Sound the alarm; Uncle Sam needs you to do more than just pray.
ALL HANDS ON DECK, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.
I have, as you may realize, traveled to and from England through the years, and have developed a great appreciation for the Biblical influence this has had on my life. I used to spend hours in a bookshop called the BARICON in York, England before they shut it down. From what I understand one of the major reasons for it existing in the first place, was to raise money for ministries in Israel. I could tell you every nook and cranny of the shop, there on the side street from the busy hustle and bustle of the city.
I won't bore you with the stories I know about York, but it is rich with record. An old Roman wall is still a part of it's powerful history, the York Minster is there, and a tower still stands as a cruel memory of a thousand Jews being burned to death - simply because. Let history speak for itself…
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, a number of Jews came to England from Rouen in France. The early Norman kings needed to borrow money to build castles and secure their kingdom, but money lending was forbidden to Christians. It was, however, permitted to Jews. These French-speaking Jews were protected by the Crown, and in time, established communities in most of the principal cities of England. In the later 12th century, members of the Jewish community in Lincoln settled in York.
There was growing hostility towards the Jewish population in England. This was in part due to public disagreements in theology between Jewish scholars and Christian churchmen. In the middle 12th century, several vicious stories were spread accusing Jews of murdering Christian children. History records these slanders, now known as the ‘Blood Libel', which strengthened anti-Semitic sentiment in England. One of the worst anti-Semitic massacres of the Middle Ages took place in York in 1190. The city's entire Jewish community was trapped by an angry mob inside the tower of York Castle. Many members of the community chose to commit suicide rather than be murdered or forcibly baptized by the attackers. They had now challenged the king's authority, and troops joined the mob outside, where they were pelted with stones from the castle walls by the besieged Jews.
Friday, March 16th coincided with Shabbat Hagadol, the ‘Great Sabbath' before the Jewish festival of Pesach or Passover. According to several accounts, the Jews realized that they could not hold out against their attackers, and rather than waiting to be killed or forcibly baptized, decided to meet death together. The father of each family killed his wife and children, before taking his own life.
Just before their deaths, they also set fire to the possessions they had brought with them; this fire consumed the timber tower. It is not clear how many Jews were present -- estimates range from 20 to 40 families, and a later account in Hebrew suggests about 150 people.
History is important. I found this piece of interesting providence as I was reading from an article published by a friend of mine, who has since gone on to be with the Lord.
TAKING THE WRAP OF GOD'S WORD
It was a largish parcel wrapped in brown paper handed to me by an elderly woman as she left after the morning service in the Eastbourne Elim church some 40 or so years ago.
"Thought you might find this interesting," she said. Opening one end, I saw what seemed to be an old family Bible and took it home otherwise unopened and placed it on the floor of my study.
One Sunday afternoon months later, as our family was sitting together chatting about old books, I remembered the parcel. One of the children fetched it from my study and we opened it, expecting to find the recorded marriages, births, and deaths of complete strangers inscribed on the first few pages.
Instead, what we saw caused a frisson of excitement. The old, badly worn covers, both of which had ring marks where a hot vessel of some kind had been placed on them, opened to disclose the ornate title page of what is known as a ‘Geneva Bible‘.
It was a 1607 edition of a version first published in l560 and was printed four years before the publication of the King James Bible in 1611. We possessed a treasure without knowing it.
Holding this 400-year-old book today makes me wonder about the person who first bought this Bible. Who was he, or she? They must have been comparatively wealthy to be able to afford it. I imagine them sitting under the oak beams of a beautifully paneled Tudor house, maybe by a mullioned or latticed window, lovingly turning the pages of the most treasured possession they have.
For the first time, instead of hearing the mumbled Latin of the priest in church, they are reading to gathered family and friends in their own English language and in their own home, the living Word of God!
With what profound thanks they remember William Tyndale, who was burned at the stake because of his determination to translate the Bible into English, and those Protestant scholars who fled to Geneva during the bloody persecution under Mary the 1st, to produce this treasured version (a thankfulness still shared in our day in remote parts of the world where the magnificent ministry of Wycliffe translators places a newly-translated Bible into eager hands). I try to think of the succeeding generations to whom this precious book was handed down and am humbled by the thought that I, then a 20th century father, should share its pages with my children. And then I remembered the ring marks on the covers!
At some point in its long history this book fell into the hands of people who had no appreciation of its historic significance or of the divine revelation it contained; to them it was simply a conveniently thick table-mat! To this day it bears the scars of disinterest and misuse.
That reminds me that I had this book in my possession wrapped up in brown paper and unread for months, all because of false assumptions I had made about it!
And that, in turn, reminds me that, according to recent surveys, every week there are thousands of Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians who don't open their Bibles on weekdays. They say they love God but never take time to read his Word; his love letters go unread. Their only encounter with the Bible is on Sundays, and in many churches, that itself is a very brief one.
In closing this weeks letter, let me say, if we expect America to remain as a Christian Nation and Christianity to survive then true believers will have to get involved in politics. What we are watching is Islam, Communism, and other philosophies are becoming involved and we fight it from our family rooms and easy chairs and it does not accomplish a thing.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY.
This is the first thing I ever learned to type on a typewriter in typing class at 16 years old as a sophomore in High School. I don't think there is a better time to use it than right now.
I believe in you, I love you, I need you, and I want you. WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!
Pastor Cleddie
ALL HANDS ON DECK, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.
I have, as you may realize, traveled to and from England through the years, and have developed a great appreciation for the Biblical influence this has had on my life. I used to spend hours in a bookshop called the BARICON in York, England before they shut it down. From what I understand one of the major reasons for it existing in the first place, was to raise money for ministries in Israel. I could tell you every nook and cranny of the shop, there on the side street from the busy hustle and bustle of the city.
I won't bore you with the stories I know about York, but it is rich with record. An old Roman wall is still a part of it's powerful history, the York Minster is there, and a tower still stands as a cruel memory of a thousand Jews being burned to death - simply because. Let history speak for itself…
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, a number of Jews came to England from Rouen in France. The early Norman kings needed to borrow money to build castles and secure their kingdom, but money lending was forbidden to Christians. It was, however, permitted to Jews. These French-speaking Jews were protected by the Crown, and in time, established communities in most of the principal cities of England. In the later 12th century, members of the Jewish community in Lincoln settled in York.
There was growing hostility towards the Jewish population in England. This was in part due to public disagreements in theology between Jewish scholars and Christian churchmen. In the middle 12th century, several vicious stories were spread accusing Jews of murdering Christian children. History records these slanders, now known as the ‘Blood Libel', which strengthened anti-Semitic sentiment in England. One of the worst anti-Semitic massacres of the Middle Ages took place in York in 1190. The city's entire Jewish community was trapped by an angry mob inside the tower of York Castle. Many members of the community chose to commit suicide rather than be murdered or forcibly baptized by the attackers. They had now challenged the king's authority, and troops joined the mob outside, where they were pelted with stones from the castle walls by the besieged Jews.
Friday, March 16th coincided with Shabbat Hagadol, the ‘Great Sabbath' before the Jewish festival of Pesach or Passover. According to several accounts, the Jews realized that they could not hold out against their attackers, and rather than waiting to be killed or forcibly baptized, decided to meet death together. The father of each family killed his wife and children, before taking his own life.
Just before their deaths, they also set fire to the possessions they had brought with them; this fire consumed the timber tower. It is not clear how many Jews were present -- estimates range from 20 to 40 families, and a later account in Hebrew suggests about 150 people.
History is important. I found this piece of interesting providence as I was reading from an article published by a friend of mine, who has since gone on to be with the Lord.
TAKING THE WRAP OF GOD'S WORD
It was a largish parcel wrapped in brown paper handed to me by an elderly woman as she left after the morning service in the Eastbourne Elim church some 40 or so years ago.
"Thought you might find this interesting," she said. Opening one end, I saw what seemed to be an old family Bible and took it home otherwise unopened and placed it on the floor of my study.
One Sunday afternoon months later, as our family was sitting together chatting about old books, I remembered the parcel. One of the children fetched it from my study and we opened it, expecting to find the recorded marriages, births, and deaths of complete strangers inscribed on the first few pages.
Instead, what we saw caused a frisson of excitement. The old, badly worn covers, both of which had ring marks where a hot vessel of some kind had been placed on them, opened to disclose the ornate title page of what is known as a ‘Geneva Bible‘.
It was a 1607 edition of a version first published in l560 and was printed four years before the publication of the King James Bible in 1611. We possessed a treasure without knowing it.
Holding this 400-year-old book today makes me wonder about the person who first bought this Bible. Who was he, or she? They must have been comparatively wealthy to be able to afford it. I imagine them sitting under the oak beams of a beautifully paneled Tudor house, maybe by a mullioned or latticed window, lovingly turning the pages of the most treasured possession they have.
For the first time, instead of hearing the mumbled Latin of the priest in church, they are reading to gathered family and friends in their own English language and in their own home, the living Word of God!
With what profound thanks they remember William Tyndale, who was burned at the stake because of his determination to translate the Bible into English, and those Protestant scholars who fled to Geneva during the bloody persecution under Mary the 1st, to produce this treasured version (a thankfulness still shared in our day in remote parts of the world where the magnificent ministry of Wycliffe translators places a newly-translated Bible into eager hands). I try to think of the succeeding generations to whom this precious book was handed down and am humbled by the thought that I, then a 20th century father, should share its pages with my children. And then I remembered the ring marks on the covers!
At some point in its long history this book fell into the hands of people who had no appreciation of its historic significance or of the divine revelation it contained; to them it was simply a conveniently thick table-mat! To this day it bears the scars of disinterest and misuse.
That reminds me that I had this book in my possession wrapped up in brown paper and unread for months, all because of false assumptions I had made about it!
And that, in turn, reminds me that, according to recent surveys, every week there are thousands of Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians who don't open their Bibles on weekdays. They say they love God but never take time to read his Word; his love letters go unread. Their only encounter with the Bible is on Sundays, and in many churches, that itself is a very brief one.
In closing this weeks letter, let me say, if we expect America to remain as a Christian Nation and Christianity to survive then true believers will have to get involved in politics. What we are watching is Islam, Communism, and other philosophies are becoming involved and we fight it from our family rooms and easy chairs and it does not accomplish a thing.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY.
This is the first thing I ever learned to type on a typewriter in typing class at 16 years old as a sophomore in High School. I don't think there is a better time to use it than right now.
I believe in you, I love you, I need you, and I want you. WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!
Pastor Cleddie