Deception, the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid, is rife in our culture and world, even among Christians, and even when, as often happens, it goes unrecognised. Needless to say, it is something we do well to avoid, both as a result of being taken in and our being an instigator of, and is something we do well to be aware of and take measures to avoid.

Amazingly, a few days after I learned of the deaths of David Iles and Geoff Hayman (see here for my tribute) I learned of the death of another old timer, Paul Bullivant, who knew well and had several dealings with both of them (I believe Paul went to school with Geoff and, like Geoff, served as a Counties evangelist). All of these men were much involved in the life of Coleman Street Chapel (formerly Gospel Hall), which had played a significant part in my life between 1964 and 2013. All made a big impact on my life and many others.

Today, I saw the end of the English County 2024 cricket season and the last of this summer’s England International cricket matches. We now await winter tours to include Tests in Pakistan and New Zealand plus, internationally speaking, various T20 and ODI games before India comes to tour England next summer to play five tests, and they play a 2025/26 Ashes series in Australia (the two biggies).

I have received two minor shocks this week concerning the death of two old timers, who were some years older than me, who back in the day I had many dealing with but I would have been unaware of the news had not two friends (separately) pointed this out to me. The two people in question were David Iles and Geoff Hayman.

I want to begin with John Wesley’s manifesto by way of food for thought and by way of introduction to what I really want to say:

When the November 2020 US Presidential election took place, I expected Trump to win based on my belief that the American people would come to see how bad Biden was. When that didn’t happen, I had no doubt (based on evidence) that the election was stolen and the right result would soon be called when this was widely realised.

As I often say, I check out the words of all sorts of people in my endeavours as a watchman on the wall given – if not me then who? True, these tend not to be from mainstream sources yet they are incredibly diverse as well as saying relevant things. One such voice is the unlikely one of Michael J. Matt who presents Remnant TV.

As I have mentioned in earlier writings, my introduction to church in my mid-teens was with the Plymouth Brethren (Open, middle of the road section). Many PBs were suspicious of those Christians who weren’t PB and mostly dismissive of what was referred to at the time as the “Ecumenical Movement”. Some even went as far as to counsel that I should not have anything to do with Liberals or Catholics and even many Evangelicals because of their unsound doctrine.