We look set for a turbulent autumn and a winter of discontent.

Our political masters are back from their summer break, refreshed and reinvigorated and ready to set the world right. But do they come back to Westminster with any fresh ideas, or is it back to the same old policies, antagonisms and graft? Both main parties are riven asunder from top to bottom with division so we look set for a turbulent autumn and a winter of discontent, with the Brexit battle absorbing the Tories and anti-Semitism troubling Labour.

The resignation of Frank Field from the Labour Party whip and the bitter criticism of Jeremy Corbyn by Margaret Hodge are signs of the deep trouble in the parliamentary Labour Party. The outbursts from Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and other strong Brexiteers who say that Theresa May’s Chequers plan is dead in the water are all adding to the sense of confusion and turmoil surrounding Westminster at the moment.

Signs of Judgment

But these are classical biblical signs of judgment. Deuteronomy 28 gives a list of curses that would come upon Israel if they turned their backs upon the word of God and got heavily into idolatry and rejection of the truth.

One of the consequences would be “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him” (Deut 28:20). This prophecy was certainly fulfilled in 586 BC when Jerusalem including the temple, the palace and all the great houses of the city were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army.

Coronation Oath

Of course, Britain is not in a covenant relationship with God as was the nation of Israel; but our Sovereign, on behalf of the nation, swore an Oath of Allegiance to the God of the Bible in her Coronation Ceremony in 1953. Since then, as a nation, we have steadily turned away from biblical truth, passing one law after another that is directly against the word of God such as: The Abortion Act 1967, The Divorce Reform Act 1969, The Children’s Act 1989, The Sunday Trading Act 1993, The Gender Recognition Act 2004, The Equality Acts 2010, and The Marriage Same-Sex Couples Act 2013.

"We have steadily turned away from biblical truth"

Warnings

It is simply not possible to do all these ungodly things without bringing upon the nation the retribution we deserve. Another warning in Deuteronomy 28:28 says, “The Lord will inflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind.” We are certainly seeing this among our politicians today. We have had the truth in the Bible for centuries and as a nation we have chosen to discard it and go our own way.

In so doing, Britain, that had been under the protective cover of God for 1,000 years, moved outside that cover of protection and what we are seeing today is the result. There is no greater example of the rejection of the ‘God dimension’ in public life than Jeremy Corbyn’s behaviour in regard to the Jews and Zionism. 

Zionism

Zionism is the recognition of God’s covenant with Israel that is at the heart of our Judeo-Christian faith. The promise goes right back to the time of Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3).

Has Corbyn never read the Bible? As leader of a major political party in Britain whose Sovereign has sworn on oath to uphold the word of God in the Bible, he surely should have some understanding of what this means and of his own responsibility for upholding biblical truth.

It is a simple historical fact that the people of Israel occupied the land of Israel for many hundreds of years until the Roman army slaughtered half a million Jews and drove the remainder out of the land, destroying Jerusalem, renaming it ‘Capitoline’ and renaming the land of Israel – ‘Palestine’ – ‘land of the Philistines’ – as a deliberate insult to the Jews. That was in AD 135 and they remained scattered across the globe until their land was restored to them in 1948. Until that date the hope of returning to their traditional homeland had been expressed in the term ‘Zionism’ since the 1890s. It was endorsed by British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour in a 1917 Declaration which was endorsed by Lloyd George and Winston Churchill and became part of British foreign policy.

Anti-Semitism

But anti-Semitic prejudice has plagued the British Foreign Office ever since the 1920s and that is what we see reflected in Jeremy Corbyn and his followers today. Their get-out-of-jail-free-card added to the international definition of anti-Semitism this week allowing them to criticise Israel is a pathetic cover for the anti-Jewish prejudice at the heart of their policy. But the prejudice they are trying to conceal is not just a social attitude. It is, at root, a hatred of God and of the Covenant he made with the people of Israel through whom he has given his teaching (Torah) and revealed his nature and purposes in the Bible; and as Christians believe – He has also given us the Messiah, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Hope

Is there any hope for Britain? Of course there is! Bible-believing-praying Christians should be asking God to use this time of confusion to cause people to recognise our need of God’s help. The 100 young people who have died on the streets of London since the beginning of this year are evidence of a sick society that can only be cured by crying out to God for help. We have reached the stage in the corruption of society that only spiritual revival can cure! None of our problems can be solved by human ingenuity because at root they are spiritual rather than social problems that only God can solve.

None of our problems can be solved by human ingenunity.

Shaking the Nations

It is not only Britain that is in desperate need – the USA similarly is going through a time of political and social upheaval with President Trump under siege in the White House, and Democrats and Republicans hurling insults at one another in the run-up to the November mid-term elections.

Germany, Italy and many other European nations are also going through a period of political turmoil; so too is Australia. Throughout the Western world there are many signs that the great shaking of the nations prophesied in Scripture (Haggai 2:7 and Hebrews 12) are coming true in our generation.

We are rapidly moving towards the time when the situation will become so desperate that Christians will be battering the gates of heaven with their prayers calling upon God to send spiritual revival as the only hope of saving the nations from destruction!

A Famous Clock and a Total Eclipse

After more than 150 years of continuous chiming on the hour, Big Ben has temporarily ceased to gong. The four-year moratorium on the famous bell is so that repairs can be made without bursting the eardrums of the workers. And judging by the TV footage, there are serious cracks in the structure of the clock tower. And yet MPs, including Prime Minister Theresa May, have protested at what they consider to be this unnecessary deference to health and safety regulations.

Clock-Tower Corruption

It appears that they are not wishing to face up to the severe corruption of the clock-tower which needs major repairs. Maybe God is speaking to us through this episode – it’s more than a facelift that is needed. There has been talk for some time about MPs having to move out of the Commons while repairs are made to the crumbling foundations adjacent to the iconic clock. But that conversation has also gone rather quiet.

All of this is a clear picture of the state of the nation and the corruption in our national moral and spiritual life , thanks in large part to the diabolical laws passed in these hallowed buildings.
What a shocking betrayal of our esteemed forefathers who, inspired by their Christian faith, campaigned for laws – including the abolition of slavery and child labour – that set an example of moral righteousness to the rest of the world.

Parliament’s Foundations

It is well to remind ourselves that our Parliament is quite literally founded on the word of God – its floor is inscribed in Latin with the words of Psalm 127, verse 1: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain.” The Moses Room, which is the largest assembly room in the House of Lords has huge wall murals of Moses receiving the 10 Commandments which is a reminder to all MPs of the centrality of the word of God in our Parliamentary history.

This is a clear picture of the state of the nation and the corruption in our national moral and spiritual life.

But in the past 50 years Parliament has agreed to one law after another that directly contradicts biblical truth. Our MPs have deliberately rejected our Christian heritage with everything we have stood for as a nation for hundreds of years.

Abortion Act

Among the most heinous of these was the Abortion Act, which has seen the legalised murder of nine million unborn children. And yet, in our topsy-turvy politically-correct world, we have heard little about the horrors of this subject 50 years on while at the same time being bombarded with ‘celebrations’ of the decriminalisation of homosexuality – another law passed in 1967!

Life is cheap while evil is flagged up as good, and good as evil: turning upside down God’s law. (Isaiah 5:20). Our Parliament that was once the envy of the world and the ‘Mother of Parliaments’ is now in a state of weakness and confusion, symbolised by the decaying state of the historic buildings.

Our Parliament was once the envy of the world and the ‘Mother of Parliaments’.

Unless our leaders – political and spiritual – face up to the moral decadence of the nation to which they have contributed and instigate major repairs by reaffirming our biblical heritage in the same way as they are carrying out major repairs to the buildings the whole of our social order is in danger of collapse in the same way as the buildings are in danger.

Western Civilisation Cracking

God’s judgment is at the door, but we are not alone. The whole of Western civilisation is showing cracks similar to those in our Parliament buildings. The political turmoil in the USA grows steadily more serious with Trump’s White House administration at loggerheads even with his own Republican majority in Congress. The recent outbreak of racial problems in Charlottesville with clashes between far right and far left groups reviving the old problems that have assailed America ever since their Civil War, is greatly troubling.

Total Eclipse

The eclipse of the sun which enthralled many Americans should also be seen as a sign of the times. The darkness that came over America is also a warning that, like Britain, America also has been deliberately rejecting its great Christian heritage. The great faith of the pilgrims who founded America on the word of God has been steadily rejected for the past 40 years. The eclipse symbolises the darkness that is increasingly enveloping America .¹

The total eclipse over America is both a warning and a message of hope to our world.

Evangelist Billy Graham is reputed to have said that if God doesn’t judge America, he will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah. Speaking of events that would indicate his near return, Jesus said: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars…nations will be in anguish…People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25f)

Joel’s Prophecy

Luke also alludes to these signs from heaven happening in the ‘last days’ in reporting Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost during which the Apostle quotes the prophet Joel, thus: “I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below…the sun will be turned to darkness…before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.” (Acts 2:19f)

But the verse immediately following gives us great cause for hope, for it says: “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”Solar Eclipse

An Awesome Sign

Yes, the eclipse is a wondrous and awesome sign – but also a fearful one, in the light of God’s word which shall never fail (Isaiah 40:8). For the God of creation is also the God who cannot look on evil; that is why he turned his face away when his Son bore our sins on the Cross, causing our Lord to declare in his agony: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” quoting Psalm 22:1.

Our sins were judged on the Cross; they were condemned in fact. But if we trust in Christ for our salvation, we escape God’s judgment, for there is no condemnation for those who are “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The total eclipse over America is both a warning and a message of hope to our world in these days. The Apostle John records: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil…. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light” (John 3:19-21).

A stable society can only be built on Jesus, who said: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

References 

¹ According to Space.com, this was the first total solar eclipse whose path of totality remained completely within the United States since the nation’s founding in 1776.