The Issue

I want to raise a question in your minds.

Cast your thoughts back to the days preceding March, 2020.

I’m sure we can all recall moments of trouble as well as rejoicing, but life in general appeared to be moving along in a direction that, most of the time, made a great deal of sense.

I was looking back this week over my regular correspondence with others between 2014 and 2018, and there was a great deal of commendable activity and at least the possibility that things would continue to flourish in to the future - yes, there were social and spiritual troubles, but there was still in evidence a sense of hopeful possibilities for what was to come.

Something has clearly changed.

Yes, we may want to disagree about exactly what has happened, when it did, and why, but the very fact that we’ve lived through a moment when our nation decided that keeping Gyms and Casinos open whilst churches were shut so tight that even the clergy were not allowed to enter these premises should deeply ring a profound statement of concern in every one of us.

I would say that the implementations we witnessed in 2020 wrote large the ‘mission statement’ of our nation, and it was not a healthy one.

That brings me to today.

After a month and a half of the most extraordinary events, we witnessed the swearing in of a leader that within that same time frame had already been rejected by the very same party who have now made him leader. He is aided by a Chancellor who has already rescinded the cardinal policies of the prior short-lived administration, bar one - the country’s new allegiance to PESCO (take a look for yourself into the ramifications of that), but his securing office wasn’t the story which speaks loudest today - for that, we have to look toward a much older relationship between our country and its ancient shores.

Back in the 9th century, the part of the world where I live became defined as a buffeted realm which sought to establish and promote a domain of common civil law in the face of the arrival of those wanting to bring only chaos and violence to the country’s shores. The leader who forged this order over his lifetime was Alfred, and he found the way to do so through the deep convictions of his Christian faith which became the cornerstone of his rule.

In the town of Dover today - on the day we were introduced to a leader who was sworn into office not upon those sacred scriptures so cherished by Alfred and his heirs, but upon the pages of a non-Christian religious text, people arriving illegally in the country broke into the houses of pensioners and others and robbed them of their goods before ‘evaporating’ into the area. No doubt, as happened in another Kent town a few days ago, a large number of these assailants will be apprehended at some point, but these incidents speak to the loss of the respect and dignity people should show to one another, and the dissolving of the basic moral codes, the consequences of which are beginning to regularly impinge upon the much larger canvas of our society.

I am very aware that there are various related social and ethical issues in this present malady, but it is imperative for us to understand that many of our greatest woes are being injected into our culture from the top down.

When will we recognise the utter redundancy of where our nation has reached?

How much worse, over this coming season, will things have to become before we consider the times aright and ask ourselves…

What can be done about this?

The channels are open for further thoughts, and I hope this will stimulate many prayers.

C A P T I V I T Y

 "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget it's fighting skill, and let my tongue become inept in my ashen mouth - for I have renounced the source of my life and joy". Psalm 137: 5 & 6.

Sometimes, our analysis of where we are has to become brutally blunt.

When God's people found themselves entirely submissive to the will and the mockery of those who viewed their entire veneration of the most high as nothing, they knew to entertain their sentiments to ridicule and to parade such mockery openly was not a life to be accepted - the cry was for liberation from a culture which viewed godliness as irrelevant.

How deep has the captivity of the present become for the contemporary church?

Perhaps a historical parallel will jolt our thinking.

THE "TEMPLE"

In 1517, Leo X devised to finance a new age of grandeur for the old tombs of the Vatican by issuing a global financing program through the issuing of a new offer of indulgences to the population at large. This would be zealously carried out by priests of the new schedule visiting every town and city and informing those that would gather that they could ease the purgatorial trials of themselves and granny if they merely gave their coinage to the grand scheme of raising their saving institution to heights that would be the envy of heaven.

This quickly became married in many places to the other 'device' this vital institution employed to escape some measure of terror after death - the custom of visiting supposedly sacred relics, the viewing and veneration of which was believed to provide all manner of reliefs, depending on how 'holy' the item was.

The release from all this religious industry would come when an Augustinian Monk exposed these fabricated myths to the searing light of the scriptures, and found all of it to be ridiculous folly - hence, the Great Reformation, but Luther was all to aware of just how quickly the vain imaginings of men would arise and begin to bury that radiance - the error of the legalists is quick to find common ground with the machinations of fallen works religion!

Which brings us to the 2020's...

THE DARK TOWER

In March of 2020, much of the world found itself placed under a new 'edict' of control and restraint, which would only be lifted when certain 'indulgences' were in place and appropriately implemented to everyone. In spite of universal health guidelines that stated that such an action would be ineffective, the constraint was imposed anyway, and the world found itself prisoned to a new dogma of control by a 'papacy' of leaders who would rigorously prosecute any deviation or questioning of their policy.

The first 'remedy' provided to those so constrained by such powers was their rendition of relics - a remedy that, it was promised, would ease the suffering of the day by wholesale trust in the 'magic' it would provide - remedy from the plague and sure means of preventing transmission of the virus. The people succumbed in droves to the myths of the 'priests' of the hour, not granted any mainstream opportunity to hear the voices of those who urged caution in respect to such certain calls of 'peace and safety'.

This remedy was soon followed by another - the indulgence of owning a 'passport' which would identify you as one of the 'pure'; fully inoculated, you would be 'free' (under the new and continually changing stipulations) to do some - few - of those privileged things you had done before, whilst those who had refused such strictures would now become deemed the damned of society, restricted to only do those menial things which were absolutely necessary, and only when allowed to do so.

The poison of all this has now, in small measure, been broken by the reality that has set in - the 'magic' has miserably failed, and the consequences are now beginning to come home, but the question painfully remains, why did so many who, supposedly, would view themselves as the 'children' of the Reformation succumb to such brutality?

THE HIDEOUS TRUTH

The reality we face is akin to that witnessed when the Judaisers worked amongst the new churches planted by Paul and others. Seeding a message which rigorously required adherence to a 'law' which, it was taught, superseded any adherence to the very singular work of justifying grace, they spread a poison which left believers uncoupled from God's grace and the life that comes through this.

We have evidenced such a thing today.

We have left behind God's singular health in Christ and adhered to a foul scheme which has emptied us of what is vital.

That is what happened when the church as a whole chose to, without question, relent wholesale to the social requirements of closure and 'hygienic' control in 2020.

It has been in captivity ever since.

The world is currently beginning to wake up to the vast cost of the error it has accepted in respect to all of this.

Will the church do the same?

All the evidence to date is that it will not, and that its captivity will therefore continue, as will it's 'service' without life.

The Direction of Travel

 So, this week, Jamie Franklin presented an Irreverend special podcast in which he sought to examine what was missing from the present in respect to what would place Christianity front and centre again in respect to the people of the country. This happened on the cusp of today's events, bringing another sudden change in who is running that country and what we can expect to see in the days ahead.

A neighbour of mine was keen to discuss this when I arrived home tonight, and a couple of things quickly came to mind. First was the Bonhoeffer analysis that I quoted here recently (regarding how stupidity will often rule people's thinking until something acutely expedient comes down upon them, requiring immediate action), and second was that twinned with such mental negligence at present is a huge amount of complacency.

People may talk about change, but it takes a very real and unsettling period of discontent before there's any actual momentum to bring that about, and even then, the results are very far from certain (I could give various national, historical examples here, but just bring it down to how many times a week in your own life you expect certain things to be so, and they're simply not).

Which brings me back to Jamie's podcast.

He is most certainly seeking to say something in respect to what he identifies as 'missing' from the present (C S Lewis made the same case in a fascinating piece on magic being Science's orphaned nephew, and Eric Mataxas has made similar allusions on how the world isn't actually listening to actual contemporary science when it comes to the existence of God), but I still find myself facing a very troubling question here, again related to my recent piece on the failure of the church during the recent crisis.

Here it is -

Surely, at least some of the Christian church here and elsewhere understands and believes a large measure of what Jamie addresses - that without the enchantment of the faith, we really have very little to say to others or ourselves - would you say that is true?

In which case, why did we fail so miserably as a whole during that crisis?

Where was the church?

Where was the message that causes us to overcome the world with the bountiful splendour of God leading us above and beyond what so easily besets the nations?

Where was that lustre which, in so many prior ages, caused God's children to indeed be evidenced as a city upon a hill, radiant and sharp-focused on the majesty and glory of God's excellence in super-abundant grace?

Take a listen to what Jamie has to say, and consider for yourself the matter at hand.

The View from Here

 "I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my own ingenuity.

I know nothing". 

William Shatner as Captain James T Kirk. Star Trek II.

Brian J did a superb job recently on picking-up on William Shatner's recent Variety magazine interview regarding his encounter with the vastness of the void in his Blue Origin voyage out of the atmosphere. I won't unpack it here, and steal the thunder, but it causes us to consider what, exactly "speaks" deep inside us and why.

We all need a moment of true encounter in respect to who and what we are, but where that takes us will depend deeply as to what, or more importantly, who is revealed to us in that manner of moment. Many speak of revelations of themselves, harsh those may be, or about the nature of life, but all of these pale in comparison to the meeting of the one who fashioned and holds all things.

This is the manner of encounter that we all need.

The Ordeal

 "You should not be surprised by the trial of fire, dear ones, that has come upon you, as if this testing were something strange, but it allows us to share in the suffering of Christ, so you may also truly rejoice when His true glory is made evident".

1 Peter 4:12 &13.

These past days have truly been a trial by fire. When the church, never mind the world, closes its doors to essential ministry and worship, and only opens them again under the strictest measures (by which point many feel they can only 'congregate' away from everyone), we encounter a measure of incarceration not seen in our lifetimes.

No doubt many of us find ourselves yearning for an end, or at the very least, a demise, to the crippling 'cloud' of lethargy and general despondency that has gripped the world since 2020, and there may well be moments we find ourselves echoing the words of Elijah amidst the inferno of conflict with the 'powers' of his day:

"It is enough! Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than those who went before me" (1 Kings 19:4).

This man of God, who had stood so faithful in the fulcrum of the crucible had no strength left in himself - the days had cost him greatly, and he believed the time had come to exit from the fray.

Over the last few weeks of my leave, I have sought to find again what makes it possible for us to endure (notice, in Elijah's case, how it was God taking the common things - sleep, food and drink - that became the means of his renewal).

Back in the start of the 1970's, a rented building in the heart of Sunset Strip in LA, found amidst all the bars, clubs and strip joints, became known as 'His Place', and every night, numerous youngsters from all manner of backgrounds would come and hear a young preacher named Arthur Blessitt tell them the amazing news about Jesus.

The authorities wanted it stopped - the courts ruled to close it down, but what followed was an amazing story of faith and spiritual recovery.

It wasn't easy - Arthur found himself chained to a cross... literally, but the consequences of that were a ministry which took him the world over to share the good news.

The darkness of the hour is great, but the one who takes the common things and causes them to feed and sustain us in unexpected ways is here! He will take us through, and the world will most certainly see something beyond its miserable expectations when that day dawns.

He will aid us in our time of need, so let us find His care and go forward in the majesty of that strength, that His grace may abound.

An unspeakable Truth?

 "I am astonished that you are so readily departing from Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different message". Galatians 1:6.

Some entries are hard to make, because they must cause us to face some hard truths. This is a consideration that certainly falls into that category.

You may have watched the recent discussion on the Unbelievable page which presented the differences between Christians in regards to how the church responded in the last few years to the requirements imposed during the pandemic.

John Stevens of the FIEC seeks to maintain that the closure/containment response was proper and that Christians who questioned or rejected such measures were wrong - the 'Romans 13' argument was the only way to go.

That all sounds good until you begin to examine the actual consequences of churches adopting this 'sound' policy.

In a shocking piece for the Brownstone Institute this week, Sarah Hinckleigh Wilson seeks to lift the veil on the profound damage these mandates have caused. 

She writes: "I don’t have any reason to think that the architects behind the lockdowns were looking to destroy religious life per se, but they couldn’t have come up with a more sneakily effective way to do it. They manipulated clergy into becoming voluntary enforcers. They got church members to turn on each other and their pastors. Some members ended up leaving for other churches, but many left for no church at all. Likewise, pastors have been peeling out of the ministry in unprecedented numbers. 

Even with the overall decline in church membership in America, there are now nowhere near enough clergy to fill all the congregations in need. 

 I am distressed enough about this for the church’s own sake. But the ramifications are wider still.

The lockdowns have been marvelously effective, not at stopping the spread of Covid, but at accelerating the breakdown of civil society. It is beyond dispute that robust civil institutions existing apart from and without reference to the state are what prevent the state from becoming authoritarian and ultimately totalitarian. 

The "compassion-hacking" of American churches did not in itself save anyone’s life, but it did help to break down another civil-society barrier standing in the way of governmental totalisation. As Hannah Arendt warned us, authoritarian and totalitarian schemes do not work without mass buy-in from the constituency. Buy-in requires people to be isolated, lonely, atomized, and stripped of all meaning. So if you wanted to advance the authoritarian cause in America, from the left or from the right, you could hardly do better than breaking the back of the churches first—the very communities that exist first and foremost for the lost and lonely. 

It grieves me how many churches offered up their backs for the breaking, sincerely convinced that they were doing the right thing for the good of their neighbours, even while abandoning these very same neighbours. 

Jesus exhorted us to love our neighbors and our enemies, to stand beyond reproach, and to be as innocent as doves, but he also taught us that there’s a time to be as cunning as serpents, to withhold our pearls from swine, and to keep sharp eyes open for "wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing".

The great tragedy in all of this is just how right these observations are.

The decline actually commenced prior to the pandemic, with fewer churches opening in America, for example, than were closing, but the lockdown process caused this to escalate at a massive rate, many churches encountering a reduction of up to 50% in congregation strength, whilst many smaller companies have never re-opened.

This hard reality is troubling enough, but it is accompanied by the fact that the 'containment' of public worship and Christian expression was substituted by people becoming almost entirely dependent for some period on "e-church" to seek to address their spiritual needs. This has actually been merited and encouraged in some quarters as a way forward, but all of this has played entirely into the arena of social "safety" (control) in respects to what can be said and done.

So here we are, far more disrupted, dispersed and destitute than if actual and obvious persecution had broken out - that, no doubt, is yet to come.

What brings about such a comprehensive failure?

Why did so many choose to merely cave-in to the supposed 'reasonableness' of the strictures without any objection, at least until very late in the day?

In a superb analysis of the tragedy of his own time, Christian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer shows us exactly what occurs in these situations.

When we trade our birth right for a socio-political 'mess of pottage' that brings no peace or safety, no remedy to our ills but merely compounds them, then we have truly dis-inherited ourselves.

The greatest tragedy of all, no doubt, is that even now, the stupidity prevails, and many congregations are of the mind-set that they can merely 'get past' all the barbs that have so wounded the faithful, leaving the present to hide any remaining scars, but you cannot remove vital organs and expect the patient to continue as before.

Enormous harm has been caused to the Christian church in the West, and the awful truth is that what has been established in that endeavour may well proceed in the near future to return in other forms to finish what has been started... what will the 'leaders' of these companies do then?

Amidst the Bones

 "For everything, there is a season, and a purpose, under heaven". Solomon - Ecclesiastes 3:1.

With Autumn nudging its way into the very air of the days, I have been enjoying a few weeks away from the perpetual routines of the office to allow some space for the moment I find myself in.

This season always proves more demanding than the rejuvenation of the Spring or the stillness of Winter, purely because nature is shedding it's Summer garb, and that means lots of yard work. When your home resides under four oak trees, the period from mid-September to early December is filled with numerous hours of first, dealing with thousands of Acorns and, once that wanes, a good month of collecting and removing the fallen leaves.

It is clearly a time when the impact of change preys heavily in your thoughts, and especially in respect to how nature itself pairs back to the very 'bones of the earth' in order to prepare for a fresh appearing after lying fallow.

Such a cycle is vital to creation. Prior to the fall, the world was to be continually replenished by just such a method (Genesis 1:29), cultivated and worked by the role of Adam as a gardener (Genesis 2:15). Clearly, the Lord's intent from that initial moment of our union on was to cause us to learn from what we engaged with, the very soil and seed seeking to 'tell' us of the miracle of life, and a life, like creation itself, which burst from the 'darkness and void' of what appeared empty - buried and unseen.

The very aim and intention of this season is to provoke. When truly 'seen', it should unsettle us, because it reminds us that the realm of shedding and decay is imperative if new life is to be evidenced.

In His dealings with Israel, the Lord takes the Prophet Ezekiel into a graveyard - a valley filled with death - and asks if anything can be done about this state of natural finality. Ezekiel would have found no resolve to such a trouble if he had visited alone, but he understood the essential nature of who was with him - the prerogative wasn't with him, or that natural state of affairs, but with the maker of all things.

So, as I collected my fourth sackful of debris this morning, I considered the 'bones' of life - the fact that I'm now of an age where my body is beginning to often complain when I walk for a while or sit too much, or just seek to make it into another Winter. I think of all the wreckage of the last few years, which has literally become a field of the bones of those lost, principally due to the wilful negligence of authorities arbitrary policies that have left us far more destitute than a few years ago. I see the 'season' of shedding upon us, and I recognise the validity of the Lord calling us to His side in that place, asking us to expectantly watch as He acts as only He can, changing and transforming what is beyond repair into, first, something structured and operable and, second, filling this with the miracle of life.

Occasionally, some word or deed appears amongst us that manages a measure of the first of these - a message of hope or inspiration that makes us sit up and take notice, but something far more profound is necessary to give such a moment "wings" - to turn it into a realm whereby life and health truly come upon us and spread amongst us - a genuine euchatastrophie!

I'm thankful for the Autumn. I love its richness and its colour, its mellow moments and it 'heads up' ability to sing about the coming winter, but I also know that these 'bones' tell us so much about our own mortality and need for resurrection.

Let's hope and pray that such considerations impact upon our oh so easily distracted world in the season to come. Men are in great need of the one who is, eternally, the resurrection and the life.

The Secret Places of Grace

 "I sowed every star into place, so you would remember my name, I made it all for you, You are my masterpiece, You are the reason I sing, this is my song for you".

Dancing on the waves - We The Kingdom.

"The Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore, He will rise and show you compassion, such is His justice. Draw near to Him". Isaiah 30:18.

There's a marvellous, unceasing, unending place at the very core and heart of God, that is defined by one characteristic - GRACE!

"Your forgiveness is like sweet, sweet honey on my lips, like the sound of a symphony to my ears, like holy water to my lips" (Holy Water - We the Kingdom).

We so need to start there, dear friends. We need a reformation that stems entirely from that certain, precious truth - the source which laid Jesus in a manger, and held Him to and through the Cross; an eternal, precious splendour that causes all things and brings them to their completion.

It is this precious, unrelenting goodness that changes everything - it lifts us from our empty and broken misery, the ruination of sin, and takes us completely, safely, home.

Janell Downing wrote an absolutely superb and timely piece for the Mockingbird website recently which spells out this most precious, transforming splendour, and how it is so often birthed in the most arduous of circumstances.

Janell says much that resonates - about the way we so often tie each other into bonds that God does not desire, but also how Jesus gifts us with those places of refreshment even amidst such troubles - the table is open to us to come and feast, without 'money or price', because the blood shed on Calvary has cleared all such demands!

Jesus has made us precious once again, has purchased this marred but cherished world back to His Father - such a good thing is evident in that amazing, extraordinary grace.

Health comes when such splendour is our joy and peace. Nothing else comes close to the beauty of holiness encapsulated in this redeeming good news, so come, let us return to this single source of life and health and peace.

May Christ have the pre-eminence amongst us by this great grace alone!

May the favour of the Lord settle upon us, establishing us and our lives, in all that we do. (Psalm 90:17).