REV Nick Bromfield, on the front page a recent Review, finds it necessary to warn his own congregations that Satan's sinners are persecuting Christians in various parts of the country, and fears that that kind of behaviour might happen here. He gives examples of disgusting secularism: Police receiving complaints about a minister in Manchester who had been handing out notifications of Holy Week services because they had been described as offensive literature; local authorities being taken in by mouthy secularists demanding that Christians be shut up and pushed out of public life; queries whether it is acceptable to send Christmas cards to colleagues at work; that Christians should stand up for Nurse Shirley Chaplin who had been removed from the wards for refusing to remove the Cross she had worn for 38 years.
When Christ said that in His Father's house there were many mansions, that He would be preparing one for you, and that if this were not so He would not have said that it was, Satan's sinners (atheists, agnostics, secularists) might well end up in the basement. What miserable people secularists must be. They have nothing positive to say, nothing to believe in, and nothing to look forward to. Yet when their turn comes, imagine their state of shock and astonishment when they appear before St Peter and find all their opinions being slammed into reverse. Satan's sinners are very much like Saul. I suggest they become more like St Paul now before it is too late.
When I was a schoolboy in the summer of 1949, while waiting in the hallway of our home for my sister, God suddenly took hold of me, removed my free will, and made me not only open the kitchen door but also look behind it. He then let me go, for I saw at once what had to be done. Mother had a gas stove burning while sheets had been hung to dry on a pulley system across the ceiling which at one part was immediately above the stove. A thread hanging down from one of the sheets made contact with the stove the moment God made me open the door, and a flame from the stove was climbing up the thread towards the sheets. I tore the thread at a point above the flame and carried it to the sink where cold water extinguished the flame.
That it was not I, but God, who made me open the kitchen door is shown by the fact that there was no earthly reason why I should have opened it. I had no reason to enter the kitchen. He knew none of the human senses, nor any sixth sense, could have told me what was about to happen in the kitchen. Had I opened the door of my own free will I would naturally have looked straight ahead, but God made sure I craned my neck round to look behind it, for that was where the stove was located. The fact that the flame had not reached the sheets shows how perfect God's timing had been.
Questions immediately arise. Did God have a special reason why the house should not burn down? If so, why did He not blow the flame out Himself? Why did He allow the thread to come into contact with the flame? If secularists attempt to provide earthly explanations, don't bother, there are none. It took many years to realise the answer. He wanted me to tell people about it. So I am. Perhaps 'Go Forth and Tell' is the appropriate hymn for incidents like this. It would be interesting to hear if other people have had similar experiences.
Meanwhile, Christians must remember that hymn 'Stand Up, Stand Up, for Jesus' and fight back against Satan's sinners. Remember there are times when you have to be cruel to be kind. Fight back against persecution because that is the right thing to do. God will not always give reasons for what happens, but for those who have faith, fight hard and do what is right. He will no doubt tell you: 'Onward Christian Soldiers.'
Anthony Reeve, Littledean.