Hope for the Hopeless

April 3, 2025

Introduction

In this message, dear friends, we will be looking at Hebrews chapter 11; most of us are familiar with this passage of Scripture as the ‘faith chapter’.

Indeed, we have a teaching on it called Emunah, the Judeo-Christian understanding of faith. Faith is certainly one main aspect of this chapter, but there is another main idea we are given here that will be our focus in this letter: Hope. Hebrews 11 has as much to do with hope as it does with faith.

Background of Hebrews

The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians in and around Jerusalem before the second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Up until this time, the believers had been persecuted almost exclusively by the Sanhedrin and the rabbinic establishment. In other words, there were believing Jews whom unbelieving Jews were persecuting. However, something began to happen at this time, probably around the time of Nero’s reign as Emperor of Rome. For the first time, believers were not only persecuted by unbelieving Jews, but also by the Roman government – or, at the very least, they were faced with the prospect of it. Nero is the emperor who killed both Peter and Paul, according to Eusebius and the historical record. There was a resulting danger of some people being tempted to go back under the law in order to escape persecution. Many of them were distraught because they foresaw the destruction and judgment coming on Jerusalem, remembering the prophecies of Daniel as well as of Jesus himself.

That is the backdrop against which the book of Hebrews was written. In it, therefore, the author addresses the situation in this chapter by dealing with two subjects: one is faith, the other is hope. What we will do here is to first look through this chapter, talking about the nuances and background, and then we’ll think about what it means for us.

Defining Biblical Faith

Beginning in verse 1 of Hebrews 11:

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

The word “assurance” there, sometimes translated from Greek as “substance”, is hypostases. Faith and hope, we see here, go hand-in-hand. The Hebrew and Greek words are interesting; the word for “faith” in Greek is pistes or piston, and in Hebrew emunah. In both languages, this is not only the word for “faith”, but also for “faithfulness”. “The righteous shall live by faith” – “The righteous shall live by faithfulness”. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” – “Without faithfulness it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6. We are saved by grace through faith, and also through faithfulness – beginning, of course, with the faithfulness of Jesus.

Defining Biblical Hope

But then there is “hope” – tigna. In Greek, elpis. Look once again at what it tells us: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for”. You cannot define biblical faith unless you do it in light of hope, nor can you define biblical hope unless you define it in light of faith. We think of “I hope” as being synonymous with “I wish”’. In the Bible, however, that is not the case; rather, hope in biblical terms is a future fact. We have faith in a future fact. Faith is the assurance of our hope – we are assured that it will happen. Religions cannot give people the assurance of salvation, and that includes unbiblical forms of Christianity. Only the Lord Jesus can give us that assurance.

We have a hope, and that hope is not ‘I wish this would happen’, but knowing and trusting that it will happen.

A Brief Synopsis

Let us continue with verses 2 and 3:

“For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

He begins a historical account all the way back from Creation up to the time of King David – the reason it ends with David is that the Messiah would be seen not only as a prophet like Moses (Deut. ) but also as a king like David. Their national aspiration as Jews was for the Messiah to come as the son of David and restore what they had lost in the Babylonian captivity.

Biblical Faith vs. Religion

The account begins, however, with Creation, telling us that by faith we believe that God made the things that are from the things that are not – by his Word. When it says ‘his Word’, it is, of course, ho Logos in Greek, or Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh, as John 1 tells us. If you don’t believe the Bible, you don’t believe in Jesus Christ. The things outside of what Jesus said and of the rest of Scripture are just religious nonsense. Someone gave me a silly note this morning with religious nonsense in it, saying that ‘as long as we are seeking spirituality we are saved’. This is New Age idiocy, certainly not the Gospel of Jesus. Only an unsaved person would write something so silly, and I do feel sorry for them. But this is what many people think, despite the fact that it’s nonsense.

Creation

Only God can violate the law of conservation of matter and the law of conservation of energy – otherwise he wouldn’t be God. Only God can make something out of nothing. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God; we see Jesus in the Creation in John chapter 1 verse 3:

“The world was made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.”

We also see Jesus in the Creation in Proverbs 8. Adam heard God walking in the garden – that was Jesus, he was there from day one. So it begins with him in the creation.

Comparing Genesis with Revelation - Understanding the Word

After this, in verse 4 of Hebrews 11, it says this:

“By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice that was better than Cain’s, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts; that through faith though he is dead he still speaks.”

So we see that the next phase spoken of is the time directly following the Fall of mankind. Abel is the first martyr; Jesus spoke of him as such in Matthew 23, saying to the religious hypocrites of his day that “the blood of the martyrs will be upon you from Abel”. Think of the Bible the way you would think of an un-sliced loaf of bread, fresh from a baker’s oven: it looks the same from both ends. In both Revelation and Genesis, you have the woman and the stars, the tree of Life, and the serpent; in Genesis it says ‘the blood of your brother cries out’, speaking of Abel, and in Revelation it says, “the blood of the martyrs cries out”. Genesis and Revelation work hand in hand; the Bible ends the same way it begins, with the same imagery. We have the Creation, the New Creation, and finally the Recreation.

So we have Abel, still speaking. The righteous men of old still speak – Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all still speak. They speak to Israel and also to the church. Peter, James, John, and Paul also continue to speak to us through the Word. The things that Isaiah, Amos, the Apostles, Moses, and all the other authors of Scripture wrote are every bit as much for us today as they were for the people living at the time the prophets and apostles were writing it. In fact, many things are even more for us today. The Bible is the Word of God in the word of man; that’s what we must understand about the Word.

Jesus was 100 per cent human and 100 per cent divine; just so, the Word of God is in the word of man. The Bible is 100 percent God’s Word, but it is also 100 percent man’s word. Just as Jesus was God and Man, so the Bible is the Word of God in the word of man. These great heroes and champions of faith from the Old Testament and from the Apostolic Church still speak to us today. You will find as you read Isaiah or Jeremiah that what they said applies to us today.

The Raptures Before the Raptures

Let us continue with verse 5:

“By faith Enoch was taken up, so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Enoch is the first man who was ever raptured. Every rapture experience in the Bible is a type or a foreshadow of the Rapture of the Church – the rapture of Elijah, what happened to Paul which he described in 2 Corinthians, what happened to John in Revelation 4:1, the ascension of Jesus, and first the rapture of Enoch – all these things are pictures of the Rapture that is coming. They teach something about that ultimate rapture of God’s people. The Catholic Church has invented one that is not in the Bible, of course – the rapture of Mary – which has no biblical basis whatsoever.

So the retelling of history continues with Enoch, the first person who was ever raptured. This occasion was antediluvian, or before the flood.

Importance of Believing God as Rewarder

The text continues, saying the following in verse 6:

“But without faith”

– that is, without faithfulness –

“it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

This idea of reward comes into play later on in the chapter. You see, in order to be saved, to be a Christian and to go to Heaven, it is not enough to believe that God is. Believing that He is, is certainly necessary, but in itself that is not sufficient. It is not even enough to believe that God is a righteous Judge who will judge sin; not enough to believe that you are condemned and on your way to Hell. None of it is enough unless you put your faith in Jesus Christ. You must believe that God is, yes; but you must also believe that God is the Rewarder. In other words, in order to go to Heaven you must believe that there is such a place and that God wants you to get there; you must believe that He is a rewarder.

Noah and the Flood

After Enoch, we move into the next age:

“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Hebrews 11:7).

Here, of course, we have the deluge, and the faithful one is none other than Noah. Was Noah a successful preacher? No, not by the world’s standards: Seven people, eight including himself, were saved through his message – and those seven were all related to him.

We do have a tape entitled Just As It Was in the Days of Noah, which explains how the Last Days will be the same as were the days of Noah; we also go into it on the preparing for persecution tapes. God is in the business of saving families; however, He also tells us that just as Noah’s warning was rejected, so in the Last Days will ours be when the true believers try to warn unbelievers of the coming judgment and destruction. We will not be believed until it is too late, which is exactly what happened to Noah. However, just as his family made it to safety in the ark, so those in the true church will indeed make it out of here.

The Patriarchal Period

The passage continues with Abraham:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:8-10).

Here the passage goes into the patriarchal period, naming the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are others as well, as we will see in a moment. It says that Abraham left the place where he was for another destination, not knowing where he was going.

Understanding the Reason for the Message

We must understand the background: Daniel said that the Messiah would come and die before the second Temple was destroyed (Daniel 9:26). The people to whom the book of Hebrews was addressed knew that the Messiah had come and died; therefore, the city and the Temple would soon be destroyed. Jesus warned them in the Olivet Discourse to flee when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by an army of Gentiles (Luke 21:20, 21; Matthew 24:15-20). What the writer of Hebrews is saying here, in part, is to look at the faith and the faithfulness of the men of old. When Abraham was told to leave his home, he left for a destination unknown to him; he was searching for a better city, and he went out by faith. “Don’t hold on to this city” is the message that the writer of Hebrews was getting at for the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. These believers in 70 A.D., under a cousin of Jesus named Simeon, actually did flee from Jerusalem and were rescued. Their message of warning to Jerusalem had been rejected, its citizens choosing to believe the rabbis instead. As a result they were destroyed. Simeon, who became pastor of the church at Jerusalem after the apostle James was martyred, left with his church. This can be verified in reading Josephusand Eusebius, and once again, this is a major type or picture of the Rapture. This will happen again in the Last Days, though of course it will then occur on a grander scale.

So the writer of Hebrews is saying, “Look at Abraham – he had to leave his home too. Don’t worry about this city; God has a better Jerusalem. Don’t be attached to this Jerusalem – there is a Heavenly Jerusalem.” Earlier in the book he tells us that the Temple and the things within it were only shadows, or types, of the ones in Heaven (Hebrews 9).

Living as Strangers in Your Own Land

The author of Hebrews is also telling believers here that just as Abraham lived in a land promised to him, so we ought to live in this world. “The meek shall inherit the earth” Matthew 5:5. This will happen during the Millennial Reign of Jesus; there is no doubt that we will inherit it. Therefore, just as Abraham lived as a sojourner or a foreigner in a land promised to him, so should we live in this world. We are promised this place – we will co-reign with Christ during the Millennium. In the meantime, however, we live as sojourners and foreigners in this land that we actually own.

There are people today who are caught up in a lot of nonsense involving Kingdom-Now theology and Dominionism; that is not what this is about. The ideas that Satan is already bound and that we are going to ‘conquer the world for Christ before He comes’ are silly nonsense and absolute rubbish – Jesus told us that His kingdom is not of this world, and as you may have heard me say before, if Satan is now bound I would like to know who keeps letting him go.

Nonetheless, look at Abraham. He was waiting for a better city, living in a land that was promised to him. So should we; the Heavenly Jerusalem is ours, and we will inherit the earth. Augustine of Hippo later borrowed this theme when the Visigoths were going to destroy Rome in the fourth century. He wrote something then that he called “City of God” – which I’ve never really been impressed with – taking the theme of Hebrews 11, as if he was trying to write a sequel to it.

The First Woman of Hebrews 11

Let us continue with Hebrews 11:11-13:

“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude – innumerable as the sand, which is by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Here we are introduced to the first woman in this list – Sarah, wife of Abraham, mother of Isaac. Verse 13 says that these people saw these things from a distance; more specifically, they only saw the first coming of Jesus at a distance. We now have His first coming, and we see His second coming from a distance. So in the same way they looked forward to His first coming, while not actually experiencing that redemption in their own lives, we should look forward to His second coming. This is what the text is telling us. His second coming is our certain hope, just as His first coming was to those listed in the passage.

Backsliding is Misplaced Trust

The text continues:

“For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:14-16.

By definition, backsliding is trusting in this world, or looking for something here. Most of the seductions being perpetrated by Satan against the modern church are designed to entice us to trust in this world. This applies equally to Faith-Prosperity, Kingdom-Now, and all other deceptions that are designed to get God’s people to trust in this world rather than in the coming one. Look at the kinds of things they say: “God wants you rich, you’re a King’s kid, name it and claim it, blab it and grab it, look for your blessing here, don’t worry about the heavenly mansion, claim your mansion now”. All these things are custom-made to seduce us into trusting in this life. Yet we are told to be like the ones in Hebrews 11, who kept looking for the good that God had promised.

Abraham in Hebrews 11

Continuing in verses 17-19:

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”

Again, these people saw the Gospel from a distance. Abraham is called Yedid Yah, the “friend of God”. As you may have heard me say, in the times of the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was reserved for certain people at certain times with certain functions: Patriarchs, high priests, kings, and prophets. The Holy Spirit was not then for all who believed; that is peculiar to the New Covenant.

By the Holy Spirit, however, these chosen people knew certain things. Abraham knew that God had promised to fulfill His Word to him through his son Isaac, so that even if Isaac died he would receive him back again. This, of course, is an obvious type – Abraham giving up his only begotten son (in Greek monogenes) just as God would give up His only begotten Son.

Good Things vs. God Things

However, God tells Abraham to take his “only begotten son”, meaning Isaac; where is Ishmael? God does not recognize Ishmael as Abraham’s begotten son; He never recognizes anything that is done in the flesh. There is a big difference between a good thing and a God thing: There are many people today who are doing ‘good’ things that are not ‘God’ things; for example, there are people who call themselves Christian missionaries, but who have only social gospels. This means they spend their time trying to meet people’s humanitarian needs without giving them the message of salvation. I see this all the time with organizations that try to ‘bless’ Israel, yet withhold Christ from the Jews. They may be doing a ‘good’ thing, but they are certainly not doing a God thing; therefore these organizations are biblically useless and not of God. What is it when people do these kinds of things? It is the creation of Ishmaels. God recognizes nothing that is done in the flesh, even though it may be done with the right motive. We must learn to be motivated by the Lord, not by needs.

The Far-Seeing Eyes of Faith

We saw that verse 19 says that Abraham considered God able to raise his son even from the dead. What this meant to the believers who were reading it is this: “Look, just as God had a promise for Isaac, so in Christ does God have a promise for us. Even if you should die in persecution, don’t worry – just as Abraham knew that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead, so must you know that He is able to raise you from the dead. God is faithful. Abraham was unafraid to see Isaac die, and you can also be unafraid to die because God will raise you up again.” Why didn’t these people, the believers we are told about in both Old and New Testaments, see the things that were promised to them? Because God wanted us to be a part of things also. Why did the patriarchs die without seeing the coming of Jesus? Because God wanted to save us as well. But at the Resurrection, it all finally happens together, with no one left out.

Continuing in verse 20 of Hebrews 11:

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.”

As we discuss on the Jewish-Arab Reconciliation in Christ DVD, God has a blessing and a prophetic purpose for the Arab nations just as He does for the Jewish nation.

Verse 21:

“By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.”

This story is found in Genesis 49, where we see the twelve sons of Jacob just as again we see them in Revelation 7 and 14 as the 12 tribes of Israel – the loaf of bread once more, that looks alike at both ends.

Joseph: The Last Patriarch

In verse 22 we read this:

“By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.”

The final patriarchal figure becomes Joseph, who gives instruction about his bones. As most of you know, the Exodus of Israel is a picture of two things: First, it is a picture of our salvation. Egypt is a figure of the world, Pharaoh a figure of the god of this world, Satan. As Moses made a covenant with the blood of the lamb, sprinkling it on the people and bringing them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and into the Promised Land, so Jesus made a covenant with the blood of the Lamb – His own blood – and leads us out of the world, through baptism, and into Heaven. One is a picture of the other.

However, the Exodus is also a picture of the Rapture and Resurrection. The same judgments that God sends on Egypt – blood, pestilence, darkness, hail – are also in the book of Revelation. As you may have heard me point out, in the same way that Pharaoh’s magicians counterfeited the miracles of Moses and Aaron, so the Antichrist and the false prophet will counterfeit the miracles of Jesus and His witnesses. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they were rescued – that is a picture of the Rapture of the Church. However, in the Exodus they also brought Joseph’s bones with them (Exod 13:19). Why? Because the dead in Christ will rise first! (1 Thess 4:16). So just as Joseph’s bones came out of Egypt with the Israelites, the dead in Christ and those who are alive at His coming will escape this world together. The writer of Hebrews is saying that those to whom he is writing should not be afraid to die in the persecution for these reasons.

The Time of the Exodus: Moses

With these verses we come to the phase of the Exodus. Verse 23 of Hebrews 11:

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ”

– the Messiah –

“greater treasures than the riches in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.”

Moses, of course, is a type of Christ in many ways. God promised that the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15-19); both Moses and Jesus ushered in a covenant of God with His people. The first time Moses came to save the Jews, he was rejected by them; they only accepted him the second time. In the meantime, Moses lived among the Gentiles as a shepherd. He is a foreshadow of Jesus, who when He came the first time to the Jews was rejected by them. Jesus therefore went to the Gentiles, just as Moses had done. The second time Jesus comes, however, He will be accepted by Israel, as seen in the book of Zechariah.

Be Like Moses

Moses was a prince of Egypt; he could have had a good life in this world. However, he chose instead to face hardship. He chose to lead a difficult life rather than be enticed by the fleeting pleasures of sin. He was looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. So we see that the next thing the writer of Hebrews is saying to the church in Jerusalem around 70 A.D. is this: Pharaoh is comparable to the Roman emperor, specifically Nero – Moses was not afraid of the king, so why should you be as believers? You are being tempted to go back under the law, to compromise so that you can have a good life in this world, but look at Moses. He could have done that, he could have had a really comfortable life as a prince of Egypt – but he did not trust this world, rather looking forward to the Messiah’s coming. Therefore you must look forward to Messiah’s second coming; be like Moses.

The Conquest Phase: Joshua

The next phase in Israel’s history is the one, which we call the Conquest. Interestingly, Hebrews alludes to Joshua, but does not name him; instead it names a Gentile woman, who was, of all things, a prostitute: Rahab. Let’s examine the Scripture:

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.” (Hebrews 11:30-31)

Connections Between Revelation and Joshua

The text here points out the seven days during which Jericho was surrounded. It does this for a reason: the rescue of Rahab is once again a major picture of the Rapture of the Church. It points us back to Joshua 6; a Jewish Christian reading the book of Revelation at the end of the first century or the beginning of the second would have called Revelation chapters 8 through 11 a Midrash on the book of Joshua: If you remember, Hebrews points out the seven days of Israel’s campaign against Jericho, during which there had to be silence. According to Revelation 8, there is silence in Heaven also. In the book of Joshua we see that Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, but on the seventh day they marched around seven times. Following the same numerical pattern, there are seven seals in the book of Revelation, followed by a subset of seven trumpets opening up from the seventh seal.

Then you have the last trumpet in Joshua: when they blow the trumpet, it says in Joshua that the city was given to them by the Lord. The trumpet we see here is all wrapped up in the symbolism of the year of Jubilee and the Hebrew Feast of Trumpets – this is all complicated, and we do have tapes to specifically explain these things, though I do not have time to address them now. At the last Trumpet in Revelation, Christ returns, and this is all also linked with the book of Joel and many other things. However, we will only deal with it now in so far as it deals with our subject – again, when the last trumpet is blown in Joshua, the walls come down and then the Lord gives the city to Israel. In Revelation, when the last trumpet is blown, the text tells us “this world has become the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah.” (Rev 11:15). One is a picture of the other.

Hebrews also makes mention of two witnesses, paralleled in Joshua by the two spies. Somehow the two spies in Joshua are types or foreshadows of the two witnesses in Revelation. There are many examples in the Bible who teach concerning those two witnesses; people often wonder whether they are Moses and Elijah or Moses and Enoch or Moses and the Apostle John – people always ask who they are, but really there are many, many different ones who foreshadow these two witnesses. The two spies in Joshua is one example.

Rahab: A Picture of the Church

The reason that Scripture speaks of Rahab and her rescue, again, is pointing to the rescue of the church that would happen in 70 A.D., but ultimately to the Rapture of the Church of which that rescue was a picture. We should always look to the Rapture and the Return of Jesus as our hope, not becoming worried about persecution or opposition. The way in which the Lord effected the rescue of His people in the past is the same way He will effect our rescue. Our ultimate hope is to be rescued by Jesus from this planet when He comes back.

Hebrews does not mention Joshua directly in this passage, but instead refers to the Gentile woman whom he rescued. It is always interesting to see Gentiles listed in the genealogies of Jesus, who was of the house of David; David’s house began with the union of a Jewish man with a Gentile woman – Boaz and Ruth. Jesus came from a union of Jew and Gentile because He would be the Savior of both Jew and Gentile; that is the picture being painted by the inclusion of non-Jews, which goes back again to Abraham. Abraham was both a Jew and a Gentile: he was born a Gentile, but was converted by God to Judaism. He could be the father of all who believe because he was both Jew and Gentile; the Messiah would save both Jew and Gentile. This kind of imagery is present right from the beginning – Noah, Enoch, and Abel were all Gentiles. From the very beginning, God’s plan was for the salvation of all mankind; the Jews were simply to be His vehicle to bring it to the nations.

Judges, Prophets, and Kings

Let us continue with Hebrews 11:32:

“And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:”

After Rahab, we find that the writer moves on to the period of the Judges, naming Samson, Jephthah, Barak, and Gideon. The period following Judges in Biblical history is generally referred to as the period of Prophets and Kings; named here are Samuel and King David. We will look at these in more detail a little further on.

Stark contrasts: faith in faith or faith in God?

Moving on to verses 33 - 36:

“who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.”

Torture? Chains? Imprisonment? Beatings? But if you’re a King’s Kid, you don’t have to suffer; if you’re suffering, that means you don’t have enough faith. Well, which faith are you going to believe: The faith of Hebrews 11, which is the faith of the Bible, or the faith of the prosperity preachers? It is not possible to believe both.

Continuing in verse 37:

“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in”

– five thousand dollar suits, chauffeur-driven limousines, and five-star hotels? Oh, wait – for a moment I thought I was in Oklahoma. That’s not what it says after all –

“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” Hebrews 11:37-40.

Why did Jesus not return for the early church? Or why did He not come the first time for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Because God did not want to bless them without blessing us also; He wants to include us in His blessing. Of course, this is faith in Jesus we are talking about; the prosperity preachers are teaching faith in faith. You may believe them or you may believe the Bible, but you may not believe both, because they are in direct contradiction. Worship God or worship Mammon, but you may not have both. However, this is all included in our teaching on faith, and today we are looking instead at hope.

Religion vs. the Bible

This passage retells biblical history, from the Creation all the way up to King David. The further Israel drifted away from the Word of God, the worse things got; Hebrews uses the people in chapter 11 to exemplify what we should be like. There is a term called “hagiography”, from the Greek word “hagio”, meaning “holy”. Every religion is hagiographic. The Bible is not so, but religion is. What this means is that every religion elevates its central figures to sanctimonious status, making them superhuman. God, however, does not do that; He tells about people for what they were – their good points and their bad points. When you read about these people in Scripture you will find that most of them had severe character flaws of some kind that are told about. Religion, however, reveals none of the bad and exaggerates the good in its heroes. Catholicism does it with canonization, Greek Orthodoxy does it with icons, and Moslems do it with Mohammed.

Outrages of Hagiography

What would you think of a man who married a six-year old girl and took her virginity when she was nine? You would probably say he was a pedophile, someone who should be emasculated, a pervert who should be in prison. Mohammed did this: he married a girl named Ayeesha when she was six years old, then took her virginity at the age of nine. So the fact of the matter is that Mohammed was a pedophile, a sex pervert, an outrage; but try telling that to a Moslem! This is hagiography.

What would you say about a man who founded a religious order and had a teaching stating that since Eve was created from Adam’s rib and ribs are curved, or crooked, women are predisposed to witchcraft; who then, based upon this teaching, would tie women down naked and gynecologically torture them with boiling water in order to make them confess to witchcraft in order to justify killing them? The man I refer to is Saint Dominic, who started the Dominican order in the Roman Catholic Church. The Dominicans went on to kill half a million people in the name of their religion, and then the Catholic Church canonized this man. Last year in Belgium two Dominican nuns were sentenced for crimes that happened in Rwanda, where they killed 7,000 people. Dominicans are still sadistic murderers today.

Or we could look at Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, an order that murdered incredibly high numbers of Christians. The Catholic Church, true to form, canonized Ignatius Loyola, calling him a saint.

Catholicism claims that Mary appeared to Saint Dominic, whose sordid history we briefly reviewed above, and gave him the rosary. The rosary was actually brought back from the East by Crusaders, who saw Hindus counting prayers on beads to Vishnu. The Mormons love Joseph Smith, a convicted swindler who was eventually executed for his crimes. Brigham Young had 23 wives – how would a man who is already married to other wives get more women to marry him? By marrying children! Practically every one of Brigham Young’s wives was a minor when he married her. Here we have another pedophile, admired by Mormons, thanks once again to hagiography. Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford, founders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, were both swindlers. This is hagiography – religion makes these sinful men into saints who can do no wrong. The Bible, by contrast, does not do that. The Bible tells you who and what these people were – sinners who were justified by their faith.

Examining the List of Hebrews 11: A Good Beginning

To see how Scripture differs from hagiography, let’s look again at our list of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11: Things started out pretty well with Abel and Enoch; Abel was martyred as a kid, and you really can’t find much wrong with him. I suppose if he had grown older he would have messed up too. Enoch was raptured, and nothing bad is said of him either.

Drunkenness, Curses, Lies, and Cowardice

Then, however, we come to Noah, who got loaded after the flood, embarrassed his family and brought a curse on one of his sons which brought a curse on the Canaanite nation centuries later. Abraham – not once, but twice – was willing to give his wife over sexually to another man. She was his half-sister, so he told half the truth. Already we see that if you and I were to go and get people to be emblems and heroes of our faith, we could probably come up with a list we consider more suitable. God, however, is more honest and more realistic.

Moving on to Isaac, we discover that Isaac did the same thing his father did, being willing to give his wife to another man. We inherit our fallen nature from our parents; we groom our kids not only with our good points but also with our bad points. My little boy is no longer so little, and although there are times when I would like to smack him, I realize it would be like standing in front of a mirror and punching the mirror. I know where he got his attitudes – from me.

The First Woman in Hebrews 11

Then there’s mother Sarah. Look what it says about Sarah in verse 11:

“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.”

We’re talking about a geriatric pregnancy; she was able to conceive, it says here, because of her faith. Yet when we go back to Genesis, we see that she did not believe then. She laughed – therefore she named her son Isaac, which means “He shall Laugh”. She thought it was ridiculous; it was a joke to her at first. She lacked faith, but God sees the end from the beginning. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ”, Paul tells us in Phil 1:6. You see, Genesis tells us what these people were; Hebrews tells us what they became.

We only see what we were and what we are; God sees what we shall be because of faith, because of faithfulness.

Total Rejection

Then, however, we go further to Joseph. Talk about rejection! It’s one thing when unsaved people don’t like you; it’s worse when believers don’t like you; but when those believers are your own family, you’re a three-time loser, Jack! Joseph experienced total rejection. He wound up in the joint for a rape he didn’t commit after having been sold into slavery by his brothers.

Murderers and Prostitutes

Then there’s Moses, who had a contract on his head. He was a wanted man after he knocked somebody off. He was forced to get out of town, to blow the country; then he showed up again 40 years later. If you were going to get someone to be a role model, you wouldn’t choose someone who had a warrant out for his or her arrest for capital murder.

Next, we come to Rahab. All right, she’s a Gentile woman; but this woman was the biggest hooker around. If there is hope for her, who is there not hope for?

The Judges

Then it goes into what from a human perspective would appear to be almost preposterous – the period of the Judges, which we call in Hebrew “ha tekophot ha shophtim”.

Foolish Lust

Samson is chosen as the first role model of the judges, of all people! How could he have been such a sucker for a babe? I mean, Delilah! This was not a woman who was emotionally vulnerable to him; she was trying to get him knocked off – and he knew it, but still continued to go back to her. What, couldn’t he find himself a nice Jewish girl? He had to be nuts.

Destructive Tongue

Jephthah – did you ever know anyone who speaks before he thinks, who continually paints himself into a corner with his mouth? Jephthah is the ultimate example of this; he put himself in a situation where he was obligated to kill his own daughter. Did you ever promise things to God, and then not keep the promise?

Doubtful, Insecure Commando Leader

Then there’s Gideon, who wound up with an army of 300 that had begun with 10,000. In the beginning of the story, he could not have made the cut to be part of those 300 himself; he would have been one of the rejects. He doubted God every five minutes – the most famous example was when he put the fleece out before the Lord. He was walking on eggs all the time, a completely insecure person who was constantly asking God for reassurance that he was in His will. How could a totally insecure person become the leader of an elite army of 300 commandos which could and would defeat an army hundreds of times its size? Would you want an insecure person as the leader of a commando unit? How could you trust someone like that?

Army Captain Who Hid Behind a Woman

Next we come to Barak. Deborah and Jael were the real champions of that story, but Hebrews names Barak rather than either of them. Even when God uses a woman, He will not circumvent male authority. Deborah wore the trousers, and Barak wore the skirt. How unfortunate it is to see a Christian marriage where the wife is the spiritual head of the family, looking after the kids spiritually. She is the one stronger in faith; it should not be like that, yet there are many, many families that are. There are many Baraks running around; when you read about him in the book of Judges, you say that guy was a wimp; it was the woman who had the chutzpah.

Prophets and KingsSamuel: Father of the Rebellious Backsliders

Then we get down to Samuel, who only became what he was because the sons of Eli were backslidden and unbelieving; then his own children turn out the same way. This was the great prophet Samuel, who anointed David and confronted Saul, who decapitated Agag; the great Samuel, whose own children wound up the same way as the children of his mentor Eli. I get so much mail about this kind of situation, from people who have backslidden children and wonder whether God can still use them in spite of that. When your children are little and living at home, then the answer is no. However, once they grow up, they are no longer your responsibility. You will always love them, pray for them, support them, but you are no longer accountable for them. Can God use you despite the fact that your children may be rebellious, backslidden, and unbelieving? Well, not if they’re little children, according to Timothy and Titus. But once they have grown up, don’t let them hold you back; it didn’t stop Samuel.

David: Shadow of the Christ

Next comes King David, who is the Old Testament shadow of Christ as the Good Shepherd as well as the King; he becomes the archetype of what a shepherd and a king should be like. In Kings and Chronicles David was always the plumbline – ‘He walked before Me like his father David’ or ‘He did not walk before Me like his father David’, because David is a type of Christ. Jesus, Peter tells us, is the example of what a shepherd should be like. How good a pastor is your pastor? Well, how much like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is he? For the Old Testament, David filled this role: how good a king was he, how good a shepherd? Well, how much like David was he? God took David and made him the standard, the type of Christ.

David: Adulterous Murderer

David’s second sin, numbering the people, was worse than his first. Yet look at his first sin – not on the worst day of your Christian life could you even begin to contrive what David actually did. He took a righteous man, Uriah – ‘My light is Yahweh’ – and set him up to be killed in order to take his wife. Uriah was loyal to God, to his country, and to David himself, yet David had him killed so that he could take his wife and conceal their adultery. Not on your worst day could you contemplate doing what David did. Even once he had done it, he failed to realize the seriousness of his sin. When the prophet Nathan came to him, his reaction was to shrug it off, as if he didn’t even know he had done anything wrong. Yet this is the man who became the shadow of Christ? Wow – if there’s hope for him, maybe there’s even hope for me.

God's Amazing Forgiveness

Scripture says ‘For by faith the men of old gained approval’ – how could these sinful, depraved people gain approval? When you look at what they did, you must wonder how Hebrews can speak of them as it does. How could God forget what these people did? How could God pretend they had never acted as they had by the time the writer of Hebrews was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write as he did? How could God treat these people as if they had never done what they did and failed as they had? God can treat them as if they never did wrong for the same reason He can treat us as if we never did wrong. The reason God can treat them and us as if none of us did wrong is because He treated His own Son as if He had done it all. That is the Gospel, and you have to be a total jerk to reject it. ‘How shall we escape if we reject so great a salvation?’

The Basis of Our Hope

Hebrews holds these people up as our role models not because they didn’t get it wrong or mess up, but precisely because they did. There’s hope for them, therefore there’s hope for us. Noah – ever meet a Christian who had a drinking problem? Abraham – ever tell a lie? Isaac – did you pass on your bad traits to your children? Sarah – did you ever doubt God? Joseph – have you ever faced rejection from the church and even from your family, been falsely accused and misunderstood, yet somehow found the grace to love them anyway? Moses, Rahab, Samson, Jephthah – look at what they did! What is God saying to us? If you have a sin problem you cannot conquer – and I can tell you that you certainly have one, though I couldn’t tell you what it is – there is hope for you. Barak – if there’s hope for that wimp, there’s hope for any pathetic excuse for a head covering to which any of you women are married out there. Samuel – did you raise your children in the truth only to have them wander away, break your heart, and make a mess of their lives? ‘Raise a child in the way he should go, and he will not forever depart from it.’ May God prevent my children from falling away, but when children do fall away they normally come back. The question is how much of an unnecessary mess do they make of their lives and how much of an unnecessary grief do they cause to their parents and themselves before they do come back. And then there is David: this guy blew it big. There are also Christians who have blown it big. Yet if there is hope for these guys listed in Hebrews 11, there is hope, too, for us.

We Hope in What We Don't Know

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the assurance. People use “hope” as a synonym for “wish”; but faith is the assurance of what we hope for. I don’t wish; I know. There is hope for the hopeless.

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Staying the course amidst isolation

By David Passmore • May 30, 2026

Staying The Course Amidst Isolation Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Living in Israel one gets the feeling that the metaphorical walls are closing in. Israel's reputation is being tarnished all over social media and the mainstream media, and this is reflected in massive public disdain towards this country. We are constantly told that there is near consensus amongst academics and commentators that a genocide was committed in Gaza. The very legitimacy of the state is brought into question. The majority of Americans are now hostile towards Israel. There is real fear that the next U.S. administration will turn against Israel. Even if this were to happen passively, by the U.S. refraining from exercising its veto power towards Security Council Resolutions condemning Israeli actions this could be catastrophic. Internally it is a fractured society leaning increasingly right wing which further alienates Israel from world opinion. An example in point is how Ben Gvir mocked the most recent participants of a global aid flotilla to Gaza. Such conduct further agitates outrage at Israel. The left-wing media presents the ruins of Gaza as a mortal wound in Israel's side. When the world observes this level of carnage no degree of public relations can ameliorate the sense of indignation towards Israel. We can liken the situation of Israel to that of a depressed person. All he sees is hopelessness and gloom. But this isn't the first time that the Jewish nation has been faced with such darkness. Things change and we don't know how the geo-political map will reconfigure in the future. We need to ride out this storm and keep going. On a historical note, the situation is reminiscent of what our ancestors faced when we returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was faced with constant lies and conspiracies designed to entrap him by hostile actors: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab. They employed deception, slander and ridicule in order to maintain their political eminence. There was also a certain sense of abandonment amongst the Jews in Israel then as in our own day. We read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah about the anguish of the leadership in Israel concerning the lack of assistance from the Babylonian diaspora towards the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. Only 20% of the exiles returned to the land. It was largely the poor who returned. Most of the affluent, established Jews remained in Exile. This is a continuing theme in Jewish history. It is also important to observe that from its very beginnings there were bible believing Christians who spearheaded the return of the Jews to their land. The idea of organizing a return of the Jews to Israel began as a Protestant Restorationist objective that can be traced to 17th century Puritan England. The protagonists of the Cromwellian Republic viewed themselves as the new Israel fighting the Papist forces of Satan. Alongside this, interest grew in the notion that biblical prophecies pertaining to the return of the Jews to Israel were a necessary precursor for the return of Christ. The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century lent political clout to Christian Restorationism with specific missions to the Jews established. Although there had been a longing to return to Israel as written in the thrice daily Amidah prayer, Jewish Zionism arose in the midst of mid nineteenth century nationalism and was further fermented by European antisemitism. It was an altogether secular enterprise. Although Israel's situation appears rather stark, we can draw strength from the Providence afforded to our ancestors in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when they too were faced with defamation. This is also an opportunity to grow closer to our natural allies in the evangelical world who from the beginning of Zionism were steadfast supporters of the project to establish a Jewish homeland in Israel. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Signs of the Times - Tony Pearce

By David Passmore • May 25, 2026

Signs of the Times Tony Pearce ‍ ‍ Left, right or center – is our democracy in danger “Things fall apart, the center does not hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” W.B Yeats ‘The Second Coming. ’ ‍ ‍ Labour’s losses in the council elections and the battle for succession to their unpopular leader Kier Starmer have raised the possibility that we may soon have our seventh Prime Minister in ten years. Local elections saw Reform and the Greens make sweeping gains, leading Green Party leader, Zack Polanski to say that we are seeing ‘the end of the old two party system’. Maybe we are. In which case what comes next? Will we head to the far left, the far right or will the center hold on to power? Or will it end with ungovernable chaos as unqualified people take control of local and national government? Behind all this there are fundamental questions, ‘What is government for? Who does it represent and where is it going?’ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ According to the Bible (Romans 13) the purpose of government is to promote good and restrain evil. The government has the right to raise taxes for the common good of society and people should pay them. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul encourages us to pray for the government that ‘we may live a godly and peaceable life’. In other words, pray that the government will create an orderly and peaceful society and not interfere with our right to set up communities that teach and preach the Word of God. The situation becomes more difficult when we see government promoting things which are harmful and restraining things which are good and clamping down on freedom of speech with a threat to our ability to live a ‘godly and peaceable life’ ‍ Since becoming a Christian in my early twenties, I have wrestled with the question of how our faith applies to contemporary political issues. I started this quest on the left politically after leaving university and working as an English teacher with sympathies for Marxism. I then became a born again Christian in 1970, and joined my late wife Nikki in evangelizing the radical left, by handing out leaflets at their marches and demonstrations in London and attending their meetings to discuss matters of faith and politics with them. ‍ ‍‍ ‍ We had some good discussions with people and hope we made some consider the Christian alternative. However as we looked at Marxism from a Christian point of view and its practice in Communist countries, we understood that behind this ideology there is a strong anti-christian spirit. It denies the existence of God and promotes the idea of human perfectibility by our own effort. This is exemplified in the words of the Internationale, the socialist battle hymn, ‘No saviour from on high delivers, no faith have we in prince or peer, our own right hand the chains will shiver, chains of hatred, greed and fear.’ This Antichrist spirit led to the persecution of Christians in the Communist countries of eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China. Far from creating the socialist paradise on earth that Lenin wrote about in ‘Socialism and Religion’, it created a society ruled by hatred, greed and fear, controlled by secret police, prison camps and responsible for the death of millions. ‍ ‍ In western society we have witnessed the growth of ‘cultural Marxism’ a movement aimed at infiltrating and changing society from within, rather than fomenting the workers’ revolution. Labour’s Fabian Society, with its (now discarded) logo of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, has been engaged in this process since the beginning of the 20th century. Social change really took off with the permissive society in the 1960s, which succeeded in changing traditional values, especially in the area of sex and the family. It replaced biblical values with a new ‘morality’ that is fundamentally anti Christian. These ideas have permeated large swathes of our society including the education system, the judiciary, the Civil Service, much of the media, mainstream political parties (including even the Conservative ‘wets’ and parts of the established church). ‍ ‍ Melanie Phillips describes the results of this in her book, ‘The Builder’s Stone.’ ‘Having decided that the West was rotten to the core, western elites set out to create a new culture that would usher in the brotherhood of man and eradicate hatred, prejudice, and war. Their Brave New World junked biblical religion with all its constraints on behaviour and revolved instead around self gratification. Everybody had the right to live as they wanted; nobody could say that their way of life was better or worse than anyone else’s; no one had the right to say that their culture was better than any other culture. That was ‘racism.’ At the heart of all this was the doctrine that there was no such thing as objective truth. Everything was relative; everything was a matter of opinion. Because there was no truth feelings became more important than facts. So the West abandoned the codes of morality, conscience, truth and lies, personal responsibility, and duty to others in favour of a culture of the self. In the process it junked its inherited traditions and biblical codes on which western culture was based.’ ‍ Britain changed from being a society that respected values based on the 10 Commandments and the teaching of Jesus Christ to one that discarded them for relative values. Ideas of ‘diversity, inclusion and equity’ became the norm, together with and a form of ‘tolerance’, that is really very intolerant if you oppose it. This ‘tolerance’ means accepting the virtues of multiculturalism and humanism and believing that all gods are equally valid or true (or none are). We must also accept that all lifestyles and family arrangements including homosexual and transsexual ones are just as valid as traditional two parent heterosexual families, with a father and mother committed to each other in lifelong matrimony looking after their own children. ‍ As society accepts this radical change in how we view culture, morality and religion, we are told not to criticize other cultures and world views or imply that they are anything less than equal to the culture, morality and faith derived from the Bible. ‍ All this has not improved society. Instead we have a collapse of values with no central idea to hold it together, just a group of competing ‘communities’ which are often only united in opposition to the traditional values and culture of Great Britain. A good example of this is the ‘red – green alliance’ of radical leftists and Islamists who come together to denounce Israel and campaign to ‘globalise the Intifada’. In practice this means a world wide war against Israel and Judaeo-Christian society and a desire to replace it with their version of either Islamism or Communism. However if one of them were to come to power, you can be sure that the Islamist’s would get rid of the leftists or vice versa. In fact that happened in Iran’s 1979 revolution, when Islamist supporters of Khomeini and Communists came together to get rid of the Shah. Then the Islamists seized power, turned on the Communists and wiped them out. ‍ Alisteir Heath wrote in the Daily Telegraph: ‘Ruined by decades of political vandalism, the Britain we knew and loved, a land of stability, pragmatism, and ancient freedoms, is no more. Today’s UK is uglier, impoverished, volatile and disorderly. We’ve lost our level-headedness. Anger and frustration have become our defining emotions. Our institutions have wasted away, and we have been taught to despise our history. The decline of family, community and faith have led to alienation, dependence on welfare and the rise of novel ideologies, mostly secular but also sectarian, turbocharged by social media. While the state becomes unnervingly authoritarian, the air reeks of insurrection and every variety of extremism. The British public’s sense of betrayal is as well-founded as it is dangerous. The machinery of state is incompetent and self-serving, a vehicle for social engineering in the global interest.’ ‍ ‍ ‍ Criticism of this process now risks being classed as ‘hate crime’ with a growing authoritarian society monitoring social media posts and public teaching of alternative ideas in ways which risk shutting down free speech in our society. A Christian teacher Enoch Burke is currently in prison in Dublin after he was suspended from his job and jailed after refusing to accept and teach transgenderism in the school. ‍ ‍ ‍ Nick Timothy, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, got into trouble when he questioned mass Muslim prayer in Trafalgar Square. He wrote: ‘Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan – which declares there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger – is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. The domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.” He is right in this. Allah hu Akhbar actually means Allah is greater, greater than your God, Muhammad is greater than Jesus and the Koran is greater than the Bible. ‍ ‍ ‍ Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern for our Nation wrote: “The fact that we have mass Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square at all is indicative of the massive culture change that we have seen in the last few decades. A culture change that was not voted for or ever agreed to by the British people. And, a culture change that can hardly be described as having been entirely beneficial to our culture as a whole. I only need to mention grooming gangs involving mostly Pakistani Muslim men , sharia courts, honour crimes, terror attacks, the assassination of an MP, an attempt to blockade Parliament, mass antisemitic marches through London, a convicted terrorist standing for local elections, sectarianism, and many other examples to make the point. Earlier this month, the Government gave Muslims special protection with the adoption of an official definition of anti-Muslim hostility .” ‍ ‍ ‍ You are not really supposed to question this in public life today. A message circulating on social media is an apt commentary on all this. ‘First they overlook evil, then they permit evil, then they legalise evil, then they promote evil, then celebrate evil, then persecute those who call it evil.’ Soviet dissident Solzhenitsyn wrote: ‘A Communist system can be recognised by how it spares criminals and criminalises its opponents.’ ‍ ‍ ‍ The root cause of all this is the rejection of God and biblical values. The 18th-century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre coined the phrase "people get the government they deserve." David Pawson followed up on this idea, arguing that in democratic societies like ours, the moral and spiritual condition of a nation's citizens is directly reflected in the leaders they elect. If the general public abandons moral truths, they will inevitably vote for governments that reflect those same compromises. David Pawson taught that God may use governmental leadership to judge or bless a nation, depending on the people's obedience. He noted that Hebrew prophets saw wicked rulers as a form of divine judgement on a society that has strayed from God's laws. Therefore a nation's ultimate hope rests on repentance rather than just political change. His conclusion is that Christians should actively stand for moral truth in society. He believed that the church is meant to influence culture upward, and that a decline in national morality inevitably leads to deteriorating governance. ‍ ‍ ‍ Sadly much of the church today has become the ‘salt that has lost its savour’ through compromise with antichristian forces in society and government. It may be too late to save our country and western democracy as social and economic pressures create a collapse of democracy and push us either towards anarchy or dictatorship. ‍ ‍ ‍ Yeats’ poem quoted at the beginning of this article ends with the enigmatic line ‘Some rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.’ Most likely he is referring to the coming anti-Messiah who is labelled the Beast in the book of Revelation. Many believe his is now waiting in the wings to replace the true Messiah (born in Bethlehem) and bring in the dictatorship prophesied in Revelation 13. The Bible indicates that the Beast or Antichrist will have power for a moment, but it will be short lived and doomed to destruction at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11.15) and the ‘government shall be on His shoulder’ (Isaiah 9.6). ‍ ‍ ‍ Maranatha come Lord Jesus. ‍ ‍ ‍ Water, water nowhere and not a drop to drink. (Apologies to the Ancient Mariner) ‍ ‍‍ ‍ While nations worry about supply of oil and gas as a result of the war in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a much more vital commodity for human survival is water. And it is in short supply in a growing number of nations. ‍ ‍ As of 2026, over 25 countries face extremely high water stress, with the most severe crises located in the Middle East and North Africa. This region is home to the world's most water-stressed nations, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya. India and Pakistan face critical water scarcity due to overexploitation of aquifers and population density. Much of Africa , Somalia and Ethiopia in particular are facing severe shortages due to drought and climate change. Mexico and parts of the United States (particularly Texas and the west coast) are experiencing significant water shortages and declining groundwater levels. ‍ ‍ ‍ Iran is facing a severe, multi-year water crisis as of May 2026, with major cities like Tehran, Mashhad, and Karaj approaching the point where taps could run dry due to depleted reservoirs. Groundwater is depleted across most of the country, and nineteen provinces are experiencing severe drought. The crisis is driven by a combination of climate change and decades of poor water management, including excessive dam construction and inefficient, water-intensive agriculture. China is facing a severe, multi-faceted water crisis defined by extreme scarcity in the north, widespread pollution, and mismanagement, threatening its food supply and economic growth. ‍ ‍ ‍ Several countries are significantly affected by upstream dam construction that reduces downstream water flow, causing, environmental, and diplomatic crises. These countries include Iraq, heavily impacted by dams built on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Turkey and Iran, leading to reduced water for agriculture, destruction of forests, and increased sandstorms. Egypt and Sudanface significant water security risks due to the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laosare affected of dams built by China on the upper Mekong River ‍ ‍ One country which bucks this trend is Israel. Israel manages its water resources by transforming a chronic shortage into a surplus through large-scale desalination, extensive wastewater recycling, and a centralised national water carrier system. The agriculture sector has shifted away from freshwater, using treated effluent instead. Advanced drip irrigation technologies are widely used to minimise waste. Israel has exported its water technologies to countries around the world, particularly Africa where it has given advice on how to use limited water resources to great effect. ‍ ‍ ‍ Without water no society on earth can survive. Bible prophecies indicate that water shortage and pollution will be a global problem in the last days. Most obviously no water equals no food, so famine is an inevitable result of water shortages. Jesus warned of this as a sign of the last days in Matthew 24.7. Revelation 8.10-11 speaks of something called ‘Wormwood’ falling on rivers and springs of water causing it to become bitter and many to die from drinking it. ‍ ‍ Prophecy speaks of the two great rivers of the ancient world, the Nile and the Euphrates, being affected by a crisis causing the Euphrates to dry up (Revelation 16.12) and the Nile to become contaminated and its waters turn foul (Isaiah 19.5-11). Isaiah 24 speaks of a curse devouring the earth in the last days causing the earth to be ‘defiled (or polluted) under its inhabitants.’ ‍ ‍ ‍ According to the New Scientist, there are massive amounts of water hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists have found evidence of a reservoir of water three times the volume of all surface oceans combined, located roughly 250–400 miles underground within the mantle. ‍ ‍ ‍ It may be that the Lord will release this water to replenish and clean up the earth in the Millennial kingdom when ‘waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.’ Isaiah 35. Zechariah 14.8-9 says, ‘In that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.’ Zechariah 14.8-9. See also Ezekiel 47. ‍ Rethinking Russia ‍ Things are not going well for Vladimir Putin in his ‘special military operation’. Four years after invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia is not making advances and actually losing ground. Russia is losing as many as 25,000- 35,000 casualties a month and over 1.2 million have been killed and wounded since the war began. Ukrainian skills in drone warfare have destroyed large quantities of Russian equipment, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and rocket systems, helicopters, and naval vessels. ‍ ‍ Russia is spending an estimated 40% of the entire federal budget on the war effort. As a result of this and western sanctions, Russia is increasingly unable to fix chronic infrastructure problems at home. During the bitter Russian winter thousands of people were left without heat, light, or even water. All forms of transport, trains, trucks and planes, are facing logistical problems, making it difficult to transport goods and people across the vast Russian regions. Russia is on the way to an infrastructure collapse that will likely take decades to recover. ‍ ‍ Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov warned the State Duma that Russia's faltering economy risks stoking a 1917-style revolution. He demanded urgent financial and economic measures by autumn to avert a potential economic collapse. This raises the danger of the Russian Federation fracturing. The Caucuses are restive, the far east is looking to China and Siberia is facing an acute problem as a result of melting permafrost, causing buildings, bridges and pipelines to collapse. ‍ ‍ In the present circumstances it is hard to see how Russia could lead the Gog and Magog invasion of Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). Some have said that it is more likely that Turkey is the lead power in the War of Gog and Magog. They say that Meshech and Tubal are not Moscow and Tobolsk, but regions of modern Turkey. Erdogan’s Turkey is backed by an Islamist world view hostile to Israel, seeking the recovery of its Ottoman Empire. He has his eyes on taking control of Jerusalem. Turkey is possession of a large land army already stationed in the region, some of it occupying part of Syria. ‍ ‍ The alternative is that the War of Gog and Magog is some way off, possibly part of Armageddon, giving time for Russia to recover from its present distress. We wait and see, but meanwhile spare a thought and a prayer for the people of Ukraine and Russia, suffering as a result of Putin’s futile war, oppressed by his corrupt dictatorship and facing an economic and social collapse caused by his failed policies. ‍ ‍

Trumps visit with Xi

By David Passmore • May 25, 2026

Trump's Visit with Xi Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM The tempest path of Sino-U.S. tensions came to a head during Trump's first term in office with the outbreak of Covid. Many commentators believed that the deterioration in relations was in terminal decline and that a major confrontation in the straits of Taiwan was fast looming. Trump held China responsible for the spread of Covid, insisting that he would pursue reparations. The election of Biden halted this commitment. Biden sought a non-confrontational policy towards Beijing. In the aftermath of the disastrous premature withdrawal from Afghanistan handing that country over to the Taliban and the Russian invasion of Ukraine under his watch, Biden became too preoccupied to assertively engage with China. Chinese State media portrayed Trump's visit as being rather unremarkable in the context of other foreign dignitaries lining up to meet Xi, pointing out that just a week later Putin would arrive in Beijing. China manifests that it is winning the trade war that Trump began in 2018, beating America at its own game of capitalism. They frame the U.S. as being in a position of weakness because China is able to source whatever products they buy from the U.S. elsewhere like oil from Canada, and soybeans from Brazil. The oil, soybeans and 200 Boeing's Xi agreed to purchase from Trump were presented as a mere gesture to placate Trump as China has already bought 350 Air Buses in the last year. China would have the world believe that it is only semi-conductors where America has the edge. Here China hints that it is not likely to buy H200 Invidia Chips because it would mean that China will always lag behind the U.S. in building their AI tech. China's major contention and concern is that the U.S. may impose export controls to contain China. China's strategy instead is to invest massively on indigenous innovation. China wants to become an innovation powerhouse that will export its own Chips to the Global South. China is fast catching up with America's lead in AI with the launch of Deep Seek and they claim similar progress with Chip making. China is now ostensibly only eight months behind the U.S. on Large Language Models. Running contrary to this narrative Trump insists that China is desperate to trade with America. China's economy has now peaked. Emblematic of this stagnating growth is rising youth unemployment. China is no longer America's biggest trading partner. Trump has shifted manufacturing back to the U.S. and Trump believes that China can't revive its economy without America. Lined up to meet Xi with Trump were the heads of some of America's biggest Tech Corporations. Corporations like nvidia seek a relaxing of export controls for Chips as they want short term profits, ignoring the risk that China will reverse engineer this technology. More broadly, China and the U.S. are playing a geopolitical chess game spanning the globe. Trump outmaneuvered China in Latin America with the removal of Maduro from power in Venezuela. China is exploiting its influence on Iran in order to get Trump to refrain from taking more active steps towards the defense of Taiwan. Indeed, Trump didn't say anything about Taiwan during his visit. Trump's instincts are of a transactional approach towards alliances, where he is only willing to underwrite defense assistance if allies pay up as an insurer would. It is also important to note that saber rattling the Taiwan card also serves the CCP agenda to distract internal dissent concerning the state of the Chinese economy. Most imminently Trump needs China to pressure Iran to open the Straits of Hormuz and get oil prices down before the midterm elections. China has largely insulated itself from the Gulf energy impact due to stockpiles. Trump would also like China to stop providing Iran with GPS for its missiles. Other Chinese weapons systems and technology sold to Iran have failed to perform well against U.S. and Israeli military hardware. Matters boil down to a leverage between whatever Trump can do on Taiwan, China can do on the strait of Hormouz with Iran. Human Rights concerns, espionage and the alarming rate of Chinese acquisition of U.S. land have been placed on the back burner for the time being. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Prayer request for Phil Malone

By David Passmore • May 17, 2026

Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Phil Malone and family “Please keep me and my family in prayer. My mum passed away on 13th May at the age of 93. It's a time of mourning, but may it be a time for the Gospel of Christ to be preached to my unbelieving family, especially my brother.”

Please Pray for Joanne Rizzetto, Pastor Dave Rizzetto's wife

By Mea Fredrickson • May 13, 2026

Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Sister Joanne Rizzetto, wife of Pastor Dave Rizzetto of Church of The Open Door in New York City. Joanne has developed painful complications and adverse side effects from medications following knee surgery. May The Lord intervene for healing and give guidance to her physicians. Lord, we humbly ask you to intervene in the life of our dear sister. We know you can do all things and that you hear our prayers and consider your servants. Please put a stop to the adverse reaction. Restrain and reverse its effects and restore our sister so that she can continue to serve you in the ministry that you have called them to. We do glorify Your Name. We don't ask as those who treat you as our debtor, but as those who have tasted your goodness and found such mercy and compassion at your feet. Grace and peace and mercy be with Joanne and Pastor Dave.

Will Lebanon miss its golden opportunity?

By David Passmore • May 5, 2026

Will Lebanon miss its golden opportunity? Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Converging new facts on the ground have transformed the political landscape in Lebanon. With Assad removed from power in Syria, a vital lifeline of arms supplies for Hezbollah originating in Iran has diminished. Hezbollah suffered considerable losses in its last round of fighting with Israel. The decapitation of its leadership with the targeted pager attack inflicted a severe blow. Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem is a weak substitute for the charismatic Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel in 2024. Hezbollah in its frail state foolishly fell into line with Iran's instruction to join the fighting against Israel following the recent American-Israeli war with Iran. This was contrary to the wishes of the Lebanese government which was fearful of the inevitable destruction that would be wreaked by the Israeli response. The differing attitudes to Israel amongst Lebanon's population is reflective of its ethnic composition. The predominant groups in order of plurality are Christians, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims with a smaller minority of Druze. The major concern of most Christians in Lebanon is the dire state of their economy. They have no appetite to further their plight by invoking Israel's rage. During the colonial inter war period the French envisaged the demarcation between Lebanon and Syria as carving out enclaves for Christian and Druze control. Within Lebanon there would be a shared government that by convention would have the Executive power split between a Christian President, a Sunni Prime Minister and Shia Speaker of Parliament. The Christians in southern Lebanon (particularly Maronite Catholics) saw themselves as being anthropologically descendants of ancient Phoenicians as opposed to an Arab identity where the Arab Christians were largely Eastern Orthodox. The schism between the Maronites and the Arab Eastern Orthodox dates back to the time of the Crusades. The Maronites were culturally French, speaking French as their main language and held precedence in much of the Lebanese economy. The first threat to Lebanese stability and cohesion was settled by the U.S. Eisenhower administration in 1958 which landed Marines in an amphibious operation. A repeated attempt at this by the Reagan administration in 1983 ended in a military disaster for the U.S. due to suicide bombings by Iranian controlled terrorists. Israeli efforts to bring in stability during the Lebanese Civil War in conjunction with its Lebanese Christian allies led by Major Saad Haddad likewise came to calamity when the Sabra and Shatila revenge attacks took place following the assassination of Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayel. The ''Good Fence'' policy of an Israeli friendly free Lebanon zone in Southern Lebanon eventually ended badly following Menachem Begin's second incursion into Lebanon called ''Shalom HaGalil'' aimed at stopping the PLO rocket attacks on Israeli border communities like Metulla, Kiryat Shmona, Naharya, Rosh Hanikra, Tzfat and Carmiel. The proxy Israeli occupation from the Israeli border to the Litani river became an imbroglio that many in Israel viewed as Israel's Vietnam with widespread domestic protest and a collapse of morale within the IDF. Eventually Israel absorbed Christian war refugees from Lebanon, while the Vatican and most of the Christian world turned their backs on the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was then saddled with two states within a state. The first was in the aftermath of Black September in 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan defended his Hashemite throne and government from Yasser Arafat's attempt to take over Jordan due to Jordan having a 70% Palestinian Arab demographic majority. The Jordanian legion drove tens of thousands of its pro Arafat Jordanian citizens into Lebanon, creating a population base for the first state within a state under Arafat. However the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other factions had their niche interests. Courtesy of the Israeli Air Force Arafat relocated what he saw as his government in exile to Tunisia. This was a missed opportunity by the Lebanese government to assert its autonomy and full territorial control by making a Camp David type peace with Israel inclusive of economic and mutual security provisions. Instead an Iranian backed Syrian intervention replaced Arafat's state within a state with a new one that morphed into Hezbollah. The fall of the Assad regime and the Israeli counter-offensive against Hezbollah re-presents Lebanon with the opportunity that it once lost. The predominantly Christian controlled Lebanese military could and should operationally coordinate with the IDF, to obliterate and remove Hezbollah as the Israelis relieved Lebanon of Arafat's state within a state. Such a rapprochement would likely have strong American and possibly French and British support, allowing Lebanon to be at a non-combative peace with Israel along the lines of Egypt and Jordan, and now some of the Emirates. The natural comradery of the Lebanese Druze community with the Israeli Druze and the pro-Israeli Druze of Syria would additionally re-enforce a regional harmony, as would the Maronite Christian community in Israel with their co-coreligionists in Lebanon. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Pastor John Angliss

By David Passmore • May 5, 2026

PASTOR JOHN ANGLISS It is with profound sadness that we learned of the temporary separation from our friend and brother Pastor John Angliss. We look forward to being reunited with John in the millennial reign of Christ and indeed in God's Eternal Kingdom. Jacob Prasch visited John a few weeks ago in the UK while John was in hospice care having been diagnosed preterminal in his illness. While medically correct, it was of course a misdiagnosis. John is now cancer free and is alive and well in the presence of Jesus awaiting us in glory while his mortal body is being renewed for resurrection and immortality. In the meanwhile, during this temporary season of bereavement we do request prayer for his beloved wife Mary and for his congregation, The Ark Fellowship in England near Reading, England. Because he has recently arrived in the USA and is scheduled to address the Moriel Canada branch conference in Winnipeg, Jacob Prasch will regrettably not be able to attend the memorial service in Britain. Our condolences however are very much with Mary and our brethren in the UK who like us knew and loved Pastor Angliss. John was one of a minority of faithful voices who upheld a traditional biblically based Pentecostalism in the era of counterfeit revivals and apostasy that overtook most of British Pentecostalism. John was a faithful friend of Israel & The Jews standing on the prophetic purposes of God for Israel and the salvation of the Jews. John was a loyal friend to Moriel and Jacob Prasch and a colleague of David Pawson and Derek Prince, both of whom likewise stood by God's promises to Israel. John was also a founding leader of CMFI - the Christian Ministerial Fellowship International, former pastor of Three Mile Cross fellowship , and former board member of Focus On Israel (a Pentecostal Ministry to the Jews). While this separation is temporary, John's eternal gain will be our temporary loss. O GRAVE - WHERE IS THEY VICTORY, O DEATH WHERE IS THY STING ? Hosea 13:14 / 1 Corinthians 15: 55-57

We made it this far: Israel at 78

By David Passmore • April 28, 2026

We made it this far: Israel at 78 Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Since the last anniversary milestone of Israel at 75, we have been embroiled in relentless wars. Citizens had little respite to enjoy this year's festivities, coming on the heels of a lull in fighting on the Iranian and Lebanese fronts. We are constantly waiting for a breakthrough on the horizon that will normalize our relations with our neighbors and secure our position on the world stage. It is acutely exhausting to be the focus of the world's attention. But also there is a sense of inevitability accompanying the Zionist project. Specifically that Israel is destined to be central in the wider region and global affairs. Why is this? Is it due to it being a western transplant? Being geographically positioned on the crossroads of three continents? Religious believers would point to prophetic fulfillment. It is short sighted to only look at how our problems are rooted in today’s' reality. Greater forces are at work that will dictate the direction that Israel is heading. The Jewish diaspora will likely find itself in a growing precarious position that will lead to increasing Aliyah (immigration to Israel) and will perhaps ferment the emergence of a second Jewish commonwealth that will not need to heed international pressure in the same way that todays' polity finds itself doing. In this light it is interesting to ponder how our posterity would view our predicament and gains. And I frame matters in these terms with intentionality. We are enmeshed in a seemingly intractable conflict with the Palestinians, and yet Israel has made great gains particularly in the technological fields. There is a current of thinking that perceives Israel's way out of its quagmire is by making itself indispensable to technological advancements. We don't know how tomorrows' world will be shaped by the rapidly advancing AI revolution but so far Israel has proven to be uniquely adaptable and innovative to technological change. This has proved to be a boon to Israel's economy, as have offshore natural gas discoveries being developed in concert with Greece, Greek Cypriot and American energy interests that are geographically and strategically removed from any Straits of Hormuz shipping impediments that strangle the Persian Gulf deposits shared by Qatar and Iran. On another note we should contextualize the situation. How different are Israel's challenges from other nations? Is Israel any less stable than other countries (particularly in the region)? Israel doesn't find itself uniquely challenged to define its identity (most European countries do also, particularly in light of immigration). Nor does the government experience any more volatility than other comparable democracies. Israel's real problems lay in the nature of how its Jewish citizens desire to govern themselves. It is arguable whether the judicial reform protests that occupied public discourse in pre-October 7th Israel would have led to serious civil strife. But it is without doubt that this impasse was allayed by the external attack. The underlying tensions remain unresolved and there are many ways that they could play out. It has been framed as a battle for Israel's soul. Israel's enemies predict that Zionism is imploding and that the State won't survive another 5-10 years. Supporting this claim, they point to Israel's increasing alienation and growing pariah status on the international stage. Our Prime Minister has been indicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Even public opinion in our staunchest ally the U.S. has turned sharply against Israel. With 80% of the Democratic Party being anti-Israel in a growing climate of anti-semitism we have even witnessed the shift of Alan Dershowitz to the Republican Party which must be seen as emblematic of a trend. There is apprehension in Israel of a post-Trump America dominated by the Democrats. However, these seeming incontrovertible facts may be offset by other measures of fortitude. This may be partially countered by the high investment by Silicon Valley in the Israeli Hi-tech sector, making Israel an asset for purposes of Research and Development in America's AI race against China. New opportunities for economic relations have also been opened with Arab nations through the Abraham Accords and with the powerhouse India. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine a world in which Israel's technological prowess will not carry the sway of western decision makers in the long run. Israel's 78th anniversary is a moment to take pause and not catastrophize what the future may behold. The entire world is currently in a state of transformation and Israel is not an outlier in this context. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Council attempts to shut down and censor local church’s evangelism efforts.

By David Passmore • April 23, 2026

Please click this link:https://mailchi.mp/christianconcern.com/action-alert-street-preaching-22-04-26?e=f1df30be3f

A critical juncture in NATO's future

By David Passmore • April 14, 2026

A critical juncture in NATO'S future Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM NATO was originally established in 1949 to keep the Russian hordes at bay from toppling those European countries not forked over to the Soviet sphere of influence at the Potsdam conference. Europe lay in ruins. Britain had passed on the torch of global hegemony to the U.S. by tacitly acquiescing to the decolonization of its Empire when Churchill and Roosevelt agreed terms of the Atlantic Charter for the post-war new world order in 1941. So from its start NATO was very much an American driven endeavor. American money with the Marshall plan was propping up western European economies and its military might was forming the bulk of their defensive capabilities. The lopsided nature of this dynamic has informed how tensions have persisted and recently erupted in the Alliance. During the Cold War the U.S. felt obligated to shoulder the costs of underwriting Europe's security in light of the broader interests to keep the Soviet's in check. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain European complacency became a sticking point with the 'peace dividend' further exploiting American largesse. European NATO allies spent ever smaller percentages of their GDP on defense expenditure at U.S. expense. Now in a multi-polar world U.S. and European perceived threats are less aligned. This was first tested in the aftermath of September 11th when for the first time NATO elected to trigger its article 5 collective defense protocol. And since then the U.S. has sought to continue to expand the traditional theatre of operations beyond Europe's borders. No longer is Russia perceived by America as being a proximate existential threat to its interests, but rather containing Chinese expansion in the Pacific arena. Parallel to NATO a discrete 'five eyes' intelligence sharing alliance comprising the Anglo-sphere (the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand) emerged. This stands at the center of the U.S. – U.K. 'special relationship'. A relevant question would be can this signals intelligence (NSA-GCHQ) partnership persist should the U.S. withdraw from NATO? Conventional thinking would have led one to believe that with Brexit the U.K. would naturally pivot towards closer U.S. relations but under Starmer the U.K. is distancing itself. European powers misrepresent the present conflict as an aggressive, rather than defensive U.S. adventure while they themselves are more likely to be at risk. In this the Starmer government resembles the Labor party led committee for nuclear disarmament in the 1980's. It opposed the Thatcher supported deployment of U.S. cruise missiles in response to the Soviet SS20's pointed at Britain's cities. The British left branded their response to Soviet strategic escalation to U.S. aggression. This time however there is for the moment no Thatcher to bring common sense into an equation dominated by emotionally driven ideologies in the face of an aggressor with definite aims. In terms of the Russian-Ukraine conflict we are reverting to the old question dating back to the Napoleonic war era: to what extent is London happy with the European nations fighting it out alone for dominance of the continent. Britain was never willing to accept a single power in control. Many variables will dictate what kind of world emerges from the current conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. How will power be extracted from potential gains? What will be the strategic impact of this? What is sure, in the age of Trump this pattern of reliance on U.S. muscle is becoming quickly exhausted. Dating back to the Roman Empire, a factor in the decline of major powers has always been astronomical military spending, a budgetary demand that the U.S. under Trump is no longer willing to shoulder alone. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).