Who will speak out for Truth!!!

Throughout my working life as a Police Detective I experienced lies and deception in our society not only among criminals but also by those in authority who were charged with upholding Justice and Truth. When I retired and became a Community Counsellor and School Governor I thought that had been put behind me but again I found lies and deceit in the management of my County Council. I became a Christian Pastor and I thought again all that had gone only to find that much of our Church history is coloured by lies, deceit and violence. I have come to the conclusion that Gods Laws have been opposed throughout history and are still being opposed at every level and in every organisation within society.

Nothing changes as we see our Politicians continue with this theme by making false expense claims, cash for questions and lying. Their behaviour often makes us despair and when we talk to young people about their view of many of our Political leader’s in our society they speak of hopelessness asking if we can ever change society.

We all know that we cannot trust anyone but God and that by expecting integrity and honesty in many of our leaders is often a false hope. We really do need to pray for our leaders.

This week Patrick Mercer, Conservative MP for Newark, who is already involved in a corruption scandal has been recorded on Camera abusing an Israeli soldier by calling her a “Bloody Jew”. Mr Mercer made the remark to a BBC reporter posing as a lobbyist in the investigation.

Mr Mercer told the reporter that when entering an “intelligence establishment” during a recent Israel visit and facing a security guard he said “there was an 18-year-old girl, wearing a uniform, with her sort of hair in plaits, and crazy jewellery and open-toed sandals, with a rifle up my nose,” He said he asked her “Who the f**k are you, you know? ‘Well I’m a soldier.’ Are you? You don’t look like a soldier to me. You look like a bloody Jew,”

Mr Mercer is clearly antisemitic and should be dealt with by Parliament for the remarks he made. Many of us have written to our MP’s to ask for them to raise this matter in Parliament but our replies show that Parliament appears to be dealing with the corruption but not  the antisemitism which frankly is just as serious and particularly to the young soldier .

So who is actually speaking out and demanding truth in our Government. Well you may say the twenty Six Bishops of The House of Lords would be the voice of truth in Parliament. Not so!!! The House of Commons and The House of Lords have just debated the proposed legislation for same sex marriage. In The Lords some of Bishops raised mute objections to the Act going through Parliament but I didn’t hear any strong words of opposition based on the truth of Scripture. I can only describe the arguments I heard from a minority of the Bishops who opposed the Bill as a recital of political correctness and apathetic regard to The Word of God. I heard no passionate arguments for Scripture to be considered and I heard nothing which could even remotely be compared to the writings in the Gospels or any of Paul’s letters. The sermons of Passionate Church leaders of the early years of last century leave the watered down speeches of our Bishops on this matter standing. Men who are called to be advocates of God failed to deliver on truth and failed to inspire any true Christian to follow them.    

These men would argue all day long that the non scriptural position of Bishop should not be taken by women who in Biblical terms were ministers just as much as men in the first century (Junia-Great amongst the Apostles-Romans 16 v 7). They however refused to argue for scripture last week and on Friday issued the following statement through the Bishop of Leicester, who is the Convenor of the Lords Spiritual;

“Both Houses of Parliament have now expressed a clear view by large majorities on the principle that there should be legislation to enable same-sex marriages to take place in England and Wales.
“It is now the duty and responsibility of the Bishops who sit in the House of Lords to recognise the implications of this decision and to join with other members in the task of considering how this legislation can be put into better shape”

This means they will compromise with sin and work with the secular Politicians on the Biblical principal of marriage.

The issue for me is not the matter of Same Sex marriage, although I am totally opposed to that. I also don’t believe we should be married under the Laws of man but under Gods laws, which are not in any statute in Parliament but in the Bible. My issue is that those charged with the duty to speak out don’t and if you can’t do so as a Christian leader then you are in the wrong ministry.

In our congregation in position as an elder we have the granddaughter of an amazing man of God, Charles Buckley, who ministered with Smith Wigglesworth. Our lady elder is small petite and gentle in Spirit. She serves tirelessly in every role from the kitchen to making spiritually important decisions in the Church and does so humbly and with such Grace. She takes into her home those who need comfort and she is a true example of a Christian leader. She is passionate for the word of God and if that is ever disregarded she is fearless in her advocacy for truth and not afraid of man or political correctness. This is the type of Christian we are called to be and it is a shame the Bishops don’t follow such as this Elder.    

This leads me to my final point which is that of the situation The Church finds itself in regarding Israel and her right to exist and to defend herself. In the early part of last century Christian men and women prayed fought for and risked all to help the establishment of Israel. Balfour, Shaftsbury, Lt. Colonel John Henry Patterson,  Jabotinsky, Wingate,  Rees Howells and so many others stood out of the crowd and in faith in Gods promises to the Jews and spoke out valiantly with passion for the re-establishment of Israel as the promised homeland for the Jewish people.

Today we hear of Churches speaking out against Israel, Churches calling for a Palestinian state, individual Church leaders calling for Boycotts. These men and women are speaking against the very word of God. Who then do we rely on in our government to be a voice against these heresies? We can’t rely on our Bishops to stand up for simple truths, never mind stand up for the amazing prophecies concerning Israel. So we all need to stand up and be counted.

We can be encouraged that in all this there are the prophecies that show us that one day there will be a Government in Jerusalem under the leadership of the Messiah who will not allow anyone to break the laws of God. The nation of Israel will be a voice for the word of God and with their Messiah ensure that Gods word will be kept in spirit and truth as we should be doing today. Micah 4 verse 2 says “The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem so let us get some practice in now and speak out for the Laws of God because if we don’t our leaders certainly won’t.

Michael Fryer