![]() ARCHIVE NUMBER FOURTEENWinter 2002On The Brink?(all spelling and phraseology is UK English) Moving Into the New Age I've titled this new flash "On The Brink". Why? After all, we feel like we've been living on the brink of something for years. There's that sense of something impending, something coming, something the Lord requires of us all, even if it's just more fortitude and less wavering.
Things seem to be coming to a head in every way. Many seemingly insignificant and minor happenings, taken individually, seem to add up to a larger picture when taken together. So let me try to list some of my present concerns: War With Iraq Since the world turned a corner on September 11th we have seen a continuing escalation of tensions, and not just between different cultures and religions. The morning newspaper brings talk of another major crisis almost every day. At the moment there's a rush to provide anti-contamination suits, smallpox vaccinations and (yes) body bags ahead of an expected chemical or biological attack in the UK. On the other side of the world, America is gearing up to a major war with Iraq, starting perhaps in a few week's time. What will be the outcome, and the consequences. None of us really knows, but the world is on the brink of something, for sure!
Climate disturbances The weather continues to do inexplicable and devastating things to us all. In some countries there is prolonged drought, in others floods and hurricanes, and volcanoes and earthquakes add to the misery. Despite all that is done to assure us this is well within normal parameters, talk on the street is of changes in the weather that defy explanation - and it's not getting better. Scientists agree that we are overdue for a massive impact by some kind of space body, whether a rogue comet or a piece of man-made space litter that is presently circling the globe. And there have been reports that the sun "will explode in less than six years" taking the solar system with it. (!!) Hmmm. I'm tempted to say good riddance, but for the sake of the many who do not know the Lord I have the mercy to pray that they will make their minds up which side they are on before anything so drastic occurs.
Onward march of Federal Europe and the Single Currency Despite any amount of common sense, the UK still bows the knee to its European overlords, and hands ever more national sovereignty to Brussels daily. See this summary. What will we see disappear next? We've already experienced massive erosion in our transport industries, coal-mining, ship-building, banking, fisheries, farming and numbers of other UK interests and we continue to witness the lunacy of laws imposed on us "from above", laws and regulations to which we have no legal redress. The system of justice that has served us well for centuries is about to be steamrollered by "Corpus Juris" which ends the separation of the judiciary from the state, which then becomes both judge and jury, responsible for the prosecution and sentence. Under this Napoleonic system, British citizens could be held guilty before being able to prove themselves innocent. Furthermore, we may be sent overseas to answer to foreign courts for crimes which do not exist under British law, such as "xenophobia" which is an excessive love of ones's own country (aka patriotism!). So don't turn your nose up at frog's legs and horse meat any more!! Or else. ;-)) Although we are being protected from the Single Currency at the moment by a lack of "convergence" and some antagonism in Government circles, it seems inevitable that we will see the Pound replaced by the Euro in the course of time. If Blair had his way we'd be part of the Single Currency system already. The shock to the British will be even worse when, as a consequence, we go down the same road towards debt, an unstable economy and massive unemployment like the rest of Europe. Once again, we are on the brink. The visionaries of the great Federal Europe dream will not stop until they have achieved their goals. New and secret proposals drawn up by the European Commission President, Romano Prodi, recently called for the total abolition of the national veto! Thus Britain in a couple of year's time would lose what little hold it still retains over the EU's decision-making process. This newspaper report spells it out:
Institutions Called Into Question The Royal Family have taken a beating in the Press recently, as if there's a concerted effort to damage them in the public eye (leading the field is the Republican Guard at the BBC) and at the same time we are reading reports about the Government and Prime Minister that shake what little confidence we had left in those institutions. Discontent Everywhere England has never been a place where jubilation reigned supreme, what with the drizzle, cold and dull weather most of the time. But now we seem to face irritation and setbacks wherever we turn. Little that we buy is delivered on time or in working order, and the service in many shops is surly and uninterested. Prices for eating-out, travel, hotels, cars and houses in particular have moved beyond the means of many. The education system is a joke, with more illiterate youngsters than ever before; hospitals struggle to keep up basic standards and never have enough beds to go around, television (at least the terrestrial kind) is filled with endless repeats or liberal propaganda; transport is grinding to a halt everywhere with trains that rarely run on time and roads gridlocked for miles. The police don't even bother to investigate petty crime any more, and the justice system seems biased towards the criminal rather than the victim; soft drugs are about to be legalised, gays have been made "equal" by law to heterosexuals, and immigration policies fail to stem the enormous tide of illegal immigrants. And so on. In a recent newspaper poll, 50percent of British people had thought of emigrating, myself amongst them. But is it better anywhere else? Every nation is facing problems such as we have never seen before, problems for which there is no solution. Moral Standards Declining Fast My reference to gay rights leads me to another concern that seems only to bother Christians (at least that is what the media gives us to understand.) Moral standards are in fast decline - even in churches. I won't spell it out (I have already made you too depressed with everything else) but the recent move to legalise the relationships of same-sex partners is, I feel, like throwing down the gauntlet to God. It's not as if we expect the world to share with us the moral standards in God's Laws, but when sin is deemed acceptable and legal by act of Parliament, then surely the country is on the brink? How much longer will God go on forgiving us? Art is No Longer Art Art too is in a steep decline, with the books, paintings and "installations" that win prizes most often being sick, blasphemous, glorifying of the devil, perverted and lacking in any kind of measurable artistic merit. One "artist" sold packets of his own excrement for thousands of pounds! He must have laughed all the way to the bank. We have to thank God that the Turner Prize this year did not go to the woman who wrote out a script for a pornographic movie in red pen, but we have to wonder where things will go next. How low can we sink? The Pullman Trilogy "His Dark Materials" is now to be dramatised for BBC Radio 4 and will be broadcast on 4, 11 and 18 January. The trilogy - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - are a fantasy trilogy set in a parallel universe ruled by a senile god and a cruel church. The most recent book, The Amber Spyglass, won the Whitbread Prize, and the books have become internationally renowned. This can only be news of the worst kind. I have read the books and the anti-God sentiments throughout are astounding, on top of which, the whole drive of the books is to introduce people (not just children) to false spiritual concepts like the power of the will. If you thought Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter were a bad influence, just wait until the Pullman books hit the airwaves. The fashion industry is likewise riddled with greed and perversion, with the desire to display as much bare flesh as possible for the largest amount of money. Some creations on the catwalk are ludicrous and totally unwearable, yet are peddled for vast sums. What is happening here? Where will it end? A couple of reports from "Shock Frocks":
Anti-Christian Media It's a well-known fact that the media in this country is so anti-christian that they go out of their way to ridicule Christians in every possible way. TV is notorious for broadcasting anti-Christian documentaries and discussions around the time of Christian festivals like Easter and Christmas (while giving lots of sycophantic uncritical airtime to other religions and belief systems.) This Christmas is no exception. The BBC is screening, on the Sunday before Christmas Day, a programme challenging the belief that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus. It will suggest three alternatives to the biblical account. One is that Mary had sex with Joseph during their betrothal, another is that she was raped by a Roman soldier and thirdly that she fell pregnant to an unidentified man before marrying Joseph., The programme concludes that Mary was most likely to have conceived Jesus with Joseph before their marriage as Joseph stood by her; an unmarried pregnant woman at that time in Palestine would have been cast out from the community or may even have been stoned to death. [www.sundayherald.com] This comes shortly after the TV programme questioning Moses and the Exodus, which concluded that a volcanic eruption in the Aegean caused the biblical plagues. It seems that any old myth or supposition people can dream up, no matter how tenuous or unproven, is preferable to believing the biblical account. Yet the religious texts of other faiths, along with ancient manuscripts from pagan cultures (like the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh) are accepted without question. An Interfaith Archbishop of Canterbury Another corner was turned, in my opinion, when the authorities decided to appoint a liberal, ecumenistic pro-gay Archbishop of Canterbury.
This is tantamount to declaring our desire as a country and Church to go our own foolish way - and God will oblige! Even some Anglican clergy and religious organisations have been spooked enough to protest in public: See Rowan William's beliefs examined including his well-publicised statement about "God as a spastic child who can communicate nothing but his presence and his inarticulate wanting." But I fear that the religious establishment is, as ever, missing the point. Concerns about ordaining homosexual clergymen are one thing, but the more subtle dangers come from William's beliefs in "spirituality" that play right into the hands of new-agers and all who are set on moving the world into an inter-faith "community" with no god but that of "the spirit". As one person who knows Rowan Williams confirms, his belief system tends more towards Buddhist than Christian! His emphasis is on mysticism and mediation techniques - see his contribution to a seminar on mantra-chanting "christian meditation" which is not far removed from its new age counterparts: See also this link . As for his interfaith and ecumenistic activities, they are well known. One report from an Interfaith magazine praises him highly:
Another report shows that the Saviour of Rowan Williams is not the one who know from the word of God:
Am I surprised that this piece cannot even manage to quote the bible correctly but copies the common MYTHOLOGY about Jesus being "the Way, The Truth and THE LIGHT" not THE LIFE? (No, I'm not.)
Then of course there's the well publicised incident in Wales in which Rowan Williams was inducted as a druid in a 200-year-old ceremony with pagan roots. See this excellent piece covering various aspects of William's activities
All of these things and more are adding to my sense of being "on the brink", as I feel that surely God's anger will "come up into His face" as He witnesses the deliberate destruction of all good order, morality, decency, peace and goodness on the part of those in authority. Ordinary people long for something better, but they no longer have a say in what goes on. Talk to the man in the street and you'll hear the lament that things are going from bad to worse but "what can we do?" and "where will it all end?" As Christians we KNOW where it will all end. The only question is, how soon? Maybe sooner than we think, for the twin alarm bells of the End are Israel and the Church, both of which are moving quickly towards some kind of climax. A New Wave? Way back in 1994 when the first fever of interest in the "Toronto Blessing" began, those of us who saw the writing on the wall said that it was only the start. It was the thin end of the wedge, and it was futile for churches to believe they could adopt a mild form of this delusion (as if to contain it and modify it). Worse would follow, as the TB was only the first indoctrination to prepare the hearts and minds of thousands for the next phase. So it has become, with the "revival" steadily turning up the heat under the pot so that (as with the world) minds have become immune to the danger. Just like the fashion world who gasped at the first sight of bare bosoms or bottoms, but now only yawn, many Christian gasped at the spectacle of barking, laughter, bowing, dumbness and so on, but now do not turn a hair if gold dust appears or a blue cloud hangs over the meeting, or spirit beings manifest and join in the singing. Christians who once would have shown signs of concern at teaching that veered off the scriptures, now don't bother with the scriptures at all, and accept anything they are fed however outlandish and heretical (loudly denouncing anyone who objects as judgemental and having a "religious spirit".)
We have travelled a long way since 1994. In the wrong direction. The Church has been cursed into a massive sleeping sickness like the Enchanted Princess but unlike that lady, does not respond to the awakening kiss of her Prince, for she prefers to sleep and dream of greatness than wake up and face the reality of what is to come.
Tragically, teachings (that don't even mention Jesus) have moved so far away from truth that they now resemble the occult more than Christianity. There are dream journal studies that rival those in the New Age, manifestations that would not disgrace a spiritualist sceance, "healing" techniques that were previously used only by psychics, and teachings that come directly from Gnosticism. Yet few are alarmed. The great majority of those who attend revival meetings and conferences are so in love with power and glory that they would gladly swallow anything for the sake of another fix of excitement. Such people worship their heros and heroines like idols, bowing at their feet, falling under their spell (literally) and throwing their hard-earned money into the jingling coffers. To me this resembles nothing so much as the Israelites dancing round the Golden Calf, or the Priests of Baal shouting and cutting themselves with knives to bring down the fire. What followed those biblical events? Sadly, the rebuke of God, to the extent that he was about to kill all those who participated in the naked cavorting round the Calf until Moses intervened. God has not changed. His word stands true; His standards remain; His promises will never be broken; His judgement will come. I do not normally write in such terms, (and I'm surprising myself as I write this) but like many I am sickened by the situation in churches today, where the innocent and ignorant are trodden underfoot in a mad rush for pleasure and power. Those who seek out the word of God are treated as pariahs, any anyone who raises a finger to object to what is happening is greeted with derision and slanderous personal attacks. The "old order" some say MUST DIE to let this "new wine" flow in freedom. To that end, anyone who still looks to the bible for truth is going to meet with strong objections. It's not now possible to compromise. People will be not allowed to participate in the popular faith of the future Church without abandoning all they previously knew and cherished about God's ways and His truth. If you value your faith and sanity, I counsel you to GET OUT before it's too late, no matter what the sacrifice to your personal vanity or friendships. I do not underestimate the pain and anguish you might suffer in making that decision but that is preferable to allowing the cancerous growth of a false and demonic doctrine to eat away at your spirit until you no longer care, and submit because it's easier than fighting it. If you have doubts, if God has been speaking to you lately, if you are disturbed by what is going on and what is being said, then LEAVE NOW without any more delay, because when a powerful NEW WAVE strikes, who knows if you will escape this time around? Anyone who truly knows and loves God and who has an ear for the truth should consider their position right now, without hesitating for a moment longer. As Jesus said "Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Luke 17:32-34) Lot was preserved by coming OUT of his situation, not by staying in Sodom and trying to change things, which in fact God knew was a futile hope. I believe (and pardon me if I'm wrong) that the next wave to hit the Church will not be as obvious as the first. It will seem GOOD and ACCEPTABLE and many will REJOICE in it. We will struggle to understand why God is warning us about this - only those who are determined to serve GOD FIRST will know and understand the delusion. Only those whose spirits are in tune with God's Spirit and whose hearts are set on loving God will notice that something dreadful is upon us. The time is fast approaching when God will turn his face away from the apostate churches and, as in the days of the Old Testament Temple, His Spirit will move away from what causes him to grieve. Then God will turn to his Remnant people who have - quietly, without fuss, humbly and at great personal cost - remained true to God and his eternal word and refused to bow the knee to Baal. It is time for God to raise up and comfort his own dear ones who have all these years struggled to keep their feet on the narrow path of life in Jesus. When the spiritual light goes out in the megachurches (not that they or anyone in the world will notice!) at that time light will dawn for the Remnant. God is moving "outside the camp"! (Ex 33:4-7)
God Bless, and may you enjoy a peaceful Christmas and New Year celebration. |