The hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War has been the occasion of a great outburst of interest in the subject. Articles, many of them heart-rending, are appearing on every aspect of the war, including the horror, the apparent pointlessness of the conflict, and the extraordinary contrast between the refinement of an Edwardian drawing room and the mud and barbed wire of the trenches. The present writer had a great-uncle killed during the war, on the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916, along with nearly 20 000 other British troops. His body lay in “no man’s land” for a month until it was recovered; about a third of those buried in the same
cemetery were unidentifiable after lying out for half the winter and their nameless graves state simply: “Known unto God”.
What is not said in any of the secular articles is that the war was a judgement on wicked nations; in particular on Germany for her unbelieving and blasphemous “Higher Criticism” of the Bible, which caused multitudes to stumble; and on Britain for her recent rejection of the gospel. Those going out to fight from Scotland were the heirs of the widespread blessings of the 1843 Disruption, but how rapidly all that had been cast away! Eminent ministers like M’Cheyne and Moody Stuart were despised and forgotten, and the Westminster teaching on sin, depravity, atonement and the covenant of grace was considered antiquated error, quite unsuitable for sophisticated modern man. Soon these modern men were staggering around in the mud, killing each other in great numbers. More than a million people were injured or killed during the Battle of the Somme. The Second World War, not many years later, brought new meaning to the word “depravity”.
The judgement of the First World War was not blessed to Britain. Church attendance declined immediately after the war, and many of those who had mourned their dead outlived them by decades but ultimately went, as far as appears, to exactly the same place: “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev 21:8). The most pressing lesson of the First World War is the one that the Saviour deduced from similar tragedies and atrocities, albeit on a smaller scale: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3,5). Until we have learnt this, we have learnt nothing.
DWBS
Alcohol Abuse
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise”; so said Solomon, as inspired by the Holy Spirit (Prov 20:1). While the Word of God does not prohibit drinking wine – indeed the Saviour countenanced it by changing water into wine at Cana of Galilee – it does condemn excessive drinking, which leads to drunkenness. Recent figures show the alarming depths this sin has reached among young people in Scotland, which can no doubt be traced back to a lack of gospel influence.
These statistics, highlighted by Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume, show that nearly 5000 youngsters under 18 were admitted to hospital as a result of alcohol abuse over the past three years; 200 were under 10. Richard Burkitt, of the addiction charity, For The Right Reasons, states that these youths are increasingly being influenced by older people drinking
heavily at home in their presence. The charity’s solution is to educate young people in primary school, “giving hard-hitting facts about what it is like if you become addicted to alcohol”, and perhaps having recovering alcoholics as visiting speakers. Mr Burkitt goes on to say, “The world out there does need help . . . . Shops need to tell a person they are too young and we need to be much more careful about people buying for an under-age person.”
Mr Hume calls on the Scottish Government to “work with young people to develop the most effective response to these troubling figures”. The Government, shocked by this information, states, “We are currently taking forward substance-misuse-education work in schools . . . By educating children . . . we aim to prevent them making unhealthy choices”. Other possible measures include a minimum price for alcohol – which at the moment is blocked by a legal challenge from the Scotch Whisky Association. While these measures may indicate good intentions, and remind us of the harm caused by other addictive substances, they do not get to the root of the matter. Sin is not mentioned. The idea that, if you educate people, they will then make right choices presupposes that human nature is good, but the Bible and experience shows that we have sinful natures. Education on its own may even exacerbate the problem by unwittingly encouraging experimentation with alcohol and other substances. We desperately need new hearts.
Although some liberal politicians want to decriminalise “hard” and “soft” drugs, they are thankfully still illegal. Because alcohol is available so readily, and can be bought at almost every supermarket, the impression is given that it is less harmful, but a report in the medical journal, The Lancet, a few years ago, came up with startling conclusions.
According to the study’s author, Professor David Nutt, alcohol is more harmful to society as a whole than heroin or cocaine. That is not to say that these drugs are not harmful; they certainly are very harmful, and it is worth noting that he ranked tobacco and cocaine as being equally harmful. His point was, however, that “overall, alcohol is the most harmful drug because it’s so widely used. Cocaine is more addictive . . . but because alcohol is so widely used, there are hundreds of thousands of people who crave alcohol every day, and those people will go to extraordinary lengths to get it.”
He stated that 37% of the population in England drink more than the recommended number of units of alcohol per week and added that 207 800 people were admitted to NHS hospitals in 2006/07 for alcohol-related reasons, as against 93 500 in 1995/96. However these figures, high as they are, pale into relative insignificance when the figures for accident and emergency visits are included: the figure for 2012/13, released by Alcohol Concern in October 2014 was a staggering 9.9 million (no doubt including multiple visits by
some individuals). The cost to the UK economy of drink-related incidents, including crime and hospital admissions, is estimated at £21 billion per year. These figures are causing the Westminster Government to acknowledge that we are facing a problem of epidemic proportions. Of course the spiritual cost is incalculable.
Measures such as reducing drink-driving limits and toughening up regulations on the sale of alcohol are just tinkering at the margins. Our only sure hope for a reduction in these statistics is that God would return in mercy and pour out His Holy Spirit upon us as individuals and as communities. We need to hear in our souls what the Apostle said to the Ephesians. “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18). KHM
Answering Fundamental Questions
After its journey of 4 million miles to a comet in 10 years, the robot probe Philae is now stable and sending pictures to earth. It is a tremendous demonstration of the power of modern technology, but it cost about £1.1 billion. The main reason for this expensive mission was “to find answers to very fundamental questions about the history of our own planet, how it evolved”. According to the BBC, “one theory holds that comets were responsible for delivering water to the planets. Another idea is that they could have ‘seeded’ the earth with the chemistry needed to help kick-start biology”.
It is difficult to take such theories seriously. But there is no need to do so. Let us listen to the Bible and its account of creation. God saw what happened then. No one else did. We are perfectly safe in believing what He says.