Month: October 2018

How did Britain begin and why was its faith Christian? An English King, a grandson of Alfred the Great fought the battle of Brunanburh. If you have never heard of it, then I admit neither had I until I watched a documentary some time last year. The year of this huge battle was 937 AD when an army led by King Athelstan, a notably brave soldier and devout Christian, crushed a massive combined assault by Vikings, men from the North, Irish and Scots. This victory united the countries of the British Isles not only under one head, but crucially under one faith: Christianity. In the UK it took an administration which “did not do God” to bring about the changes that have so altered our nation. Becoming a Multi-Faith society changes things.

What is left of that Christ centred heritage? Physically there is evidence of our Christian roots scattered all over Europe. You cannot miss them: almost every city, town and village has a cathedral, church or chapel. They mark both our history and our landscapes; they once signposted our faith, they now mark our retreat and our losses. Buildings either falling into disrepair or taken over by corporations, renewed for residential use or even mosques.

To me it seems there is little beyond an established church with its back pressed to the wall, and a disunited kingdom  threatened by fracture, mostly from discontented Nationalist parties? The Christian Faith in Britain is increasingly seen as a sideshow if not an irrelevance. Submerged beneath a culture of diversity and multi-faith to which it has adapted mostly through compromise and appeasement. There are vibrant pockets of evangelical Christians and other denominations scattered throughout the countries of the UK, but few neutrals I think would say that we are much more than an irritant if we are evangelical, and a showy priestly backdrop to state occasions if we are traditionalists. We carry a life changing message rarely sought out by the great majority who lead lives without reference to either Jesus Christ or his Gospel. That is a pessimistic assessment, but there is of course another side filled with hope and faith. However I tend to think that this living faith, real though it is, may be coming under increasing pressure to conform to the ways of this world.

You may agree that we have as a nation abandoned the moral standards which once defined the attitudes and behaviour of a civilised society. You may say yes, and that we are much better off for doing so. Christendom throughout the ages has manifest a series of grotesque parodies of what a Christian society should be. I freely admit this is true, and there was and is no excuse. History verifies that humanity and the societies it has raised contain a spark of evil which tends to contaminate even the best of intentions. So what can be said of one like ours which appears to be seeking the best: a level playing field for everyone? Is this modern schematic any different to those of the past? To me the obvious answer to that question is yes, substantially different. We seem to believe we have learned the lessons of the past, hence the imposition of a multi-faith, multi-cultural society. We have given up, even legislated against stereotyping people on the grounds of race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, or gender: a noble and far reaching ambition which surely no one in their right mind could find objectionable. And of course, the good intentions are useless and would be without effect unless politically enforced, since we are acting against every natural impulse of human nature. Which is that might is right and victory usually goes to the talented, the ruthless, the strong and most calculating. Historically these must be among the reasons why the white races have enslaved and ill-used so many non-white races. We have however chosen to look at our history, sometimes with shame, assessed the damage and the reasons for it and begun the process of trying to make amends by setting out a new vision based on equality for all. Sadly Utopian visions always fail to materialise and their ideals fracture and fall whenever and wherever contact is made with the outside world. They can produce the exact opposite of what is intended: totalitarianism.

To me, born towards the end of the last World War, it feels that all is being made new. As if the old has been cast off while a new prospectus arises from the ashes of the past: new politics, new culture, new ethics, new reality. From a biblical standpoint, can fallen humanity do the job of saving the human race from its baser instincts? If we abandon the faith and religious route that has often served humanity so badly then what can go wrong when both secular and religious are bound together under a universal creed? It has been tried in the past and the two have violently clashed, but today there seems to be relative peace between religion and state. Perhaps it is truly based on the best of all human instincts, love for all and acceptance of everyone: a true level playing field based on tolerance. The experiment has been ongoing for a few decades and it can do no harm to look as it matures and make a few judgements. Are the results so far achieving the anticipated ends? Good intentions must surely be rewarded. This of course depends on whether the intentions were as good as they first appeared. For example to strive for equality cannot be anything other than a good intention. However it has never existed on this earth in any form other than as a momentary expression. There are always the strong and the weak, winners and losers, leaders and led. The truth is that at least one group will always sink to the bottom. A hierarchy will always establish itself, along with some form of coercion to ensure its survival and longevity. The principles laid down by Jesus Christ are a guide to a Utopian vision but even they have failed to give more than a hint of its realisation. But this vision of the golden rule is no longer welcome. Looking at the signs that are apparent I have come to believe that along with the gathering madness there is something uniquely anti-Christian under construction. My purpose in writing this is to persuade you that this might be true, and if you are Christian to prepare for the worst.

With much of Europe having become multi-faith by the decree of its governments is it coincidental that its Christian roots, faith and culture are being degraded? More important, does it matter? The commentator and author Douglas Murray, who is not a Christian, has said that we in the West are all Christian in one sense; not because of our belief but because of the culture which has given us the standards by which we live: from basic human rights upwards. As Christian influence has diminished so have the old certainties withered. As an alternative we have turned towards a multi-faith, multi-cultural approach hoping that the new will give us something better. His book is titled: The Strange Death Of Europe.

We have a new look country due to decades of large scale immigration. So, have a good look around you at the nations from which many of these immigrants have come. Most of these countries persecute Christians. Please ask yourself would you want to bring your family up in any of them? Immigration is all one way traffic, out of countries from the Middle East and into countries with a Christian tradition? The question why is too obvious to answer.

Jews, Christians and Muslims.

According to Mohammad, Jews and Christians are the people of the Book: the Bible. This book, Mohammad uses but changes out of all recognition, doing so on the basis of his revelations and the belief that these scriptures became corrupted. Mohammad’s later revelations found fault with scriptures he had previously endorsed; not what would have been expected from a prophet of God. They did not go about saying I got it wrong, misheard God, but now by further revelation have got it right, so forget what I said and wrote earlier. Its what I am saying now that matters. The objective of those who corrupted the scriptures was presumably to write Allah and Islam’s prophet out of the script. A conspiracy theory without motive or evidence. Mohammad, the Quran and Allah as the God found in the Bible were unknown to the writers of any of these scriptures, and for a very good reason: Islam’s prophet had not been born. The questions therefore arise, when was this corruption done, by whom, and for what purpose, and where is the evidence? Of all the ancient writings of history none have had such a constant history of verification. Archaeologists and scriptural scholars have proved these ancient writings have been passed down through the generations unchanged. If they are in error, it is not because they were corrupted in their written transmission. Jewish scribes are and always have been meticulous in the care and accuracy of copying their sacred texts. Any errors found in the huge quantity of ancient documents available are tiny and insignificant and change nothing of the meaning or narrative.

The Bible is the most validated document in the history of written documents. There can be no doubt concerning the faithful transcription of Scripture. The Jewish scribes were scrupulously meticulous about the copying of their scriptures. Of just the known 6000 Greek New Testament manuscripts, there are at least 2.5 million pages! If you were to include both the Old and New Testaments there are more than 66,000 manuscripts and scrolls. Each of these testify to the historical accuracy and the validity of Scripture!. The method proves the assertion that nothing was more important to scribes than the faithful transmission of the manuscripts being copied.

The procedures were as follows. They could only use clean animal skins as parchment. This both to write on and bind the manuscripts. Each column of writing could have no less than forty-eight, and no more than sixty lines. They must speak out each word aloud as it was written. They must wipe the pen and cleanse their bodies before writing the word Jehovah ( God’s name).They went through this ritual every time they wrote God’s sacred name. Each work was reviewed within a month. The manuscript if it required corrections on three pages was discontinued. The scribe would have to rewrite the entire manuscript. The letters, words, and paragraphs had to be all counted. The document was invalidated if two letters touched each other. Even more demanding was that the middle paragraph, word and letter must all correspond to those of the original document. The documents could be stored only in sacred places. As no document containing God’s Word could be destroyed, they were stored, or buried, in a safe “hiding place.” Synagogues or sometimes in a Jewish cemetery. Or as in the Dead Sea Scrolls, perhaps in extremis, when under threat felt compelled to hide important documents and records including scripture, in dry, remote and hard to access caves.

For scriptures to have been corrupted, as Muhammad claims, there must have been a catastrophic breakdown in the copying procedures: the entire methodology lost. And that, had it happened would have been a story in itself; one almost impossible to have kept secret. And yet for Muhammad’s story to have credibility this must have happened. In which case it was so well kept a secret that the loss of accurate scribal transmission for between hundreds and thousands of years went undiscovered until the advent of the prophet of Islam. A man who according to Islamic teaching could not read, somehow came to read, understand it and expose the errors written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek. Muhammad spoke and wrote, if he did write at all, in Arabic. How then was he able to discern errors written in languages about which he knew little or nothing about? Once again the only answer is by miracles. When you consider he had motive to alter the biblical accounts relating to Abraham and his children and also to Jesus, then cynicism is well justified.

All this is weird enough, but the question why Muhammad would go to such lengths is itself intriguing. I think finding the answer is simple enough. If the Bible remained as it was it could never be any use to him. The problem was he desperately needed it in order to provide a solid  historical foundation for his new religion. Giving it roots as deeply embedded in history as that of the Jews and Christians; making his message and revelations credible those he desired to convert: Jews, Christians and of course pagan Arabs. As a consequence one man rewrites history and enthrones himself under a god seemingly of his own invention. Allah was a name well known to Arabs before Muhammad was born. It being not a special or personal name, but the commonly accepted word used in that region when referring to God. Both Jews and Christians living in Arabia at that time would have have spoken of God as Allah. Christians would have believed Allah was Jesus incarnate, the one true God, and Jews would have called on Allah when speaking of their God. They would have been doing this long before Muhammad was born.

For all these reasons the Quran must be open to serious doubt, particularly in the crucial example concerning the promises of God made to Abraham’s son Isaac. In the Bible emphasis is put on the fact that Isaac’s children inherited the promises of God made to Abraham. Mohammed, on his own authority transfers these blessings and promises made to the Jews, onto the shoulders of the supposed ancestral elder of the Arab nations, Ishmael. This is tantamount to transferring an election result in a democratic country like Britain and donating the position of prime minister to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who at the time of writing is Ali Khamene. And this done on the word of a self-proclaimed prophet of the same tribe as Ali Khamene. Would such a claim be ratified today, and if not, why should it have become so convincing to so many in our day.

The Jews, without whom their priceless book would not have reached the wider world have suffered persecution throughout much of their history. And mostly from Christians and Muslims who claim large parts of their inspiration from the God given Testament put into the hands of the Jewish people. They are the most amazing people on the face of the earth. They have endured and survived through a history unlike any other nation, scattered and hated for no good cause before returning to the land taken from them. May God bless them and keep them safe in these terribly dangerous times. May the Holocaust never be forgotten and the Jews enter into to all the promises written in their Holy Book. May Muslims come to see within their own book, the Quran, the many references within it drawn from the Bible. And may this testimony lead them to the Truth. For as Jesus said, the truth will set you free.

It may be of interest to you to know that historians and biblical scholars have no doubts as to the real events that brought Jesus to his crucifixion. This is not a fiction. Those who vehemently disagree are Muslim clerics and scholars, but they have a good reason for their scepticism. The Quran written over six hundred after these events has Jesus as a central figure. He is the most mentioned person in the Quran by reference; 25 times by the name, as Isa,  48 times, in the first-person 35 times. He is therefore an integral part of Mohammad’s revelation, but not as a crucified and later risen from the dead Lord. That occurrence, if admitted would validate so much of the New Testament and confirm the accuracy and truth of those who wrote the gospels and letters to the churches. Consequently none of this part of the scriptures can be permitted since it would place Jesus so much higher than Muhammad. The testimony of many eye witnesses and accounts written astonishingly close to the actual events proclaimed Jesus as resurrected from the dead and Lord of all, the mighty risen Saviour. Inconceivable if they knew him to be dead and buried.

What actually matters beyond ourselves and those we care for? Has society outside that small unit ceased to exist for us? Is this the truth, that beyond me and mine nothing much matters?

Even if it is all about me and mine, and for you, all about you and yours, we still have to admit we exist in a universe that poses multiple questions. These relate to the existence of life, morality, the balance of nature, atheism, truth, religion and a vast array of other subjects all of which provoke debate. We are often dissatisfied with the conclusions of those who have taught us right and wrong, good and bad. This natural process of growing up and forming our own opinions may cause us to question, examine and even reject what we have been taught. I hold views on all of the above, but the one that heads the list for me is Truth. A word that led me directly to questions about faith. Is faith a ludicrous cop out? To the majority of people not birthed in religious belief, agnosticism or atheism may seem the best options. But whichever way we look and from whatever angle all the great questions remain: how, when, why and by what or whom and for what purpose, if any. Is there a definitive answer: a Truth to be discovered? Because if there is, then finding it must be the greatest adventure of them all. To know how and why we exist and in what context? Is it by random chance or designed and purposeful? These are probably philosophical questions but for me it is a matter of faith. And there are loads of choices, far too many; and just to make it more difficult there remains the real possibility that none of them are true.

My own story is that I was brought up the religious route, as a Christian of the Roman Catholic variety. For various reasons I developed a love / hate  relationship with religion. It left me feeling really bad about myself, a state of being for which I largely blamed myself. And maybe for that reason I could not, and worse still did not even want to dismiss it from my mind. I was born and bred into Christianity and it took me a long time to realise it was not what it is believed to be. A revelation which eventually led to my abandonment of Roman Catholicism. At root the Christian faith is not a set of Commandments or a prescribed way of life defined by its religious practice. I now know the Christian life can be lived out in a myriad of different ways. How can that be? Because you only have to look at nature to realise whoever or whatever put it together does not make clones. Nature it seems majors on extremes of diversity. The human genome for example is set up to produce endless variety. No two people are the same: individuality is written in code and hard wired into us. Consequently, my relationship with God will be entirely personal on the one hand and part of the family of God on the other. He may choose one individual to become an astronomer, a second to spend their life helping the helpless and a third to be an Olympic athlete, like the gold medal winner Eric Liddell. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris he refused to run in the heats for his favoured 100 metres because they were held on a Sunday. He was a devout Christian who took Sunday observance as a day of rest very seriously. Instead he competed in the 400 metres held on a weekday, a race that he won. He famously said these words, memorably spoken by the actor playing his part in the film Chariots of Fire.

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run I feel his pleasure.”

In saying that, Liddell links the pleasure he feels with a pleasure he intuitively believes God feels as well. His running therefore becomes a joy doubled. God experiencing, seeing, feeling and rejoicing as his child expresses the divinely given gift of speed. God is not remote from us, he loves us, and we are made in this loving image; which is no doubt why we love watching our children do well. Liddell was a man who would not compromise his faith for anyone or anything. Those seeking to persuade him were some of the most powerful men in the Olympic movement and the British government. He faced them all down, being prepared in the name of Christ to walk away from the glory on offer.  St Paul is another example, initially a fierce hater of Christianity. A persecutor who was suddenly dropped from his horse, blinded and called by God to be an apostle. You may argue that this is violent coercion, and to a degree it was; but his free will was never crushed. His life and his words bear witness to his individuality in everything he says and does. His sight is restored and he chooses to follow the one who called him. You may find Christianity as you have experienced it a massive turn off. I was brought up on ceremonial and priests and incense and a strict regime of religious practice. In the end I reacted against this form of my faith. Does that make it wrong? No, of course not, for many this way of life is a mark of the respect and awe owed to God. It does little for me which is why I worship in a very different kind of church community. As far as this goes it’s just my opinion against another. My view is that the ceremonial often associated with Church is to some large degree the result of man’s attempt to resurrect the religion out of which it was born: a type of Temple, priesthood and sacrifice orientated religion. I am sure that even those committed to this kind of religious experience: priests, monks, nuns would agree that this could be stripped away, and all the essentials of the Christian Faith would remain. Which is why faith communities founded on scripture alone can thrive in any environment. Because this kind of Christian Faith is robust, proved by the fact that persecution and martyrdom have tended to cause growth rather than loss to the church. No one knew this better than Paul who brought more people into the faith he had hated and persecuted than any other of his fellow apostles. He was a phenomenon.

During his travels Paul came to Athens to preach. He found among the many idols on display a statue to an unknown god. This god about which nothing was known he used to preach about Jesus. His Greek audience listened to a sermon in structure and content not unlike any gospel message you might hear today. The Athenians were interested, a few may have later converted, but the great majority it seems returned to their endless debates. My impression of philosophical discussions is that the last thing those taking part want to do is come to a conclusion. Christianity forces the issue. Confronts you and me just as Paul confronted the Athenians. He told them about the one true God to whom the myriad of gods of this world are just dross and imaginings, objects or ideas formed in the image of their creators. When we set ourselves, or our opinions, or our favoured group up as mini divinities, right in our own eyes and subject to no one we become another false expression of the unknown Greek god: just another idol. We have our gods, billions of them; we make them up much like the Greeks, but they at least had the modesty to look outside of themselves. We are creating a Selfie generation, making ourselves gods. Individualism is what we think we are creating: the My Space, My Kingdom world. It is all about ME! Don’t tell me about a revelation directing Me towards a God who made Me and holds me accountable for the life I have been given.

Consciously or unconsciously we are building a social media dominated society which lives and breathes idolatry; inward looking, self-seeking, self-serving and self-promoting. It centres around us and we have many ways of creating and embellishing our image. But all idolatrous societies have a god who rules above the others: in Greece it was Zeus. And for us perhaps the coming apogee of all this is the Mother and Father of all Big Brother States. A creation built on the longings to be free of ancient traditions about true and false, just and unjust, lawful and unlawful, normal and natural, good and evil. Out of this hatred of the past a great number of protest groups have arisen, each relentlessly articulating their demands. Like spoilt children who can never be appeased. Each of these have produced something which has been incorporated into the image of the beast being formed; like the thousands of golden ear rings out of which Aaron, the brother of Moses made the Golden Calf. An object of worship, but not religious as normally understood. This was uninhibited party time, with dancing, carousing and the loss of all restraint. Does that sound familiar?

When complete, whatever it is that has raised itself to dominance will place itself as arbiter of all things without even so much as a nod to the Creator of the World. We have become little different to those who carved out of wood or formed out of precious metals objects of worship. It is horrifying to see the lengths people of this generation will go to make themselves into something else, at the worst extremes creating an image false from concept to fulfilment: the look being everything. We were made to look beyond ourselves, but have come to think we know better. We can contemplate changes unavailable to any generation before us. We can remake creation in our own image: different by design. Any change being superior to being what I am.

I was recently asked what I thought the Christian response should be to those around us who seek gender change. What would I say to a person who has chosen a gender rather than accept the one into which they were born? It used to be so easy, it was either male or female and they stayed that way throughout life. My wife has given birth to six children: three boys and three girls. In those days the midwife would pass the newborn child to the mother and would proclaim you have a boy, or a girl. The conclusion made on the basis of either a penis or a vagina. That may still be how a modern story begins, but by the age of say ten another choice may be under consideration. What, if asked, do I as a Christian say to that person having reached adulthood? I freely admit I do not really know. The fact that some babies are born with elements of both male and female sexual organs is a tragedy and a reality which cannot just be skimmed over with pious sadness. Nor can the confusion that seems to be growing in the minds of so many regarding their sexuality. Any sense of stability in these areas has gone. The impact is undeniable and knowing what to do or say or write is for me an unsolved problem. I have written in more detail about this subject in other articles. However, this I do know; a Christian who excuses something that goes against what God has said to be true and good cannot speak for Him. But a Christian who forgets he is a sinner is in no position to judge anything. So, it’s a tricky and humbling position, because here am I preaching to you, and I am a sinner.

All I know for sure is that Jesus desires above all to bring us sinners into a state of grace, and he does this by forgiving and restoring on the basis of repentance. We have to acknowledge our sin. We have to turn to Jesus and say sorry. A Christian cannot say a sin is anything less than something which separates us from our Maker. We are asked to love, we are told to weep with those that weep, and to carry one another’s pain and sorrow. We should offer prayer, comfort, hospitality, kindness and understanding. What we cannot say is it is OK to make an idol of ourselves or to change a commandment of God in order to make us feel comfortable in our given body.

We are free to be whatever we want to be, but if Christianity is true we make our choice at a cost. You and I are the fruit of a Tree of Life. Not the Darwinian model but God’s Tree of Life. We belong not primarily to ourselves but to our Maker. When that fruit, you and I, falls to the ground at the end of its life it leaves a seed with the potential for new life. That is a kind of parable for you. Death is not the end of your story, you were created to be born again.

There is no easy or soft way around these things, but there is a loving one, and the loving way is to speak the truth in love. Anything less just covers the problem for a while but never touches its root or changes the life. Jesus is kind, just read how he dealt with the accused woman dragged out of a bed having just committed adultery. Standing while shaking with fear before a group of religious zealots longing to see her stoned to death. Jesus saved her. He did so with those famous words addressed to the woman’s accusers. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Shamed, they each, one by one turned and walked away.

His parting words to her however were “Go and sin no more.”

For her Jesus was a Saviour. He can be exactly the same for you as he has for me and was to her.