A Growing Force

A friend of mine, in New Zealand, wrote the other day:

"The 2006 Census shows that there are approximately 35,000 Muslims in New Zealand. This figure has doubled twice since 1996 and reminded me that Islam is a growing force in our country. It is not the small minority group that it once was. It numbers above other predominant groups such as Jehovah's witnesses', Assemblies of God, SDA's and the Salvation Army just to name a few.

there is an old adage that says 'there is safety in numbers', there is also power in numbers in a world which values democracy as a foundation of our political system."

Given that in NZ we have a "Mixed Member Proportional" representation (MMP) in our parliament, it is easy for a relatively small group to bring about changes in the law.

Why the Violence?

A cobber of mine, Wyn, who is a retired businessman in his early 90s, wrote this the other day:

People say: "A violent society doesn't just happen. Its the economy." - Yeah, Right!

In New Zealand in 1999 there were 39688 recorded Violent Crime offences and in 2007 there were 56983, which is an increase of 43.6%. THere were 110458 reported Domestic Violence offences, increasing by 119.6% to 24258 in 2007. Abortions went from 15501 to 18382, an increase of 18.65.

There are many other statistics that could be quoted, but that’s enough.
Teachers are resigning because of the abuse and assaults they have to endure.

I was asked a silly question, “How can God allow this sort of thing to happen”.
What’s it got to do with God?

For years we have been telling God to get out of our schools and our government.
We have failed to understand that separation of church and state does not mean that we should abandon the values that European civilisation has been built on.
How can we expect God to give us His protection if we ask Him to get out?

We have persistently declared that we are a secular nation.
Prayer in state schools has been discouraged.
The Bible teaches us “Don’t Kill”, “Don’t steal” and “love your neighbour”
Teaching Bible in state schools as part of the curriculum is forbidden.

Then we passed laws to arrest parents who spank their children, when they misbehave, Labour and National both voted for this under the whip, but 86% of the population did not approve.

Then someone told the teachers you can’t discipline the children in school, and we wonder why there is no respect for authority. In some state schools it is near chaos.

Then the state decided that our daughters could have an abortion even if they were under 16, without telling their parents. They said boys will be boys and they will have their sex in any case so supply them with condoms and we won’t tell their parents. Then we wonder why there are so many minors having babies, and why there are so many solo mothers and why there are so many abortions.

Then someone in Government said it doesn’t matter what we do in private so long as we do what we are paid for and we wonder why we have so much corruption in high places.

Then they said lets publish nudity and call it appreciation of the female form.
Lets have explicit sex on T.V. and call it art.
Lets allow profanity and call it being real.
Lets flood the children’s T.V. with violence and call it entertainment.
Lets play lyrics that encourage suicide, murder and satanic themes and call it entertainment.

Now we wonder why our children have no conscience, scrawl graffiti, steal cars and treat them as expendable because there’s plenty more where they came from, and in any case the insurance companies will pay for them.

But when it comes to our computers we say Garbage in Garbage out.

The NEW AGE Factor

There is a New Age component in this conflict between Christian Civilization and the New World Order.
In 2003 the Roman Curia published a Christian reflection on the “New Age”, entitled “Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life.” The Curial groups involved gave a sympathetic view of the New Age Movement (NAM). But they also pointed out that the NAM is an agent to bring a one world religion:
'New Age shares with a number of internationally influential groups the goal of superseding or transcending particular religions in order to create space for a universal religion which could unite humanity. Closely related to this is a very concerted effort on the part of many institutions to invent a Global Ethic, an ethical framework which would reflect the global nature of contemporary culture, economics and politics.' (2.5)

They also point to the roots of NAM in freemasonry and its associates of previous centuries:
'The essential matrix of New Age thinking is to be found in the esoteric-theosophical tradition which was fairly widely accepted in European intellectual circles in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was particularly strong in freemasonry, spiritualism, occultism and theosophy, which shared a kind of esoteric culture.' (2.3.2)

Today, the NAM is an active component in bringing about the New World Order:
'The global brain needs institutions with which to rule, in other words, a world government. “To deal with today's problems New Age dreams of a spiritual aristocracy in the style of Plato's Republic, run by secret societies...”(Michel Lacroix) This may be an exaggerated way of stating the case, but there is much evidence that gnostic élitism and global governance coincide on many issues in international politics.' (2.3.4.3.)

The present day influences on the NAM are anti-Christian:
'It must never be forgotten that many of the movements which have fed the New Age are explicitly anti-Christian. Their stance towards Christianity is not neutral, but neutralising: despite what is often said about openness to all religious standpoints, traditional Christianity is not sincerely regarded as an acceptable alternative.' (6.1)

They deny the core of Christianity, which is the reality of sin and salvation:
'There is no sin; there is only imperfect knowledge. … There is no need for Revelation or Salvation which would come to people from outside themselves, but simply a need to experience the salvation hidden within themselves (self-salvation), by mastering psycho- physical techniques which lead to definitive enlightenment.' (2.3.4.1)

The NAM is the old Gnosticism of the early Christian era dressed up to look new:
‘But what really is new is that New Age is a conscious search for an alternative to Western culture and its Judaeo-Christian religious roots.' (3.1)

It is an old conflict. The early Christians handled it well. They took the aspirations of the Gnostics and showed that they are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, as the hymn in Colossians 1:15- 20 shows. (See 3.3)