NORTHERN STYLE NEWSWATCH 2
Now that the `Petrol Protest' has been eclipsed by the Political Party Coventions, this seems to be the time to place the `Protest' within an historical context and line it against Scripture. One major aspect of the latter protest was its general acceptance by the population with whom it caused the greatest inconvenience. There seemed to be what we would call `sympathetic collusion' - a general, unspoken, but very tangible agreement that the protest had a moral legitimacy to it.

We know that the people leading the protest were farming groups and those who are now called `truckers', and whilst others joined the protest it was those two main sections of the population that headed up the protest. Yet, with quietness of mind, we believe that neither of those two groups were greatly affected by the Fuel Tax. Farmers already pay a lower rate of tax for agricultural fuel and truckers are able to reclaim VAT, having already been given concessons in the past by national Budgets to compensate in part for rising costs associated with their industry. It would therefore be reasonable to suggest that the protest led by these two main groups was not primarily concerned with the Fuel Tax but that there was a deeper underlying anxiety which was focussing itself on the Fuel Tax as a means of `shouting a loud cry for help to somebody'. Unfortunately at such times other more sinister groups are the ones who hear the cry and divert that cry to their own seditious ambitions! This particular protest - and there have been many others over the past few years - was but a particular `dam' bursting, for the general anxiety of the population could not be contained any longer.

However this needs to be placed into a broader historical timescale in order to see the pattern emerging. As the secure boundaries of the `Nation State' give way to a boundless global world with faceless political leaders, who are largely unknown and who rarely come under the democratic scrutiny of the ballot box, the population are losing confidence in those who are elected to govern. Add to this the multi-national, commercial, financial conglomorates, who can seemingly cause the rise and fall of existing nation states and who are answerable to no-one but their shareholders - and increasingly the shareholders are major institutions themselves - and we begin to see at least the possibility of a major root cause for what we have described over the past few years as an `anxiety factor' (and not as is sometimes reported in Christian circles as a spiritual awakening).

Bringing these thoughts together we believe that what we are seeing in these protests is a `spontaneous' action breaking out against those global multi-national groups (a form of latter-day Peasant's Revolt) which bypasses the elected governments whom the protesters know are already impotent, for their authority has been ceeded to unelected `higher authorities' and powerful multi-national commercial groups. But (and there is always a `but' in such thinking) as the protest is only the breaking of the `anxiety dam', there must have already been the `rising waters' which eventually led to the protest - and it to those rising waters that this Newswatch is directed. To be more specific, we list some of `the rising waters which led to the dam bursting'.

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First came the cry against various forms of animal use (and misuse), often using extreme cases such as strapped-in monkeys whose eyes have been sprayed in order to test cosmetics - and over a period of time the protest dam burst against global cosmetics companies who pander to the rich! More recently, the media coverage of GM experimentation has led to protests against global drug companies. A very familiar sighting of the rising waters is seen in the constant financial plight of the Third World, which last year led to the violent protest in Seattle against the World Bank and the IMF. Again, one very contemporary sighting of the rising waters is the anxiety caused by the media's dealing with all matters concerning integration into Europe and the impotence of the Government to protect the people from the grasp of unknown, faceless bureacrats in Brussels. The dam has not yet burst in this particular sighting, but already one major political party has been singing nationalistic jingos without giving real thought to the outcome. Space prohibits our listing further sightings. Sufficient to say that a pattern is emerging of growing seditious behaviour in the population at large as an expression of a deep-seated anxiety, and waiting in the wings are unscrupulous anarchistic groups who will seek to turn this national anxiety to their own ends. (And as we would expect this to increase in intensity, we would do well to sensibly prepare where possible for constant emergencies in the years to come.) Of course these patterns of protest have been evident in modern times before - and there will be many who will recall the bursting of the dams in the 1960's - but here again we need to pay heed to the end-result of these protests. When the shadowy figures who sought to divert the rising waters to their own ends failed in their ambitions, it led in turn to the emergence of extreme and violent terrorist groups, such as the Bader-Meinhoff Gang and the Red Brigade (to name but two), who wreaked terror through their murderous violence, which still breaks out in today's world.

The `rising waters of anarchy' pick out single-issue problems and the media expand them with continuous sensational expositions, to the point where the `anxiety factor' breaks out against what is seen as the perpetration of this anxiety, leaving a government which is impotent and increasingly marginalised in the population's perception. This in turn leads to anarchistic groups moving in to give a focus to the grievance which, if their ambitions are thwarted, leads to violence. This, we would suggest, is what is outworking as we watch current events unfold, and to test this against Scripture we need only record a few verses from Paul's Second Letter to Timothy: (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

" But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be
lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobendient
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 - having a form of
godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. "

How, then, does this outwork in `the Church', and in particular in the Church in the West? If we accept the truth of Scripture, and if we believe we are indeed in `the last days', with the soon-return of the Lord Jesus, then we must go beyond the mere repetition of scriptural words and begin to see them unfold experientially in our own lives. Paul, writing in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, says in the context of `the coming of the Lord':

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" . . . . the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until
he is taken out of the way. " (2 Thessalonians 2:7b)

Whoever it is that you believe is `the one who now holds it back (and) will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way', it is clear that we can expect lawlessness to increase, and it is this which we have been considering in this Newswatch. The spirit of lawlessness at work in the world at this time will find much to attach itself to in the Church itself. As we have set out, the work of the spirit of lawlessness in the secular world has attached itself to `single-issue' protests which are centered on unelected and undemocratic global institutions. This leads to elected and democratic governments becoming increasingly impotent and unable to deal with the protesters without overturning the financial/social framework of their policies within a democratic system. The result is lawlessness! Increasingly within the Church we find the same pattern emerging: Single issues are exposed, then various parachurch ministries (often described as `prophetic') lay hold to them, sensationalize them, continually report on the most bizarre illustration of the latest `heresy' and stir up the anxiety factor amongst the people. As the root cause for the lawlessness is centered on a single issue (which is often correctly exposed as error), the eldership or leadership are rendered impotent and unable to govern the Church or Fellowship as is scripturally required without becoming dictatorial as they are concerned with a larger responsibility for spiritual oversight. This usually then results in Fellowships breaking up or in people leaving - leaving behind them even more anxiety and distress. This leaves the way open for what we have called `parachurch ministries' being available to add to their authority - and so the secular parallel outworks itself within the Church.

It is not our intention to list here the many `single issues' that have manifested themselves within the Church in recent years lest we too fall into the trap set out in this Newswatch. Neither are we suggesting that error or heresy should not be brought to light, renounced and repented of, but there is a (constitutional) Scriptural way in which the Lord's people (both elders and their flock) avoid these dangers and not be conformed to the image of dark spiritual powers working through ambitious people who bring their lawlessness into the Church. We end this Newswatch with Paul's words to the Corinthian Church where, we would suggest, every kind of lawlessness was at work: (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

" For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary,
they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and
every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take
captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. "

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