Were we chosen by God before the world was made? Or, is salvation the result of God’s ‘offer’ and our own considered response? We teach that we cannot choose our own salvation, but that God must choose us. This is well documented in our publications, because predestination is taught plainly in scripture.  Our ‘stance’ is, then, what scripture says, not what we say.

Yet, continually, we receive letters and e-mails that condemn us for teaching election! How can this be, unless those who condemn do not know scripture? Many appear to know the texts – but their interpretation of them is askew, not reflecting what scripture truly says.

Time and again we say that our insistence on predestination is not our own requirement, but is that of Almighty God. Described in scripture as The Potter, we see that He chooses some pots for life and salvation and others for destruction. Nothing can be plainer than that.

None of us, including those who believe in total depravity and the inability of anyone to be saved except he is first chosen by God, revel in the fact that some are saved and others are not. Nor do we gloat that we are saved but others are destined to hell.

There is nothing in us to warrant being saved. We are saved simply because God chose us to be saved before the world was made (note the past tense). We cannot ever know why He chose some and not others. We cannot praise ourselves for being saved, nor can we condemn others who are not. That is because our salvation is in His hands alone.

We cannot choose Christ and salvation...we can only await His good pleasure until He determines the actual time when we will know salvation in our lifetime. Yet, we are not personally aware of all this until we are saved!

What a shame, then, that so many Christians and many more who think they are Christians, fail to understand their true position before God! Those of us who are saved by God’s grace and mercy have no self worth. When God saves us, He only sees His Son, Jesus Christ, for it is He Who effected the means of salvation. He alone is worthy.

It is His sacrifice that God sees, and not us. It is well that we soberly reflect on this fact, for it is all too common to think we have a part in our eternal status.

Reality of ‘Asylum Seekers’

The British government continues to rush headlong in to more of a mess, concerning ‘asylum seekers’. UK readers probably have heard of the family of Romanian ‘gypsies’ who hid under a speeding locomotive in order to get in to the UK at great risk to their lives.

No doubt the soft-hearted amongst us will have cried out in anguish for these ‘poor’ refugees, whose only crime was to escape the harsh brutality of Romanian society, who persecute them daily. Why else should they so risk their lives?

Friends, as thousands upon thousands of ‘refugees’ flock to the UK, don’t be fooled by your emotions or by heart-rending stories. In my time I’ve met lots of competent liars who could charm the birds from the trees and reduce the unwary to floods of tears.

Every ‘refugee’ to the UK is another drain on its resources, already spread thinly. Many in the UK are so poor they have no hope. Yet, new refugees immediately obtain housing, food, clothing and money! I don’t mind such use of my taxes, if a case is genuine.... but even if a case is genuine, why is it that the UK seems to attract so many to its shores?

The UK is finite in its land and resources. Those who work are having to pay for massive state benefits to those who do not work, mainly through no fault of their own. Now, we are expected to pay to keep refugees whose backgrounds are unknown. We have already indicated the phenomenal sums of money involved. Refugees pass through other countries to get to the UK. It can only be due to the laxity and inordinate government-led generosity, taken from our taxes!

Those brave ‘refugee’ gypsies from Romania? They were escaping all right – but for very different reasons to the one of ‘persecution’. The UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, had the good sense to send reporters to Romania to trace the origin of the ‘poor’ family who hid under the train. It turns out that they were never persecuted at all.

They had two large houses that, in the UK, would look fine in any stockbroker belt. They had very expensive Audi and Mercedes cars – one worth about £50,000 in UK money! They left behind a relative who lived next door in abject poverty (nice folk, eh?), who denied that the family, including himself, had been persecuted. The reporters spoke to Romania’s two gypsy members of parliament, and both said there was no persecution of gypsies (though there was some discrimination, many years ago).

Now, the head of the family who had ‘escaped’ was supposedly an ‘unemployed truck driver’. Yet, he had a lifestyle that would exceed that of many rich folk in the UK!

In Romania, that wealth can be multiplied many times over, making him equal to a millionaire! Where did his wealth come from? If he was not persecuted and was very rich without working, one stark conclusion jumps out – crime!

The UK Home Secretary has admitted that the whole refugee system has collapsed, and many have absconded from the holding centres where they are supposed to stay until their applications are processed. Once they abscond they are treated as criminals, which is as it ought to be.

Why should ‘genuine’ applicants abscond? Again, one can only conclude that their applications are not genuine and they do not wish to be found out. Our rich ‘unemployed trucker’ and his entire family have absconded.

I am willing to suggest that the family are here not to escape persecution, but to avoid capture by Romanian police, or attacks from the underworld gangsters who now rule many criminal activities in the UK since they came here as supposed ‘refugees’...gaining much support from Christian charities.

The criminals who have thus invaded this country have come here for ‘fresh pickings’ and the bonus of not being known to the police. They are said to be far more brutal than our own home-grown thugs, so we are going to pay an even higher price for offering a helping hand to ‘asylum seekers’.

Even those seekers who are genuine should now be diverted to other countries, which are much larger and can sustain such a massive intake. And the ‘applicants’ should be examined before they enter the UK, not afterwards! The only reason they are not, is that our foreign neighbours are not fools! They don’t want to be lumbered with thousands of dubious ‘refugees’ either!!

As I have said before, a country can take only so much. This is not nationalistic, fascist talk, it is sheer common sense based on what can be readily observed. Maybe someone somewhere will at last take notice. To the Daily Mail, we say ‘well done’, for exposing the farce.

To Christians, we say, don’t be duped by sob-stories. How often do we give to charities when we know nothing at all about the real situations and people we are giving to?

How often are we really giving to criminals or to those who despise God? As Christians we should show compassion when it is needed, but we are not called to be stupid.

Christian giving and help should not be offered to anyone who asks. That would be, and is, very foolish. God says that there is no way we should give to the godless.

So, why are we extending help and compassion to people we do not know when there is growing evidence that a significant number of them are criminals?

When we bought our last computer, none of us at BTM realised how quickly things would move! As a non-technical computer user I was blissfully unaware of the fact that even a modern computer has its limits!!

Over the past few months, my computer has been ‘acting up’ and I thought, in my ignorance, that it just needed a few ‘tweeks’ here and there. A kindly computer enthusiast came to see what was wrong and I was shocked to learn that though only about 3 – 4 years old, it was packing up!! It seems that I have such a vast amount of material on it, that the poor box of tricks is dying on me.

Every day another ‘error’ message appears on the screen and when I am preparing articles etc., the screen ‘freezes’, forcing me to shut the computer down improperly, causing me to lose the information I have just put on it. That is why some articles have now disappeared from my files.

My enthusiast friend offered to upgrade the computer with more memory, but it seems that this would only be effective for another few months!! Anyway, my eldest son (who is not yet a Christian) called me out of the blue one day to say that his employer had three computers that were ‘extra to requirements’, brand new, top-notch machines. They were being offered at just under £600 including taxes.

When I said that BTM only had £150 in its bank account, he promptly said that he would pay the rest until BTM could repay it. As the money is coming out of his own meagre resources being saved to refurbish his home (bought four years ago and yet to be lived in!) this is a very kind offer which I gladly accepted. Thanks B.J.!

You will be pleased to learn that though another computer is needed to cope with the huge volume of work we now do, the (slightly) older computer will continue to be in service. It works okay – it is just that it has insufficient memory. You might remember that the original idea was to use the three computers I once had to ‘spread out’ tasks to each one.

Then, one of them died on me, literally, and had to be thrown out. I had to load everything from the ‘dead’ one on to the newer one, immediately filling much memory space. That is why the newer one is now grinding to a halt. It was asked to do too much!

When the brand new computer arrives, I can again divide up the information in to three categories, so that each computer is used for specific tasks. Each will be linked to one of two printers and two scanners. Hopefully, I will also obtain (sometime) a machine that will let me copy material on to CD’s. Then, we can offer our publications on CD for instant play on personal computers.

As you can see, BTM is moving ahead very fast, and, with God’s grace, we will reach many millions in a short space of time. Though we receive the expected abuse from charismatics and others, news comes through from those who have been enthused and helped by the web site. Seekers, too, are using the site and some of them contact us for counsel.

As we progress in this ministry, it is becoming very evident that ignorance of scripture is widespread, mainly because Christians are not being taught properly or accurately. We ask God to therefore give us strength and the resources to continue. This also applies to my own situation, for my juggling of a paid job to finance my work for the ministry, is at full capacity and I now need to do the work full time.

Along with all this come other needs...as the work progresses so does the need for technical things – such as a high speed photocopier, a higher grade colour printer (hardly used at present to keep costs down), and even more space!!

But all this is known to God and He will provide. He usually provides through other Believers, hence the reason why we tell readers of our needs. But, even without passing on this information, God will provide, if the time is right and the need is in His will.

Isn’t life odd?  Throughout the awful Stalinist years of communist Albania, the only Western films allowed in to the country were those starring the comic, Norman Wisdom! The country eagerly devoured every single film he ever made!

I don’t know about you, but I love his films, for their innocent yet hilarious fun. Wisdom is bemused by the cult status given to him, but I can see why his gentle brand of humour won over the strict regime. Oh to see real fun return to the cinema again, not because entertainment should rule, but because Norman Wisdom’s films represent a gentler and much nicer ethos! Don’t be afraid to laugh!

Queen Victoria refused to accept that lesbians existed, believing that women were above that sort of thing. How I wish it was true!

A lesbian teacher recently used the new laws on Human Rights in an effort to discipline and bring to book pupils who called her names ‘derogatory’ to lesbians. She says she became ill as a result of the taunts and had to stay home. Happily, she lost her case.

I don’t believe in cruelty, but I can understand the taunting attitude taken toward a teacher who foolishly allowed her ‘private life’ to become known. Relying on the new freedom given to homosexuals, she let it be known that she was a homosexual (‘lesbian’ being a female homosexual). Despite the hype, few people of even an unchristian background accept the perverted lifestyle of homosexuals.

The former teacher’s head teacher and school were said to be ‘unrealistic, cavalier and dismissive’. More likely, they were simply being humanly repulsed by her activities! The teacher brazenly said that there were ‘principles at stake’! Yes – homosexual ones! Stonewall, the homosexual activist group, paid for the case to be brought to court.

I am happy to see that they lost their money, but it will not end there. The Labour government in particular and the E.U. in general, supports the vile homosexual trade freedom of expression. Thus we can expect many more homosexual legal cases to come to light. Let us fight this awful misuse and abuse of  the justice system - we should have no sympathy whatever for homosexuality.

(Note: Interestingly, the Prime Minister’s wife, Cherie, an activist on behalf of homosexuals, acted on behalf of the school!).

Readers will remember our recent article questioning the claim that ‘organic is best’. An article in The Daily Telegraph (28^th March 2001) by Professor Tony Trewavas (Inst. Cell and Molecular Biology) suggests that we might have been on the right track – that is, the ‘organic’ claims are more to do with New Age theory than with reality.

Trewavas says that the claims that organic food is better all-round is not substantiated by research. Consistently, he says, organic foods are found to be very low in protein and nitrate. He even says that cancer rates are up because certain fungicides are not used in organic farming, whereas rates are down by close on 60% when chemical pesticides are used.

The article by Trewavas makes very interesting reading, and makes me ask yet again if organic foods really are better – or is it all hype? Don’t be misled by organic food advocates, many of whom are New Age ideologists.

Computer experts have just published a composite picture of what they think Jesus ‘really’ looked like, and it has shaken many in the ‘Christian’ world. Some have even been shocked.. Why? Because the computer generated ‘Jesus’ looks like a Jew!!

Swarthy, with brown face, a beard and slightly hooked nose, ‘Jesus’ came to life on a computer screen. It is true that every nationality thinks of Jesus as being in its own image. But, Jesus was a Jew, and He came (humanly) of Hebrew stock. Is it any wonder, then, that He might look like a Jew of His time?

Those skinny, white-skinned, almost sickly-looking figures usually found in Roman Catholic pictures and effigies, have always annoyed me! Jesus was a real working man, with tough-skinned hands and weather-beaten face. He looked like a Jew because that was His tribal background! As a man, He was like those around Him. So, why the shock? The picture is only a guess – but the computer men are on the right track.

The nursing home I work in is now taking in young disabled residents. The first one came to us only yesterday. He fell down the stairs when drunk and sustained severe brain damage, resulting in a vast number of problems, including epilepsy, incontinence, having to excrete through colostomy bags and urine bags, and get fed by tube, and much more. That young man is now going to pay for his sin many times over until he dies.

But, also, we all pay, through our taxes. Maybe you think this is a very harsh thing to say, but I see many similar cases of sin-induced problems, every day in my work. One older man came in to us two months ago. He was in such a bad state the care workers had to leave the bathroom to vomit – the man stank so badly, because he had not washed or even bothered to go to the toilet! I had to give them surgical face masks soaked in perfume, to enable them to carry on cleaning him up. I also felt physically sick.

The man was a known drunk. He sat in his house and drank himself in to a stupor. His home was a complete mess and finally the district nurse got him admitted to us. We dried him out and he became a new person, able to walk, eat and talk again. Then, he went back home.

That same day, one of our carers had occasion to visit his home, to take some laundered clothing back. She was met by the man with a huge glass of straight whiskey in his hand! That was just a few hours after getting home. His stay at our Home was paid for by his family doctor...and his funds come from our taxes.

I remember, many years ago whilst a hospital nurse, working in the so-called alcoholic rehabilitation unit. What a depressing place! It was full of men who went out every day to drink! Rehabilitation? Nonsense! Those who returned during my shift pretended not to have alcohol on them.  They hid their bottles in toilet tanks, cupboards, bushes, under beds – you’d find drink everywhere. They were just as drunk in hospital as they were outside of it; only they had a comfortable bed to sleep in and drugs on top...all paid for by our taxes!

That is why I’m so sceptical about these treatment programmes. People don’t change unless they mean it. I personally will never support programmes of that type, because they don’t work. They cost a lot of my money, and have very few genuine results. Sin is like that!

Critics of BTM often accuse me of fighting a cause for my own views. This was particularly evident during the massive fight against the Toronto Blessing. But what concerned many Reformed men was my insistence on a total, blanket rejection of the entire movement. They understood ministers who rejected part of the TB, but they felt I was dangerously close to quenching the Spirit by rejecting the entire thing. Unfortunately, the same criticism persists today, hence this short article.

Why did I reject the whole TB movement? Well, it was certainly not to beat my own drum or to field my own views, nor was I trying to ‘get back’ at those I thought were heretics. The truth is far more complex than that!

It all began when a friend told my wife of a meeting she attended in Bournemouth, UK, a few months before the TB hit the UK and before I had heard of the movement. As she related what was said and done in that large meeting, my instant reaction was “That’s heresy!” and I explained why I came to that conclusion.

Then, later, the TB came to my city with a mighty explosion of interest. Right up to that point, I was sympathetic toward Charismatics/Pentecostalists. Or, more correctly, I was neither drawn or repulsed by their beliefs. The reason was that I knew many of them and, I thought they were my brethren, but with ‘odd’ views! I had even preached in some of their churches over time. So, I had no axe to grind, one way or the other. To be frank, I was blatantly ignorant of what they taught and believed.

But, when the TB brought its circus to town I was bombarded by what was utter rubbish. I commented very little for the first few weeks, though I was convicted in my spirit that it was not of God. This conviction was to prove my lifeline as things became very tough.

Then, a couple asked my sister if they could take her young daughter to the swimming baths with their own children. What actually happened made me very angry indeed – they took her to a TB meeting and allowed her to walk to the front to be ‘zapped’ by an eager preacher!

When I learned what was going on I was appalled by the deception, and warned the people of my city what was happening to their children. This brought an immediate backlash from the Elim City Temple, and the whole thing arose from that simple warning.

Because of the backlash, I was forced to do some very quick study! I got in to charismatic beliefs and it dawned on me that my initial disquiet was well-founded. The more I studied, both scripture and reports, the more alarmed I became. My study widened out dramatically as my quest took me beyond my own city and charismatic leaders talked to me. Before too long I had contact with literally many thousands of people forced out of their churches by ardent TB adherents.

I can assure readers that in those earlier days real hatred was shown by TB folk. This was because the movement was, and still is, of Satan.

How did I know? Well, my first response to it all was in my spirit. How could I know immediately that what was happening was not of God? I can only say that there are times when God imprints such a belief directly on to a man’s spirit. It proved to be the bed-rock, the assurance to my heart and mind, that was to keep me going.

After the initial understanding of charismatic beliefs, came a far deeper and more disturbing matter – the understanding of the thinking behind the beliefs. Many thought they knew what it was all about – but it is not until you get ‘inside their heads’, that the issue looks very different.

Not only was the TB based on unscriptural beliefs, it became ‘extra-Biblical’ and started to replace what scripture said.  I looked at the basics of their claimed ‘salvation’ and found that it was out-and-out Arminianism.

Anyone who accepts the Arminian claim to ‘salvation’ is really accepting gross error, and those ‘saved’ by its teaching are not saved at all. It is this claim by me that galled my critics – yet, I was merely speaking from scripture! The TB was ‘another Gospel that was no Gospel’! So, I could not understand the reasoning behind my critics’ views – who, mostly, obtained their beliefs third-hand.

None of them bothered to contact me to show me where I was wrong, which is another strange omission if they really thought they were right. That was why I concluded that their opposition to me was personal and not Biblical.

How can a movement be of God, even in part, if it arises from the mess of a cult, with its birth in Azusa Street spiritualism? My critics have yet to answer me.

Bible Theology Ministries

© March 2001

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