So Boris has got a deal! But the big question facing Christians in Britain is this – what is God saying to us? Is the hand of God inexorably guiding the nation towards a no deal outcome? Amazingly, Prime Minister Johnson has secured a deal with the EU which everyone said was impossible. But so did Mrs May last year! And her deal was firmly rejected by Parliament. Surely, Boris must know that whatever he presents to our rebellious Parliament on ‘Super-Saturday’ will have very little chance of being given the approval of the majority of our MPs. Even if the Archangel Gabriel appeared with a divinely approved deal, written in Heaven, it would be thrown out by this Parliament!
Having written that, I am well aware that I may have to eat my own words if something amazing happens and the new deal is overwhelmingly approved by Parliament. If that does happen, I would seriously question the value of the deal, as I have no confidence that this Parliament will do anything righteous, or that anything agreed with the European Union will be in the best interests of Britain.
I firmly believe that leaving with no deal is far better than leaving with a bad deal that keeps us partially tied to the EU. We need a clean break so that we have the opportunity to recalibrate all our relationships with God and with others.
Sovereignty of God
I have great respect for the DUP, who are the only Bible-believing group of Christians in the House of Commons. I respect their judgement – although, of course, they are politicians with a peculiar set of problems, and they are struggling to resuscitate a dormant Stormont. At the time of writing this editorial they are refusing to back the deal, which may influence other MPs and makes the outcome of Saturday’s votes uncertain.
Nevertheless, I am totally convinced of the sovereignty of God – that he holds the nations in his hands as a drop in a bucket, as I quoted last week – and that he will find a way of working out his purposes for Britain. And I am well aware that God can use any of our unbelieving politicians, as he used pagan Cyrus to get the people of Israel out of Babylon.
Even if the Archangel Gabriel appeared with a divinely approved deal, written in Heaven, it would be thrown out by this Parliament!
Shaking and Sifting
Back in the 1980s on Mount Carmel we were told that in our lifetime we would see a great shaking of the nations, which would include a shaking of the natural environment. Well, we are certainly seeing a great shaking of the nations today - and we are also seeing phenomenal storms, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and floods. When God shakes the nations, as in a sieve (see Isaiah 30:28), it is for the purpose of separating out evil from good.
The process of shaking is extremely uncomfortable: all the things that appear to be permanent – the pillars of society upon which our security depends – all collapse: everything that can be shaken comes apart. The great shaking of Western civilisation began with the First World War in 1914. There have been many milestones since then: the Second World War, the dropping of the first atomic bomb, the collapse of the British Empire, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR, 9/11.
More recently Western financial institutions began to be shaken at the beginning of October 2008 which, in a single weekend, saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Washington Mutual, Watchovia, the Citigroup and AIG. Many great industries and commercial institutions have disappeared in the last generation – shipyards, coalfields, steel foundries as well as high street stores, the latest casualty being Thomas Cook, the travel agent.
The Brexit chaos that is causing such division in Britain is all part of the shaking of the nation that had once a strong faith in God. We will never understand the great spiritual battle that is taking place over Europe (and, indeed, over all the Western nations) unless we recognise the hand of God in what is happening.
The process of shaking is extremely uncomfortable: all the things that appear to be permanent – the pillars of society upon which our security depends – all collapse.
Revival or Judgment?
In last week's editorial I took the bold step of proclaiming that revival will once again visit these shores, in a few generations' time. It may be necessary to correct some wrong impressions. I certainly do not foresee imminent revival. Britain is a nation under judgment – we have polluted the land with the blood of nine million unborn babies, we have destroyed family life for millions so that more than half of all babies are born out of wedlock; we have millions of children and young people suffering from mental health problems; sexually transmitted diseases among the young remain at epidemic levels; our police forces and prisons are in crisis.
The nation is morally and spiritually bankrupt – and so is a large part of the Church. We can be sure that God is not going to pour out his Holy Spirit upon an unholy Church and a diabolically disorderly nation.
Nevertheless, I do believe that to a large extent God is orchestrating the chaos! And there will come a time when things get so bad that people will start crying out, “Oh God what has gone wrong?” When that point is reached there will be a new openness for the gospel and an opportunity for the faithful remnant to declare the word of the Lord. I have said many times that there will be no revival without repentance. But once there is even the beginnings of a spirit of repentance in the nation there will be a new move of God. God is always quick to respond to penitent hearts - this is the teaching of Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son. I was glimpsing those days when I wrote last week’s editorial so I took the risk of speaking about it, because I’m convinced that God always holds out a door of hope to us his children, even in the darkest hour.
Our task now is to strengthen the faith of believers; “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees!” (Heb 12:12). We all need to keep our eyes upon Jesus, to watch what God is doing and not to be disturbed by the things that are happening around us. He will bring the Bible-believing faithful ones through the storm, as he promised to each of the ‘overcomers’ facing persecution in the seven churches of Revelation – from Ephesus to Laodicea – messages that are highly relevant for today (Rev 2:1-3:22).
