Contents
1. Opening Word and Prayer
2. Welcome
3. Introducing Mast Ministries
4. Prayer Diary
Opening Word and Prayer
We read in the Book of Jeremiah:
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone.
I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.
I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away.
I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
Jeremiah 4:23-26
Here the prophet in his pronouncement of God’s judgment upon Jerusalem describes this judgment metaphorically in terms of a return to the state of chaos that prevailed over the earth after it was first made, but prior to the first creative act of Genesis 1:3.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2
Israel had sinned by worshipping other gods, and the consequence was the undoing of all that God intended for his creation. And what was this intention? That all of humanity whom God has created in His image might willingly choose to trust in and worship Him alone and that everything in heaven and earth that sets itself against Him would be overcome. In these orientations and in these images may be found the secret of the world and all that has happened in the past and all that is happening now. It is to explore and expound these mysteries through Holy Scripture and the witness of history from the beginning of time until the end that ‘Mast Ministries’ has been formed, in order that as many people as possible might have informed access to the truths and dynamics behind God’s word and His purposes and be forewarned, and equipped to forewarn, of the dire consequences of ignoring them. It is fitting, therefore, that this newsletter and ministry should first be committed to prayer:
Our Father in heaven, we pray that this newsletter and ministry would bring glory and honour to your name and your name alone and that through them your truth would be revealed in accordance with your will and desire. We pray that you would guide and lead both those responsible for this ministry and the readers of this newsletter into your great and wonderful purposes for their lives and that you would protect them from error and the attacks of the evil one. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Welcome
Welcome to the first edition of the newsletter of ‘Mast Ministries’. Through this newsletter we at ‘Mast’ hope to keep you abreast not only of how the ministry itself is progressing, but also on the issues and concerns that ‘Mast’ has been founded to research and make known to both the church and the world. We believe that in these days it is of vital importance that God’s people, His Church, as well as the interested reading public, become informed and do all they can so as not to be clouded in any ignorance as to what is really going on in the world today. For all is not as it seems. Great danger and momentous events lie on and over the horizon and in increasing measure deception is creeping into the very fabric of our world, even into the ordinary and mundane of our everyday lives.
It is this desire to help believers and interested parties remain on the right side of God’s truth that underpins ‘Mast’. We are a research and teaching ministry on the one hand and a prophetic and mission ministry on the other. To help in these tasks, each issue of this newsletter will be produced in company with The Mast, the journal of ‘Mast Ministries’, together with the occasional information sheet and more in depth papers. All elements are designed to be kept by the recipient and collated with subsequent issues into an expanding and ongoing prophetic and biblically based reference work, for which an index will be produced in due course. It seems superfluous to us just to produce a newsletter without using the opportunity to engage at the same time in the very dissemination of the fruits of the research for which ‘Mast’ exists. It is important, therefore, that if you feel the information and articles will be of interest – and we sincerely hope that they will be – that you send in the form enclosed in this issue right away to ensure you get onto our mailing list and so receive future copies as well as any news of other publications and events in the pipeline.
We hope that by reading this newsletter and the first copy of The Mast, you will become interested in our ministry and become one of our supporters, either as a reader – without whom we have no ministry – prayer partner, or financial supporter. A ministry of this kind needs all three kinds of supporters. With regard to prayer, it is a given with us that the Kingdom of God cannot advance a single milimetre except through prayer, and so we value your prayers highly, for without them this ministry will fail. With regard to money, no one pays wages for someone to conduct a ministry of this kind except through God’s provision of generous giving by those who discern its importance and God’s leading behind it all. And this ministry will require a degree of financial backing sufficient to enable myself as principal ‘worker’ to spend the necessary time in study, research, writing and teaching tasks. If those of you who are believers do discern God’s leading here, I ask that you prayerfully consider becoming a supporter and the kind of support that you might be able to offer. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you richly in his truth and through our work – the Editor.
Introducing ‘Mast Ministries’
An introduction to ‘Mast Ministries’ by necessity demands an introduction to myself, David John Eason. A few bare facts will suffice for the present, though doubtless you will get to know me better in due course.
• Born the youngest of identical twins and raised in Potters Bar, north of London, England
• Educated at Mount Grace Comprehensive School (not very effectively)
• Lifelong passions: making display and working models of ships, aircraft, vehicles, anything etc., books (and especially secondhand bookshops), the big ‘why’ of everything, and (later as a Christian) the relationship between God and history
• Early interests: astronomy, history, military
• Early ambition: not very ambitious except to own a model shop
• Early career: wages clerk (hated it), salesman (good at it), model shop manager (loved it)
• In business as proprietor of own model shops (market stall to chain of three) 1986-1992
• Became a Christian 1989, baptized April Fools Day 1990, feel called to full-time ministry April 1992, business folded September 1992
• Formative discipleship and ministry apprenticeship at ‘The Stable’, High Barnet – Charismatic Evangelical Free Church
• London Bible College 1994-1997 – B.A. Theology
• St. Mary’s College, Twickenham 1998-2000 part-time – M.A. Church History
• Mission worker Christ Church (Anglican), Little Heath, Potters Bar 1997-2000
• Married to Celeste from Hong Kong 1999
• Moved to Hong Kong where I now live for most of the year
• Daughter Salome born 2002
• Currently engaged in voluntary local church ministry (Xi Lin Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Sheung Shui), conducting research in preparation for ‘Mast’ and studying for a PhD at Stirling University, Scotland, topic: ‘National Days of Prayer in Great Britain Boer War to 1957’
• Current ambition: to fulfill faithfully my calling from the Lord. Period.
So why ‘Mast’ and what is it all about?
A Paradigmatic Encounter
I suppose it all began in 1998 while I was working at Christ Church in Potters Bar. I say ‘suppose’ because a starting point for any ministry is hard to determine in that, for the Christian, one’s whole life is a preparation for what God has planned for you to be and do. But in 1998 God began to ask me a very simple but strange question. He began to ask me: “What do you see son?”
The first time this happened I was walking down a typical suburban street in Potters Bar. The suddenness of the question and its source took me aback a little and I didn’t quite know how to respond. I had walked down this particular road hundreds of times before and nothing struck me as being out of the ordinary this time. However, having developed a passionate interest in the relationship between God and history in the years since becoming a Christian, I intuitively sensed that God was directing me to see deeper into the world around me.
This was confirmed later in the year while taking part in a ‘Walk of Reconciliation’ between Paris and Marseilles in France, during which young Christians from all over Europe marched to acknowledge the wrongs of the Albigensian and Children’s Crusades of 1208 and 1212. I had volunteered to be a driver and head chef for a team of youngsters from the Barnet area. Consequently, I had little time for walking, except on the last stretch into Marseilles. It was while I was walking over a high ridge on the plateau overlooking Marseilles that I heard God ask me a second time: “What do you see, son?”
Now, despite the obvious panorama that must have been before me it was very hazy at the time and one couldn’t see very much at all. But at that exact moment a local Frenchman on the team, whom I had never seen or spoken to before, started to walk alongside me and, without any prompting whatsoever, immediately began to talk about the landscape that one might see if there wasn’t any haze about! “You can’t see it of course,” he said pointing wildly, “but over there is the sea … and over that way are the mountains, beautiful mountains, but of course you can’t see them either. Never mind … au revoir.” And with that he was off!
The theme continued during the final farewell service that concluded this ‘mission’. During the time for prayer another stranger approached me and told me that the Lord had given him a picture word for me. He then described how the Lord had shown him that my journey was like a spiral staircase. At that present time I was climbing this staircase and couldn’t see very much. But in the future this staircase would emerge in sunlight onto a rooftop from which I would be able to see very clearly what it was the Lord was calling me to do. He further added that there were people who were waiting for my ministry.
The Prophetic Task
Well, it’s taken the best part of a decade to study, prepare and work through what the Lord was showing me, but I believe I am beginning to emerge into the sunlight spoken about, and ‘Mast’ is the first fruits of that long process.
In essence ‘Mast’ is, first and foremost, a prophetic think tank. What the Lord was confirming to me and leading me to in Potters Bar and France was to deepen my look at history, the world and its structures through more spiritual eyes, prophetic eyes, to look behind the visible in order to understand the processes behind them, that have shaped them and which continue to form them.
In a sense this is little different to what the prophets of old did. When Ezekiel prophesied against the King of Tyre, for example, in chapter 28 of his book, at one point the prophecy transitions seamlessly into a description of Satan:
“‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god […]
“ ‘Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations […] They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas. Will you then say, “I am a god,” in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a man, not a god, in the hands of those who slay you.
“ ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you […] Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
Ezekiel 28:2, 6-9, 12-17
Ezekiel observed and recognized in Tyre’s national pride and the king’s arrogant claim to be ‘a god’ the dynamics and influence of the serpent himself, and he wrote accordingly. This might not be literal documentary history, but it is a truer history. It is interesting to relate that Tyre was indeed subsequently besieged and destroyed by Alexander the Great in 322 B.C., never to rise to autonomous power again. Such hubris will always find due nemesis in the abyss, as one day Satan himself will be able to testify.
But Ezekiel’s insight was not an instant affair just as the books of prophecy in the Old Testament were not spontaneous writings, but each was the fruit of decades of learning to observe the world with God’s eyes. Absolutely inspired, yes of course, the prophets were writing scripture, but also absolutely informed. The gift of the prophet is the gift to see, but to see nevertheless requires learning in company with divine inspiration.
Today it is the Church who has been given this prophetic task. Christians alone have been given the Holy Spirit and they alone have the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ through which to observe and discern the world. But is the prophetic voice heard often enough? Is the prophetic voice that does get heard sufficient in force, insight and wisdom? Or put another way, is the prophetic ministry accorded the same honour in the Church as say the pastoral ministry? It is in Ephesians 4:11. But very few churches that I know employ prophets or workers solely for their prophetic insight! In fact I can think of none. Which is probably just as well, for I am not so sure the professionalization of prophecy would be a good thing, but then again, why is the prophet different from any of the other ministries listed by Paul? I trust you get my point.
More than ever the church today needs to raise its prophetic voice, for there never was such a time as now when prophetic insight was so urgently required to make sense of the times. Just one example will suffice. One would think it would be a simple matter for the church with one voice to condemn the trend of recent years towards the cultural acceptance of homosexuality. Scripture explicitly condemns such sexuality as an ‘abomination’, the inevitable consequence of which is the denigration of the God-given marriage relationship. But this is not the case. Large swathes of the Church worldwide are in apparent confusion over this issue. Why? In all likelihood the desire to love ‘the other’ or the ethics of ‘rights’ has got in the way, or it has not been sufficiently understood just from where such sexuality originates.
With regard to the latter, there is a curious reference in the Sumerian myth Inanna’s Journey to the Underworld to the god Enki (‘Lord of the Earth’) taking ‘dirt from his red lacquered finger-nail’ to form two other gods or demons. There is much to commend the theory that the god Enki, or Ea in Babylonian mythology, otherwise also known as ‘the crafty god’, was the pagan mythological representation of Satan. Given such an association, together with the reference to red lacquered finger-nails and the evident self-love in Ezekiel’s depiction of Satan’s fall quoted above, it is not hard to make the connections and begin to perceive homosexuality as the narcissistic ‘love’ it is arising out of a context of idolatry and self-centredness. I’m not so much referring here to the poor individuals caught up in the vortex of this problem today, but rather to the spiritual root of homosexuality in Satan’s character and man’s fallen nature. And why is it that toleration and rights for the homosexual are being pursued so vigorously today in particular? Could this not have something to do with the rise of a global and common idolatry throughout the earth under the umbrella of globalization for only the second time in history (the first culminating at Babel where Enki / Ea was worshipped)?
The ethics of ‘rights’ of course sound so moral. Who can argue against honouring ‘the other’ and ‘tolerance’ and ‘equity’ and ‘human dignity’ and any other phrase those pursuing the rights of minorities might care to use? But we need to be careful and recognize just where this loving consideration and talk of rights in this instance comes from. Not all that is morally good is necessarily morally good. We only have to look at the example of Jesus and Peter in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16. Just after Peter had correctly understood Jesus as ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (v.16), he then made a grave though understandable error. From that time on Jesus began to explain that he must go to Jerusalem, be killed and on the third day be raised to life (v. 21). At this Peter took Jesus to one side and rebuked him, saying: “Never Lord!” “This shall never happen to you!” (v. 22) No doubt Peter was motivated by his sincere love for his friend whom he wanted to protect from harm. From a human point of view this sounds commendable. But in actual fact this was utterly at loggerheads with the purposes of God and facing completely the wrong direction. Similarly, the ethics of rights with regard to homosexuality, though correct sounding, are also in antithetical opposition to the Kingdom of God. Rights which oppose God are wrongs, and are therefore deserving of the same condemnation as Peter, a condemnation that identifies their true source:
“Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Always it must be God first, and everything else will be put to rights following in this train.
A Programme for ‘Mast’
With all this in mind, the agenda for ‘Mast’ may at last be outlined in more detail. As a prophetic think tank I see three main roles for ‘Mast’:
1) To research history, the world and its structures from a scriptural, spiritual and prophetic perspective. There can be no short cuts here, ‘Mast’ will depend on the quality of this research and research takes time. It requires a full-time approach.
2) To disseminate the fruits of this research through publications, the Internet and teaching.
a) With regard to publications, this will involve:
i) A book that is still in the very early stages of planning.
ii) Publications such as this newsletter, other monographs on particular topics, and The Mast, which I would like to see develop into a more substantial publication.
b) With regard to the Internet, I already have a domain name godinhistory.com but as yet the website has not been set up. Thus far I have lacked the expertise and the funds, but I pray that under ‘Mast’ both of these will be forthcoming. Indeed, if anyone reading this can offer their expertise to help me set up this website I would be most grateful if they could let me know.
c) With regard to the teaching ministry, this will involve:
i) Developing an itinerant preaching / teaching ministry.
ii) Teaching the Church concerning the fruits of the research.
iii) Promoting within the Church a prophetic mindset. While certain people are called to the prophetic task in a special way just as people are called to the pastoral ministry, this does not preclude all of God’s people exercising the prophetic role in its different aspects. Like Paul, I would want all Christians to eagerly desire the gift of prophecy. In particular, I would like to raise the awareness and the capability of the Church in seeing and understanding the world through more spiritual and prophetic eyes.
3) To be a prophetic voice in the world, primarily forthtelling (revealing the biblical and spiritual dimension to things), but sometimes foretelling (giving warning / prediction), but only as scripture allows and only ever as and when God leads.
In relation to this last point, ‘Mast’ is also mission, so in parallel to the above, ‘Mast’ will also engage in the following:
4) Evangelism. Because mission and the prophetic word go together, like the two arms of a tuning fork, whenever God’s perspective is explained, so too must the gospel of Jesus Christ be proclaimed, which is the culmination of God’s purpose for the world. Therefore, the preaching of the gospel will always be a feature of this ministry.
5) Christian action (not social action). The image of the mountains and the sea was instrumental in drawing my attention to the vertical dimension of scripture and history and to the cosmic conflict being waged between true faith, with its orientation towards God and heaven, and idolatry, with its orientation towards self and the abyss. To expose and combat idolatry, therefore, is fundamental to ‘Mast’. Those who know me are already aware that recently I have been conducting an anti-idolatry campaign in Hong Kong. This will now come under ‘Mast’ and be further developed. Thus far this has involved:
a) A letter writing campaign to the South China Morning Post – 6 letters published so far on this topic.
b) A prayer ministry that has witnessed the removal of many idols. Praise God!
c) A placard protest at key sites of idolatry. This is a silent protest involving the holding of banners of scripture next to the offending area warning against idolatry. So far three protests have been conducted, two at the Wishing Tree and one at Wong Tai Sin temple on the occasion of the Grand Blessing Ceremony held in January 2006 during which a government minister prayed to the idol for Hong Kong’s prosperity (See the report in the next issue of the newsletter).
The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.
– Psalm 16:4 (placard text)
In addition and parallel to all the above:
6) A Prophetic Model Display is being developed with the purpose of illustrating relevant themes through the use of models and display boards. This will be a flexible and portable display to accompany the teaching and prophetic elements of the ministry.
On a personal level, it is a given that in the next two years I will have to finish my PhD. Although progress has been lamentably slow over recent times, this nevertheless is a goal of mine that is not unrelated to ‘Mast’. For this study involves a topic that is not only opening up interesting areas in understanding the relationship between God and Great Britain in her history, but also, God willing, this study will be a contribution to the revival of faith in what was once the most Christian country on earth. My ambition for the project is that it will go some way in convincing the leadership of Great Britain to hold a National Day of Prayer in our own time on the same scale of those held during the First and Second World Wars. Excepting the feeble observance called the same during October 2001 after September 11th, the last time such a National Day of Prayer proper was held was in 1947.
Finally, you may be wondering why the name ‘Mast’ was chosen? There are several thoughts behind this:
• The image of the mast suggests on the one hand a transmission or receiving mast, and this reflects the research and dissemination aspects of the ministry.
• On the other hand, the image also suggests the mast of a vessel on the sea, and this reflects the prophetic role of the watchman and observer searching the horizon, as well as that of mission.
• Preeminently, however, the letters in ‘Mast’ reflect the phrase ‘Mountains and the Sea’, admittedly in slightly rearranged order, but nevertheless chosen to honour God’s initial revelation to me with the whole suggesting perfectly what the ministry has been called into being to do.
With these thoughts I commend ‘Mast Ministries’ to your prayers and support.
Prayer Diary
10 April- 10 June, David will be in England to further his PhD studies. He will be spending time at various county archives, the Newspaper Library in Colindale, London, Lambeth Palace Library, London, and with his supervisor in Stirling, Scotland. Please pray for safety and protection, a productive trip, divine leading in finding sources for his research both for the PhD and ‘Mast’, and for Celeste and Salome in Hong Kong.
The crucial prayer request at present is for finance. It is right that both ‘Mast’ and David’s research should now be independently funded. Without funding this ministry will not be able to develop in the way David feels it should. Please pray that sufficient finance would be forthcoming, or, if need be, the right openings or work is provided to enable the successful establishment of this ministry.
© David John Eason 2006.
