Monday, 30 December 2013
Ordinary Christians in the Hands of the Extra-Ordinary God. Part 3
I Corinthians 1:12-13 and 3:4-11 New Living Translation.
12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, [d]” or “I follow only Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! …… 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world? 5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. 10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.11 for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ
Today when we walk in the places we live, we see buildings that are used for various purposes, some buildings are where we live, other buildings are where we work, shop, rest and relax, there are specialist buildings such as Train Stations, Churches and Hospitals, each building has a specific function and role to fulfil that more often is unique to that building, sometimes buildings can be adapted and changed to serve a different purpose than their original purpose, some buildings have been left desolate and have become ruins and monuments, some buildings are empty because no one can find a use for them anymore. Each building we see regardless of its use and purpose needs a foundation.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:24 NLT, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock” see Matthew 7:24-27 and Luke 47- 49 for the context. Luke 6:47-48 NLT says , “47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. 48 It is like a person building a house that digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built.
Today in 2013, we see various versions of the Bible, that are available for us to read and study, I do use the New American Standard Bible, and when I write I use Bible Gateway which has dozens of Bible Versions. I’ve used various versions of the Bible since I was saved at 11 but at the end of day as The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3: 15-17 NLT, “15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
To develop and progress in our Christian walk and witness, to be more effective disciples of our Lord and Saviour we must read and study God’s Written Word daily. When I was in Sunday school, I remember singing this song “Read your Bible, Pray every day, if you want to Grow “If that was important for me as a child how much more important is for me as a more mature Christian today?
When someone builds a foundation for a building, if they decide to use cheap or substandard building materials wouldn’t that building look strange or be dangerous and likely to collapse, yet if we don’t as Christians build using the correct building materials wouldn’t our lives and our Christian Witness look equally strange, look dangerous or likely to collapse see 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 NLT.
We build our Christian Life and Witness not on the latest fads or fashions, the opinions or perspectives of others however appealing or relevant they seem, we don’t build on what the non-Christian or anti-Christian demands of our Society are. We build on God’s Word the Bible that has been and still is God’s Inspired Word; there is nothing more relevant to us today than God’s Word
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:20 NLT, “20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.”
To lead His Church into the fullness and completeness that He always intended it to be, Our Lord Jesus set apart Leadership Gifts, that this He has called in the past and is calling today specific individuals to positions of Leadership in His Church, today we have various names, titles and badges and descriptions of Leadership that vary from Church to Church!.
We have built man-made structures and systems from the early days of the Church to co-ordinate what happens in the Church, I’m not against co-ordination or structure and systems but the organization of Church isn’t the central purpose of the Church, in many cases we have made a god of organization. The Church is a living and breathing organism, the organization is the servant of the organism but more often or not the organism has become the servant of the organization.
I’m not saying that the Church and our Church Meetings become a free for all, the place of gossip and chat, good ideas and the downright weird and wacky, although it can happen, however, there is a divinely inspired framework for the correct method of Church Structure.
In the New Testament especially Paul’s epistles, we see God’s structure for the Church and how the Church should be organized and lead. Today we have Vicars, Priests, Bishops, Archbishops, Reverends etc. etc., we give people titles and badges and recognition, but are they God given titles, badges and recognition or are they man given?
We see both in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, part of God’s structure and framework for the church, 1 Corinthians 12:28 ESVA, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. For the context see 1 Corinthians 12:27-30, and Ephesians 4:11-13 NLT, “11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. For the context see Ephesians 4:11-16.
The first part of God’s structure for the Church are The Apostles, The Prophets, The Evangelists, The Pastors or Shepherds and The Teachers which are five distinct ministry areas given to certain individuals in the Church, these Men and their ministries are gifts given by our Lord and Saviour as gifts to His Church, the second part of God’s structure are the Elders and Deacons, I believe that all the other ministry areas here are given to Men, and although I respect and honour the role/s of the Ladies in the Church, the biblical example of Leadership in the Church is uniquely for Men. The descriptions of the roles of The Elders and Deacons in the Church are found in 1 Timothy 3:1-13. Firstly Elders In 1 Timothy 3:1-2 NLT, “This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an elder, [a] he desires an honourable position.” 2 So an elder must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. [b] He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. Then Secondly Deacons in I Timothy 3:8 NLT, “In the same way, deacons must be well respected and have integrity.”
I believe that the correct indeed the only way for His Church to move forward in the 21st Century and face all the challenges and opportunities that it brings is firstly live as disciples, be in relational covenant with each other and follow Our Saviour’s leadership and direction in our lives, and follow the example and influence of those God has called to lead us, I would describe this a restoration or renewal of Apostolic Christianity. For my American readers, I mean New Testament Christianity, not Apostolic in the context of the Oneness Gospel.
Yours in His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside
Ordinary Christians in the Hands of the Extra-Ordinary God. Part 4:
I Corinthians 1-12:13, 3:4-11, 3:21 – 23 New Living Translation.
12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, [d]” or “I follow only Christ! …… 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world? 5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 11 for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ…. 21 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Peter,[g] or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
When we look at the Church today, what do we see and what do we mean by the word Church ? to some the word Church has a negative effect on the other hand, the word Church has a positive effect, to others Church should be consigned to the past, and it doesn’t have any relevance to them and society both today in the present or indeed tomorrow the future, some think of the word Church and they think of a physical building others think of the New Testament concept of God’s people or a spiritual building.
The Church today is divided into various camps or tribal groups, that more often or not have very little to do with other camps or tribal groups, sometimes different churches can be close to each in terms of a physical distance, but miles apart in so many other ways. Is the Church somewhere we can go to or is it a body of people that we belong to, and are joined alongside each other to work alongside each other to see the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom preached to those without the Good News of Salvation through our Lord and Saviour Jesus.
We are divided into groups or denominations that have more to do with our past, and very little to do with our present or future. We hold onto ways of both doing and being church because of our history and our responsibilities to that history, and the expectancies of others. Sometimes we're divided into seemingly rival tribal groups, because for some our revelation of being and doing church is driven by being the people of God where His Presence dwells, but on the other hand we're divided because of politics and personalties !.
We don’t need another “ new “ expression of Church, being built out of people’s own sense of importance , and because of their misguided zeal they will attempt to draw followers after themselves from established churches, offering false promises and prophecies and they tell people that if join us, the grass will be greener, unfortunately these “ new “ expressions of church have no foundations and no covering, because they think that we will build our own foundations and we will become our own covering, we need to be built up together as one church, and not be separated into another tribe or grouping.
The Church is a movement for change and transformation but for many of us The Church has become a monument to our spiritual forefathers who were a movement for change and transformation !.
We follow men and sometimes women, we follow the traditions that were our spiritual forefather’s doctrines and their distinctiveness from other tribal groups and when someone from another tribe says let’s meet together for fellowship and to share together, we say we can't because we’re group a and your group b and our big chief said in 1920 said that we need to avoid group b because your understanding of church and Christianity is different from way he told us to be the church and to be a Christian and therefore you’re wrong, or we do meet together but in a spirit of reluctance and/or a spirit of mistrust, we’ve created theories, doctrines, theologies and solutions how we’re to be the church and to life our Christian lives and be a Christian Witness, but many of those theories etc belong in the past, and have become hindrances and obstacles for us today.
Many of our tribes or denominations have become tied to the way we did Church, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or a 100 plus years ago, we look for structure and safety in the past.
We think that the way we do and are the Church is the right or indeed the only way to be do or be Church, we mistake our history for our present and future and wonder why despite our best efforts, our prayers indeed our prophecies, we’re unfulfilled !
When our Lord Jesus walked the streets of his homeland, he saw a fig tree and when he looked for fruit he found only leaves Matthew 21:18-20, 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?
I would say that so many of our churches are like that fig tree, yes we have life but it has gone to produce only leaves, instead of producing leaves alongside fruit, indeed later in the same chapter, Jesus spoke about the physical nation of Israel, saying that because they trusted in themselves rather than trusting in the Lord, that had lost the Kingdom of God, Matthew 21:43 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
For many of our churches today, we’ve lost the Kingdom of God because we’ve trusted in ourselves, our systems, structures and strategies instead of trusting Him , our Lord and Saviour Jesus, we’ve just grown leaves not fruit and God has gone and left us, even then we’ve created a theology and/or theory/or solutions around that, see Habakkuk 3:15-18 17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
However there is a message of hope, for those Churches that once proclaimed God’s Message, Haggai 1:6 6 You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! See Haggai 1, our transformation isn’t due to our living in the luxury houses that are our own tribal groups/denominations/churches but rather our transformation comes through being part of His Church, or the Temple or the House of the Lord. We’ve become consumed that our way of doing and being Church is also the Lord’s way of doing and being Church, but our ways are not his ways of doing and being Church see Isaiah 55:8-11
We have set in place man made structures, systems and organizations to how to do and be the Church today, we set in place committees, clerical systems and called and commissioned those He’s not called and commissioned to lead us in being the Church and we wonder why nothing is working, we’ve watered down and diluted our message to make it pliable to others, we’ve accepted things that go against Biblical Standards like Homosexual Clergy and wonder why God isn’t moving amongst us and blessing us
Yet, there is hope for us the Church, the old wineskins of our ways, those beloved ways of doing and being the Church aren’t working and if we try to add His way of being and doing Church or the new wine to our old wineskins, our old wineskins are going to tear and break up, instead we need His new wineskins of doing and being the Church, his structure, systems, and Leadership* and following those He has called and commissioned to lead us forward, see Luke 5:37-39.
We notice in Scripture, there is a God Ordained indeed Organized way of being and doing Church, no longer will our man made systems cope with the things, our message should be say no, to the status quo, We don’t need any other or more denominations or tribes, we don’t need another methodology of doing and being the Church. We need to be a Movement and not a Monument. We need to see a restoration of Apostolic Christianity, which is a Movement for the 21st Century Church not a Monument to the 1st Century Church. We need to see Revival through a Renewed Church.
It says in Ephesians 4:11-13* 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. See Ephesians 4:11-16 for context.
Yours in His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside
The 112mph BICYCLE: Bike shop owner spends £5,000 building a vehicle that has earned him a place in the record books, Daily Mail
- Bike shop owner Jason Rourke, 42, spent 10 days building the super-strong mountain bike in his Stoke-on-Trent workshop
- Daredevil cyclist Guy Martin commissioned Mr Rourke to make the bike which he pedalled into the record books at 112.94mph (181km/h)
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A bike shop owner has set a new world record after inventing a bicycle that can travel at more than 110mph.
Jason Rourke, 42, spent 10 days building the super-strong mountain bike which cost a total of £5,000.
Motorcycle racer Guy Martin commissioned Mr Rourke to make the bike which he pedalled into the record books at 112.94mph (181km/h) earlier this year.
Daredevil cyclist Guy Martin (pictured) commissioned bicycle shop owner Jason Rourke to make the super pushbike (also pictured) which he has since pedalled into the record books at 112mph (177km/h)
Mr Martin broke the previous record set by Dutch cyclist Sebastiaan Bowier who reached 83.13mph (133.78 km/h) on a pushbike in September this year.
In order to break the record Mr Martin was towed at 50mph on Pendine Sands in South Wales, before being released where he hit just under 113mph (around 180km/h).
Speedy: Mr Rourke, 42, spent 10 days and £5,000 building the 22lb super-strong mountain bike (pictured)
The record breaking attempt features in a new Channel 4 series called 'Speed' which began last night.
THE SUPER BICYCLE'S SPECS
All the bike's materials, except the tyres, weresourced from the UK
The vehicle has just one gear which allows the bike go up to 130mph
It uses Continental laminated tyres
The bike is made up of two aluminium wheel frames one tailor-made lightweight steel frame measuring 22inches x 22 inches (56cm x 56cm).
The entire bike weighs 22lbs (10kg)
Mr Rourke, who runs Brian Rourke Cycles in Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said: 'The funny thing is, my dad Brian was contacted by the people who set the current world record asking if we could help to build the bike.
'Due to various work commitments we didn't take it on, so when we got a call from the producers in February about another attempt to break the record, we couldn't say "no".
'I made the bike in the workshop over 10 days and welded the steel frame together and brazed it as well.
'It wasn't a particularly light bike because that's not what we were focusing on. We needed to make sure it was strong and the tyres actually were quite thick as we needed extra tread to grip with.
Resilient: Mr Martin broke the previous record set by Dutch cyclist Sebastiaan Bowier, who reached 83.13mph on a pushbike in September this year
'Because all the components have been tailor-made, the bike is almost priceless because companies might never agree to make them.
'But the price to construct the bike came to roughly £5,000.'
'The fact that we got to work with Guy Martin was incredible. He is someone I have always found interesting having seen a lot of his programmes.
'He came along to our workshop in Burslem with the TV crew so he could get measured up for the bike, and he even helped me to make it.'
Former British Truck Racing Championship winner Dave Jenkins, 38, was also enlisted to help in the record-breaking bid.
He said: 'I got a call out of the blue one day from a researcher asking if I knew anyone who had a truck capable of doing 120mph, who had engineering experience and who could drive the truck.
The record was broken by Guy Martin (pictured) earlier this year. The record breaking attempt features in a new Channel 4 series called 'Speed' which began last night
Bike designer Mr Rourke said: 'The fact that we got to work with Guy Martin (pictured preparing for record) was incredible.' Mr Martin was towed along by a truck at 50mph before being set free to up the speed on his own
'I explained I could tick all three boxes so then found myself meeting up with Guy Martin. It sounded fun and I'm always up for a challenge, so we thought we'd give it a crack.
'It was exciting to take part, but I was also aware of the risks involved. I was conscious of what could happen if things went wrong with someone cycling so close to the rear of the truck.'
Truck driver Dave Jenkins said: 'It was exciting to take part, but I was also aware of the risks involved. I was conscious of what could happen if things went wrong with someone cycling so close to the rear of the truck'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2531232/The-112mph-BICYCLE-Bike-shop-owner-spends-5-000-building-vehicle-earned-place-record-books.html#ixzz2ozTcAGBn
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Sunday, 29 December 2013
The spying Scotsman who hunted the Nazis of New York:, Daily Mail
The amazing story of Britain's clandestine war on Hitler's agents... and his big-money backers in the US
- 'Secret battle for America' fought far from the front lines during World War II
- Lost documents find British agents took on Nazi sympathisers in the US
- Crew headed by Donald MacLaren destroyed Hitler's plan for empire
By ADAM LEBOR
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Uncovered documents show how British agents, headed by Highland clan chief Donald MacLaren, took on Nazi sympathisers in the US
In the summer of 1940, as British pilots fought desperately for the skies of southern England, the battle was joined on a very different front, thousands of miles from the coast of Kent.
It was fought through the political salons of Washington DC, the boardrooms and the smoky nightclubs of New York.
The protagonists had no uniform save that of a well-tailored suit; their weapons were native cunning, a plausible manner, and, from time to time, a concealed revolver.
This was the secret battle for America, ordered by Winston Churchill himself, and the fate of the free world hung upon it.
Today, we can reveal the untold story of how British agents went to war on Wall Street, a story pieced together from a remarkable collection of secret intelligence reports lying untouched for decades.
Uncovered by the MoS, the documents show how British agents took on Nazi sympathisers in the US with a masterful campaign of dirty tricks and disinformation, how they outmanoeuvred Hitler’s network of American allies and how they, ultimately, destroyed the Third Reich’s powerful business and intelligence empire across the water.
Today, amid talk of special relationships and historic links, few remember that a sizeable part of American opinion was pro-German, even as Europe burned – or that many well-placed Americans were virulently anti-British.
There was a strongly held belief, particularly in corporate and financial life, that the Nazis were the best bulwark against the advance of Communism.
In fact, America and its vast industrial output were vital for the Nazi war effort. German companies ran extensive US subsidiaries and supplied the Third Reich with pharmaceuticals, chemicals and the latest technology, directly or through South American subsidiaries.
The Third Reich needed information, too. Long before the outbreak of war, German firms had placed networks of deep-penetration agents across the American business world.
There was open sympathy for the German cause and it extended to the very top of American society.
Sullivan & Cromwell, a powerful New York law firm, brokered numerous deals between American business and the German companies that helped bring Hitler to power.
The partners included John Foster Dulles, who later became Secretary of State, and his brother, Allen Dulles, America’s wartime spymaster, who became the first head of the CIA.
Standard Oil, founded by the Rockefellers, was entwined with IG Farben, Nazi Germany’s most powerful conglomerate. Brown Brothers Harriman, the oldest private bank in the United States, was connected to Fritz Thyssen, the German steel magnate who had financed Hitler.
Thyssen ran his American business through the Union Banking Corporation, based in New York. Its directors included Prescott Bush, father of President George Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush.
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, was the author of the anti-Semitic pamphlet, The International Jew. He received a medal from Nazi Germany in 1938. Hitler kept a portrait of him in his office.
Vital support: Adolf Hitler in 1932 with German industry barons, including steel magnate Fritz Thyssen, right
All this, declared Winston Churchill, had to stop. The man charged with tackling the Germans’ formidable operation was Donald MacLaren, a Highland clan chief. Charming, persuasive and physically imposing, MacLaren was a skilled operative who established a network of 150 agents across the Americas in the early years of the War on behalf of British Security Coordination (BSC), the British intelligence organisation in the US. Working closely with George Merten, a German anti-Nazi, his mission was to report on Nazi-American business links.
By training, MacLaren was an accountant, a vital skill for industrial counter-espionage. But he was no grey man. A snappy dresser with a taste for good food, wine and cigars, MacLaren relished his time in Manhattan and entertained his contacts at 21, an upmarket restaurant a few blocks from the British intelligence HQ at the Rockefeller Centre.
Their enemy was IG Farben, the friend of Standard Oil. Born out of a merger between Bayer, BASF, Hoechst and Agfa, IG Farben was the largest and most powerful company in Europe and the biggest chemical conglomerate in the world, producing the basic components of a modern industrial state: explosives, film, plastics, fuel, rayon, paint, pesticides and much more. Including poisonous gases.
Without IG Farben, Nazi Germany could not wage war. Hermann Schmitz, its CEO, was one of Hitler’s earliest backers. IG Farben designed, built and ran the company’s concentration camp at Auschwitz, known as Auschwitz III, making Buna, or artificial rubber. Its managers oversaw tens of thousands of slave labourers in conditions of extreme brutality, forced to work until they died or were despatched to the gas chambers to be killed with Zyklon B – a patent owned by IG Farben.
Hermann Schmitz was also a director of the mysterious Bank For International Settlements, based in Basel. The BIS, which still exists, was a key point in the secret channels between the United States and the Nazis.
Naturally, IG Farben went by a different name in America, operating as a company known as General Aniline and Film, or GAF.
Revealed: Donald MacLaren's 1942 pamphlet
And helped by its association with Standard Oil, GAF extended its tentacles into the heart of the business, legal and political establishment, sending diplomatic and industrial secrets – plus huge profits – back to Berlin. MacLaren, then, was facing formidable opposition, and not just from Nazi agents. The mandarins of the State Department were obsessed with maintaining America’s neutrality and they instructed J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, to refrain from any collaboration with Britain.
The powerful Irish and Catholic lobbies were violently anti-British, none more than Joseph Kennedy, US ambassador to London. A pro-Nazi lobby, the German-American Bund, boasted celebrity supporters, such as the aviator Charles Lindbergh. At its peak, the America First Committee, the most formidable isolationist lobbying organisation, had several hundred thousand members, including future President Gerald Ford.
MacLaren decided to use the same tactics as the Germans. He, too, became a fake businessman and, using an alias, claimed he wanted to establish a relationship with GAF.
His first attack was the work of a classic agent provocateur. The GAF directors, he discovered, were split into two factions over how they would protect their interests should America enter the war. MacLaren, who by now was close to a number of GAF board members, began leaking and fabricating information to set one faction against another.
This, he later said, resulted in one group racing the other to Washington to report the wicked activities of their colleagues to the Department of Justice. Each faction denounced the other as working for the Nazis; each was exposed.
MacLaren’s masterstroke, though, was a publicity blitz against IG Farben that finally forced the US authorities to take action.
It was in spring 1942, that BSC launched a 70-page pamphlet called Sequel To The Apocalypse, a taut distillation of MacLaren and Merten’s investigation of IG Farben’s American networks. Booktab, a BSC front company, published 200,000 copies, on sale at 25 cents, the striking cover featuring the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, one holding a torch aloft, whose smoke spelled out ‘IG Farben’.
The contents were explosive. They revealed, for example, the role of IG Farben in promoting the war, and the huge profits it was making from the destruction. It also detailed the company’s web of links with American household names, especially Standard Oil. With a foreword written by Rex Stout, a popular mystery novelist, it sold out immediately. Stout proclaimed that IG Farben’s American business partners were traitors, working for Nazi Germany’s interests.
For GAF and Standard Oil, the pamphlet was a public relations catastrophe. They immediately despatched teams of employees to buy up copies. But it was too late. The US authorities felt obliged to act; IG Farben’s business empire in America was closed down and its subsidiaries placed on a blacklist. The US government also seized 2,500 patents from Standard Oil, on the grounds that they were owned by IG Farben.
This was a massive setback for Nazi Germany, as it could no longer use its American network to supply vital war materials.
Its US allies were named and shamed, causing a wave of revulsion – especially as, by now, the United States was at war with Germany.
In many ways, Donald MacLaren seemed an unlikely spy – and it is thanks only to a cache of yellowing intelligence papers that some part of this story has been retrieved. The BSC archives were deliberately destroyed after the war because they were judged too sensitive for the public gaze. But MacLaren was as stubborn as he was brave. He kept his papers.
Paradoxically, it was his upbringing as a son of the manse that aided his work as a spy. The teenage Donald helped out on his father’s parish rounds, sometimes even ministering to the dying. Warm and convivial, he had an unrivalled ability to get people to share their deepest confidences.
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY READER WHO FOUND THE STORY
In May 2009, I wrote an article for The Mail on Sunday about a US intelligence document that I had obtained, known as the Red House Report – an account of a meeting of Nazi industrialists at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg in 1944.
They had gathered to plan the Fourth Reich and their domination of Europe through an economic, rather than military, imperium. Helen Scholfield, a MoS reader, contacted me.
Among her late husband’s papers, she had found several marked ‘Secret’ about British intelligence and IG Farben: the account of Donald MacLaren’s operation.
Journalist Bob Scholfield died in 2000 but without his diligent research, the story of how MacLaren destroyed the Nazi’s US economic empire might have lain buried for ever, one of a myriad of wartime secrets yet to be told.
By 1938, MacLaren had moved to New York. His skills at forensic accounting made him a natural recruit for BSC. New York in 1940 was a magnet for Allied and Axis intelligence agencies. Its immigrant populations provided natural cover for spies. It was dangerous work. He once told his son, Donald, he had killed an enemy agent and interrogated many more, but would not reveal where or when. ‘But fortunately, I never had to torture anybody.’
MacLaren himself was keen to fight and obtained a commission with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders but British intelligence refused to let him leave.
As the War ended, MacLaren went to Germany to build a legal case against IG Farben executives. He submitted a series of lengthy memos on the company and its leaders who, said MacLaren, embodied the dark nexus of German industry and the Nazi war machine. MacLaren argued, with remarkable foresight, that the way the Allies dealt with IG Farben would determine the economic balance of power in post-War Europe.
‘We are dealing here ... with denazification and demilitarisation of the heart and soul of the German war machine,’ he wrote.
In 1947, 24 senior IG Farben officials were tried for war crimes. Thirteen were found guilty. Their sentences were derisory. Hermann Schmitz received four years for ‘plunder’.
All IG Farben executives were released by 1951 on the orders of John McCloy, US High Commissioner for Germany.
Schmitz and his colleagues were warmly welcomed back to the German business world. The Cold War meant revitalising German industry was more important than punishing those complicit in mass murder.
IG Farben no longer legally exists. It was broken up into its constituent companies. But they are more powerful than ever. BASF is now the world’s largest chemicals company, with annual sales of almost €80 billion. Bayer is the world’s biggest producer of aspirin.
Donald MacLaren eventually moved to London, where he worked for the United Baltic Shipping Corporation, becoming a director.
In 1950, he stood as the unsuccessful Labour candidate in the Conservative seat of Kinross and West Perthshire.
He died in June 1966, aged 56, having never spoken publicly about his wartime role, the risks he took and the remarkable service he performed for his country.
© Adam LeBor
Tower Of Basel: The Shadowy History Of The Secret Bank That Rules The World, Adam LeBor’s investigative history of the Bank For International Settlements, is published by PublicAffairs.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530447/The-spying-Scotsman-hunted-Nazis-New-York-The-amazing-story-Britains-clandestine-war-Hitlers-agents-big-money-backers-US.html#ixzz2otwQLWMN
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