It’s strange that despite the clamour for ending the lockdown, Britain is also a nation gripped by fear, with 60% of the population saying that they will not go out and about as normal when restrictions are ended. It looks as though it will take a long time before people have the confidence to use public transport and attend big events. Some reports suggest it may even be this time next year before things begin to get back to some kind of normality.

The daily reports of deaths from the coronavirus have caused great fear of catching it and people do not want to leave their homes to have contact with others. However, most are finding other ways of contacting family and friends. In my own family we have a weekly Zoom meeting bringing together different family members from around the UK and abroad. It is wonderful that at the touch of a button we can all see all 20 members of our family – even the little ones who can’t sit still – and talk to each other as though we were in the same room. The advantages of modern technology are great, and we have more contact with all our family than we ever did before the crisis.

All our family are believers and, while we don’t want to get sick, we don’t have a fear of death. But what can we do with the multitudes who are living in fear? At root, it’s a fear of death. If you don’t have a faith, it’s a fear of going into the unknown, and that is what is gripping millions of people today, including our friends, neighbours and acquaintances. But what are we ourselves doing to help them – to share with them a little of the confidence that we enjoy as we read the Bible with its numerous messages of comfort, such as “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal” (Isa 26:3-4).

A fear of death is gripping millions of people today, including our friends, neighbours and acquaintances.

Church Leaders Quiet

I have a friend who is a pastor of a church in the East End of London, where my wife and I ministered for many years and where we brought up our three children. It’s an area where the population is predominantly from overseas, mainly Asians, Africans and Caribbeans, with few Christians. My friend discerns a new openness to the gospel in the general population and he is planning an online mission outreach covering the Borough of Newham with the American evangelist Luis Palau and his son Andrew. News of this is spreading and it may become a national event in the very near future.

I have great respect for Luis, who stayed in our home during his mission to London in the early 1980s. He is certainly one of the most gifted evangelists I have ever heard, and I heartily support an invitation to him. But I cannot help saying – what is the matter with churches in Britain? Why are they silent on a day of great opportunity and great need in the nation?

I’ve been a preacher for the past 70 years and I never stop – even during this pandemic. My wife and I now teach a weekly webinar on ‘Living in Babylon’ on Tuesdays; our ministry sends out a word of encouragement every Wednesday and I usually write this editorial on Fridays. But next month I will be 93! I want to know – where are the young men and women church leaders? Why are they not declaring the gospel from the rooftops of their empty churches? Why are they not finding some way of reaching the people around them and explaining to the nation what God is doing in sending this pandemic across the world?

Have they no fire in their bellies to declare the word of God for our times? Is there no preacher in Britain to give the gospel of our Lord and Saviour? Do we have to send to America to find a preacher to speak to our people?

Please don’t misunderstand me. I have only the highest respect for Luis Palau and I fully understand my friend’s desire to get the gospel to Hindus and Muslims in the East End of London. And if he succeeds in making it a nationwide mission, I will do all within my power to promote it. But I am utterly frustrated and disgusted with my fellow clergy and church leaders and silent believers, at such a time as this!!!

I am utterly frustrated and disgusted with my fellow clergy and church leaders and silent believers, at such a time as this!

Ambassadors for Christ

For the past 40 years I have been warning that God was going to shake all nations in accordance with biblical prophecy, especially such passages as Isaiah 2, Haggai 2 and Hebrews 12. The great shaking of the nations is here, now. All preachers who know their Bible should have been aware of what was coming and should now be able to explain to people what God is doing – what he is saying to us, and the repentance and change that is needed as an outcome of the pandemic.

We need to make it clear that the plague (and its follow-up) will not be lifted until the purposes of God are fulfilled. The next stage of the pandemic is the shaking of the world economy that will bring all nations to their knees and pose fundamental questions about the gross inequalities and greed that cause two-thirds of the world’s population to go to bed hungry at night, and other people to spend their time and money on combatting obesity! God hates the injustice and oppression that are built into our world financial system and have become part of our self-centred, individualised civilisation.

It is all set out in the Bible, if we only take the trouble to read the word of God. Where are the preachers to explain God’s purposes to the leaders of the nations and to the people? What is more, we should not be relying solely upon the preachers – every Bible-believing Christian is called to be a witness for Jesus. That is what the gospel is all about.

As Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors” (2 Cor 5:17-20).

We are all ‘ambassadors’! To answer the question I posed at the start, yes - there is something we can do right now – people are more open to the gospel now than I have known for 50 years! Get the message of this editorial out far and wide! Use your social media contacts – especially among your Christian friends – ask them to share this message with their contacts - let’s spread the word! Who knows – as Joel says “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing” (Joel 2:13-14).