Page on the World
Beyond Today Magazine
World News and Prophecy: November - December 2010
Course Content
Nothing sums up the contents of The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over God, Truth, and Power by Melanie Phillips, better than the basic description on the inside dustcover.
"The basic cause of all this unreason is a steady loss of faith in God. We tell ourselves that religion and reason are incompatible, but in fact the opposite is the case. It was Christianity and the Hebrew Bible that gave us our concepts of reason, progress and an orderly world—the foundations of science and modernity...
"The West is losing both its rationality and its freedoms. It is succumbing to a 'soft totalitarianism,' which not only is creating an ugly mood of intolerance but is undermining its ability to defend itself against Islamic aggression."
Mrs. Phillips' book contains an excellent analysis of how the fundamentals of biblical morality continue to be downgraded and degraded in our suffering world. She laments a "complete loss of moral and cultural bearings through multiculturalism and victim culture" with "truth and justice" being "turned on their heads" (p. 399).
Western apostasy analyzed in detail
In the preface, the author points out that members of the intelligentsia have converted popular fantasies into the realm of facts. "The sense that the world has slipped off the axis of reason has been greatly exacerbated by the fact that so many prominent people...have been saying all these strange and disturbing things" (p. x).
Examples of irrationality are offered in the first chapter. Mrs. Phillips comments: "While organized religion in many parts of the West is on the wane, with dwindling church attendance and a systematic erosion of Judeo-Christian principles by an intelligentsia for whom belief in God is evidence of deep stupidity or even insanity, Western society has filled the gap with a range of bizarre, irrational and premodern beliefs and behavior" (p. 2, emphasis added throughout).
We mention just one stark example. "In 1990 there were five thousand practicing British pagans; nearly a decade later, the number had risen to a hundred thousand" (p. 3). Today paganism is often viewed as just another religious faith. One British county allows police officers eight days off to observe pagan holidays such as the summer solstice and Halloween. Many occult practices are increasing in Britain.
In the chapters that follow, the author analyzes in detail the Iraq War, the widespread misrepresentation of Israel, the modern secular inquisition, the Jihad against Western freedom, the anti-Semitism among Islamic extremists and the general attack on Western civilization. Other relevant subjects are comprehensively addressed as well.
For those who may not wish to undertake reading the 408-page book, Standpoint magazine in Britain has published an excellent summary of the main points of the book. Also written by Melanie Phillips, the article carries the title "How the West Took Leave of Its Senses" (May 2010, www.standpointmag.co.uk).
Moral values seriously undermined
We quote just one sentence from her summary in this article: "Morality has been privatised, so that everyone has become his or her own moral authority, while the laws rooted in Judaeo-Christian tradition come under attack." This modern practice parallels the state of ancient Israel. This astute observation was made by the writer of an early Old Testament book. "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6). The conclusion repeats this important passage (see Judges 21:25).
Readers can find more articles by Melanie Phillips on most Monday mornings in the Daily Mail. The Melanie Phillips' column warns British readers, and on rare occasions Western European nations, about the many forces that are relentlessly afflicting and undermining their countries. WNP
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.
