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CHAPTER
3
CHAPTER
THREE
THE
LIGHT
THE
LIGHT OF THE WORLD
In
him was life, and that life was the light of men. The
light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not
understood it------- The true light that gives light
to every man was coming into the world.
(John
chapter 1, verses 4-5, 9).
We
read earlier how, for spiritual life and health, we
need to feed on Jesus and His word. The same gives us
spiritual sight and allows us to see the world and ourselves
in a different light---to see more as God sees. Unless
we have saving faith in Christ we are really groping
our way through this life blind and in darkness, until
at some point we drop off the edge and into the abyss---unable
ever to climb out.
When
Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the
light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
(John
chapter 8, verse 12).
But,
someone might say, ‘I have fame and fortune. I am healthy,
wealthy and enjoying life. I knew what I wanted early
on and I went all out for it. I have disciplined myself,
used my intelligence, and worked extremely hard to succeed.
I have had direction and determination and an understanding
of how the world works. Yet you say I am blind and groping
around?’ Indeed. The whole world, apart from those
who put their trust in Jesus Christ, flounders and fights
over worthless baubles. Hundreds of years before the
birth of Christ, God spoke of Him coming as light into
the dark world of sinful, unbelieving men:
The
people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a
light has dawned.
(Isaiah
chapter 9, verse 2).
Whatever
we gain outside of Christ we will lose in the end. Jesus
said it profits a man nothing even if he gains the whole
world, but loses his soul. Faith in Jesus Christ is
the true treasure to which God will add all good things
everlastingly. Without faith in Christ we lose everything---everlastingly:
“I
tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given,
but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has
will be taken away.”
(Luke
chapter 19, verse 26).
In
the above verse Jesus is saying that faith in Him is
what counts; if we have that, then much more will be
given to us, including eternal life and all of heaven’s
treasures. If we do not have faith in Him, in other
words we are ‘the one who has nothing’, then even what
we do have, our physical lives and earthly possessions
‘will be taken away’---at death we lose all. This world
is a dark place and it is getting darker and darker
as unbelief, greed, lust and selfishness proliferate.
It will soon be pitch black:
But
mark this: There will be terrible times in the last
days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of
money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers
of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God.
(2
Timothy chapter 3, verses 1-5).
The
majority of people will become selfish and hard-hearted,
only watching out for themselves:
“
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most
will grow cold.”
(Matthew
chapter 24, verse 12).
Do
these words begin to touch a nerve? They should. We
can see the sad reality of these words everywhere; in
the media, at work, on our way to work, in places of
entertainment, on our holidays, in schools, in our neighbours’homes,
in our own homes and families etc. With all the above
growing in intensity you might expect a little difficulty
in finding a quiet haven. It will eventually become
impossible as peace is taken from the whole earth:
When
the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second
living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came
out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take
peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.
To him was given a large sword.
(Revelation
6, verses 3-4).
Spiritual
blindness is the dark soil which nurtures all kinds
of moral evil and leads to every type of depraved deed.
It calls good evil, and evil good. The Bible tells us
that whole nations can be in this state of darkness.
As I write this book, over 2 years since the ‘end’ of
the 2003 Gulf war, the situation in Iraq seems to be
steadily worsening. President George Bush calls Iraq
the focal point of the war on terror. It appears that
terrorists from many nations are being drawn to that
country. The land of Iraq is situated in the place that
used to be ancient Babylonia. It has been said that
Sadaam Hussein saw himself as a modern-day King Nebuchadnezzar.
He even began rebuilding the great city walls and the
Ishtar Gate, renowned in the time of old Babylon. But,
as I understand the Scriptures, there is much worse
to come from, and to, modern Babylon.During the time
of Darius the Mede, ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire,
who had defeated the Babylonians, Zechariah, a prophet
of God, wrote down what he had heard and seen concerning
future events. Some of what he wrote concerns the land
of Babylon:
Then
the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said
to me, “Look up and see what this is that is appearing.”
I asked, “What is it?” He replied, “It is a measuring
basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the
people throughout the land.” Then the cover of lead
was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! He
said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into
the basket and pushed the lead cover down over its mouth.
Then I looked up---and there before me were two women,
with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those
of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven
and earth. “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked
the angel who was speaking to me. He replied, “To the
country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When it
is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”
(Zechariah
chapter 5, verses 5-11).
Note,
the woman represents ‘wickedness’. This wickedness is
being taken to Babylonia until a house is built for
it. When the house is built ‘the basket will be set
there in its place’. Of course, this all speaks of spiritual
events, and only God knows when the house for wickedness
is built. But, in the light of world events, is it possible
that spiritual evil has found a special dwelling place
in a land, the capital city of which used to be Babylon?
Could it be that something very nasty is yet to come
from the land of ancient Babylonia? In the light of
Zechariah’s prophecy and also from other Old Testament
prophecies we get the sense that out of modern Babylon
may proceed some terrible event such as will lead many
powerful nations to totally destroy it. The Babylonian
empire was overthrown by the Medo-Persians, but not
destroyed to the extent we read of in several verses
of Scripture:
“For
I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance
of great nations from the land of the north.”
(Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 9). “I
will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to
devastate her land.” (Chapter
51, verse 2). She
will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will
rest his flocks there. (Isaiah
chapter 13, verse 20). “So
desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there
the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation. As God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbouring towns,”
declares the LORD, “so no-one will live there; no man
will dwell in it.” (Jeremiah
chapter 50, verse 40).
The
above verses are just a sample. Rejection of Jesus Christ
and His Gospel leads to increasing spiritual darkness,
and because the spiritual realm rules over and plays
itself out in the physical realm, this can lead to terrible
results not only on a personal, individual level but
even on a national and international level. Especially
when powerful nations adopt, or choose, to rule and
be ruled by anti-Christian ideas and philosophies such
as Nazi-ism and Communism or false religion.
For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers
of this dark world and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms.
(Ephesians
chapter 6, verse 12).
‘Heavenly
realms’ here does not mean God’s heaven, rather realms
of spirits opposed to God. They populate realms above
or outside of the Earth; not physical, natural beings
but devils and demons whose influence in this world
is very significant, especially where Jesus Christ is
hated. But, the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ has His people in every nation, tribe, people
and language. There are many Scripture verses contrasting
the spiritual darkness of unbelief in Christ with the
light which enables those who have faith in Him to see
clearly:
For
you were once darkness, but now you are light in the
Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the
light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to
do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather
expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what
the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed
to the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes
everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up,
O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine
on you.”
(Ephesians
chapter 5, verses 8-14).
Historians
still speak of ‘the Dark Ages’, apparently a time leading
into the Medieval or Middle Ages period. A time which
is supposedly dark in two senses: the sense that we
have not much written evidence from that time to throw
any light on that era; and also in the sense of being
a dark and dangerous time, a morally depraved time because
(particularly in the European nations which emerged
from the Roman Empire) the preaching of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ seems to have been stifled. The Protestant
Reformation between the 15th and 17th centuries brought
us out of the Dark Ages; a time when (on pain of death
from the Roman church) the Bible began to be printed
in the common language and made available to the common
man; a time when (on pain of death from the Roman church)
the Gospel began to be preached in its fullness, and
faith in the true Light of the world was shown to be
all that is needed for our personal salvation. And the
light burned ever brighter in this nation of England.
It burned bright in Scotland and in Wales, and this
3-nation island became a Kingdom, united under the King
of Kings. Northern Ireland also became part of the Kingdom
of Great Britain---the United Kingdom. And because we
greatly acknowledged the Saviour of our souls in spirit
and in truth, we were blessed above all the nations
of the earth. It has always been God’s way, and it still
is:
If
you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow
all his commands that I give you today, the LORD your
God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
All these things will come upon you and accompany you
if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in
the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your
womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and
the young of your livestock---the calves of your herds
and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading
trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you
come in and blessed when you go out. The LORD will grant
that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated
before you. They will come at you in one direction but
flee from you in seven.
(Deuteronomy
chapter 28, verses 1-7).
This
is a small piece of what Moses was told by God to say
to the nation of Israel. He placed before them a long
list of blessings for obedience to God and curses for
disobedience. These things were all, in large part,
played out in the tumultuous history of that nation.
But, as the world will yet see, God is far from finished
with Israel. And though this message was at that time
for Israel, God’s principles do not alter. It was not
by accident or the ‘fickleness of fate’ that Britain
became the richest, most technologically capable and
inventive nation on earth, with the greatest empire
the world had ever seen; first and foremost in the sciences,
medical and others; first and foremost in promoting
justice and humanitarian endeavours worldwide---the
ending of slavery, the bringing forth of such Gospel
preaching and doing organisations as the Salvation Army,
the building of schools and hospitals, Scouts and Guides,
Barnado’s and other children’s homes and orphanages
etc., also missionary work so that other nations could
share in the wonderful salvation and blessings of our
God. Of course, there were many things we did wrong.
Not everyone had faith in Christ, not even the majority
of our citizens, but enough did, and many of them held
positions of power and authority. The nation had a faith-base
like no other on earth. English became THE international
language, and still is. The King James translation of
the Scriptures became THE translation, and is still
regarded by many as such. Now I am not stating all this
to brag in a nationalistic way about our own abilities---
nationalism without faith in Christ will just lead to
Nazi-ism. We were greatly blessed because of our Christian
base and heritage. Sadly we have for a long time now
been letting it go. We are already suffering many consequences
not only in our society, on a social level, but on a
national and international level. On all levels we are
becoming weak and ineffectual, morally depraved and
corrupt, undisciplined and intolerant (or rather we
are becoming much more intolerant of the true values,
Christian values, and more tolerant of ungodly actions
and attitudes); confusion increases---it will get worse!
God sent the flood upon a morally depraved world; and
He sent fire on a perverted Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus
made it obvious that these were examples for us to take
special note of. Make no mistake! God’s wrath is about
to re-visit a wicked, unrepentant world. Another nation
took over our mantle as the most Christian nation on
earth, and it became, by far, the richest, most powerful,
inventive and influential nation on the planet; also,
it became the most generous nation, sending out across
the earth more missionaries and Christian help and donations
than the rest of the world put together. It was a nation
whose very birth was predominantly Christian---it became
the United States of America. Once again, sadly, this
great nation, the USA, is increasingly denying the God
who made it great, and there is, and will continue to
be, ever more serious consequences. I believe that all
the nations of the earth are rapidly entering a horrific
new dark age; a time which the Bible calls the Great
Tribulation, and which Jesus termed the ‘hour of trial’---a
time which we are told will last for several years.
A time of which Jesus said:
“For
then there will be great distress, unequalled from the
beginning of the world until now---and never to be equalled
again. If those days had not been cut short, no-one
would survive----”
(Matthew
chapter 24, verses 21-22).
All
that spares individuals and nations from spiritual darkness
and its dire consequences is faith in Jesus Christ.
He alone, who is the Light, can dispel the dark.
Ye
dwellers in darkness, with sin-blinded eyes,
The
Light of the world is Jesus!
Go,
wash at His bidding, and light will arise,
The
Light of the world is Jesus!
(P.
P. Bliss)
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