Tag: terrorism

The Bible in a Year – 6 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

6 June. Ezekiel chapters 21-23

This is where Ezekiel’s prophecies turn really nasty.  In summary, chapter 21 is a pair of prophecies, poetic in form but certainly not pleasant in content, against Judah; 22 a more specific list of the sins of Judah and its leaders; and 23 another allegory (like earlier ones, but even more graphic) of Israel and Judah as prostitutes in their dealings with other nations. In one sense there is nothing new here, it is his consistent message, but now with added sex and violence (in fact if I were to quote some of these verses of the Bible, which probably do not appear in any lectionary for public reading, this blog would be blocked by content filters).

 

Is all this irrelevant to us in 21st century Britain? Unfortunately not.  These words read shockingly just days after a terrorist knife attack in a part of London that I know well: “A sword for great slaughter, it surrounds them; therefore hearts fail and many stumble. … Attack to the right! Engage to the left! – wherever your edge is directed.” (21:14-16)

 

The charge sheet of sins directed against God’s people, which are the cause of the violence of the sword that they are about to experience, includes many failings of our own society. It does not take much paraphrasing of the text of 22:6-12 to read these charges as: dysfunctional families, injustice for immigrants, insufficient support for the poorest in society, sexual violence, a financial system that leads people into debt, and dishonesty in business.  Those charges can certainly be laid against Britain today.

 

But the charges also include a loss of a sense of what is holy (26), a failing that is not mentioned in the secular media and yet is at the root of the problem. There is undoubtedly a connection between the secularisation of society and the breakdown of communities. The word ‘religion’ ultimately means ‘connection’ – connection between people as well as between us and God.

 

Is there any link between these failings in our society and the terrorism that afflicts us?  I would say yes, but not in any simplistic sense.  Our problems, like our sins, are connected increasingly with those of the world as a whole, but that does not mean that the sins of individuals have nothing to do with it. Much of Ezekiel’s prophecies are directed at nations, and the whole sweep of Old Testament history is the story of the rise and fall of kingdoms, yet the previous chapters have made it clear that sin is the fault of individual persons, and God’s judgement is also on them as individuals. This whole question of guilt and punishment is a complex one.

 

What holds it together is a sense that everything that happens, however horrible, is in some way part of God’s plan. But again, this is not to be taken simplistically.  Christianity has no sense of fatalism – “the will of God” does not mean that we have no choice.  On the contrary, none of these prophecies limits the fundamental human freedom to choose good or evil, a choice we see played out in the Bible from beginning to end. There is always a call to repent, always an opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness and love as an individual, always the option of playing a smaller or larger part in the redemption of the world rather than its condemnation.

The Bible in a Year – 27 May

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

27 May. Jeremiah chapters 46-48

Until this point the main thrust of Jeremiah’s prophecy has been about the captivity and future restoration of Judah.  But now the revelations he has turn to the surrounding nations.  Many of them, he foretold, would be conquered by the Babylonians, including Egypt; while Egypt would itself have first conquered the Philistines.

 

The picture is therefore of a whole world (at least, the world known to the writer) in turmoil as one nation makes war against another.  And always, the innocent suffer.  As I write, there is turmoil in the near east as several groups battle for the country of Syria, leaving millions dead and other millions fleeing for their lives to refugee camps or other countries.  Libya and Egypt (to name but two others) are likewise divided into many warring factions. This week a Libyan has committed a terrorist attack in Manchester, England killing 22 people, and a similar number of Christians were murdered in Egypt by Islamist attackers.

 

We cannot see now where God’s hand is in all this.  No sane person who believes in a God of love and mercy could accept that any individual death was God’s fault, and yet in a fallen world where man constantly threatens violence against man (and woman), the Bible’s message is consistently that God’s hand is behind the bigger picture, as he issues judgements on entire ethnic or religious groups for their sins.  We rightly pray for the victims of terror, for justice to be done and for security forces to do all they can to prevent future attacks.  But when we pray for peace, and for God’s kingdom to come, we are in effect also putting ourselves in his spotlight for judgement.  Is my lifestyle bringing forth the kingdom of justice, or is there anything in it that promotes injustice?  Maybe not directly but indirectly through the effect my lifestyle choices of purchase and travel have on the environment or on the economies of developing countries, for example?

 

Yesterday was Ascension Day in the Christian calendar, and the Archbishops of England have asked all churches to pray over the next ten days for the mission of the church in our land.  These days we don’t think of mission so much in the narrow sense of making individual converts to Christianity (though that is part of it) but in a wider sense of helping to steer the wider culture towards being the kind of peace-loving, justice-seeking society that God would have it be.

The Bible in a Year – 23 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

23 March. Judges chapters 13-16

This is the story of Samson, probably one of the best known of the ‘judges’. It is a name still given to strong people and powerful machines, for Samson was miraculously given great strength by God.  In fact, his birth itself was miraculous, like that of several other Bible heroes from Isaac to Jesus, and like theirs it was announced by an angel.

 

When God gives a special gift to someone or predestines them to greatness, their gifts are to be used for God’s purposes and the benefit of humanity. Samson, though, misused his gifts. He acted against the enemy Philistines in an increasing spiral of violence and revenge.  He demonstrated his strength by killing thousands of men single-handed, as well as a lion.

 

But the best known of the stories is his relationship with Delilah – far from the first woman he had fallen in love with, and treated badly. Three times he lied to her and caused her to bind him up in various ways only to break free from the bonds (presumably what we would now call an S-M relationship). Eventually, a combination of his own pride, and her nagging, caused him to reveal his true secret, and she cut off his long hair which was part of the vow his mother had made before his birth.  It was this breaking of a vow, as well as his misuse of his powers, that caused God to withdraw the gift of superhuman strength.

 

Throughout the Bible’s account of the dealings of God with people, there is a repeated motif of sin, punishment, repentance and restoration. So it is with Samson. God allows his strength to be exercised once more, this time destroying the building he was in (presumably the temple of Dagon, to demonstrate that he served the true God).  Even if we have misused the gifts God gave us and mistreated other people, repentance and restoration are still possible.

 

Once again there is a connection with current events. Samson inevitably died with the people he crushed, crying “Let me die with the Philistines”, much as a suicide terrorist today might cry Allahu akhbar”. And sadly, London suffered another such terrorist attack only yesterday.   There is a big difference  between ‘true’ religion and ‘religiously inspired terrorism’ but people are all too easily led from one into the other.