A Ladder to Heaven. But Which One?

Just this morning, I was at Sainsbury's to buy the morning paper, and as I made my way to the annexed Starbucks Coffee, I heard my name called out. I turned to see my father-in-law at the checkout, and I paused for a moment and asked him to join me once he was through paying for his items.

As expected, he did not sit with me, for his wife sat in the car parked outside, waiting for him to return. But he paused long enough to ask how I was able to cope with my wife's constant symptoms of recurring pain, discomfort and distress. I admitted that yes, these are challenging times, living on a constant knife-edge, not knowing when her pain may suddenly erupt as having a neurological disorder, such is always imminent.

But I was able to answer that our trust in God's mercy and goodness is vital to the health of our marriage. Indeed, it was no accident or mere coincidence that on our wedding day, the ceremony included a song that has the first line reading, Father God, I wonder how I managed to exist without the knowledge of your parenthood and your loving care... 

Father God was one of our wedding songs. Signing the Register.

It's been like this for several years. At first, such painful eruptions caused panic to grip my emotions, and I would dial for an ambulance. The routine was always the same. The ambulance took us to the hospital's A&E department. We would then be handed over to Reception, who assigned my wife to a vacant bed in one of the cubicles. Then she had her blood and urine tested, possibly an X-ray, then connected to a catheter for an intravenous feed of paracetamol or even morphine. Then, once the pain had subsided, she was discharged, and we had to call a taxi to take us home. In all, up to six hours of our day were wasted.

Fortunately, such calls are becoming rare. We now have three powerful painkillers for home treatment. However, no matter how much I may indulge in self-pity, feeling anger toward God, my faith in Him still remains strong. And that was what I replied to my father-in-law at Starbucks.

At times, I find it amazing how things take their turn as the days pass. This week was quite eventful. One incident made me feel astonished. Another made me fume! The source of both was Facebook. The first, which astonished me, was learning how the Russian President Vladimir Putin was encouraged by the Russian Orthodox Church's equivalent of the Bishop of Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, to take back Ukraine and reunite it as part of one God's Russian family. The other issue, the one which made me fume, was our Home Secretary Priti Patel's TV admission that visa requirements to enter the UK was needed due to Brexit.

I'll take a look into Patel's admission. According to The Daily Mail of Saturday, April 9th, a column is written by three journalists, Tom Witherow, David Barrett and Inderdeep Bains, comparing Britain issuing just 12,500 visas out of 46,600 applications submitted - to that "horrible EU" country, Germany. While just 1,200 Ukrainians so far had arrived safely in Britain, in Germany, 300,000 war refugees had found safety. In turn, Poland, also in the EU, has 1,975,500 Ukrainians, with 150,000 living in Krakow alone, Poland's second-largest city. To date, Hungary has around 140,000 Ukrainians.

Please don't get me wrong. Here in Britain, more than 200,000 homeowners have applied to take in a Ukrainian individual or family. That's approx 0.3% of the British population of 68,000,000. This shows how hospitable we Brits can be, although 0.3% looks small, this number still compares favourably with that of some EU countries. But as the layers of bureaucracy attached to UK entry stood in the way of easy entry for the war refugees, I wonder whether the European Union is really "the forerunner of Antichrist's kingdom" - as proposed by some Christian graduates I know personally, and thus, one good reason for them to vote for Brexit, the other two main reasons were for independent sovereignty and tighter border controls.

And about the other issue, a quote from Patriarch Kirill's blessing on Vladimir Putin, encouraging the invasion of Ukraine so to bring that independent nation back into the folds of God's Russian family. Here, I quote a portion of his speech most relevant:-

 "The Ladder of Divine Ascent is a framework for spiritual development, from the flesh of the novice on the first rung, through the acquisition of virtues through the ascetic life, and overcoming vices to ascend to the higher virtues and ultimately the final rung of the ladder, where is found peace and love which transcends all and passes understanding."

That was part of a quote from Patriarch Kirill to Vladimir Putin, giving his blessing for his invasion of Ukraine. I was astonished by that! In his speech, the name of Jesus was only mentioned once and that was at the end of his first paragraph of eight altogether. And it looks apparent that this Jesus died as a sacrifice for the sake of the nation in a political sense and not for the sin of mankind.

Patriarch Kirill is on our left.

Sad it is to say, Kirill's speech was not Christian at all but a heresy, and a dangerous one at that. As a former Catholic, I can identify Kirill's ladder of divine ascent to Rome's sacramental ladder to heaven, which consists of seven rungs: From birth - Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders - Heaven. This is very different from the Biblical justification by faith alone, the Righteousness of Christ imputed to the sinner by God's unmerited grace.

Indeed, Catholic salvation can be likened to a ladder. But since the days of the Reformation, Catholics and non-Catholics have been warring against each other over the past 400 years. Yet, despite this, I have a love and an affection for people in the Catholic faith, including my own brother and his three daughters. In the past, I have read plenty of literature about how those in non-Catholic or Protestant churches denounced Catholics for their salvation ladder. My wish is that all Catholics and non-Catholics, along with Eastern Orthodox churches know the Lord personally and experience salvation. And this makes me wonder: Non-Catholics who are in Heaven may have a shocking surprise to see plenty of Roman Catholics there as well. You see, the Lord is merciful. It's not his will that any should perish. All it takes for a Catholic is to believe in his heart that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, and the Catholic will be saved, regardless of whether he should pray to Mary or not.

Yet, despite the Lord's great mercy, it's this war between different churches that may motivate someone to say or write: We are the people. We are the ones called by God. We are the ones in tune with God. We are obeying God. We are doing his will. Churchgoers quibble between each other, the agnostic and the atheist turns away, a religious leader feeds the soul of a national leader, the same national leader nourishes his own ambitions and sends his forces to invade a neighbouring sovereign State. His ambition is to annex the State back into its fatherland and create a utopian dream of a unified Russia whose society would have matched the dream of Adolf Hitler - an Aryan State of pale-skinned, advanced civilisation. Hitler had ambitions. Putin still has his ambitions. But it's God who has the final say.

One other issue had drawn my attention. That is the stunning similarity between the ladders of religious faith and that of Charles Darwin's organic evolution, a long ladder from single-cell amoeba to humans. One spinoff from this theory is social evolution, including eugenics.

And so, for Putin to fulfil his dream of a utopian fatherland of Russia under the spiritual guidance of Kirill, a war must be fought with the bloodshedding of many, including families with children. It's such an ugly scene, yet it differed only in a philosophical sense from the pogrom imposed by the Nazis during the holocaust. To create a utopian society with or without God, anyone who doesn't fit in must be eliminated. Wherever out of disagreement, as with the Ukrainians' disagreement with the Russians over national sovereignty, or the Nazis' pogrom to eliminate all genetic and social inferiors unfit for an ideal society.

Oh, so contrary to the love of God for all mankind and the sacrifice of His beloved Son to fulfil this love. Also, no matter how evil Vladimir Putin is, he is still placed in the position of authority by God, and he's still loved by Him and desires for the President to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yea, I know. It's difficult to swallow! Yet, like Putin, the Roman emperor Nero was also evil, bad enough to murder his own family members to secure his position in Paul's day. Yet, the apostle still wrote that all should be in submission to all government authority, as all authority had always been established by God.* The apostle Peter too, instructed his readers to obey the law of the land, respect others, and honour the king.**

And so the war progresses without making any inroads, especially towards Kyiv. Fighters from both sides are injured, more of them die, and citizen blood is spilt. Russian weaponry is disabled. And Putin's ambition to take over Ukraine in a matter of days is thwarted. As the world turns, Putin sits in his office feeling more determined to win this war rather than admit defeat. Maybe his mind has already pondered whether he will be the victim of a coup -  or even be assassinated by someone in his own party. 

Yet, as we as a society despise the war, the sufferings, forced evacuation, the killings, the mass burial graves, indeed, don't we also shrink away from any concept of the huge fatherland annexing a smaller sovereign nation against its will? And so, the Nazi Holocaust is also seen as a blot, an ugly stain on the history of man and his progress in science, education and civilisation. Yet, the majority of us - a huge majority - embrace the very evolutionary theory as a scientific fact, yet Darwin's theory was the very bedrock on which the Holocaust was rooted.

Therefore, I wonder how anyone can exist and be happy in the long term without the knowledge of Father God's parenthood. How can the world's peace be so fragile? Without a shadow of a doubt, with my beloved's ongoing illness, my own health is not that sound either, a life of uncertainty, even living on a knife-edge, doesn't it seem foolish to believe that there's no God, no higher power we can call upon when everything in life had reached the end of its tether?

And so, we have great men such as David Attenborough constantly narrating Darwin's organic evolution as the origins of all life - life without a maker, and Professor Brian Cox on the same theme about our Universe, the Big Bang - a sudden, once for all time atomic explosion with no divine intervention to set off such an explosion in the remote past. Solid rocks hit each other as they fly through space, and instead of flying apart in different directions after a collision, somehow they stick together until, eventually, a very hot, molten sphere is formed which will eventually cool enough to gather enough water to form oceans - and somehow, by chance and over a vast period, amino acid molecules begin to stick together to eventually form the first living cell with its vast, almost infinite complexity. All without any divine involvement.

Prof Brian Cox at Grand Canyon.

Not so with us. We (Alex and I) much prefer to believe in a God who created us, then redeemed us, and one day will glorify us. We are rather able to call upon him when the chips are down, in distress, pour out our souls to him, for he cares for us. Yet in turn, be thankful as we enjoy the good things he allows us to have, to sing praises for his mercy, grace and his salvation.

All these things the atheist and unbeliever have shut themselves out by their own choice.

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*Romans 13:1-7.

**1 Peter 2:13-17.

Does God See Christ Or Your Sin?

Into December at last, that time of the year which has the Winter Solstice. That is, after six months of shortening of days and lengthening of nights, we see the start of the reverse, days start to get longer, nights shorter. And with the start of the month comes the Christmas season - the displays of fir trees decorated with light bulbs, baubles and fake presents, those gaudily-wrapped boxes which look so nice on the outside but contains nothing but thin air inside. And all those adverts, whether on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines - all of them bidding us to part from our hard-earned cash to buy presents for our friends and loved ones.

It's all a build-up for that one big day. In most cases, those bright illuminating decorations traversing our High Streets and shopping malls begin to appear as early as mid to late November, along with the city mall Christmas tree. It's all a build up, an annual build-up, to that one day of the year - with such a sort daylight span here in the UK, that by the time late evening arrives, somehow I can't help feeling that it's all over, rather like a balloon going pop after cautiously blowing into it. Suddenly, just like the residue left from the burst balloon, all the lighting, the tinsel, the fir tree, the row of cards, had somehow lost their magic, so it seems. Yet somehow, in this country, perhaps unlike in America where they are all taken down on the next day, here they all stay in place until, traditionally after the 12th day of Christmas - or Epiphany - they are all disposed of for another year.

It is during that particular morning when children open their presents with excitement and gusto, to find their favourite toy or game. Maybe the revealing of an electric train set, Lego, or Meccano which enthralled my generation has most likely been replaced by a computer, mobile phone or some other electronic gadget or wizardry which would never have entered our minds in my day.

Then comes the turn for the adults. I wonder how many homes, even along my street, let alone nationwide, have people still in their housecoats, unwrap their presents and then forcing out the words, Wow! Just what I've always wanted! - in their attempts to hide disappointment, a crushing anticlimax to a build-up of festive expectancy. Why is that teapot looking so much brighter and its colours so much more vivid in the catalogue photo than in reality? Or that ghastly jumper you would not be seen dead in, let alone wear at the office. Then, as one window-cleaning customer once told me, there is a queue for the store counter on the day after Boxing Day, all returning unwanted presents. 

It is the gifts which, I think, decides on whether a Christmas will be a good one or a bad one for the family. One relative brings as a present a computer software package or an updated PlayStation to a ten-year-old. Another brings in a well-wrapped tie. Sure enough, as foreseen by one benefactor happily looking on, while the other, shocked due to his total blindness to the boy's preference, watches with dismay as the lad greets the gadget with excitable glee and starts to set it up, while the tie lies quickly forgotten at the corner of the sofa. Indeed, how presents are evaluated by the recipients either makes or breaks Christmas. All that is the ins and outs of modernity, the growing up with the Christmas tradition as very much part of life where the exchange of presents are to be expected.

Perhaps one can imagine a group of shepherds out in the fields who had never seen a roasted turkey on show at the table with all its trimmings, along with Christmas crackers with their cheap trashy trinkets, all accompanied by tinsel, baubles, and torn wrapping paper squeezed into a nearby bin. Poor them. Over a span of two millennia, life without such niceties was much tougher. And furthermore, such an occupation in caring for sheep has made them pariahs of society. The posher guys of their day looked down upon them with disdain.

And after receiving an awful fright from a heavenly visitation, these men went off to nearby Bethlehem to see this newborn the heavenly hosts had informed them about. They entered the stable and saw the child, and believed.

They believed in their hearts that this child is the Christ, their Messiah, the future King of Israel, who will one day sit on the throne of his father David. From that moment onward they were saved. All their sins were forgiven, they were fully acquitted and furthermore, the righteousness of Christ imputed into their accounts, as was the case with Abraham (Genesis 15:4-6). As far as God was concerned, he saw those despicable shepherds in the same way he saw he only Son, even if as a baby he had done nothing whatsoever. They went away rejoicing, having received the best gift any man could receive. And that was without decorated fir trees, tinsel and Christmas crackers embellishing their dwelling.

Not long after, some wise men studying the night sky noticed a particularly bright star, and this was a revelation that the Jewish Messiah was recently born. At the moment they believed, they too were saved, even before acquiring gifts and setting off on their long journey. Throughout that trip, I doubt whether they mulled in their thoughts about any unforgiven sins remaining.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus performed miracles, even raising the dead, to demonstrate to all onlookers that he was the Christ. He preached a sermon upon a hill to show what the Law really stood for and to bring in the realisation that no one could keep the Law perfectly, together with the very uncomfortable fact that any acts of religion only worsened the situation instead of making it any better. He then concluded that believing in him as the Messiah is the only solution to the universal problem of sin.

That was so well attested by the sermon preached in Jerusalem (Acts 2) when up to three thousand Jews believed after the apostle had demonstrated from the Scriptures that this Jesus of Nazareth whom they crucified, was their Messiah, the Son of God. Sometime later, Philip was drawn to an African eunuch returning to his homeland after worshipping in Jerusalem (Acts 8:26-40). As the eunuch was trying to make sense of Isaiah's writings, Philip climbed into the chariot and explained the Scriptures to him, that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfilment of the prophecy. When the eunuch asked what was stopping him from being baptised, Philip simply replied, If you believe, you may be baptised. To which, as the AV puts it:
I believe that Jesus is the Son of God - (Verse 37, AV).

And he was saved at that moment before he was baptised at a nearby lake or pond. And he went away rejoicing, without the need to ponder whether all his sins were forgiven or not. He already knew that they were all forgiven.

Cornelius is another striking example. Here an angel calls to tell him to send men to Peter's house, about two days journey away. After he arrives, he explains that Jesus of Nazareth who was recently crucified, was buried and three days later rose again from the dead, is the Christ, the Son of God, proved by his Resurrection. At their moment of believing, the Holy Spirit fell on everyone in the house (Acts 10). And so it goes on. Paul and Silas with the Philippian jailer is another example (Acts 16:30-31). And there are others, but the theme remains the same: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

And the idea of forgiveness of sins, receiving forensic acquittal, and to have the righteousness of Christ imputed into one's account - that is the greatest gift from God anyone can receive. And it's eternal. An eternal free gift, and not given on the basis of probation depending on the recipient's post-conversion worthiness, or else it isn't a true gift, but more of a reward for the recipient's works.

Many good and sincere Christians, when asked how I could be saved, responds with a statement like this: Turn from your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That sounds spiritual, correct and fully orthodox. But by reading all the above testimonies, especially by the apostles, the words, Turn or repent from your sins does not seem to appear in their answers, but simply to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God. True enough, Paul did write a commendation to the church at Thessalonica that they had turned from idols to serve the living God (1 Thessalonians 1:9), but as I see it, it was more of changing religion rather than dealing with general sin prior to conversion. Just as the three thousand Jews did under Peter's ministry. They changed from Judaism to Jesus Christ.

The shepherds were not told to turn from their sins. Instead, they received an announcement that their Christ was born and the baby can be found in a manger. That was all. They saw, believed and were saved. The thief on the cross wasn't told to turn from his sins either. He was already aware of his guilt. Instead, after recognising Jesus as the Christ, he asked him to be remembered when he enters his kingdom (therefore believing he will rise again). He was saved there and then. God is indeed willing to hand out his gifts, and not just for Christmas either.

And that was one of my problems which can still arise from time to time - a warped perception of God through Roman Catholic upbringing. Every Catholic is taught a to regularly confess his sins and to do penance in order to have his past sins forgiven, leaving the board only momentary clean before another sin is committed to stain it. To be set free from such a slave-driving master is easier said than done. Because I have been through this, I do have feelings of compassion for Roman Catholics in general. In a sense, they are my former brothers in the faith, and I long to see them come to the realisation that the Son of God has already set them free. If only they believe that forensic acquittal and the imputation of Christ's righteousness is available to them instead of working, working, working to earn Heaven after death, with a lifelong uncertainty of their state in the afterlife, I'm sure they would be far keener to serve God.

No wonder that many a Catholic end up as determined atheists, or more accurately, God haters. I know. I was one of them. There was a time that I hated God. I hated him because of my warped view of him. I had a perverted view of God gotten by thinking that he is constantly looking at my sin and shaking his head at any thought of me entering Heaven after my time is up.

And this perverse view of God, I'm wondering: Could this be behind the general falling away from the faith, to embrace Darwinism? Could this be the dreadful truth which lies under nationalism and its offspring, Brexit? If God is perceived as one constantly looking at your sins instead of seeing you as one in Jesus Christ, then it's difficult, indeed, very difficult to love and serve God. No wonder such a philosophy is the gateway to religious liberalism, and eventually atheism where the Bible as the Word of God is denied, along with its historicity. Religious liberalism also denies the Virgin Birth and the physical Resurrection of Christ. Instead, it embraces evolution and denies that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone.

It does look as if the general morality of the world is declining, just as the knowledge of God is in decline. But I tend to believe that throughout history, the general morality of the world was always in decline or in a low state. After all, since the Reformation in the 16th Century, the slave trade was in full swing throughout the 17th to the mid 19th Century, and with it, prostitution was seen as normal, with brothels touting for business found in every major city and town. Or at sea, piracy was rife, with the Pirates of the Caribbean being most famous, but also at Penzance and other oceanic areas around the globe. On land, anyone travelling was always wary of the highwayman, who would readily kill if his robbery attempt does not go right. And let's face it, during the days of the Wild West, would it be safe to live if even a slight dispute is settled by a shootout to the death?

Indeed, even the Dark and Middle Ages, approximately between the 5th and the 15th centuries, corruption within the Church was rife. The late Dave Hunt, in his book, A Woman Rides the Beast, a copy which I have, wrote that the most horrific monsters ever to walk this Earth were the popes during that period of time. Within that realm, prostitution, adultery, murder, simony, high taxes, antisemitism, and forced rule over nations and their kings were all rife. With the Inquisition, the history of Church leadership was indeed dire. But that should come as no surprise when the main theological standing was about God constantly looking at their sins instead of seeing them in the same way as he sees his Son.

The forgiveness of all sins - past, present and future, the forensic acquittal, the imputation of Christ's righteousness, the adoption into God's family as the Bride of Christ, having God the Father seeing us in the same way as he sees Jesus, along with Eternal Security of the Believer (Once Saved Always Saved), are all divine truths which ought to draw the believer into a loving relationship with his God.

But dilute or remove these truths, leaving God to see only our sins, then little wonder the world is in such a mess, a very stormy sea with waves tossing at great heights. And which no Christmas present can appease.

An Academic Conflict at Oxford.

As one born of the Baby Boom generation (ie, born between the years 1946-1964) I was taken back by the news of three suicides committed by students at Bristol University, each within a short proximity of each other. According to one source, in 2015, 134 university students took their own lives* whilst another source gives 146 for the year 2016.** Therefore I would not be too surprised if the stats topped 150 for 2017.

And they weren't even the Millennials as we know them, as their agreed birth years were between 1980-1994, but more likely from Generation Z, who were born from 1995 onward. As I tried to work out in my mind why on earth there is such a high rate of mental disorder among students. It was then my wife Alex immediately gave the answer which eluded me - finance.

Of course, why didn't I think of that? With University courses costing around £9,000 a year, a debt of  £27,000 for a three year course does not bode well for the peace of mind every student would wish for. Instead, such a debt would hang over his head for a good spell of his lifetime. Such a situation for an individual is a vivid contrast with a student from the Baby Boomer generation, the one I was born into. Very few would have entered University in the first place. Those who did would have been a student at either Oxford or Cambridge, and then be given a grant from the Government - an income to live on during studies which had no need to be paid back.

Back then, to graduate and to hold a degree was really worth something. He was virtually a god, with any employer scrambling to have such a person, normally a male back then, on their staff roll. A doctor's authority was looked upon as on equal footing as the Gospel itself. And there is no other such vivid demonstration of this than in my schooldays. It was at the boys changing room for P.E., in the gym or for Games at the sports pitch. If a pupil fails to bring his kit, then the punishment was between one to five strokes of the slipper across the buttocks administered by the master, depending on the age of the boy. But if the student hands over a letter written by his GP, then the master would honour the pupil's abstinence from the lesson with a degree of reverence. Indeed, during the sixties, a GP was apparently credited with divine attributes, at least that how it seemed to the rest of us. By mentioning of holding a degree, this would bring out all the ooh's and the aah's, especially from the females. And that I do know. I actually saw this happening in my former church during the seventies.

And so this reverence for knowledge, and the universal desire to possess such knowledge, must be high on the minds of our present-day students who, contrary to the Baby-boomer graduates, I have found to be the targets of vitriol whenever some administration failure occurs, especially in the area of information technology. It is quite a vivid contrast to my day as school leavers. If an adolescent left school without any qualifications, he usually ended up as a dogsbody at a factory, workshop, garage, or anywhere where manual labour was held as a permanent vocation. This sort of thing was not uncommon. Yet I hardly heard of any cases of mental illness, let alone suicide among us younger set. Instead, we took everything in our stride, including scoldings and vitriol, which I, for one, saw more as character-building rather than mentally and emotionally destructive.

Therefore little surprise on why I found our present student's mental disorder statistics difficult to grasp. My wife had a sharper sense of discernment. I was still in the 1960's train of thinking. Putting it all together, I could not help but see for myself why having such level of knowledge can be contrary to Biblical faith. Of course, I'm referring to the age-old conflict between Divine Creation and Uniformitarian Geology.  

Just this morning I attended an annual men's conference at a local church (not my home church). The theme for this year was whether we as believers have the courage to take risks for the glory of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Later in the session we all split into small groups. It was during one of these small-group discussion and prayer when I felt God speak to me. I was made aware of this by God by means of a feeling of relief and joy over the revelation. I am to stand up for the truthfulness of Divine Creation as opposed to Uniformitarian Geology and Darwinism, which is believed in and accepted as scientific fact, not only by the secular world but by many Christians as well. God would not allow me to compromise. There's never been a "halfway house" with me when it comes to accepting Theistic Evolution. I either had to accept a literal 6 x 24-hour creation day, recorded in Scripture, or accept Darwinism in its purest form of secular standing. I resolve always to accept exactly what the Bible teaches.

And that may cause conflict. And my conviction did bring clashes, especially against my own father, who was a devout evolutionist. He was even too embarrassed to admit to others that he had a son who actually believe in this kid's story of Creation and the Flood. And in the factory where I worked, to believe in this raised issues for discussion with my colleagues on the shop floor, and apathy among those who were working in the office. Yet the idea of Divine Creation is very important to me. And very important to every Christian believer alive with us.

It was a gorgeously warm and sunny Bank Holiday Monday when my wife Alex and I, along with my PhD holder and Creationist friend Andrew, all made a trip to Oxford to visit the University Museum of Natural History. Considerably smaller than the sister museum in London where we had recently visited, but actually more educating in the true spirit of Oxford, I allowed Andrew to take care of Alex in her wheelchair, whilst I paid special attention to a row of cabinets on one side of the gallery.

University Museum of Natural History, Oxford.

These cabinets each housed a selection of fossils, and arranged in chronological order, from Cambrian to Cretaceous - at the most, about 475,000,000 years apart in geologic age. Unfortunately, I only took photos of the Jurassic cabinet and the Cretaceous cabinet, the two periods being next to each other on the geologic time scale, but one collection of marine fossils going back to the maximum of 201,000,000 years. The other cabinet holding the more recent Cretaceous marine fossils dating between 66,000,000 and 145,000,000 years of geologic age. Therefore, any observer would accept the vast age difference of these rocks simply because it tells him on the title label at the upper corner of each cabinet. Nearby was a display of a fair sized limestone slab, probably 18" x 12" 46 cm x 30 cm which was overlaid with scaled fish, similar to carp, if that wasn't carp. Unfortunately, I did not record or snap a picture of this particular display, and because of that, I did have plans to return to Oxford on my own to fulfil this purpose before writing this blog, had Alex been happy with the proposal!

But the point is, that anyone studying these displays would have walked away convinced of the evidence for Uniformitarian Geology and Darwinism - simply by observing the labels displayed at each cabinet. But nearly all these fossil-bearing rocks look remarkably similar, as if all these marine organisms were entombed and preserved all at the same time. All these, along with the fish on the slab.

Which presented quite an anomaly. Because whenever fish die, it hardly ever settles on the seafloor. Instead it becomes food for the scavengers. This together with the food chain, it's very seldom for a fish to die a natural death. The vast majority becomes prey for the high population of predators. But here we see fish entombed en-masse in stone, as if all perished at once and immediately preserved. And it looks as if this applied to all the fossilised organism on display, regardless of age. Basically they all looked the same, as if all died and were preserved at just one occasion. And there's supposed to have been up to 475,000,000 years in age difference between them!

Display cabinet containing fossils from the Jurassic Period.

Fossils from the Cretaceous Period, all taken May 2018.

And that is why believing in Creation and the Deluge, I think, is so vital for the Christian faith and to every believer. Because if fossilisation was meant to preserve a record of Evolution, that means one of two ideas: 

1. That Adam and Eve had never existed, but we are all evolved from primates, as secular Darwinism insists. And if our first parents had never existed, then neither the Fall had taken place and death is merely a natural phenomenon, both for human and animal alike. If death plays an essential role in the process of Natural Selection and Evolutionary process, then sin has no part except as a biological quirk developing late in the process, and therefore totally eliminates the need for an Atonement.

2. Adam and Eve existed, but each had a father and mother, all mortal. This, I believe, is a central tenet for Theistic Evolution. The problem is: Were Adam's parents human or sub-human? Or Eve's parents? If they were fully human, did they remain immortal, even after the Fall? But if they were sub-human, then how apelike did they look? And if mortal, then death was already at work in the world before the Fall, therefore making non-effect the Atonement of Christ.

Indeed, there are more questions than answers. But just by departing from the literal truth presented in the Scriptures resulting in such devastating theological concepts, including the study of Christology. But it is the denial of the truthfulness of Holy Scripture which leaves the academic community with little to go by except to make great efforts to prove that these rocks are much older than what Holy Scripture allows, and to pass this on to the rest of us.

Knowledge in itself is a wonderful quality to have, a very wonderful quality. Indeed, mental illness and even suicide is out of a potential failure to acquire this quality, and then to face the extortionate debt to pay afterwards. Little wonder many present-day students are suffering from excess stress. And I believe even my friend Andrew might have felt concern as I delved into these fossil cabinets. Concern that I may be "converted" from being a Creationist to becoming an Evolutionist, and with a possibility of heading down the road towards atheism. All by reading labels with a growing conviction that these scientists might have been right after all.

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*The Guardian Newspaper, 2 September, 2017.

**The BBC.

A Lesson from Mars.

I have a pretty good idea how famous author H. G. Wells must have felt about his environment he grew up in. Living at a posh area in Surrey, in the Woking area to be more precise, how he must have felt disillusioned over the might of the great British Empire which held sway throughout his Victorian era. Not that he was one of the subordinate indigenous nationals living under a subjugated realm of a faraway colony, but as one of a privileged Englishman whose residence was at the heart of the crème de la crème of imperial motherland. Day after day he was subjected to a vigorous social class system, where to give full honour to the King, or for that matter, the Queen, was paramount to earning your own salvation. On the other end of the scale, children of impoverished working class families were to be seen and not heard.

It was a country where rickets was common among working class children living in run down districts of many cities, due to its lousy climate, a lack of sunshine, smog created by black smoke from the chimneys of nearby industries - the "satanic mills" of Blake's poetry - the grime, the dirt, and the squalor, such a life of grim hardship. It was quite a contrast to the rich and the well-to-do living in the country or rural village. Having had enough to pay for a Doctor to call round whenever feeling unwell, they had no truck with the city commoner. Whilst child prostitution was something not uncommon among urban grime, in the countryside, village churches were always full on a typical Sunday. Such self-righteousness felt among them resulting in having harsh, judgemental opinions against the unruly commoner, along with a Pharisaical back-patting among themselves whilst cultivating a near-miraculous double notion of holding adoration for the Monarch and despising the poor at the same time.

Living in such an environment must have caused some level of resentment in H. G. Wells' heart. Because from his experiences he wrote his novel, War of the Worlds. So successful was his book, that after it was first serialised in 1897, it remains in print to this day. From it, various movies bearing the same title were made, and Hollywood Americanised the story. Also a musical version was created by Jeff Wayne in a form of a two-disc vinyl album, one which I have owned for several decades. With Richard Burton narrating as the journalist who was the first-hand witness and survivor of the alien invasion, it featured the Justin Hayward song Forever Autumn, which became one of Britain's top tunes.

The story is about an invasion of Martians into Britain, after years of examining human life on Earth from Mars. This was very much like a scientist examining bacteria thriving in a single drop of water. And that is a good comparison, because the Martian's brain was so huge by comparison with the human brain, that their minds and their intelligence were immeasurably superior. And these creatures were predominantly of brain, robbing their bear-sized bodies of agility and the vitality required for a healthy existence on our planet, especially one with a stronger gravitational force. All this was based essentially on Darwinism, with its concept that the larger the brain, the higher the intelligence. The biological cost to this was whilst the brain grew in size and intellectual power over the generations, there was in turn a gradual diminishing of strength in the wholly red body, which by then consisting of a wet-leather like skin, a partially visible pulsating bloodstream, flailing arms and legs and an enormous head bearing a face of two large, disc-like eyes and a lipless mouth which quivered and slavered, with drools of saliva hanging. Such a disgusting sight seemed to indicate entropy at work over the generations, contradicting Darwin's theory of upward evolutionary development for a puny physique with very limited athletic qualities.

But their technology was vastly superior than anything mankind can think of. Their tripod Fighting Machines with their heat ray and black smoke chemical weaponry were able to annihilate whole crowds of people in one swoop, demolish buildings, sink warships, and causing whole cities like London to be entirely deserted of people. And that was the point of the whole story.

The tale was all about the head of a mighty worldwide Empire falling on the mercy of a hostile alien power from which they had absolutely no means of defence. I believe that Wells would have secretly loved to have seen the fall of such an Empire. But the one consequence of such a hostile invasion was that every human being totally forgetful about his wealth, his social standing, his level of education, his profession, and the importance of Empire, to unite as one man for survival.

As the leaderless crowds fled the streets of London dominated by the tall tripods of the Martian Fighting Machines, there were aristocratic lords and ladies, politicians, doctors, businessmen, magistrates, bankers, craftsmen of all vocations, traders, chimney sweeps, layabouts, beggars, the elderly, along with housewives, housemaids, nurses, carers, students, boys and girls - children of wealthy families, children of road sweepers - all mixed within the crowds fleeing the city pell-mell, disorganised, terrified, to the coast for temporary exile to mainland Europe with a hope of being out of the Martian's reach. It was at the coast where a group of Martian tripods successfully sunk a warship which was engaged in full battle, bringing down a tripod and momentary offering a hope of victory for humankind. Instead, it was the beginning of the Massacre of all Mankind.

The journalist who narrated the story has had enough. Broken and without hope, he saunters back to London - enveloped in deep silence, passing deserted jewellers and grocery shops plundered and looted, to surrender himself to the Martians and to let them take his life. All of a sudden his attention was alerted to Primrose Hill, just north of Regents Park. There a cluster of tripods huddled together, one of them uttering one final gargled howl of despair, followed by a deafening silence. The journalist, his hopes suddenly rising, realised what had killed these unearthly creatures. Bacteria in the air. The humble bacteria attacking where no human was able to attack. Whilst the Empire lies in smithereens, it took our invisible, microscopic invaders to penetrate into these pitiful alien bodies to breed and contaminate their blood. It was a tremendous humiliation for the entire human race - with any sense of imperial pride, conquest, and military power shattered. The vast knowledge these Martians possessed had given them the ability to eliminate all bacteria from their home planet, resulting of the decline of their immune systems over the generations to the point of non-existence. So the moment they took their first breath of our air, they were doomed.

I find it amazing how the world of fiction can accommodate scientific facts so seriously. Maybe that what makes fiction so realistic to life that it can be given a level of credibility. It is very unfortunate though that far too many academics take the Bible as a book of fictional myths, and discredit any truth in it. One example is the reality of the Cross of Christ, his Burial, and after three days and three nights, his physical Resurrection, followed some weeks later by his ascension to the right hand of his Father's throne in heaven.

It is ironic, coming to think of it, that the Easter holidays are rapidly approaching, which is recognised by hardened atheists such as Richard Dawkins. Here in the UK the Easter break consist of four days off work - Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Bank Holiday Monday. As I see it, and perhaps as the majority of us British sees it, Easter is the gateway for the approaching Summer months, when thick woollies, heavy raincoats and galoshes are finally left in the wardrobe for the lighter apparel of tee-shirts, shorts, singlets, and the anticipated day trip to the beach. Sure enough, on Easter Sundays our traditional churches are prone to be packed, yet it is a shame that there is only one other day when churches tend to be full, and that is during the Christmas season.

And whilst churchmen and academics argue whether Easter should be regarded as a Christian or a pagan festival, various sects such as Jehovah's Witnesses regard the holiday as pagan and therefore condemned by Jehovah, as with Christmas and even individual birthdays themselves. I am also aware of various English families celebrating the Jewish Passover here in the UK, and that despite not only uncircumcised non-Jews are forbidden to eat the Passover in Holy Scripture, but the Bible insist that if one attempts to keep just one of the Laws of Moses, he is obliged to keep the whole Law, which would include annual blood sacrifices offered to a Levitical priest, himself a direct descendant of Aaron, in addition to the triple-tithe made to the Sanctuary, plus the annual waving of the first of the harvest crops to God at Pentecost, and the keeping of the Day of Atonement, along with the Feast of Tabernacles. Failing to keep the whole Law, even by stumbling on a minor issue, will result in eternal condemnation.

And so division exists between churchgoers and the non-churched, and among churchgoers themselves. Divisions, disagreements, bickering, fault-finding, judging one another, along with political and cultural issues - for example the political issue whether to leave or to remain in the EU, and the gloating and sneering of Brexit voters over those who had preferred to remain, as well as contending on which political party should be in power. On the cultural issue, its whether us strong bulldog Brits have lost our stoical self-reserve for a more emotional, sentimental, and mawkish attitude when facing a crisis, with interviewees shedding tears whilst in front of a television camera.

There is only one very specific need, not just in the UK but worldwide. That is to be under the shadow of the Cross, as well described in Acts 1:13-15. Just like the crowds fleeing the Martians in London, these people, about 120 in all, confined in a large upper room, were all united by a common bond. There were no disagreements among them, no gender divide, no class divide, no age divide, no educational divide, and most important of all - no theological divide. All were so bonded together that they were all as one man. Their conviction of sin, their sense of unworthiness in the presence of God. As Abraham once cried out, "I'm but dust and ashes." (Genesis 18:27). And as David declared to Saul after finding the King asleep in a cave, "I'm but a dead dog, a flea." (1 Samuel 24:14, 26:20). And Isaiah himself, when confronted by the very glory of God, cried out, "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips..." (Isaiah 6:5). Such strong men could be brought to such a state of awe when faced with the glory of God.

These 120 men and women in the upper chamber were in exactly the same state when confronted by the Glory of God, which was in the Cross of Jesus Christ, and confirmed by his Resurrection from the dead. Compared to God's glory, every dividing issue evaporates. Every issue which causes divisions of all kinds - melted into thin air at the glory of God's presence. Really, it is a wonderful state to be in!

The crowds fleeing London were bonded together by terror. Those in the upper chamber were bonded by awe. But both groups were bonded, with every divisive ethical, religious, and social issue evaporated. Perhaps this is the greatest need for our churches at present, my church included. The special presence of the glory of God which would bring us all to our knees in awe and to forever change our lives.

What If - A Possible Alternative.

For the last couple of weeks we have been watching a BBC drama SS-GB, which is a series based on a novel with the same name written by Len Deighton. It depicts the scenes of London in particular as it might have looked if the German Nazis had won the War, with Britain falling victim to the German invasion. In addition to the presence of Nazi military personnel seen just about everywhere at their posts, we see flags bearing the Swastika icon displayed across the deserted city, and especially over the Houses of Parliament. We also see Buckingham Palace reduced to a bombed out derelict, with the King and his Royal Family imprisoned in the Tower of London. At the time of writing the series is still ongoing, and we as viewers are yet to watch the climax of the drama, still a few weeks away.

As the series depicts how Britain might have looked if Germany had won World War II - and that could have easily been the case - here I would like to be more on a personal level and depict on how things might have possibly turned out if I had not bumped into two rather insignificant-looking young men at the Strand in London one wet Saturday night of December 1972.

As I have written about before,* the year 1972 was a year of contrasts. It began with myself with a girlfriend named Sandra. Together we booked a holiday in Spain to be taken later that Summer. Also it was to be my first trip abroad without my parents, and as still a teenager, it was seen as a big turning point in my life. Then during Spring of that year, Sandra ended our year-long relationship. I was even dismissed from her parent's home in Wimbledon, after spending so much time there, even a few weekend sleepovers. Fortunately, when arriving at the home of a college friend in Southall, West London, literally in tears, he offered to take Sandra's place. So the Spanish trip with what was then package firm Cosmos was saved. But on the long term basis, my emotions over the split still hadn't recovered.

And thus I was a prime target and sitting duck for any passer-by to take advantage. As I walked along the Strand that evening feeling hopeless and looking rather like a drowned rat, the route taken was from the Lyceum Ballroom (now a theatre) where I was refused admission by two smartly-dressed bouncers, one of them looking like a burly wrestler. The venue was directly across the Strand from the start of Waterloo Bridge, and therefore a not-so-long walk across the River Thames from there to the terminus where the last train departure for home awaited.

It was whilst approaching Charing Cross Station where I was stopped by two young men in the street. They asked me what I thought about Jesus Christ. After taking on the conversation, I invited them to a pub located at an alleyway directly across the road. Inside the bar where it was warm and dry, which changed my mood for the better. Once in, I bought them drinks and once seated at table they took out a Bible. For the first time I believed, and it does look to me that from that moment in the pub, I experienced regeneration and became a child of God. Later that evening I actually paid their train fares as we, along with several others all singing and praising God whilst seated in the train out of Charing Cross Station, made the journey to their colony, which was set in a disused jam factory located just a couple of blocks from Bromley North terminus station, towards Kent. It was at this disused factory where I spent the whole of that night. What follows is now history.

But supposing that I had not met these two young men at the Strand that evening? How would things turn out? In which direction would I been heading? As a teenager I was an atheist, at least that was what I called myself. But was I really an atheist, believing that God doesn't exist? And if my own experience has any value, do I believe in the reality of atheism? Or to be more honest - a hatred for God but still with an awareness, even in the most remote corner of my mind, of his existence? I think there is just one issue which can turn a man against God or to disown his existence, and that is religion. I grew up as a Roman Catholic - a religion of Hell, Works, and Ritualism, with a lot of uncertainty thrown in. The result was believing that God does not, and cannot, love me because of all my shortcomings. As Mum used to say to me whenever I have done something amiss as a young child,

If you die now, you'll go straight to Hell.

This was endorsed by the Church in those days. A system of mortal sin, venial sin, Hell, Purgatory, Confession to a priest, Penance, the Act of Contrition, Hail Mary, the sacredness of Holy Communion, attendance to church dressed up in Sunday Best suit and tie, not daring to swear or say something out of place whilst in church, bowing to the Alter, getting wet with Holy Water, doing the Sign of the Cross - and so it goes on - no meat eaten on Friday, the necessity to say grace before meals (although at home we didn't do this, but had to at school), and of course, no contraception. All this was compounded by our rigorous school discipline, when corporal punishment was used, so it seemed, as a release of pent-up feelings in the administrator's heart. No wonder I grew up believing that God was perceived as a dissatisfied "big man" in the sky, ready to punish, and who would interpret any positive prayer as a snide way of attempting to gain his favour.  

And so, like quite a number of schoolboys of my age, we denied the existence of God, and I believe that the vast majority of those who call themselves atheist had similar experiences as I did. Considering Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris as examples, I don't believe in their true denial of God's existence. Rather, all three had an inkling of his existence within a corner of their minds. This is a fact endorsed in the Bible itself, which reveals that the light of Christ shines into every man born into the world (John 1:4, 9). This is backed up by what Paul has written to the church in Rome, that:

For although they knew God, they never glorified him as God nor gave him thanks, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts became darkened.

Romans 1:21.

In other words they suppress, or push away the truth, as Romans 1:18 says. Peter also says in his letter that there will be those who will deny the historicity of both supernatural Creation and the Flood, in favour of "everything continuing since the beginning of creation" (2 Peter 3:3-7). Or what we refer to as Darwinism and Uniformitarianism at present. If the Bible is true, then there is no such person who is a "true atheist". Everyone is born with an awareness of the existence of God, for it was God who has put this awareness there.

And so as a teenager I hated God and embraced Evolution. Actually I was quite a fanatic of the theory. But by the time I have reached my twentieth birthday in 1972, with having no more compulsion to dress up and attend church, and the rigorous school discipline confined to history, by then there was a dulling of my hatred of God. In other words, I began to accept his existence. But still I remained a staunch Evolutionist.

So if I had not met those two guys at the Strand that evening in 1972 - maybe because despite my drowned rat appearance, I was still allowed entry into the ballroom. Or that I argued for a time with the bouncers and the two men had in the meantime stopped someone else in the street. Or they decided to go another direction, missing me entirely. Here I try to speculate what could have happened - or not happened - in the life which might have followed:

I would have carried on towards Trafalgar Square and turned North into Charing Cross Road towards Tottenham Court Road Underground Station located at the junction with Oxford Street. Just before arriving at the station entrance, I would have halted outside The Setting Sun Club and Discotheque. With more relaxed entry requirements, chances that I would have spent the evening there instead. The probability of finding another girlfriend would have remained very slim, but not an impossibility. Then a direct tube train ride for Waterloo Station from Tottenham Court Station for the last mainline train home.

The Strand, London. Approaching Trafalgar Square.

And instead of moving out, "flying the nest" so to speak, chances that I would have remained at home with my parents. This was much to do with the fact that when I actually started to attend church as a true believer, most young church-going men of my age had already flown the nest, and either were co-habiting with fellow graduates or undergraduates, living on their own in a rented apartment, or were married already and raising families. Therefore I considered myself an oddball by remaining at home during the 1970's. As a result of this way of thinking, I flew the nest in 1976, then aged 23. If I had not met these guys on that fateful night, chances that I would have been happier remaining at home.

But whilst at home, I very likely would have worked hard and saved up hard. And I might have set my heart on travel. Not the package deal to Spain with my college mate in 1972, but TRAVEL. This means backpacking in mainland Europe for considerably longer than the three to four weeks. As finding a job, even as an unskilled labourer, was not that difficult, as there were plenty of those sort of jobs going around in those days. In order to travel for longer periods, the need to terminate employment most likely would have been a necessity before departure. At first, travel would have been confined to Western Europe until I have earned my parents' confidence. Frequent sending of postcards, even an occasional full-blown letter telling them where I am and what I was doing would have most likely set their minds at rest.

Long-haul travel might have been the reality some time after a couple of more years in manual work whilst living at home. Then it's off to North America, possibly South Africa, and Australia. But not just for a few weeks but for several months at a time. For example, the maximum time a tourist can stay in the USA is three months. But there was always the possibility of applying for a Work Visa at the US Embassy in London beforehand, which could have allowed me to stay up to six months in America, working on the fields picking fruit or even on a building site as a labourer. These short-term contracts would have allowed me to explore the whole of the country without allowing my funds run low.

When I was actually staying at a hostel in Sydney in 1997, there was a poster advertising fruit picking work on offer to any long-term traveller. Had I not met these young men in 1972, there would have been a good chance of fruit-picking in Australia, prolonging my visit there to maybe up to six months before moving on to New Zealand. It would have been at these workplaces where I would be totally immune to any smut or teasing. This being the actual result of working in a furniture factory immediately after leaving school in 1968. It was here where I gradually became immune to the smutty talk which continued unabated throughout the five years I worked there. Therefore I might have been ready for any flak that might have come my way overseas. 

By contrast, if I had not met these two young men that night, chances that I would have remained as an agnostic rather than an outright atheist. Also my level of academic learning would not have progressed much since leaving school. Not only would the Bible remained a closed book, but my adherence to Darwinism would have remained intact. Of my travel experience, it would have been unlikely that I would have ever set foot in Israel, let alone visiting Jerusalem. I would have had no interest in religiously associated or spiritual destinations. To me, Jerusalem would have been nothing more than a reminiscence of those Religious Education lessons at school, and along with anything "churchy", I would most likely avoid at all costs. Affiliated with this, I would have never have studied history, both ancient and recent, especially which is connected with church history. Neither would I have ever looked into Geology, nor would have I gone far into Genome biology, unless there was a rise in personal interest in any of these subjects from purely a secular point of view.

I would have known nothing about the Bible, possibly not even being aware that the book is divided into the Old and New Testaments, let alone knowing any chapter and verse. Any attendance to church would remain specifically reserved for any weddings, perhaps funerals too, and always of course, smartly dressed, as I wouldn't have been able to think otherwise. Christmas and Easter holidays would have been spent at home, or even at the coast, but not at all in church. As for my personal I.Q. - this might have risen somewhat as I got older, but nothing of the rate it had risen as the result of Bible reading and familiarity with the Holy Scriptures. In short, experience has shown that regular Bible reading has raised my intelligence quotient to a considerably higher level. 

Then there would have also been the possibility that in a wider search for employment, I would have eventually had to fly the nest and settle elsewhere in the UK. This of course would have compromised my travelling experience unless I ended up sharing a house or apartment with other tenants, whether married, co-habiting, or single. In a case like this it would have still have been possible to work hard, save up hard, and travel hard. Assuming that I would have never heard the Gospel in the first place, I would have never set foot at Bracknell Baptist Church in 1975, neither would I ever set foot at Ascot Baptist Church in 1990, let alone knowing anyone who attends at present.

But there is always the possibility that I could have heard and responded to the Gospel later in life. Then yes, there is that chance that I would be attending Ascot Life Church as I do at present, if I remained in the Bracknell area. Otherwise there's that equal possibility that I could be living elsewhere and therefore attend some other church, maybe far away.

Instead, I was stopped by these two young men at the Strand on that wet and dismal December Saturday evening. Therefore, my knowledge of the Bible began to grow. Also allied with reading Holy Scripture, I learnt how to read Greek as a result of a clash with some Jehovah's Witnesses over some Greek words. I have studied some history as an aid to look into the origins of various theological issues. And geology was researched to understand better the mechanics of the Deluge. And because Creationism clashed with Evolution, this opened a door for me to look into the probability of the Genome and its natural evolution, a subject which I now find rather fascinating. 

And yes, talking about Jehovah's Witnesses, there is always that possibility that I could have become one of them. Then again, would I have been under pressure of personal conviction to keep on knocking on doors, only in the majority of cases having the door slammed shut at my face? Would I have found myself feeling enslaved to an American religious organisation in order to hold on to my hope of salvation, and even ending up committed to an institution, as reported that some Witnesses were actually committed to psychiatric wards? Indeed, ending up as a fully fledged Witness could have been a strong possibility.

Rather, everything has worked out exactly as God foreknew and planned. And I will forever thank him for allowing me to meet up with these two guys after being refused entry at an entertainment venue. 

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* To read the full account of my conversion as told in one of my archives: Frank's Christian Thoughts: 1973 And All That..., click here.

Is There Something in the Air?

Just a couple of weeks ago the above graphic appeared on the main scroll of Facebook. It is a tongue-in-cheek psychological test on your anxieties or negative thought processes that goes on in your mind. The object that I first saw in the picture was an apple cut in half, although I could see that there was something not right about it and as such, I would hesitate to take a bite.

It was when I took a closer look that I began to notice that the cut face of the fruit is actually a butterfly or moth, with the pips arranged to resemble an anxious face gazing apprehensively at a maggot crawling on a knife which had just bisected the apple. The answer to the accompanying question - what was the first thing I saw in the picture? - it was the cut apple itself. And the result? I was afraid of death, particularly among others. That was my given analysis.

As already mentioned, the test was tongue-in-cheek, most likely a data list of psychological analysis, of which any one could have been selected at pure random by the computer, very much the same as the daily horoscope readings are selected before publishing in a daily newspaper or weekly magazine. But in this case my analysis from answering one question from a given list proved to be 100% spot on! Fear of death has dominated my thinking process, after being warned of eternal Hell as a young boy by my mother whenever I said or did something amiss. So belief in the afterlife helped mould my thinking process - to the stage of hating God by the time I've reached teenage years.

It was after conversion to Jesus Christ when I was twenty years old that I developed a concern about other people's eternal fate, particularly my family and friends. For example, my late father was only a nominal Roman Catholic, who himself admitted his agnosticism, although he never denied the existence of God in the way I did. Yet thinking of where he might be now - if he is conscious - sends me into feelings of helplessness, despondency, even fear. According to my experience, awareness of death has put everything in life into proper perspective. Just as King Solomon concluded in his Old Testament book Ecclesiastes. Life is vanity, chasing after the wind, and rich man, poor man, along with the lowest worm, the same fate awaits us all.

So it happened to a teenage Muslim jihadist I read about in the paper earlier this week. He was forced by his commanders to drive into an enemy village and detonate a bomb that was planted in the vehicle he was driving. He knew too well that he had no other choice. Had he refused, his comrades would have either dished out severe punishment or the death penalty. Likewise if he had driven off in an attempt to escape. As it was, he was given the privilege to die with full honour, with the promise of Heaven. Instead, the unwilling suicide bomber burst into tears with terror. Supposing this Allah, to whom he was about to sacrifice his own life, was non-existent, and all he had was a false ticket to Heaven? Yes, what then? This might have been the reality which struck him at that vital moment. The terror of eternal Hell, taught throughout Islam as well as in Christianity.

A teenage jihadist's final moments of terror. 

As I read the forum of comments trailing the online article, I felt rather shocked by the brutal lack of sympathy expressed by us British readers. Statements such as "One less terrorist", "Burn in Hell", "It's Hell for you", and even "At least you won't set foot here, a Christian country." So the plethora of cruel statements fill the ever expanding column with not a hint of compassion directed at the lad's feelings. Hatred of the Muslims by a nation which claims to be Christian. Indeed. Then again, the entire philosophy behind Islam is built on a very truculent and unreliable deity. 

Muslims believer that Allah is the very God of Abraham, with his eldest son and their own ancestor, Ishmael. They also reluctantly acknowledge Ishmael's younger brother Isaac, and his son Jacob, the father of the Jews. They accept that the children of Israel were called by God to be his own people. But over the centuries of continual disobedience and unfaithfulness, God decided to throw out the Jews and replace them with a new group, the Church, But soon after the Church was established, it too fell into apostasy and unfaithfulness, according to Mohammed. By the seventh Century AD, God - who to the Muslims had always borne the name of Allah, throws out the Church, and through this prophet, a new religion was established, a faith which had its ancestry in Ishmael. Of all the 360 idols standing within a pagan temple in Mecca, only one remained standing after all the others were destroyed under the prophet's orders. That was the moon deity which bears Allah's name.

I sincerely believe that such a fickle deity as Allah is the driving force behind jihad and national and international terrorism. I don't think jihad stems from a misinterpretation of a few verses in the Koran. Rather it's the fear that if they don't live up to Allah's expectations, they too will be thrown out by their deity and some other group would take over. And why not? What guarantee is there for their security if their god has a record of disowning those he claimed were his yet were disobedient or lacked commitment?  I believe it is this fear of disenfranchisement that motivates Muslims to fight their jihad. And furthermore, to gather en-mass to the holy site in Mecca. Here, vast crowds of Muslim pilgrims chant to their deity out of fear rather than a love for Allah. As long as Allah remains pacified, he will not cast them off like he did with Israel and the Church.

Vast crowds of pilgrims at Mecca

Vast crowds gather to worship a deity, a pagan one at that, out for fear of being cast off. It makes me wonder how just by being born at a certain area virtually guarantees slavery to such a system. But Islam is not the only religion, further east there are two more prominent faiths, Hindu and Buddhism. At least with those two, we do not hear of jihad-type "holy wars" to convert the outsider, or die. Could this be that because these two faiths are very ancient, Hindu in particular, predating centuries before Christ? And therefore they don't worship a god known for disowning his people? Who knows? That is only my speculation. As with the Islamic jihads. But this one thing underlies all these faiths. That is, every individual is born innocent, grows up to learn about the religion of the land, spends his life in worship of such deities, then dies without hearing about the love of the true God through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God. I think of these things. Millions born in the large part of the world who grow up without any knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And why does this touch a nerve in my heart? Could it be because the apostle Peter made this plain statement:

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12.

So it stands to reason that all Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and all other faiths not acknowledging Jesus Christ leads to death, simply because life comes from Christ alone, as the apostle John has written, that in him, Jesus, was life, and that life was the light of all men (John 1:4). This is where I find everything concerning this matter so hard to swallow. Christ died and through his resurrection, atoned for the sins of the whole world, thus reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Yet to this day much of the world remains in ignorance. Just how effective was the Atonement? Yet we read that the light of Christ shines into every man ever born. Even nature itself testify of creation. I stood at the bottom of the Grand Canyon one night in 1995. The display of stars overhead was astounding! Never in my life in the UK have I seen such glorious heavenly splendour. The threefold testimony of Revelation, Nature, and Consciousness are three witness for the existence of God. And even Revelation itself seem to be threefold - the Bible, the presence of the churches, and the restoration of Israel as a sovereign nation. 

Although both the Middle East and the Far East regions of our planet seems to be shrouded in darkness, for us to call ourselves "a Christian nation" seems to be equally deceptive. True enough, our Constitution is founded on Christian principles. For an example, in the Law Courts, a witness swears to tell the truth by holding a Bible. But all these things don't make us a nation of true believers. Instead, I have found that the majority of British people do not know the love of Christ. In my mind I believe that Darwinism has played a major role towards mass unbelief. Nowadays, the revelation of divine creation in six literal 24-hour days followed by a day of rest on the seventh is held as ridiculous, and it is considered that no scientist worth his salt, or anyone with an ounce of common sense would even consider such revelations as historical. Yet the existence of our weekends and Sabbath days in other countries, along with the global institution of marriage, together with our Constitution and those of many other lands, all testify to the historicity of the Bible.

No other science discipline has been so controversial as Natural Evolution and Historical Geology, the latter being the works of Scotsman Charles Lyell, on which Englishman Charles Darwin based his own works of Evolution. On these two authors, considered brilliant in the academic world, the truthfulness of the Gospel is denied, as it stands to reason that without the historicity of Divine Creation, the reality of sin, atonement, and judgement have no place in rational thinking. And so, as we advance in knowledge and civilisation, this same knowledge, I think, holds responsibility for our spiritual and moral decline, with more and more stepping off this planet into a lost eternity. Tragic!

Is there something in the air? An entity who is behind all this darkness, and blinding people from the truth of the Gospel? Perhaps the answer is found in 2 Corinthians 4:4, that the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. And also of Ephesians 2:2, when every one of us was under the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit at work in those who are disobedient (of the command to receive the Gospel).

It is a terrifying concept, especially to the ones you love most. After all, I wonder how the mother of the Islamic teenager, unwillingly forced to blow himself up, must have really felt? Especially as she remembers holding him as a newborn in her arms.