The long-awaited revised plan offered by the British Government to the European Union has at last been made public. The Prime Minister presented it first at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester and then in Westminster. As was to be expected the reactions are mixed, with both the EU and the Irish Government expressing some concerns and the views of our parliamentarians falling into the usual tribal proclivities.

Boris Johnson says that the deal is a compromise and he hopes that the EU leaders are prepared to make similar compromises so that agreement can be reached. Of course, the most difficult issues concern the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but what is now on offer is certainly a new innovation. The fact that it appears to be acceptable to the DUP is the first hurdle to be successfully navigated but there will be many more.

Even if agreement is reached in the next two or three weeks with the Irish Government and the leaders in Brussels, agreement has also to be reached with the 27 leaders of the European states; then there is the virtually impossible task of finding anything that can be agreed by a majority in the House of Commons. Even if there is great goodwill on all sides, the timetable is daunting and the possibility of reaching the end of October without agreement is beginning to look increasingly likely.

God’s Righteous Justice

In these editorials our purpose is not to offer a detailed political analysis, but rather to seek a biblical perspective on current events. Today we start with the theme of the justice of God, a theme which ties in closely with this week’s Jeremiah study which examines Jeremiah’s statement in chapter 12 that God is always righteous in his judgment.

Where do Britain, Europe and North America, the formerly Christian ‘West’, stand before the righteous judgment of God? This is what Jeremiah tried to grapple with on behalf of Israel. We cannot directly compare ourselves with Israel because they were in a covenant relationship with God in a way that none of our Gentile nations are today. But all the Western nations have had the Bible for centuries, so we cannot claim to be ignorant of God’s standards of justice and righteousness and his requirements of truth and integrity.

Where do Britain, Europe and North America, the formerly Christian ‘West’, stand before the righteous judgment of God?

All of our social and economic relationships used to be based upon these biblical values, made explicit in the 10 Commandments but present throughout Scripture. These values once set the standard of behaviour for both individuals and corporate institutions. But we have largely rejected them, in the span of one generation.

We must conclude, then, that the Western nations are nations under judgment, for if we will spurn God’s laws, we cannot expect to reap their promised blessings.

Refining and Separating

Anti-Trump protestors outside the White House. See Photo Credits.The signs of this judgment are all around. Relationships within all the Western nations are in turmoil, our societies fractious and divided at every level. In the USA, President Trump is in the process of being impeached by Congress and in return he is charging his accusers with treason. In Britain, our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is having accusations thrown against him from every quarter as he strives to fulfil the majority decision in the 2016 Referendum to leave the European Union.

In the other nations of the EU there is great division and anxiety for the future as both economic and social issues affect the stability of the entire Continent – not least growing anti-Semitism, the indigenisation of Islam and the conflict between liberal secular humanism and populism.

When the nations are in turmoil, we should not throw up our hands in horror, but rather we should be asking what God is saying and doing in these days. We have, many times in these editorials, quoted biblical prophecies about God shaking the nations. Undoubtedly, the nations are being shaken today, but for what purpose? The Prophet Malachi foresaw days of great testing coming when God would “sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” He said we would see a “distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not” (Mal 3:3, 18).

Jesus himself speaks about God judging the nations and separating the sheep from the goats, a task in which he would be involved. I’m not suggesting that we have yet reached that point of end times judgment, but the principle of judging the nations runs right through the Bible and is especially found in the prophets, who foresaw the people of Israel restored to their land (which has undoubtedly happened in our lifetime) and all the Gentile nations held to account.

The Prophet Malachi foresaw days of great testing coming when God would “sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

Time to Declare the Truth

In view of all that is happening today, if ever there were a time for Christians to be active in declaring the word of the Lord, it is surely now. But the prophetic voice of truth is absent from our streets and public squares – and even from our pulpits. The harrowing words of the Prophet Amos are being fulfilled again, in our lifetimes: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine throughout the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord’” (Amos 8:11).

It is time for those who know and love the Lord to take courage and focus not on the turmoil around about, but on the ‘valley of decision’¹ into which the turmoil is bringing the people of Britain and the Western nations. The most urgent need is for people to hear the word of God so they can have the opportunity in this valley of decision to turn and be saved. That word will not be welcomed by many, but unless the plumb line of truth is declared, justice and righteousness cannot prevail.

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’" (Rom 10:14-15)

We each of us have a responsibility before God to use whatever influence we have in our daily lives to witness to his truth.

Notes

1 To use a phrase of my friend and colleague David Noakes.