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We are a Christian Fellowship meeting in North London with a strong interest in teaching the Bible and understanding our time in
the light of Bible prophecy
Sowing the wind
What is happening to our society?
A child of five taken into a wood by other children who attempt to hang
him … A funeral cortege attacked by a gang of yobs … Children’s gravestones
in a cemetery smashed and vandalised … A teenage girl beaten unconscious by
youths who filmed the attack on their mobile phones and then passed it round
their mates at school … Two girls abducted by six men who subject them to
torture and rape and leave one dead in a park. Some of the horror stories to
appear in the news recently. No wonder many people despair of the society we
live in. David Baines, Chief Superintendent of Greater Manchester police
force spoke of communities terrorised by gangs of feral youths. He painted
a picture of entire neighbourhoods living in fear of the gangs who don’t
give a damn about the police or the criminal justice system.
Tony Blair has said he wants to restore a culture of respect and get on top
of the yob culture. What are his chances of success in this aim? Not very
great on current trends. In fact if you look at the causes of the problem
you find our society is going the wrong way on all of them.
Influence of the family
The family is the basic building block of any society. Break the family and
you break the social order. The biggest reason for the rise of crime is the
culture of fatherless children and disorderly homes. While many single
parents do a valiant job of bringing up their children, the need for the
influence of a father and a mother on a child’s development is obvious to
anyone with eyes to see. Today cynical young men father children they have
no intention of looking after and leave gullible young women to hold the
baby literally. Those children grow up with no committed father and as a
result generally with no respect for any authority. Recently in the news is
the Atkins family where twice divorced Julie Atkins lives with her three
daughters aged 14 to 18 and their three children with not one committed
father among them. Fifteen year old Jade Atkins said, We don’t need their
dads. We give them all the love and support they need.
This is a complete fantasy because in terms of providing financially for
their children these girls can give them virtually nothing. It all comes
from the state (i.e. the tax payer), making them dependent for life. In fact
our tax and welfare policies actually provide financial incentives for lone
parenthood and penalise marriage. So now half of all children are born
outside marriage and the idea is promoted that all types of family are of
equal value in bringing up children.
Influence of the school
Former teacher Sylvia Thomas went back to teaching after a 30 year absence.
She secretly filmed the chaos she found in the classroom for a documentary
filmed on TV. In an article in the Daily Mail (25/4/05) she describes
examples of the disorder she found there: The boys who openly attempted to
access hard core sex sites on school computers, the pupils who routinely
swore not just at each other but also at me and the scenes of mayhem during
which desks were overturned, books torn up and windows smashed. Not to
mention the brawls that broke out in the classroom. She goes on to describe
the impossibility of getting the children to be quiet. They had their backs
to me. The girls were putting on lip gloss. They had mobile phones out,
personal stereos, hand held computer games. They were talking, eating,
drinking. Despite shouting at the top of my voice I could not get them even
to acknowledge my presence. When she asked them to take out their pens and
exercise books she discovered they had brought neither to school with them
nor was there any supply in the school. When she asked an 11 year old child
to be quiet he swore at her. She told him not to talk to her like that. His
reply? Dont talk to me like that I've got my rights you know.
The removal of all authority from teachers and the promotion of a rights
culture in which children cannot be punished for misbehaviour has brought
about the collapse of discipline in the classroom. I saw this happening
during my time as a teacher in the 70s and 80s which made me sad for the
children who were exposed to a system which gives freedom to the bullies and
vandals and penalises those who want to learn and behave.
Influence of the media, in particular TV
If you spend hours of the day watching violence and people acting
aggressively towards each other on TV is it surprising if you end up
behaving this way yourself? If you think TV is bad now wait until Ofcom, the
broadcasting regulator brings in the new broadcasting code. The new
broadcasting code states that freedom of expression is its goal and
restrictions based on taste and decency have been removed. This will mean
a dramatic rise in sex, swearing and violence after 9pm as anything goes on
mainstream TV.
Influence of drink and drugs
In January 2004 the government downgraded the dangers of cannabis thus
encouraging a rise in the use of the drug. However even those who campaigned
for the legalisation of cannabis now recognise that this was a mistake. The
enhanced form of cannabis known as skunk used today is up to 30 times
stronger than the naturally grown drug. It creates alarming mood swings,
causing some who use it to go into uncontrollable rages and exhibit manic
tendencies of paranoia. Sometimes this does not go away even after the user
stops taking the drug.
As well as the drug problem, alcohol abuse is spiraling out of control with
an explosion of pubs offering cut price drinks in city centres. As a result
many areas are becoming violent no go areas for those wanting a quiet night
out on Fridays and Saturdays. The governments answer to this is to bring in
legislation to open the pubs round the clock.
The influence of God
Sadly God has very little influence at all in much of our society. Many
people have no idea what the 10 commandments are, why Jesus died and rose
again, what happens after we die. Any ideas they do pick up about God are
more likely to relate to re-incarnation or Islam than any teaching of the
Bible. Christianity is often caricatured as old fashioned, narrow minded and
reactionary It is virtually forbidden to teach in schools that God created
the world, that Jesus is the unique Saviour or that we will all face God on
the Day of Judgement when we die.
All of this has been replaced with a secular humanist world view which
claims to be tolerant but is actually the most intolerant religion
imaginable. Today we see many examples of this intolerance. A Christian run
hostel for the homeless in Kings Lynn, Norfolk has been warned it will lose
its government grant because grace is said at meal times and the staff put
Bibles out for use. The accusation is that it is not inclusive enough of
other faiths. The University of Leicester Hospital Trust has met to decide
whether to ban Gideon Bibles from the bedside because they could offend
people from other faith groups who are receiving treatment. In fact people
from other faith groups have not complained about the Bibles.
The opposition to the Bible comes from secularists who have used this
strategy to exclude Christianity from public life over the past 30 years.
Back in the 1970s I taught Religious Education in a large multi racial
comprehensive school in south London. The largest racial group were from the
Caribbean and I soon discovered that in general there was far more
Christianity in their homes than in the white homes. I taught mainly from
the Bible and ran a Christian Union at lunch times. I never had any
complaints from the parents of children from ethnic minorities. The
opposition came from secular humanist teachers who clearly wanted
Christianity out of the classroom. Their reason was that it was not
appropriate to give teaching from the Bible in a multi racial situation.
Over the past 30 years this element has gained increasing influence in our
society over education, the media, social services, the judiciary and
government. They have used the ethnic minorities and the push for
multi-culturalism as a cover to stigmatise and eliminate Christianity from
our public life.
All of the negative factors mentioned above can be traced back to the
abandonment of faith in God and in particular of Christianity in our
society. Gods order for society is based on the family and the
responsibility of parents to care for their children and children to honour
their parents.
God tells us to think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever
is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable
(Philippians 4.8) not whatever is degrading and evil. In the days of Noah we
read how every imagination of the heart of man was only evil continually
and that as a result the earth was filled with violence (Genesis 6.5, 11).
Jesus said that in the last days of this age it would be as in the days of
Noah (Luke 17.26). Today peoples imagination is being corrupted leading to
acts of violence, by TV, rock music, computer games and drug taking.
The Bible teaches that we are all born with a sinful human nature which
causes us to turn away from God and to act selfishly, therefore children
need to be taught Gods truth and to be disciplined for their own good.
Secular humanism teaches that there is no God and no moral absolutes and
therefore man is the measure of all things. Today’s liberal humanist
establishment puts the blame for what is wrong on upbringing, on racism, on
the environment, on anything except the person responsible. According to
this world-view what is needed is to empathise with and understand anti
social and criminal behaviour rather than restrain and punish it.
Out of this lawlessness we see a society emerging, which is dominated by
anti-God values. In Psalm 2 we read of the nations in revolt against God in
the last days: Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his anointed (Messiah / Christ), saying, Let
us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. In other
words they are seeking to break out of what they imagine to be the
restraining influence of Biblical morality and do what they like.
This in turn will lead to the emergence of the Lawless One or the
Antichrist as the world leader in the last days of this age. For the
mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do
so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be
revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and
destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is
according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did
not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2.9-10)
As society breaks down into chaos the end result will be that people in
their terror at what is coming on the world will turn to an evil world ruler
who will promise peace and safety. However because he is the embodiment of
Satan he will in fact bring in the ultimate world dictatorship described in
Revelation 13.
The good news is that there is a way to be saved from all this. When Jesus
died on the cross he took the punishment for our sins and made the way for
all those who repent to receive forgiveness and eternal life. The last
person to turn to Jesus in faith during his earthly ministry was himself a
criminal. As he was dying on the cross he said, Jesus remember me when you
come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth, today
you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23.42-3).
