Simon Pease reviews ‘The Gospel of Christ Crucified’ by John P Harrigan (Paroikos Publishing, 2015).

In the fullness of time, John P Harrigan's The Gospel of Christ Crucified: A Theology of Suffering Before Glory may prove to be a highly significant work, so caution is urged against dismissing it out of hand on account of its weighty 560 pages, or the fact that it is best described as a ‘systematic theology’.

The book itself is surprisingly readable for a work aimed at pastors and Bible students, perhaps in part because the author is not a theologian. He also makes copious use of helpful diagrams to get his message across, and actually completes the primary narrative about 40% of the way through, leaving the remaining 300+ pages for appendices, including chapter notes and Bible references.

Harrigan argues his case forcefully in the main narrative by quoting extensively from Scripture in a way which is seamlessly woven into the fabric of the text, wisely using the appendices to allow his readers the freedom to explore the material in greater depth if they so wish.

The Big Picture of Salvation History

So, what can there possibly be to commend a book seeking to explain the Gospel, with which we are surely already so thoroughly familiar?

The simple answer is that the author approaches his task by working through themes (such as the progressive revelation of Messiah, the purpose of the crucifixion, the hope of Jesus’s future reign and the Church’s Gospel mandate) from the perspective of the Old Testament writers, Jesus and then the Apostles, taking their Jewish worldview at face-value and as God-given. His focus is therefore Hebraic, yet always focused on the big picture.

In the course of time, this might prove to be a highly significant work.

Harrigan uses the term "cruciform-apocalyptic" to describe the Gospel. Putting this simply, he emphasises that the two key events in salvation history are the Cross (cruciform) and Jesus' return (apocalyptic). In doing so, he is simply stressing the same message we see presented by the Apostles in the book of Acts, yet which today has become so unfashionable in much of the Church.

Refuting Deviations

This inevitably leads to a conflict with the ideas Gentile Christianity embraced so rapidly from the world of Greek philosophers such as Plato, which even today undermine profoundly the core of much biblical teaching.

So, whilst focusing throughout on the true Gospel, the author uses Scripture's clear teaching as the yardstick against which to measure deviations from it, which he repeatedly refers to either as ‘escapist’ or ‘dominionist’. Examples of the former include monasticism and dispensational ‘dual covenantism’, whilst Roman Catholicism and ‘Kingdom Now’ theology are cited for the latter.

The practical application for Christians is found in the subtitle; ‘A Theology of Suffering Before Glory’. Believers are called to be "in the world, but not of it", neither seeking to escape it nor rule over it. Indeed, the Bible's general thrust is that in this world the righteous will be persecuted.

Position on the Kingdom

With this in view, the book's first appendix tackles the vital issue of what is meant by the ‘Kingdom’. Harrigan argues not only that the Kingdom will be inaugurated at Jesus' return, but also that Jesus never suggested that the Kingdom would in some way be a partial present reality before then (yet regarding the gifts of the Holy Spirit the author is not a cessationist).

The author uses Scripture's clear teaching as the yardstick against which to measure deviations from it.

His reasoning is based in part on the use of Greek verb tenses and therefore questioning the accuracy of popular Bible translations, so unless the reader has expert knowledge it may be best to use this material as a springboard for further research.

However, Harrigan's basic point is easy to understand: Christians who believe they can enjoy the Kingdom in this world are unlikely to be obedient to Christ in embracing the Cross.
The author rightly asserts that the Bible's message is unified and that neither Jesus nor the Apostles re-interpreted ‘spiritually’ the Israel-centric biblical view of "to the Jew first, then to the Gentile". As such, he powerfully refutes Replacement Theology.

The Narrow Path

If the Lord uses The Gospel of Christ Crucified to call believers back to the narrow path, preparing us to face persecution and to look forward to the "glorious hope" of Messiah's return, Harrigan's efforts will not have been in vain. This is indeed more than ‘just another’ theology book – it is a call to re-form our worldview completely around the Cross, whatever the cost.

‘The Gospel of Christ Crucified: A Theology of Suffering Before Glory’ is available from Amazon for £13.95 (paperback). Also available in hardback and Kindle forms.

Find out more about the author and the book on the accompanying website, where you can find blog posts, teachings and recommended further reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Can We Do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Example: Britain and Israel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Way Ahead

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

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

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

Notes

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

We must make up our mind whose side we’re on

Fine-sounding words are not enough. Actions speak much louder. The Apostle James berated those who boasted about their faith when it wasn’t matched by their deeds (James 2:14).

Britain’s new Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has said the United Kingdom “will always be Israel’s friend” and spoke of how the Jewish state is a “beacon of light and hope in a region where there is so much hatred and hurt”.

In addressing the Conservative Friends of Israel’s annual parliamentary reception, he also hailed “the wonderful blooming of democracy that is Israel”.

I was heartened by his resounding praise for the Jewish state, and do not doubt his sincerity, but he is part of a Government that in recent days has refused to follow US President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and which also continues to desist from applying a full ban on the Hezbollah terrorist organisation.

Mixed Messages

Both these actions encourage Israel’s enemies to believe they have our support for their bloodthirsty jihad (holy war) against the Jews, illustrated once more on Monday with the brutal stabbing to death of a 29-year-old Israeli rabbi at a bus stop in Samaria. Itamar Ben-Gal leaves a wife and four children.

This followed last month’s murder, also in Samaria, of a 35-year-old rabbi and father-of-six in a drive-by shooting outside Nablus (the biblical Shechem, home to Joseph’s Tomb and Jacob’s Well). Ten children in the area are thus left fatherless in the space of a few weeks.

Fine-sounding words are not enough – actions speak much louder.

At best, we are sending out mixed messages, the modus operandi of Palestinian politicians who have often been caught saying one thing to their Arab audience and quite another to the English-speaking world (for examples of this, see Palestinian Media Watch).

A view over Nablus (the biblical Shechem), where a Jewish rabbi and father-of-six was murdered. Picture: Charles GardnerOh yes, I know that diplomats are charged with seeking peace and should try, if at all possible, to accommodate all parties, but appeasement will only ever succeed in putting off the evil day of reckoning which, when it comes, will be much more difficult to unravel. The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is itself an example of the persistent failure of short-term deals made to keep the ‘peace’ with Arab parties ever since the Balfour Declaration was published 100 years ago.

Instead of getting on with it and immediately implementing its declared goal – the resettlement of Jews from the diaspora in the Promised Land – we dithered and dallied for decades in a fruitless effort to please all parties. The enemies of Israel saw it as weakness, which they exploited to the hilt with violence that had us chasing our tails looking for a way out of the awesome responsibility we had been given.

Enemies on All Sides

Now, just days after marking Holocaust Memorial Day in Parliament and all over the country, we hear of rising anti-Semitism in Britain, Ireland and France.

The Community Security Trust, in their annual report on anti-Semitism, said there were 1,382 such incidents in Britain in 2017 – the highest annual figure since it began gathering data in 1984.¹

Our Government’s actions encourage Israel’s enemies to believe that they have our support.

In Paris, an eight-year-old boy was attacked in the second assault on Jewish children in the area in three weeks, drawing condemnation from French President Emmanuel Macron, rightly concerned at the prospect of losing yet more citizens as a result.² France has Europe’s largest Jewish community, but many have made Aliyah (emigrated) to Israel in the wake of increasing anti-Semitism in recent years.

The Irish Parliament, meanwhile, is considering a Bill that would boycott goods produced by Israeli companies based in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights, with up to five years’ imprisonment awaiting offenders.³

Quite apart from the fact that such a boycott would also harm Palestinian workers, it is a shocking form of anti-Semitism which, not surprisingly, provoked anger from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with reported intervention from the United States. The Parliament has now postponed voting on the Bill, which is likely to be re-visited in the summer.

Falling into the Trap

From Britain’s point of view, the situation is aggravated by worrying in-fighting among the ranks of the Conservative-led Government – mostly over Brexit – which could open the door to a Labour Party with its own problems with anti-Semitism.

The Bible says: “When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order” (Prov 28:2).

The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an example of the persistent failure of short-term deals made to keep the ‘peace’ with Arab parties.

The Irish, like the South African Government, have clearly fallen into the trap, set by Palestinian propaganda, of seeing Israel as an ‘apartheid’ state. South African diplomat Clinton Swemmer told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that apartheid, once used to describe black disenfranchisement in South Africa, now applies to Israel because of its policies towards Palestinians.

He said: “Israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state.”⁴ But as Dan Diker, of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, points out, Swemmer is speaking for many who know little or nothing about Israel and never lived through apartheid. “There is not even one point of similarity (between apartheid South Africa and Israel),” Diker said, adding: “Our parliament, Supreme Court, universities, bathrooms, hospitals and everything else in Israel are fully integrated.”⁵

At the end of the day, the word of God is clear, “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling…” (Ps 132:13).

Notes

1 Christians United for Israel, 2 February 2018.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 United with Israel, 25 January 2018.

5 Ibid.

Lightning fails to strike on visit to church

Orthodox Jew David Rose became a follower of Jesus after meeting a believer through Facebook. Family and friends turned on him and he was barred from attending his synagogue, but he nevertheless rejoices in a personal relationship with the living God for the first time in his life.

He has since married his Facebook friend Christine, and also been baptised, both in the same church and in the traditional Jewish way – underneath a chuppah (canopy) for their wedding and in the form of a mikvah (a ritual bath taken before entering the Temple) for his baptism.

Provoked to Jealousy

From the tribe of Levi, who are set apart for holy service to God, David (whose Hebrew name is Dovid Yonah ben Moshe Halevi) was nurtured in a North-West London Jewish community, observing the rituals and feasts and regularly attending synagogue.

It was through a Facebook group he joined in 2015 that he eventually met Christine the following year, when David was struggling with his Jewish faith and its demands. He very much wanted to do something for God, and felt he should move to Bournemouth on the South Coast.

“As well as questioning my beliefs, I was into a lot of bad and ungodly things, which I knew were not pleasing to God,” he explained.

David was struggling with his Jewish faith and its demands- but he wanted to do something for God.

Christine, meanwhile, told him she was a born-again Christian who had invited Jesus into her life some 30 years earlier and David became jealous of her apparent direct communication with God. According to the scriptures (Rom 11:11, 10:19 quoting Deut 32:21), this is something Jews will experience on meeting Gentile believers with a confident faith.

“I thought it should be me, a Jew from the priestly tribe of Levi, who should be having this connection with God. So I told her that I too wanted whatever it was that she had.”

Welcomed In

So her son Richard, a church elder, prayed with him and he was put in touch with Rev Ralph Goldenberg, a fellow Jew and retired Church of England vicar.

He subsequently attended a Christmas Eve service (which, in 2016, happened to coincide with the Jewish festival of Chanukah) at St Mary’s, Ferndown, where Ralph was once churchwarden.

“I was nervous because I had been told all my life that if I went into a church I would be struck down by lightning. And I was also worried about what people might think of me wearing a kippah (skull cap). But I was welcomed wholeheartedly and one lady even wished me a ‘Happy Hanukkah’.

“After taking communion, and being nudged by Christine not to drink all the wine (which is the Jewish custom for feasts), I returned to my seat and began to feel strange. Suddenly I felt a ‘whoosh’ of cool air go right through me – and I knew I had received the Holy Spirit!

David befriended Christine and became jealous of her direct comunication with God.

“My life has since turned around. I have been delivered from demons, and have had dreams, visions and messages from Yeshua [Hebrew for Jesus]. God is taking me on a journey, and I have complete faith and confidence in him.

“But because of my new-found faith, I am no longer welcome at the synagogue I was attending. Worse still, three of my children will have nothing further to do with me and old friends have also disowned me.

“But I know that Yeshua is the Son of God, and he has promised to be my support and strength.”

A Life Transformed

David was baptised at St Mary’s in October last year and returned to the church to marry Christine within a week.

“Last year was unbelievably eventful, and it turned my life around big time,” he enthused.

Familiar as he is with the Jewish Tanakh (what Christians call the Old Testament), David has now discovered how it all points to the role of the coming Messiah, perfectly fulfilled in Yeshua.

For example, the Passover lamb of Exodus, whose blood protected the Israelites and set them free from slavery in Egypt, foreshadowed the death on a cross of Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb, as did the bronze serpent Moses raised on a pole for those suffering snake-bite – foreshadowing the ‘healing’ of our sins at the cross by Jesus, for “by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

Another such sign (see Luke 11:29-32) is the Prophet Jonah, who was in the belly of a whale for three days before being spewed up on the beach. As with Jonah, Jesus died and was buried before being raised to life after three days.

David now shares his new-found love for Yeshua both within church congregations, which helps them better appreciate the roots of their faith, as well as with other Jews searching for the truth.

The role of prophecy in the direction of the charismatic movement.

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, a critical appraisal of the Toronto movement. Click here for previous instalments.

Having looked at the roots of the Toronto outpouring in the preceding decades, we now turn to the charismatic movement itself and its relationship with prophecy.

Prophecy is the revelation of divine truth conveyed to a human being by the Spirit of God. The Bible provides a record of God speaking to people from Genesis to Revelation. The prophet was the one to whom God regularly spoke and he bore the responsibility of declaring the word of God to the people. The office of the prophet was recognised in Israel from the time of Moses whose brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, heard God say to them,

When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles (Num 12:6-8)

Moses himself looked forward to the day when all true believers would be able to hear directly from the Lord, “I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 11:29).

The Prophet Joel said that this would happen in 'the last days'. Concerning those days, he prophesied, “...I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29).

The Apostle Peter saw the relevance of that prophecy on the Day of Pentecost, which he believed heralded the beginning of 'the last days'. In the streets of Jerusalem when he addressed the crowd he quoted Joel, but added the words “and they will prophesy”. Clearly he did this to emphasise the significance of prophecy, of hearing from God.

It is clear from the New Testament record that the purpose of prophecy in the early Church was to enable the Church to be rightly guided by the Lord in carrying out its mission to fulfil the Great Commission given to them by Jesus to go into all the world carrying the good news of salvation to all peoples.

It is clear from the New Testament that the purpose of prophecy was to enable the Church to be rightly guided by the Lord in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Nowhere in the New Testament is it said that the ability to hear from God would be withdrawn or that God would cease to communicate with his people through the Holy Spirit. There are, however, many warnings in the New Testament concerning false prophets and clear instruction is given about handling prophecy and testing anything that purports to be divine revelation.
Jesus himself gave severe warnings: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them” (Matt 7:15-16).

He added the warning that these false prophets would have the ability to exercise supernatural power and 'perform many miracles' in his name, but they would be false prophets not commissioned by the Lord. Those warnings were not given simply for the apostolic age but for generations to come.

Before examining the role of prophecy in directing the development of the charismatic movement, it is important to establish biblical principles, to understand the role of the prophet and how to identify the false prophet.

The Role of the Prophet

Throughout the history of ancient Israel, God always sent prophets in times of crisis. He did not simply allow judgment to fall upon the people without sending abundant warnings. These warning signs were part of his love and mercy shown to his people.

The prophet's task in each generation was to recognise and rightly interpret the signs. As Amos observed, “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

It is important to note that God never sent prophets to Israel to announce blessing. He never sent his prophets to herald times of peace and prosperity. It was the false prophets who came with these messages. God raised up true prophets in times of impending disaster to warn the people, to call them to repentance and to return to the Lord their God, that the disaster might be averted.

Warnings about false prophets were given not just for the apostolic age, but for generations to come.

God did not need to send prophets to announce times of blessing because that was the normal state in which his people should have been living. But the enjoyment of God's blessing was always conditional upon the faithfulness of his people. When they turned aside to the worship of other gods, or became involved in pacts and treaties with other nations that drew them away from the Lord, or when the lusts and desires of the world turned their hearts away from the paths of righteousness, then God withheld his blessing and things began to go wrong. These were the warning signs picked up by the prophets.

The whole purpose of the prophetic ministry is to bring warnings of danger and of the inevitable consequences of turning away from God. This basic principle of the prophetic ministry is expressed by Jeremiah in his dispute with Hananiah, who was foretelling a time of blessing and revival in the fortunes of the nation. Jeremiah said,

From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognised as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true. (Jer 28:8-9)

This is an important statement which touches the very heart of the prophetic ministry and gives the key to its understanding within the context of the history of Israel. Hananiah's message was delivered with all the authority of the true prophetic word as though it came directly from the mouth of the living God.

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the LORD's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ (Jer 28:2-4)

This sounded like a true prophecy. It was just what the people wanted to hear and Hananiah's popularity rating must have soared whereas Jeremiah's standing in Jerusalem plunged to a new low. He was shunned as the man of doom and gloom.

There were serious consequences of Hananiah's false prophecy. It not only gave the people false hopes, but it actually turned them away from hearing the true word of God. It became a stumbling-block to their repentance and their turning back to God and coming under his covering and receiving his blessing.

God did not need to send prophets to announce times of blessing because that was the normal state in which his people should have been living.

False Prophecy

False prophecy always does great harm to the people of God. It not only deceives and misleads them, building up false hopes, but it actually becomes a stumbling-block to the word of God. It deceives the faithful people who trust these prophets and turns their hearts away from God so that they fail to heed what he is saying to them.

It was a shattering experience for Jeremiah who saw the inevitable consequences of unfaithfulness and clearly foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem. He loved his nation and he loved the city where he exercised his ministry so he was heartbroken to see the devastating effects of false prophecy, “My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble,” he said (Jer 23:9). He went on to plead with the people:

Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. (Jer 23:16)

Jeremiah heard God saying, “I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds” (Jer 23:21-22).

Eventually Jeremiah had to face the Prophet Hananiah, although several times he had tried to avoid the confrontation. In the end he said to him, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies.” Jeremiah saw the false prophecy for what it really was, “You have preached rebellion against the LORD” (Jer 28:15-16).

False prophecy always incites the people to rebellion against the will of God. This was clearly seen by Moses when he taught the people how to discern between the true prophet and the false. He said that the false prophet, “must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow” (Deut 13:5).

It was no doubt with this in mind that Jeremiah said that God would remove Hananiah from the face of the earth (Jer 28:16).

He recognised the very serious consequences of false prophecy which misleads the people and blinds them to the true word of God. The effects of false prophecy are exactly the same today. It is for this reason that we need to distinguish clearly between true guidance from God which enables the Church to fulfil the mission of Christ in bringing the word of God to the world, and that which comes from the human imagination or from another spirit. We see today a battle for the truth that bears many similarities to that which was fought in the early Church.

False prophecy always incites the people to rebellion against the will of God.

Most of the epistles in the New Testament were written to counter false doctrine by establishing the truth and there are numerous warnings from the apostles that anyone teaching a different gospel or deviating from the truth revealed to them by the Lord Jesus was teaching heresy. Paul warned the Corinthians not to accept anyone who preached a different Jesus or a different gospel from the one they had accepted through him (2 Cor 11:3-5) and he warned Timothy, “What you have heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching…guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Tim 1:13-14).

At the beginning of the 20^th Century a similar warning appeared in one of the earliest prophecies to emerge from the Pentecostal movement. It was given in Azusa Street in 1906,

In the last days three things will happen in the great Pentecostal movement:

There will be an over-emphasis on power rather than on righteousness.

There will be an over-emphasis on praise to a God they no longer pray to.

There will be an over-emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit, rather than on the Lordship of Christ.

The Charismatic Movement

Prophecy was regularly exercised in the Pentecostal movement throughout the first half of the 20^th Century. It was given a place of special importance within the Apostolic Churches. The office of the prophet is one of the ministries referred to by Paul in Ephesians 4 and prophecy is also one of the gifts or 'manifestations of the Spirit' in the list given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12.

It is therefore not surprising that prophecy should have featured strongly amongst charismatics both as a ministry and as a spiritual gift exercised by any believer within a local church setting. There are two new factors which have affected the use of prophecy in the charismatic movement and distinguished it from early Pentecostalism.

They are:

1. Lack of organisation

There has been a lack of organisation in the charismatic movement which has not only formed a wide variety of independent fellowships with no regulatory body, but has also spread across the denominations.

The Pentecostal movement, by contrast, established denominational structures at a fairly early stage, providing accountability for local pastors and a point of reference for the establishment of agreed biblically-based teaching and practice. Within local fellowships individual church members exercised spiritual gifts under pastoral authority.

Most of the epistles in the New Testament were written to counter false doctrine by establishing the truth.

The charismatic movement has generally lacked these safeguards, although that would not be true of all local churches. In many mainline churches touched by the renewal the ministers simply did not know how to handle spiritual gifts. I myself spent four years in theological college but when I was ordained I had received no teaching at all on the spiritual gifts. They were deemed to have ceased at the end of the apostolic age and were therefore irrelevant for today. My experience would be typical of all ministers up until the 1970s and indeed for many beyond that date!

Additionally, many individual believers who experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit were in churches where the minister did not recognise, or actually suppressed, the spiritual gifts. They therefore formed small house fellowships and made up their own rules. As has already been noted in earlier chapters, some of these fellowships broke away from mainline churches or from Brethren Assemblies and formed the independent charismatic streams we have today.

2. Latter Rain influence

The second major factor influencing the exercise of prophecy in the charismatic movement was the Latter Rain Revival. This has been dealt with in some length in previous articles so we will not be dealing in detail with those prophecies here.

It is, however, essential to note that the movement itself began in response to a prophecy, and prophecy became one of the major distinguishing marks of the movement. Indeed, the original prophecy which gave birth to the movement said that people would be brought into the Latter Rain blessing “by prophecy and the laying on of hands”. This was immediately seen to be fulfilled when five students at the Sharon Bible School came forward to receive the blessing after their names had been revealed by prophecy.

One of the main areas of controversy between the leaders of the Sharon group and the Pentecostal denominations was the manner in which the former used prophecy, especially in relation to the place of apostles and prophets in the present-day Church. The Latter Rain leaders taught that revival and the restoration of the Church was being effected through 'end times' apostles and prophets specially ordained by God for the purpose. The prophets provided the revelation from God as to what the Church should both believe and do, and the apostles provided the authority structure to put things into practice. This thinking has of course become quite prevalent in the charismatic movement over the last 25 years.

However, the leaders of the Pentecostal denominations (particularly the Assemblies of God) soon charged the Latter Rain leadership with seeking to exercise authority over people and churches by the use of directive prophecy. They were also concerned about what they saw as 'novices' prophesying in these circumstances and accordingly rejected both as being unbiblical.

The Latter Rain movement began in response to a prophecy – and prophecy later became a major distinguishing mark of the ‘revival’.

It was a strong belief in both the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God movements that prophetic revelation, giving new understandings and interpretations of Scripture, was one of the marks of the last days restoration of the Church. This view has had an ongoing pervasive influence in the charismatic movement and may well account for the fact that often prophecy is accepted when it has little scriptural basis, being viewed as acceptable on the grounds of it being 'prophetic revelation'. Although most charismatics would deny this, in practice, they have treated contemporary prophetic revelations as the direct word of God on a par with Scripture.

These views are not of course new to 'end times' teachings. Variations of them were responsible for the emergence of strange and heretical doctrines in earlier generations; for example, the heresy of the Free Spirit which broke out in one form or another throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. This heresy, which always involved prophetic revelation, sought to offer people the blessing of receiving the Holy Spirit in such measure that they became like Jesus and that, like him, they could become divine. It was seen in Tanchelm and his followers in 12^th-Century Flanders, in the Franciscan Spirituals who followed the prophecies of Joachim of Fiore and in the Amaurians of 13^th Century France.

Next week: The two strands of prophecy emerging from the charismatic movement.

Our pick of the week's happenings to inform your prayers.

Society & Politics

• Reviews into proposals to ban pro-life protests: Both the Home Office and Ealing Council are holding consultations to explore public attitudes to a ban on pro-life protests outside of abortion clinics. Click here to find out more – you may be able to contribute.
  
• BBC promotes multi-partner relationships: An article and a programme put out by the BBC this week portrayed so-called ‘polyamory’ in a positive light, framing it as ‘not limiting love’.
  
• LGBT-inclusive Maths lessons? Stonewall releases guidelines for secondary schools encouraging pro-LGBT ideology to be integrated across 12 different curriculum subjects. Read more here. Meanwhile, Spiked magazine has issued its ‘Free Speech University Rankings’ for 2018 – and things haven’t improved on last year.
  
• Government refuses to sanction sharia courts: Home Secretary Amber Rudd has responded to a recent report into the parallel Islamic legal system, saying that the Government will refuse to recognise or encourage it. Read more here.
  
• Ocado drops blasphemous product after outcry: Following complaints, online grocery shop Ocado has stopped stocking a variety of beef jerky named in such a way as to blaspheme the name of our Lord Jesus, and has issued an apology. Read more here. 

Church Issues

• Voices of the Silenced ‘silenced’ by Vue: The premiere of the Core Issues Trust film which questions LGBT dogma was cancelled at short notice by its host, Vue cinema in Piccadilly, after outcry from pro-LGBT campaigners. Christian Concern led a protest in response and the film was shown successfully at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster.
  • Our evangelist friends Syd and Liz Doyle have sent word that their daughter and her husband have received nasty abuse from LGBT campaigners, as part of a wider backlash against their Michigan church. Watch the pastor’s gracious response here. Please have them in your prayers.
• Anti-Semitism in Church: CUFI exposes rampant anti-Semitism being promoted in a St Albans Methodist Church under the guise of a pro-Palestine talk. Read more here.
  
• CofE faces over 3,000 abuse cases: The Synod meeting put a special focus on abuse this week as an overwhelming number of complaints were dealt with in 2016. Meanwhile, as the Church continues to liberalise its stance on sexuality, GAFCON is encouraging faithful Anglicans to be courageous and leave. Read more here.

World Scene

• Germany to compensate Algerian Jews: The German Government has agreed this week to recognise 25,000 Algerian Jewish Holocaust survivors as eligible for compensation, offering them a one-off payment. Read more here.

Israel & Middle East

• Escalation in Syria and Lebanon: Iran, Turkey and Russia have all been angered this week by losses of their own forces and resources in Syria and Lebanon, through targeted air-strikes from the IDF and the US. Meanwhile, the Assad regime has reportedly been carrying out multiple chemical weapons attacks on citizens in the Damascus area, in what could be termed a genocide. The remarkable events this week all point towards a coming war with Israel. See this update from Middle East commentator Amir Tsarfati for a fuller explanation.
  
• Israel’s own migrant crisis: As Europe has struggled to deal with the arrival of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, so Israel is facing a migrant crisis of its own – and the government’s response so far has been controversial. Read more here and here.

Upcoming Events

• Marriage Week: 7-14 February. Theme: Think Ahead! See the official website.
• Day of prayer for the UK's relationship with Israel (London): Saturday 17 February, 10am-12:30pm, World Harvest Christian Centre, South Norwood, London SE25 5NQ.
• Lobby Day for Israel (London): Wednesday 28 February, 10:30am-5pm. Help make the case for Israel in Parliament this 70^th anniversary year. Click here to book. For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
• Foundations 9 (Cumbria): 19-23 March, Grange-Over-Sands. Theme: 'Into the lion's den: reaching a world gone mad'. Steve Maltz's annual week-long Hebraic conference. £260 per person. Click here for more information and to book.

Recommended Sources

At Prophecy Today UK we are aware that the world is moving very quickly and it is difficult to keep up with all the latest developments – especially when the material circulated by our mainstream media is increasingly far from reality and definitely not devoted to a biblical perspective!

Though we are not a news service, we want to help keep you informed by passing on updates and reports as we are led. This will be a selective, not an exhaustive, round-up, which we hope will be helpful for your prayers. Click here to browse our News archive.

We also recommend the following news services for regular updates from a Christian perspective:

• Christian Concern (UK)
• Christian Institute (UK)
• JNN News (Barry and Batya Segal, Israel)
• Worthy News (Israel)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
• Kehila News (Israel)

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Time: Full Stop or Question Mark?’ by Stephen Bishop (Zaccmedia, 2017).

This is a very readable and thought-provoking book on a key issue. Is time a constraint upon us and our enjoyment of life, or a God-given means of exploring life to the full before we enter eternity? We may (at times!) feel controlled by time, but God is not. He controls it. The aim of the book is to explore “some of the implications of God’s control of time and seasons described in the Bible” (p.ix).

The book contains 17 short chapters, each ending with some questions ‘For Reflection’, suitable for personal reflection or group study. These chapters divide into two roughly equal halves.

Section One covers the general aspects of time and aims to have a practical focus. Section Two is a short study on Ecclesiastes 3 and takes us through each of the first eight verses, one per chapter.

In a society that wants to speed everything up and get instant results, the idea of slowing down, waiting and preparing ourselves while God works through his plans at his pace seems to go against the grain. The final chapter of Section One is called ‘Taking a Break’ and looks at the concept of a time of rest without quite going so far as to mention ‘Shabbat’. To explore this theme in more detail you will need to look elsewhere. Another interesting chapter considers how God often does things ‘last-minute.com’.

It must be stressed that this is not another book on time management. Rather it mixes a sense of personal devotion to God with thorough biblical analysis and exposition. Here we find a gentle persuasion to make time our (new) friend and not our old enemy. It should make us more ready to meet God at the times of his choosing and not according to gaps in our schedule.

‘Time’ (146pp) is available from the publisher for £6.99. Also available elsewhere online. Click here to watch a short Youtube video from the author, about the book.

Also by Stephen Bishop:

Dialogue with a Donkey (2014) (Balaam)

Fleeces, Fears and Flames (2014) (Gideon)

Finding a Place to Settle (2016) (Ruth)

Maureen Trowbridge reviews ‘Finding a Place to Settle: The Book of Ruth: Learning to Find God-Gifted Identity’ by Stephen Bishop (Zaccmedia, 2016).

This book focuses on the life of Ruth, and God’s intervention in her difficult circumstances to bring her to a place of understanding her identity.

Ruth’s Journey

When Naomi, her husband and two sons had to leave Bethlehem because of famine, they travelled to Moab. First Naomi’s husband died, and then her two sons (who had married Moabite women). A heartbroken and sad widow, when she heard that the famine in Israel was over, Naomi decided to return.

Naomi’s complete trust in God in spite of all her suffering had made a deep impression on Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. It must have been a great blessing for Naomi to hear Ruth say “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

The story then unfolds as the two women start a new life in Bethlehem, encountering poverty and hardship. Eventually they find grace and security in the form of Boaz, ‘a shadow’ of Jesus.

According to the author Stephen Bishop, “God had worked in Ruth’s life…[to bring her] to a stage in her journey where she had fulfilled God’s purpose for her and also to find her particular God-gifted identity, a place to ‘settle’.” Turning this into an application for readers, he suggests that this is “an awareness which God wants for each of us”.

Life Lessons

There is so much to learn from the story of Ruth, which each of us can apply to our own journey through life, as we encounter a God who loves us too much to leave us as we are.

In the introduction it is recommended that readers should take a good look at Psalm 107, because of its relevance to the book’s content (e.g. Ps 107:7: “He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle”). It is helpful to bear this psalm in mind as the author unpacks challenges on life’s journey, such as rebellion and wandering, in the context of God using life’s ups and downs to teach us about relationship with him.

At the end of each chapter there are four ‘Thoughts for Reflection’ which help to apply the teaching personally.

I thought I knew the book of Ruth fairly well but I found there was much more to learn. Stephen Bishop is a very accessible writer who has had other books published on biblical characters. In this helpful study he encourages us all to “pause and take stock of where and who we are in terms of our God-gifted identity”.

‘Finding a Place to Settle’ (146pp, paperback) is available from the publisher for £5.99. Also available elsewhere online.