LIGHT FOR THE LAST DAYS JANUARY 2018

CONTENTS - JERUSALEM THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL

CHINA - KINGS OF THE EAST AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST

SCIENCE CATCHES UP WITH THE BIBLE

Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

Speaking at the White House on December 6th, US President Donald Trump announced that the US recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that he is moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

This pleased Mr Netanyahu and Israel’s government who saw it as a recognition of the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state of Israel. Israel has designated Jerusalem as its capital since 1949, placing its parliament building, the Knesset, its Supreme

Court and all the major functions of government there. Israel claims its connection to Jerusalem going back 3000 years to the time when King David made it his capital city. It also pleased those Christians who see the restoration of Israel as a Jewish state and the return of Jerusalem to Jewish rule as a fulfilment of Bible prophecy and a sign of the soon coming return of Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, his statement set off a storm of protest across the Arab and Muslim world, and strong messages of disapproval from the UN, EU, Russia, China and even the Vatican. His announcement was interpreted as a rejection of the ‘two state’ solution to the Arab Israeli conflict which involves dividing the city and making it the capital of a Palestinian State as well as capital of Israel. 

Turkey’s President Erdogan accused Mr Trump of ‘plunging the region and the world into a fire with no end in sight.’ He held a meeting in Istanbul of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) at which the leaders of 57 Muslim nations called on the world to recognise ‘the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital’ and declared Trump’s decision to recognise the city as Israel’s capital as ‘null and void’.

At a later meeting Erdogan accused Israel of being a terrorist state and made a reference to an Islamic hadith (saying) when he said, ‘Those who think they own Jerusalem better know that tomorrow they won't be able to hide behind trees.’ Those who know Islamic thinking will recognise that he was referring to an Islamic hadith (saying attributed to Mohammed, but not in the Koran). This refers to the Muslims fighting against the Jews and killing them at the end of days. In the saying the Jew hides behind the tree and the tree says ‘Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.’ The dissident Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt explained that this statement is an affirmation of a prophecy that all Jews will one day be destroyed. He said Erdogan was making ‘a veiled threat of killing each and every Jew with a shocking reference to apocalyptic prophecy of tree story.’

Palestinian President Abbas said that the Palestinians would no longer work with the US and said that he does not feel bound by commitments agreed to in Oslo and subsequent rounds of peace talks. While demanding that the US must roll back its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Abbas threatened, ‘If there is no Palestinian state along the June 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, there will not be peace in the region, in the territories or in the world.’ 

Abbas went as far as to charge that Israel does not qualify for statehood at all. He accused the Jewish people of falsifying history and religion and claimed that Israel does not meet the criteria for statehood, calling on the world to withdraw recognition. He also vowed to seek full membership for the ‘State of Palestine’ at the United Nations. Since Mr Netanyahu made recognition of Israel as a Jewish State by the Palestinians a condition for entering into peace negotiations with Israel, this means he is effectively closing down the possibility of a negotiated peace with Israel. 

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for the opening of ‘the Gates of Hell’ as he told his supporters that Israel should not have a capital named Jerusalem and should not even exist. He urged Muslims to march on Jerusalem, ‘sacrificing millions of martyrs along the way.’

The EU’s Federica Mogherini said she ‘guaranteed’ in a phone call with PA President Mahmoud Abbas that Europe would work for Jerusalem to be the capital of both the state of Israel and a state of Palestine in a future two-state solution. She pledged to reinvigorate diplomacy with Russia, the United States, Jordan and others to ensure Palestinians have a capital in Jerusalem, challenging Israel’s view, which insists the city will remain its undivided, eternal capital. 

The Saudi royal court described the decision as ‘unjustified and irresponsible’ and ‘a big step back in efforts to advance the peace process.’ But Arab officials privately say that Riyadh appears to be on board with a broader US strategy for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan still in its early phases of development.  The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is reported to have told Palestinian President Abbas to show support for the US administration’s peace efforts when the two met in Riyadh in November, saying ‘Be patient, you will hear good news. This peace process will go ahead.’ 

Trump himself telephoned Abbas to say to him ‘I will have some proposals for you that you would like.’ He did not specify what these are, but he is known to be working with the Saudis on a deal that will end up with some proposal acceptable to the Arab world, which they hope will pave the way for a peace with Israel. The Saudis hope that this will bring Israel into line with the Saudi led coalition confronting Iranian ambitions for the Middle East. 

Why is Jerusalem such an issue?

On 29th November 1947, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 181 on the Partition of Palestine. The area of British Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River was to be divided between a Jewish State and an Arab State. Jerusalem was to be a separate entity to be governed by a special international regime. 

On the day the British left Palestine, May 14th 1948, David Ben Gurion proclaimed Israel’s Declaration of Independence, announcing the founding of ‘Medinat Israel’, the State of Israel in Tel Aviv.  The following day five Arab armies invaded Israel with the intention of destroying the Jewish state at birth.  Although outnumbered and out gunned the Jewish people resisted the Arab offensive and after the costly War of Independence drove the Arab armies back to the ceasefire lines which became the borders of Israel in 1949. The Arab State never came into being as the area known as the West Bank was taken over by Jordan and Gaza occupied by Egypt. 

The cease fire line divided the city of Jerusalem with a barbed wire frontier running through the city. Israel controlled the western part of the city making it its capital in 1949, placing there its parliament, the Knesset, Supreme Court and the main functions of government. 

Jordan ruled the historic Old City and the eastern suburbs of Jerusalem which it incorporated into its territory, along with the biblical region of Judea and Samaria, which it renamed ‘the West Bank.’ As well as the Old City of Jerusalem, this area contains places known from the Bible such as Hebron, Bethlehem, Shechem (Nablus) Jericho and the Mount of Olives.  Jews were expelled from this territory, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, where they had lived for generations.  Jewish synagogues in the Old City were destroyed and Jews were prevented from going to pray at their holiest place, the Western Wall. At no point did the Jordanians attempt to create an independent Palestinian Arab state with Jerusalem as its capital at this time.

All of this changed in 1967 as a result of Israel’s victory in the Six Day War, a war in which Egypt, Syria and Jordan aimed at the elimination of the Jewish state. Israel took control of the Old City of Jerusalem and the whole of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), as well as the Golan Heights from Syria and Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt.

On July 30, 1980, Israel’s Knesset passed the ‘Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel’ which declared, among other things, that the city will remain unified in the borders that the Israeli government determined following the Six-Day War, and that no part of the city may be transferred to a foreign government or body. 

In 1993 Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation signed the Oslo Accords, aimed at resolving the Israel – Palestinian conflict. The status of Jerusalem was left as the last thing to be resolved because of its complexity. In 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Barak met with PLO President Arafat and offered him the Muslim part of the Old City of Jerusalem in return for a peace settlement. He refused, demanding the whole of the Old City. The negotiations broke down and Arafat launched the third Intifada, bringing terrorism to Israeli streets.  In response Israel erected the security barrier as a means of preventing terror attacks against its citizens, separating areas under the control of Israel from areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority. 

The Quartet was set up, comprising the UN, the USA, the EU and Russia, with the goal of resolving the conflict. The goal of this would be the establishment of a Palestinian State with east Jerusalem as its capital, living alongside Israel in peace and security. Repeated attempts to resolve the conflict, led by the United States, have all failed, to a great extent over the issue of who rules Jerusalem. On becoming President Donald Trump announced his intention to make the ‘ultimate deal’ and settle the Israel – Palestine issue. 

In fact Trump’s statement did not rule out any future division of Jerusalem and the Arabs having their own capital there. It also specifically mentioned the status of the holy places remaining unchanged, so it did not encourage any rebuilding of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. 

Nevertheless his statement did embolden Israel’s Knesset to pass a bill on January 1st 2018 that would make it virtually impossible to divide Jerusalem. The United Jerusalem Bill says that there must be a two-thirds majority of 80 members of Knesset to alter the status of Jerusalem or surrender portions of the City as part of a future peace agreement. Getting such a majority for anything in the Israel Knesset is next to impossible, which the bill’s sponsor, MK Naftali Bennet, acknowledged when he said, "Just now we ensured that Jerusalem will be united forever. … The Mount of Olives, the Old City, the Temple Mount and the City of David will remain in our hands forever. There will be no more political manoeuvers that will allow to tear our capital apart.’ 

Biblical significance of all this.

When Israel regained control of the whole of Jerusalem on June 6th 1967, as a result of the Six Day War, many people wondered if this was the fulfilment of Jesus’ prophecy that Jerusalem would be ‘trodden down of the Gentiles (meaning ruled by the Gentiles) until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.’ Luke 21.24. 

Indeed that was a very significant event pointing to the coming again of the Lord Jesus to set up His Messianic kingdom, reigning in power from Jerusalem. It was not yet the end of the times of the Gentiles though. The end of the times of the Gentiles will be the actual event of the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will bring an end to all Gentile rule and ‘the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ / Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever.’ Revelation 11.15, see also Daniel 2.31- 45. The Lord Jesus will rule the earth from Jerusalem, thus breaking the power of anti-God Gentile rule over Jerusalem, Israel and the whole earth.

The rebirth of Israel in 1948 and the return of the Jewish people to the whole of Jerusalem in 1967 was certainly a fulfilment of Bible prophecy:

‘Hear the world of the Lord O ye nations (Gentiles) and declare it in the isles afar off and say that He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’ Jeremiah 31.10.

The implication of scripture is that if the Gentile nations will cooperate with God in blessing Israel and helping His people to live in peace and safety in the land, God will bless them, but if they curse the Jewish people and seek to drive them out they will experience God’s judgement. Genesis 12.3. 

Although Israel’s flag is flying over Jerusalem, at the present time the city is not free from being ‘trodden down of the Gentiles.’ 

The most significant place, biblically speaking, in Jerusalem is the Temple Mount, which is administered by the Muslim authority, the Wakf. Here stand the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque, believed by Muslims to be the third holiest place for Islam after Mecca and Medina. The Dome of the Rock has an antichrist text in its dome saying ‘Say not that Allah has a son’, effectively putting a curse on those who believe that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. Al Aqsa is regularly used as a place from which to give sermons inciting hatred and violence against Israel and the Jewish people.  The Muslims prevent non-Muslims from going onto the Temple Mount area for most of the day and forbid prayers from being uttered there, apart from Muslim prayers. 

This gives some insight into the Muslim opposition to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.  Islam divides the world into what it calls the House of Islam (Dar al Islam) and the House of War (Dar al Harb). In the House of Islam, Muslims rule and Jews and Christians are so called dhimmis, second class citizens under the Muslims. In the House of War non Muslims rule, but the Muslims seek to bring these countries into line with Islamic domination by jihad, or migration and conquest. Once a country has been ruled by Muslims it should remain so until the end of time. If the Muslims lose control of a country they should work to return it to Islamic rule. Apart from the brief Crusader period, different Muslim powers have ruled Jerusalem from 636 to 1917. Therefore Israel and Jerusalem being ruled by Jews, considered dhimmis by classical Islam goes against what the Muslims consider to be the goal of history.

 

Islam also believes that it replaces Judaism and Christianity, which are now obsolete as Islam is the only true faith which ‘supersedes all existing religions (Koran chapter 9, verse 33). In fact Muslims believe all Bible figures, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus were Muslims before their time. Because of this Islam can never recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, because this means that Judaism and the Jewish people remain a living faith and people with a valid claim to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. This is also why Islam places an antichrist text around on the Dome of the Rock, where once the Jewish Temple stood, to show that Islam has superseded Christianity. 

All of this is a huge barrier to the Jewish hope of rebuilding a third temple in Jerusalem. At the present time there is no way this could be done on the Temple Mount, without inflaming violent resistance from the Muslims. Prophecy indicates that something will happen to change this situation in the days before the second coming of Jesus Christ. Interestingly Yehuda Glick, of the Temple Mount Faithful appeared on Israel’s Channel after Donald Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem to say: ‘The prophets' words of prophecy are coming forth from the Bible and becoming facts right before our eyes.’ He has urged Israel to move forward with the rebuilding of the Third Temple in the light of Trump’s announcement.

The Gentile nations, represented by the UN, the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the EU, Russia, China are all united in wanting to end Israeli rule over the eastern side of Jerusalem and set up a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. On December 2nd 2017 the UN passed six anti-Israel resolutions in one day, denying Israeli ties to Jerusalem. Approved in a 151-6 vote, supported by Britain, the UN General Assembly stated that ‘any actions taken by Israel, the occupying power to impose its laws jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever.’ The ultimate Gentile power, the United Nations, is still ‘treading down’ Jerusalem as it opposes Jewish rule over the city. 

What did happen prophetically when Israel took control of Jerusalem in 1967 was the setting up of the scenario prophesied in Zechariah 12. This sees a situation arising in which the status of Jerusalem becomes the focus of world attention. The nations that try to legislate on its status contrary to God’s will suffer loss as a result: 

‘Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.  And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.’ Zechariah 12.2-3.

When the prophet Zechariah wrote down these words around 2000 years ago, he could not have known by his own wisdom that there would come a time when the nations of the world, many of which he would have no idea even existed, would be concerned about the status of a relatively small city in the Judean hills. 

In trying to take away Jerusalem from the Jewish people these nations are fighting against God. He says:

‘For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.’ Joel 3.1-2. 

In acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Donald Trump has placed himself on the wrong side of world community who wish to make this division. However he is on the right side of the God of Israel who says,

‘You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favour her, yes, the set time has come …. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory.’ Psalm 102.13, 16.

It may be that he has also moved the world a step closer to these as yet unfulfilled prophecies concerning Israel, Jerusalem and the last days:

·     The War of Gog and Magog in which an allied army comes down against Israel from the north and is supernaturally destroyed by God (Ezekiel 38-9). One possibility is that the motivation for this predominantly Muslim army coming against Israel is the aim of returning Jerusalem to Islamic rule. For more on this subject see our article ‘Northern Storm brewing.’

·     In this case the defeat of an Islamic army by the clear work of God would be a shattering blow to Islam. The way could then be opened up for a peace settlement involving a western dictator (the Antichrist) who gives permission for the rebuilding of a temple in Jerusalem. This causes a covenant between Israel and the coming Antichrist which promises peace, but brings the time of Jacob’s trouble (Daniel 9.27, Isaiah 28.14-18, Jeremiah 30.1-7) and the defilement of this temple with the abomination of desolation (Daniel 11.31-39, Matthew 24.15-20).  

·     This sets off the great tribulation period and leads to the final conflict in which the nations of the earth gather together for Armageddon and the last battle for Jerusalem. At this point the Messiah Yeshua / Jesus comes in power and glory to bring an end to world war and establish His reign of peace and justice on earth. Zechariah 14, Revelation 19-20.

Before Yeshua’s return to earth, the Lord says:

‘I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.’ Zechariah 12.10. 

This is the revelation that Jesus is the Messiah, who has come once to be the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, giving His life at the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and coming again in power and glory to judge the world according to how we have responded to His message.

Zechariah tells us that God will ‘gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem’ and then:

‘The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. … Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You. … And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be ‘The Lord is one,’ and His name one.’ Zechariah 14.1-9.

The Mount of Olives was the place the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven from (Acts 1.9-12), and will be the place to which He will return. As we approach the end of days scenario, Jerusalem remains the central point of world attention for those who are looking for the return of the Lord Jesus as the only one who can sort out the mess humanity is making of the planet He gave us to look after. He tells us:

‘And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.’ Luke 21.24-28.

Truly our redemption is drawing near. Jesus is coming. To the Mount of Olives, to Jerusalem, to Israel. Be ready! Accept Him now as the Messiah and Saviour and Lord.

China – the Kings of the East and the Mark of the Beast.

Is the rise of China as a world political force a significant development from the point of view of Bible prophecy? We find two scriptures which indicate a place in prophecy for a power from the east to arise and play a part in the events scheduled for the last conflict before the return of Jesus Christ:

‘Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.’  Revelation 16.12.

The Greek in this phrase speaks of the kings from the ‘rising sun’ indicating that a power will arise in the far east and play a part in the final battle of Armageddon. 

There is also a possible reference to this in Daniel 11 which speaks of the coming Antichrist who arises out of the revived Roman Empire (a western dictator) and magnifies himself ‘above every god’. According to this prophecy at the time of the end he will seek to establish control over Israel and the Middle East:

‘Then, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. … He shall also enter the Glorious Land (i.e. Israel), and many countries shall be overthrown …  … But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.  And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain (Jerusalem); yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.’ Daniel 11.41-44.

So will China rise leading the ‘kings of the east’ in the last days? 

China and Christianity.

Very little is said about China in the Bible. Some have pointed to the prophecy of Isaiah 49.12 concerning the land of Sinim, as being a reference to China, along with Genesis 10.17. One theory is the ‘Sinites’ migrated eastwards after the scattering of the Tower of Babel, taking with them some knowledge of the Creation, Fall and Flood accounts in the Bible. Certain Chinese characters imply this. One example of this is the Chinese word for boat which is made up of a vessel, the number eight and a person, which could relate to the eight people on Noah’s ark. For more on this subject go to

https://www.bibleprobe.com/chinese.htm

Apart from this the great land of China and its millions of people has been cut off from the revelation of the Bible until recent times. Along with the millions of peoples of the east it has been subject to a succession of false religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and combinations of all of them. This has produced an idea of gods or spirits that contrasts with the God of the Bible and produces the pantheistic idea that ‘god is all and all is god’. This idea goes along with the evolutionary idea of how the universe came into being and denies the concept of an all powerful, personal God who created all things. Associated with these pantheistic systems is the worship of spirits and idols. Joseph Lam, a Chinese Christian, believes the national symbol of China, which is a dragon, is the true symbol of the god of China. In the book of Revelation our Lord called him a ‘liar and deceiver’.

In the 19th century Christianity began to make an impact on China as missions like the China Inland Mission brought many Chinese to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Battling fierce opposition from the religious and political powers in China the Chinese church grew and produced some remarkable saints of God who laid down their lives to spread His word amongst the Chinese people. 

Unfortunately contact with the West also brought political humiliation to China and imperialist exploitation of their land. This was followed by a brutal occupation by the Japanese during the second world war and the Communist revolution in 1948, bringing Mao Ze Dong to power in 1948. A cult of hero worship arose around Mao, who was known as ‘the great helmsman’. His image was set up throughout China, his red book ‘The thoughts of Mao’ treated as a Bible, and songs and poems written about him, which were in effect praising him as if he were a god. Although Communism is based on atheism, one can see some expression of the kind of religious spirits of ancient Chinese religions in the worship of Mao. 

In the years after the Communist Revolution it is estimated around 50 million people died as a result of purges, famines and the excesses of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the Cultural Revolution, which Mao instigated. Dissenters were imprisoned and killed and Christians were severely persecuted. However despite the antichrist nature of the Communist regime, the church survived and grew during these years. The Maoist regime had close parallels with the rule of the Beast as described in Revelation 13: 

‘So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’ And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.  Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.  It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.’ 

Revelation 13.5-6.

Mao died in 1976 leaving a poor economy and an oppressed people, but after his death in 1976 his successors Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao rebuilt the economy and began the process which has transformed China into the economic power house which it is today. They combined Communism with Capitalism (contrary to Mao’s doctrine) and also stopped the severe persecution of Christianity, enabling the Chinese church to grow phenomenally.  

How many Christians are there in China today? This is a much disputed figure, with estimates ranging from 18 million (official Communist estimate) to 200 million (estimate of some Chinese Christian agencies).  The Chinese Church today is divided between the official church or Three Self Movement, sanctioned by the Communist Party and the unofficial church (or house church movement). The official church has to agree to abide by rules set by the Communist Party, which include not instructing young people in the faith, not engaging in evangelism outside the church meeting, not teaching on subjects which are said to be contrary to Communist ideology (one of which is teaching on the end times and the Second Coming of Christ). 

Many Christians believe (rightly) that abiding by these rules set by the antichristian Communist Party is a compromise with the faith and so they join unofficial churches. It is these churches that are growing rapidly. They are also increasingly facing persecution as the Party cracks down on their activities. China Aid President Bob Fu said Christians in China have been heavily targeted throughout the past couple of years by the ruling Communist Party due to their rapidly increasing numbers. He said, ‘The top leadership is increasingly worried about the rapid growth of Christian faith and their public presence, and their social influence. It is a political fear for the Communist Party, as the number of Christians in the country far outnumber the members of the party.’

The New Mao?

We are now seeing some developments in China which point to its destiny as an end time power with a strong antichrist ideology. Its powerful President, Xi Jingping, is asserting himself in a manner that is reminiscent of Chairman Mao. Mark Almond observed the recent Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and wrote about it in the Daily Mail (25/10/17): 

‘On the final day of its Congress, the Communist Party elevated Xi to the same exalted status as the People’s Republic’s founding father, Chairman Mao, by writing his name and ideas into its constitution as ‘Xi Jinping Thought’. The move bolsters Xi’s position yet further, making it all but impossible for rivals to challenge him and his policies. The party has voted to write 'Xi Jingping thought' into its manifesto. The only other leader to have been given the honour was the country's modern founder, Mao Zedong.  And central to his dogma is Xi’s ruthless determination to restore China to greatness, building on the work of his first five-year term by further strengthening the nation’s military and extending China’s influence on global affairs.’

Watching events unfold in Beijing yesterday and the widespread fawning over Xi, I was, indeed, reminded of the cult of hero worship surrounding the despotic Great Helmsman himself, Mao Zedong. Xi is a master of political theatre, and yesterday he took centre stage — literally — standing alone under a glistening golden hammer-and-sickle symbol, senior party officials gathered deferentially to one side. No one should mistake the symbolism of this. Xi was indicating to Chinese and foreigners alike who is Number One at home — and, increasingly, abroad.’ 

At the time of Mao’s death in 1976 China was an economic irrelevance on the world scene. Now it rivals America’s gross domestic product, its goods stock western supermarkets and storehouses and it has rocketed back to the heart of the world economy. It is also setting the agendas internationally. It is pushing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in the Pacific region which if successful will see it leading a regional trading block of 10 nations from India to Australia which would include no less than one-half of the world’s population. It is investing massively in Africa, South America and the Middle East.

Xi is seeking to recreate Marco Polo’s Silk Road, the Medieval trading route from Europe to China across central Asia.  This would see a massive $1.4 trillion network of modern trading routes being built linking China’s factories to Western Europe via Putin’s Russia, making Moscow the willing junior partner of Beijing. It envisions new roads, high-speed rail, power plants, pipelines, ports and airports and telecommunications links that would boost commerce between China and 60 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Analysts suggest the project could shift the centre of global economy and challenge the U.S.-led world order. The high speed railway China is planning will also link China to the Middle East via Teheran. Could this be the highway for the Kings of the East to travel down?

Cashless society and the mark of the beast.

Another significant development is taking place in China today. China is on the road to becoming a cashless society. Though cash still exists, many Chinese today never touch paper bills or plastic debit or credit cards at all in their day to day life. Increasingly now, financial transactions in the Chinese economy are taking place through payment apps known as a QR code on smart phones.  

These can be used to pay a bus fare, buy a meal or food from a store, give money to a street beggar or donate to a charitable cause. Many Chinese no longer use cash at all but use mobile payment for everything. They are estimated to have spent $5.5 trillion through mobile payment platforms last year, at least 50 times what those in the US spent, and this is estimated to quadruple by 2021.

For those without smartphones, payment app profiles or bank accounts, conducting any financial transactions at all has become difficult. There is a big danger to this system. Given that the Chinese government maintains control over both the Internet and bank accounts in China, as well as companies such as Alibaba and WeChat that provide the apps, Chinese citizens are surrendering every last vestige of privacy they once had. Every financial transaction, no matter how minute or fleeting, is now tracked and logged. Every personal connection is recorded, and every account can be monitored in real time, or frozen, by the government.

Dissenting opinions can be quickly pinpointed and dissenters can be closed off from all buying and selling. 

So how could that happen? Another significant development in China is the so called ‘Citizen loyalty score’ which the Chinese Government has set up. This now exists on a voluntary basis but government officials have now released details about how the programme will operate in 2020 when it becomes compulsory for all Chinese citizens.  

The Citizen Score is a kind of credit score that encompasses every conceivable aspect of one's life and is based on whether or not you toe the party line. If you do something the government disapproves of like not paying your bills, or reading books the Party does not approve of or associating with certain religions your score will go down. If you earn a degree or support the Party your score might rise. Improper use of the Internet or protesting about the government will lose you 100 points or more. Associating with a person who has a low Citizen Score may cause your score to suffer. Toe the party line, inform on your neighbours and you may see your score rise a few points. 

The Citizen Score is potentially a social control mechanism taken to levels that remind us of George Orwell’s ‘1984.’ Disagree with the party, push for greater freedom of speech, freedom to worship or a more open Internet, and your score will suffer. The interest rates you get offered on loans will rise and the jobs you want will suddenly become unavailable.  If the score drops low enough, you can be blocked from buying plane, train or bus tickets. Drop even lower and your bank accounts may be frozen, your social media accounts cut off and your email restricted.

Unable to rent a bike, hail a taxi, take a bus, or buy fuel for a car, you would be stranded. Unable to purchase food or other necessities at a store or restaurant, you would be starved into submission. In short, Chinese citizens, under the guise of convenience, are being forced into a system that surrenders total control to the state.  

When the Citizen Score becomes compulsory in 2020, there may be no escaping its hold or reach and no end in sight. If applied subtly enough, it can bend and shape every Chinese into an obedient servant of the State. The penalties for ‘breaking trust’ may be small at first as they act as incentives to obey, but at their full application they can turn all of China into a prison for entire classes of people, as they cannot buy or sell without the mark of obedience to the state. 

Does this remind you of something? 

‘And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.’ (Revelation 13.16, 17).

Scientific discoveries back Creation.

One of the features of the last days is that people will scoff at the biblical teaching that Jesus Christ will come again and that ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Genesis 1.1. In 2 Peter 3.3-7 we read:

‘Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’  For this they wilfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’ 2 Peter 3.3-7.

Instead of acknowledging that God created the heavens and the earth, they will believe that ‘all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’, in other words that there has been a slow and steady process of evolutionary change since the Big Bang set things off about 4.5 billion years ago. In recent times God has raised up ministries like ‘Answers in Genesis’ and other creationist organisations to show why evolution is a flawed theory and to give biblical and scientific reasons for the creation account as written in Genesis.

The universe should not exist.

Now science itself is making discoveries which question evolutionary assumptions about the origin of the universe.  CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) created Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland, in an attempt to discover how the Big Bang happened and the universe came into existence. The Hadron Collider smashed together sub-atomic particles at nearly the speed of light in an effort to recreate the conditions which are said to have immediately followed the ‘Big Bang’ event that gave birth to the Universe ‘billions of years ago’.

Now CERN has come to the conclusion that, according to the laws of physics, the universe should have annihilated itself as soon as it came into existence! The reason for this is that according to the Big Bang model, only energy existed in the beginning, then, as the universe expanded, some of the energy transformed into matter. When energy converts to matter, the reaction always creates an equal amount of antimatter, particles with a charge opposite their counterpart. So, for example, a proton of matter has a positive charge and a proton of antimatter, an antiproton, has a negative charge. But, since opposites attract, if equal amounts of matter and antimatter existed in the very beginning, they would have obliterated each other. Earlier this year, scientists for the first time developed a way to measure antimatter, a discovery they hoped would enable future researchers to solve the mystery of how the universe began and survived. They came to a conclusion, which undermined the whole basis of the Big Bang theory.

Christian Smorra, author of the CERN study, said: ‘All of our observations find a complete symmetry between matter and antimatter, which is why the universe should not actually exist.’ Their conclusion was that, if the universe really did come into existence as a result of the Big Bang, it should have annihilated itself at the same time!

 

This enigma doesn’t surprise Brian Miller, research coordinator for the Discovery Institute’s Centre for Science and Culture. He said, ‘It is just another example of the razor-edge fine-tuning all around us that points to the existence of our Creator who brought the heavens and the earth into existence by the power of His Word. The fact that all the details are just right for life when almost any other set of laws of physics would have produced a universe that couldn’t support life strongly suggests that there is a Creator who designed those laws specifically with life in mind.’

Atoms should fly apart.

A similar question concerns the structure of the atom. Everything that exists is made up of millions of atoms. According to an article by Lambert Dolphin: ‘The nucleus of every atom is held together by what physicists call ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ forces. The nucleus of the atom contains positively charged and neutral particles-to use a simplistic model. Mutual electrostatic repulsion between the like-positive protons would drive the nucleus apart if it were not for the ‘strong force’ which binds the nucleus together. There is thus an active force imposed on the universe, which actively holds the very atoms of the material world together moment by moment, day by day, century by century.  Similarly, accelerated electrons circling the nucleus should quickly radiate all their energy away and fall into the nucleus unless there exists an invisible energy source to counteract this.’ 

What is the force that holds all things together? In the letter to the Colossians we read: 

‘He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born [prototokos] of all creation; for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.’

Colossians 1:15-17.

To quote again from Lambert Dolphin: ‘The Holy Spirit, in giving us this inspired passage of Scripture, explains that all things (both visible and invisible) in the entire universe were created through this same Jesus, the eternal Word. We may think of the universe and its intricate design as being conceived in the mind of the Father, then spoken into existence by the Son (who makes the invisible, visible). The Holy Spirit is the One who energises and supplies life to the creation, not only at the time of creation but also moment by moment after that. One of the key words in the Colossians passage above (‘...and in Christ all things hold together’) is the Greek word sunistemi which means ‘to stand-together,’ ‘to be compacted together,’ ‘to cohere,’ ‘to be constituted with.’ 

In other words the mystery of what holds the atoms together and prevents the universe from falling apart is the ‘Colossian Force’ which Paul writes about. The Lord, through whom the world came into being, holds the universe together, until the time when He will dissolve it and create a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.

This dissolution of the universe is spoken about in 2 Peter 3.10 which also points to the atomic structure of the present creation:  

‘But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements [stoicheion, atoms] will be dissolved with fire and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

Lambert Dolphin writes: ‘The Greek word translated ‘elements’ in the above mentioned passage from Colossians and in 2 Peter is stoicheion, which can mean ‘the building blocks of the universe,’ or ‘the ordered arrangement of things.’ It can also mean the ‘atomic elements.’ The word translated ‘dissolved’ in 2 Peter 3:10 is literally (in Greek) luo, meaning ‘unloosed.’ This language suggests that there will come a time in the future when God lets go of the nuclear forces which hold the atom together. This passage, like the one in Colossians, strongly suggests that the active power of God is behind the mysterious strong force that holds every atomic nucleus together. If this is so, all the other fundamental forces of nature are likewise forces that originate with Christ and His sustaining direction of the old creation. 

If God ‘sustains the universe by His mighty word of power,’ moment by moment, were He to merely relax His grasp on the universe, every atom would come apart ‘by fire’ (that is, by nuclear fire). It is inescapable that the Bible claims that God dynamically sustains the universe, including the very atoms themselves. Atoms, it would seem, are ‘stable’ only because force and energy are being supplied into their physical nuclear binding fields from ‘outside’ the system.  

Following the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth and Satan’s final revolt against the Lord (Revelation 20), God will remove His hand from holding the universe together, dissolve the present universe and create a new one in which those who have been redeemed through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus will dwell forever.

Where does water come from?

Another question which has puzzled scientists is how water, vital for supporting all life forms, came to be on the earth, and only on earth as far as we can observe. One evolutionary theory, which really defies logic, is that the vast amount of water on the earth’s surface came as a result of comets crashing into the earth millions of years ago. Now a study published by Earth and Planetary Science Letters has come to the conclusion that vast amounts of water exist deep within the earth and that ‘the Earth itself is a vast water-creating machine.’ New Scientist magazine reported on January 27, 2017 that ‘Planet Earth makes its own water from scratch deep in the mantle.’ 

According to science about 71 percent of the earth is covered with water.  96.5 percent of it is saline and undrinkable ocean water. Drinkable water is constantly being recycled through evaporation and rainfall. Even the water we use from wells is mostly recycled as part of this process. But if, as more scientific studies suggest, ‘primary water’ deep beneath the mantle or crust of the Earth exceeds the amount found in all the planet's oceans, there is hardly a shortage.  ‘There is a very, very large amount of water that's trapped in a really distinct layer in the deep Earth,’ said Graham Pearson, lead author of the 2014 study and a geochemist at the University of Alberta in Canada. ‘It translates into a very, very large mass of water, approaching the sort of mass of water that's present in all the world's oceans.’

From the point of view of Creation and the Bible this is extremely interesting. 

Firstly it is another sign of the unique design process which God put into this planet in order for it to support life:

‘Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’ Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.’ Genesis 1.6-7. 

Secondly it shows how significant events in the past and in the days to come could happen. According to the Genesis account, the great flood at the time of Noah was caused when ‘the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.’ Genesis 7.11. The flood came to an end and the waters receded when:

‘The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.’ Genesis 8.2. 

Andrew Snelling of ‘Answers in Genesis’ sees this as evidence of the biblical Flood account: ‘The Bible's description of that outbursting event is merely confirmed by the latest findings of the secular scientists. So the waters that came from inside the Earth, combined with the waters in the original, created oceans to produce the Genesis Flood.’

What of future events prophesied in the Bible? In the descriptions of the renewal of the earth in the Millennial Kingdom after the return of the Lord Jesus, we have a number of passages which speak of fresh water streams being released to bring water and life to desert regions. These may also be God’s way of cleaning up the earth after the pollutions created by mankind in the present time. 

‘The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. … For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.  The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.’

Isaiah 35.1, 6. 

Both Ezekiel and Zechariah write of a great river flowing out from Jerusalem after the Day of the Lord:

‘And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.’ Zechariah 14:8.

Ezekiel describes a great river that cannot be passed over. It will run eastward from the restored Temple in Jerusalem and go down into the Judean desert and into the Dead Sea, transforming the present salty sea that cannot support life into one that will abound with life.

‘And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.’ (Ezekiel 47:9). 

Could it be that God, who put the waters there in the first place, will release these waters all over the earth to renew it so that it can again support abundant life in the days of Messiah’s reign on earth? Is science catching up with the Bible?

Conclusion. 

Truth from science must in the long run agree with Biblical revelation-if the Bible is true. If the Bible says what it means and means what it says then it is Jesus who holds the universe in his hands. Our moment-by-moment existence depends on His gracious sustenance of every electron, every atom, every molecule and every spiritual entity as well. We are safe when we place our trust in Him and put our whole lives into His hands! Can we not then stand in awe of our great God and Creator, along with the Psalmist who wrote:

 

‘O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it; for his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his voice!’ Psalm 95:1-7 

Pushing the transgender agenda.

Primary school headteachers have been told to 'celebrate' transgender issues in the classroom to combat prejudice among pupils. Guidance from the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) says ‘trans perspectives’ must be visible in the classroom to combat prejudice among pupils. The advice, endorsed by the Government and Ofsted, is expected to be rolled out in primary schools across the country. It tells schools to ensure books featuring ‘trans parents’ or ‘celebrating gender identity and difference’ are included in the curriculum for pupils aged four to 11. The guidance, released today, is contained in a document about ‘supporting trans staff’, which was compiled with the help of LGBT rights charity Stonewall. It states that heads should ‘celebrate trans people, issues and experiences within the school and across the curriculum to celebrate diversity and ensure visibility of trans perspectives’. (Daily Mail 13/12/17)

This is another example of the way the radical homosexual and transgender agenda is now being imposed at all levels on our society, in the schools, media, government, social services, police and even the church. One key way to impose this, especially in our schools, is by campaigns against ‘homophobic and transphobic bullying.’ Under the guise of opposing bullying, the homosexual pressure group Stonewall is able to propagate the homosexual life style among children. It is now the idea of ‘gender fluidity’, encouraging children to identify with a different sex than the one they were born into. 

This programme has the active support of the government. Theresa May has said the Government will seek to “streamline and de-medicalise” the process of changing gender to reflect that “being trans is not an illness”. Speaking at the homosexual lobby’s ‘Pink News Awards’ in London, the Prime Minister told a star-studded audience that changes will be made to the Gender Recognition Act in order to reflect updated attitudes towards being transgender.

She said: “We are pressing ahead with inclusive relationships and sex education in English schools, making sure that LGBT issues are taught well. We're determined to eradicate homophobic and transphobic bullying. We have set out plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act and streamline and de-medicalise the process for changing gender, because being trans is not an illness and it shouldn't be treated as such.”

The government’s plans for streamlining the process of changing gender, mean changing the current Gender Recognition Act 2004. This recognises that there is such a condition as gender dysphoria but insists that before legally changing gender a person must have lived in their new gender for two years and have obtained a certificate from a gender recognition panel. The proposed change is to make it possible for a person to change their gender by simple self-declaration. 

Behind it all is a sinister agenda whose ultimate aim is the imposition of a Satanically inspired anti-God ideology on society.  It is a sociological political theory known as ‘Queer Theory’, originally taught by the American philosopher Judith Butler, which regards gender as merely a social construct and nothing to do with the fundamental nature of who we are as human beings. In other words you are who you think you are, and if you are born with male sex organs but think you are a girl (or vice versa) that is who you are. This is a basic denial of reality, encouraging children to believe a lie which can be extremely harmful to their development. 

Dr Michelle Cretella MD, who is President of the American College of Paediatricians. ‘A person’s belief that he is something or someone he is not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking; at worst, it is a delusion. This “alternate perspective” of an “innate gender fluidity” arising from prenatally “feminised” or “masculinised” brains trapped in the wrong body is an ideological belief that has no basis in rigorous science,’ she writes in a peer-reviewed journal. While the transition-affirming movement claims to help children, it is inflicting a grave injustice on them, concludes Dr Cretella. She notes that institutions which promote transition affirmation are pushing children to impersonate the opposite sex, sending many of them down the path of sterilisation, mutilation, and untold psychological damage. This is child abuse, plain and simple, she claims.

The results of all this are a growing insanity in western society, examples of which are sometimes laughable. A man in Scotland who was charged with double rape announced he was a woman and asked to be placed in an open women’s prison and insisted on his right to be searched by female prison guards.  In the USA a transgender boy was allowed to compete as a girl in the school sports, enabling him to win the 100 and 200 metre races, and helping the 4x100-metre relay team take second place in the school sports. Liberal leftists hailed this a triumph of tolerance, while women pointed out that boys competing as girls in sports gives them an unfair physical advantage over girls.

Students at Hull University have been not to use the pronouns ‘he’ or ‘she’ in essays because that might offend transgender people. The British Medical Association produced guidelines saying doctors shouldn’t call pregnant women ‘mothers’ because ‘this is a reflection of gender inequality in traditional ideas about the roles of women and men and may offend intersex and trans men.’ In one of the most ridiculous statements ever uttered by pompous officials, they stated:  ‘A large majority of people that have been pregnant or have given birth identify as women.’ Actually 100 % of all human beings who have ever got pregnant have been women! NHS Scotland released ‘guidelines’ to schools saying that they should ditch the terms ‘boys and girls’. Rather they should be taught that they were ‘assigned’ genders at birth which they can change if they don’t feel comfortable in the gender you were born into.

And if you question this insanity you are in trouble. In New York you can be fined up to $250,000 if you use the wrong pronouns for a person (i.e. call a woman identifying as a man ‘she’). In Canada a bill is just about to be passed which will allow the State to take children away from their parents if the parents have the wrong views about gender identity. 

In Oxford a Christian teacher was suspended for accidentally calling a transgender pupil a 'girl' rather than 'boy'. Joshua Sutcliffe, 27, said the student, who identifies as male, became 'irate' after he said 'well done girls' to him and a female friend for working hard.  The maths teacher, who does not believe in gender fluidity due to his Christian faith, insisted today he had 'apologised' straight away. Speaking on ITV's This Morning he said: 'I did not want to offend because it's a sensitive issue and so I was trying to adhere to school policy and teaching standards and uphold my dignity as a professional. I had always tried to respect the pupil and keep a professional attitude as well as my integrity, but it seemed to me that the school was trying to force me to adhere to its liberal, Leftish agenda.' He also explained how the school had shut down his popular Bible study group that was attended by 100 children after he described marriage as being between a man and a woman in answer to a pupil's question. 

The Church of England has joined the fray, ordering its schools to push the transgender agenda. When a six year old boy came to a Church of England school in the Isle of Wight dressed as a girl, Christian parents Nigel and Sally Rowe, raised concerns with the staff, because their son was confused by the situation. Having taken advice from the Diocese of Portsmouth, the school defended the cross dressing pupil and sent a letter saying to the parents accusing them of bullying behavior. The head teacher wrote that an ‘inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ‘real’ female or male’ and ‘the refusal acknowledge a transgendered person’s true gender e.g. by failing to use their adopted name or using gender inappropriate pronouns,’ was ‘transphobic behaviour’, which amounted to bullying. The parents then removed their child from the school. 

The Church of England hierarchy appears to have entirely lost its way on this issue. Last July, the synod voted to ban sexual conversion therapy and to consider special services for affirming transsexual people. A motion to permit the blessing of same-sex marriages has been submitted for next February’s synod but has yet to be adopted for debate.

The church told its schools that pupils should be able to explore their gender identity and should be “afforded freedom from the expectation of permanence” (i.e. they should be encouraged to change sex if they feel like it).  Its fancifully titled ‘Valuing all God’s Children: Guidance for Church of England schools on chanllenging homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying’’ appears to have bought into the secular ideology that aims at the destruction of Christianity. It endorses a brigade of radical pro-LGBT campaigning bodies such as Stonewall and recommends children’s books such as ‘And Tango Makes Three’– the story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who bring up a family. 

As a result of all this it hit the headlines after it suggested that boys should dress up in girls clothes at primary school: ‘Primary school boys should be allowed to wear tutus and high heels if they want to, the Church of England has said in its first guidance for teachers on transgender issues.  Children should not be restricted by their gender when dressing up, and girls should be able to wear a tool belt and fireman's helmet if they choose, the document says. The guidance for teachers in Church of England schools, endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, says that children "should be at liberty to explore the possibilities of who they might be without judgement or derision".  

Encouraging children to consider changing their gender might be considered to be the opposite of what the church is supposed to be teaching. Thanks to the guidelines, C of E schools under Welby will be promoting fake science, delusional thinking, bad theology, abysmal biblical interpretation, a demonic ideology that kills, steals and destroys the lives of children and above all child abuse, plain and simple. C of E schools will certainly not be promoting the one thing they were established to uphold, i.e. biblical wisdom. If they did, they could begin by addressing the issue of gender confusion with a verse from the Book of Proverbs: ‘Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.’ 

The Bible warned that a day would come when good was called evil, and evil was called good (Isaiah 5.20). In other words, a day when reality and truth were turned on their heads. Anyone living in a Western society currently steeped in the transgender phenomenon might understandably think that day has arrived.

Israel, at least in this context, is looking to play its role as ‘light to the nations’ by releasing a fact-based rebuttal of the notion that gender is a matter of personal feeling and choice. Geneticists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, one of the world's leading scientific institutes, recently published a study showing just how many biological differences there are between the male and female of our species. Professor Shmuel Pietrokovski and Dr Moran Gershoni studied 20,000 genes, sorting them by sex, and searching for differences in expression in each tissue. They eventually found srond ‘6,500 genes with activity that was biased toward one sex or the other in at least one tissue, adding to the already major biological differences between men and women.’

In layman's terms, a man is a man and a woman is a woman, not because they feel like one or the other, but because the science of biology tells us so. And not just because of the obvious physical differences between male and female. Our sexual identity is programmed into at least 6,500 genes in the human body. 

The Bible affirms this by telling us God made us in His image and He made us male and female. The whole transgender agenda is an attempt by fallen human beings to remake ourselves in our own image and a Satanic attack on the created order which God has put into the world:

‘Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.’

‘In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.’ Genesis 5.1-2. 

The order of male and female is fundamental to God’s creation and the propagation of the human race in succeeding generations. The Lord Jesus affirmed this as He pointed to the union of a man and a woman in marriage as the basic foundation of society: ‘And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matthew 19.4-6.

The difference between male and female is one of the remarkable evidences of God’s design in creation. It ensures the continuation of the species as man and woman come together in sexual intercourse, the male seed fertilizing the female egg and bringing into the world children to repopulate the world for the next generation. The growth of the baby in the womb and its birth nine months after conception is one of the wonders of creation which could not possibly have come about by evolutionary chance process. If any part of this incredibly complex process fails, there is no future generation and the species dies out. 

This is in itself another argument against evolution, which sees the complex organs required to sustain life evolving over millions of years. When it comes to sexual reproduction, any new species supposedly appearing by evolutionary change does not have millions of years to get it right. If the process does not work perfectly the first time, there is no future generation. Full stop! Genesis 1 tells us that God created all plants, animals and human beings able to reproduce after their own kind, thus ensuring that His created order is able to continue from generation to generation, until the time that He brings an end to time on the earth and the human race. 

The ancient Greek playwright, Euripides, wrote ‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad’. Evidence of a kind of collective insanity is all around us. We know that destruction is not far away when we see the imposition of the homosexual and transsexual agenda on our children.

In Jeremiah 25.15-36 we read: ‘Take this wine cup of fury from My hand and cause all the nations to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them. … The Lord has a controversy with the nations; He will plead His case with all flesh. He will give those who are wicked to the sword. … Behold disaster shall go forth from nation to nation and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the farthest parts of the earth. And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth.’

There is one way to escape this judgement that is coming on the earth. A message which the Church of England’s upper hierarchy seems to want to delete from the agenda altogether, but which is the subject of the first recorded teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1.15.

Signs of the Times.

Running out of time over North Korea.

Families of US military should leave South Korea because war between America and Pyongyang is ‘getting close’, according to a senior US Senator and ex-Air Force Colonel. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has warned that the rising tensions between the US and Kim Jong-un’s corrupt regime means preparations for war need to be taken. The member of the Senate Armed Services Committee warned the US was ‘running out of time’ to prepare itself for war. ‘We’re getting close to a military conflict because North Korea is marching toward marrying up the technology of an ICBM with a nuclear weapon on top that can not only get to America, but deliver the weapon.

Fears of war between the two countries hit a new high after the rogue state announced they had successfully tested a missile capable of targeting any part of the US equipped with a nuclear weapon. The latest missile flew some 596 miles (960km) to an altitude of around 2,796 miles (4,500km). Following the launch Hawaii began an immediate test to prepare for a nuclear strike. Japan’s government has issued leaflets telling its citizens what to do in the event of a nuclear strike.  South Korea has also been making war preparations. Its capital, Seoul, is home to 10 million people, who are within range of North Korea's artillery missiles.

Graham stated that neither he nor US President Donald Trump wants a war, but stressed that ’we're not going to let this crazy man in North Korea have the capability to hit the homeland.’ When asked about civilian casualties that would occur in a war with North Korea, including in the densely populated South Korean capital of Seoul, Graham said: ’It's not lost by me what a war would look like with North Korea. One, we would win it, but a lot of people would get hurt and killed. The President is ready, if necessary, to destroy this regime to protect America, and I hope the regime understands that if President Trump has to pick between destroying the North Korean regime and the American homeland, he's going to destroy the regime. I hope China understands that also,’ Graham said.

On the other side, a representative of Kim Jong Un and his regime heightened the already-fiery rhetoric after the North expressed its anger over the U.S. and South Korea launching one of its largest military drills to date on its border. ‘The large-scale nuclear war exercises conducted by the US are creating a touch-and-go situation on the Korean peninsula and series of violent war remarks coming from US high-level politicians amid such circumstances have made an outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula an established fact. ‘The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?’

In China’s northern Jilin province that borders North Korea, the government has started to issue pamphlets to the public which depict cartoons instructing citizens what to do and how to stay alive in the event of a sudden atomic strike. The full-page spread instructs readers with a full-fledged nuclear survival guide, ranging from the kinds of nuclear weapons, how to protect oneself, and all different sorts of disaster scenarios. This nuclear survival guide was issued the week after the North launched another ballistic missile. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed the need for dialogue. ’Ramping up military hysteria in such conditions is senseless; it’s a dead end. It could lead to a global, planetary catastrophe and a huge loss of human life. There is no other way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, save that of peaceful dialogue.’  

The Church of England is sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

An article in The Times (13/11/17) by Jewish writer, Melanie Phillips, shows far more insight into the implications of the Church of England’s abandonment of the teaching of the Bible than most of its clerics show, in particular its supposedly evangelical Archbishop Welby. Here are some excerpts from her article:

‘A highly-regarded adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury has quit the inner counsels of the Church of England in protest against an ‘agenda of revisionism’ that she says is promoting ‘an ongoing and rapid erosion of faithfulness’. Lorna Ashworth resigned from the Archbishops’ Council and General Synod, saying: ‘We have a liberal agenda because the church is not anchored in the Gospel. There is no more conversation about Heaven, Hell, sin, forgiveness, judgment.’

Her resignation illustrates the fissure in the church between liberals and traditionalists which is now threatening outright schism. The immediate flashpoints are gender and gay issues. Last July, the synod voted to ban sexual conversion therapy and to consider special services for transsexual people. A motion to permit the blessing of same-sex marriages has been submitted for next February’s synod but has yet to be adopted for debate.

The church has told its schools that pupils should be able to explore their gender identity and should be ‘afforded freedom from the expectation of permanence’. This muddled document seems to equate boys dressing up in a tutu and girls in a tool belt with psychological confusion over sexual identity, which is rare. Yet as is happening elsewhere, the church’s guidance risks confirming children in this confusion along ideological ‘gender’ lines, while it denies it can be a disorder at all.

Ashworth’s protest, however, is a far deeper one about the church’s general embrace of secularism. The true message of Christianity, she says, risks being drowned out by people who prefer to discuss social justice because ‘if we talk about sin, then we have to talk about bad behaviour and people don’t want to be judgmental’. As a result, the church wants to replace sin, judgment and repentance by ‘good disagreement’. Thus it would give good and bad equal status, ditching God’s commandments and the moral absolutes of the Bible in favour of contemporary values of diversity and inclusivity. 

This is the basis of the secular society which is a direct attack on the bedrock principles of Christianity. Secularism would ditch Biblical precepts in favour of radical autonomy, replacing normative morality and even physiological reality by subjective emotion and remaking the world in the image of ‘me’.

Ashworth belongs to a group of dissident conservative evangelicals, including the Queen’s former chaplain, Dr Gavin Ashenden. He and other members of this group wrote in a letter to the press last July: ‘There are now effectively two opposed expressions of Anglicanism in this country. One has capitulated to secular values, and one continues to hold the faith ‘once delivered to the saints’.’ On his blog, Ashenden writes strikingly that the church’s behaviour is rooted in the thinking of Carl Jung, who developed a psychology of spirituality at the heart of which lies the reconciliation of opposites. Jung believed, writes Ashenden, that two concepts should be dealt with in this way: gender and evil. ‘The genders are reconciled in some kind of androgynous synthesis, and good and evil befriend each other in some form of mutually convenient accommodation.’

This is exactly what the church is now doing. Just like the gender fluidity it is so eager to embrace, it is promoting the notion that secularism and Christianity can flow in and out of each other. The secular goal, however, is not tolerance and inclusivity at all. It is to overthrow the Christian basis of the West. It is an exercise in the doctrinaire use of power. As such, the agenda the church is embracing is resulting in the bullying and intimidation of all who transgress the doctrine of gender and sexual fluidity.

This was shown in the case of Joshua Sutcliffe, a Christian maths teacher in Oxfordshire, who faces a disciplinary hearing on charges of ‘misgendering’. His crime? To tell two pupils who were working hard: ‘Well done, girls.’ One of the girls, however, identifies as a boy. Following a complaint by the pupil’s mother, Sutcliffe was suspended. He also faces claims that he breached the school’s equality policy by referring to the pupil by name rather than as ‘he’ or ‘him’. 

Speaking on ITV's This Morning he said: 'I did not want to offend because it's a sensitive issue and so I was trying to adhere to school policy and teaching standards and uphold my dignity as a professional. I had always tried to respect the pupil and keep a professional attitude as well as my integrity, but it seemed to me that the school was trying to force me to adhere to its liberal, Leftish agenda.' He also explained how the school had shut down his popular Bible study group that was attended by 100 children after he described marriage as being between a man and a woman in answer to a pupil's question. 

This kind of bullying is said to be occurring within the church itself; the dissident clerics have written of the ‘booing of traditionalists’ and the ‘personal abuse’ they suffered at the synod. As Ashenden observes, those pushing these reforms on the church threaten to change Christianity out of all recognition. ‘It’s hard to know what to call it,’ he writes. ‘Some have suggested using the label MTD: ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism’.’ The outcome of the church evacuating itself of meaning in this ‘inclusive’ way is not a growing flock but empty pews. Certainly it is a sign of the last days’ apostasy coming on the church, which increasingly prefers to take its orders from an antichristian society rather than God.

Is the Pope a Catholic?

This is a question being asked about the current head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, who critics believe is showing signs of abandoning fundamental Catholic doctrines – including questioning the teaching of a last judgement of God and the existence of hell.

In a recent address, Pope Francis declared ‘everything will be saved’ upon Christ’s return. ‘The thought that at the end of our history there will be merciful Jesus suffices in order to have faith and not to curse life,’ the pope said. ‘Everything will be saved. Everything.’ At another general audience a few months ago, on Wednesday, August 23, Francis gave for the end of history an image that is entirely and only comforting: that of ‘an immense tent, where God will welcome all mankind so as to dwell with them definitively.’

This contradicts the Roman Catholic doctrine that ‘outside of the Catholic church there is no salvation’ and means that Francis is preaching a form of universalism in which everybody will ultimately be given salvation and end up in heaven, regardless of how they have lived and what they believe. It is part of a move to remove scriptural passages concerning eternal judgment and the idea that God will damn people to hell.  

The Roman Catholic Church is deeply flawed on its teaching on salvation anyway, with its works based theology of earning salvation by keeping its sacraments, rather than salvation by faith in Christ alone. It has also invented a non-existent place called Purgatory, nowhere to be found in the Bible, in which souls have to suffer for their sins for a while before being allowed into heaven. 

However to affirm that everyone will be saved in the end is to deny something that Catholics and Protestants have been in agreement on, that there is a hell to flee from and a heaven to be gained. There is also a basic agreement that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is required for salvation.

Pastor Carl Gallups, who analyses current events from the standpoint of end times argues the pope’s tilt towards universalism is yet another sign the last days are upon us. ‘This is yet another example of the apostasy prophesied to accompany the last days before the return of Jesus Christ.  The Bible simply does not support the heresy of the doctrine of universalism. Not all will be eventually saved. There is heaven and there is hell. There is eternity with God and there is eternity without God. One’s eternal state depends entirely upon what one does with God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. Thus far, Pope Francis appears to have thrown the Catholic Church into further confusion since his reign. We are undoubtedly living in profoundly prophetic times. How people can miss this truth, right before our eyes every day, is beyond comprehension.’

The Bible is clear that not everybody will be saved. We are by nature ‘children of wrath’, ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ and under the power of the devil (Ephesians 2.1-3). We are under God’s judgement because of our sins and heading for hell. To escape God’s judgement we must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. He died in our place to take the punishment for sin that we deserve. All who make this step of faith will be saved. Those who do not will be lost eternally. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!