Category: Current Events

The holiday season at the end of 2020 was a time of provocation!  I was provoked to think about family.  Family is a design feature of God’s creation that demonstrates his commitment to love and humility.  I will explain what I mean, but first, a story.

GOLDEN      

At the beginning of the Christmas celebrations, December 19^th to be specific, Marti and I celebrated 50 years of marriage.  I am still tempted to think that number is a figment of my imagination; I am simply not old enough to have been married that long!  Then I look in the mirror.

The day was not as it might have been because Covid restrictions were in place, which meant that the usual big celebration was not possible.  We knew our four children (can we still call them that when they are all in their 40s?), along with their spouses and children, were planning something that would be appropriate, but they kept it very quiet.  We were just told to keep the day free and they would be making dinner for us.

At midday, Mark and family arrived with the first course of the menu.  From then on for the rest of the afternoon, each of our other children, Michael, Stephen and Sharon arrived with the next course.  This enabled us to share that course with each of our children, their spouse and their children – one nuclear family at a time.  It was a day of pure joy!  During the day, and as we reflected on it later, Marti and I agreed that the disappointment of not seeing so many of our long-standing friends was compensated for by that condensed experience of family. 

AMAZING DESIGN

That wonderful experience provoked me/us in many ways; we reflected on God’s amazing creative design.  There would have been many ways God could have populated the earth, but he made us “male and female”—wonderfully, intricately, intimately complementary.

He designed us so that we would have the mysterious experience of deep attraction.  We have so many different names for it:  love at first sight, infatuation, having a crush and many more.  Each generation will have their own unique phrases for that moment when one person finds another romantically attractive.

IT WORKED FOR US!

I well remember when the final student arrived, right at the end of 1969, for the lecture phase of our School of Evangelism in Lausanne.  In my imagination, I still see her pausing at the doorway, evoking me to think, “Uh oh, I’m in trouble!”  That was because I had made a sort of promise to God that I would not get into any relationship with a girl for that year.  I had to decide whether my promise was a bit too impulsive or that I had to avoid this very attractive young woman.  I decided the promise was a bit rushed and shallow.  Within a few weeks I had proposed to her and she had said yes!

During our courtship, we talked about so many things and enjoyed the emotional, intellectual and physical process of becoming closer and closer. (Not too close, of course!)  One of the things we agreed on was that we wanted children.  That was another of the amazing design features God built into human beings.  We didn’t decide that after thinking deeply about sleep loss, expense, inconvenience, loss of some of our freedom, the challenges of raising several children with all their differences and different demands on our parenting.  We were responding to a deep, Providential desire to bring the result of our love into the world.

LOVE, SACRIFICE AND HUMILITY

As the children came along, we never had to remind ourselves to love them—at least not often!  We just did.  We were designed to do that.  We raised them to the best of our ability, often sacrificing some of our own desires along the way.  With the benefit of hindsight, we can see some mistakes we made, but parenting is partly designed to keep us humble.  Now, with great joy, we watch and help as they raise the 11 grandchildren they have produced.  We had sometimes been–at least a little– bored by grandparents going on about the joys of having grandkids.  Now we find we too can be incredibly boring to anyone who shows the slightest interest in our grandkids.

(That reminds me of a story I have been wanting to include in a blog.  An American friend was at a drinks party where he was making new acquaintances.  An English gentleman asked him a question and my friend went into a lengthy explanation of what he thought.  At the end of his monologue, his new acquaintance turned to walk away and remarked, “I’m afraid you have greatly overestimated the extent of my curiosity!”)  That’s just a warning that a bit of interest in our grandchildren can provoke a lengthy speech illustrated with photos.)

MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY

Our family arrangement is unusual for modern life but was common for countless past generations.  We all live within about a mile of each other, so the three generations are together a lot.  Our children and grandchildren drop into our home to talk, mooch snacks, borrow tools, ask if we need anything from the shops, etc.  The three or four generational model was part of God’s design and it is full of richness and challenges.  We are so proud of our family and, at the same time, our family keeps us humble.

We can celebrate the accomplishments of one another, but a lot of grace, forgiveness and long-suffering is also required.  Our Creator designed family so that we could not escape the cost of loving relationships.  I have tried to think of one word that encompasses the qualities required to make family life thrive and the only one that does it justice is:  Christlikeness. 

LIVING PROPHETICALLY

Most of us will know people who have a good family life, but do not claim to be Christians.  They can only do so by developing the character qualities that Jesus incarnated.  Good character is within reach of people who do not have an active Christian faith, but how much better to be able to call on God’s grace, read his word and consciously follow Christ’s example!

In the Western nations, that is those that have been deeply, historically shaped by Christian values, family has been understood to consist of a man and woman in a life-long covenant relationship who usually produce and nurture children, who then go on to produce and nurture children and so on.  But for the past 30 years or so different minority groups have worked hard to undermine and change that description.  As a result, many governments have redefined marriage, gender has been separated from biological sexual identity, governments and other institutions have eroded parental responsibility for, and authority over, their children. 

The pain and confusion resulting from these attacks on family are being felt in many ways.  Children especially are suffering.  Depression, loneliness, suicide attempts, identity confusion, anger, hatred of parents and lawlessness have all increased exponentially.  A passage from the Bible describes these kind of days as “the last days”. And says:   

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… “ (Timothy 3)

An anti-family revolution has been underway for several decades and has had much more “success” in my lifetime than I anticipated.  I am committed to a counter-revolution!  My strategy, along with my wife and family members is to pay the price to maintain loving family ties and to cling to God’s original design for a man and a woman building a family together.  Are you committed too?

Photo by Daniel Reche from Pexels

 

SJW.  Most people surely know that those letters are mean to describe people, mostly young, who are demanding change in our political, economic and social systems.  They are Social Justice Warriors (SJW) And they want that change NOW.

I am one of them—though I don’t fit the usual age profile.  I want change and I want it NOW.  I see injustices in every direction:  Some people get all the breaks and others get none.  A very small number of people control up to half of the world’s wealth while clean water, good nutrition, healthcare and good education are beyond the reach of hundreds of millions. 

That must change!

 

HOW?

So, that begs the question: “How should I go about achieving more social justice?”

The biggest, most effective social justice movement in history began at a worship meeting in a very small town in an insignificant province of a mega-empire.  It is a great story, one that has been written about countless times.  One of my favourite books about it was written by Tom Wright, The Day the Revolution Began.  I highly recommend it.

The original leader of that revolution stood up at a religious meeting and read the following passage from an author who was well known to the congregation: 

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
    for the Lord has anointed me
    to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted
    and to proclaim that captives will be released
    and prisoners will be freed.

This declaration of revolutionary intent was not lost on the audience.  They knew he was referring to the idea of jubilee, which was one of the founding values of their nations, but which had not been practiced.  It was meant to be a part of the social justice process commanded by God for the ancient nation of Israel.  It heralded a time when there was a complete reset of the national economy.  Land had to be returned to the families that had owned it 50 years earlier.  Slaves were set free.  Prisoners were released. When Jesus went on to say, in Luke 4,

“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”,

the people knew revolutionary change was being proclaimed! 

Jesus of Nazareth went from that meeting and began to gather crowds across the region and the headline of his message was always the same: 

“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

THE REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY

It doesn’t take much clever analysis to see that he had more than a revolutionary declaration; he also had a strategy.

I am writing this article after a day and night of violence in Washington DC. Supporters of President Donald Trump stormed Capitol Hill and broke into the Congressional building.  As I write it has been reported that one woman, according to her husband, was shot “in her neck” by a policeman and died shortly after.  It has been widely reported that three more people died, but no identity or cause of death has been mentioned.

Over the past year, mob violence in the USA has been recorded and broadcast more times than I can count.  Some of it has been labelled as “right wing” and some as “left wing”.  They each have demonstrated that they have a strategy; left and right are much the same on that count.  Their actions state that they want to destroy the current social/political/economic order with disorder, chaos, lawlessness and violence.  Whether they are from the left or the right, their aim is the same: undermine and dismantle the current system and then create a fairer, free and just society.

What are their chances of success? 

Crowds of violent revolutionaries are not new to human history and their rate of success is not encouraging.  When violence is the method, if they are successful then violent people end up with power in the new order and that spells tyranny.  Mobs do not attract capable, honest people of integrity and the leaders of mobs are intent upon gaining power for themselves, not for others who are more competent.

History is littered with the stories of violent men gaining power and then imposing tyranny—like Pinochet on the right and Stalin on the left.  I guess I could work with a couple of friends and come up with at least 100 illustrations of the point.

A BETTER WAY

Jesus’ method was to target the individual.  In his wisdom, he knew that individuals of good character can change political and economic systems, but good systems cannot change lawless individuals.

My generation of young people in the Western World inherited reasonably healthy systems, when viewed in the light of human history.  We can point out the weaknesses, as some academics are at pains to do, but we have had opportunities and prosperity that have generally been rare in human history, and that goes for people of all races, ethnicity and religions, though sometimes unequally so.  The systems we inherited needed, and still need, improvement and each generation has an obligation to take the good and make it better.  In both the United States, where I grew up, and the United Kingdom where I have lived for 5 decades, we have made more strides towards equality of opportunity.

But the best systems ever created will not survive a population that is dishonest, self-centred, hateful, immoral, greedy…. this list can be very long.  We are well down the road to destruction now.  Our politicians are often corrupt, as are our business leaders, our journalists and editors, and our media magnates.  Society has fallen for the oldest lie ever recorded, “You shall be as Gods…”, from Genesis 3.  The atheistic philosophers of the 1960s have triumphed. Now most people believe that they can decide truth for themselves and no one can tell them any different. 

While we have made systemic improvements, we have lost our grip on objective and universal truth.  The result of that is loss of trust in one another.  And, low-trust societies do not thrive.

TRUE TRUTH EXISTS

That ultimate revolutionary leader, Jesus, said, “I am the way, the TRUTH and the life.”  They way he lived, the way he loved, the values he taught are the true path to fair and just and prosperous societies.  That’s why I want my message to be the same as the one he declared.

Yes, I am a serious Social Justice Warrior. I want to see change, but I know it must be achieved one individual at a time. 

The Biblical narrative demonstrates that God’s order and rule is coming in its fullness, but until that day, we are to do all we can to implement his loving, kind and just ways in our societies, governments, families, economics and arts.  His message must be our message, “Repent of your sins and turn to God…” 

MULTIPLICATION WORKS!

That approach may seem to be too slow and insignificant, but it works through multiplication.  Every life that is truly transformed will act as light to others, so we can start with one and end up with hundreds of millions.  May His Method be our method and may the Holy Spirit demonstrate the power of the Gospel to thoroughly change lives!  Liberty and Justice for All!

(The Bible describes one of the tribes, Issachar, as people who”understood the times”. Loren Cunningham is a man who understands our times. I wrote this after a conversation with him; he has read it and is happy for it to be posted as an accurate account of the thoughts he expressed in that conversation.)

I was on a Zoom call with Loren Cunningham and several others recently.  When it was over Marti, who could hear part of it, remarked, “I have rarely heard Loren speak so forcefully; did you get what he was saying?  I think it is VERY important.”  I agreed that there was an unusual sense of urgency and significance to what he said, so in the next session, I asked if he could write up what he said, or work with someone else to do that.  His rejoinder was to say I should write up what he said from the notes being taken.  Here it is:

THE TIME OF OPPORTUNITY IS GETTING SHORTER

We must be more diligent and work faster because the time of opportunity is being shortened.  Many of the nations, known for their freedoms, are seeing those freedoms limited in ways we could not have imagined, even just a year ago.

The eroding of freedom of speech and freedom of movement over recent years has been obvious and have been written about and broadcast extensively, but the trend continues.  Soon, it will enter a new phase.

There will be a worldwide vocal attack on the Bible.  This will be an effort to stop our God-given mandate to make the Bible available to everyone in their mother tongue.

OUR BELIEFS, OUR CULTURE, AND OUR HISTORY – UNDER ATTACK

The Bible is being targeted because it gives us our beliefs and from our beliefs, we get our culture.  Those who are determined to change our culture are working hard to banish any record of Biblical influence from our history.  (I, Lynn, might add that, on the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011, the renowned broadcaster, author and Parliamentarian, Melvyn Bragg, produced and presented “The Legacy of the King James Bible”.  He said, “It was in fact the King James Bible that had the greatest impact on everything from English language and literature to Western democracy.”  Then, it was broadcast by the BBC, but I am certain they would not allow it today.)

With the Bible guiding our beliefs and lying at the centre of Western democracy, as Bragg stated, we have had a standard by which we could say what was good and what was evil in our history.  There was, of course, a lot of both because those are always the results of human activity.  But with extensive Biblical influence, the United States of America became a nation with a common culture in which people gained more freedom and prosperity than had ever been known on earth. Many other western nations also had extensive influence from the Bible, and the “American experiment” was an inspiration to other nations and cultures.  (If You Can Keep It, by Eric Metaxas, is a spell-binding account of Biblical Christian influence on the American Constitution.)   

If anyone sets out to change a nation, they must first rewrite the history.  The more extreme left-wing movement in America and much of Europe has been determined to do exactly that. First, they write their own version of history and then they teach it in our schools and colleges, with no other versions permitted.  They know that no one will work hard to overthrow the current social order unless they believe it is irredeemably bad.  One well known socialist Ivy League professor stated that socialism cannot work until everyone thinks the same.  The extreme left has set out to get everyone to think alike.  The New York Times 1619 Project is an example of how young people are being taught that the history of the USA and Western Culture is predominantly evil. 

WE MUST “WORK WHILE IT IS DAYTIME”

What once seemed impossible, or at least very unlikely, is now a strong probability.  The Bible could be labelled hate-speech and then be banned.  We must redouble our efforts to get it out more and more widely.  That is clearly the will of God and when we do exactly what he wants, he will work with us and we will be able to do more than we ever thought possible.

WE HAVE A PANDEMIC, BUT NOT THE ONE YOU THINK

There is a pandemic among missionaries.  Over 5% of them have recently had to leave the place of their calling.  This is the beginning of a revolution, a dramatic change in the strength of missions sent out from America and other Western democracies.  Because of the other pandemic, Covid-19, millions of people have become more and more dependent on government to tell them what they can and cannot do.  Millions have also become dependent on the money governments are printing.  These factors and others have led to a drop in money given to missions.

Some mission boards have looked at the drop in income and have let the accounts tell them what to do.  For many boards, the decision was just a sad, but necessary, business decision:  when the revenue drops, cut your costs!  20% loss in income means 20% of our missionaries must be fired. 

This is not the way the economy of the Kingdom of God works.  He will always provide sufficiently for His people to go where he calls them and live there.  May the Lord grant a new measure of faith to those whose support has been cut! 

As you probably know, this is not the whole picture.  About the time YWAM began, the mission force also began to change dramatically.  It is no longer comprised of missionaries from Western nations going to the rest of the world.  Now the mission force comes from all over the world and goes all over the world.  It is so much more resilient than it was.  Thank God for that!

WILL THE VACCINE SAVE US?

At the time of this conversation, three potentially effective vaccinations have been announced, but none has been made widely available yet.  But the CEO of Qantas Airlines has already announced that a certificate of vaccination will be “a necessity for every passenger who wishes to travel internationally”.

That’s another level of control and we are expected to get used to it, just as most of us have adjusted to churches being closed or so heavily restricted that we cannot worship in song or host full congregations.  When governmental authorities can decide who can or cannot travel, it would be a small step to prevent missionaries from reaching the place of their calling.

A NEW WORLD ORDER

Meanwhile many world leaders are calling for more global control to address this pandemic and the crises of climate change and the world economy.  In his September 2020 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, said the Covid-19 pandemic was our “wakeup call”.  He pointed out that the UN was based upon multinational cooperation, but that is not working.  He said we need a new way of thinking, that “we must work together regardless of how the lines are drawn on our maps.” 

Admittedly, Trudeau is one of the more extreme liberal voices and there is little chance that the squabbling member nations of the UN will suddenly start to work together in harmony.  But the call for a “new global authority” with teeth is now widespread.

THE MOST THREATENING PANDEMIC

During 1918 and 1919, the Spanish Flu resulted in up to 50 million deaths.  The 1968 and 69 Hong Kong Flu, originating in China like Covid-19, killed up to 4 million people globally.  Covid-19 has, thus far, resulted in 1.4 million deaths.  That is about 2% of the total global deaths in the past 12 months.  The average age of deaths due to Covid in the United Kingdom is 82 and the median age across all nations is 79.5.  Those younger people who die of Covid-19 almost always have other serious diseases.  These historical facts should lead us to stop and think.  Why is this pandemic being presented to us by governments and the media as if it is killing, or will kill, more people than anything in living memory?  Why is there so much panic when a flu pandemic killed two or three times as many people when I was a young adult?

The most threatening pandemic is the pandemic of fear and the consequences we are reaping.  Because of fear, we are giving up our civil liberties at a rate we could not have imagined just one year ago.  Who would have thought that the government could close down churches, forbid congregational singing in any circumstances, prevent us from seeing family members, stop us eating in restaurants—as you know, the list goes on and on!

WE HAVE AN UNCONDITIONAL MANDATE—LET’S GET ON WITH IT!

Jesus gave us a commandment to go into all the world and preach the gospel.   Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth, he said, “has been given to me!  So you must go and make all the nations into disciples.  Baptize them in the name of the father and of the son, and of the holy spirit.  Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you.  And look: I am with you, every single day, to the very end of the age.” 

We are not yet at the end of the age, so he is still with us!  And his command was not conditional.  The first few generations of disciples who followed Jesus had many more disadvantages than we have.  Their lives were much more difficult, and opposition greeted them everywhere they turned.  But they changed their world!  With Jesus working in us and through us, we can make all the nations into disciples.  Just don’t be afraid to obey him!