If the nation is in a mess, who is primarily responsible?

God is working his purposes out.

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to a packed fringe meeting at the Church of England Synod in Westminster. There were a number of bishops and clergy of all ranks and the general atmosphere was one of deep concern for the state of the nation. The meeting was in Church House alongside Westminster Abbey and I think we were all aware of events across the road, where our politicians are struggling with seemingly intractable problems.

If any of those attending the meeting came expecting, or even hoping for, easy answers or joyful tidings, I’m afraid they would have gone away disappointed. The primary message I had to give was that God holds the Church responsible for the moral and spiritual state of the nation. I had been asked to speak about my latest book, ‘The Reshaping of Britain: Church and State since the 1960s’. I spoke about the last four Archbishops of Canterbury who I’ve known and worked alongside; and I spoke about the lack of a prophetic voice from the Church giving leadership to the nation in a time of revolutionary social, economic and political change.

It was not a comfortable message and in the short time of discussion it was clear that there are no easy answers to the situation. How do you bring creative, biblically-based change into an organisation as massive as the Church of England? I was only able to repeat what I’ve said so many times that there will be no revival in the nation until there is repentance in the Church. Of course, this is no easy message for those who are dealing with a multitude of pastoral problems in their congregations.

Right Understanding

One of the clergy asked, “Should we be encouraging young people in our churches to go into politics?” I know it is a very lonely and difficult place for Christians in the House of Commons at present. If there were a significant number of those who uphold biblical values and whose trust is in God, it would undoubtedly change the dynamics of politics and that should be a future hope and objective for all church leaders.

But I think it would take away a lot of our fear about the present political mess in the nation and our vast array of social problems if we simply understood what is going on. This means discerning the difference between the social engineering that has been driving the nation for the past 40 or 50 years generated by secular humanist advocates, and what is divine activity initiated by God.

It would take away a lot of our fear about the present political mess in the nation and our vast array of social problems if we simply understood what is going on.

Most Christians do not think in these terms because we do not rightly handle the whole word of God. We concentrate upon the Gospels and Epistles, but neglect to study the biblical Prophets, whom God used to reveal his nature and purposes to humanity in preparation for the coming of Messiah. Without a thorough understanding of this background we can never understand what God is doing in the world today. I said yesterday that this should be the major concern of church leaders today.

Listen to this from Isaiah 45:7: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” All the Prophets recognised that God creates disaster! But he is more than ready to change disaster into prosperity!!! In fact, that is God’s purpose! He is longing to see his children enjoying the blessings of those who uphold righteousness and live by the standards of truth he has revealed in his word over many thousands of years.

Shaking All Things

God is at present shaking all the nations, as he first revealed to the Prophet Haggai in 520 BC, the significance of which for today is explained in the New Testament in Hebrews 12. You can see this in the upheavals and bitter Brexit divisions in Britain, in the rise of the populist movement in many countries throughout Europe, and in the fear of the Brussels elite at what may happen in the EU election in May this year.

You can see it in the USA, where there has never before been such bitter division between Republicans and Democrats. You can see it in the upheavals in South America, in Venezuela; similarly in Africa, especially in Nigeria in recent days, in the Middle East, in the distressing humanitarian crises in Yemen and Syria, and in many other parts of the world.

It is not only the nations that are being shaken, but all the great institutions in which we human beings put our trust – including the Church! Right now, the Roman Catholic Church is being torn asunder by having to face the sexual sins of its clergy over many decades that are being revealed to the public. Successive Popes have delayed the day of reckoning for many years, but the Vatican is having to face the uncomfortable truth that a system of forced celibacy in a social climate of sexual libertarianism is a recipe for disaster! Large numbers of clergy have misused their spiritual power for sexual gratification, exploiting vulnerable children and adults. The day of judgment has arrived, and this has not just been brought about by social pressure, but by the judgment of God.

All the Prophets recognised that God creates disaster! But he is more than ready to change disaster into prosperity!

For Love

Why is God shaking everything? It may be amazing to those who do not study the whole word of God – but when God brings judgment upon the evil institutions of humanity it is an expression of his LOVE!

God so loved the world that he gave his own Son to save humanity from self-destruction. But our tiny minds simply cannot comprehend the magnitude of God’s purposes without the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit to flood his truth into our lives.

Let me give a small illustration of the great truth that I’m trying to convey. For more than 30 years I have been trying to teach a basic sociological truth that when you weaken and undermine the family, you destroy the social fabric of society, because the family is the linchpin holding everything together. This is what we have done in Western society and this is the underlying cause of knife crime, gang warfare, drug use, bullying, depression and suicide. We have crucified truth and produced an age of fake news, lies, hatred and violence, driven by the forces of darkness that we have embraced.

But amidst all this, God is working out his purposes to bring human beings to the point where they recognise that they have no solutions to the problems they have created. When they begin to cry out ‘O God, what has gone wrong?’ God knows they will be then open to the truth. He is calling upon his Church to be ready for a great spiritual awakening! Not a revival of the old institutions that we call churches, but a genuine new openness to the truth, met by a Church that genuinely both lives and declares the unchanging word of God.

That is the way disaster will be turned into prosperity! And the good news is that we may not be far from the turning point!

When the Church has failed the nation, how can believers pray?

Christians across Britain are gathering for prayer this weekend in meetings in towns and villages, responding to the crisis in the nation. There is no central coordination of these meetings. They are simply a spontaneous reaction to the growing anxiety in the nation to the turmoil in Parliament as we get nearer to the date for leaving the European Union. I am due to speak at an all-day meeting in Wembley Arena, organised by David Hathaway’s Eurovision ministry and which is being live-streamed on the Eurovision website.

The meetings will no doubt bring together Christians who voted different ways in the 2016 Referendum, but the common cause today is to pray for a divided nation and for our political leaders who are striving to find agreement on an acceptable plan for leaving the EU.

Many of our politicians are among the 48% of the nation who voted to remain in the EU and they are still seeking ways to reverse the decision, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that a second referendum would plunge the nation into an unprecedented period of division and uncertainty, possibly even triggering violent confrontation bordering on civil war, stoked by social media.

The Days of Dunkirk

The present crisis is being referred to in the press as something we have not seen since the days of Dunkirk. This is a good parallel because in 1940 the nation recognised that there were no human solutions to the situation facing us, with our army stranded on the continent and the rest of Europe already conquered by the Nazis. Only divine intervention could save Britain from invasion and defeat.

The whole nation was called to a Day of Prayer by the King, joining together to call upon God for a miracle, which Prime Minister Churchill acknowledged in Parliament after an armada of little boats rescued our soldiers from the beaches of northern France.

The difference today is that we are no longer a God-fearing nation and it is only the Bible-believing faithful remnant who will be praying. But God is not a democrat looking for a majority. He loves to work through small numbers, as he did through Gideon’s 300. The big question for Christians today is how do we pray? We know perfectly well that our nation is ungodly and that few of our parliamentarians are born-again believers. So, how should we pray?

The present crisis is being referred to in the press as something we have not seen since the days of Dunkirk.

Record of the Church

I believe the answer lies in looking at the record of the Church in the affairs of the nation over the past decades of social change. In the immediate post-World War II period, the state Church had an Archbishop, Geoffrey Fisher, who was a high-ranking Freemason more interested in the Masonic Grand Lodge of England than in the affairs of Britain. He certainly had no interest in evangelism.

Fisher was followed by Michael Ramsay who was just as bad, and took no interest in the affairs of the nation during his 13 years as Archbishop, while Acts of Parliament were passed of enormous significance in changing Britain’s culture, such as the Race Relations Act, the Abortion Act, the Theatre Act, the Divorce Reform Act and the European Communities Act, which took Britain into the EU. When all these momentous bills were debated, the Church of England was silent. The only bill that Ramsay engaged with in the House of Lords was the measure to legalise homosexual acts, which he publicly advocated.

But Ramsay’s example of political silence was reflected across the whole Church in those days. I have wept before the Lord many times for my own failure to speak about what was happening in the nation. I was the Minister of a large London church preaching to 500 people on a Sunday in the 1960s, but I was not even aware of the Abortion Act that has been responsible for killing nearly 9 million unborn babies. I bitterly regret that I did nothing at that time.

Worse Than Silence

When I was a young man, church leaders were all telling young people not to get involved in politics, which was considered the domain of the devil. This was in total contrast to the Victorian era when the Bible was quoted regularly in Parliament. But in the 20^th Century, evangelicals came to consider social action to be alien territory. We left politics to others so we should hardly be surprised at what we’ve got today. But the Church of England’s record is worse than just silence.

In the 20^th Century, evangelicals came to consider social action to be alien territory: we left politics to others.

In the year 2000 an Education Bill was going through Parliament and a peer introduced an amendment calling for schools to teach that faithful marriage is the ideal form of family. This was fiercely opposed by Tony Blair’s Government who were strongly influenced by LGBTQ+ activists. The vote in the House of Lords was very close - but nine bishops voted with the Government. If they had voted the other way, the amendment would have been carried.

In the report to Parliament The Cost of Family Breakdown,¹ it was noted that the Church’s official representatives had voted against faithful monogamy as the ideal for family life despite massive evidence showing that all other forms of the family give inferior outcomes for children.

Confession and Weeping

Christians who are coming before the Lord this weekend to pray for the nation should recognise that we are all part of the wider Church that has failed to take an active role in getting the Gospel into the affairs of the nation during the decades when the greatest social changes have taken place.

Our prayers should be prayers of confession, weeping before the Lord as Jeremiah wept over Israel in his day, “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for my people” (Jer 9:1).

Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and if we love our nation we too should be weeping before the Lord. The words of the Prophet Joel give us hope for the future: “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).

References

1 See Foreword by Norman Dennis, pp3-4. Download the full report here.

The institutional Church has capitulated completely to transgender ideology.

At the General Synod meeting in July 2017, the CofE formally agreed to welcome and affirm transgender individuals, as part of Justin Welby’s agenda of ‘radical inclusion’. At the time, the Synod agreed merely to ‘consider’ how to go about this (official theological debates are not expected to conclude until 2020) and the idea of a new liturgy was later rejected. Now, somewhat confusingly, a guidance document has been released for clergy, adapting existing liturgy to mark gender transition.

Some are already claiming it to be compulsory, prompting calls for clarification from the House of Bishops, which produced the document in conjunction with three transgender vicars.¹

The guidance not only asks clergy to welcome transgender individuals ‘unconditionally’ into their congregations; it instructs them to celebrate gender transition with a special service conveying the Church’s blessing on the person’s new gender and new name. So the CofE now calls for transgenderism to be celebrated as part of our God-given human diversity!

Statements of opposition have been released from such as GAFCON and Synod member Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, who remarks that the guidance “continues the Church of England’s devastating trajectory towards an outright denial of God and his word”.

Indeed, it is difficult to see the document as anything else but another step towards – or off – a cliff from which there may be no possibility of return for Britain’s established Church.

Affirmation and Celebration

The guidance starts with the unequivocal statement: “The Church of England welcomes and encourages the unconditional affirmation of trans people, equally with all people, within the body of Christ, and rejoices in the diversity of that body into which all Christians have been baptized by one Spirit.”²

It goes on to make suggestions for services to mark gender transition, recommending readings and including advice for rites, gifts and certificates. There is no mention at all of the age of participants; one is left to assume that if you are old enough to be confirmed in the Church of England, you are old enough to change your gender and receive a formal blessing from your vicar.

The CofE now calls for transgenderism to be celebrated as part of our God-given human diversity!

At least there can be no allegations of obfuscating the issue: the CofE’s position is as plain as day and makes no attempt to concede anything to those who hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching on these matters.

As previously with the issue of homosexuality, Christian welcome and care are conceived of only in terms of affirmation and celebration, as if the former were not possible without the latter.

Unsurprisingly, then, the guidance omits mention of the deep psychological, physiological, emotional, social and spiritual issues which accompany transgenderism and which – one would think – would be of central importance to address in ‘pastoral’ guidance to clergy seeking to discharge proper care for their congregants. Only last month, a tortured trans person wrote to The Telegraph in protest of the Government’s proposals to make transition easier, saying “I would not want others considering such drastic, irreversible action to end up like me, lost in a twilight world of fear and loneliness.”³

In its celebratory stance, the guidance rejects any sense that change may be necessary, as it is with everyone - not in order to come to Christ but as the only possible consequence of receiving Christ - as unfair, unequal and un-Christian. It therefore leaves by the wayside that part of the Gospel which involves repentance, turning away from ungodly lifestyles and being set free from the power of sin to live a completely new life of righteousness, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Hijacking Baptism

Except that, oddly enough, that part of the Gospel isn’t left by the wayside entirely. Instead, it is inverted and appropriated, particularly through the hijacking of the concept of baptism, which the guidance document recommends that clergy reference as part of their celebration services.

Baptism is commended to unbaptised transgender individuals as the “natural liturgical context for recognizing and celebrating their identity in Christ and God’s love for them”. Those who have already been baptised are encouraged to re-affirm their commitment under their new name, with the sprinkling of water and the use of anointing oil.

Our established Church is misappropriating one of the deepest and most profound symbolic acts God has given humankind.

The guidance states that “it is important not to give the impression of a second baptism”, since baptism is a statement of faith in Christ and should only be done once. However, its mere referencing as part of marking gender transition confuses the issue of identity and implies strongly that transition should be viewed as a profound spiritual step worthy of public celebration; even as comparable with/part of receiving ‘new life’ in Christ: “In the journey of a trans person this liturgy will probably constitute a watershed in their Christian discipleship.”

So, our established Church is misappropriating one of the deepest and most profound symbolic acts God has given humankind, not only to mark something other than Christian conversion (that alone is deeply disturbing) but to affirm practices and lifestyles which the Bible clearly teaches are part of our fallen nature and sinful world – things that should be shed upon receiving Christ.

The depth of this perfidy is difficult to verbalise. Theologian Ian Paul argues, “not only is [baptism] central to Christian understandings of initiation and discipleship, baptism actually enacts bodily death and bodily resurrection in the immersion in and coming up out of the water. We tamper with these foundational understandings at our peril…Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.⁴

Inverting the Gospel

As part of their services, clergy are encouraged to offer individuals some kind of written commemoration, like a certificate or an inscribed Bible, to mark the occasion – using their new name and preferred gender pronoun, of course.

Outrageously, the guidance actually tries to justify this biblically, saying “It should be noted that the giving or adoption of a new name has a long history in the Judeo-Christian tradition as may be evidenced from Scripture.” Later, passages such as the changing of Sarai’s name to Sarah, or Jacob’s name to Israel, are recommended for use in the service.

It would be laughable if it were not so awful. Again, we see transgenderism not only being celebrated, but being made equivalent to a life-changing spiritual milestone - even to the biblical concept of leaving behind one’s former life as part of Godly spiritual transformation.

This amounts to little more than a hijacking of Christianity to serve transgender ideology, in a barefaced inversion of the Gospel that should be untenable to any believing CofE member – congregation or clergy.

Heaping Judgment Upon Itself

Caught up in all this, of course, are well-meaning members of the CofE who are trying avidly to avoid a Christianity that forces people with gender confusion to suffer in silence or feel rejected by God. But responding with a Christianity that sanctions and encourages this confusion (and all the demonic life upheavals to which, unchecked, it can lead) as somehow a normal expression of being made in God’s image, to be embraced and celebrated as part of a faithful Christian life, is simply abusive of those who are suffering, who are in desperate need of God’s loving rescue. It is not real love and it is not true Christianity.

This ill-conceived ‘guidance’ document goes beyond a poor understanding of Scripture to an inexcusable warping of the Gospel, affirming practices which deny and deface God’s beautiful, deliberate creation of man and woman: even deigning to call these practices biblical. Truly, the CofE is calling good evil and evil good.

This guidance document goes beyond a poor understanding of Scripture to an inexcusable warping of the Gospel.

It is a frightening fulfilment of Romans 1:32, that “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (my emphasis).

The CofE is harming the vulnerable and heaping judgment upon itself – as is already evident from its plummeting membership and deep divisions. And the unbelieving world justifiably heaps contempt on its pathetic attempts to curry favour.

Thankfully, it is the Lord’s responsibility to sort out this dire situation. Nevertheless, believing Christians can at least defend those ministries who support people trying to escape and recover from LGBTQ+ lifestyles, as well as ‘dissenting’ clergy who take a stand against the prevailing direction of the Synod. God help us all.

References

1 See the official press release for more information.

2 Read the guidance document here.

3 Read the full letter on this page.

4 Wisdom and folly: the bishops’ guidance on transgender welcome. Blog post, 13 December 2018.

Truth has stumbled in the streets – and in the pulpits.

For the second week running the BBC on its Radio Four Sunday programme interviewed a young woman who had been an evangelical and then changed her beliefs to become a homosexual.

It would appear that the BBC has got its researchers scouring the land for these unusual specimens to make a big display of presenting them as part of its programme of normalising the abnormal. Every programme from quiz shows and entertainment to soap operas and documentaries must have its token LGBTQ+ representative.

For the past 20 years the BBC has been infiltrated by LGBTQ+ people who now make up a significant percentage of the staff.¹ Their influence can be seen every day in programmes and reporting. Our official state broadcasting service has effectively been taken over by a powerful lobby group who, although only representing 1.7% of the population, are determined to force their views on the rest of society by brainwashing the nation.

I listened to the programme with my usual analytical antennae raised high; even so, I was shocked to hear some of the things claimed by a young woman who said she had been an evangelical until the age of 35. She had written many popular worship songs but she had always struggled with her sexuality until after a nervous breakdown she was counselled by a liberal theologian who helped her to read the Bible in a different way, so now she is happy to tell the world that she is a homosexual.

But the thing that really shocked me was that she said that she had since talked with Archbishop Justin Welby who encouraged her to apply for ordination, saying that she would be just the kind of clergy that he wants to see in the Church of England. So now we have not only the state broadcasting service but also the state Church promoting LGBTQ+ agendas!

Now we have not only the state broadcasting service but also the state Church promoting LGBTQ+ agendas!

Friendship with the World

This is not the first time the Archbishop has said similar things. He told the Church Synod last year that he wanted the Church to become “more inclusive” (code for more open to compromising with secular humanists, other religions and the LGBTQ+ lobby) and he wrote to all CofE primary schools telling the teachers to encourage the children to cross-dress if they wanted, in order to prepare them for the kind of world in which they are growing up. It would appear that the Archbishop’s objective is to make the Church acceptable to the world.

This is surely the exact opposite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ where the object is to transform the world, not to befriend the world! Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth…Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division” (Luke 12:49).

The plain fact is that the Gospel offends the world. It brings division because those who love the world and its values hate the values of the Kingdom of God (James 4:4). The Gospel offends the world because the world hates truth. If the Church seeks friendship with the world, the Church ceases to proclaim the Gospel!

Denying the Nature of God

Of course, there is a cost to discipleship. There always was and there always will be. The 3^rd Century Church leader Tertullian said that ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’.² The Christian Church was born in blood, which is both a theological and an historical statement.

The Roman Empire persecuted the Church and cruelly executed Christians because they could see that the Christians were proclaiming a Gospel that was diametrically opposed to the values of the Roman world. Once the Church begins to compromise with the world it ceases to declare the word of God and it ceases to be the bearer of truth.

It would appear that the Archbishop’s objective is to make the Church acceptable to the world.

Truth is an essential part of the very nature of God. Isaiah recognised this when he heard God say “I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right” (Isa 45:19). And Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He described the Holy Spirit who would come from the Father as “the spirit of truth” (John 14:16). But the world hates truth because it exposes the evil and corruption of its ways.

When truth and its associated values of justice and righteousness are abandoned, disaster falls upon that nation. There is a telling verse in Isaiah 59: “Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey” (v14). This is exactly what has happened in Britain over the past two or three decades. Once you abandon truth, you put yourself outside the protection of God and disaster soon follows: hence the mess we are in today.

Truth Turned Upside-Down

But it is not only the politicians and the media who are peddling fake news and corrupt values. We now have the Archbishop of Canterbury as head of the state Church saying that a lesbian woman is just the kind of clergy the Church of England needs!!

Does he not realise the terrible damage he is doing to family and marriage by promoting the LGBTQ+ agenda? Truth has indeed not only stumbled in the streets, but in the pulpits of the Church of England under a disastrous Archbishop. Has he not read the Scripture: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness”?

You cannot turn truth upside-down without incurring the wrath of God and that goes for archbishops as much as it does for corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen. Back in the 1980s in Prophecy Today we criticised Archbishop Robert Runcie for promoting New Age teaching and liberal unbelief. We said we could not imagine a worse Archbishop – maybe we were wrong!

Truth has indeed not only stumbled in the streets, but in the pulpits of the Church of England under a disastrous Archbishop.

We are all accountable to God for our lives and those who carry great responsibility should take the greatest care to guard the truth. If the Archbishop leads the Church of England further into apostasy, he will be depriving the nation of a potential prophetic voice that could yet declare the truth in an age of scepticism and corruption. He will surely be held accountable before God.

Signs of Revival?

Many ordinary people across Britain are aware that the nation is in a mess. Even some newspapers are recognising that the nation is in trouble, with everything from political chaos, collapsing social systems (NHS) and rising mental health problems, to knife crime, drugs and gang warfare among young people.

What the nation desperately needs is a prophetic voice to declare that we have abandoned the word of the Lord and we are reaping the consequences! Church leaders need to declare the word of the Lord with simple direct authority and the Archbishop should lead the way.

If the institutional Church (not the true ekklesia of God) fails to lead in preaching the Gospel, God will bypass it and raise up prophetic voices elsewhere: as John the Baptist said, “I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” It may be God’s intention to raise up a grassroots movement by putting his word into the mouths of the faithful remnant of believers. This would fulfil the wish of Moses who said, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 11:29).

Guide to Christian Workers

Give us a watchword for the hour,

A thrilling word, a word of power;

A battle cry, a flaming breath,

A call to conquest or to death;

A word to rouse the church from rest,

To heed the Master’s high behest.

The call is given, ye hosts arise,

The watchword is EVANGELIZE!

To fallen men, a dying race,

Make known the gift of gospel grace.

The world that now in darkness lies,

O Church of Christ, EVANGELIZE!

(Our thanks to reader Penny Rutter for submitting to us this verse, taken from the back of her Bible)

References

1 11.5% of bosses and 10.6% of staff, surpassing an 8% quota. See here.

2 Original quote: “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.” Apologeticus 50, s.13.

The future of the Church in Britain.

This is a question that was fiercely debated by members, clergy and bishops in the Church of England following the consecration of David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham in York Minster on 6 July 1984. Some hours later a bolt of lightning struck the Minster and burned the south transept where the consecration had taken place.

It was particularly remarkable because weather maps showed clear skies over the whole of the UK and northern Europe except for this one tiny cloud no bigger than a man’s hand crossing Yorkshire and delivering an electrical strike of such magnitude that it overrode a newly installed lightning conductor at the Minster.

Even the secular media saw this as an ‘act of God’ but not so the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, who declared that God does not do such things. It later emerged that he was faced by a ‘God or Mammon’ dilemma as the Minster’s insurance might not have covered ‘acts of God’!

Liberal Theology

Jenkins had some unorthodox views on central tenets of Christian doctrine including casting doubt on the resurrection of Jesus. Although the Archbishop did not publicly support the views of Jenkins, he nevertheless continued to promote non-Bible-believing clerics to senior posts in the Church of England which brought liberal postmodernist teaching into the leadership of the Church that still has an influence today.

In last week’s editorial we were examining the influence of ‘postmodernism’ in the nation and noting its objective of destroying the family in its war against Christianity. We said:

The central tragedy of recent history over the past half-century is that neither Church leaders nor politicians have understood the philosophy of postmodernism, with its objectives of destroying Judeo-Christian civilisation.

For the Church to play a significant part in guarding the nation against destructive philosophies that undermine basic truth, its leadership must have an unshakeable grasp of truth that is derived from its source in God, the Creator of the universe.

For the Church to be able to guard the nation against destructive philosophies, its leadership must have an unshakeable grasp of truth.

When church leaders lack understanding of the truth - as revealed in Scripture, through the prophets of Israel and through Jesus the Messiah - and promote obscurity, distortions and lies instead, they come under the judgment of God. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1:18:

York Minster's south transept after the lightning strike, 1984. See Photo Credits.The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

This particularly applies to Church leaders who claim to be men of God but are not faithful in declaring the truth. In the same passage Paul continues:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

This is similar to Jeremiah’s complaint about the leaders of the nation in his day: “The shepherds are senseless and do not enquire of the Lord” (Jer 10:21). They were relying upon human wisdom; in 23:1 he elaborates this: “‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord.”

Undermining Truth

This exactly describes many church leaders and professors of theology in our seminaries and universities today, most of which are steeped in liberal theology and driven by its spirit of postmodernism, which has roots in anti-Semitism, atheism and Marxism.

I can speak from personal experience because I did a doctorate in liberal theology. I went up to university with a strong faith in God and a conviction that my life was to be devoted to preaching and living in accordance with biblical truth. Most of my faith was destroyed by the time I left university and it took me some years and a personal experience of spiritual renewal to regain my faith.

I went up to university with a strong faith in God and came away with most of my faith destroyed – having studied liberal theology.

Please do not misunderstand me – I am not despising biblical scholarship; indeed, we need good, sound, biblical scholarship to guard against deception in the Church and in the nation! But the postmodernist heresies that began in Germany in the late 19^th Century have penetrated deeply into our academic institutions, such that biblical scepticism undermining truth has been taught in many of our theological colleges and universities for the past century and more.

What is ‘the Church’?

In the light of this statement we can now return to the question at the beginning of this article: Can the Church come under God’s judgment? Here we must define our terms: what do we mean by ‘Church’?

If we mean the Church founded by Jesus on the Day of Pentecost when he fulfilled his promise to send the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, enabling and empowering them to take the Gospel to the nations beginning in Jerusalem, then to Judea, Samaria and out to all the world – if we mean the true Church that is the ‘Body of Christ’, then we must conclude that such a Church can never come under the judgment of God!

But are the institutions that we call ‘churches’ the true Body of Christ? I was recently discussing this with my wife who has for many years been studying church history. She told me about an incident of which I was not aware. When King James I became King of England (having previously been King James VI of Scotland), he brought with him a strong Christian faith although, like his father Charles I, he had Catholic sympathies. James wanted to make the Bible available in English to all his subjects.

At that time most Bibles were in Latin which many people, even among the clergy, could not read. He called together a group of Protestant scholars, some of whom were Church of England clergy while others were Dissenters (Nonconformist ministers). They allocated different parts of the Bible to individual scholars and collectively set about the task of translating the Bible into what became known as the ‘Authorised Version’ or the ‘King James Version’.

The group of scholars worked well together but there was one word upon which they could not agree, so they all came together to consult the King. It was the word ecclesia which in the original Greek of the New Testament means ‘a gathering’– or ‘congregation’ – ‘a gathering of people committed to a particular purpose’. The Dissenters wanted to translate ecclesia as ‘congregation’, whereas the Church of England clergy wanted to translate it as ‘church’, as in the Roman Catholic Bible.

The King agreed with the CofE clergy and the word ‘church’ came into the Authorised Version of the Bible and in most English translations since then.

The true Body of Christ can never come under the judgment of God!

What an amazing difference it would have made if our Bibles had all read ‘congregation’ instead of ‘church’. We might have been saved from the mess that we have today where ‘church’ can mean a building, a denomination, an organisation, a congregation, or a small group of believers in Jesus. We might even have been saved from the disgrace of whole denominations becoming infected by unbelief: becoming ‘a broad church’ tolerant of everyone’s beliefs (or unbelief).

Hope for Reformation

The prophecy in Hebrews 12:26-29 that all man-made institutions will be shaken and will crumble, appears to be happening: not only to banks, finance houses, business institutions and politicians, but also to the man-made denominational institutions that we call ‘churches’. This is surely the judgment of God falling upon corrupt institutions! `

The good news is that many Christians are recognising these institutional failings and are meeting in small groups for prayer, Bible study and fellowship similar to the first Christians. Luke describes this in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

Maybe what we are seeing today is the beginning of a new Reformation rediscovering the spiritual dynamic of the Early Church.

Further Response from Clifford Hill

Susan and Randall have asked me to explain why I believe that the true church as the Body of Christ cannot come under judgment. Let me say straightaway that I am not infallible and I’m open to correction from brothers and sisters in Christ – in this way we all learn from each other: so I really appreciate comments which I always read carefully.

I found the comments on this subject particularly helpful and I am happy to explain a little more of what I was trying to say. I was distinguishing between the true ‘ecclesia’ of God and the man-made institutions that we call ‘churches’. John is perfectly right in saying that of the 115 references to ecclesia in the New Testament only two are correctly translated in most English Bibles. They both refer to the riot in Ephesus where the whole town came together to oppose Paul’s teaching, chanting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” This gathering [ecclesia] is referred to as “an assembly”.

All the other references are to ‘gatherings of believers in Jesus the Messiah’ and in each case ecclesia should similarly be translated ‘congregation’, or ‘assembly’ (of believers). It is entirely wrong to translate ‘ecclesia’ as ‘church’, as in most English Bibles.

Confusion can arise over the concept of God’s judgment because the word is so often used to mean his wrath and punishment. In fact, the word used for judgment in the New Testament (krima) can mean these things, but is also broader, simply meaning a verdict or decision. In this respect, we will all be judged – for we will all one day stand before the judgment seat of God, as Paul says in Romans 14:10.

It is true that a church can go off track and come under condemnation like the church at Laodicea. But if we are part of the true ecclesia of Christ, it is his intention to present us spotless before his Father – it was for this that he shed his blood. Paul says this in Ephesians 5:25-27:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the ecclesia and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word to present her to himself as a radiant ecclesia, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

The New Testament teaching is that the true ‘ecclesia of Christ’ can never come under condemnation, for “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:9). True believers still undergo trials, but these are appointed for God’s paideia - his discipline - so our faith can be refined (1 Pet 1:7; Heb 12:4-11).

As such, the reference to “judgment beginning at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17) most certainly does not refer to God’s wrath! It is referring to the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire. It is the wrath of human beings upon God’s people – not the wrath of God upon his own people. That is made very clear in the context of the passage beginning 1 Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering…But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.”

Jesus himself said “Remain in me, and I will remain in you…if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:4 and 10). Provided we remain in Christ we cannot come under his wrathful judgment: we are bound to Him in love.

Cliff

Truth and justice have at last prevailed with the Hillsborough enquiry verdict. But where was God in the terrible events in Sheffield 27 years ago?

Everyone in Liverpool is relieved that truth and justice have at last prevailed with the enquiry verdict that 96 football fans were not responsible for their own deaths. But where was God when the terrible events in Sheffield happened, 27 years ago?

Clifford Hill looks back at his own ministry notes of a team event in Sheffield 28 years ago to shed some light on this. This is what he recorded:

MINISTRY NOTES: SHEFFIELD 1988

In the autumn of 1988 we did a week's ministry in Sheffield, with meetings at a number of different churches as well as some united events. On the final day the organisers had arranged a gathering of ministers, pastors and leaders of all the churches in the city who had been participating in the mission. Several other clergy whose churches had not participated in the meetings also accepted invitations to attend this team event - either out of curiosity or possibly to confirm how right they had been not to participate! There were about 80 clergy and lay leaders present for this final session.

Members of the team had been staying at various addresses in and around Sheffield. Monica and I stayed in the home of a suburban vicar. On the morning of the final meeting I drove the Ministry car to pick up some of the team who were staying in other houses. Edmund Heddle took the front passenger seat and David Noakes and Monica were in the backseats. Edmund usually occupied the front seat as he was rather large and needed the additional room, but he was hopeless at navigation so Monica usually had the map and gave back seat directions. On this occasion we were driving through heavy rush hour morning traffic when suddenly Edmund said, "Stop the car! Stop the car!"

I was busy thinking of what I should say at the forthcoming meeting and I was quite startled to hear his voice. Moreover, I had no idea why he should give such a command. It was not easy to respond as we were in the outside lane surrounded by slow-moving traffic but there was an urgency I could not ignore. I assumed he was unwell. I stopped as soon as possible, putting on the hazard lights at the same time. We were right opposite the Hillsborough football ground.

Edmund was making strange groaning noises which convinced me that he was ill. All three of us looked at him anxiously and asked what was the matter. He was unable to reply and appeared to be robbed of the power of speech, which increased our concern for his health. He signalled us to be quiet and after what seemed to be ages, but was probably no more than a minute or two, he indicated that he was seeing a picture and receiving a message.

It was not unusual for Edmund, an elderly Baptist minister, to see pictures with a message and after a number of years working together we had learned to respect his integrity. When Edmund said he was receiving something from the Lord we gave him space and we paid attention. On this occasion he was clearly going through a deeply traumatic experience that had a strangely emotional effect upon him. He was groaning and weeping and breathing heavily. He was trying to describe what he was seeing but he simply could not articulate the experience. Eventually he began falteringly:

I see a most terrible tragedy in that football ground. There is an immense crowd that overflows the stands. I see people stumbling and others treading upon each other in the crush. There is panic! There are bodies, children, young people and adults being trampled upon. The noise of their cries and their suffering and fear and panic is unbelievable and indescribable. I hear such a tumult and see such disorder and bewilderment. No one knows what to do. Everywhere there is panic and many lives are being lost. The authorities are powerless to deal with the situation and no one knows what to do. The cries of the dying are too much to bear.

His voice tailed off and he lapsed into a heavy silence; his whole body being shaken with emotion. For a long time, he could do no more than groan and weep helplessly. We had never seen Edmund so disturbed in all the years that we had worked together as a team. We knew that he was not given to emotional outbursts and this was something very special. So we simply sat there in the car surrounded by traffic with no words spoken. We didn't even look at each other. We were in silent prayer, trying to deal with something we didn't understand.

We must have sat there for at least 10 minutes listening to Edmund's dramatic description; then asking the Lord to show us what to do. Eventually we remembered that we had a large number of church leaders from across Sheffield waiting for us. We all agreed that Edmund must report his experience to the local church leaders. We moved out into the traffic heading for the church where the meeting was to take place.

The meeting began with worship: we gave our report on the previous week's meetings and there was a good time of feedback followed by intercession. We then briefly described our journey that morning and told them that Edmund had received a picture with a message which we believed to be a significant revelation.

Having set the scene, I asked Edmund to describe his experience. He did so without the dramatic emotion that he had experienced in the car outside the football ground and everyone listened intently. It was difficult to gauge the reaction but no doubt many were sceptical and others simply felt that there was nothing they could do about it. We had a time of open prayer when many voices were raised asking God to show us the significance of this picture and that if it were a true word of warning, God would show what action should be taken. We returned to London leaving them to seek further guidance.

On Saturday 15^th April 1989, the nation was stunned by news of the worst tragedy in the history of British football. Liverpool Football Club was due to play a semi-final match in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough Sheffield ground. Thousands travelled from Liverpool to support their team in this important match and many thousands also travelled from Nottingham. The Liverpool end of the ground was vastly overcrowded and insufficient precautions were taken to limit the number of fans entering that section. The crush was so great that barriers collapsed and metal fencing was broken down. People stumbled and were trodden upon. The resulting panic increased the problem. 96 people lost their lives. The youngest was a boy only 10 years old. Five boys were aged 14. Most of the casualties were young men in the age range 17 to 24 while the oldest were two men in their 60s. The sense of bereavement and loss in the City of Liverpool was intense. The whole City mourned the loss of their children, young men and fathers.

Immediately after this event many of the clergy in Sheffield telephoned our Ministry office or wrote letters recalling the vivid picture that Edmund had received. There were many expressions of regret that no action had been taken. No one had gone to the football authorities and warned them of the danger that God had revealed. Of course, it is quite likely that the football authorities would have dismissed the warning but many of the ministers expressed a sense of guilt that they had not taken the warning seriously.

An Important Lesson

The people of Liverpool have had to wait 27 years to hear the truth about what happened on that fateful Saturday. At last the lies and cover-ups have been exposed: truth and justice have been established. But the ministry notes above show that there is another revelation which ought to be made known to the people of Liverpool: it is that God cared so much for their sons and daughters and husbands and fathers that he gave a special revelation to one of his servants – one who was listening to him regularly and was sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit that God was able to speak to him as we drove past that football ground some six months before the event.

God gave that revelation to Edmund so that lives could have been saved! I am not blaming the Sheffield clergy for their lack of action because I too did nothing more. As team leader I should have followed up our visit by ensuring that the football authorities were contacted and given the warning. I was busy going on to other meetings around the country; but that is not a valid reason for not taking the revelation seriously enough.

There are lessons here – for those in church leadership and for ordinary believers. If church leaders do not take prophetic warnings seriously we cannot expect secular authorities to do so.

All committed Christians have access to God through the Holy Spirit and all can learn to listen. At Prophecy Today UK we often hear of believers receiving words from the Lord, giving them to their pastor but having them rejected or not taken seriously. Leaders should take care not to dismiss words of revelation lightly, but to weigh them carefully and thereby encourage the whole fellowship to be a listening as well as a praying people.