THE PLIGHT OF MAN

The title of this column, “The Plight of Man” seems rather old fashioned, but it conveys the sense of a desperate need in humanity, a need which has not gone away with the years. I have recently felt the weight of that need more and more, and I cannot find a better phrase.

This phrase has come afresh to me as a result of a more intensive look at the nations of the world and especially perhaps at looking at India. Operation World, the Prayer Guide to Every Nation, says quite bluntly, “India has more human need than any other nation”. It goes on to note that poverty affects hundreds of millions, a poverty that often means utter destitution; forty per cent in India live below the poverty line. Poverty abounds not only in the vast cities but throughout the whole of rural India. This is the truth behind a nation which now boasts a middle class of 350 million and the fourth largest number of billionaires. These merely stand astride a mountain of people in poverty and do not hide the plight of most.

One could add much more to that picture of need. For example an estimated 900,000 people (almost a million) in India die through drinking unclean water or through pollution, 35 million children under 15 are orphans whilst 20 million are child labourers and 1.2 million are involved in prostitution. This is just scratching the surface. The list of such appalling needs is a very long one.

I have cited India, but the truth is, of course, that gross human need, human suffering and distress abound wherever you turn in the world. It affects billions. In the U.K. we are remarkably sheltered from what so many suffer, and the weight of it scarcely touches us, even if we are by no means entirely sheltered from the experiences of need and suffering. It does us no harm to look hard and wide at this panorama of distress and let the “plight of man” start to weigh heavy on heart and mind. It certainly galvanises prayer.

This panorama does not speak simply of widespread and appalling physical and social need, however. It also speaks very loudly of a profound moral plight among mankind. For the simple fact of the matter is that a vast amount of the need and pain and suffering is due to the failings of human behaviour. The plight of man is in fact fundamentally a moral problem. Selfish greed and desire for power spawns corruption and violence. Corruption, feeding on the growth of wealth in the world, is a fast growing and world-wide moral disease. It is avid corruption, not least in high places, which in large measure keeps India and Africa in their backward and needy positions, and corruption is increasing rapidly in the West. The new rich India makes very little progress in getting its act together for the relief of its poor.
The fact is that the responsibility for the plight of mankind rests at mankind’s own door, and mankind on the whole shows a remarkable disinterest in helping its own kind.

Some will no doubt say I should look at things from the other end and see the good in the world – see the glass as half full, not half empty. I think that, however, just evades facing the fact of the desperate nature of the plight of man; it’s rather like saying look at your good finger when four others are broken. No, we need to face what we are like and the awfulness of our predicament. The plight of man is his massive moral deficiency, his huge fall from grace, causing mayhem among his own species.

That plight is, of course, precisely what God is earnestly seeking to impress on people. What has so recently weighed on me is the utter blindness of humanity to its moral predicament. Such blindness has brought incalculable pain to this earth. It’s the blindness of self-seeking. Much as people react against such a biblical expression, the truth resounding all around us is that “the wages of sin is death”. Humanity’s despite of such an expression is the measure of it’s plight, and more than that, it has brought a complete failure to recognise that what we see on this earth as a consequence of our “sin” is a picture of what we shall see intensified after death if we do face up to our moral failure. We should not be too quick to dismiss eternal pain when we see pain all too readily spread out before us every day of this life.

After all, this is precisely what Jesus came to point out. Eternal consequences were not a matter he touched only lightly; it was a major theme. He not only made a strong call to repent now and live uprightly before our fellow human beings, but he spoke of eternal life to come and he spoke of with severe warning of the need to make peace with our Maker through his death. The plight of man is a matter for now and for eternity. That is what makes it so weighty.

The plight of man is much, much deeper and dangerous and threatening than we are prone to think. We should all be better if it made us shudder.


Bob


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THE POWER AND HOPE OF THE GOSPEL

I mentioned a fortnight ago that my local church is engaged in a month of prayer over January. My own involvement has been in leading prayer for the world. The research and reading behind that world prayer (much of it from “Operation World”) has given me a fresh sense of spiritual hope as we walk into a very uncertain year ahead. Two of the areas of the world we have majored on in prayer have been China and Africa (China having the larger population!). When we look back over the last century we find that, from the point of view of the gospel and the growth of the church, both these areas show something quite staggering, something that releases a deep joy.

I was reminded yet again that the number of evangelical Christians in China has grown from some 2.7 million in 1975 to over 75 million (some would say more) in 2010. There has been a huge and ongoing revival, with demonstrations of New Testament power. Christians are now to be found in every stratum of Chinese society, with many vibrant urban professional churches. There is a very high commitment level in the church, and “missionary vision” is widespread. There is already a strategic and growing Chinese “diaspora” across the world, a ready vehicle for witness.

We see something similar when we look at Africa. In the 20th century evangelical Christians grew from 1.6 million in 1900 to 182 million in 2010. This is as many as all evangelicals in the Americas combined and is the largest evangelical population of any continent. African Christianity has established itself as a truly potent force, both on the continent and on a global level. It has some of the largest churches in the world, some of the largest prayer gatherings and initiatives and a strong world mission vision.

It was not simply this growth in itself, however, that brought a fresh sense of hope. It had, for me, much more to do with the fact that this had all happened against a background of appalling historical events. The 20th century was not a peaceful century. Europe virtually destroyed itself and its empires by widespread murderous wars. But neither was it peaceful for China; Japanese invasion in the 1930s devastated the proud “Kingdom”, and after W.W.2 the Communist revolution brought further devastation and widespread death, both to the nation and the church.
And yet out of all that carnage came the staggering growth of a massive evangelistic and missionary minded church of a kind which has been described as having “no parallel in history".

When we look at Africa we see the same basic story. Dominated and exploited by European powers for the first half of the 20th century, the second half saw Africa dominated by the struggle for independent nationhood, and that brought a worse story of corrupt despots, war, genocide, displacement of millions and rapid expansion of diseases, including the scourge of AIDS. It still continues. Yet that is the background to the massive advance of the gospel of Jesus in Africa.

One is left full of praise to God that despite the self centred wrath of man and the devastations it causes, God has been utterly faithful to his promise that Jesus would be a Light to the world and his gospel would be preached in all the world. Yes, “the people who lived in darkness have seen a great light” Isaiah 11.


When I see the portents of chaos for the coming century it is difficult in the natural to feel optimistic. But one thing is absolutely certain; whatever may come in the way of the judgement of God or the wrath of man, nothing will stop further years of the fulfillment of God’s purposes. That is the lesson of history. As Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”. The warlike, cruel and corrupt earthly principalities, try as they might, will not hold back the Kingdom of God. There will be further great harvests. That is a matter for great rejoicing, for those whose “citizenship is in heaven”!

In all thiis we are not merely talking about church statistics, but about the lives of people who will find hope and an eternal salvation. That's the real joy. It is for that reason that Paul wrote, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord”. Prayer is a very important part of that work.




Bob


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THE QUEEN'S SPEECH

I listened to a sermon on Sunday last which reminded me very forcibly of how impressed I was listening to the Queen’s speech to the nation on Christmas Day. I remember sitting up sharply at the overt nature of the Christian message which she gave toward the end of her speech. I think it well worth repeating in this column. It was so heartening that the monarch of the Realm and the Head of the Church of England should so simply yet so pointedly give honour to Jesus and to the message of forgiveness that he brought.

So here is her last section:
"For many this Christmas will not be easy. With our armed forces deployed around the world, thousands of service families face Christmas without their loved ones.
The bereaved and the lonely will find it especially hard. And, as we all know, the world is going through difficult times. All this will affect our celebration of this great Christian festival.
Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. Jesus was born in a world full of fear. The angels came to frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: ‘Fear not!’ they urged, ‘We bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.’
Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person - neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God's love.
In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, there's a prayer: “O Holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in. Be born in us today”.
It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord. I wish you all a very happy Christmas."

This is her year of Jubilee, and we have much to be thankful for in the personal life and the sincere Christian faith of our Queen. She has been a great gift to this country; totally committed to her duty as Queen, and steadfast through both her own personal troubles and the troubles of the nation. She undoubtedly stands out among a long line of national monarchs not all of whom have been so sure footed as she has. It would be very fitting to pray that this Jubilee Year will find her at full strength and having numerous opportunities to give a principled and Christian input to the nation. This would be her own desire, of that I have no doubt. She has certainly given us a lead in speaking out about the Christian faith in a multi-faith society,undaunted by the absurd notion of those who say such speaking is bound to cause offence. She causes no offence because fact is, of course, she speaks with grace and in the spirit of peace.



Bob


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