Sign of the Times
Editor: In writing in the New York Times, Paul Krugman wrote: “The truth is that the European project, peace guaranteed by democracy and prosperity, is in deep trouble. The Continent still has peace, but it’s falling short on prosperity and, in a subtler way, democracy. And, if Europe stumbles, it will be a very bad thing not just for Europe itself but for the world as a whole”.
Where does this leave England as we enter the year 2015? Here’s a couple of quick thoughts from two of the most knowledgeable Bible scholars in our movement.
The first is from Michael Clark, president of the British-Israel-World Federation in the United Kingdom. The last time we asked his opinion, he suggested that 2008 would bring much financial hardship to the people of Britain (which it did), that a banking crises would envelop the entire world (which it did) and there would be a deepening spiritual crises within the covenant people (which it has).
On this occasion, he writes: “As a result of the Scottish Referendum, the United Kingdom remains united giving us cause to glorify Almighty God for it was He — the God of the whole House of Israel — who joined the “two sticks” of Scotland and England in 1603 and 1707 (Ezekiel 37: 15-22).
We are now required to look to the future and the coming ‘Exodus’ of the United Kingdom from the spiritual Egypt of the European Union. The 800th anniversary in 2015 of the signing of Magna Carta will mark the completion of a renewal and resurrection cycle, we believe, to deliverance of the Servant People in the Appointed Isles from a dictatorial prophetic Babylon in Europe.
Europe’s paralysis is now becoming very apparent. The Eurozone is locked into a spiral of stagnation and deflation, without the flexibility to respond. It is simply not working. Things are not adding up for the EU which needs structural reform. There is now a political sea-change going on looking for Britain to leave the political EU.”
Outside of occasional columns with this magazine, illness has kept Pastor Alan Campbell from his old active self but it does give him more time to stay abreast of events affecting Britain and Europe. When I asked him for what he thought 2015 would bring, he replied simply, “More of the same.” But he said, “It is really important to keep an eye on the Mid-East because events there will impact both the United Kingdom and America to a very great extent.”
Pastor Campbell is worried about the growing chorus of influential voices in the modern state of Israel calling for an exclusive “Jewish Israel State” and their demand that Arabic simply become a second language while there is also a rising call for more settlements in the former Palestinian lands. ISIS is becoming an even greater threat, particularly when there is no great appetite for us to commit sufficient ground troops and their successes only encourages home-grown terrorism. Meanwhile ethnic friction in the UK is growing and like the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants flooding across America’s southern borders, the thousands of refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere either flooding into the UK or waiting on the European mainland to do so will cripple the economy. Already hospital and schools are over-taxed.
What worries Pastor Campbell the most is all the threats taken together may be a plan to destroy the holy people. He sees the danger as being greater than anything that has faced the United Kingdom in the past and while there were statesman, like a Churchill, always there to bring the nation through, today there is no one on the horizon. He is encouraged a little by the words of the late press baron and a British politician, Lord Beaverbrook, when he said, “I cannot imagine how it is that Britain always finds a leader in the hour of need. To me it is a remarkable revelation, something to wonder at, and I can only believe that it comes from some great destiny that is marked for our race.”
