"THEY WILL PERSECUTE YOU'

When Jesus looked down the course of history and prophesied earthquakes, famines, plagues and nations at war with each other, he also added a further major characteristic; the persecution of his followers. His accuracy with regard to such persecution through the ages is on a par with his accuracy on the other characteristics. Like them persecution does not in itself constitute a mark of the end of world history, but as with them we may anticipate a marked increase in the incidence of persecution as history reaches a conclusion.

In the book of Revelation there is a very graphic explanation of the dynamic behind this persecution (Rev. 12). John, the author, saw a Dragon ready to pounce on a child about to be born, a child who was to rule the nations (quite evidently Jesus). The child, however, was snatched away from the Dragon to the throne of God. The woman who gave birth to the child fled to the wilderness and was protected. The Dragon, however, made continuous war against her, and against the followers of her child. This is an astonishing prophetic vision of the historic persecution of the Jewish nation (the woman) and the Christian church. It is a persecution rooted in the struggle between Satanic forces and the Kingdom of God and his Christ. It would last throughout the ages, and could be expected to climax as the ages came to a close.

This prophecy explains a number of features evident in the persecution of Christians. It explains first why such persecution comes from every conceivable human “power base” on the earth. The “Prince of this World”, (as in effect Jesus described the Dragon), exerts his rule by force, fear and oppression from any religious, ideological, political base under his control, wherever that may be in the world. That control is widespread and where he exercises it persecution will come. The prophecy explains the dogged persistence of persecution throughout the ages. It explains the viciousness of it and the hatred that so often accompanies it. It explains why, as the gospel reaches more and more to the end of the earth, persecution is likely to escalate in extent and intensity. It explains why the church suffers so much persecution where it grows the fastest.

So, historically, we find that persecution attacked the Christian church from the very first, and from such diverse sources as the Jewish religious leadership and pagan Roman rulers. Even when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire persecution raised its head in bitter in-fighting among Christians. The mediaeval Catholic Church degenerated into an appallingly oppressive political power base and became the perpetrator of unbelievably inhuman persecution against genuine spiritual Christianity. In modern times it is not simply other religions like Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism that have been the persecution centres, but, perhaps even more so, the secular ideological totalitarian dictatorships such as Russia and China.

The appalling widespread persecution of Christians across the world today is, therefore a remarkable endorsement of the prophetic scenario sketched out by Jesus for world history up to the end times. What has happened and what is happening is precisely as he foretold. However, despite the certainty it gives us of the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom and of the church of Christ, persecution remains very much part of the “beginnings of sorrows”, and it calls for much prayer for those most exposed to it.

There has never been a time of greater need for intercession for those suffering for the sake of the gospel. Thank God this is reflected in the fact that there are more agencies getting involved in such intercession than ever before. The church needs to take it to heart.

As a postscript, one might add that the prophetic vision from Revelation, pointing as it does at the constant attempt of the dragon to destroy the mother of the child born to rule has much to teach us concerning the nature of the vicious and persistent anti-Semitism that the world has witnessed down the ages, since that mother clearly personifies Israel.

Bob

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“THERE WILL BE EARTHQUAKES”

The first four days of Easter Week saw Jesus making great prophetic statements. The majority of these were concerned with the Jewish nation and spoke of the judgement on the nation that would follow its rejection of him.That destructive judgement came 40 years after his death.

Other statements, however, had a much wider reach and a much longer time perspective; they encompassed the world, and reached to the “end” time. One of these wider prophetic statements is all too topical; Jesus said very simply that over the course of history “there will be earthquakes” (Matt24:7), or “great earthquakes” (Lk.21:11). He also said that there would be famines and plagues (widespread diseases). Furthermore he warned of “wars and rumours of wars”, with “nations rising against nations”. This was not an “optimistic”, “liberal” or “evolutionary” forecast, and could be seen as negative and best forgotten. But 2000 years of history have shown it to be a remarkably accurate statement. It is still as true to-day as ever it has been over those two millennia despite all the humanistic and well meaning declarations of the twentieth century about “a war to end war” and a “war on poverty” etc.

Jesus made it clear that these signs (earthquakes, famines and plagues) in themselves do not mark “the end” of the course of history(Matt 24:6). What he said was that “all these are the beginnings of birth pangs” (Matt 24:8). They are painful reminders of greater pain yet to come, an intense pain that will herald a new creation. In other words the culmination of the historic process in the world will be a period of much greater and intense cataclysm and pain than these "beginnings"No doubt part of that greater pain would be a far greater manifestation and intensity of these “beginnings”,of earthquakes, famines and plagues. For all its difficulties in interpretation this is a plain basic message of the book of Revelation – which itself, it must be remembered, is a prophecy from Jesus through his servant John.

However, Jesus made it clear that “the end” would be marked out by two features in particular. One would be “signs in the sun, moon and stars”, “with nations in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea” Lk. 21:23. The other would be “this gospel will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (and then the end will come)” (Matt. 24:14). This latter feature we are able to monitor to a degree, and what we see today in the world should fill us with joy for we see an extraordinary and growing fulfillment of Jesus’ words. The former “roaring of the sea” etc. certainly does not seem unrealistic! As we learn more about the earth and the universe it gets more and more credibl.It is really a matter of time.

To describe such events as this as “birth pangs” makes Jesus' message one of great and very positive hope. It is not a “doom” story. These events are the prelude to something new. It is not going to be “the end” in the sense that after these cataclysms there will be nothing – it is not the finish of humanity or creation. It is the start of a re-birth. No one can possibly consider the present state of the world and humanity as being ideal. It has to be reborn. The real problem with the present creation is the warped nature of humanity, rebellious and out of touch with its Maker. The re-birth will deal precisely with that problem. It will bring creation and humanity to the place where God wants it to be. That is why the “end”, the moment of rebirth, will be characterized most of all by the return of Jesus. At the point of greatest pain and anguish he will appear to restore. He will come as Judge ,and the great birth pain will be an expression of his judgement, but he will also come as King, Saviour and Restorer. It will be a massive time of rejoicing. As he himself said, when a woman comes to the point of delivery there is great pain, but the pain is forgotten in the joy of the new child.

We need a perspective beyond the earthquakes – Jesus gave it.

Bob

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A LOUD WORLD WARNNG

It is almost exactly ten years ago (Spring 2001) that I was speaking at a representative gathering of praying people on the subject of national judgement. I remember it vividly, not only because of the strong prophetic impulse that I felt undergirded the subject, but also because on the day of delivering the message our nation was gripped by widespread foot and mouth disease. As I spoke thousands of carcasses were being burned on huge bonfires all across the country. I may add that the subject was chosen and the date of the gathering was fixed well before the outbreak of the disease. The bonfires seemed a clear vindication of the message.

My horizon on that occasion was our own nation, and the certainty and devastating nature of the judgement that lay before it. In the years immediately following, when I began to put the prophetic burden into writing, and eventually into this website, the horizon did not move very much; it remained essentially national. Perhaps that was appropriate.

I have to acknowledge some movement beyond the purely national horizon after the 9/11 event of 2001, though in retrospect I can see that my horizon ought to have moved much more quickly and strongly than it did. The 9/11 event struck me immediately as a judgement and made me begin to widen the horizon to the U.S. and then to Western Europe, where one could very clearly see the same kind of degenerate things that were calling for judgement on Britain. It became plain that our whole western society was blatantly under the word of Amos, “I will spare them no longer”.

However, it was the world-wide events of 2010 and particularly the relentless kaleidoscope of shaking events in the first 3 months of this year that have given the most severe jolt to my horizon and turned it into a world horizon. The Lord has a quarrel with the whole world, and is speaking to the whole world. The selfish venal, violent, sexually obsessive, arrogant, God-denying sins that brought condemnation on Amos’ generation abound in all corners of the earth, whatever the political or economic shape of each nation may be. They are not just in the Western world.

This year’s staggering onslaught of natural events, culminating in the unparalleled disasters in Japan, is shouting much more loudly than 9/11. The Japanese disaster starting with earthquake and tsunami has finished with equally devastating human threats and fears in the form of fresh world economic collapse and nuclear meltdown. It is undoubtedly the loudest warning blast that we have had in ten years, and there have been more than a few such blasts. It is contrived to leave us speechless and unnerved. It will have lasting consequences, though we are adept at forgetting.

It is not just natural catastrophes that are shouting at us; it is also the man made “shakings” that are resounding in our ears. The Japan tsunami has pushed to one side events which at another time would be absolutely at the forefront. Gaddafi’s fight for power and western intervention, coming on the back of Egypt’s revolution, are accompanied by a rather more sinister use of force by the Saudi Arabian rulers to maintain their dominance. All this is a huge threat to what has become the crucial life source of the western economy, namely oil. The stakes could not be higher.

The divine pressure on the world is getting bigger and louder at an increasing rate and the world seemingly takes little heed or note. Judgement, like most other issues, is now a global issue.
Pray! – “Lord, in wrath remember mercy”.


Bob

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