Gateway News UK Correspondent Charles Gardner reflects on his calling
Days after retiring from the newspaper industry more than 13 years ago, I heard God’s voice speaking clearly into my soul: “I have called you for such a time as this.”
I was taking the initial steps of a new ministry, specifically using my “pen” to speak up for the Jewish people and reach out to them with the Gospel they first shared with us Gentiles.
And I was heading for the launch of my first book on the subject, Israel the Chosen. Much time has passed, and I’ve probably written around a million words since. The world seems to have lurched from bad to worse. But my mission hasn’t changed; in fact, it has become ever more urgent.
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So let’s set that word from God in context. It comes from the Book of Esther, recording the time when the orphaned Queen of Persia, a Jewish beauty, was called to a dangerous mission after her guardian Mordecai learnt of a plot to exterminate all Jews in the empire.
Challenging her to intervene, he said: “…If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
She duly risked her life by pleading with the king on behalf of her people. Notice that if she hadn’t, she and her father’s family would have perished, but help for the Jews would have come from another place. So much for President Trump’s arrogant claim that Israel would be terminated without his intervention.
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For the God of Israel has the back of the nation to whom he has promised his everlasting love. How else could they have survived the innumerable efforts to exterminate them over the centuries followed by the constant attacks from neighbouring countries after their re-birth in 1948?
Specifically, it has been modern Persia (Iran), backed by their terror proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, that has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map since the Islamic revolution of 1979.
We are living in highly significant times in fulfilment of ancient prophecies. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others foretold of a regathering of Jewish people to their Promised Land from every point of the compass. But it would be more than merely physical. It would also be spiritual, involving the heart, suggesting a return to their Lord. (Ezekiel 36:24-26) There are already an estimated one million Jewish followers of Jesus.
Bishop J C Ryle, in a sermon, once asked: “What time is it?” and in 1867 spoke on the regathering of Israel when preaching on Jeremiah 31.10: He who scattered Israel will gather him…
The fulfilment of such prophecies forces us to consider that God himself may be behind these great events, and it is therefore no surprise that all hell is let loose against the beneficiaries of such a divine plan. The Middle East conflict is a down-to-earth picture of the spiritual warfare taking place in the heavenly realms (see Ephesians 6:10-20).
Christians should surely understand these things, which is why Jesus scolded his hearers with the words: You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke 12:56). And he called them hypocrites.
Jesus further prophesied the destruction of the Temple because they had failed to recognise the time of God’s appearing among them (Luke 19:44). The problem now is that Gentile Christians — and so-called ‘Christian’ nations — are lamentably failing to recognise the significance of Israel’s re-birth and why this tiny nation is now the focus of world attention.
If we in Britain, or the USA, refuse to come to their defence, the Almighty will see to it that they survive, but we will perish (see also Isaiah 60:12) — a sobering thought. So pray that our new PM Andy Burnham avoids the temptation to pursue the anti-Israel agenda favoured by many of his fellow politicians.
Our country stands in peril as it is after recognising ‘Palestine’ as a state, which amounts to dividing the land God has given Israel and courts divine judgment (Joel 3:2).
Pray too for clerics to arise with the faith and foresight of Bishop Ryle who recognised, almost a century before it happened, that Israel would be regathered to her ancient land. He didn’t need to prophesy it. He was simply reading the plain text of the Bible.
These are exciting times for believers, though many are suffering brutal persecution as terror stalks the globe. Our Lord Jesus spoke of the times in which we appear to be living.
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
And then he adds: When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:25-28)
That is why, in a scary world which could blow up into nuclear conflict at any moment, Christians who know their Lord can nevertheless be excited as they anticipate the glory of his coming to bring peace at last to a world at war.
As for me, I’m having the time of my life writing about these momentous events while also encouraging everyone to ‘look up’ and discover what the Bible calls “the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19).
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