Back from the brink?
I WAS VERY CONCERNED when I read your headline, ‘Back from the brink – did prayer keep our kingdom united?‘ The suggestion that the decision on the Scottish Referendum was the result of prayer being offered against a ‘No’ vote is, to me, rather worrying.
The idea that one group of people have a ‘hotline’ to God so we must pray against any other group that thinks differently (in the case of the referendum: 1,617,989 people) leans towards religious dictatorship. In political matters or world affairs surely we should be humbly praying for wisdom for those in authority making far-reaching decisions.
Using such emotive language as references to ‘Judgement Day, destroying Britain, back from the abyss’, etc, only serves to give material to those who would like to ridicule our faith. Whether we agree or disagree with the decision of the Scottish people; there are other really important things happening in the world where our prayers are needed.
Rosemary C Biggs
Shoreham by Sea
Prayer DID keep our Kingdom united
Thank you for all the articles about the Scottish Referendum in the interesting last issue. We must be so grateful to the prayer warriors who prayed to keep the Kingdom united. I am quite sure that prayer kept the UK together.
Gerald Gresham Cooke
Tillington
Email: Geraldgreshamcooke@gmailcom
Contraception is homicide
I WRITE TO RAISE the matter of birth control, which all Christians alive before 1930 condemned as an abomination and which has emerged as the driver of the sexual revolution and the catalyst of the culture of death.
There are only two ways in which to commit this sin. The first is by wasting seed as Onan did, for which God killed him (Genesis 38:10). The second is by committing ‘pharmakeia’, the New Testament term which is rendered into English as sorcery.
Contraception is objectionable because it is used to ensure that a person, who might otherwise be conceived, shall not come into existence. In that respect, contraception must be regarded in the same way as homicide. Both acts share the same immoral character, though not the grave injustice of murder.
One reason why both contraception and artificial substitutes for the marital act are sinful is that there is no divine law to authorise them. They are governed by the same law as applies to public worship and the exercise of public power by civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
Acts by which human life is given or taken are by nature reserved to God. A human act which causes a human conception or death is therefore a crime unless it answers a demand of marital or criminal justice respectively.
Michael Petek
Brighton
Street healing for Korea
I RECENTLY READ A HEART article online about some South Koreans who travelled to the UK to pray for revival.
I was wanting to get in contact with the Korean group because I live here in Korea as an English teacher. I would like to start street healing here but I’m not too good at the local language so I need their help. It is also hard with the culture to just approach anyone so I have been trying to find someone to partner with me in bringing the gospel to the streets of Korea. Please pass my information on so I can get in contact with them. Bless you!
David Tisdale
South Korea
Email: david.m.tisdale@gmail.com
Tel: 010-5603-3434 (South Korea)
Don’t mix holy with profane
WELL, IT’S THAT TIME again. The season of goodwill, peace and joy to the world?
The Word says that Satan will deceive the whole world. Are you able to stand and say, “It’s fine, what is all the fuss about, no harm done?”
Does the Church need to wake up to the truth? Should we be sitting our children on the lap of a fat, white bearded, red cloaked ‘god’ called ‘father’ who gives gifts to good kids and not to bad kids?
Who do you worship? Do not mix the holy with the profane. Do you kneel at a tree draped in gold and silver? What about the yule log, the wreath, the holy and the ivy, and mistletoe? Has the church lost its way and have we been swayed by the world to conform?
Churches are generally closed to the needy for many days around Christmas so they can do their own thing and ignore the lonely and disillusioned while they revel, as the world revels.
Andy Stevens
Windrush Church,
Bracklesham Bay
Jesus wouldn’t party at ‘Xmas’
‘CHRIST’S MASS’ is the celebration of Christ’s birth on 25 December in the western hemisphere, whereas, the Eastern and Orthodox Churches mark it on 6 January or thereabouts, so who is correct?
By the fourth century, as Jews played a lesser part in the Church’s affairs, the celebration of the ‘Mass of Christ’ to mark the birth of Jesus became the norm as the congregations became increasingly Gentile. This distanced the Church from Jewish teaching and the significance of the biblical feasts that Jesus himself celebrated. One such feast is the Feast of Tabernacles in September/October which may well be the true birth date of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps the ‘hidden’ birthday is the way Jesus would have liked it. No fanfare, no debts, no parties. As an observant Jew I don’t think he’d join in our current festivities which only seem to promote decadence, materialism and self-gratification.
Santa is an anagram of Satan, so I sometimes wonder just who is behind all the glitter of ‘Xmas.’ Somehow I don’t think it’s a humble carpenter from Nazareth.
Colin Nevin
Bangor, Co Down