The Gospel message comes to Britain and beyond.

It began around 4,000 years ago. Abraham’s obedience to God was accounted as righteousness and God cut a covenant with him (Gen 15). At the time, though the nations who had scattered across the world from Babel knew nothing, God committed himself unconditionally to establishing for himself one day a community of faith drawn from every nation.

While Abraham was learning to be God’s friend, tribes who settled on the island later to be called Great Britain worshipped gods of their own imagination. They congregated for human and animal sacrifice at such structures as Stonehenge, without fellowship with the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were neglected and lost, like all other nations across the world.

History moved forward. As God strove with his chosen people Israel through the times of the judges, prophets and kings, the Celtic tribes of Britain warred with each other - sometimes, perhaps, looking up into the universe wondering if there was a great god of Creation, but still having no means of becoming included in God’s covenant people.

But God did not forget his covenant with Abraham. In the fullness of time he sent his Son into the world and, through his sacrifice for sin, made forgiveness and salvation available to all.

While Abraham was learning to be God’s friend, tribes who settled on the island later to be called Great Britain worshipped gods of their own imagination.

Had this not happened, the tribes of the earth, including those in Britain, would no doubt have moved ever further away from God, and more quickly towards an ungodly alliance like the one at Babel. But God restrained their decline, dividing the nations in such a way that there would be a readiness for multitudes through history to hear the Gospel message and receive the truth gladly, by the same faith through which Father Abraham received the initial covenant promise.

Reminders still exist of Britain's pagan beginnings.Soon after the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, apostles trod the Roman roads in obedience to God, who had remembered his oath to Abraham. The history books are not clear just how and when it happened, but before Christianity was systematised in Britain by the Romans, the Gospel began its work of salvation among the Celtic tribes, having been brought to our shores perhaps barely a century after Jesus walked the earth.

This Sceptred Isle

Surely in this time of accelerating spiritual decline in Britain, which seems increasingly tribal and prone to strife, it is honouring to God for us to remember the great act of grace that established our nation, transforming it from pagan tribes to a kingdom avowedly under God. So magnificent was this transformation perceived that Shakespeare by the 16^th Century could describe our country as ‘this sceptred isle’.

Putting aside the often lukewarm or shallow responses our island people have displayed through the generations, there is nonetheless a thread of God’s grace that can be traced through 2,000 years to the present day. God found sufficient faith among our people to raise our nation high in the world. Is it not time to remember this and to study our history to uncover the multitude of testimonies of God’s goodness, putting aside all our pride, so that we might thank him afresh?

Going to the Nations

Not only did God bring the Gospel to Britain, but he also used our nation as a staging post to pass it on to other nations. There are many examples of the missionary zeal cultivated among those saved by grace in Britain. We can hear too much about the achievements of men in the establishment of the British Empire, but it was often despite man’s best efforts that God used us to take the Gospel to the rest of the world.

Consider, for example, the contending for the faith that led to the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ abandoning Britain to set up new colonies in what was called the ‘New World’, later the United States of America. The Mayflower Compact illustrates the way the truths of the Bible were by then so ingrained in the consciousness of British people that men and women would not settle for anything less than the pursuit of purity and the establishment of a truly Christian nation.

In this time of accelerating spiritual decline in Britain, it is honouring to God for us to remember the great act of grace that transformed our nation from pagan tribes to a kingdom avowedly under God.

The Pilgrims on board the Mayflower signed a document before landing on the shores of America. William Bradford was a key leader who recorded the resolution of intent regarding the new colony, which in more modern English reads:

The Mayflower at Plymouth Harbour (Halsall, 1882)."IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620."

In the following decades thousands more followed, among whom was the future first Governor, John Winthrop, on the ship Arbella. The passengers of the Arbella who left England in 1630 with their new charter had a great vision, which could be built on the foundation of the first pilgrims. They were to be an example for the rest of the world in right living according to biblical teaching. Referring to the Sermon on the Mount, John Winthrop stated their purpose quite clearly: "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us."

The Mayflower Compact became a foundational document that inspired the writers of the American Constitution over a century later, when the first 13 colonies along the east coast, from New Hampshire to Georgia, became the forerunner of the USA.

Not only did God bring the Gospel to Britain, but he also used our nation as a staging post to pass it on to other nations.

In Praise of God

Surely we can see God in all of this, not leaving us as pagan warring tribes to unite in some new form of Babel-worship one day, but to send us his Gospel and privilege us to be those who passed it on to others.

There are multitudes of details and testimonies from history which, if we remember them together, might fill us with a new humility and zeal of faith in this generation of decline.

Let us record our remembrances together in praise of God.