Climate Change: Have Faith!

Is God surprised at Global Warming?

The good kind wise Creator must have known that humans would discover coal and oil and gas, which, either indirectly or directly, He had caused to be there. The Biblical good Creator has a particular love for humans, uniquely made in His image, uniquely honoured by His Son becoming fully human, uniquely purposed to become His beloved children. This Creator must have made fossil fuels available to humans, and helped them to understand how to use fossil fuels, and been pleased at human lives made better by the use of fossil fuels. This Creator must have known that large scale burning of fossil fuels would raise the Earth’s temperature. Far from being surprised at Global Warming our Creator must have foreseen it and therefore taken it into account when creating.

Creation is adaptable. This is probably the chief lesson of evolution. The survivors are not the biggest and the strongest. The dinosaurs do not survive. The survivors are the most adaptable. Creatures are made with an in-built ability to produce variants. Some of these variants survive better, especially in a changing environment. Through the God-given ability to produce variants, creatures adapt. (For examples of natural adaptability see Climate Change: Stop Catastrophising | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com) )

Add together:

• The foreknowledge of the Creator
• The ability of creation to adapt
• The continuing influence of the Creator

This gives us

The belief that creation can and will adapt to Climate Change.

Is God taken aback by selfish human use of fossil fuels?

Our Creator knew too that humans have a strong selfish streak: ‘Mine, mine, mine!’ ‘More, more, more!’ With fossil fuels, as with everything else, the rich would benefit more than the poor. Much would be burnt at speed and without heed of wider consequences. This too was known, at least as a possibility, to the Creator and He created with this in mind too.

Not that the Creator planned, nor wanted, this fossil fuel frenzy. His plan has always been that humans will be selfless wise stewards of creation, looking to Him, as loving children, for guidance and approval. This grand plan was destroyed aeons ago. Now our Creator keeps having to respond to our latest selfish, careless, heedless, behaviour and to make good come out of it anyway.

As Love, our Creator never insists on his own way. He never dictates nor coerces. He responds to humans freely choosing, leaving us to make our own mistakes. Life as we know it, does not work out according to a grand meticulous divine blueprint. This is indicated in Jeremiah 29:11, ‘ For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’ Not one plan but many plans. The grand aim remains the same, to give us a future and a hope. (Some translations read ‘a future with hope’ or ‘the future you hope for.’ In context I think it is more likely to be the future He hopes for, close to our deepest desires.} The plan of how to achieve that aim keeps changing. We ruin Plan A, then Plans B C D E F and G, so plan H is implemented. God knows how many plans are needed or will be needed! Literally, He knows, because He alone knows all the possibilities at any given moment and how they can work out. If a human Sat Nav system can map out a new route, to the same destination, every time we make a wrong turn, the Creator is even better, quicker, wiser, at mapping out our new plan. (Technically this view is called ‘Open Theism.’)

Our Creator is adaptable, especially to human behaviour, including bad behaviour. He always has a way of bringing good out of the worst we can do. Jesus stated  ‘He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’  (Matthew 5:25)

These words echo the promise given by our Creator at the end of the parable of the flood in Genesis 8: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.²² “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease..’

Our Creator enables all people to live on our planet, whether we are good, kind and responsible or whether we are selfish, exploitative and careless. He will never allow our planet to become uninhabitable.

Our Creator also knows and tells us, through Jesus and the Bible, that our lives are much better when we recognise, admit, learn from, our selfish, exploitative, careless, mistakes. Our Creator won’t take responsibility away from us, but, when we acknowledge our responsibility for our mistakes, and look to Him to sort out the mess that we have made, He will make a new plan for our good, hopeful, future. Without our confessing and asking, some consequences of our careless behaviour will work themselves out. With our confessing and asking, our Creator and Redeemer will heal all that we cannot heal and put us on a new path to our good future. When we sense a disastrous future because of our mistakes, we have to not panic, to own up to what we have done which we now regret, to ask for and trust that a good future is still possible because we still have a good loving Creator.

Our confessing should not be in words only but in action. Regret that does not lead to changed behaviour is shallow, irresponsible. Regret expressed in words and in deeds is best. Such regret best enables our Creator to develop, work out, implement the next plan He has for us. Our Creator is never surprised by the messes we make. He already has a way of clearing them up, ‘redeeming’ them in theological language. He can still reach his aim of giving us a good, hoped-for, future. He only needs our responsible cooperation, our admitting that we are responsible for not cooperating with Him in the past, and our determining, in word and action, to cooperate more with Him in future.

Without facing up to our selfish human use of fossil fuels, we, and all creation, are likely to survive, thanks to our adaptability and to our good, foreseeing, kind Creator. With facing up to our selfish use of fossil fuels, we, and all Creation, are likely to thrive, to adapt better, to be led into new discoveries and abilities for the changed climate.

The good news is that we have been facing up to selfish human use of fossil, fuels, and we are changing our ways. Making more use of renewable energy is good for us and for all Creation. Fossil fuels will eventually run out and if we can slow down the rate of Climate Change, we will avoid more suffering. We are acknowledging our human exploitation, not only in words but also in deeds. Our Creator will work with us towards our good future.

Faith in the Creator, the God of Jesus and of the Bible, gives us reason to repent and change our ways. The same faith gives us reason not to catastrophise.

Therefore

• Don’t be afraid! The most common command in the Bible, reputedly given 365 times. Don’t be afraid of change. Change in churches always leads to unwarranted fear in a good number of people who see disaster ahead. In reality, change in churches and everywhere means some things are lost and some are gained. Climate Change is no different.
• Talk of Climate Change, not of Crisis, especially not Catastrophe.
• Talk about how we will need to adapt, including the need for a good number of people to migrate, with as little pain as possible.
• Be generous to all who are at the sharp end of Climate Change now.

(More detail at Climate Change: Stop Catastrophising | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com) )

Standing at the Sky’s Edge: National Theatre

The gritty Britty musical. The lives of 3 successive families in a flat on Park Hall, Sheffield, echoing each other, interwoven expertly on stage. A wide variety of good songs expressing love, hope, grief, anguish, anger. Good writing, good acting and, mostly, good singing. Some editing of songs and narration would be an improvement. ‘Sky’s Edge’ would be a better title. Received with an instant standing ovation.

The first half begins in 1960s hope, in a town assured of a good future because the world needs steel. It ends in apocalyptic disaster. The hopes of all families and of the community, of building Jerusalem in Sheffield through class warfare, die in grim end-of-industry reality

The second half begins sad, still bleak. A little hope that human love can still flourish. But a key man in both first families dies. The 3^rd resident, a Londoner retreating from a break-up with her lesbian partner, is eventually persuaded by her ex to meekly take her back, despite the ex’s portrayed scorn, manipulation and self-justification. The ex’s Scottish origin half hides her embodiment of London values. We are meant to celebrate this love but it is shown as far from the patient and kind, selfless, godly, version of love.

The disillusioned, despairing, first husband in Park Hall, the youngest foreman in the history of the now closed steelworks, tells his son, with passion, ‘I SEE you. I see YOU.’ A cry in the post-industrial wilderness. Sheffield today is portrayed as a world where men are not seen, and neither are the wider Sheffield community. The pro-gay locals demonstrate common disapproval of the London lesbian lover but are side-lined. London’s version of love, as London’s version of economics, currently holds sway.

Can the hope of building Jerusalem be resurrected? Is there a different building strategy to class warfare, a less military and more potent antidote to London’s ‘love the rich for the crumbs which fall from their table?’ Can the people, the men, of Sheffield be seen as people rather than as disposable human resource for the profit driven City of London? I hope we can build Christian Equitable Companies firmly on the basis of love your neighbour as you love yourself, love your Londoner no more than you love your Sheffield Steelmaker.

And I hope that an edited version of Sky’s Edge can be seen across the UK. The standing ovation in The National Theatre indicates this musical is good for the whole country.

Satanic mills to Jerusalem? January 31

Protestors and Capitalism: 12 November

Boris Out Now

Just written to my MP. Could you write to yours?

Dear Sarah,

Please will you support all efforts, from whichever party, to have Boris Johnson follow the usual procedure for resignations?

The usual procedure is that the person resigning steps down as soon as possible. Especially when there is a Deputy in place for such an eventuality. It is unusual for someone to stay in post without handing over to their Deputy for the interim, before the post is fully filled.

Dominic Raab announced early that he will not be standing for Leader of the Conservative Party. The speed of this announcement showed that the ‘between the lines’ message was ‘I will be a safe interim Prime Minister because I will not use the position to aid my own candidacy.’ All of us expected that, by now, Dominic would be interim Prime Minister.

Boris thinks otherwise. He does not follow the usual procedure. You remember his school report – ‘”I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else.” Today, again, Boris is expecting all of us to go along with his exceptionalism. The normal procedure for resignations does not apply to him.

The general understanding, voiced by Sajid Javid and many others, is that Boris does not act according to agreed standards, moral and otherwise. The number and seniority of people which have come to this assessment, means that our country is in danger from Boris acting outside of agreed standards until his successor is chosen. I wince at the prospect of Boris representing our country in meetings and statements when, with nothing more to lose, he is vey likely to be more cavalier than ever.

Please urge him to follow usual procedure and go now.

Thank you,

Canon Roger Harper-Allen

Boris himself seemed to indicate he expects to be out soon by giving detailed thanks to all at No 10. He did not say ‘I’ll give my thanks in a few months.’ He has said all his thanks now. He is ready to go now.

George Floyd’s Death, Part 2: Confessing the Legacy of Slavery

Confessing more widespread sins which are part of the Legacy of Slavery is more complex. Remnants, large and small, of Slavery thinking and behaviour are alive today. The widespread Echo to the death of George Floyd in the lives of protestors and many others testifies to these sharp remnants damaging many people today.

Remnants of slavery thinking are addressed in the Bible in the call to ‘remember you were slaves in Egypt’ so as not to think or behave as slaves nor slave-owners. Old Testament commentators often quote: ‘It was one thing to get the slaves out of Egypt. It was another to get Egypt out of the slaves.’

Fear of The Black Man.

Slaves are valued and selected for the physical stature and prowess. Muscly slaves fetch more money than weedy slaves. Strong slaves survive the horrendous sea journey and degrading plantation conditions. (The sea journey operated as an unnatural, inhuman, selection: only the fittest, strongest, survived.)

Slaves are therefore, in general, physically more powerful than their masters. Slaves are in a life they have not chosen from which they want to escape. Slaves are naturally confined and angry. The Masters are naturally afraid of their slaves.

Although Slavery, as we knew it, has gone, it is clear that Fear of The Black Man has not gone. We see it in the actions of the police towards George Floyd. We hear of it echoed in the experience of many others.

This fear needs to be acknowledged and confessed. People need to own up to harbouring, perpetuating, the fear inherited from the past. People need to seek the help of God and others to have the fear replaced by love. We work on this as God works within us.

Fear leads people to keep a distance. Segregation is a result of fear and perpetuates fear. Segregation persists practically though not legally. Familiarity diminishes fear. Aversion therapy helps people who are deeply afraid, for instance of spiders, slowly and incrementally to become familiar, for instance with spiders. We need positive, organised, initiatives to build more familiarity between black and white people.

The Church can take the lead on building familiarity. In many places white majority churches have neighbouring black majority churches. Fully diverse churches are, sadly, few. Could churches covenant to be in a ‘family,’ cousin, relationship finding ways to come to know each other better? Joint conferences and retreats? Joint social care initiatives? Familiarity is what the Church, the family of Jesus, should be creating.

Fear of The Black Man is only one of many remnants of slavery thinking and behaviour which need to be addressed.

Money.

A big remnant of slavery is the wealth of people and institutions today inherited from slave owners. The profits of Slavery were theft from the slaves. People today are guilty of receiving stolen property. The Financial Legacy of Slavery needs to be addressed.

Confession of inheriting stolen property is not outrageously impractical. Germany has recognised and confessed the wealth stolen from German Jews. This confession was not automatic. For a time German people wanted only to rebuild their nation and forget about the Jews, about that nasty episode in German history. A long and sustained Call to Confession was eventually heeded. Today, all over Germany, especially Western Germany, the country’s Jewish heritage and its demise is publicly noted.

My father and his Jewish family were forced to leave Essen. In 1960 the main Essen Synagogue was turned into a Museum of Industrial Design. All remaining Jewish symbols were removed or covered.

During the 1970s a movement began to acknowledge and uncover more of the detail of the Holocaust and of German Jewish Heritage. From 1986 to 1988 the Essen Synagogue was restored to its original appearance. From 2008 to 2010 the building was further developed as a Jewish Museum and Cultural Centre. Both renovations were fully financed by the Local Authorities. In front of the main Essen Railway Station is a notable fairly recent sculpture memorial to the Jews transported from Essen to concentration camps. The rest of Germany has embarked on similar restoration and memorials.

Germany has made sizeable restitution to the Jews. My father’s family have received compensation and more is expected. Much of this restitution was made in the 1950s when Germany could easily have argued that they could not afford such generosity. Slave-owning countries need to learn from and follow the example of Germany.

Descendants of slave owners need, similarly, to own up to harbouring, perpetuating, ill-gotten gains. People need to seek the help of God and others to repay or make restitution for what was stolen.

In the UK some people are addressing the Financial Legacy of Slavery. Cambridge University has set up an Advisory Group on Legacies of Enslavement: https://www.v-c.admin.cam.ac.uk/projects/legacies-of-enslavement Jesus College, Cambridge, where I was a student, has set up its own Working Party which has decided on the first step of symbolic restitution: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/articles/legacy-slavery-working-party-recommendations

Where will the financial restitution go? Groups representing descendants of slaves need to decide. I hope that, as with the Jews, some money will go to individual people. I hope too that money will go to programmes addressing the Legacy of Slavery in the attitudes and behaviours of the descendants of slave owners and slaves.

We Christians urge Confession of Sin and Faith in the healing, forgiving, God of Jesus. Both Confession and Faith need to be expressed in action. I consider that the Germans have done plenty to demonstrate serious confession of sin. For me, they are forgiven. The Legacy of Slavery can be addressed and healed. Black Lives can matter more.

Roger Harper

Back from the Brink. Let’s Think.

We have months before the next Brexit deadline. Let’s step back and think about our relationship with Europe and with the rest of the world. Let’s think about the bigger picture of Britain in the world.

 We have a majority, in Parliament at least, against leaving the EU with no deal. A majority for arranging some kind of relationship with the EU. A majority knowing that our future is in cooperation, partnerships, with other nations. A majority against proud independence, the idolatry of sovereign isolation. A majority against ‘We must stand entirely on our own two feet.’

Where, then, do we place our two feet? Let’s think about one foot in Europe, and one foot in the Commonwealth.

Britain takes part in the European Athletics Championship and the Commonwealth Games. Many Britons have personal ties with Europe, through friendship from study or holidays, through marriage. More Britons have personal ties with the Commonwealth through marriage or migration. Many British companies are now owned by European companies. Significant British companies are also owned by Commonwealth companies – British Steel, Jaguar Land Rover, Bombardier trains etc.

British geography means that we are close, though not fully connected, to Europe, while able to connect with countries across the seas. British history has been shaped by Europe and by our former Empire, now Commonwealth. Britain is the small, odd-shaped, connecting piece between Europe and the Commonwealth.

Let’s think about how much we want seriously to be part of both Europe and the Commonwealth, in line with our geography and history.

Let’s think about one foot in Europe and one foot in the Commonwealth as a vision for Britain in the world.

A strong majority vision is most important. How this vision is expressed in practice would then need to be worked out creatively with our potential partners. We have learnt the hard lesson of trying to agree on detail (backstop, customs union etc.) without a strong majority vision. Now we need to start again to find a common vision.

Let’s think about the blessing of the European Union – peace and mutual prosperity through economic cooperation and wider fellowship. The original aim was no more war. Unity was not the aim in itself. Now that peace through economic cooperation has been established in Europe, how can this peace be spread more widely, beyond Europe? Can Britain have an important role in enabling this spread of peace and mutual prosperity, making use of our Commonwealth ties?

Let’s think and talk with our Commonwealth partners. Let’s admit that we should have talked to them long ago. Let’s be humble in asking for their preferred relationship with Britain, and between Britain and Europe. The best interests of the Indian company Tata will also be the best interests of British Steel and Jaguar Land Rover. Let’s meet as equals to find a good vision for our futures.

Let’s think about possible partnership with other ‘one foot in Europe’ nations, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey? Let’s talk with them about how much they might share the vision. Would Turkey, another ex-imperial power, see advantages in having one foot in Europe and one foot in the Moslem ‘Commonwealth’? Would The EU see benefits in such organic connections between Europe and the world?

Many British people have an instinctive, island, sense that we are not as fully part of Europe as Belgium or the Czech Republic. Many British people feel closer to Australia, India, Canada, Pakistan. Many British people feel bereft at the prospect of leaving the European Union. Let’s think about a ‘new’ vision which can appeal to all these people, based on the peculiar geography and history of Great Britain

 Let’s think about, not with, our feet!

 Roger Harper

Painting Brexit – Peter Howson

‘It becomes more and more plain that this country is heading to fall off a cliff,’ said my friend Mark shortly before Christmas. Peter Howson, renowned Scottish painter, depicts this drive to the cliff edge:

This is the first of five large canvases painted in 2018, recently shown at the Flowers Gallery in Hoxton, East London.

The woman being pushed to the cliff by the burly ‘patriots’ is Britannia. As a naturalised Scot, Peter H understands that, not only will Brexit seriously damage our economy, but it will break up the United Kingdom. The Scots will be determined to again be part of Europe.

Proud independence is driving us to the fall off the cliff. False history says ‘We saved ourselves (and the world) then (Second World War). We stood alone and it was Our Finest Hour. We can, we must do it again. We must stand alone, free from the Bureaucrats of Brussels.’ True history says ‘We needed our Allies, our Empire / Commonwealth partners. We needed the Russians to soak up most of the Nazi aggression. We needed the Americans to fund us and then support us. We appeared to stand alone for a while when the sea protected us. Then the world saved us. We must stand together or we sink.’

Proud independence finds it easier to blame the Bureaucrats of Brussels than to recognise our own mistakes. We have become lazy and rushed away from the foundations of Christian morality on which our community life was based. We have sought Fun and a Good Laugh above all else. We have served Mammon, prioritised servicing the rich through the City of London. The damage to our nation has been self-inflicted. We need to be saved not from the Bureaucrats of Brussels, but from our own sins.

What after the cliff-fall of Brexit? Peter H’s next paintings of 2018 were scenes of Britain fallen into a hellish existence:

Here is the grim essence of the reality of Britain degraded by, hungover by, our sins, our bridge to fellowship across the sea demolished.

Peter H’s faith asserts that, even in this mess, Britain is not abandoned by Jesus. Jesus, and His Cross, remain with us, mostly ignored, with some curious attention. Was it the Patriots’ Union Jack which killed Jesus, or replaced Jesus?

What after the degradation? Peter H continued to paint. Later in 2018 came ‘Anak.’

This man is the leading Patriot. His Union Jack drape has gone. The substantial bridge over the water has been demolished, a good time ago. He is not rushing on his feet; his legs seem useless now. But he knows he is down and he is looking up for help. The sky is beautifully mottled with touches of hopeful colour. He is like an addict coming to his senses and seeking the help of a higher power.

In the 12 Step programme devised by Christians which has become the basis of Alcoholics Anonymous and other programmes for addicts, the Third Step is ‘Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him’

In 2001 Peter H painted ‘The Third Step:’

In 2018 Peter H painted The Patriot Brit, post Brexit, taking the Third Step.

The First Step is to recognise that we are powerless over our addiction, and that our lives have become unmanageable. The Patriot Brit has, eventually, recognised his addiction to proud independence, Fun, and Mammon. The Second Step is to come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. The Patriot Brit has come to believe or begun to believe. Now Peter H paints him turning his will over to the care of God. This is the foundation of a different, better, more whole, more holy, life.

Peter H also paints a different Patriot Brit taking the Third Step amidst the general degradation:

After the Brexit cliff-fall, is a wallowing degradation. The colours of the Union Jack have separated. After the degradation is a turning to God. Peter H sees and shows this to come. Salvation in the end? Will we finally, as a nation, turn our will over to God?

Can all this be avoided? Robbie Williams sang: ‘We know we’re falling from grace, and we’re praying it’s not too late…’

Roger Harper

PS You can buy Peter Howson’s large canvases for £180,000 each. Or a Limited Edition Print of the Archangel Michael for £400. Highly recommended. See https://peterhowson.co.uk/shop/prints/archangel-michael/

PPS The Archangel Michael prints seem to be no longer available on Peter’s site. Worth looking out for them still…

Last chance to stop the Brexit wrong turn

Last Saturday I  Marched for a referendum on the final Brexit deal On the train to Charing Cross I wrote my banner. The man sitting next to me, a retired taxi driver and newspaper printer, said he had voted Leave but would now vote differently.

We ended with rousing short speeches in Parliament Square, albeit too many, Anna Soubry was the climax ‘I want to put love back into this country.’ Yes indeed: love your European neighbour as you love yourself.

In Tesco by Trafalgar Square, buying water for the journey home, a 17 year old white lad behind me was talking on his phone. ‘It’s like mad busy. There’s been a parade. What’s that thing with the seven gold stars?’ It’s future fellowship and prosperity from which we are cutting ourselves adrift.

Please sign the petition
https://www.peoples-vote.uk 

British Companies ruined by the City of London.

The City of London demands that British companies put the short term interest of shareholders first. A ruinous demand.

Last Thursday the Governor of Thameside prison, operated by Serco, told staff, including me, that Carillion had been borrowing money to pay shareholders. ‘Serco don’t do this. Don’t worry that Serco is going to collapse like Carillion,’ was the message.

Most of us think, righty, that shareholders are only paid when the company makes a profit. The City of London thinks differently. Shareholders should be paid as a priority over anyone else. If there is no profit, you borrow money to pay shareholders. Carillion did it and the City of London was happy.

To pay shareholders Carillion borrowed money from its own workers, as well as from banks etc. For several years Carillion paid less than its obligation to the company pension fund.  The workers lost money on their pensions while the shareholders gained money in dividends and inflated share price: In 2012, outside advisers said Carillion had prioritised growing earnings and supporting the share price ahead of the pension scheme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42871054  This led to a shortfall in the pension fund of £990million. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42853895

In the short term the shareholders benefited. In the long term, of course, they lost out, as the value of their shares has now collapsed. But the City of London is not interested in the long term interests of either companies or shareholders. The City of London concentrates on making sure shareholders can get out at signs of trouble, not on helping companies through difficult circumstances.

Last Friday someone who works for Severn Trent Water said that it is company policy that no work will be undertaken unless the cost can be recouped within 3 years. ‘It’s simply a matter of finances,’ is how this is explained.

Nonsense! It’s simply a matter of short term thinking. If a water main is leaking about £500 worth of water a year, and the repair will cost £2000, Severn Trent say the repair is ‘uneconomic.’ The company choose to lose £500 ever year for years and years, rather than pay for the repair. Of course it makes economic sense, in the long term, to repair the main. But Severn Trent only think in the short term. They ‘cannot afford’ this repair because it would reduce their short term profit and the City of London insists that their short term profit grows rather than reduces.

No UK farmer would expect to recoup the cost of land improvement within 3 years. No UK house-owner would expect to recoup the cost of extra insulation within 3 years. Ordinary people know we have to invest for the longer term. Not the City of London. They have their own twisted thinking, their own rigged rules.

The City of London serves the short term interests of shareholders, against the long term interest of British workers, British companies, the British nation. The City of London are flagrantly not loving their neighbour as they love themselves. It is time we found a different way of investing in British companies.

See http://www.laddermedia.co.uk/about-us/4561595889 for one different way.

Roger Harper

 

Rethinking Hell in London: 10 November

Rethinking Hell in London was a great conference with stimulating speakers, interested and perceptive attenders. Much fascinating talk about the subject at meal times, not usual at Christian conferences. We would have liked more people to share the truth-seeking. I left heartened and energised by gracious engagement with an important subject.

My message was that the traditional Hell is a distortion of the Biblical message of Hades and Gehenna. Part of the distortion is talking of one place instead of two, assuming that when Jesus used two names, He meant the same place.

This distinction was new to many there and challenged by one of the other speakers. Some said that the most useful part of my presentation was to chart the differences between Hades and Gehenna:

Hades                                   Gehenna

Torment                                Destruction

After death                            After Judgement

Has gates and keys                Is a fire, a lake of fire

Presence of Jesus                   Away from Jesus

Presence of holy angels          Same place as beast, devil, false prophet

No fear                                  Fear

Gospel preached                     ?

Jesus risen as first fruit           No resurrection from this second death

Ends at Final Judgement         ‘Eternal’

Part of the distortion is that on entering Hell, understood as after death, wicked people are supposedly told ‘Abandon hope all you who enter here.’ Jesus, in contrast, says ‘Don’t be afraid… I have the keys of Death and Hades.’ This means that Jesus has the power and authority of entry and exit to Hades, where the wicked go when they die. Jesus can go in and out of Hades and take people in and out of Hades. I consider Jesus not only can, but does. Jesus can and does seek and save the lost even in Hades. This is why we are not to fear.

You can hear me explaining this at the first, 2014, Rethinking Hell Conference in Houston, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyNeF4CF8hU

This year, as requested, I talked about responses to the message of Hades and Gehenna.

Complexity: An honest response might be: ‘One hell, that of endless torment, was bad enough. Now you are talking about two hells!’ We are so used to thinking that eternal life begins the moment we die. It takes time and effort to take in that there is life after death before Final Judgement and more, or no, life after Final Judgement.

Clarity and Confidence: ‘I have got really excited about the whole thing. Now you wouldn’t expect someone to get excited about hell, but you might understand someone getting excited about there being no hell…’ The words of David Munby to his congregation in Barnsley, Yorkshire. A Church Warden wrote: ‘Now there is more clarity and less mystery, more appreciation of Jesus as my Saviour and the Saviour of others, more connection with God as my loving Father.’

Comfort: One elderly woman in a Malaysian home group had tears in her eyes as she thought about the hope of Jesus using his keys for her good non-Christian parents. She is far from alone.

One man in my prison was much disturbed by being inside when his mother, not a Christian, was terminally ill and then died. He had had sessions of bereavement counselling but was still distressed. As his release approached, the issue became more acute. I talked with him of Jesus being able to take messages to people who have died, (because He has the keys of Hades and came to serve us.) The man wrote a letter to his mother with all he wanted to say. We placed it on the Communion table. I told him that this was not only a symbol. Jesus really was taking those words and delivering them to his mother. A few weeks later the prisoner considered that he had no further need of talking about this either to myself or the bereavement counsellor. He was simply less distressed than before and could face his upcoming release in a better frame of mind.

Talking to Jesus, asking Him to pass on a message, is much better than the common, unhealthy, practice of talking directly to the dead, either at the grave or when looking at the stars.

Repentance: When our emphasis is ‘Don’t be afraid. Jesus has the keys, even after death,’ this feels like ‘Don’t be afraid. Jesus has the keys to unlock a better future for you in this life as well.’ There is always a point in repentance. All will need to do it, and the sooner the better. It is never too late.

Disturbance: Many people, particularly in the UK, believe that ‘we all’ (except maybe the few really wicked people) go to heaven because we’ve led decent lives. The message of Hades and Gehenna can make these people uncomfortable, disturbed. When talking in churches it is best to begin with the more comforting message of Paradise and the New Universe. The words of Jesus, and of John the Baptist, however were deliberately disturbing to those who considered they were basically all right on their own.

Being ignored: David Hilborn, Principal of St John’s School of Mission and Editor of the Evangelical Alliance Report The Nature of Hell wrote of my book The Lie of Hell ‘it deserves serious attention and a serious response.’ Instead there has so far been virtually no response.

Why carry on with the message of Hades and Gehenna?

Because it is Jesus’ truth.

Because it can unite Christians. Traditionalists who hold to the idea of ongoing torment for the wicked after death can see that this happens in Hades. It is ‘for ages and ages’ but not eternal. Universalists who hold to the idea that most, maybe all, people will eventually reach ‘heaven’ can see that Jesus having and using the keys of Hades makes this likely, though not certain.

Because it might unite Protestants and Roman Catholics. Can Protestants accept Hades as Biblical, separate from and preceding Gehenna, the Hades to which Jesus has the keys and to which the Church has access, the gates availing nothing? Can Catholics accept Hades as the lost ancestor of Purgatory, the truer, more original, teaching of the Church founded on the revelation given to Peter? Protestants would have to learn what is the role of the Church beyond this life, instead of dismissing the idea of any such role for the Church. Catholics would have to learn the true nature of Hades, of which Purgatory is an artificial shadow, and from which release is not earned through penance or prayer, but given as free gift through the gracious forgiveness of Jesus and to which the Church bears witness.

Because it might improve society. Sociologists have shown a link between a general belief in an ‘or else’ after death and both lower crime rates and economic growth. See https://rogerharper.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/hell-on-the-net-controversy-and-crime-july-22/

With the message of Hades and Gehenna we help the Church, and the nations, to be transformed by the renewing of our understanding. We spearhead a unity that the Church has not known for hundreds of years. We annihilationists become redundant because there are no more conflicting schools of thought but one Church built on the foundation of Jesus’ teaching, Hades and Gehenna. We are agents of renewal in faith and hope and love for everyone.

 

Leaving Europe for Bad Reasons: 15 July

Britain’s Leave Europe vote is significant and needs to be recorded clearly. When the consequences are experienced we will know what to apologise for.  Here is the view of one who was predicting a Leave majority, not surprised on June 24^th.

‘The referendum was about openness and tolerance versus insularity and fear of “the other”, self interested nationalism versus the common good of the nations of Europe working together.’ Paul Oestreicher writing in the Church Times. Yes indeed.

A picture from Facebook about British insularity:

A majority in Britain chose a nationalism that is not only self interested, selfish, but proud and based on a slanted view of history. ‘We won two world wars. We don’t need that lot!’ This was said to me by a leave supporter with the agreement of others at the pub bar. Bad history. We needed our Allies to win the wars. Britain did not win the wars all by itself.

Remembering the wars is big in Britain, too big. TV programmes, books, films, hark back, especially to the Second World War. People like remembering because it brings a warm proud feeling. We naturally remember our own people. Yet this constant remembering of the plucky Brits gives us the mistaken impression that other people, other nations, had an insignificant role. Our excessive one-sided looking back gives us a slanted one-sided view of the present and the future.

Other Leavers wrote or said that Britain used to be great, you could walk out of one job into another, you could afford, with hard work, your own house, people were friendly and helpful to each other. They blame Europe and immigrants for diminishing their quality of life.

Yes British life has changed dramatically. This has far more to do with leaving Christendom than anything else. Most Brits grew up with Sunday School and Christian RE. Loving neighbours, not walking by on the other side, hard work, education, kindness, including to strangers, church-going, were promoted. Bullying, materialism, individualism, partying, alcohol, sex, were all restrained. We didn’t have much choice; that’s just how life was.

Now we have the choice. We can be as individualist, materialist, free-loving, with as much alcohol or drugs, as we like. Most people have gleefully chosen ‘freedom’ to indulge over ‘having religion rammed down our throats.’ This works at all levels, to the top where the City of London pursues more money more relentlessly with less concern for the well being of this or any other nation.

This has been the Great Change in British life, chosen by us not inflicted on us by Europe or immigrants. (I don’t bemoan the Change. We now also have less hypocrisy, more truth, more authentic Christian faith and enthusiasm.) If anything, Europe and immigrants have helped restrain the excesses of the new materialist ‘freedom.’ Europe has restrained bosses wanting their workers to work 50 hours a week when convenient. Europeans have bought up and maintained British companies when their City owners only wanted to sell them for short-term profit. Many immigrants have brought with them Christendom attitudes of hard work, appreciation of education, and church-going. These attitudes are an influence for good in areas where they are only a memory among the local Brits.

Europe or immigrants have not brought only the good, but the balance is on this side. Last Sunday, early evening, walking down the main street in Normanton, Derby, I mixed with East European and Asian immigrants shopping, chatting, looking and acting smart and responsible. The two people who accosted me for 20p / 50p were scruffy, semi-spaced out, White British.

Some Leave voters had genuine concerns about further European integration, the cumbersome working of a coalition of 28 nations, and the negative effect of large scale immigration on wages. For most it was much more instinctive, based largely on selfishness, pride, false history, suspicion of foreigners, blaming others instead of recognising our own faults. ‘If only we were on our own, controlling all our own affairs, life would be better!’

We’ll see. If life outside Europe turns out to be far from better, indeed notably worse, repentance will be needed. Repentance for selfishness, pride, false history, suspicion of foreigners, blaming others instead of recognising our own faults. And not heeding the many warnings given at the time.

The Church will have to join in the repentance, for not looking and speaking more clearly. ‘It beggars belief that the Church of England chose to have no official view on all this…’ continues Oestreicher. Yes indeed. The Leave campaign was based on values very different to loving your neighbour as you love yourself. The Church should have pointed this out.

This week truth about invading Iraq was conveyed in the Chilcot Report in findings almost identical to what was said at the time by people like Robin Cook, former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Then too the Church neither looked nor spoke clearly and so shares some of the blame.

Even now the Church is officially saying ‘We just need to be nice to each other. Leaving or remaining makes no difference, is certainly not something which God might have a view on.’ This attitude ‘lacks the biblical sense that God acts in history in wrath and chastisement as well as in deliverance,’ according to Bishop Michael Bourke in a letter to the Church Times. He goes on to write of a call that ‘requires our nation to stand under God’s judgement…’ Time will tell if this judgement comes.

To me it looks that Britain’s post imperial and post Christendom, decline will only be accelerated by leaving the European Union. We’re in this mess together. Will we repent when needed?