With the world facing some dreadful threats – Russian troops massing on the Ukraine border, Iran’s nuclear threat, the horrific volcanic eruption in the South Pacific – there is surely an urgent need for political leadership.
Where are the prophets?
And amidst so many clear signs of Jesus’ soon return, there is surely an even greater need for leadership in the Church. So I was thrilled to read of a stirring call for ‘prophetic preachers’ from Sydney-based Scot, David Robertson.
Writing in Evangelicals Now - generally representing Reformed evangelical theology which doesn’t go much in for modern-day apostles and prophets – Robertson laments the paucity of such preachers today – men like Francis Schaeffer and C. S. Lewis.
But he concedes that there are ‘prophets’ – like Jordan Peterson – who are not afraid to call out where society is going wrong, but who are not (yet) Christian.
Calling for ‘men of Issachar’ to rise up (that’s our aim at PT), he clearly rates men like James Phillip of Edinburgh and Melvin Tinker of Hull (who recently died) in this category. And I could name others, but I agree that they are few and far between.
And amidst so many clear signs of Jesus’ soon return, there is surely an even greater need for leadership in the Church.
One particularly towering figure, the late Lance Lambert, springs to mind, and it is worth repeating a prophecy he made over ten years ago (and passed on to me by my good friend Roy Thurley). Unless Britain repented of its waywardness, he said, our economy would be wrecked, our climate changed and demonic forces would be unleashed on our society. He further called for a focus on the gospel and said it would cost us everything to stand for Jesus (see full transcript below).
Have we heeded?
So, who was listening, and has there been any improvement since then? Well, we have become more apostate than ever, with no clear voice from leaders of the institutional Church, whose minds, far from being transformed by Christ (Rom 12:2), have been thoroughly moulded by the prevailing secular-humanist culture.
But there are signs of awakening too, along with a greater openness to re-engage with our Jewish roots. And there is an obvious hunger for truth among a populace weary of a seemingly endless string of lies perpetrated by those in authority.
Are we strong enough to cope with a tidal wave of enquirers desperately seeking hope and fulfilment? We must repent of our weakness, wooliness and timidity and earnestly seek fresh Holy Spirit fire to set our nation ablaze once more.
But, as Clifford Hill has asked, is the Church fit for purpose? Are we strong enough to cope with a tidal wave of enquirers desperately seeking hope and fulfilment? We must repent of our weakness, wooliness and timidity and earnestly seek fresh Holy Spirit fire to set our nation ablaze once more.
Swimming in muck
The Covid pandemic and current worldwide chaos is itself a fulfilment of prophecy. Haggai foresaw it first, and the writer to the Hebrews repeated it centuries later. More recently, in 1986, following a landmark gathering of prophetic preachers at Mt Carmel in Israel (of Elijah fame), Clifford Hill and others warned of a great shaking to come that would ripple around the world, leaving only what cannot be shaken to stand.
I pray we would be freshly challenged by what Lord Hailsham said over 50 years ago, also quoted by David Robertson: “Our country is being destroyed before our eyes by a conspiracy of intellectuals without faith, delinquents without honour, muckrakers without charity or compassion, young men who are incapable of dreaming dreams and old men who have never known what it is to see visions.”
And he added that the all-pervasiveness of media (this was before the Internet) meant that we get so used to swimming in the muck that there comes a point where we no longer notice.
Costing us all
To stand against all this for Christ will cost us everything, as Lambert warns. For Jesus said: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matt 10:38). That means we should consider ourselves crucified. “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
One of my ancestors of whom I am immensely proud is Lt Frank de Pass, the first Jewish soldier to be awarded a Victoria Cross. Under heavy fire, he blew up an enemy post and then rescued a wounded fellow soldier from an exposed position.
Attempting another daring raid the following day, 24th November 1914, he was shot and killed by a sniper. A commemorative paving stone, under the watchful ‘eye’ of General Gordon’s statue, was unveiled in London’s Victoria Embankment Gardens beside the Ministry of Defence on the centenary of his death.
Aged just 27, Frank laid down his life for his country, and his friends. So did Jesus, and so must we.
On August 6th 2011, Lance Lambert shared the following prophecy:
“Hear the voice of the Lord, O Isles that I have so greatly loved and favoured. I, the Lord Almighty, took you when you were nothing, clothed with skins and woad, and through my saving power, I made you great.
When you were nothing, through my word and your faith in me, I lifted you and made you Great Britain. Through many awakenings and revivals, stage by stage, I took you until you became a great power with the greatest empire in the history of the nations.
From you, my gospel and my word went throughout the world, and tens of thousands came into an experience of saving faith. That empire, with all its many failings and weaknesses, was still one of the most just and righteous empires of history.
Those isles of yours were soaked with the blood of my faithful martyrs and its soil received the burnt ashes of those who would not renounce my name, my truth, and my word. I, the Lord, have not forgotten those who gave their all for me.
But now the whole nation that I created and sustained has turned from me. They paganise their land, state and institutions; there is no voice heard to warn the nation. False religion, the work of world rulers of darkness, cover your isles; a Laodicean church, neither hot nor cold, rumbles on like machinery. It is a church where I am outside of its routine, its organisation and its methodology. It is Christianity without me; religion without me!
My being is seared with pain, for judgment is determined against your land. I can do no other. I will destroy the vestiges of her greatness; I will return her to her first estate. I will wreck her economy, destabilise her in every way. I will change her climate, even her weather. I will prove to her that the way of the transgressor is hard and terrible. I will allow demonic forces, held in check erstwhile by my word and gospel, and the living faith of so many, to become rampant in her social life, to the destruction of her society.
Will you who know me and love me go blind, deaf and dumb into this judgment? It is time for you who love me, who are faithful to me, to take action. Stand before me and plead the finished work of my Son. At least cry out to me, that there will be those who turn from darkness, from sin, to be saved. For whosoever shall call upon my name in the midst of these judgments, I will save!
It will cost you everything to stand in the gap, but you will enter into my heart and know deep fellowship with me. Such travail conceived in your heart by my Spirit will cost you deeply, but it will end in my throne and glory.”
Of Jewish ancestry (his father and many members of his family died in the Holocaust), Lance Lambert grew up in Britain, later becoming an Israeli citizen and long-time friend of many of its leaders. An inspirational orator, he had a unique insight into the future. He died in Jerusalem in 2015, aged 84.