Illiberal Liberals

We live in a day and age when people claim to be very 'Liberal' in their outlook. They tend to say 'live and let live' when it comes to the differences between religions. 'You believe what you want to believe and I'll believe what I want to believe and we will leave it at that.' It all sounds very tolerant and, well, 'liberal'.

The dictionary definition of a 'liberal' is one who is 'open-minded and not prejudiced'. That's is all well and good but I have a real problem with 'Liberals' and it is not because of their claimed tolerance. My problem with 'Liberals' stems from their being very 'Illiberal', I'm afraid many 'Liberals' do not do what it says on the tin.

There is within society today a great number of so called 'liberal' pressure groups. These groups want to liberalise laws on gambling, Sunday opening, gay marriage and divorce to name a few. As these folks push their point of view they are actually pushing against the point of view of Bible believing Christians and as a result they come into conflict with Christians. They actually accuse God's people of being 'intolerant and illiberal'.

What I can't understand is this, if these people are so open-minded and unprejudiced then why can they not be a bit more tolerant of the views of Christians? Why can they not extend to us some of their supposed 'liberality'?

The truth of the matter is they are not 'liberal' at all, they are just as much fundamentalists as the Christians, it's just they have a fundamentally different world view. I wish they would be a bit more honest and find a new name for themselves, a name that would be a bit more realistic.

Among their ranks there are those who have been honest enough to admit that Christians are being persecuted by 'Liberals'. Former Tory MP Michael Portillo, when referring to the fines imposed on the Bull family who refused to allow gays in their guest house, said 'they should not have been penalised....Changes to equality law are not the result of public consensus, rather, laws are changed by small lobby groups who then use the changes in a bid to shift public opinion.' Homosexual TV Presenter and Historian David Starkey said recently that 'penalising Christians for their beliefs about homosexual behaviour is intolerant, oppressive and tyrannical.'

At least Mr Starkey is consistent with the principles of being a 'Liberal' but as for the militant homosexual lobby they would be better describing themselves as what they are 'Fundamentalist homosexuals'!

'Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Matthew 5 v10

The reality is

The Contractions are Getting Closer

I'm no expert on childbirth, having never experienced it myself, but i do know this, as the contractions experienced by an expectant mother get closer together it's a sure sign that the arrival of the baby is getting closer. God often uses the metaphor of childbirth to describe the events of the of 'Day of Jacob's trouble' or as it is more often called the 'Great Tribulation'. Speaking about the days of suffering that precede the Millennium Kingdom the prophet Micah predicts. 'Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.' Micah 4 v 9-10 Notice the language in this passage where Micah describes the nation of Israel as a 'woman in travail.' This metaphor is a fitting one indeed because one of the purposes of the tribulation period is to purify Israel in order that the nation will be spiritually born again. The prophet Isaiah speaks of this rebirth in the 66th Chapter of his book. 'Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.' Isaiah 66 v 8-9 Some understand this prophecy to have been fulfilled when Israel was reborn as a nation in May 1948. I would agree that that significant event is certainly a partial fulfilment of a precursor to a greater fulfilment but not the end of the matter. The event referred to by Isaiah, Micah and other prophets has a deeper spiritual significance. Israel, although back in the promised-land today is there essentially in unbelief, that is, they have not recognised the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. The day that the prophets speak of is a day when the nation will be not merely nationally reborn but spiritually reborn. Speaking of the spiritual regeneration Zechariah says. 'And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.' Zec 12 v10 You may well be wondering why I am talking about this, you may say 'it is not relevant to me as I'm not Jewish'. Well I believe this is very relevant to every person on this planet because these events that we are thinking about are events relating to the age in which we live, an age which is fast drawing to a close. I will come back to the theme of childbirth in a moment as it ties in with what I want to say about current events. Unless you have been in hibernation for the past few months you could not have failed to notice that both New Zealand and Japan have been rocked this year by massive earthquakes and in fact the nation of Japan is experiencing massive aftershocks on almost a daily basis. What has this got to do with the end of the age you may ask? Well did not the Lord Jesus say regarding the closing days of this age that:- 'nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: ‘and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.' Mark 13 v8 Earthquakes in divers or different places, well we are certainly seeing that. But there have always been earthquakes around the world! Well that is true but consider the following statistics courtesy of the 'World-Earthquakes.com' website. Looking at earthquakes over the magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale over the past few centuries. 18th Century - 1 over 8.0 19th Century - 3 over 8.0 20th Century - 18 over 8.0 21st Century - 8 over 8.0 Considering we are just over one decade into the 21st century I think we can conclude that sever earthquakes are becoming increasingly common, or we could say they are getting closer together, hang that thought in the back of your mind for a moment. Going back to the Biblical revelation do you remember that we compared the rebirth of the nation of Israel spiritually with childbirth? Well there is a parallel with natural childbirth and the rebirth of Israel that we need to consider. Quite a time before the birth of a child the expectant mother will begin to experience 'birth pangs' or more properly 'contractions'. As the final delivery draws closer these contractions become more frequent and more severe. Could it be that the earthquakes currently shaking our world are the birth pangs of a spiritually reborn nation of Israel? The earthquakes as we have seen are certainly more frequent than ever before. If you think I'm nuts consider the final phrase of Mark 13 v8 that we have already quoted, 'these are the beginning or sorrows.' The word translated 'sorrows' in the KJV is from the Greek word 'odin'. This word actually refers to the pain of childbirth, travail pain or birth pangs. Now that is interesting, God the Holy Spirit is comparing the sorrows that will come upon this earth at the close of this age as the sorrows associated with childbirth. Interesting. Over in the book of Revelation 12 v 2 we have a derivation of the word 'odin'. The word used on this occasion is the word 'odino' and is translated as 'travailing in birth'. I show you this to reinforce the point and show you that I'm not stretching the meaning of Mark 13. To conclude I would say, 'the coming of the Lord draweth nigh'. We can see the evidence as we watch the six o'clock news. Unsaved reader are you ready lest His appearing overtakes you like a thief in the night. Child of God, our day of opportunity for witness is fast running out, be busy for the Master in these closing days of time. 'I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.' John 9 v4

Murder Made Easy

I heard on the BBC news this morning that Pharmacies in Wales will now be able to distribute the 'morning after pill' free of charge, that means fully funded by the British Tax Payer. You can read about it at the following link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12926180

The article on the BBC website describes the 'morning after pill' as 'Emergency Contraception'. I have a real problem with this description of the 'morning after pill'. The oxford English Dictionary defines contraception as 'the deliberate use of artificial methods or other techniques to prevent pregnancy as a consequence of sexual intercourse'. The Etymology of the word is the joining of the word 'contra' meaning 'against' with the end of the word 'conception' which means to conceive. In other words it is a means to stop a woman from conceiving.

Now one can think of many forms of contraception that can be employed to stop a woman becoming pregnant but the 'morning after pill' is not one of those methods. In reality the 'morning after pill' is a drug which attacks the recently fertilised egg within the woman's body, it attacks the embryo and destroys it. The drug actually prevents the embryo from travelling into the womb where it needs to be to develop.

As a Christian I believe firmly that human life begins at the moment of conception. When God called Jeremiah he explained to him that He knew him before he was born 'Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.' Jeremiah 1 v5 The Psalmist David said in Psalm 51 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.' With God life begins at conception!

If life begins at conception, and it does, then to take away life after conception is murder. To take a pill and to destroy a tiny little embryo in the body of a woman is just like taking a gun and blowing someones head off. What a sad state our nation is in when taxpayers money is being spent to murder babies. God help us.

'Thou shalt not kill.' Exodus 20 v 13