World News and Trends: The Bible under attack in Britain and Europe
The Bible has been under severe attack in secular Europe for a very long time. The latest public outbreak is reflected in headlines in British newspapers such as "Hospitals Ban the Bible," "Christian Hostel Faces Shutdown for Having Bibles and Saying Grace" and "Christian Symbols Disappear."
The Bible has been under severe attack in secular Europe for a very long time. The latest public outbreak is reflected in headlines in British newspapers such as "Hospitals Ban the Bible," "Christian Hostel Faces Shutdown for Having Bibles and Saying Grace" and "Christian Symbols Disappear."
The first headline is a bit overstated as a final decision on banning Bibles from hospitals has not been reached as of this writing. But these news reports are nonetheless only the latest symptoms of a long-running, debilitating trend.
The hostility to God and the Bible in some quarters is becoming almost unbelievable. It has even been said that the attacks on religion by noted atheist and professor Richard Dawkins "are so bad-tempered they give atheism a bad name" (The Guardian).
According to a feature article in The Times, "God is being edited out of education lessons in schools for fear that His presence might bore children." The stories of biblical heroes are being told without any reference to God. For instance, the account of the patriarch Joseph in Genesis is related without any mention of the 50 references to God in the actual text. How pathetically lame!
This general trend of thought is also reflected in Scandinavia. For instance, "In the Gallup Millennium Survey of religious attitudes (conducted in 1999), 49 percent of Danes, 52 percent of Norwegians and 55 percent of Swedes said that 'God did not matter to them at all'" (Niall Ferguson, Colossus, 2004, pp. 236-237).
Would that every child in Europe could read the late Christian scholar G. Ernest Wright's opening words in The Book of the Acts of God:
"Christianity has always held that the Bible is a very special book, unlike any other book in the world. It is the most important of all books because in it, and in it alone, the true God has made Himself known to man with clarity. The world is full of sacred literature and it is full of gods. But in the vast confusion the one source that can be relied upon for truth is the Bible.
"There we are told about events which brought the church into being, and the purpose for its being. There we encounter the answer to the meaning of our lives and of the history in which we live. There the frightening gulf between our weak, ignorant and mortal lives and the infinity of power and space is really bridged. There we discover our duty defined and our God revealed" (1957, p. 13, emphasis added).
How well stated! But Mr. Wright wrote almost five decades ago and things have radically changed for the worst since then. No wonder our young people today have trouble coping with the anxieties of modern life. They are for the most part not being taught the true biblical fundamentals—in neither religious education classes nor in the home.
God has warned us through the Hebrew prophet Hosea, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). Please request our free booklets Is the Bible True? and How to Understand the Bible to better see why the Bible is a sure foundation for everyday life. (Sources: Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Times, The Guardian [all London].)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: July - August 2005
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
