Saturday 24 December 2016

Christmas reflections "Brexit Corbyn Trump & Jesus" The Big Lie or the Better Land? Part 2




Good things often come in sets of three. Like the Magi's three gifts to Jesus at the first Christmas over 2000 years ago. Gold for a great King, frankincense for the ultimate Priest and myrhh for the complete healer.  And God Himself comes in three; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But bad things can also come in threes. And this  Christmas as we look back on 2016 I believe we can reflect on a set of three rather less propitious "gifts", pointing to rather more ominous outcomes-  three monumentally foolish electoral decisions :
  • Brexit pointing to potential disaster for our  country's economy;
  • The re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, pointing to potential electoral disaster for the Labour party (and in turn the disaster to social justice in this country another 9 years of conservative misrule would bring);
  •  Worst of all , the election of Vladimir Putin's friend Donald as US President , pointing to potential disaster for the whole world; world peace, the world's environment, the world economy and the world's poor.




    








These were decisions in which I believe the majority (in Donald's case technically a minority) were deceived by big lies into voting in a way that will ultimately be seriously harmful to themselves and the wider world.  As a bible believing Christian sadly I'm not surprised when people are taken in by such big lies. What saddens me most of all is that so many of my fellow bible believing Christians were deceived by such lies in these votes, especially in the worst of those decisions; the election of perhaps the most uniquely unsuited person ever to be elected to the most powerful position in the world;  Donald J Trump. He captured the votes of three quarters of white evangelical Christians, mainly it seems because of his newly adopted views on two "morality" issues- supporting tougher abortion laws and opposing gay marriage.  Yet on the first the bible says nothing directly and on the second it says little if anything. But the bible has plenty tosay on another morality issue- poverty and helping the poor.  Therefore, as far as the bible is concerned, these are much greater priorities to God than abortion or gay marriage, whatever view we may take on those two issues. So how come supposedly bible-believing Christians failed to exercise their votes according to biblical priorities, i.e. Gods priorities- to help the poor? How come they ended up voting as President a man whose policies threaten to do the very opposite?
To destroy the lives of many thousands of the worlds poor by tearing up climate change agreements;
To oppose any refuge to the persecuted from Muslim countries (good to remember this Christmas time that Jesus himself was a middle east child refugee who fled persecution);
To destroy Obamacare with its offer of wider affordable healthcare for those Americans who could otherwise not afford it.
It is these sort of biblical morality issues that should have dictated how evangelicals voted.
So why were they so deceived? Ultimately they werent deceived by Donald Trump or by right wing preachers or even by Vladimir Putin's hacking of Democratic Party emails. Those people were just instruments of a much greater deceiver: the Father of Lies himself, Satan. Its been his mission to deceive the whole of mankind right from the start, a mission recent events show he continues to this day, with great success. But happily it is a mission that will ultimately fail.

Lets take it back to the beginning of human history. The bible teaches that from the very start humans were always susceptible to the big lie. Back in the Garden of Eden we had it so good. God had provided us with a beautiful place, supplying our every need.





But then along came Satan, the fallen angel, the Father of Lies. He twisted the truth about what God had offered them and the great liar told them it was God who was lying- deceiving them that they'd die if they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. No eat from it, he claimed, and they would be great and wise like God Himself. Dont listen to the voice of the establishment just trying to keep the best stuff for Himself. And so they were deceived into rebelling against God and eating from that tree, ignoring the warnings God had given them.

And just as He had warned them, when they ate from that tree they did start dying, morally spiritually and physically. And after the lie and the sin came the cover up; both literally and metaphorically, as Adam and Eve hid themselves from the Lords gaze. Then when He tracked them down there came the spin; trying to blame others for their own failings. And its been the way of humans ever since; the lies, the sin, the cover-up, the spin going round and round in a viscous circle. And after their fall from grace Adam and Eve were driven out of the beautiful land God had provided them into the much harsher land outside the Garden, where the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles and through painful toil you will eat food from it. (Genesis 3).  And thats how its been for us humans ever since; life is tough and hard (but much harder for some than others). 


And the Father of Lies, Satan, the one who spun the first lie that made us fall and drove us from the perfect land, is still active today. He "prowls around like an angry lion waiting for someone to devour  (1 Peter 5:8), with more of his lies. His mission remains the same- to create chaos and division so that men turn against God and each other so that we all suffer. To achieve this hes still spinning his lies in all aspects of our lives. And in our personal lives as in our politics we remain susceptible to those lies and often it's the biggest lies that we are most taken in by.

And these lies can cause good people to do bad things and intelligent people to do stupid things. Theyve certainly led me to make some bad and stupid decisions over the years (as my wife would no doubt tell you!)

One of the key lies that so deceived people in those three elections was the belief in the mythical better lands offered by the Brexiteers, Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump. Voters who were fed up with being lied to and getting what they felt was a raw deal desperately wanted a change, to be in a different better place than where they were right now. And so voted for something or someone that offered them that change, that better land, even though all the evidence suggested the land they would actually be taken to would be far worse.


I absolutely understand that longing for a better land. As a follower of Jesus I myself am looking for a better land, a better place I can put my hope in. Like all the other faith heads throughout history- Abraham, Moses and all the rest-  Im looking for that better country, the land Jesus promised He'll bring when He returns to earth. (See Hebrews 11). Its the restored Garden of Eden which Satans lies drove us from. This is the land John describes in Revelation 21, where there is no more pain or sadness but perpetual sunshine in a dazzling jewelled city, whose gates are open to men and women of all nations and where they will receive complete healing and know perfect peace.











Many would say that I've fallen for the biggest lie of all and that there's simply no evidence at all that the land I believe in ever can or will exist and that I'm just taking all this on blind faith, a much blinder faith even than those who believed in Brexit, Corbyn or Trump. After all, look around at what a mess we've made of the world. How can I really believe that such a perfect world can come out of something so broken, damaged and imperfect? Yes my belief in Jesus's better land is something I take on faith, but it's far from blind faith. In fact, Id say there's rather more evidence that the man I believe in - unlike the Brexiteers or Corbyn or Trump- can be trusted to deliver the better land he invites us to. Boris, Corbyn and Trump can't claim to have ever been to the better lands they believe in. No one ever has. But Jesus claims to have come from his better land- heaven- and to have gone back there. Its that land he promises to bring down to earth.      
           
But how do we know he even promised this better land let alone how he can deliver it? Well we have the four historical accounts of his words and actions in the gospels. Their historicity stands heads and shoulders above other ancient writings in the time intervals between events and writing and writing and earliest manuscripts and this in a society of strong oral tradition. These accounts record Jesus predicting five things: his execution, his rising from the dead after three days, the coming of his Holy Spirit, the destruction of Jerusalem within his generation and his eventual return in power to bring his kingdom in full.

The first four of those have all happened (or so us Christians believe) and they happened just when he said they would. The fifth of course has yet to happen and he was very clear about giving no predictions on the timescale of that one- only the Father in heaven knows when he will return. (Matthew 24:36) 

But really? Did those things really happen? The difficulty is we dont have proof for these things in the form that we are used to seeing proof, i.e. pictures, video or sound recordings. We are inured to not believing things until we have seen them with our own eyes. (Although at other times weirdly we are still so easily taken in). And that was true in Jesuss own time as well. Hence the demands by the Jewish authorities for a visible sign that Jesus was the Messiah he claimed to be. Even one of his own disciples, Thomas, said he wouldnt just take his friends word for Jesuss resurrection. He wanted to see Jesuss risen person in the flesh- nail marks and all. And in his rising from the dead and appearing to dozens of people, including Thomas- nail marks and all- Jesus did provide just that visible evidence at the time.

Of course, 2,000 years ago the technology didn’t exist to make a permanent visible record of these events. There were no cameras- still or video and no sound recorders. However, stuff did happen back then. The first century AD wasn’t a fantasy world. It was our world only 2,000 years earlier and so that means stuff that happened did leave visible marks we can see today, even if there weren’t any cameras around to capture the events. We know for example that Jerusalem fell and at about the time Jesus predicted because we can see the evidence for the destruction of Jerusalem in the historical writings from the time and the archaeological evidence.









It’s the same with the Jesus stuff. The very fact there are hundreds of millions of Christians throughout the whole world today is part of that visible evidence . Jesus’s existence and his execution by the Romans is a widely-acknowledged fact by historians. It’s recorded not just in the four gospels but by reputable secular historians of the time too, e.g. Josephus and Tacitus. But if the fall of Jerusalem were the only prediction that Jesus got right why would faith in him have survived his death? He was a leader of a small sect of a weird national religion of a small country in the backwater of the Roman empire (a country annihilated 30 years later).  If the Jesus stuff recorded in the gospels was all made up how did belief in him not just survive but thrive after his death? If Jesus just died on that cross why would his small band of (mostly) poorly educated followers give their lives to share his message which they themselves had seen to be a lie? This is very different for example to the origins of Islam where Mohammed himself when he died was a successful religious and political leader already, with an established large following. Jesus on the other hand left a small, frightened band of followers. They would have been just devastated by his ignominious death and defeat as a criminal on a cross- the ultimate sign of cursing in both Jewish and Roman eyes.


And how and why would his followers spread his message with such fervour that within a generation it had spread from that obscure backwater to virtually the whole empire? Even to the heart of Rome. If Jesus had just died on that cross surely his “religion” would have died with him? And without some miraculous divine power behind them how, without any worldly weapons, would this little band have spread faith in Him so widely and quickly? And don’t forget the message of Jesus from the outset has not just simply been about “love and peace”. It has absolutely been about love and peace, but love and peace based on one essential historical fact- Jesus’s death and resurrection. As the new testament writings show that has always been central to the Christian message right from the outset. If Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead then Peter and all the others who were sharing his message were just outrageous liars who pulled off one of the biggest con tricks in history. Well of course we know history is littered with outrageous liars starting from the Garden of Eden right up to Donald Trump m. But, as is recorded in Roman writings at the time, what marked out the early Christians was not being outrageous lairs but being good, moral and loving people. It just doesn’t fit with their character. And anyway why would Peter and his mates have fabricated this big lie? What did they have to gain? They certainly didn’t get rich through it (unlike some outrageous American TV evangelists today!) and most of them died quite horrible deaths for their faith. Again it doesn’t fit.








With the “better lands” offered by the Brexiteers, Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump people had an opportunity to vote. However in each of those cases I would be astonished if those who voted for these promised “better lands” will end up in any places remotely like them. I think it will be like they had bought tickets for the holiday of a lifetime only to find their hotel in the middle of a noisy building site, the food gives them salmonella and it rains every day.

But the greatest lies that the Father of Lies weaves are about Jesus. He knows that Jesus offers humankind's one way back to Eden and he's pretty annoyed about that.  He must have been rubbing his hands with glee and congratulating himself when he saw Jesus up there on that cross. Through the lies he'd spun to the Jewish people he'd got them to turn against God's Son and their Messiah, Jesus. When Pilate put the decision to them they literally voted to nail him to that cross. (Mark 15:13/14)(Perhaps the first and greatest success Satan had at deceiving voters). 
Surely God's never going to forgive them now! he must have thought. Mankind will all be doomed. He'd  literally killed off God's master plan to rescue us, wasn't he clever? But then it turned out that he the great deceiver had himself been "deceived". What he'd thought as the ultimate defeat of God's rescue plan for us was in fact God's victory. Satan himself had helped bring about the very result that God wanted- not to see His son elected King of the Jews and then the world (not yet)- but to nail him to that cross- to pay the price for our sin so that we could be reconciled with God and could return to "the better land". the Garden of Eden. (Just as Isaiah had predicted in his chapter 53 hundreds of years earlier). All this left Satan with was his mission of making sure as few people as possible believed in Jesus and what he'd achieved, so that they missed out on God's salvation. And the way he still seeks to do that is by what he's always been best at; lies:
Jesus was a myth;
Jesus was real but it was so long ago we cant know what the truth about him was;
Jesus might be true but I'm not one of those religious types so he's not for me;
Jesus just wanted us all to be nice and I'm nice (well mostly) so I'm following Jesus anyway, aren't I?;
the Jesus stuff might be true but I'm young and enjoying myself-I'll get back to him when I'm older;
he might be true but I'm too busy with my job and my family I'll think about it when I've got more time;
 I'm told old for big change now; I just want to relax and enjoy my retirement....

And then suddenly- time's up! Either our life ends, probably not at a time of our choosing, or Jesus returns. Either way the veil of any deception will be lifted and he will be revealed as King of the universe- "every eye will see him" (Revelation 1:7) and "at the name of Jesus every knee... bow...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.." (Philippians 2:10/11) But sadly not everyone will then be  welcomed into his Kingdom. Everyone is invited, but those who have had the opportunity to accept that invitation in this lifetime but refused or ignored it won't get a second chance. (John 3: 16-18).

With this“better land” promised by Jesus we all get an opportunity to vote for it. Only this time the electorate is everyone, whatever age and nationality. Unlike with the other elections I believe this “better land” is coming whatever percentage of us vote for it. But by choosing him and voting for the better land he promises we are guaranteeing ourselves citizenship in that better land of Revelation 21. It’s a bit like if in the EU referendum by voting remain we were choosing whether we as individuals would be an “EU citizen” or by voting leave we would become “an independent UK citizen”. Sadly, as with the EU referendum, many will not voteat all. They will decide not to decide.  But unlike the referendum this is not something that we can just leave to others to decide and it’s a decision that is far more important even than whether we remain in or leave the European Union. It will affect our eternal destiny and whether or not we will spend eternity as a citizen of the beautiful ultimate better land of the new Jerusalem that Jesus will eventually bring to earth. If we don’t make a decision then like those who didn’t vote in the referendum, we’re choosing to be given a result by default. Effectively we’re voting ourselves out of his better land.
Unlike with the referendum we don’t have just one moment in time to cast our ballot. We get potentially many moments- our entire life. The trouble is  we just don’t know how long that will be. It could be fifty years, it could be ten years. It could be ten minutes. Some people invest an awful lot of time investigating the evidence and arguments before they exercise their vote in an election like the referendum. (I know I did myself!) But how much time do you spend investigating the evidence and arguments before deciding whether you will “vote” for Jesus and the “better land” he offers? And yet that’s a decision which will not just affect our lives for the next 5, 10 or even 50 years but for the whole of eternity. Isn’t it worth examining the evidence around that?- before we either dismiss it all as just another “big lie” or don’t bother voting at all and by default risk missing out on our ticket to the one truly better land? Isn’t this something  that truly is worth reflecting on this Christmas- to ponder its’ real meaning? After all we can’t do anything about Brexit or Donald Trump and how those events will affect us over the coming years and decades. But if Jesus’s claims are true we can do something to affect our own eternal destiny. Over 2,000 years ago the Magi travelled from a distant land to earnestly seek and find the heavenly King. Will we do the same? And thereby find our way to his truly better land?




 

Sunday 18 December 2016

“Brexit, Corbyn, Trump and Jesus" 2016 and beyond- believing in a better land or the bigger lie? Part Two


















This Christmas as we look back on 2016 I believe we can reflect on some monumentally foolish electoral decisions. There might be better things to reflect on (more on that later), but these are my own foolishness ratings out of 10 for three of those decisions:
  • ·         The Brexit vote- 9;
  • ·         The re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader- 7;
  •       The election of Vladimir Putin's friend Donald as US President -10.





    








These were decisions in which I believe the majority (in Donald's case technically a minority) were deceived by big lies into voting in a way that will ultimately be seriously harmful to both themselves and the wider world.   As a bible believing Christian sadly I'm not surprised when people are taken in by such big lies. What saddens me most of all is that so many of my fellow bible believing Christians have been deceived by such lies in these vote, especially the election of Donald Trump, who captured the votes of three quarters of white evangelical Christians. Thank you Lord Jesus for President Trump read the placards. Why thank Jesus, I thought, for something gifted by Satan? But then most white American evangelicals (in my view) have been deceived in their politics for decades now.

They voted in their droves for Donald Trump mainly because of his supposedly Christian stance on two moral issues;  abortion and gay marriage. And sadly for too many evangelicals these are the only moral issues that really seem to concern them when it comes to their politics. Yet the bible says nothing at all directly about abortion and makes few direct references to homosexual relationships. And both are subjects upon which Jesus himself said nothing.  But the bible and Jesus himself have plenty to say on another moral issue- poverty and helping the poor.  Therefore, as far as the bible is concerned, these are much greater priorities to God than abortion or gay marriage, whatever view we may take on those issues. So how come supposedly bible-believing Christians failed to exercise their votes according to biblical priorities, i.e. Gods priorities- to help the poor? How come they end up voting as a President a man whose policies threaten to do the very opposite?- to destroy the lives of many thousands of the worlds poor by tearing up climate change agreements, to oppose any refuge to the persecuted from Muslim countries and to destroy Obamacare with its offer of wider affordable healthcare for those who could otherwise not afford it? It is these things and not Donald's newly-adopted belief in tighter abortion laws or opposing gay marriage that should have dictated how evangelicals voted. So why were they so deceived? Ultimately they werent deceived by Donald Trump or by right wing preacher or even by Vladimir Putin's hacking of Democratic Party emails. Those people were just instruments of a much greater deceiver: the Father of Lies himself, Satan. Its been his mission to deceive the whole of mankind right from the start, a mission recent events show he continues to this day, with great success. But happily it is a mission that will ultimately fail.

Lets take it back to the beginning of human history. The bible teaches that from the very start humans were always susceptible to the big lie. Back in the Garden of Eden we had it so good. God had provided us with a beautiful place, supplying our every need.







But then along came Satan, the fallen angel, the Father of Lies. He twisted the truth about what God had offered them and the great liar told them it was God who was lying- deceiving them that they'd die if they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. No eat from it, he claimed, and they would be great and wise like God Himself. Dont listen to the voice of the establishment just trying to keep the best stuff for Himself. And so they were deceived into rebelling against God and eating from that tree, ignoring the warnings God had given them.

And just as He had warned them, when they ate from that tree they did start dying, morally spiritually and physically. And after the lie and the sin came the cover up; both literally and metaphorically, as Adam and Eve hid themselves from the Lords gaze. Then when He tracked them down there came the spin; trying to blame others for their own failings. And its been the way of humans ever since; the lies, the sin, the cover-up, the spin going round and round in a viscous circle. And after their fall from grace Adam and Eve were driven out of the beautiful land God had provided them into the much harsher land outside the Garden, where the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles and through painful toil you will eat food from it. (Genesis 3).  And thats how its been for us humans ever since; life is tough and hard (but much harder for some than others). 


And the Father of Lies, Satan, the one who spun the first lie that made us fall and drove us from the perfect land, is still active today. He "prowls around like an angry lion waiting for someone to devour  (1 Peter 5:8), with more of his lies. His mission remains the same- to create chaos and division so that men turn against God and each other so that we all suffer. He just loves to see us suffer. And hes probably more angry and hateful towards us than ever when he thinks- what was so special about them that God sent his only son to die for them?  Hes still spinning his lies in all aspects of our lives. And in our personal lives as in our politics we remain susceptible to those lies and often it's the biggest lies that we are most taken in by.


And these lies can cause good people to do bad things and intelligent people to do stupid things. Theyve certainly led me to do some bad and stupid things over the years- including how I voted in the 2010 election, as well as plenty of bad or stupid things in my personal life (as my wife would no doubt tell you!). Such lies certainly deceived many good an intelligent people in these recent votes.  Like my cousin, a very intelligent University lecturer from South Wales, who voted for Brexit. He lives in a forgotten rust belt of a region. But its a region that is a net recipient of EU funds and has low EU immigration levels and he himself earns his living from the academic sector which relies heavily on EU support in both research and people.  Whatever problems South Wales or he himself face, by what logic could he have reached the conclusion that leaving the EU could do anything except make things worse for both him and the people around him? Its clear to me that like so many in the EU referendum he was just taken in by the leave campaigns lies that made him hope and vote for a mythical better land that is simply never going to exist. It doesnt make him or the rest of the 52% bad or stupid people. Just weak and fallible human beings, like all of us, susceptible to lies, especially the big ones.












As a follower of Jesus I myself am looking for a better land, a better place I can put my hope in. Like all the other faith heads throughout history- Abraham, Moses and all the rest-  Im looking for that better country, the land Jesus promised He'll bring when He returns to earth. (See Hebrews 11). Its the restored Garden of Eden which Satans lies drove us from. This is the land John describes in Revelation 21, where there is no more pain or sadness but perpetual sunshine in a dazzling jewelled city, whose gates are open to men and women of all nations and where they will receive complete healing and know perfect peace.











Many would say that I've fallen for the biggest lie of all and that there's simply no evidence at all that the land I believe in ever can or will exist and that I'm just taking all this on blind faith, a much blinder faith even than those who believed in Brexit, Corbyn or Trump. After all, look around at what a mess we've made of the world. How can I really believe that such a perfect world can come out of something so broken, damaged and imperfect? Yes my belief in Jesus's better land is something I take on faith, but it's far from blind faith. In fact, Id say there's rather more evidence that the man I believe in - unlike the Brexiteers or Corbyn or Trump- can be trusted to deliver and that the better land he invites us to does or will exist. Boris, Corbyn and Trump can't claim to have ever been to the better lands they believe in. No one ever has. But Jesus claims to have come from his better land- heaven- and to have gone back there. Its that land he promises to bring down to earth.      
           
But how do we know He even promised this better land let alone how He can deliver it? Well we have the four historical accounts of his words and actions in the gospels. Their historicity stands heads and shoulders above other ancient writings in the time intervals between events and writing and writing and earliest manuscripts and this in a society of strong oral tradition. These accounts record Jesus predicting five things: his execution, his rising from the dead after three days, the coming of his Holy Spirit, the destruction of Jerusalem within his generation and his eventual return in power to bring his kingdom in full.

The first four of those have all happened (or so us Christians believe) and they happened just when he said they would. The fifth of course has yet to happen and he was very clear about giving no predictions on the timescale of that one- only the Father in heaven knows when he will return. (Matthew 24:36) 

But really? Really did those things happen? The difficulty is we dont have proof for these things in the form that we are used to seeing proof, i.e. pictures, video or sound recordings. We are inured to not believing things until we have seen them with our own eyes. Its part of our human instinct. After all ever since Edengate we have a history of being deceived which makes us naturally sceptical until we have seen it with our own eyes.  (Although at other times weirdly we are still so easily taken in). And that was true in Jesuss own time as well. Hence the demands by the Jewish authorities for a visible sign that Jesus was the Messiah he claimed to be. Even one of his own disciples, Thomas, said he wouldnt just take his friends word for Jesuss resurrection. He wanted to see Jesuss risen person in the flesh- nail marks and all. And in his rising from the dead and appearing to dozens of people, including Thomas- nail marks and all- Jesus did provide just that visible evidence at the time.

Of course, 2,000 years ago the technology didn’t exist to make a permanent visible record of these events. There were no cameras- still or video and no sound recorders. However, stuff did happen back then. The first century AD wasn’t a fantasy world. It was our world only 2,000 years earlier and so that means stuff that happened did leave visible marks we can see today, even if there weren’t any cameras around to capture the events like you can today. We know Jerusalem fell and at about the time Jesus predicted because we can see the evidence for the destruction of Jerusalem in the historical writings from the time and the archaeological evidence. We also know the Jews were disbursed throughout Europe and as people still living today can testify (and was filmed) they did not return to their previous land until just after the second world war.















It’s the same with the Jesus stuff. The very fact there are hundreds of millions of Christians today throughout the whole world is part of the visible evidence for the Jesus events. Jesus’s existence and his execution by the Romans is a widely-acknowledged fact by historians. It’s recorded not just in the four gospels but by reputable secular historians of the time too, e.g. Josephus and Tacitus. But if the fall of Jerusalem were the only prediction that Jesus got right why would faith in him have survived his death? He was a leader of a small sect of a weird national religion of a small country in the backwater of the Roman empire (a country annihilated 30 years later).  If the Jesus stuff recorded in the gospels was all made up how did belief in Him not just survive but thrive after his death? If Jesus just died on that cross why would his small band of (mostly) poorly educated followers give their lives to share his message which they themselves had seen to be a lie? This is very different for example to the origins of Islam where Mohammed himself when he died was a successful religious and political leader already, with an established large following. Jesus on the other hand left a small, frightened band of followers. They would have been just devastated by his ignominious death and defeat as a criminal on a cross- the ultimate sign of cursing in both Jewish and Roman eyes.


And how and why would his followers spread his message with such fervour that within a generation it had spread from that obscure backwater to virtually the whole empire? Even to the heart of Rome. If Jesus had just died on that cross surely his “religion” would have died with him? And without some miraculous divine power behind them how, without any worldly weapons, would this little band have spread faith in Him so widely and quickly? And don’t forget the message of Jesus from the outset has not just simply been about “love and peace”. It has absolutely been about love and peace, but love and peace based on one essential historical fact- Jesus’s death and resurrection. As the new testament writings show that has always been central to the Christian message right from the outset. If Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead then Peter and all the others who were sharing his message were just outrageous liars who pulled off one of the biggest con tricks in history. Well of course we know history is littered with outrageous liars starting from the Garden of Eden right up to Donald Trump and the Brexiteers. But, as is recorded in Roman writings at the time, what marked out the early Christians was not being outrageous lairs but being good, moral and loving people. It just doesn’t fit with their character. And anyway why would Peter and his mates have fabricated this big lie? What did they have to gain? They certainly didn’t get rich through it (unlike some outrageous American TV evangelists today!) and most of them died quite horrible deaths for their faith. Again it doesn’t fit.















With the “better lands” offered by the Brexiteers, Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump people had an opportunity to vote. (Well if you were part of the electorate for those contests- in the Brexit vote there were plenty of 16 and 17 year olds who were pretty annoyed that they didn’t get an opportunity to vote a different way to the result we got). And of course with Trump outside of the USA no one got a vote before he was thrust upon the world. In each of those cases I would frankly be astonished if those who voted for these promised “better lands” will end up in any places remotely like them. I think it will be like they had bought tickets for the holiday of a lifetime only to find their hotel in the middle of a noisy building site, the food gives them salmonella and it rains every day.

But the greatest lies that the Father of Lies weaves are about Jesus. He knows that Jesus offers humankind's one way back to Eden and he's pretty annoyed about that.  He must have been rubbing his hands with glee and congratulating himself when he saw Jes
us up there on that cross. Through the lies he'd spun to the Jewish people he'd got them to turn against God's Son and their Messiah, Jesus. When Pilate put the decision to them they literally voted to nail him to that cross. (Mark 15:13/14)(
Perhaps the first and greatest success Satan had at deceiving voters). 
Surely God's never going to forgive them now! he must have thought. Mankind will all be doomed. He'd  literally killed off God's master plan to rescue us, wasn't he clever? But then it turned out that he the great deceiver had himself been "deceived". What he'd thought as the ultimate defeat of God's rescue plan for us was in fact God's victory. Satan himself had helped bring about the very result that God wanted- not to see His son elected King of the Jews and then the world (not yet)- but to nail him to that cross- to pay the price for our sin so that we could be reconciled with God and could return to "the better land". the Garden of Eden. (Just as Isaiah had predicted in his chapter 53 hundreds of years earlier). All this left Satan with was his mission of making sure as few people as possible believed in Jesus and what he'd achieved, so that they missed out on God's salvation. And the way he still seeks to do that is by what he's always been best at; lies:
Jesus was a myth;
Jesus was real but it was so long ago we cant know what the truth about him was;
Jesus might be true but I'm not one of those religious types so he's not for me;
Jesus just wanted us all to be nice and I'm nice (well mostly) so I'm following Jesus anyway, aren't I?;
the Jesus stuff might be true but I'm young and enjoying myself-I'll get back to him when I'm older; he might be true but I'm too busy with my job and my family I'll think about it when I've got more time;
 I'm told old for big change now; I just want to relax and enjoy my retirement....

And then suddenly- time's up! Either our life ends, probably not at a time of our choosing, or Jesus returns. Either way the veil of any deception will be lifted and he will be revealed as King of the universe- "every eye will see him" (Revelation 1:7) and "at the name of Jesus every knee... bow...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.." (Philippians 2:10/11) But sadly not everyone will then be  welcomed into his Kingdom. Everyone is invited, but those who have had the opportunity to accept that invitation in this lifetime but refused or ignored it won't get a second chance. (John 3: 16-18).



With this“better land” promised by Jesus we all get an opportunity to vote for it. Only this time the electorate is everyone, whatever age and nationality. Unlike with the other elections I believe this “better land” is coming whatever percentage of us vote for it. But by choosing him and voting for the better land he promises we are guaranteeing ourselves citizenship in that better land of Revelation 21. It’s a bit like if in the EU referendum by voting remain we were choosing whether we as individuals would be an “EU citizen” or by voting leave we would become “an independent UK citizen”. (In fact, there has been recent talk that pro-Europeans like myself might be able to apply for European citizenship, although I don’t see how you could have the full benefits of being an EU citizen living in a non-EU country- would the EU citizens pay a cheaper tariff-free price for our French cheeses or German cars?). Sadly, as with the EU referendum, many will not vote exercise their vote at all. They will decide not to decide.  But unlike the referendum this is not something that we can just leave to others to decide and it’s a decision that is far more important even than whether we remain in or leave the European Union. It will affect our eternal destiny and whether or not we will spend eternity as a citizen of the beautiful ultimate better land of the new Jerusalem that Jesus will eventually bring to earth. If we don’t make a decision then, like those who didn’t vote in the referendum, we’re choosing to be given a result by default. Effectively we’re voting ourselves out of his better land.
Unlike with the referendum we don’t have just one moment in time to cast our ballot. We get potentially many moments- our entire life. The trouble is  we just don’t know how long that will be any more than we know when Jesus will return. It could be fifty years, it could be ten years. It could be ten minutes. Some people invest an awful lot of time investigating the evidence and arguments before they exercise their vote in an election like the referendum . (I know I did myself!) But how much time do you spend investigating the evidence and arguments before deciding whether you will “vote” for Jesus and the “better land” he offers? And yet that’s a decision that will not just affect our lives for the next 5, 10 or even 50 years but for the whole of eternity. Isn’t it worth examining the evidence around that?- before we either dismiss it all as just another “big lie” or don’t bother voting at all and by default risk missing out on our ticket to the one truly better land? Isn’t this something  that truly is worth reflecting on this Christmas- to ponder its’ real meaning? After all we can’t do anything about Brexit or Donald Trump and how those events will affect us over the coming years and decades. But if Jesus’s claims are true we can do something to affect our own eternal destiny. Over 2,000 years ago the Magi travelled from a distant land to earnestly seek and find the heavenly King. Will we do the same? And thereby find our way to his truly better land?


 

Saturday 3 December 2016

“Brexit, Corbyn, Trump and Jesus" Believing in a better land or the bigger lie? Part 1


2016 has been a year for shocking, subversive election results (or monumentally  stupid, as some might describe them). Weve had a hat trick of such electoral decisions:

·       in June the Brexit vote;
          in September the re-election of  Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader (OK less of a shock but still subversive);
     then in November the unthinkable- the election as US President of one Donald J. Trump.
















It  was only Michael Goves knives in the back that prevented a fourth- the appointment of Boris Johnson as our Prime Minister. And what a fine matching pair of bombastic blonde bombshells he and Trump would have made as leaders of the United States and United Kingdom! (However, then we would have lost Boriss unique skills as our Foreign Security going round the world to make friends and influence people to help secure all those valuable post-Brexit trade deals).













I pose three questions:
  • ·         What can we learn from these three iconoclastic election results?
  •       What, if anything, do they have in common?
  •       And what on earth (or in heaven) do they have to do with Jesus Christ?

Lets take them in order of chronology (as opposed to sagacity).

Brexit, Brexit, Brexit. Even 6 months after the referendum we still have little clue what this will mean for us all, beyond Brexit mean Brexit (thanks for those insightful words Theresa!). It is clear what sort of Brexit most of the country and government would like: the sort of Brexit that leave voters were promised in the referendum campaign- complete control of our laws and borders but with free trade with Europe (and the rest of the world), whilst saving us billions in club membership fees. A win, win situation for us. A kind of pain free divorce where having walked out on our partner we somehow take the house, the car and all the other assets.  And why not? After all they owe us. We saved Europe from Hitler 70 years ago (ok with a bit help from the yanks). Its now pay back time and time for Britain to be great again. Dont listen to those niggardly naysayers who say otherwise. After all the economic sky over Britain hasnt fallen in after the referendum, contrary to what some doomsayers predicted (rest in peace Dave and George). All we need to do is have a bit of faith in ourselves as a country and, as our brilliant Foreign Secretary says, well make a Titanic success of Brexit.

I guess it all depends on how you define success. Does it include striking a giant iceberg and sinking an unsinkable ship, Boris? Because thats the sort of success that Brexit is likely to bring us.  The only reason why Brexit hasnt done us too much damage so far (beyond the fallen pound) is that it hasnt happened yet and may not for at least another two years. But if you look up at the skies the storm clouds are gathering . Our nasty neighbours have already made clear that the sort of Brexit wed like just isnt going to be on offer to us: its free movement and free trade. (They have to take a hard line with us to prevent Brexit being followed by Frexit and Nexit and the whole EU project falling apart). So free movement and free trade must come as a package. And if we want that package well still have to pay the club membership fees and still have to follow most of the club rules. Only this time well have no say over those rules as well no longer be a proper club member.

But then who needs Europe to trade freely with when weve got the rest of the world? Hmm and hows that international trade charm offensive going then Boris and Liam? Not too well I hear. India and the USA are two of the biggest prizes. India have just told our Prime Minister that theyre not interested in more trade links unless we ease up on immigration. Not more bloody free movement for free trade nonsense! Isnt that why we left Europe? And America? Well after the election of a US President whos made it his mission to tear up America's "damaging" free trade deals, I dont think we can expect too many rich pickings there. The cold reality is slowly dawning that, rather than being a win, win situation, Brexit will be a lose, lose situation, just as us pessimistic poo-pooers had warned during the Referendum. The only way to avoid hitting the iceberg will be to sign up to the European single market  (or something very similar) with all the stuff that brings which most had voted to leave behind; free movement, EU laws and membership fees. The alternative is being shut outside from our immediate trading neighbours with whom we do half of our trade; big tariffs barriers and more not less red tape for businesses trading with Europe. If we choose to remain outside all serious economists predict we will lose us tens of billions of pound a year in business and tax revenues and hundreds of thousands of jobs. And the rest of the world, Im afraid, isnt going to be our salvation, because they dont feel they owe us a living any more than Europe does. All this was exactly what nearly all the experts economists, businessmen and academics had warned us would happen. But the public (or 52% of them) chose to ignore them.

So why did the 52% vote for this economic car crash? I think the best answer was probably seen in one of the leave campaigns posters. No not the horrible racist one showing the mass migration hoardes that leaving the EU would protect us one. A much more reasonable and aspirational slogan- Take our country back. When I read that I thought, hmm, but take our country back where and when? Back to Europe and a world as it was in 1972? But that world doesnt exist anymore. And I realised no, its much more aspirational than that: they wanted to take us back to a mythical place and time that only really exists in peoples minds. A place and time where Britain is great again and free”: free from the enslaving shackles of the EU, free to limit our immigration to 10,000s a year, free to be the greatest manufacturing nation in the world again. And I do think that most of the Leave campaigners actually believed in this better land, this mythical place they were striving for. (Probably not Boris; he just saw it as his best way of becoming Prime Minister). And I think its that vision of a better land that the 52% bought into.


So many people had felt the country had forgotten them. In the once thriving industrial towns of Northern England and South Wales- our own rust belts- they saw the southerners who had done well out of  our Euro-centric Britain, epitomised by  the financial fat cats in the City. You know the ones who crashed the economy and brought us all this austerity (Or was that new Labour? All in it together no doubt- some truth in that!). At the same time they were left behind in crappy zero hours jobs, struggling to make ends meet and seeing our NHS and other public services increasingly falling apart, as (so they saw it) they strained under the weight of all that European immigration. That immigration and its cheap labour might be good for some businessmen, but it was no good for us ordinary folk.  The leave campaign had seized on that discontent and offered them a vision of a better land where they would get a fairer share; no need to compete with EU immigrants driving down their wages and draining our public services and with £350 million a week more to invest in our NHS from membership fees saved. Oh and dont forget freedom from silly EU laws that even tell us the size of the bananas we can sell (We can be free to make our own silly laws instead).

Sadly, the people of this country were sold a lie. It went well beyond made up banana size laws and  the other mythical 75% of our laws that werent actually made in the EU (its about 13% in fact) or the big bus fib about the £350 million a week membership fees we could  re-invest into the NHS (its about a third of that and  nothing at all once the free trade benefits are factored in) or that the EU need us more than we need them because were a net importer (conveniently forgetting that for each EU country were only one of 27 EU nations they export to but for us were talking about our exports to a whole 27) or that EU migrants were a burden on our public services when actually they contribute more in revenue than they take out (unlike the many elderly UK citizens living in France and Spain who when they are sent home really are going to be a burden on us). Those lies were all part of it, but they were just materials being used to paint a much bigger lie; a picture of a better land that never existed and never will. It was a lie most of those peddling it may have believed themselves but it was a lie nonetheless. (And for which the Leave campaigns are currently facing possible prosecution for electoral fraud). The real country Brexit will leave us with will either be quite a lot poorer (and invariably when countries get poorer its the poorest that suffer most) or equally rich but with even less control over our own destiny (access to club facilities, but no say over the club rules we have to follow and still paying the same membership fees).

And so what about Jeremy Corbyn? Consistently he has been the most unpopular Labour leader ever, who has brought Labour its lowest ever opinion poll ratings in opposition. He has made a whole series of gaffes, which a hostile press have been ever keen to highlight, and in the eyes of many his lacklustre referendum performance contributed to the Brexit vote. On current projections he would lead Labour to their worst election defeat since 1931. 85% of his MPs and most of his cabinet members voted that they had no confidence in him, recognising that he was going to sink the boat. But Jeremy clung on to that boat like a belligerent barnacle and overwhelmingly the Labour members and supporters- 62% of them- voted to keep him as leader. I was one of those who had voted for him first time round, as I share most of the policies and principles he stands for. However, seeing what a disastrous leader hed been- lacking any of the basic skills needed to be party leader- I voted for his rival, Owen Smith.

So why was Jeremy re-elected? The answer I think again is that belief in a better land. Amongst  the Labour partys selectorate there was a widespread feeling that the New Labour establishment of the party had allowed  vested rich  interests  to get away with too much for too long, whilst others had been left behind. Despite the many good things the last Labour governments had done, they had too often served the interests of the rich elite against the interests of the majority and especially the poorest. This was seen especially  in their unquestioning embracing of far too much Thatcherite free market dogma, perhaps exemplified most in two things. The  opening up of our public services to private interests leaching profits from public money.  And their blind love affair with the City of London, which lead to the laxer regulation of financial services which contributed to the crash and the bankers' bailout and then budget deficits and austerity that followed it. What made this even more offensive was that far too many new Labour politicians (like their Conservative colleagues) were seen to have directly benefit from this privatising free marketeering of our public services, e.g. through sitting on the boards of too many privateering companies. New Labour was also seen to have borrowed the Tory clothes in another offensive way; through dishonest spin. This was exemplified most by sexing up the case for a totally unjustified invasion of Iraq. This led to the pointless deaths of many of our own servicemen and ultimately has been a spur to terrorism and an escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

Ultimately this was why, with hindsight, Jeremy Corbyns leadership rival never really stood a chance. He might have had more leadership skills and been more convincing to the wider electorate. However he was too easily seen by the Labour selectorate as tainted by his association with New Labour Old Establishment. Even though he had not even been a MP at the time of the last labour government, his previous employment by multi-national drug companies for many characterised him as on the side of the selfish privateers rather than the wider public interests.  We can throw in his pragmatic willingness as a parliamentary candidate in the noughties to be seen as behind rather than hostile to Tony Blair as the sitting Prime Minister. The fact that there were only two real policy differences between him and Jeremy (the EU and nuclear disarmament) in some ways only exacerbated the problem. To many it just made him look like a dishonest spin meister prepared to say anything to get elected. Yup New Labour Old Establishment just dressed up in new socialists clothing. No, were not falling for that one, most of the members decided. Jeremy has shown us the door to a better land of more honest politics leading to a Labour government, who will at last rule in the interests of the many, especially the poor and downtrodden. Jeremys the only one pure enough to lead us there, so were sticking with him.

And Jeremys loyal supporters convinced themselves of their own lie; the lie that Jeremy was capable of leading the party and winning over the wider electorate. They wrongly assumed that Jeremys ability to draw in mass crowds of supporters could translate to the wider electoral, who would somehow catch the same fever and fervour that had infected them. Jeremy even kidded them that Labour were ahead in the polls before his MPs rebelled. No they werent. In all but a couple of opinion polls since Jeremy became leader Labour had consistently been behind the Tories, significantly so in most cases. No opposition has ever won power from such a position. Sadly, the situation has of course only got worse since Jeremy was re-elected and all the evidence suggests that the only land Jeremy is capable of leading Labour to is an electoral wasteland.


And Donald Trump? A man with zero experience of political office, habitually rude and offensive, accused of sexual assault by a dozen woman, a billionaire whos paid zero income tax for years and who defrauded hundreds of students through his fake University. How did such a man get to be elected to the most powerful position in the world? Because for once here was an honest anti-political politician who cut the spin and tells it like it is? Tell like it is? He did anything but. He just told it like many wanted to believe it was. His whole campaign was founded on lies. The lie that human climate change is not a serious threat to the world, the lie that you can cut everyones taxes and massively increase investment by trillions without bankrupting the country, the lie that America is overrun by illegal Mexican immigrants (net immigration is actually falling), the lie that to stop that immigration he can build a wall and get the Mexicans to pay for it, the lie that you can just  tear up international free trade agreements without damaging the national and world economy, the lie that he can turn back the clock 40 years to revive long-dead industries, the lie that liberalising gun laws will make his country safer (rather than hugely more dangerous), the lie that giving sanctuary to Muslim refugees  puts his country at serious terrorist risk (theres far greater risk of getting killed by a toddler accidentally picking up their fathers gun). And the lie that his rivals misuse of email was a criminal offence or that he would lock her up for it.  A number of these declarations he has (thankfully) already

 backtracked on within days of his election.

So why did so many American voters fall for his lies? Because many felt forgotten for decades and given a bum deal by the establishment politicians (both Democrat and Republican). This was particularly seen in the rust belt states of the Mid West like Ohio and Michigan. Here they saw the traditional honest industries- ones that dug and made real stuff and which had been their regions economic lifeblood- left to rot. Meanwhile the country was seemingly flooded with cheap foreign imports and immigrants and seaboard cities grew rich on hi-tech and service industries, especially the dodgy financial services industry that through the crash had brought so much damage to America (and the world). And just as in our own country they felt the establishment politicians had repeatedly lied to them about the case for foreign military action dragging the country down by involvement in pointless foreign conflicts killing 100s of American servucemen and yet only increasing the terrorist threat they were fighting.
It was in those same regions that in the democratic primaries Bernie Sanders so trounced the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton with his radical socialist message. He promised a different, better land of increased investment, better welfare and healthcare, funded by hiking taxes on the rich. And he too promised to tear up some of those free trade agreements and halting American military interventions. One wonders if the Democrats had chosen him as their candidate whether instead of the most right wing President ever we might now be celebrating America's first socialist President.

 But the Democrats nominated the establishment figure Hillary Clinton as their candidate. And incredibly (or perhaps not so incredibly) in the forgotten rust belts many of the same voters who backed the socialist Sanders in the primaries leaped right over the political grand canyon and voted for the ultra right wing Donald Trump.
 And why did they do that? Again I think it's because like Bernie Sanders had done Donald Trump offered to the forgotten and left behind a vision of something that gave them hope; a better land they could believe in where their old industries and towns and prosperity would rise again like a Phoenix from the ashes. For he promised he would "make America great again". And yet that whole promise was based on lies; a totally unsustainable economic policy allied to narrow minded racism.

With all three of these political shocks I believe we can see similar processes at work. People who feel lied to, forgotten and left behind by the establishment and the powerful forces of big money and globalisation. This has made them feel sick to their back teeth with the establishment politicians. They want to give them a bloody nose to demonstrate the anger and despair they feel. At the same time they are desperately reaching out for something new, a change from the status quo they can believe in. They have been offered a vision of a better land where they will be given a better deal, a fairer share. But sadly I believe in all three cases they have voted for something, someone, some place that can never and will never exist. They thought they were voting for a better land. In reality I believe they just fell for a bigger lie. In the case of Brexit it was a lie that we could leave the EU and be a greater more prosperous freer country again,  by still having the benefits of free trade but without the shackles of eu immigration and rules. With the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn it was the lie that a man who had lost the confidence of nearly all his mps and with the worst ever poll ratings could lead the party to election victory. With Donald Trump it was the lie that such a dishonest and vile man could make the country great again and themselves more prosperous by a combination of totally unsustainable economic policies and narrow-minded xenophobia. In all three cases the irony was that it was the lies and deceptions of establishment politicians that had thrown them into the arms of even bigger lies.











As a bible believing Christian, sadly I'm not surprised when people are taken in by big lies. The bible teaches that from the very start humans were always susceptible to the big lie and ultimately they all have their origins in the first and greatest liar of them all, the Father of Lies. When it comes to lying he makes the likes of Tony, Nigel and Donald look like complete amateurs. But I believe there is one man and only one man who is entirely trustworthy. I believe he will eventually expose all lies (including our own) and will be a leader who finally will deliver the promised "better land".

... to be continued