Clifford Denton calls for new clarity about Islamic terrorism.

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

Church News

• Former chaplain to the Queen speaks out about ‘why I left the CofE’: Rev Gavin Ashenden speaks exclusively to Christian Concern about how the established church has failed in its prophetic role to call the nation to repentance. Watch the video here.
  
• Archbishop of Canterbury to visit the Holy Land: Archbishop Welby will make a high-profile, 12-day trip to Israel in May, mainly to encourage Christian communities in the region. Read more here.

World Scene

• London terror attack not the only one this week: Less high-profile attacks have occurred this week in Paris and Antwerp. On the same day as the Westminster attack, Boko Haram took eight lives in a suicide blast on a Nigerian highway; the day before, car bombs in Afghanistan and Somalia killed at least ten, and on Monday an Islamic State car bomb in Baghdad killed 23 and injured more than 40. Sourced from this site.
  
• US-Israeli citizen arrested in Israel over anti-Semitic bomb threats: An 18-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of being behind the spate of fake bomb threats sent to Western Jewish communities in the last six months. Read more here.
  
• Anti-BDS summit to be hosted at UN next week: A special conference on the de-legitimisation of Israel will be held at the UN headquarters in New York on 29 March. Read more here.

Israel & Middle East

• UN ‘apartheid’ report shelved and senior official resigns: Outcry at a UN report accusing Israel of ‘apartheid’ has led to the report being taken down and the resignation of Rima Khalaf, head of the sub-group that authored it. Read more here.
  
• Israel 11^th happiest country in the world: according to the World Happiness Report – read more here. The World Economic forum has also stated that Israel is the best country in the Middle East for women – click here to read more.
  
• BDS co-founder arrested for tax evasion: prominent anti-Israel campaigner Omar Barghouti has been arrested by Israeli authorities for concealing some $700,000 worth of income. Read more here.

Upcoming Events

• ‘What are we teaching the Children?’ Conference (25 March): Find out how current education policy is influencing children in Britain and how Christians can respond, with Voice for Justice. Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. Click here for information and tickets.
• Foundations 8 Annual Weekday Conference (3-7 April): A few tickets are left for Steve Maltz’s Cumbria conference. Speakers to include David Andrew and Chris Hill. Click here for more information.
  
• Prom Praise at the Royal Albert Hall (22 April): International gathering of both classical musicians and worship leaders, with a Gospel message. Find out more and buy tickets here.

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)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
  
• Kehila News (Israel)

On oxen and parapets: applying the Torah's heart principles.

Before Paul’s conversion on the Road to Damascus he had studied Torah under Rabbi Gamaliel. Thus he already had the foundation on which to interpret Torah from a New Covenant perspective. He does not teach this through his letters so we are left to guess how he approached the subject as he taught in the Christian congregations.

There are a few clues that would lead us to suspect that he handled Torah fluently and deeply through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s Bible was the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures (the ‘Old Testament’). My belief is that we should take Torah just as seriously and learn to let the Holy Spirit interpret at deeper levels, rejecting all idea that ritual and legalistic interpretations are the only ones.

To that end, for this article I am reproducing in full a chapter from the Torah section of my book The Covenant People of God (Tishrei International, 2001). This was written at a time when I was freshly buoyed up by the revelation of new depths in Torah.

Essays on the fulfilment of Torah

No 7: On Oxen and Parapets

In his reference to oxen the Apostle Paul gave new meaning to an old Mitzvah. Have we reached the same maturity of interpretation after 2,000 years of Church history?

When we have understood the role and nature of Torah, meditations upon its principles will lead to the right kinds of questions. In prayerfully considering these questions and waiting upon the Lord for enlightenment we can see, like the Apostle Paul, general principles at the heart of various commandments and we can learn to apply these general principles in new and relevant ways.

The Bible records two occasions when Paul referred to the commandment of Deuteronomy 25:4 which stated that an ox should not be muzzled as it treads the grain (1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18). On both occasions he used the commandment to show that ministers of the Gospel should receive appropriate payment. Jews might say he was applying midrashic method here, to extract a truth from a particular part of Scripture to apply it to a different circumstance. Christians might say that Paul, having seen the law as now having no continuing meaning since the coming of Yeshua (Jesus), was treating the ideas rather loosely and liberally. I would suggest that Paul had found the keys to the principle of the law (Torah) being written on the heart. Indeed, there is a kind of midrashic interpretation of Torah, but led by the Spirit of God rather than through a scientific method of biblical interpretation.

Paul had found the keys to the principle of the law being written on the heart.

It is interesting that there are very few examples in the New Testament to the individual Mitzvot such as the one above. Again, after 2,000 years of Christendom, the general impression is that this is because they are not important now that the Messiah has come. It is rather strange, however, that Paul uses this one rather remote example twice. I would suggest that this should give us a clue as to the way that we should read both the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Testaments. Far from Paul dismissing the ‘Old’, he is applying the teaching in the way that he expects us to apply it. This is simply one example that he uses in passing and which has found its way into the New Testament writings.

Indeed, because there is so little interpretation of the Mitzvot, in terms of the New Covenant, we should realise that we are expected to find interpretations for ourselves. If this were not so we might be inclined to treat the New Testament as a new and complete rulebook, assuming that it has a literal completeness, replacing what went before. Indeed, I would suggest that this is just what many Christians have (unwittingly) done. Instead, we have the final steps of revelation that can now be applied alongside the earlier revelations of Scripture bringing all to fullness, by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the Light of Messiah. We should not expect all the answers to be in the pages of the New Testament, but we should find ourselves on a walk of faith with the Holy Spirit interpreting the truth of the whole of Scripture for us.

I would also suggest that this is of extreme importance to those of us in the early stages of the restoration of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Going back to the Old Testament, for some, can be a return to literal application of what is found there, missing the spirit of the teaching and the wider application. This is what leads to dry ritual observance of the Feasts, to the wearing of Tzit-Tzit and, possibly, to putting self-righteously inspired parapets around one’s roof (see below).

Missing the spirit of the Old Testament can lead to its total rejection, or to dry ritual observance.

The heart of all Mitzvot is to love the Lord with all our heart and our neighbour as ourself. This spiritual principle can only be applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit Himself, but once there, all the Mitzvot can rise to a higher and more general plane, as well as being perfect examples in themselves of how to apply the principles in certain circumstances. Thus Paul was able to see that by practising, year by year, the principle of not muzzling an ox when treading the grain, letting it feed freely and generously as it worked, there is a principle that can be manifest on the heart and which can be applied in a variety of circumstances, including payment of ministers of the Gospel. Paul had learned to read the heart intent of these Mitzvot and expects us to do the same.

Another seemingly remote example (this time, however, not quoted in the New Testament) is Deuteronomy 22:8 – when you build a new house, make a parapet (protective fence) around your roof so that you will not bring the guilt of bloodshed on yourself if someone falls from the roof. Is this principle only to be taken literally, to be of no relevance to those of us without flat roofs, or does it speak of a general principle?

This is an excellent example of loving our neighbour and a perfect example from the context of Middle-Eastern houses with flat roofs, where one might spend time with one’s friends: there are circumstances even today where it is what we should do quite literally. However, through meditating on the principle, we find that it speaks fundamentally of care and safety in every area of our interaction with our neighbours. It challenges our heart as to whether we care for the safety of our neighbour, and hence also challenges us as to our maturity in our spiritual life. Parapets, when considered as safety measures, speak of fire extinguishers, first aid boxes, guards on our machinery, and careful safety precautions in all we do. The Torah principle is a profound and perfect prompt to a general principle that can be applied in millions of circumstances, prompted from the heart, but impossible to contain, in its entirety of applications, within the covers of our Bible.

The Torah principle of making a parapet for your roof is a profound and perfect prompt to a general principle of caring for others.

Indeed, we can go further, from the practical to the spiritual. For example, we as parents should put scriptural principles into the lives of our children so that they have spiritual guard-rails in their lives. This was the principle that Ezekiel was to bring to his nation as a watchman (Ezekiel 33) so that he would be free of bloodguilt. This is also what Paul meant when he declared himself to be free of bloodguilt because he had declared the whole counsel of God to the people (Acts 20:18-26). He set up a spiritual parapet for their protection, just as we should in our families and fellowships.

I would add one more point in the light of our search for the Jewish roots of our faith, so that we do not despise too readily what was achieved through the Christian Church over 2,000 years. I can take my example from Britain, my own nation, but it also applies to other nations where the Gospel message took root in the fabric of the nation, including the USA. For over a thousand years, from the time of King Alfred the Great, the laws of Britain have reflected the heart of Torah. Alfred the Great caused the Ten Commandments and other parts of the ‘Law of Moses’ to be written into our law books. This is why, for example, we developed a consciousness for health and safety in our industries.

The heart of the teaching about parapets has been applied in our nations - albeit that we have forgotten when and how. Now, as we seek to recover and make more explicit what Torah is in our Churches, we must not forget our heritage and we can recognise that there has been a Torah impact to our nations, and hope for recovery in these days of growing Torahlessness. Furthermore, we must be among those who add depth to the lives of believers, and not those who lead them to a new form of superficiality.

[end]

Conclusion

Being Hebraic is to love all the teaching of God: to study the entire Bible, founded upon the five books of Moses (the Torah) and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to shed light on it applications in all aspects of life – and to help others to do the same. This is Word and Spirit in balance.

It is also how we can pray, like the psalmist, from the heart:

Oh, how I love your Torah! It is my meditation all the day. You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. (Ps 119:97-99)

Perhaps we will find ourselves writing such a Psalm!

Next time: Authority to interpret Torah

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts’ by Richard Booker (Destiny Image, 2009).

This is another excellent book on Jesus and the Jewish Feasts. Clearly written and well set out, the aim is to enable Christians to discover the significance of these Feasts within their own individual walk with God. As such it is conceived as a personal study resource with practical guidelines at each stage.

The author recognises that in recent times God has been doing a new thing, “breaking down the walls of hatred and misunderstanding that have divided the Jews and Christians” (p8). He believes that celebrating Jesus in the Feasts has many benefits which include a fuller comprehension of God’s plan of redemption and a renewed passion for Jesus. He explains that when Christians celebrate Jesus in the Feasts they are not putting themselves under the Law or trying to be Jews, they are “simply expressing their desire to return to the biblical roots of the faith” (p10).

Personal Challenges

The Feasts are designed to be visual aids, pictures of deeper spiritual truths, and once we see them as God’s special Feasts (appointed times), rather than merely ‘Jewish’ Feasts, then those deeper truths start to emerge.

Chapter One outlines the biblical Jewish calendar which is the correct setting for the seven Feasts in their seasons. Chapters Two to Eight then take each Feast in turn, from Passover (the longest chapter) to Tabernacles. The structure of each chapter is the same: Historical Background, How Jesus Fulfilled the Feast, and Personal Application.

The Feasts are visual aids – pictures of deeper spiritual truths.

The intention of the book becomes clear at the end of each chapter where there is a Personal Study Review which checks your understanding of each Feast and also issues a specific challenge. The reader is asked to describe the seasonal aspect of the Feast in question and to say how Jesus fulfilled this Feast. The review also asks how the Feast as revealed in Jesus applies to our lives today, and concludes with the exhortation to ask God to give you a personal encounter with Jesus as the spiritual reality of this Feast.

Highly Recommended

The next two chapters cover Purim and Hanukkah, which although not part of the mo’edim or appointed Feasts, are significant national holidays and are well worth including in a book of this kind. The structure of these chapters has to change slightly as Jesus did not fulfil these, so as well as the Historical Background and Personal Application as before, there is a section on Purim (or Hanukkah) in the New Testament.

The final chapter acts as a summary of the main purpose of the book by stressing again how Christians can celebrate Jesus in the Feasts. The author realises that people need guidelines and ideas to get them started and so offers many useful suggestions. Within this chapter there is also a section on ‘counting the Omer’, with a Scripture reading plan to cover these 50 days between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost).

The author offers people useful suggestions and ideas to get started celebrating Jesus in the Feasts.

The author has clearly gone on his own personal journey through the Feasts and is excited about sharing it with others. His book is highly recommended and well worth putting alongside others on this topic.

Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts: Discovering their Significance to You as a Christian (224 pp) is available in a newer expanded edition (2016) from Amazon for £12.99 (£7.12 on Kindle). Older versions also available.

I most associate this phrase with moments in my life when I really did not want to do God’s will. In fact, I would rather have done anything else than God’s will – even though I knew very well what He wanted, deep down. My heart and soul were yearning for some other way and my flesh was shouting loudly, drowning out God’s still, small voice.

It takes courage and persistent faith, in those times, to fight against the overpowering yearnings of the heart and subject them to the will of the Father. It takes raising the eyes of our souls up to Heaven and crying out for a higher and greater perspective, though we might not be sure what that looks like. It takes, in short, praying “Thy will be done”.

Yielding to the Father

Coming to terms with one’s own sinfulness is not an enjoyable process. It is painful to learn (often the hard way) that the heart is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9) and that the mind does not naturally think in the ways of Heaven (Rom 12:2). Little by little we start to expect less – even nothing – of ourselves (not even the inclination to goodness) and transfer our trust instead to God.

Realising that we are unable to walk in His ways – unable to even believe or want to obey without God’s direct intervention and help – is truly terrifying. And yet, it is also liberating – for that realisation is the gateway into the life of faith. Recognising our weakness is an essential step, I believe, to truly comprehending His strength – how much we need Him, but also how much He is able and willing and desiring to save.

It is in this place of humility that God has the greatest opportunity to change us, and that we are most eager to cry out “Thy will be done!”, having come face to face with our own fallenness. The Lord has chosen, for this life and this world, to keep us in a [hopefully lessening] degree of imperfection – that His glory might shine out more perfectly from our jars of clay, and that His power might be made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

We can take comfort that even Jesus Himself needed to pray “Thy will be done” - in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the terrible-yet-wonderful portion allotted to him was looming so close (Luke 22:42). How much more do we need it, then, in our hours of trial and temptation!

A New Mindset

I also believe that the phrase ‘Thy will be done’ is not merely to be saved for those moments of deep obedience when, through gritted teeth, we choose to follow God over strong temptation to compromise. Really, it represents a totally different way of seeing one’s life and the world around - a mindset that does not come naturally to us, but which we need to ‘put on’ daily, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Praying “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” means consciously, daily and deliberately devoting ourselves – including all our weaknesses - to a way that we take on faith to be higher than ours is and to thoughts that are higher than ours could ever be. But how does that work in practice?

First, it must start with the acknowledgement – however obvious it may seem - that God is higher than we are, and worthy of our complete submission and surrender, in everything. This is not a lesson we learn once and can then assume for the rest of our days – but a perspective that needs to be reinforced daily if we are to protect against the subtle encroaches of arrogance.

Second, and by extension, it means holding loosely our desires and boundaries, our ways of thinking and our private agendas, in willing surrender to the Holy Spirit to come and re-adjust them. Whatever you are going through, are you truly seeking Heaven’s perspective – or are you seeking to persuade God to adopt yours? Are you willing to pray “Thy will be done” even if it means things unfolding in a different way than the way you plan and desire?

Finally, I believe it means pursuing a heart-felt humility which acknowledges that in everything, from the most mundane daily tasks to the most controversial and divisive problems of our day, we desperately need God’s perspective, far more than that of the world.

For His Glory and Our Good

Learning to pray “Thy will be done” demands devotion and joy – and also fear and trembling. But in all this we can take heart, because God’s will is for our good as well as for His glory. Here are some verses from Scripture that remind us about God’s will:

• “God our Saviour…wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4
  
• “…this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” John 6:38-40
  
• “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20
  
• “…the Lord Jesus Christ…gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father”. Galatians 1:3-5
  
• “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
  
• “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3
  
• “…what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Author: Frances Rabbitts

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

Society & Politics

• Abortion up to full term bill passes to second reading: the motion, introduced by Diana Johnson MP, passed on 13 March by 172 to 142 votes; the bill will have its second reading on 24 March. Read more here.
• No right of withdrawal from sex ed? National Secular Society pushes for secondary level sex education to be compulsory, with no parental right to withdraw, as the Government’s new relationships education bill makes its way to the Lords. Read more here.
• British taxpayers fund hatred in Palestinian schools: The Daily Mail revealed this week that 24 Palestinian Authority schools receiving British funding are actively indoctrinating children with hatred and violence towards Israel. Read more here and read the Mail’s expose here.
• Former archbishop joins fresh call for assisted suicide: Lord Carey joins Labour peer Baroness Jay in calling for Parliament to revisit current laws. Read more here.

World Scene

• Fears of coming chemical attack in Europe: Israel is planning to warn its citizens taking European holidays this year to be vigilant as ISIS is expected to carry out further attacks in major cities. Read more here.
• German newspapers label Netanyahu ‘Führer’: two German tabloids have listed Netanyahu on a list of the world’s seven ‘looniest leaders’. Read more here.
• French Government moves to shut down anti-abortion free speech: French websites that campaign for life can now be subject to criminal prosecution, with sentencing of up to two years in prison. Pro-life groups are already banned from protesting outside abortion clinics. Read more here.

Israel & Middle East

• UN accuses Israel of apartheid: A new report from a UN subsidiary body (made up of 18 Arab states) uses the libellous term in relation to Israel, giving further ammunition to the BDS campaign and anti-Israel groups. Read more here.
  
• Fire continues at the Gaza border: IDF troops retaliated on Thursday morning to rocket fire from Gaza on Wednesday night. Read a summary of the latest exchange here.

Upcoming Events

• Hope for Our Nation (18 March): Christian Concern host a day event at the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. “Do you want to see society changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ? Come and understand today's challenges, and be equipped to bring hope to our nation.” Find out more and buy tickets here.
  
• ‘What are we teaching the Children?’ Conference (25 March): Find out how current education policy is influencing children in Britain and how Christians can respond, with Voice for Justice. Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. Click here for information and tickets.
• Foundations 8 Annual Weekday Conference (3-7 April): A few tickets are left for Steve Maltz’s Cumbria conference. Speakers to include David Andrew and Chris Hill. Click here for more information.
  
• Prom Praise at the Royal Albert Hall (22 April): International gathering of both classical musicians and worship leaders, with a Gospel message. Find out more and buy tickets here.

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)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
  
• Kehila News (Israel)

So far in this weekly series on the Lord’s Prayer, we have asked for God’s Kingdom to come into our lives and eventually to fill the entire world as the waters cover the sea.

We now, in adding this phrase “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”, are recognising that in Heaven (of which we know so little) God has complete authority and all that he wills to be done is done.

We know that above this earth there is a perfect place where righteousness dwells. We have a vision of perfect light, perfect worship, wonderful music, no sickness, no pain, no wars and perfect harmony. So we can easily add to our prayer for God’s Kingdom to come to earth that “thy will be done”.

Do You Mean It?

Who would not want to pray this prayer? Surely we all want our Almighty, all-wise and powerful, all-seeing, sacrificially-loving Father to take control of our lives and do what only he can do, perfect in every way.

Yet, do we really mean it? Sometimes words, however beautiful, like a costly masterpiece hanging on our walls, can become like wallpaper after a time – so familiar that we do not continue to appreciate both their beauty and their full reality as we once did.

So what is in that picture of the outworking of the Lord’s prayer?

Our Surrender

Here on earth, the perfect answer to our prayer “thy will be done” involves the imperfections of mankind being dealt with and all our struggles and strivings being counteracted with love and heavenly discipline.

We would like to think that we were ready to be in absolute submission to the will of God. Sometimes we are moved to long genuinely for it as a deer pants for cool, living water - to find the abiding place in Jesus where his will becomes our will in all things, and where prayer finds immediate answer.

To find such a place of total submission, one must also accept the truth expressed by God to Isaiah (Isa 55:8), “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”. There are implications to the prayer we are praying and we must be ready to accept them. We cannot pray this prayer “thy will be done” and alongside it present God with our formula for how it is to be answered. He will answer in his way, and this could be costly.

Christians have wrestled with the concepts of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man for centuries, but this prayer is a declaration of the desire for the sovereignty of God.

Consider Afresh

Many of us have prayed for revival in our nation, having heard about the wonderful fruit of revival in past eras. “Come down O love divine and visit us once more!” Yet, mostly we gloss over the cost of such revival in terms of human struggle when the convicting power of the Holy Spirit descends on a person or an entire nation.

Indeed, it is a truth borne out of experience that the prayer “thy will be done” is most heartfelt at a time of desperation, when perhaps we have expended all our own efforts to little gain.

Let us – for we must – pray this prayer together, but let us consider again what we are truly praying. May we count the cost before we pray it next time. Let’s not miss the depth of what is being asked, so that we can truly mean what we pray.

Author: Dr Clifford Denton

Clifford Hill explores the Dutch election from a biblical standpoint.

What’s happening in the Netherlands? The results of their General Election have surprised the pundits who were all expecting Geert Wilders to do well.

He had been topping the polls for some time but then, days before the election, the spat with Turkey was a gift for Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He took a courageous decision to defy Turkish requests for rallies of Turkish nationals in Holland as part of Erdogan’s bid to gain greater power for his Presidency.

Rutte’s decision to break up demonstrations of expatriate Turks in Rotterdam, to ban Turkey’s Foreign Minister from the country and to expel another Turkish Minister who arrived in the Netherlands by car without permission, delighted the Dutch public and greatly enhanced Prime Minister Rutte’s electoral prospects. The timing could not have been better for him and the results from the 80% turnout of voters has reflected this.

Dutch newspapers have been full of congratulations to Rutte and political commentators have hailed the increase of right-wing parties and the diminished support for Wilders as a significant shift away from populist parties. One newspaper (NRC) said that the result showed that the Netherlands had returned to ‘normal’ and the ‘patriotic spring’ was dead.

Is Populism Dead?

But Dutch elections never give a clear-cut result. No party is able to form a Government on its own and, although Rutte has slightly increased the number of seats his party holds, he cannot govern alone. He will have to do deals with two or three other parties to try to find a working majority for a coalition to govern the nation.

Newspapers are claiming that Rutte’s win shows that European populism is dead.

It would be reckless to conclude that populism in Europe is now dead, especially with the French elections coming up soon and Marine Le Pen doing well in the polls. The level of dissatisfaction with their political leaders among Europeans is still running high and part of the reason why Rutte did well was because he stole some of Wilders’ anti-immigration thunder.

Focus will now be upon what a new right-wing Government led by Rutte will do to restore broken relationships with Turkey. If they give in and apologise, they will inflame the rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the Netherlands.

No Understanding

Europe has by no means ‘returned to normal’ because one nation has narrowly held on to the political status quo. Politicians do not understand the mood of the people because they do not understand the socio-economic and social forces of change that are currently driving Western nations.

These forces of change cannot be understood simply in terms of an ideological battle between the radical left and the conservative right. Neither can they be understood purely in economic terms of Marxism versus capitalism; or in sociological terms of relative deprivation and the revolt of the ‘have nots’ against the ‘haves’ in society.

The reason why our political leaders cannot understand what’s going on today is because they have abandoned God. It is as simple as that! In academic institutions of former generations, theology was regarded as the queen of the sciences, because people understood that God was the God of Creation who had created human beings in his own image. This was the starting point of all investigations of human relationships. If you rule out God, you lose the anchor point of truth for all subsequent investigation.

If you rule out God, you lose the anchor point of truth for all subsequent investigation.

The Bible’s Timeline

The Bible gives us a timeline that enables us to see the development of humanity against the backcloth of God’s plan for the nations. If we look at humanity from God’s perspective, we can see how far we are along the road to self-destruction. God sees the global arsenal of weapons of mass destruction – nuclear bombs, nerve gas, germ warfare weapons.

He also sees the vast pollution of society and the corruption of human beings, not least through the internet’s transmission of pornography and the degradation of human bodies through sexual perversion, violence and drugs.

These twin forces of global destruction – violence and moral corruption – are the fruit of the spiritual forces of darkness or ‘principalities and powers’ against which the Bible warns us.

Jeremiah has a telling phrase:

This is what the Lord says: let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord. (Jer 9:23-24)

This is where wisdom truly resides!

Wake Up!

The populist movement we are seeing today is not just a social movement of underclass protest; it is the result of God shaking the nations. God is alerting us to danger. He is drawing our attention to the fact that humanity is heading for global disaster.

The populist movement today is not just a social movement of underclass protest – it is the result of God shaking the nations.

The populist movement is just a small symptom showing that ordinary people know there is something wrong. But will the leaders of the nations pay heed? Will the elite secular humanist intelligentsia who have been the driving force behind globalisation and the undermining of Western Judeo-Christian heritage for decades take heed? Will they open their spiritual eyes and understand what is happening before it is too late?

Much depends upon whether the churches in the Western nations have sufficient strength and spiritual insight to stand for truth and righteousness against the forces of darkness. We cannot expect to see repentance or understanding in the world until there is first repentance and understanding in the Church, which must mediate the truth at this pivotal time.

The Apostle Peter says in the Bible:

The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:10)

Was this just a flight of fantasy? Or did Peter know something that we don’t?

Arab ACE card trumps anti-Israel campaign.

As genocide is being committed against Christians, Yazidis and even ‘dissident’ Muslims across the Arab world, the international finger of criticism continues to point at Israel.

The latest example is a UN report urging swift action to oppose and end Israeli “apartheid”.¹

Thankfully, my Christian Friends of Israel colleague David Soakell has produced an ‘ace’ card exposing all this nonsense with a timely series of testimonies from Arabs which I have aptly titled Apartheid Claims Exposed (ACE).²

He tells us that Israeli Arabs – both Christian and Muslim – are risking disapproval from their own communities by volunteering for the Israeli Defence Forces in increasing numbers, disproving the lie that Israel is a racist, apartheid state (non-Jews are not obligated to serve in the IDF).

Powerful Testimonies

One Muslim female soldier said: “I wanted to enlist because it is my duty to serve and protect my country.” And she is even allowed weekly visits to her family during the Ramadan fast, so there is no difficulty with her practising her religion in the Jewish state.

Ibrahim Bari, an African Muslim refugee, went public with his testimony, saying: “In the army, I made friends for life [and] would do everything to defend Israel.”

Elinor Joseph, an Arab Christian serving in the IDF, says: “This is my country. When I see the [Israeli] flag waving in the wind I get excited.”

Another Arab-Israeli soldier, Monaliza Abdo, adds: “I came to serve my country and my home.”

And Major Ala Wahib, the highest-ranking Muslim in the IDF, asks: “Is Israel inherently racist – an apartheid state? Well, do you think that such a country would tolerate a person like myself getting to the position I am today? Someone who has not only fought alongside Jewish soldiers, but now trains them too? ...I do not serve in the army to kill people – I serve in it to save people. When Hamas fires rockets, or Fatah encourages stabbings, we are here to protect the lives of all Israeli citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish.”

Israeli Arabs – Christian and Muslim – are risking disapproval from their own communities by volunteering for the IDF in increasing numbers.

Protection and Rights

Adam Ram has also decided to “break the silence” by standing against the slander and constant defamation of Israeli soldiers. A Bedouin serving as a combat soldier in Hebron, a particularly tense area, he says: “The war is against all Israelis, regardless of who you are, because when a terrorist leaves his home with a knife, planning on murdering a soldier or a civilian, he does not care if his victim is a Jew, a Muslim or a Christian…As long as you hold a blue Israeli ID card, you are a fair target.”

Furthermore, Palestinians he has met on the streets see them as their protector, preferring them to the failure that is the Palestinian Authority which, incidentally, contributes just 10% of the cost of medical care for Palestinians treated in Israel – the rest is paid by the Israeli taxpayer.³

“As opposed to Daesh and other Islamic regimes, Israel is democratic and extends rights even to those who are not citizens of the state,” Adam adds.

Contrast this with the blatant discrimination against non-Muslims in much of the surrounding Arab world, where even Muslim women do not share the rights of their menfolk.

Meanwhile a group of North African journalists from Muslim Arab countries, visiting the Jewish state as guests of the Foreign Ministry, have described their first impressions of Israel as “appearing Western and free” and as “an opportunity to see the real Israel without the media acting as a middle man”.⁴

Disproportionate Criticism

Even if all this criticism of Israel was justified, it is out of all proportion to the reality that exists in the region. The tiny Jewish state has had to suffer wars and rumours of wars on a constant basis since she emerged once more onto the world stage as a new nation in 1948.

The world, particularly in the shape of the United Nations, is largely silent as terror stalks the streets of Jerusalem but at the same time condemns the Jews for allegedly stealing land not their own.

Even if all this criticism of Israel was justified, it is out of all proportion to the reality that exists in the region.

The sabre-rattling of Israel’s enemies involves guns, knives, rockets, missiles and even the threat of nuclear weapons. But more than anything it is a battle for truth in the midst of ferocious spiritual warfare which demands the engagement (in prayer and other ways) of all who love the truth, perfectly revealed in our Messiah Yeshua. And we must stand up for Israel against such shocking bias that is so transparent it demands a rewriting of history.

Anti-Semitism Continues

Accusing Israel of being an ‘apartheid’ state is just the latest in a long line of anti-Semitic attempts to invoke the wrath of a world effectively rebelling against the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah.

First there was identity theft, as Yasser Arafat invented a ‘Palestinian’ nation where Jews were once known as Palestinians. Then the Jews were accused of stealing ‘Palestinian’ land they had inhabited for thousands of years, which God himself had given them according to the Scriptures, and to which they even acquired an international legal right through a treaty signed at San Remo on the Italian Riviera in 1920.

And now, in raising their protests during the recent Israel Apartheid Week, students have abandoned their inquiring minds in pursuit of a vendetta of lies and propaganda against the only democracy in the Middle East.

Open their eyes, dear Lord!

Notes

1 Produced by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, according to World Israel News, 15 March 2017.
2 CFI’s Watching over Zion newsletter, 9 March 2017.
3 Ibid.
4 United with Israel, 16 March 2017

Olave Snelling and Pippa Smith discuss pornography and the need to protect our children.

In the late 1980s, while filming at a school in Coventry for a series of ITV programmes on ethics and morality in the nation's life with Gerald Priestland, former Religious Affairs Correspondent for the BBC, an extraordinary and alarming finding was made.

In this deprived area of high-rise flats some distance from the city, request was made to film in the school playground, and later to talk to mothers and activists who were concerned to provide after-school activities for the children who otherwise had nothing. Filming completed, we talked to the headmistress, explaining to her that we had noticed a particular absence of the kind of 'playing' normally associated with large numbers of children in school playgrounds.

“I am not surprised,” said the headmistress, “My children do not know how to play.” She went on to explain that, in the large majority of households in the area, fathers were out of work. This was at a time when thousands lost their jobs because the machine tool industry (for which Coventry was famous) had hit the buffers, as had many other commercial and industrial enterprises. There was nothing for any of them, or their wives, to do. There was not even enough money to catch a bus into the city to do a little shopping.

Instead, they sat indoors and watched TV - but mainly explicit pornography, from early morning until late at night. Children watched this material before they went to school and would watch more when they came home. They were so de-sensitised to anything normal that they had no idea how to play as normal children would. That was in the 80s. Imagine what it is like now.

Children who had been exposed to explicit pornography were so de-sensitised to anything normal that they had no idea how to play as normal children would.

The Smartphone Generation – and its Consequences

Today, the situation is far worsened by the ubiquitous presence of technology. Smartphones, tablets and computers make even the youngest of children incredibly vulnerable to explicit and harmful material in circulation online – this is no longer an issue exclusive to television and ‘offline’ sources like DVDs and videos.

• 81% of 13-18 year olds have smartphones.¹ Smartphone ownership is now routine for children as young as nine.²
  
• At least 37% of 3-4 year olds go online; 28% of 3-4 year olds have their own tablet.³
  
• Within the 16-24 age group, 99% claim to use social media and say it accounts for 18% of all the time they spend using media and communications. On average, 16-24s spent 2 hours 26 minutes per day using social media in 2016; 61% use their smartphones to access it.⁴

Meanwhile, parents are trailing behind:

• 23% of parents say they have trouble controlling their children’s screen use.⁵
  
• 83% of parents have never received information about sexting (the sending of sexually explicit images of oneself via text or over the internet) and 84% of parents have never looked for it. 50% of parents want to learn more.⁶
  
• 42% have spoken to their children about sexting at least once, but 19% do not intend ever to have a conversation about it.⁷

Fighting to Block the Material

The effect of violent, horrific video material and pornography on children (let alone adults) is well-known, but little-recognised officially. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. It is highly addictive. It is utterly destructive. Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry and the exploitation of children and many adults caught up in the making of this material is a worldwide problem.

There are a number of heroes and heroines involved in trying to get this atrocious material blocked, not least Baroness Howe, CBE, who, after many years of trying, is seeing the Digital Economy Bill making its way through Parliament.

The effect of horrific video material and pornography on children (let alone adults) is well-known, but little-recognised officially.

This Bill would introduce Age Verification legislation, that would require all commercial providers of online pornography to have age verification controls in place to stop under-18s from accessing the material.

Where websites refuse to comply, the Age Verification Regulator (the British Board of Film Classification, the BBFC) would notify them and could, if required, disrupt them by cutting off their ancillary services. In the case of persistent infringement, these sites could actually be blocked in the UK. The Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, has declared the Government's interest to carry through legislation to protect under-18s and to make age verification compulsory for sources of this material in the UK.

But there are still problems.

Digital Economy Bill: Age Verification

Age verification is not a perfect, catch-all solution for the pornography crisis. If introduced as a legal requirement, it would only cover the 50 largest commercial porn websites operating in the UK, which the BBFC says is proportionate, but which is not exhaustive. It may also only cover the four major internet service providers (ISPs), leaving many other smaller ones left out.

This also leaves a lot of other media platforms (e.g. social media) unregulated, providing ready access to 18+ content. The majority of social media sites set a lower age limit of 13 for use of their sites, but 75% of all 10-12 year olds in the UK are on them anyway.

Internet service provider Sky has questioned the effectiveness of age verification checks and installed its own alternative solution: a Broadband Shield, which filters out harmful content automatically and is turned on for their internet customers by default (Sky is the only major internet service provider to do this). 62% of Sky internet users now benefit from its protection, compared to a much lower take-up of 4-10% when the default was set to 'off’.

Attempt to Hijack the Bill

The House of Lords.

Meanwhile, as reported last week by Prophecy Today UK, the Government is planning to table an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to further water down its suggested protections. Bowing to pressure from Labour and the Lib Dems, this amendment would make explicit material currently illegal in the UK (i.e. material that is so harmful it is considered beyond age classification) legally accessible to adults – and so theoretically accessible to children (given the weaknesses of age verification as described above).

And so, a Bill intended to protect children and young people from the terrible impacts of pornography could cause untold further harm.

The Digital Economy Bill was meant to protect young people – but it could cause untold further harm.

This is all deeply concerning and comes before the Lords on Monday 20 March. The problem within the House of Lords is that most Labour and Lib Dem Peers are libertarian and outnumber Conservatives.

After the vote, the Bill will return to the Commons, where the amendment must be resisted by MPs.

It cannot be beyond the wit of man to understand that even over-18s are going to be affected by the hideous material these Peers want to liberalise (indeed, the BBFC knows that they would be). It is important to note that sex crimes have risen by 50% in the last 10 years and violent crime is also rising. Women and girls, as well as boys and men, will be more vulnerable.

We desperately need protection at this stage – not further liberalisation.

The Terrible Fruit

There has been a tripling in numbers of children reported to police for indecent images offences in the last three years, to more than 2,000.⁸ According to IWF Research UK, “Girls as young as 7 are being targeted online and posting explicit images of themselves – in some cases the material was secretly recorded on internet calling services and then posted by a third party.”⁹

A generation of children and young people are being betrayed - internet service providers and platforms such as Google and social media must be challenged to be responsible and provide the best and most effective protection.

Online pornography is creating a public health crisis in our young people, whilst children are being driven to mental breakdown and even suicide by harassment on social media. The effect of consumption of pornography and violent material is a time-bomb waiting to go off. Our children are at risk.

Please consider emailing your MP – and/or a member of the House of Lords – today.

Olave Snelling & Pippa Smith
Working Party on the Family
Lords & Commons Family & Child Protection Group

References

1 YouGov’s SMIX Kids Report, February 2014.

2 DfE Research, 2016.

3 Ofcom, 2014.

4 Ofcom: Communications Market, 2016.

5 Action for Children, January 2016.

6 NSPCC Report, 2016.

7 Ibid.

8 1 in 6 reported to police for indecent images are under 18. NSPCC, 1 September 2016.

9 IWF Research UK. See also their 2015 report on this issue.