Today the Rt Hon Theresa May MP becomes the first world leader to meet President Donald Trump. The media is obsessed with their probable discussions on trade. The UK exports more to the US than we buy from them, so it could get tricky.
But trade deals often focus on tariffs or the lifting of them and movement of people. Let us say again, nations do not need ‘trade deals’ to trade. The UK and US are already trading. And there are such things as strategic industries. This Bible article shows they need protecting!
Yesterday, Theresa May thrilled the Republican Convention with her vision of a trading and military UK-US partnership. Commentators say Mrs May’s speech to the Republicans generally went down well with them. (We have excepts from it here together with a link to the full text on the Downing Street website.) But will her views go down well with the new President?
Putin still the bogey-man
Despite Mr Trump’s favourable noises towards President Putin, Mrs May cast the Russian Federation leader as a bogey-man, speaking of the anxieties of Baltic states and describing the return of Crimea to Russia as ‘illegal’. Reunification with Russia was backed by 95% of Crimea’s population. But she also talked about engaging and building relationships with Russia, ‘from a position of strength’.
HMS St Albans (foreground), escorting Russian Warships Petr Velikiy (centre) and the Admiral Kuznetsov (background), as they pass through the English Channel on their way back to Russia
On Wednesday UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon went out of his way to insult Russia. He described their aircraft carrier as a ‘ship of shame’ as it sailed through the English Channel. The UK does not have an operational aircraft carrier. Mr Fallon said the British navy was keeping a ‘close eye on the Admiral Kuznetsov as it skulks back to Russia.’ He described the vessel a ‘ship of shame whose mission has only extended the suffering of the Syrian people.’
Actually, the carrier helped liberate eastern Aleppo from jihadists. Russian planes supporting the Syrian army allowed Christians there to celebrate Christmas for the first time in five years. Peace talks have been taking place between the Syrian government and the armed opposition. That has only happened because of Russian involvement.
The UK is nowhere in Syria any more, thank God. Mr Fallon could not exude any ‘position of strength’. He came across as weak, petulant, rude and divorced from reality. Can he long survive in Mrs May’s relationship-building world?
Or were hers just words? For how much longer will the generals and arms manufacturers continue NATO’s sabre-rattling on Russia’s borders? In her speech, Mrs May actually boasted that 800 British soldiers were taking part in that latest exercise.
Upholding our values?
Moving on, what did Theresa May mean when she said the US and UK must ‘project our values around the world’?
‘Responsibility to Protect’, invented by George Soros, was used in the past by the UK and US to destabilise leaders the globalist elite do not like. Its outcome in Egypt was to sweep Islamist parties into power. Libya has become a lawless staging post for people smuggling into Europe. Syria has been ruined. And in every case, thriving Christian families have been all but driven from their ancient ancestral bases.
In 2003 Theresa May voted for Tony Blair’s stampede into war in Iraq. The result of that is 268,000 violent deaths to date, according to Iraq body count. It led to a complete breakdown of Saddam’s institutions of civil society, and Islamic State terrorism.
Thank God President Trump has put ‘America first’. The days of ‘fantasist Americans who want to control the world,’ appear to be over. Those words were spoken by the late ex-MP and ‘Father of the House’ Tam Dalyell, who died yesterday. His obituary is worth reading.
Christian Voice is calling on the UK Government to help rebuild Syria after the chaos they caused supporting the armed opposition. Please sign our petition to that effect.
Mrs May said: ‘The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over’. Let us pray ‘Responsibility to Protect’ is dead.
How Theresa May changed on gay rights
Or did Theresa May mean exporting the ‘British values’ of feminism, abortion and sodomy? Here it gets interesting. Theresa May used to be adamantly opposed to gay rights.
She voted against homosexual men having access to 16-year-old boys in 1999. In 2002 she voted against gays and lesbians adopting. In 2008 she voted for an IVF baby to have a father and a mother. The next year she voted in the Equality Bill debates for churches to be free to hire and fire who they wanted.
But in 2010 Mrs May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality by Prime Minister David Cameron. From that date it all changed. In 2013 she turned out to vote for gay marriage in the Marriage Same-Sex Couples Bill. She voted for Cameron’s flagship bill at both second and third reading.
Even today, her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is a well-known gay rights advocate. She appointed the ‘out’ lesbian Justine Greening to be in charge of Education. Mrs May gave Louise Casey an equalities watch and bestowed on her a Damehood. This month ‘Dame Louise’ invoked an Orwellian vision of using thought police against Christians in public life.
Can Trump – May project righteousness?
Donald Trump has already defunded Planned Parenthood and other ‘reproductive rights’ advocates. The LGBT page has disappeared from the White House website. Read about the feminist reaction to that here.
But Theresa May will need to drain her own gay-friendly establishment swamp before she can be a true partner to President Trump. Can she change?
Cameron & Obama exported evil around the world. This video shows how they attempted to brow-beat African nations into legalising sodomy.
Let us pray that May & Trump will have an opposite agenda and promote or ‘project’ righteousness. But as Mrs May did not mention God, let alone ‘the Lord’, or Jesus, once in her speech, this will need particularly fervent prayer.
European Union Integration
On the European Union, there were signs that Mrs May still does not understand that a wind of change, perhaps even a Holy-Spirit-driven wind of change, is blowing across the world.
She said ‘the most important institution is – and should always be – the nation state’. That’s a God-given. But then she said:
‘Which is why if the countries of the European Union wish to integrate further, my view is that they should be free to do so. Because that is what they choose.’
What? The EU was from its inception a bureaucrat-inspired super-national monstrosity. It was never ‘putting power in the hands of the people’ as Mrs May said was the example to the world of America. The EU was designed in secret by politicians as a revived Roman Empire.
It is always elites who want to come together like that. And when they do, people will feel ‘left behind by the forces of globalisation’ as Mrs May rightly said. The ordinary people of Europe will never choose further integration. Even as it is the European Union is going to fall. that is what happens to ‘earth’s proud empires.’
Mrs May must grasp that the UK does not need European countries to be in an EU for the UK to trade with them.
Torture
President Trump has spoken approvingly of the use of the practice of ‘waterboarding’ to gain intelligence. It was banned by President Obama. On its own this shows the folly of putting trust in princes rather than God.
There is no example in the Bible of the apparatus of the state using torture or ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ to extract information from prisoners. In 1st Samuel chapter 30 a captive Egyptian is brought before David. The king interrogates him, first having fed him. The captive divulges the information with no threat being used, only a promise of safety. (The UK could learn from that in the matter of interpreters.)
The most graphic Biblical example of torture is actually that employed by the Romans to execute our Lord. It is not a good example to follow. The Roman Empire was pagan. It acknowledged neither the Almighty nor his authority as King of kings. It was ignorant of his creation ordinance that mankind is made in the image of God. Other human beings, in Christian theology, are worthy of respect.
Mrs May said ‘As Churchill put it, we “speak the same language, kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals”.’ Do we indeed worship the same God? Sadly, Mrs May failed to mention the Most High in her speech, not even asking the Almighty to bless America. But if we do, he requires a higher standard of us than our Islamic enemies.
PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION
Proverbs 25:5 Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
Isaiah 2:4 And he (the LORD) shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
How big is a God-given nation state ?
I don’t understand why the United States of America are one God-given nation state, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire, very similar in many ways, was not.
Was the old United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland a God-given nation-state, or is the Republic of Ireland a God-given nation state separately ? It doesn’t actually seem so very clear.
Was Pakistan really part of India, as it always had been ?
It is arguing against earthly empire-building, that’s all!
Well, the young United States certainly built a large earthly empire in the continent on whose eastern coast it was situated. Yet they always insist they are “blessed”.
One rule for them. another rule for Europe.
I think you will find that trade deals are about a lot more than tariffs. Nations with different standards, laws and codes have to agree which ones will apply in international transactions. Unless all this is settled in advance in trade deals, international trade will seize up. It may be that Tyre could trade without trade deals – we don’t know that, but if it was wicked I expect there was a good deal of corruption and dirty dealing of all kinds, which we can do without. We can buy food without worrying about adulteration, for example. Horsemeat passed off as beef is one thing, lead in cheese would be another.
Yes, you’re right. Several European standards which protect our health risk being chucked away.
In the case of buying food from the USA, the main danger is their use of hormones in meat.
Many people are also worried (unnecessarily, but they should have the right to choose) about genetically modified food from the USA. Already we use almost exclusively American soya which is deliberately mixed so that none of it can be claimed to be “GMO free”.
Then there is the whole range of food additives, and the way that food is labelled. The American standards are not the same as the united European ones. This is not to say that theirs are inferior, but we would need to be operating two complicated systems at the same time (much worse than using both grams and ounces) . You sometimes see foods (such as boxes of chocolates) which are labelled in two ways, with a note that the ingredients will actually vary if they are exported to the USA.
There would seem to be no chance at all that the USA would change to the European system …..
In the ancient world, the silver content of the coinage was very important, and some nations or cities were known for following a high standard which was renowned ….. including Tyre, as it happens.
Some readers may find the following difficult to believe, but it is so, see “A Numismatic Journey through the Bible” by Richard Plant.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Numismatic-Journey-Through-Bible/dp/094896443X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485713542&sr=8-1&keywords=Numismatic+journey+Plant
(Truly excellent value at £4.50).
We all know that the Jews had to change their common money into special money outside the Temple. But this was not because it was more holy or Jewish in some way than the ordinary Roman money in everyday use. The temple authorities liked “shekels” of guaranteed high quality silver, and they would only accept tetradrachms minted in Tyre. Peter found one of these in the mouth of a fish, and that was enough to pay tribute for himself and Jesus (the rate being half a shekel each).
” when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” Matthew 17:27
What is particularly extraordinary is that the portrait on the coin, which you might take to be Alexander or one of his successors, was actually Melqart, the Tyrian version of Baal, identified by the Greeks with Heracles (Hercules). There is a small sketch of Hercules’ club on the other side of the coin.
Richard Plant points out that the Jews would not have found these coins more pagan than any others at the time (except the small copper coins they sometimes produced themselves, the “mites” of the Bible). However, and perhaps most extraordinary of all, the Tyrian “shekels” were obsolescent, and it is thought possible by some authorities that latterly they were being minted in Jerusalem specially for use in the Temple, complete with Baal !
Well, who would have thought? Christian Voice blog readers all over the UK, perhaps even the world, are now saying “gosh, I never knew that!”. Thank you Rox.
Thanks for your appreciation, Mark.
I don’t think this would go down well if read by Christian extremists in the USA. There was a move there to erect in New York a REPLICA of what they thought at first was part of the temple of Baal in Palmyra, although in fact it was another arch in Palmyra, and they still went on objecting to it strongly because of its pagan origins. Remember that this was a modern replica of part of a city which had had a pagan temple in pagan times ! So where does this leave countries (even this one) which still have actual remains of pagan temples, and REAL “idols” (including Baal) in museums ? I suppose they would want to smash them up (a bit like ISIS, reallly ….).
But I digress, as usual. Such Christians would not be at all happy to know that Jews, including early Christians no doubt (who went on being Jewish at the same time), were deliberately going out of their way to use such devilish coins in the Temple.
They would find one of two possibilities, I’m sure.
1) It simply isn’t true.
2) That is why Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers, in righteous indignation.
A similar replica of an arch from Palmyra was erected temporarily in London, with very little fuss.
You can find Baal in the British Museum, if you look carefully.