Trumpet Sounds
 Issue 70            Winter 2004



Loving Christian greetings in the name of the Lord.  This issue heralds a change in the way Trumpet Sounds is distributed, as Frank’s son Philip has taken over this task.  We are most grateful to him.  He also writes a second thought-provoking article on the christ of Islam.  Frank also writes on a similar theme.  We have just witnessed the public clamour (incited by the media) about Robert Kilroy-Silk’s article in the press.  It has been of value by bringing the whole matter of the Muslim-Christian divide unto sharp focus, while highlighting the increasing difficulty of getting the truth heard.    

We hear much these days about bringing the bible up to date: such a view misunderstands scripture and the God to whom it bears witness.  The world is baffled by a God who makes His promises of salvation and blessing dependent on faith (= believing what He says) rather than intellectual understanding.  The Christmas story is foolishness to the human mind.  How could a baby be both man and the Son of God?  But Gabriel said it and Mary believed it.  To her eternal credit she did not try to understand the how of what was to happen.  To her it was enough that God had said it.  Her towering acceptance “be it unto me according to your word” is a suitable text as we face 2004.  Humble submission to God’s will always brings blessing.  We are not commanded to understand God’s ways but to obey them.

Immediately Mary goes to share her joy with Elizabeth and is rewarded by finding her six months pregnant, as the angel had said.  Faith comes by hearing the word of God – that word, believed and obeyed, will be found to come true in experience because God is as faithful as He is unchanging.

Articles
Eurabia
Miracle in Banwell
The Dajjal
Two Questions on the new European Constitution answered
The Mercy and Holiness of God

EURABIA    (FW)
It all began about the year 1973, with Arab hatred of Israel being stirred to greater intensity because their defeat by Israel in war.  The Arabs had greater superiority in arms and men against an enemy deprived of support from other countries in the world, yet they were beaten.  But the Arab nations still had a potent weapon in their armoury which could be used to great effect – oil.

A new strategy was formed to achieve their objective of the complete extermination of Israel, their enemy.  Oil had power in every country in the world, and by careful use of this weapon, they could bring Europe and the world on their side.  This was made apparent when they withdrew supplies and forced the price up to painful heights, affecting every nation.  Having seen the effect of this plan, the next step was to incorporate their own political terms when making trade agreements.

The immediate target of this strategy was Europe.  The target was extended to include America and also Christians, as supporters of Israel.  The Arab nations found a staunch ally in France who was at odds with America and had large a Moslem population.

In 1973 an agreement was made with Europe by the Arab nations to supply oil in exchange for Europe to assume a biased attitude against Israel in all political decisions and public statements of policy.  This developed in 1974 in the creation of a committee called the Europe-Arab Dialogue (EAD).  

The Arabs set forth their demands for inclusion in any future treaty with Europe: Israel must return unconditionally to the 1949 Treaty position, the Arabisation of the old city of Jerusalem, acceptance of the PLO and Arafat as a party to all future negotiations and the EEC (Europe) to exert pressure on America to be pro-Arab in all future negotiations.  These terms were not fully effected in future talks, but strong pressure was always exerted to include as much as possible.  From that point onwards the bias of opinion in Europe was always pro-Arab and anti-Israel.  Israel became the villain of every conflict, was always reported in the worst light, and henceforth the fiction became believed world-wide, that they had invaded sovereign Arab territory and should be condemned for doing so.  The EAD was beginning to influence not only Europe, but the United Nations and the whole world.  

In 1975 an agreement was made to align European policy with that of the Arabs, which was confirmed at a Luxembourg conference in May 1976.  All future economic agreements must conform to this EAD policy.  There followed the practise of praise for Arab culture and history in order to make world opinion favourable to Arab purposes.  It also included denigration of Israel, Christianity and the USA.
The next development of the policy of the EAD was a massive invasion of millions of folk from Arab nations into Europe, something unprecedented in history.  This was a deliberate policy with the purpose of spreading Islam and Arabism.  Twenty-five years ago it was not felt to be inimical, but today with asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, we are beginning to take defensive measures against this invasion.  Our history has always been to defend our country, for which purpose we have maintained a powerful Navy, Army, and Air Force, but during the last few years we have left both front and back doors widely open, while keeping the walls intact.

This policy of the EAD has succeeded so well that we are now the instruments of Arab foreign policy and serve their aims.  The next step of Arab policy is to strengthen the position of these immigrants: to give them the right to practice their own religion and culture so that they will not integrate but will fulfil the Arab agenda:
to spread, like missionaries, Arab culture and Islam and to demand rights for this purpose: also to give flattering reports to persuade our citizens to change their faith, however weak it may be: to use the term Abrahamic civilisation instead of Judeo-Christian civilisation, thus giving credence to the Muslim conception of the origin of Judaism and Christianity.

There are various committees from Arab and European nations working full time to promote the objectives of the EAD, and with great success.  With the power of these governmental committees and the apostasy which embraces so much of the Christian Church in this country and in Europe, it is not a light claim that this country and Europe could adopt Islam as its national religion in the near future.  That also would include Sharia Law and the overturning of the Judeo-Christian basis of our legal system.  This should be taken very seriously by all aware prophetically of the ‘end-time days’ in which we live.

I suggest that we, as Christians, evaluate the daily news for its pro-Arab bias and its anti-Israel standpoint.  It also needs to be tested for its truthfulness if it comes, as most of it does, from Arab sources.

Most of this material is extracted, with permission, from “The Status of Non-Muslim Minorities Under Islamic Rule”, by Bat Ye’or, www.dhimmitude.org


MIRACLE IN BANWELL    (KK)
Two saints who live in Banwell, near Weston-super-Mare, had arranged to babysit for two grandsons in London for a few days before Christmas.  They decided to travel by train from Weston, and took a taxi in good time.  Some time after arriving, Shirley discovered that her handbag was missing.  An enquiry at the taxi firm and a trip back home failed to locate it.  Syd, who had the tickets, talked their way on to a later train and they arrived in London some two hours late, having said goodbye to a set of credit cards and £150 cash withdrawn to cover their London expenses.  

The next day Shirley’s daughter-in-law Sue rang from Bewdley to tell her that the police had rung to ask if she were by any chance related to someone from Banwell (they had seen the number with the single word Sue written against it in the bag).  The missing handbag had been found discarded by the roadside, with the cash gone but the cards intact.  On returning home Shirley retrieved her handbag and cards gratefully.

A few days later they received a Christmas card from a couple they knew through the Good News Crusade Family Camps in the 80s.  An enclosed letter said that they were repaying a debt: one year the family was in dire financial straits, and Syd and Shirley gave them a love gift.  The couple took this as a loan, and they were writing to return the sum.  The envelope contained a cheque for £150!!  

THE DAJJAL
    (PW)
In the last article we looked at the expectation of Islam that christ will return and some of the reasons for identifying Islam’s christ with the one scripture calls the Antichrist.  Islam believes that when their christ comes he will slay the antichrist.  Who is this other antichrist?

The Dajjal
To Islam, the antichrist, whom they call the Dajjal, is both a man and a system and is identified with the West.  Some quotes from the Islamic Party of Britain are set out below:

    “ … Dajjal, representing a system of belief clearly visible to anybody as such, be he literate or not, irrespective of the fact that it is being proclaimed in the name of trinitarian Christianity……”

    “He controls the resources of this world through his interest banking system, and has indeed mountains of bread, people suffer hunger unless they follow him.”

    “ Dajjal the person is the leader who will ultimately lead the forces of evil on this earth, the system of Dajjal.  He belongs to the one-world government of the brutish ruler of the empire succeeding the Romans     Finally, ‘Isa bin Maryam, the real Christ will return and put an end to Dajjal and his machinations”.

The full text can be found on the web site: www.islamicparty.com
        
Islam interprets the Antichrist as the “Christian” West.  Hatred for the West is widespread in Islam and is being fanned into greater intensity in preparation for the day when the overthrow of the West is within reach.

It is interesting that the article, from which the above quotes are taken, foresees the final conflict between the West and Islam being over the mountains of Black Gold  (oil) near the Euphrates.  Islam will initially be defeated.  Then a leader will arise who will fight back against the Dajjal.  He is referred to as al-Mahdi.  He will prepare the way for the coming of their christ.

The Harlot
In Revelation ch. 17 the Antichrist and his supporting kingdoms destroy the Harlot, who sits on many waters.  This article proposes that she is the Antichrist whom Islam’s christ will destroy and can be identified with the “Christian” West.

“Come I will show you the punishment of the great harlot, who sits on many waters …….”                                 Revelation 17:1

There can be no doubt as to the identity of the Harlot.  Her name is quite specific.  She is “Babylon the Great, Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth.”  She is first mentioned in Genesis 10 as the centre of Nimrod’s empire and then in Genesis 11 as the focus of man’s rebellion against God.  Her name in scripture represents the opposite to Jerusalem.  Babylon is the kingdom of this world, whereas Jerusalem represents the kingdom of God.

In his book “The Two Babylons” Alexander Hislop demonstrates how all the false religions of this world have their roots in Nimrod’s Babylon.  The ancient religions of Babylon, Egypt and Greece and the modern religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and corrupt Christianity as well as many others all come from her.  Therefore the Prostitute aptly bears the name “Mother of Prostitutes”.

There have been many suggestions as to the end time identity of the Prostitute.  For the purpose of this article we will rely on self-identification.

Europa
During the same period that the nations of the Middle East have gained their independence and Israel has been established another political entity has come into being.  The European Union has been created, bringing together the nations of Europe.  Unconsciously the new Europe has expressed her true identity in emblems, statues and on coins by adopting the image of Europa.

In the story of “The  Rape of Europa”, Jupiter the Father of the gods sees a beautiful woman naked on the beaches of Phoenicia.  He transforms himself into a bull, seduces her and carries her away to Crete where she bears three children for him.

In “The Two Babylons” Hislop traces the legends about Jupiter back to Nimrod the founder of Babylon.  Nimrod is accredited with slaying a powerful bull with his bare hands.  From that time on the horns of the bull became his symbol of power.  Because most of the ancient stories of the gods can be traced back to him, he is rightly described as the “Father of the gods”.  Nimrod had a wife Semiramis, who became the source of false religion including the worship of the virgin and child.  She was also noted for her infidelity and licentiousness: Europa is one of the many names by which Semiramis became known.

Europe the Prostitute
The direct links between modern Europe and ancient Babylon also point to her being the prostitute of Revelation 17.  Some of the links are set out below:

Cultural Ancestry
European culture has a direct line of descent from Babylon through Persia, Greece and Rome.  The myths of the Greek and Roman worlds can all be traced back to Babylon.  In the Middle Ages the culture of the Greek/Roman world had been lost to Europe.  Islamic scholars in the cultural centre of Baghdad preserved the myths, legends and writings of classical culture.  With the thawing of relations with Islam, Europeans were able to rediscover this lost culture and it became the basis of what we call the Renaissance.  Culturally Europe is the true heir of Babylon.

Religion
Roman Catholicism is the major religion of Europe and in “The Two Babylons” Hislop raises the issue of whether Catholicism is apostate Christianity or christianised apostasy.  He demonstrates how that the false teachings of Rome can be traced back to the religion of Babylon.  When Israel turned away from God and adopted the worship of the Babylonian gods the prophets called her a Prostitute.  Roman Catholicism claims to be the bride of Christ: she is a false bride.

Globalism
The European Union used an image of the tower of Babel on a publicity poster.  When officials were asked why the tower of Babel, the response was - they would reverse the affect of Babel and bring all peoples back together.  Like ancient Babylon she seeks to unify the world against God.
The Corruption of the Earth

Iqbal was the first Muslim that I was able to get to know well.  In the late 1960s while training in London, I lived for a couple of years at the Alliance Club in Newington Green, a hostel for overseas students run by the Evangelical Alliance.

For the first year I shared a room with Iqbal: he was my first encounter with a Muslim.  Three of the things which I learnt from him are as follows: the first was that many Muslims like many Christians are nominal adherents to their religion: the second was that his real religion was centred on the Horoscope which had been prepared for him by what he assured me was one of India’s leading astrologers.  But the third thing came as a shock.  He was absolutely resistant to Christianity as he had been to the cinema in his home city of Bombay and watched Western films.  The image of the West that they presented to him was violent and immoral, to the extent that he could not see that Christianity, the religion of the West, could be of any value to him.

We find such an attitude strange.  In the West we are adept at compartmentalising our lives, and we can both live in a corrupt godless society and disassociate ourselves from it.  Islam cannot make that distinction - it is a total religion.  Even a nominal Muslim accepts that he lives in a society guided by the law of God.

The Muslim sees the West as corrupting the whole world.  In this their hearts have been hardened by God.  For it is God who puts it into the hearts of the kings who give their power to the Antichrist to destroy the Harlot.

For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.
Her values of violence, immorality and greed are communicated by the mass media to every part of the world (“the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.")  Global corporations let nothing stand in the way of the god of profit.

Her philosophies have dispensed with the need for God.  Humanism declares man to be his own master, while evolution proclaims that we are here by an uncreated accident.  Science leads people to believe that our destiny is within our control, while theology has discredited God’s word stating that it is unreliable and inaccurate.

The West stands on the brink of achieving the goal of ancient Babylon to unify the World and assert independence from God.  God will not allow the West to achieve that end.
 
The end of Europe
When we are introduced to Babylon the Great in Revelation she is pictured riding on the beast.  This could be a historic reference that she has developed out of Rome, the last of the preceding empires, but the beast, which is the subject of this chapter, is the end time fulfilment of the imperial system.  Another explanation is that at the end time, which is pictured here, the harlot has become dependant on the beast - Europe and America are dependent on Arab oil to maintain their wealth.  The prosperity of the West is propped up by the Muslim states.  If oil is denied and Arab investments withdrawn the western economies would quickly collapse

The end of Europe and the West is described in the destruction of the Harlot.  The progress of first leaving the Harlot destitute, then naked, then eating her flesh, then finally burning her with fire so as to leave her nothing describes how the beast will strip the West of its wealth.  He will amass all the wealth of the World in his reconstructed capital of Babylon.  Babylon was the first centre of rebellion against God in Genesis 10,11 and it will be the last at the end of time prior to our Lord’s coming.  
Conclusion
The destruction of the West when it comes will be swift.  Its chief city will be totally devastated, the USA will be left destitute.  Europe will face a choice of either accepting Islam or being denied oil.  Europe will accept Islam and be incorporated into the kingdom of the false christ.  Britain will become an Islamic state, replacing Christian institutions with Islamic.

With the destruction and forced submission of the Western powers, the power vacuum created will be filled by the Islamic states who will willingly give their power to their christ.  The scene will then be set for the events which will make up the final brief chapter of our present age.

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TWO QUESTIONS ON THE NEW EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION ANSWERED
  (KK)
The following, from a circular by the “Campaign for a Referendum on the European Constitution” (CREC), is meant to alert us to the dangers of our government’s intention not to allow us a vote on the Constitution issue.

1.  What’s the problem?  Surely it’s better to be part of a strong Europe?  Isn’t it time the European nations came together to stop wars happening in the future?

The arguments for being part of a strong Europe are complex.  We are of course already part of a “common market” or “single market”.  Adopting the European Constitution wouldn’t change that.  If we decide not to adopt the European Constitution we’ll still be in the “single market”.  The single currency hasn’t benefited the eurozone countries – French unemployment has risen to over 2.5 million, German unemployment is now over 4.5 million while in UK it is under 1 million.  We’ve flourished in the past as an independent nation.  The experience of the euro so far shows that we don’t have to give up our independence to succeed in the world.  
As for the claim that we must be “one European nation” to stop future wars, consider the following.  (a) Two World Wars weren’t caused by Europe’s not being united: they happened because an undemocratic German government invaded countries on its borders.  (b) There have been many past attempts to create one nation from several different cultures.  Recent examples are the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.  They broke up as the peoples within them demanded the right to govern themselves after years of being run by undemocratic governments.  (c) We co-operate closely with other European nations already.  A single Euro-government would be remoter from people than it is now.  Only politicians really want a European Constitution – they will get more power, influence and money.

2.  What are the differences between the British and European Constitutions?

British Constitution (unwritten)    European Constitution (written)
right to jury trial    jury trial abolished under “Corpus Juris”
police must bring you to court after holding you for 24 hours (habeas corpus)    detention without trial for unlimited periods
rights and freedoms Britons have had under common law for centuries    new, repressive European laws
decisions made by MPs you can throw out every 5 years    decisions made by unelected Commissioners appointed for indefinite periods
Parliament with powers to make laws    EU Parliament has no power to make laws
annual budget decided by Parliament    budget decided by Commissioners: - and so badly spent that the EU Auditors have refused to approve their accounts for 8 years
British armed forces and police    European armed forces and police
the right to run our country    decisions made by 25 or more countries
right to control our own finances    economy run by 25 or more countries who spend billions of our money each year

The mercy and holiness of God (KK)
A.W Tozer in his “Knowledge of the Holy” speaks of a number of God’s attributes (“something true about God”): included are the following observations on two of them.

 “When through the blood of the everlasting covenant we children of the shadows reach at last our home in the light, we shall have a thousand strings to our harps, but the sweetest may well be the one tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God.  For what right will we have to be there?”

“Neither the writer nor the reader of these words is qualified to appreciate the holiness of God.  Quite literally a new channel must be cut through the desert of our minds to allow the sweet waters of truth that will heal our great sickness to flow in. We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of.
God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered.  We know nothing like the divine holiness.  It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable.  The natural man is blind to it.  He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.”


Trumpet Sounds is sent free to all who request it: we leave it to the Lord to supply our needs.