trawled through an internet site which boasted 58,000 videos and 50 categories of pornography hours before committing his crime. His crime mirrored what he had been looking at.

There are plenty of statistics which bear out a very grim picture of the appalling impact of this internet pornography. It is an “industry” worth £60 billion annually, and reveals the enormous numbers of people who have no compunction in making money out of it. Even more disconcerting, apparently “sex” and “porn” are among the top five search items for children under 18. A third of British teens say they learned about sex from looking at internet pornography. Around 11,000 pornographic films are made every year in the U.S. with most for internet use. Pornography is viewed by 35.9 per cent of U.K. internet users. These sort of facts really take the lid off our society.

The cumulative influence of this on human society and its adverse impact on wholesome and genuine loving relationships between men and women does not bear thinking about. Yet the internet providers are not keen to act, and neither are the police keen to investigate, which renders even current legislation against pornography virtually impotent. But lurid pornography remains one of the most destructive and corrosive forces in society. The church needs to act strongly wherever it can, and if it can make its money “talk” then it should do so.


At the same time that the Church of England made its welcome stand on the issue of pornography, St Paul’s Cathedral clergy also faced a front line problem with its anti-capitalist squatters. Unhappily the clergy have been torn apart and three, including the Dean, have resigned. This, as the Bishop of London said, is a great tragedy. However, it has only arisen because there were those at the Cathedral who wanted to give genuine space for genuine protest and there were those who saw long tern dangers in allowing unaccountable occupation to get a hold, and whose fears were confirmed. The tragedy is that they did not close ranks together and battle through to a solution together. What does remain, however, is the fact that the Cathedral authorities were very aware of the economic and financial injustices that the modern world is presenting and were looking for proper debate on the issue. We can only pray that the Bishop of London, a strong man with real political gift, may get those authorities back on track. We desperately need those in high places to be speaking out about those injustices that the financial world is imposing on our society.




Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

A SYMPTON OF DIS-EASE

The new communication technology based on the ubiquitous computer and mobile phone have made it possible for people to react vocally, speedily and with numerical force to things that deeply trouble them. They have the means to be in instant communication with each other and are avidly listening in for others who are like minded. This is what started the process that led to Gaddafi’s defeat. It’s a challenging new feature of our age.

It is also due to this that in the last two or three weeks we have seen the mushrooming of people camping out in large numbers of the major cities of the western world to make a protest. In the U.K. it has led to the closure of St. Paul’s Cathedral on Health and Safety grounds. The chief point of this protest is simply that there is something fundamentally wrong and unjust with the way the western world is structured financially and economically. The “Capitalism” of the kind we have come to know of recent decades has brought chaos and offers no cures. It radically favours the rich. Something very different has to get in to the system to bring us back in balance.

Newspaper columnists and politicians have treated this protesting as a sort of irritating itch by the ignorant, something to be brushed off. I’m not at all sure this is a wise response. It looks to me much more like an irritating rash that actually is a symptom of a serious disease within the financial and economic body. It is saying, “we are all suffering greatly from unacceptable financial behaviour and business practices, and nothing is being done to address that problem – those who have caused the chaos have got off scot-free and are still doing what they did before”. This sort of gut feeling by the “ignorant” is really a little too near the truth to be treated with contempt. It’s not sufficient to say to people, “You don’t understand how things work”. That sort of answer is always a stop to needed change.

Let’s pin point an issue of protest. If I bank my small amounts of money, my return on it is negligible; my account does not keep up with inflation and I get poorer. On the other hand if I put £1,000,000 in a Hedge Fund or Investment Bank (and I would need that sort of money to do so) I am likely to get a very respectable return and get richer. The reason for that is that the Fund will play the market and its price changes with the latest computer tech. by means of which its constant buying and selling of shares etc. will get me a profit. That’s all such an investment fund does – it just makes money out of money. It makes sure the rich get a profit, and of course that the fund’s traders get a nice slice of that profit in bonuses. What it does not do is to take all that financial resource which is at its disposal and put it to good use in investment of a kind that will profit the community at large by building infra-structure or business. Such banking just makes the rich richer. It’s the bit the banks favour – it’s the golden goose (for them, of course, not for anyone else). Such behaviour is rather like a cancer, living off and destroying the body that feeds it. It has escaped the crash and is as alive today as it was before 2008. The rich like it that way, and the investment banks like it that way. Neither is it purely western, though that’s its source.

This is a massive problem because the rich and super rich have increasingly siphoned off more and more of the world’s wealth and hugely widened the gap between them and the vast majority. The politicians seem to have no handle on them. But it all raises a fair question; how do we control greed? The rich seem incapable of seeing their greed, let alone relinquishing it. That’s the question being aired on the pavements of our cities. It might be uncomfortable for the economic text books but it’s certainly not irrelevant!

Once again I’m back to Amos and his sick society.




Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

NO EASY FORGIVENESS

Last week I wrote about the parable of the Prodigal Son. No matter how far away from the love of his father he walked, it was there ready for him to enjoy when he “came to himself”, humbled himself and went home, seeking forgiveness. It is a parable focusing on the eagerness of God to forgive, the joy he has in forgiving and the change of heart that is required in people in order to enter into that forgiveness. What it does not address, and was not attended to address, is the cost of forgiveness.

It would be an abuse of the parable to deduce from it that God’s forgiveness of our wayward behaviour is simply dependent upon our coming back to him and saying sorry. As Jesus was to make clear, there is another aspect to the story of entering back into the love of God, a very critical and sobering aspect. This has to do with his death.

God is not able to simply and easily forgive and forget the moral failures that stain our lives. Their nature and significance is far too deep for that. Neglect of and rebellion against God cannot just be cast on one side no matter how deeply sorry a person may be. The very love of God itself, a holy love, has decreed the exclusion from God’s presence of those caught up in such behaviour. “Sin” is an eternal affront to a holy God, whose holiness is a blazing spotless love which will not look on evil except to destroy it. Sin is an extremely serious matter. It simply cannot be passed over; it has to be purged. No matter how broken hearted a prodigal may be, there is nothing he can do himself to remove the stain of sin that has marked his life. That is the whole thrust of Scripture from beginning to end.

Jesus knew this, of course, even whilst was telling the parable of the Prodigal, and his mind was already set on the cross. He knew that the love of God had found a way for human sin to be justly purged and forgiven, but that it was a way that would lead him, the Son of God, to bear the due consequences of sin in dying on a cross, derelict and cut off from God. He would “bear our sins”, he would be “punished for our transgressions”, and he would be “made sin for us” so that our forgiveness and restoration would be real.

Thus the patience and loving forgiveness in the heart of the Father as exemplified in the Prodigal story becomes wonderfully magnified into a love that found a way to bring meaningful forgiveness through deep pain both to the “Only Begotten Son” and the Father.What man could not do, they would do.

Our forgiveness was not cheap.






Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

WALKING AWAY FROM LOVE

None of the parables of Jesus is intended to convey the full theology of salvation. Rather each is designed to bring into sharp relief some particular aspect(s) of salvation; they should not be abused by “overstretching”.

This is the case with the parable of the Prodigal Son. What is brought into clear focus in this story is the fact that the father of the prodigal never loses his love for him, despite everything he has done to bring him distress. The father never ceases to think about his son, never gives up hope that he will return. He holds in his heart a deep well of forgiveness, deep enough to cover all the rejection and hurt that he has felt on account of his son’s behaviour. He is not unaware of the selfish motives of his son and his lust for money and pleasure, but none of that quenches his fatherly love. The young man is his son, made in his own image; his love remains strong. What a picture of the love of God.

What is equally clear on the other hand is that the son put himself out of the range of his father’s love. Indeed he had never really seen the love which was in his father, only the constraints and strictures on his freedom to do what he wanted. It never occurred to him that the constraints were the constraints of love and for his benefit. He wanted only the resources his father could give him, and he wanted “his own life”. His father allowed him to make the choice and leave the home. He walked away from his father’s love. That is the fundamental human tragedy where God is concerned.

It proved to be a devastating choice. Of course, like the apple in Eden, its first taste was sweet, but inevitably his selfish love of pleasure soured. His resources ran out, and he was alone. His own concept of freedom (freedom to do exactly what he wanted) had proved utterly illusionary. It had led him to penury and heartache. He was reaping the reward of his rejection of his father – it was his moment of painful judgement. Humanity can walk away from God. It has that option. There is, however, no option with the consequence of that. It is always deeply destructive and bitter. This is true whether we think of individuals or nations. This is an inherent and unchangeable feature of the nature of creation.

A final aspect brought into sharp relief in the parable is to be seen in the expressions, “He began to be in want” and “He came to himself”. The recognition of self inflicted penury brought about a change of heart which in turn brought about a change of direction, “I will go to my father.” Broken, he would walk back into the zone of his father’s love and would seek a restoration. He was not disappointed. He found that love overflowing with forgiveness, affirmation and provision. This “turning round and going back” is so crucial. It’s the great cry of all the prophets to Israel, “Come back to the Lord your God!” It presents a further moment of choice, one on which depends our present peace and our eternal joy. We are called to deliberately make that choice.


Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

THE LOVE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

“I delight in your commands because I love them” Ps 119:47

David was a “man after God’s own heart”. In Psalm 119 we see something of that heart. It’s a psalm well known as the longest of the psalms and as having for its main theme the commandments and precepts of God. It is much more, however, than a mere exhortation to obedience of those precepts. It is the overflowing expression of a heart which deeply loves those precepts, a heart that delights in the righteous ways of God, and a heart that is deeply grateful for those guiding statutes on the way to live.It's a heart in tune with God's heart.

Eight times in the psalm David uses the word “delight” in connection with the statutes and commands of God. He is delighted to read in God’s law the injunction to love his parents, keep himself from marital unfaithfulness, live at peace with others, tell the truth, keep himself from stealing, and be content with what he has. This is no “hard duty”, a pathway of life that is to be undertaken reluctantly and with gritted teeth. Neither is it an idealistic programme, an unrealistic and foolish aim in a cut throat world. It is, on the contrary, a delight. Elsewhere he says this way of life is the “joy of my heart”. He describes it as “wonderful”. He says categorically “you can keep all your money; it can never bring the delight that is given by this godly programme for real living”.

Isaiah speaks prophetically of Jesus (the greater David) in a precisely similar fashion, “He will delight in the fear of the Lord” Is. 11:3. The “fear of the Lord” is an expression linked directly in scripture to the commandments of God. This was the heart of the Son of God, therefore, a heart that delighted in God’s statutes, God’s prescribed ways for living an upright life.

Six times in Psalm 119 David uses an even stronger expression than “I delight in your law”, namely “I love your law”. In fact he says that the delight in the law comes out of his love for the law. He loves it “greatly”. To love something or someone is to pursue that object or person with dynamic eagerness. The “beloved” is the primary objective of life, and the love one feels is an overwhelming impetus in the direction of the “beloved”.

This inner “delight” and “love” of righteousness, felt at the depths of one’s being, is the real root of godly living. This and this alone, has the power to overcome all the other selfish tendencies that swarm around the human heart. This is what fills the human being with joy and satisfaction. This, to change the metaphor, is the “water of life”. It is, however, something that God alone can give. Isaiah, speaking of the delight that Jesus felt, made it clear it was there because “The Spirit of the Lord rested on Him”. Delight in and love for righteousness is an impartation of the heart of God by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. That can only happen through full commitment to Jesus, who alone sends the Spirit.

It is this alone that is the hope for a godless, self-destructing world. It’s the hope we are called to share.

I haven’t given chapter and verse in writing of Ps. 119; may the Lord bless you if you decide to hunt down the quotes yourself.



Bob


To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

MOVING A BIG BOUNDARY STONE

Lynne Featherstone is the Government Equalities Minister. She has recently got David Cameron onto her side to “push everyone from allies to adversaries to recognise what we know to be true”, namely that same sex partners have a right to be married. She has set out a timetable to bring it about by 2015.

Marriage is probably one of the biggest boundary stones we have for delineating the way we live. Now, after at least fifteen centuries (possibly from time immemorial!) this big stone is to be wrenched out of its position. The Romans and, before them, the Greeks, certainly knew about same sex relations, but I do not recall reading anywhere that they ever brought that sort of relationship into the category of marriage (which was well known, and established and honoured). I suspect that would have been anathema to them. They were too streetwise about the damage it might do to society. It’s astonishing that “what we know to be true” according to Ms. Featherstone has actually remained unknown for so long! Interestingly enough, according to the National Statistics Office, two thirds of people in the nation are reluctant to seeing such legislation enacted. They do not think it appropriate and are evidently not as convinced as the Minister might imagine!


The motive for this new development is largely in order that the legal benefits that are available in a marriage might be conferred on the partners in a same sex relationship. So, to gain this purely legal end, everything else that is wrapped up in the concept of marriage is to be ignored. This “everything else” is in fact very much more important than the legalities. At the very centre of marriage is the crucial concept that it is a union of one man and one woman, and that it is the union in which children are naturally born and nurtured with a balanced input from a man and a woman. It is a place where a child knows both its father and its mother. It is the place where the natural biological (and psychological) differences of man and woman find their proper fulfilment in a bond of love and family. Life long commitment is an essential part of this union. It is a creation ordinance of God, not a convenience of man. To play fast and loose with such an ordinance is to invite much trouble. It is a fundamental foundation of society and life. No, marriage is not just about legalities.


It is a very sad thing that Lynne Featherstone cannot see how deep the issue is. Sadder, still, that David Cameron, probably on a political wicket where he must find some points of contact with the Lib Dems, has to choose to support this issue. It was good to hear that a Church of England spokesman said, “Our view remains that a marriage is a lifelong relationship entered into by a man and a woman”. Unfortunately, at the same time, rather than cleave to its view, we learn that the Church has committed itself to a wider look at its approach to same sex relationships, and is ambivalent on whether it will allow its clergy to “marry” same sex partners in church. These caveats really mean that eventually we could see a capitulation by the Church rather than a fight for the real truth. The real danger is, of course, not from outside the Church but from opinion within. The outlook is not good.


The boundary stone of marriage has taken some severe knocks over recent decades simply by virtue of the fact that it has been neglected by a society which is both fearful of a possible negative outcome to marriage and also reluctant to take a committed responsibility. Instead it has opted to co-habit. That at least left the idea of marriage intact for those who wish to embrace it. This latest move, on the other hand, makes a mockery of marriage, and empties it of all its essential meaning. It simply makes the boundary stone irrelevant.


A few good well written letters to the Equalities Minister would not be out of place!



Bob


To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF 9/11

Once again I’m persisting with something which the blaze of the media spotlight has left, namely 9/11. Things get dated too quickly sometimes in the rush for the latest “spectacular”! I’m very happy to buck that trend, and particularly so because I said in last week’s column that sadly the prophetic aspect of 9/11 had received very little comment and I wanted to say something about it.


It seems very clear to me that whatever way you look at 9/11, and whatever you may see of courage and heroism etc. in it, it remains prophetic of the judgement of God. I pointed out in the new booklet that the destruction of the twin towers was a prophetic pointer to what would happen in the economic and financial world of America and the West as the years progressed. I also pointed out that the destruction of part of the Pentagon was prophetic of the military bruising that America and the West would similarly suffer. It was not just a one off event – it cast a long shadow over the future, and we remain under that shadow.


I realise, of course, that for many the very idea of judgement as being expressed in the happenings of that appalling event is anathema. For them such a thought seems to cheapen the human tragedy, the human pain and the horror of it all. It seems too callous, too hard. “If that is God, we don’t want to know”, is the response. Jeremiah, sitting and lamenting in the ruins and devastation of a Jerusalem burned with fire and with unburied corpses all around him, was intensely aware of the human tragedy of which he was part. He was equally intensely aware, however, that the cause of the tragedy was the persistent, godless sinfulness of that city. With a broken heart, he acknowledged judgement. He also acknowledged the utter need of God’s grace in the midst of it. He clung to God closer than ever, as he sat in the midst of the carnage of judgement.


It is fundamental to our Christian understanding of God that he judges sin; there is a present judgement on sin and there will be a final judgement on sin. Every bit of the bible makes that point very clear. It’s on this account Jesus came. But what does that judgement look like? It is here that 9/11 is so prophetic. 9/11 shows, in awful, devastating manner, what it can look like. It came swiftly, out of the blue (literally), when least expected. It came as an appalling cataclysm. It came with fire. It was utterly destructive, a total collapse of both towers. The agency and manner by which it came was utterly bizarre. It had the same characteristics as a Tsunami. This was no mere slap on the hand from an indulgent father; it was a searing, painful lash of the whip, and worse.

Why did it come? Amos is the best guide here. Two things at least stand out; national pride and economic exploitation. Both are abhorrent to God.


All this means that 9/11 brings us a prophetic challenge. It is a searching demand that we face up to the fact that the eternal God is a holy God, and that there is a day of reckoning both for individuals and for nations. Judgement is an awful reality, and will remain so. We have to take judgement much, much more seriously. We have to measure ourselves and our behaviour, not by our own human and earthly standards, but by the standards God requires. Our purpose on earth is not pleasure and riches, but to seek righteousness and integrity.

Unfortunately the prospects of the nations listening to such a challenge are not good. But God remains rich in mercy, even in the midst of judgement.


Bob


To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

9/11 - NEW BOOKLET

During this week we will be putting on the website the material which forms a new booklet called “The Contemporary Countdown to Chaos – The Ten Years Since 9/11”. The Home Page will announce when it is actually on the site. You can, however, obtain the booklet now (free) by requesting a copy (give your postal address) at mail@understandingthetimes.org.uk It’s several months since I mentioned in this column a desire to produce this; it has not been an easy process, but at last it’s here.

It takes its inspiration from a pamphlet I wrote in c. 2003 called “Countdown to Chaos”. The pamphlet was a study of what happened to Israel in the intervening years between Amos’ warning of the devastation and exile of Israel, and the fulfilment of that warning some 20 years later. The study revealed a serious deterioration in the moral, political and social life of the nation during the countdown to that cataclysmic event. I suggested it might well point to the kind of deterioration we would see in our own nation, since we ourselves have been under a severe word of warning since the turn of this new century. This new booklet examines the decade from 9/11 to see whether a similar deterioration has been taking place in our own experience. The evidence that we are on such a downward slope is overwhelming.


The scope of the booklet is actually wider that our own nation, arguing that the western world makes up a group of nations all of which are under judgement in the same way that all the nations surrounding Israel were under the same judgement that Amos declared in his day. We see the U.S.A. as the primary nation of the group, and deterioration clearly written in her history.


The biblical features of the deterioration were 1. Futile Foreign Ventures; 2. Accelerated economic and social decline; 3. Political Corruption, Incompetence and Strife. 4. The Exclusion of God and Moral Degradation. The last decade is examined in the light of these features. It is, therefore, something of an historical survey (though brief). I make no apology for that, however, since we are living at a time when it is very important that we have in one hand the Bible and in the other an account of the times in which we are living. If we do not have the latter we may well be blinded to some very important aspects of the former.


I think it is providential that this booklet has been delayed until the tenth anniversary of 9/11. That event was the defining moment of the decade and, at least in one respect, set the agenda for the decade. The booklet looks at that issue. 9/11 was one of the most devastating prophetic statements that one could ever imagine of what was to come in the U.S. and the West. The tragedy is that, whilst it was accurately seen as a defining, world-changing moment, its prophetic significance has never been either seen of acknowledged. I would like to follow up that issue next week.


Bob


To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.


To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

9/11 VIVIDLY RECALLED

Watching the replay this week of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers instantly brought back the unbelievable horrors of that day. Every aspect, it seems, was recorded by some camera or audio recorder. I found the impact of the re-run of the footage intensely sobering. There was no need to go looking for some new aspect of the event as the media is always inclined to do. It was important simply to see again the main story.

The human aspect of it was the most horrific and the most sobering. Four plane loads of unsuspecting passengers, having been murderously hijacked, were deliberately used as highly lethal missiles. In three of them everyone was atomised on impact. We actually saw very clearly one of those impacts taking place! Nothing was left to the imagination. The stunned horror of the watching bystanders was recorded in detail. That horror worsened as the flames isolated hundreds of people trapped in the floors above the point of impact. And then it happened all over again as the second tower was hit by another plane.

Some 200 people jumped from the top floors to avoid incarceration. Their jumps were witnessed by those on the ground; a devastating horrifying sight. It was unbelievable, surreal; a disaster movie of the most lurid kind had come to life. Yet worse was to come; something that no one anticipated. The first tower began to collapse, and collapse very quickly in a huge cloud of dust and rubble. The shock of that to onlookers was enormous. Then the second tower followed suit. There was little or no hope for those still in them. Later it was learned that over 300 fire fighters were killed inside the towers as they were seeking to rescue others. People immediately outside the towers were filmed running for their lives, enveloped in a fast moving, suffocating and toxic cloud. It later came as no surprise, though with awful force, that nearly 3,000 people had died in the towers. Only some 200 or so bodies were identifiable, and of those only a handful was recognisable.

It was a human horror story, an ultimate human tragedy. It was a tragedy indeed for those who were killed. It was also a tragedy for humanity generally in that it revealed once again just how deluded and deranged humanity itself could be in using its talents and sophistication to bring about such cynical and murderous actions, and, in watching it, actually applaud it. It had taken some two hours to unfold. It would change perspectives for a very long time to come.

And this was in New York, New York on what began as a normal working day. This was the capital of the world’s greatest superpower! Separated from the rest of the world by two vast oceans, it was the dominating, invulnerable, proud new empire of the turn of the century. The iconic centre of the trade on which it was built had been demolished in what was virtually a moment of time.

And the whole world watched it as it was actually happening on television screens. This was a truly horrifying aspect. One is tempted to say this aspect was unique, but unfortunately this is not strictly true. The world’s disasters, of whatever kind, are all now watched instantly. We are not told about them, we see them. And there have been many of them now.

Utterly sobering; that is my reaction. By that I mean, you just have to stop and think hard and deep about it. You just have to wrestle with the hard questions that arise. You can’t really go back to the old round of giddy pleasures burying your head at such a reminder of human vulnerability. We have to ask, “What am I doing with my life?”, “Am I accountable for my life?” It’s a very foolish thing to write off questions of life after death merely on the basis of materialistic ideology. For us, life now has to go on, of course, despite the horror, but it is so desperately important to wrestle with the question of what life is about, and why these things happen. Not just at the human level but at the divine level. What was God saying through this? Where was God in this? There’s certainly far more to this than the story of evil people against the good, even if that may be part of it.

Bob

To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.

FURIOUS PLANET

There will be a great many Americans who will be giving God sincere thanks for the deliverance from a full scale disaster from Hurricane Irene. There will be many petitions, too, for the many for whom the hurricane did spell disaster. The pictures were distressing to watch, very reminiscent of the Tsunami scenes. None the less, there was a deliverance – the wholesale flooding of Manhattan does not bear thinking about; it would have made the New Orleans’ tragedy seem small. But it was a close shave. The vulnerability of the U.S. continues to be highlighted, even though the grace of God stilled the fury of the storm.


We live on a very dangerous planet. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, not to mention asteroids, all make it at best uncertain, at worst terrifying. God made it that way! Why? By contrast, the new creation will be very different; for one thing, as Revelation tells us, “There will be no more sea”. That removes a great source of danger, something that has taken untold numbers of lives – it was the danger New York faced! The fireball of the sun will be replaced by the light of God Himself. That removes the fire element that still burns dangerously at the heart of our planet. So why do we live with such danger now? Why is the planet like it is, a dangerous place?


I have often reflected on that issue, and I have come to the conclusion that in the great wisdom of God the very planet itself (and even the universe) was made in such a way as to remind a sinful race of the appalling dangers spiritually that surrounds it. When a redeemed race comes to populate a new creation such reminders will not be necessary, and the new creation will not have them. Put another way, there will be no need for the new creation to reflect in anyway the danger of the anger of God since it will be a place with people who have come to a full redemption through the work of Jesus. If it doesn’t have to reflect the anger of God big changes can take place.


Take the sea again. From one perspective it is a phenomenon of great beauty, and it speaks of the vastness and power of its creator. From another perspective it can be seen, as one writer put it, as “The Cruel Sea”. It is merciless and destructive. It can be whipped up into a fury. Humanity cannot survive in it. More than that, it is referred to in Scripture as the “abyss”, a term for hell itself. The very creatures that live in its depths are gruesome and grotesque, not to say ferocious and devouring. They reflect the denizens of hell. This is a picture in creation itself of something very real, but something to be aware of and avoid. It has a clear spiritual message for humanity in its present sinful predicament – it is surrounded by the appalling danger of a spiritual abyss.


Or take the sun. Again it speaks of the glory of God; it provides us with light and life. But at the same time it is highly dangerous to humanity if treated without respect. It’s the sun’s rays that control the weather and create the storms that bring distress. Those rays can bring a powerful message, if required, about the spiritual condition of humanity and its rejection of God. In fact the very structure of the creation brings us warnings from all directions, warnings that have been verbalised in the written revelation to the effect that we need to make peace with our Creator.


That is why the lessening of the hurricane into a storm as it neared New York needs to be seen as a mark of the grace of God; it was precisely measured to spare, yet to warn of the need to get back to the ways of God



Bob

To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.

A CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTION to A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

There was considerable media comment on the U.K. city riots at the week-end, largely focussed on what caused them, and what can be done to prevent them. It’s important that discussions on these questions continue, preferably out of the media and in a non-partisan, non-prejudiced co-operative spirit. There’s a huge amount to be learned, and no simple answers.


I was heartened by the fact that in some articles there seemed to be a readiness to come away from previous polarised positions and accept the complexity of the situation. The classic socialist view has always been that the real problem is the economic disenfranchisement of an underclass of people (something which globalisation has aggravated in our generation). We have a sink of unskilled, unemployed, frustrated younger people, who are battered by an advertising, “life style” media telling them they must have this and must have that, when their pockets are simply unable to fund them. That is socially explosive. Traditionally the answer has been thought to lie in government policy of redistribution of income toward the poor. While this viewpoint contains an important truth, it is more and more seen as not being whole truth.


The more conservative view has, on the other hand, tended to see the issue as fundamentally a moral issue – a breakdown in family, a loss of basic moral, social values, a degeneration of humanity for which moral input and strong control is essential. Again, happily, its proponents, some at least, have begun to see that though this is important, it is, again, not the whole truth. There is a realisation that people ghettoed into high rise blocks from which there is little escape, being fed a daily diet of violent behaviour and pornography by the media, constantly living financially on the edge, are going to develop a “fight for survival”, “grab what you can” amoral culture that burns angrily all the ime and passes from one generation to another.


The Christian church is by no means “flavour of the month” in such modern discussions – indeed Christian morality is a bit of a “red rag” to the social thinking bull. That should not put us off. The Christian church has a huge contribution to make to the problem. Its history is full of testimony and examples of such contributions. That history is not so much one of social ideas pedalled at government and political level, (though the career of Lord Shaftsbury, for example, demonstrates it has had high level legislative impact), but one of “on the ground”, direct, personal and practical involvement in these socially deprived areas. At the end of the day legislation does not produce culture change though it may help; direct personal involvement has proved itself much more effective in bringing about culture change.


My mind turned to such figures as F. B. Meyer, a 19th century prince of preachers who had his church in Leicester in a down town area, but alongside his church also had a factory where he provided employment for men making sticks of firewood. He directed other activities which were geared to producing a sense of self-worth. Victorian society was full of deprived areas, and a great many Christian workers dedicated themselves to those areas with practical strategies. William Booth, and the Salvation Army were, of course, household names and they operated with the same combination of social relief and the preaching of moral values. It was not just famous figures, however. There were a great many clergy and other individuals, known and unknown, who took on churches, missions and relief work and considered such work as a high vocation. It's not just in the past, either! This is a calling and an opportunity that will always be open so long as such needs are with us. Thankfully it a calling to which many still make response. The need is very much there.

It is in the midst of deep social need and degradation that the church and its gospel for the poor can be seen at its best – if and when it makes direct contact with that need.

It is also so very important to remember that in the midst of deprived areas there are many people who do have moral standards and great integrity and for whom a church on the ground can be a massive support.




Bob


To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.

BANKRUPTCY

It has been three weeks since I wrote a column (and I apologise that I was unable to do a column last week as intended), and what a torrid three weeks they have been. The spotlight has been on the near financial collapse of certain European nations and the euro, the raising of the U.S. national debt ceiling to over $14 trillion, and the U.K. riots. And all this followed on from News of the World scandal of late July! The theme that runs through all these chaotic events is one of bankruptcy, financial and moral; we have been hitting some devastating “lows”. The problems will quickly move from the News Headlines, but they won’t move so quickly from our society.


The lasting legacy from the 2008 financial crash is the awful spectre of bankruptcy that now stalks the nations of the western world. For some ten years those western nations, and their people, lived on seemingly never-ending debt in a huge bubble of spending. The bankers played with the debt and made huge profits. Now the bubble has burst, the accumulated debt simply hangs like a great crippling ball on the feet of people everywhere and particularly on those sovereign nations who have had to step in and take on the debts accumulated by banks and financial houses through their appalling malpractices. Consequently national debt in all western nations stands at an appalling and unprecedented level. It simply has to be contained; we can’t live with national deficits and growing debt any more. At last the penny has dropped. This stands in sharp contrast to China and Middle Eastern countries which have gained massive savings through financing our debt. Debt means poverty, and we are poor.


This debt problem is not helped by the fact that the 2008 crash slowed down the economy, making large holes in national tax revenue when increases are desperately needed. No one quite knows how to get the economy going again – we can’t spend our way out of it – that means more debt. And while people generally recognise the need for cuts in national expense, they naturally don’t respond kindly to the cuts which touch them personally. It’s a politician’s nightmare! Obama has been badly wounded by the political quarrels surrounding the raising of the U.S. debt ceiling, Sarkosy of France and Merkel of Germany have yet to fully resolve the very difficult euro crisis, and George Osborne, the U.K. Chancellor, can only keep his head down and hope the massive dangers abroad don’t reach him. The ball of debt is firmly chained to all these nations, however, and when one falls (or the euro falls!) we are all likely to fall together.


The riots across the U.K. have revealed another kind of bankruptcy; a bankruptcy of moral and social conscience amongst a violent underclass at the bottom of our society for whom life offers little hope or purpose; an underclass bereft of disciplined family role models and locked into violent acquisitive role models. This has always been a recurring problem of city life and impersonal economic systems, and has a multiplicity of roots. The young teenage aspect is very distressing. Clearly, putting down riots, and forcibly if necessary, is expected from government. But we all know that, though necessary, it only puts a temporary lid on a very difficult issue. Much will be written and said – and that’s good!


Fortunately the rioting has also thrown up a rich vein of real social and moral consciousness among many, even among the victims. There was nothing to match the stature of the older Muslim gentleman in Birmingham who, having heard of the wanton killing of his favourite son, deliberately turned his back on anything of vengeance and pleaded with his neighbours and others from different cultures not to escalate the violence but to act for the quiet restoration of peace. As I thought about him I seemed to hear the loving words of Jesus, “Son, you are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven”. That man was anything but bankrupt. The same could be said of those who were spotlighted because they work among the underclass with incredible patience, sacrifice and compassion to try to reform. It is with these kind of people that future hope rests, when press and politicians have moved on.

What those people are doing propmpts me to say:
“Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven”.
That is Jesus' word to every individual living in dark times.



Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.




To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

Please note that the next "Column" will be posted on Tuesday, 9th August.


Bob

LETHAL FALL OUT

We’ve all learned only too well about the disastrous secondary effects of explosions, volcanic or otherwise. Radiation from cracked nuclear reactors made things horribly worse after the Tsunami in North Japan, and the leaking oil from the BP undersea explosion didn’t just waste vast quantities of oil but, far worse, polluted vast areas of ocean, destroying its marine life.

The explosion of scandal which has destroyed the News of the World is already, in less than a week, following this pattern and reverberating in other critically important public areas of the nation. It is clearly set to cause massive pollution and destruction beyond itself. As with the escape of the BP oil this it is incredibly difficult to contain, even if there are many involved in frantic efforts to head it off and save their skin.


The fall out has already gone well beyond the demise of just one newspaper and has invaded the News International media empire; Rupert Murdoch has already lost his ambitious dream of owning BskyB, and there is a shaking of even his American corporate fortress. To change the metaphor, he has a massive personal bush fire to put out, if he can!


But others, on a much wider and more important front, have been caught up in the fall out, most spectacularly the Metropolitan Police, which stands accused of failing to get a grip on the phone hacking. This is not simply because it has shown incompetence, but because its senior officers have been involved in hugely damaging relationships with some of those senior staff of the News of the World who clearly were operating in a culture of corruption. So both the Commissioner of the Met. and his Assistant have resigned within 24 hrs of each other and with critical policing tasks (including the Olympics) on their desks. This Newspaper “Tsunami” really is running a long, long way up the beach!

How far will it go? There are those who are hoping and plotting that it will actually overrun David Cameron, the Prime Minister, and leave him beached like the Police Chiefs. He, too, was over-familiar with the corrupt News of the World leadership and has mud sticking to him that can be exploited. This sadistic scenario can be justified as a “political opportunity for the Opposition” and fair game. David Cameron comes back from Africa to build his breakwater even as I write. It will be his biggest test yet.

The fact is we don’t know quite how far it will all go, but what we do know is that there is a massive “shaking” going on of national leadership. It has been happening for some time now and has already engulfed the financial world. Now it’s the world of political leaders and the forces of law and order. I wonder who will be next. All this comes at a time when what we desperately need is firm, clear and unimpeded national statesmanship, both at home and abroad. It is all too reminiscent of the chaotic historical state of affairs in Israel in the years following Amos’ prophetic word of national judgement.

There’s a good side to all this: it is an opportunity to clean out some very dank areas of corruption in our national life. I pray God may be in this process, and that it will be done. There is a dark side to all this: the growing confusion and dislocation of proper government is exposing more than ever the appalling fall in the nation’s moral standards, for all of this comes out, not of wrong policies, but of corrupt individual behaviour. That is not something God will overlook.


Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.




To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.

"AS YOU SOW .... "

“As you sow, so shall you reap.”

“Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.”

The words quoted are two fundamental principles on which the world operates; the world is designed this way, and nothing will change it. These principles are so profoundly simple (as God’s ways are) that all may understand them, and they provide absolute basic wisdom for living. This week has brought an appalling example of the truth of their warning.


The News of the World newspaper lived on scandal; it died from scandal. One might argue that the hacking scandal which killed it was probably the biggest of the scandals that marked out the lurid course of its history. Sowing to the wind, it reaped the whirlwind; so quick to put the dagger mercilessly into people who were caught up in scandal, it found itself in less than a week pierced through by scandal and gone, the most popular Sunday newspaper gone. A just nemesis!


“The most popular Sunday newspaper” is the title it earned by virtue of its much larger circulation than any other Sunday paper. Why was that? An edition of “The Times” put fifty “News of the World” front pages as a border to a number of its pages. All, apart from the earliest, had massive and course headlines for the most unsavoury acts of behaviour, and clearly majored on sexual scandal. No person, not even royalty, escaped the pointing finger and the screaming accusations. This was the source of its popularity. The “Times” (a sister paper to the “News of the World”) was not using them to reprimand the “News of the World”, of course, but to cynically use them to liven up its own copy for the day. What a comment on our own society!


A “Times” editorial, commenting on the paper’s demise, bleated on about the importance of a free popular press for democracy, of the importance of telling everybody what the few knew etc. etc. How sad, it said, that the paper had gone! But scandal mongering is never in the public interest; it simply panders to the worst in human nature. It is a compete denial to the sort of responsible attitude that true democracy demands of its free press.


How could the perpetrators of the hacking have imagined that they would always get away with their illegal and callous activity? Their arrogance and hubris is simply mind blowing; sin always blinds, however. It was a re-run of the behaviour of the bankers, and of M.P.s with their expenses. It’s a disease of the age. As one letter writer to the Times pointed out, it’s all pointing to a dangerous and increasing level of corruption within society. Society needs to take a long look at itself, not to offload guilt on to the “bad few”.


Interestingly enough, the News of the World was brought down by the newspaper world’s new rival, the Website, Face-book, Twitter world. This put the pressure on the advertisers to pull out of the paper, and so rendered it “toxic”. Where will this new media world end up, one wonders? Thank God it blew the whistle on this outrage.


Bob




To make a comment: click on word “comments” below, write your comment in the white box which appears and add your name and e mail address (if you wish), choose “select profile”, click “anonymous” and then continue.




To print this column: click on the date of this column in the archive list on the right of this page. This will give you this column on its own. Then print.