Lock-down Delusion?

He was homeless. And lonely. Very lonely, in fact. Furthermore, he felt that he was afraid of being mugged, even stabbed. Therefore, unable to sleep, he kept himself on the move, wandering from one place to another, constantly glancing behind to see whether he was followed.

He was also very hungry and thirsty. Eventually, he gives up. He lays down on the ground, feeling very suicidal. "To hell with life," he thought. "Let someone come and kill me. Or maybe, if I were to fall asleep here, I may not wake up again. I don't care anymore. I had enough!"

That was around 842 BC.

Elijah journeyed through the desert for forty days, or just short of six weeks. Yet he was supernaturally supplied with the appropriate food and drink, more than once. Yet despite such care taken of his welfare, he maintained a twisted cord of emotions: Loneliness, along with fear, and anger has driven this fellow to a remote mountain where he met God, and after throwing out a plethora of complaints, protesting that he is the only faithful one left throughout the whole of Israel, God eventually got around to saying that he has reserved for himself seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1Kings 19.)

Maybe such a revelation might have been encouraging for him. Then again, he might have also thought to himself: If there were seven thousand godly men in Israel alone, apart from any in Judah, then why has none of them made any effort to come and offer me food, drink and shelter, hidden and protected from my enemies?

I think that having such thoughts would be perfectly human. For throughout the forty-day journey, he was running away from Queen Jezebel, the dominant wife of King Ahab and who also wore the trousers. He was fleeing from her after performing a spectacular showdown against 450 prophets of Baal, Jezebel's idol, and not only putting them to shame but having them all executed.

Were these 7,000 godly men converts of Elijah's spectacular showdown? Probably not, for the Scripture indicates that they had already chosen to stay faithful to Yahweh, the true God of Israel since childhood, having never bowed their knee to Baal throughout their lives. Those who witnessed the contest between Yahweh and Baal might have been impressed with Elijah's spectacular victory, but for some, it doesn't necessarily depict true and lasting conversion. Left unconverted, the temptation to return to Baal worship becomes irresistible.

So there he was, feeling lonely, and suicidal. And this also makes me wonder how many were tempted to feel that way during this present Coronavirus lockdown? At least there were some parts of it which seems beneficial. Emptier roads for starters, resulting in cleaner air and a slowdown of climate change. Office employees working from home instead of the daily commute, whether by private or public transport. Still others on furlough, remaining employed by the business which was forced to close for the duration of the pandemic, resulting in a long paid "holiday" for its workers.

By the grace of God, I didn't find this lockdown financially difficult, due to being on State pension. Fortunately, I was not under compulsion to stay at home, as was the case, I believe, in Spain and Italy. Instead, I was still free to go out and exercise once a day, either walking or cycling. 

With both swimming and the gym locked away, so to speak, with walking, I have enjoyed the wonderful privilege of admiring Rhododendron bushes in full bloom, the magenta flowers glowing in the Spring sunshine. Funny, really. These species were originally imported from China and has established themselves well here. Yet there are many gardeners, environmentalists and perhaps horticulturalists who have taken a dislike to this bush, seeing it as a foreign invasion, and there was even a faceless bureaucrat sitting at the Council office of Bracknell Forest who had sent out an order to have much of the Rhododendron at the back of one street destroyed, thus removing the sound barrier between the busy traffic and the homes of many residents and leaving an ugly scar on the landscape. 

Rhododendron in full bloom near my home, taken May 2020.

Cycling is another form of exercise taken during the lockdown. These days it takes more of an effort to ride a bike long-distance, as a couple of other cyclists overtook me by quite a wide speed margin. Perhaps my age and state of health combined with the solar heat taking it out on me, yet there is that lovely feeling of accomplishment as I rode to Dinton Pastures, a country park some nine miles away from home, with its beautiful Black Swan Lake, dotted with forested islands and surrounded by a bridleway cutting through a forested environment lining both sides, thus combining the day out with both cycling and walking.

But there is the detrimental side to the lockdown, and that's how much I miss the church! At Ascot Life Church, along with all other churches in the UK, we now have "virtual services". This means that instead of being in the physical company among brothers and sisters in Christ, there is this figure speaking from the screen of my laptop. Although I can see him and hear him, all he is doing is looking into and speaking to a camera. He has no idea who is in the audience, and each member of the audience have no idea who else is watching - unless comments are posted, which scrolls up alongside the picture. But even then, we as an audience or congregation can't intercommunicate with each other.

As such, a virtual service is a very poor substitute for the real thing. There is no sense of love, no fellowship, no intimacy, no hugging, no greeting, no private news shared personally between members, and most importantly, no coffee & doughnuts! But at least the preach comes over well, and this has caused me to wonder whether the High Speed 2 railway project is already obsolete even before the very first track length is laid, as the purpose of the project is to whisk executives to their conferences as quick as possible. Has the use of computers made this HS2 a white elephant for the national economy? After all, we now have this Zoom app, which delivers pseudo-fellowship communication among partakers.

This also means that no one in my church can meet up over coffee. This used to be a favourite activity, for someone in the church, especially one of the Elders, to meet up at Starbucks. Here, we can advise each other, as I can give advice as well as receive it. Such meetings were very useful during times of crisis, like at the present when my beloved develops a toothache, just as the lockdown has closed every dental surgery in town. Like this, moral and spiritual support is compromised, as the telephone or Zoom could never replace the person-to-person counsel and intimacy which arises from it. Hence the lockdown has given me a sense of isolation, the feeling of remoteness, which even surrounded by talking pictures, fail to meet what Jesus Christ had in mind when he established His Body here on earth.

And this "social distancing." That means when I approach an oncoming pedestrian whilst on the footpath, we both alter our courses to ensure neither of us passes within two metres of each other, although to compensate, we often greet each other with a "hi" or even with the thumb up. It's as if every person not with the household is some kind of abomination. Go too near and you will die. 

And the economy under dire threat. According to the Press, this national lockdown is the end result of advice delivered to our Government by one bureaucrat, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, who warned that the UK death rate of 250,000 or more could occur unless the Government imposed a total lockdown. The likelihood of this being true scientific modelling by Imperial College is questioned by the previous modelling of the BSE crisis of 2002 as standing with an estimated 150,000 deaths in Britain. The actual number of deaths from CMJ, a related disease in humans, stood at less than 200 overall.*

It's from such sources such as the Imperial College where our ministers had taken fright and have put our national economy into a coma, from which it may not fully recover. Therefore it's meant to be this weekend when our Prime Minister will begin his "slow, steady lifting" of the lockdown. This includes some gardening centres re-opening, allowing picnics in parks, exercising outdoors more than once a day, and a bubble of family members and friends of no more than ten persons are allowed to come together. 

But there be no church meetings, no pubs, no coffee bars or restaurants, no leisure centres, and social distancing still enforced. As Dr John Lee has written, Boris Johnson lacks the courage to kick-start the economy to its pre-pandemic level, lest a second, more severe wave of infection was to occur. Also, according to this doctor who is an expert in pathogenicity, believes that if the virus were to infect more people, (with the vast majority suffering only minor symptoms) it would have to mutate to a less harmful form to preserve itself. Therefore he suggests that younger people should return to work and to live normal lives whilst at the same time the elderly and the vulnerable should be given adequate protection. 

Our PM lacking courage? That's not the same man who promised a golden age of national prosperity for all of us after leaving the EU, is he?

My good friend, PhD holder and geneticist Andrew Milnthorpe have always been sceptical about the lockdown, and he said to me that such action was way over the top. At first, I was taken back by what he had said, surprised at his apparent apathy for the spread of the virus. But since then, two journalists had both written that this national lockdown was a farce and the average Briton should not tremble with fear over the daily reporting of the number of deaths. One of these writers was Dr John Lee, who wrote in the Saturday Essay page of the Daily Mail. The other writer was Peter Hitchens. As the Bible says, when two or three agree, then the evidence is more likely to be factual.

Black Swan Lake, Dinton Pastures. Stock photo.

Maybe this lockdown had just one other benefit. It might have caused more people to think about God. I have heard a report that more people have gotten into prayer as a result of this pandemic. If this was such a good opportunity for the Gospel to be heralded, this is it. If churches such as Ascot Life Church, the Kerith Community Church, and other churches advertise their virtual service on to social websites, chances that more people may tune in, for it's much easier to go online at home than it is to bother driving to the church building full of strangers.

Despite all it's setbacks, God can work through the lockdown, as nothing is impossible with God.

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*Dr John Lee, Daily Mail Newspaper, Saturday, May 9, 2020.

Should We Pray For Sunshine?

As a self-employed domestic window cleaner, one of the biggest problems that plagues the business is wet weather. Over the years, I have learnt to overcome much of this problem, although there were, and will always be, days lost due to heavy or blustering rain. During the Summer, lost time is often made up by working later into the evenings. But during Winter, with limited daylight hours, lost time cannot be compensated for, resulting in loss of income. Therefore, keeping constant track of the daily forecast had always been essential for planning and running the business. And not to mention "fair weather clients" - customers who believe that cleaning their windows is not worth the fee I ask for, due to threats of rain, even if it's dry at the time I knock on their doors. Believe me, they can be a pain in the neck.

 

At our fellowship, Ascot Life Church, we have sung on occasions a song which contain the lyrics:

Let it rain, let it rain, let the rain fall on us...

And you know what? Following such Sundays when this song was included in the worship agenda, I have indeed faced a wet working week, more than once! But this song was about spiritual rain, the rain of the Holy Spirit into our lives so others can see the power of Christ within us. And that is where, I believe, the songwriter had got his priorities wrong. The song pleads, Rain on us. But I believe the correct lyrics should have been Rain on them, that is, the lost. The unsaved can only be redeemed through faith by means of the ministry carried out by the Holy Spirit taking place prior to conversion.

 

Lately, the song had become something of a standing joke between Dave, one of our Elders, and myself. Last weekend, we had a fete at a nearby school field, and the day began with a light shower. Fortunately the rain did not persist, and although a north-westerly breeze made us keep our woollies on, the day was a success, with a good turnout. And it was when I arrived at the school field during the shower when Dave asked me to "Rise to the challenge" and discuss whether it is right for Christians to pray for sunshine, or dry weather.

 

Not from Original Creation

 

Our present global climate was not part of original creation. In Genesis chapter one, we read that the waters being divided, with the upper waters forming a vapour canopy above the earth, while the waters below formed the oceans. Alongside this the narrator adds that, "The Lord did not cause it to rain upon the earth..."(2:5.) Therefore, the global climate must have been vastly different during antediluvian days than at present. It has been suggested that the vapour canopy caused the cloudless sky to appear red during the day, allowing the colours of all creation to appear more bright and intense. This seems to have been implicated by the fruit of the tree looking "pleasant to the eyes" (3:6) as well as providing universal warmth required for some species of fauna to grow to gigantic size, the well known Dinosaurs which must have roamed the planet during the days between Adam and Noah, if the historicity of the Bible is to be believed.

 

The Noachian Deluge was caused, as most scholars believe, by the collapse of the vapour canopy, together with the release of subterranean waters, probably under growing pressure by underlying magma, which too, breached the earth's crust as intense volcanic eruptions. The resulting ash cloud rising into the stratosphere causing the vapour to condense and fall as torrential rain, most likely were the mechanisms required to cause a universal deluge. After the Flood, and the time for Noah, his family and all the animals to leave the ark, Noah may have been aghast with the blue sky interspersed with clouds, seen for the first time ever. We can easily understand the fear Noah must have felt at the sight of rain, in case another Flood was on the way. The Covenant of the rainbow is strongly indicative of the vast change in climate, along with being caught in a sudden downpour, and the settling down of the new meteorological system which had not been present before the flood.

 

Statistics

 

The British are renowned for talking about our unpredictable weather. Often, comparisons are made between the UK climate and that of the Mediterranean, the most popular destination for British holidaymakers (vacationers) where Summers are hot and dry and Winters short and temperate. When in the last few years it had been cooler, warmer, wetter or dryer in the UK than normal, there were fears of a threat of a looming new Ice Age, Global Warming, or nowadays, Climate Change. But the latest meteorological graphs seem to indicate that the variance experienced in the weather pattern in the last few years had not strayed far from average. We Brits pine for the hot, dry summers enjoyed by those living on or around the Med. But as a whole, we are by no means the wettest country by a long shot!

 

My home town is Bracknell, about thirty miles west of London, and eleven miles east of Reading, our nearest city. According to statistics collected both from the Internet and from a world atlas, annual global average rainfall is 990 millimetres or 39 inches. In the UK, London and the South East are relatively dry, with 583 mm, or 23 inches a year, which is way below global average. In turn, Reading has up to 625 mm, allowing Bracknell with an approximation of 600 mm, or 24 inches. On the other hand, the Scottish city of Glasgow has an annual average rainfall of 1,205 mm, or 47.5 inches, or nearly four feet deep, which is 215 mm, or just over eight inches above the global average.

 

Worldwide, the statistics are wide. But although the Sahara is the driest area in the world, with an annual rainfall of just a few millimetres, there is far heavier rainfall along the Equatorial regions, such as in the central regions of Africa, which has an annual rainfall of up to 2,474 mm, or 97.4 inches. In turn, Borneo of Oceania has up to 4,974 mm, or 156 inches, while over Cherrapunji, north-east India, average annual rainfall between April and September is 10,922 mm, or 430 inches. But it can be argued that these regions have the monsoon season, with an interspersing dry season, making the weather fairly predictable. As here in Britain, weather is unpredictable with year round rainfall, yet the wettest region in the world with year round rainfall is probably Lloro, in the Choco district of west Colombia. This coastal strip which borders on to the State of Panama has an annual rainfall of up to 13,300 mm, or 523.6 inches. That is more than 43 feet. This sort of statistic certainly makes Britain look more like the Sahara!

I was fortunate when I visited Cairns in North Queensland in 1997. It is literally the wettest area of the whole of Australia, with an annual rainfall of 2,151.3 mm, or 84.7 inches. But like other Tropical regions, the Autumn month of March has 453.4 mm, or 17 inches of rain, compared to the dry Winter month of August, with just 35 mm, or 1.4 inches of rain. Although thick scudding thunderclouds sat over a nearby forested hill, throughout my five-day visit, the area remained dry enough to have made catamaran trips to the Great Barrier Reef possible. Cairns is a classic example of having tropical monsoon season-based climate with an alternate dry period.

Cairns Harbour, with cloud over a forested hill, North Queensland, 1997.


The Bible and Rainfall

The Bible rates rainfall as a blessing and among the temporal gifts of God. In this present fallen, post-diluvian world, the present meteorological climate system, with "the battle of the fronts" is the best system we can have to sustain life. Perhaps the key verse to this subject is Matthew 5:45, (KJV) which reads:

...That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makeeth the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

And this is over the Middle East, which has hot, dry Summers and temperate Winters, as with the rest of the Mediterranean. Yet in Leviticus 26:3-4, Moses wrote:

If ye (Israel) walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

This is repeated in Deuteronomy 11:13-14 which the promise of rainfall was conditioned on a whole heart love for God and obedience to his commandments:

And it will come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

Still further throughout the Old Testament, rainfall is conditioned by keeping God's statutes, such as Isaiah 30:22-23 where he wrote that if Israel repents of its idolatry, disposes of all its images, and serve God alone, then he will send rain to bring new life from the ground.

But there is a big problem if rainfall was conditioned upon the nation's obedience to God. This was highlighted in Psalm 14, where King David wrote that God looks down from heaven to see whether there is anyone who has an upright heart and loves God with all his soul, strength and mind. Instead, he sees that they are all corrupt, they have done abominable works, and there is none who does good, no not even one person. Nobody sought after God, nobody called upon him. Therefore, if rainfall was conditioned on commitment and loyalty to God and upon one's own righteousness, then the whole of mankind would have became extinct long before Jesus Christ came to atone for their sins! Therefore, in his grace, or undeserved favour, God sends rain anyway to sustain life. For example, Acts 14:17 reads:

Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

A confirmation from Job 5:10 which he says:

Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields.

Although in Psalm 65, King David was referring to national repentance of Israel towards God, something many scholars believe will happen in the future, his care for the land on a worldwide scale becomes obvious when we read verses 9-13, which is a good description of the planet at present (NIV):

You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with corn
for though you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows
and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers
and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty
and your carts overflow with your abundance.
The grassland of the desert overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with corn;
they shout for joy and sing.

This is certainly how much of the land around the world is at present, and that despite that the greater majority of the world's population do not know the Lord. Yet his sending of the rain to sustain life demonstrates the love of God to the world, as depicted in John 3:16, and his act of grace for life to survive. But there is more to all this. The reason for life as we know it to be sustained is really threefold:
1. For people to come to God through faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and inclusion into his coming Kingdom.
2. The establishment of churches worldwide so that communities of God's people can mingle among the rest of the population, providing a light and a witness to those who are lost.
3. God's everlasting covenant with Israel, not the covenant of works as laid down by Moses, but the eternal covenant of grace God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jeremiah chapters 30-32 gives a full prophecy of this Abrahamic Covenant, along with Ezekiel chapters 36-37, and Zechariah chapters 13-14.

Prayer for Sunshine?

As we had seen, rainfall is one of the temporal gifts of God, as opposed to the eternal gifts such as salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Rain is essential to sustain us. But here in the UK, we have the tendency to compare our climate particularly with Mediterranean lands, and prone to envy their long, hot Summers. Little surprise that foreign holidays to these destinations have grown into one of the nation's largest and most profitable business. I once read a book written by an ex-Jehovah's Witness about us as mainstream Christians preparing ourselves should a couple of Witnesses knock on our door. She then concluded:
We should be ready to meet them. Instead we worry about next month's coach trip to Bognor. Don't we realise that there's a war on? 
Our worry over a day trip to Bognor was not based on the failure of the coach turning up, or suffering a breakdown halfway there, or for that matter, someone falling into distress while out bathing. Rather, with such a prospect of a day trip to the coast, the first thing we worry about is the weather.

It brings me back to last year in 2012, the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. I have wondered how many true believers have prayed that the day of the Pageant along the River Thames would take place in fine weather. I have wondered whether there were churches, particularly in London, who set time aside to pray for good weather on that day. The fact was that almost the entire Pageant took place under torrential rain.

On the day of the Ascot Life Church fete, or Fun Day as we call it, we were weary of the weather.  So is praying for sunshine biblical?

The only recorded occasion where the weather came under prayer was when God revealed to Elijah that there would be a forty-two month drought across Israel (1 Kings chapters 17-18). But this had nothing to do with a day trip to the coast! The drought was brought by God to bring backsliding Israel to repentance, particularly under the leadership of King Ahab. During the drought, Elijah was first fed supernaturally by ravens, then he lodged in the house of a foreign widow outside of Israel. It was during that time, when the land became parched dry and people began to go hungry, that he held a contest between the God of Israel and Baal, and his 450 prophets. After two altars were built and the fire came down supernaturally on God's altar, it was clear that the whole intent of the miracle, and the drought, was to bring the people back to faith in God.

And this could be the reason why some places, such as regions and various countries in Africa, suffer drought. To a certain extent, conditional rainfall based on obedience to God's statutes still apply. But more likely, it is to do with bringing the inhabitants to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. And what could be a better way for the Christian church to demonstrate their faith but to feed them, and provide clothing and other provisions. James the apostle was quite particular on this matter. In his letter, which mentions Elijah and the drought of his day, he emphasised that faith without works is dead, and therefore just saying to these Africans that they believe in God, and not showing any form of hospitality, will have no impact on their lives, and remain unimpressed with their Christian profession.

When the 42 months were complete, Elijah prayed seven times for rain to fall, and at the conclusion of the seventh prayer, a cloud was seen above the horizon which led to a heavy downpour a short time later. But the miraculous change of weather, meant to have brought King Ahab to faith in Israel's God, instead led to the betrayal of the prophet to the wrath of Queen Jezebel, Ahab's wife, for the slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal.

Elijah's prayer over the weather is in line with all other miracles found in the Bible, to bring people to faith in God and his salvation. The raising of Lazarus by Jesus, recorded in John 11, was a good example, with Jesus explaining the main reason for the miracle, which is for the crowds to see for themselves that Jesus is the Messiah and therefore to believe, and have eternal life - verses 41-42. In fact, John himself had concluded his whole Gospel with the explanation that all the works Jesus had done, and were recorded were so we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and by believing, we can have life in his name (John 20:30-31.)

So should we pray for sunshine, or at least dry weather, for a church to hold an outdoor event? No, I don't think we should. But by his grace, God does at times answer prayer on this matter, as he did on our Fun Day. But it it happens to rain on the special day, then rather than blame God, we should look upon our motives. If the event is church-centred, chances are that it could still rain on the day. Rather, God will only manipulate the weather according to our prayers if such intervention is necessary for the saving faith of a person or a group of people - as was the case with Elijah, and of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Oh well, after all that, it's Crete later this year - God permitting...

I Have Reserved For Myself 7,000...

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament, alongside Abraham, Moses and King David. Under the reign of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel who were worshippers of Baal, one day on Mt Carmel, on the northern territory of Israel, Elijah challenged 450 prophets of Baal to call upon their god to miraculously ignite the sacrifice they had prepared, a young bull placed on Baal's altar, in front of a large crowd of people, mostly Israelites, who were unsure of who to worship - Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom history so richly testifies of his presence, leadership and care for Jacob's children, along with the testimony of their miraculous delivery from their slavery in Egypt through the parting of the waters of the Red Sea - or to Baal, of whom there was no recorded history except the multitudes of infants burned alive through means of child sacrifice.

By the time of evening, after the prophets of Baal had called on their god to ignite their sacrifice and receiving no response, Elijah rebuilt the Altar to Yahweh, placing twelve stones, each for one of the twelve tribes of Israel, laid the bull over some wood and he even ordered water to be poured over the whole edifice, filling the trench which was dug around it. One prayer was all it took, and from the sky a ball of fire came down and not only ignited the sacrifice, but burned to crisp the corpse, the wood, the stones and dried up all the water in the trench. Two significant things happened here which proved that the fire was miraculous: First it burnt up the stones. By nature, rocks don't burn. If heat is applied to rocks, they would eventually melt and flow as an incandescent stream we call lava, the viscosity of the flow depending on the type of rock heated. Secondly, water quenches fire and does not burn at all. Therefore it had been suggested by some scholars whether petrol (gasoline) was used to soak into the sacrifice and the wood underneath it. The major setback with that idea was this would be accusing Elijah of cheating, and as such, thoroughly unfair to the 450 deceived prophets of Baal who were all slaughtered afterwards (See 1 Kings 18).

Another miracle was performed not long before this contest on Mount Carmel, although much less spectacular, but equally powerful. The raising of the son of the widow at Zarephath in Sidon, north of Israel. During a drought in Israel lasting for more than three years, this widow offered food and shelter to the prophet. Her only son became ill and died. Elijah bent over the boy's face and prayed three times, and the boy revived. Elijah was indeed a man of God, powerful enough for even the King of Israel, Ahab, to quail before him.

Elijah and the Widow's son at Zarephath

But Ahab's wife Jezebel did not take kindly to the slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal. In fact, Ahab himself, who was at Mount Carmel and witnessed the contest, literally betrayed Elijah by telling her everything he had done, knowing full well how she would have responded. Jezebel vowed that unless Elijah was killed by the same hour the next day, let her god Baal do what he pleased with her.

This same Elijah, who demonstrated such powerful works of God in Israel, including raising a boy from the dead and soon afterwards, standing alone in a contest against a 450-strong opposition, was now running scared. Running for his life from just one angry woman! Oh dear, Elijah, where is your powerful God now? Was his arm so short that he couldn't save, or his ears so dull that he couldn't hear? Or was Elijah ready to throw in the towel, having had enough of his ministry and its constant opposition?

After some days, Elijah arrived at mount Horeb, (which I think is Mount Sinai) and dwelt in a cave there. It was there that God manifested his power to Elijah in the form of wind, an earthquake and fire, as in some kind of theatre show. But God's presence weren't in either of them. Instead he spoke to Elijah in a still small voice, asking the prophet what he was doing here. When Elijah felt defeated, all he could do was look at all the negatives in his ministry. Naturally introverted and prone to see the glass half empty rather than half full, his tirade was not untypical of his character:

I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I'm the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. (Vs. 10, 14)

God did not reprove Elijah for his tirade. After all, with just one prayer, didn't he defeat 450 prophets? Here the wonderful grace of God is revealed. After telling him to assign Elisha to take his place and to anoint two other princes as Kings, including Jehu over Israel, he then declared:

Yet I reserve seven thousand (men) in Israel - all those knees who have not bowed down to Baal and all those mouths who have not kissed him. (1 Kings 19:18).

So important was that statement that Paul the Apostle quotes it in his letter to the Romans (Romans 11:2-4) and uses it to advocate an important argument: Did God reserve those men to himself because they chose not to bow to Baal? Or their refusal to bow to Baal was because God had already chosen them? It is interesting that Paul wrote "reserved" in the past tense, within the context that even in his day there was a remnant of Israel chosen by God to receive his grace, and not by their works. If the mercy of God was achieved by works, Paul insists, then the mercy would no more be by grace - Vs. 5,6.

Therefore we conclude that the reason these guys did not bow the knee to Baal was because they were restrained by the Holy Spirit in their lives, who had already put a much stronger love for Yahweh in their hearts as a result of having already received salvation. This salvation came by faith in the Promise, of that of the Messiah who was to come, to atone for their sin forever. It was the same faith through which they were redeemed as with our faith that we are saved by the grace of God. The only difference was that they looked forward to the coming Messiah; today we look back.

In the above verse, I have inserted the word men in brackets. This is backed by the KJV version of Romans 11:4 where the word appears in the context, which isn't in italics, indicating that the word men was in the Greek original, but was omitted in the NIV, where the quote was taken. What does this imply? I think this implies that a much greater number than 7,000 of Israelites at the time of Elijah were saved, if we include their families. Although we cannot give any accurate numeracy, if each family had two children, and their kids followed their parents example of faith, the numbers could have swelled to 28,000. But as families go, not every child will follow his father's faith. A good example of this was King Manasseh of Judah, who did not follow the faith of his father, King Hezekiah. But if Jewish families tended to be large during those days, with some of the children following their parents faith and others not, an estimate of 28-30 thousand Israelites who were saved at Elijah's generation, I think, is a fair bet.

I have always firmly believed that in every generation, there was always a remnant who were saved. Paul himself had indicated this, that there was a remnant in his day as they were in Elijah's day. So what about during church history? And the world today?

The Bible tells us that at the day of Pentecost, three thousand Jews were saved at once, from the result of the apostle's testimony. More and more Jews were added in the years to come. But as the number of Jewish converts began to wane, the apostles therefore turned to the Gentiles, with Paul and Barnabas becoming the two chief ministers of Gentile Christians, while Peter and James remained ministering to the Jews. By AD 313 Emperor Constantine merged the Christian Church with the State to become a State religion, with numbers rapidly growing as persecution ceased, the slow death of spiritual vitality, the introduction of pagan traditions brought in by members who were obliged by the State to become Christians without the initial regeneration of the heart, resulted in the birth of the Roman Catholic Church, with its head bishop in Rome.

The Church of Rome, Vatican City


With the spread of Roman Catholicism right across Europe, including the British Isles, the spiritual decline of the church resulted in the Dark Ages, when fear and superstition dominated, as a result of the church's sotorology (study of salvation) was centered on works rather than on grace, with an absolute submission to the Pope binding upon all.

The Dark Ages were when most people did not know anything about the grace of God, and the population totally ignorant of the Bible, it being unavailable to the laity. (The laity are church-goers not of the clergy.) It was during those days that the doctrine of Purgatory emerged, along with indulgences, which meant that terror of Purgatory had kept the people earning their indulgences by doing good works and paying the clergy massive fees to have themselves and their loved ones prayed out of Purgatory and entry into Heaven.

And yet, during the Dark Ages, there were a remnant of Christians who truly knew the Lord and were saved by grace through faith alone. These included the Vaudois, the Albigensis and the Waldenses, churches across the south of France and Switzerland who believed in faith in Christ alone brings salvation, going as far back as the Fourth Century, over a thousand years before Martin Luther and John Calvin brought the Reformation. These churches were persecuted by the Church of Rome. On one crusade, 60,000 men, women and children were slaughtered in the French town of Beziers, wiping out the entire population of true Christians under the instruction of Pope Innocent III in 1209. It is a sad thing to say, but this is history. As such, it is also certainly true that God keeps a remnant of true believers uninterrupted, in every generation as despite the persecution, these churches grew and flourished.

And what about today? Browsing the Internet, I have managed to collect some statistics on world Christianity.

The recent count have brought up a result of 2,084,509,000 professing Christians worldwide, making 32% of the global population, with about half of this being Roman Catholics. Another count resulted with 648 million evangelicals. However, I do believe that even among Roman Catholics, of whom Protestants had for so long denied being true Christians, there are some who found the mercy of God, even if they knew little of the Bible and much on tradition. The same is true with Protestants. There are saved Protestants and Protestants who are lost. But whatever the case would be, in this generation there are remnants who are saved, as it's been in every generation.

And what about countries where Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism dominate? Even in those places I believe that God would say that he has reserved for himself a remnant who has not bowed to Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. The principle remains the same, unchanged throughout all history.

Yet God wants all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel. All includes everybody and excludes nobody. For as Peter wrote, that it is not the will of God that anyone should perish, but all should come to repentance. Here we see the sovereignty of God and human choice, seemingly contradictory, yet working hand in hand. My inward desire is to see every single person saved. Every person. This include the greedy bankers in the City as well as the lonely female who is aging without any family support. God desires all to be saved, yet he would not force anyone against their will. Then again, Jesus did say that no man can come to him unless the Father draws him, and those who comes to him, Jesus will never throw out but will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44) When praying to his Father, Jesus thanked his Father in Heaven for giving them (his disciples) to him, for they were the Father's from the beginning (John 17).

How God can keep a remnant safe from eternity past yet at the same time command all men everywhere to repent and receive eternal life, is something our finite minds will never understand. But the Bible teaches it and we must accept it.

God is beyond understanding, beyond human reasoning. He is infinite, we are finite. And I'm so glad. For he is God, able to save to the uttermost. Something to feel secure and worthy of praise.