God will hear the cries for justice – but will we?

It seems that our divided, weakened, chaotic Government is able to unite, occasionally, over things that really matter. Like matters of life and death. Last week, the Commons voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure which included the imposition of legalised homosexuality and abortion on Northern Ireland, where a strong biblical stance on the latter has hitherto saved 100,000 lives.

This week, despite impassioned speeches from pro-life peers and outcry from tens of thousands of Northern Irish citizens, the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill passed through the House of Lords with ease, including a further amendment from Baroness Barker agreeing even more relaxed abortion rules. The amended version was passed by the Commons on Thursday, 328 to 65.

The bill was intended to allow more time for Stormont to reconvene its devolved government, but has been hijacked to serve both pro-abortion and LGBTQ+ agendas. Taking advantage of Stormont’s political crisis, politicians in Westminster have displayed utter contempt for devolution by taking Northern Ireland’s social matters into their own hands (an amendment to give members of Stormont a say was not passed).

In a display of flagrant political opportunism, our MPs have fast-tracked through Parliament the imposition of one of the world’s most extreme abortion laws on Northern Ireland presumably because, like the BBC and the rest of the metropolitan liberal class – they genuinely believe they are morally right. They have a duty, in the ominous words of the BBC, to make sure that Northern Ireland is ‘brought into line’ with the rest of the UK.¹ They must ‘force the people to be free’.

On the Altar

Two biblical incidents have come to mind in these last few days as I have been pondering this truly terrible state of affairs. One is the infamous time in the history of Judah when the nation had degenerated to such an extent that even the kings began to sacrifice their children in pagan fire – affirming a practice for which Israel had already been judged (2 Kings 17:17) and which the Lord detests.

Both Ahaz and Manasseh sacrificed their sons to the Canaanite god Molech (see 2 Kings 16, 21), incinerating them just as today’s aborted babies are incinerated, looking to safeguard their own prosperity just as today’s parents choose abortion because children are considered too expensive, too inconvenient.

These kings provoked the Lord’s fierce anger and helped to seal his judgment upon Judah, with the promise that Jerusalem would be wiped out “as one wipes out a bowl – wiping it and turning it upside-down” (2 Kings 21:10-15, 23:26).

Both Ahaz and Manasseh provoked the Lord’s fierce anger and helped to seal his judgment on Judah by sacrificing their sons.

If this was the case for God’s covenant nation, how much more is judgment inevitable for Britain? To the Lord “a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Pet 3:8). Here children have been sacrificed on the same altar of convenience and prosperity for more than 50 years – and now we are exporting this detestable practice around the world – not just to Northern Ireland, but to poorer nations through our international aid and development programmes.²

Cries Drowned Out

When children were sacrificed in the flames to Molech, priests standing around the family would bang and clap, making so much noise that the child’s screams were drowned out.³ Just so today, the moral claims of the unborn are being drowned out by a cacophony of voices affirming to parents that they are doing the right thing – that it is their right to choose.

Meanwhile, the majority of people in the UK (who support a reduction in the upper limit for abortion, not its extension) are also being distracted from the cries of the unborn by a chattering, chaotic media class determined to keep all the focus on Brexit, on money matters, on Trump, on climate change, on sport…on anything else, really. “‘But I have been watching!’ declares the Lord” (Jer 7:11).

Your Brother’s Blood

This brings me to the second passage that has been on my mind this week: the story of Cain and Abel. Abel may not have been murdered in the womb, but he was murdered in secret, where his screams could not be heard, and by a blood relative, Cain. Adam and Eve may not have witnessed the attack, but the Lord saw, and the Lord heard:

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (Genesis 4:9-11, emphasis added)

The word used for ‘cries out’ in this passage is the same word that is used to describe the Israelites crying out to God for deliverance from Egyptian slavery and from the oppression of the Canaanites. It connotes a screaming out for justice, for help, for intervention. In that vein, it is also the word used to describe the summoning of fighting men to go to war (e.g. Judg 7:23, 10:17) – a rousing call for aid in a time of distress. The implication in the story of Abel is clear – the spilling of innocent blood shrieks out to God’s sense of justice, summoning a fierce response.

As our MPs and peers casually nod through contemptible, murderous legislation, you can be sure that the blood of the innocent will scream out to the Lord – and that it has been doing so, from British soil, since 1967. How long will the Lord delay his response? Surely the chaotic turmoil of our current Parliament is the very least that we deserve – and likely only the beginning of judgment to come.

The blood of the innocent has been screaming out to the Lord from British soil since 1967.

Saving Souls

Elsewhere in this week’s issue of Prophecy Today, our editorial comments on the importance of Britain changing her attitude towards Israel and taking opportunities to confess our historic failure to support the Jewish people. This is indeed of vital importance to our nation’s future. But before God, do we not also deserve to be torn apart for what we are doing to these little ones – and for all the other ways in which sin is being allowed to pervade and corrupt our culture? If we supported Israel wholeheartedly, but did not repent in these matters, would he let us go unpunished?

For Christians, juggling these various claims on our prayers can be overwhelming. But the final point that needs to be made is this: the Gospel must head up our struggle for truth in all of these areas. Without the Gospel, we are fighting a losing battle on every issue – from abortion to freedom of speech, from sexuality to euthanasia.

“You have one business on earth,” said John Wesley to his fellow Methodists, “to save souls”. How much was Britain’s godly culture a wonderful outflow of the evangelical labours of such as Wesley? Conserving its last vestiges may buy us some time, but we cannot recoup what has been lost without true revival touching this land once again. This means not just political activism on our part, but Gospel witness. If the cries of the blood of the innocent do not galvanise us to this end, what will?

References

1 See here.

2 E.g. see here and here.

3 According to the Midrash.

God's plans for the faithful remnant.

The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. Go, proclaim this message towards the North: ‘Return, faithless Israel’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry for ever. Only acknowledge your guilt – you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favours to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me, declares the Lord.’” (Jeremiah 3:11-13)

This pronouncement is said to have been given to Jeremiah “During the reign of King Josiah” (Jer 3:6) which makes it one of the earliest words given to the Prophet, as Josiah died in 608 BC when Jeremiah was still a young man, probably in his 20s.

If we compare this word to that given in the year 587 BC, more than 20 years after Josiah’s death, we find Jeremiah still talking about a promise of restoration to Israel, the Northern Kingdom. That promise was given when Jeremiah was being held in the gatehouse of the guard (Jer 33:14) just before the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar’s army, which reveals the life-time commitment of Jeremiah to the message of restoration and to unity between the two houses of Israel, North and South.

Calling Back the Remnant

This message is all the more remarkable when we remember that Jeremiah never knew the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which had been destroyed by the Assyrians about one hundred years before he began his ministry.

The city of Samaria had been destroyed and the whole Northern Kingdom of Israel overrun by the Assyrians who carried out ethnic cleansing, deporting whole communities and resettling them in different parts of the Assyrian Empire, while replacing the Israelites with people from Babylon and other parts of their Empire (2 Kings 17:24). Historically this began the formation of the mixed-race people known as the Samaritans, who were still around at the time of Jesus.

Jeremiah had a life-time commitment to the message of restoration for both houses of Israel, North and South.

Jeremiah firmly believed that it was God’s purpose at the end of a period of exile to bring together the remnants of both peoples, those of Israel and those of Judah, who were scattered around the old Assyrian and Babylonian empires. They would be brought back to the land originally promised to their forefathers, but there would no longer be any tribal differences: they would be one people in a covenant relationship with God who declared “I will be their God and they will be my people” (Jer 31:33).

Message of Hope

This word from the Lord pronounced by Jeremiah must have come as a wonderful message of love and mercy from God to the remnant of Israel still in the land. They must have felt lost and abandoned after the disaster that had befallen Samaria and the whole Northern Kingdom. It appeared that God had deserted them and that there was no hope of redemption from the yoke of Assyria. But this beautiful word of hope from Jeremiah would have brought them great joy.

A similar word was given in Babylon to the remnant of Judah, to whom Isaiah was sent by God with a message of restoration: “‘For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger, I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,’ says the Lord your Redeemer” (Isa 54:7-8).

This is similar to the promise given in Isaiah 49:15: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will never forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hand.”

The promise of restoration given to Jeremiah was conditional upon the response of the faithful remnant. He was told to go and proclaim the message towards the North: “Return, faithless people, for I am your husband. I will choose you – one from a town and two from a clan – and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer 3:14-15).

The promise of restoration given to Jeremiah was conditional upon the response of the faithful remnant.

Preserving a Remnant

This promise is of great significance for us today. When a nation comes under judgment or grave misfortune that has been brought upon them by their own foolishness or falling away from the truth, everyone suffers – the righteous and the unrighteous, the guilty and the faithful. But God recognises that there is always a faithful remnant, even in times of judgment and national catastrophe.

They are the ones who provide the seed of renewal, the hope for the future – the tiny number of faithful believers who have not surrendered to foreign gods but who have remained faithful to the God of their fathers, the God of the Bible who gave his word of truth to Moses.

This promise says that God would summon “one from a town and two from a clan”: these precious individuals who had remained faithful to God, he intended to bring together into a new relationship with himself (the fulfilment of the New Covenant given first as a promise to the house of Israel and the house of Judah in Jeremiah 31 and opened to Gentiles through Jesus).

This faithful remnant would be used by God for the salvation and restoration of the whole nation – for a fresh outpouring of his cleansing, refreshing and empowering Holy Spirit that would bring resurrection life to the nation.

Sowing Life

While these promises were originally given to Israel and Judah, we can learn important principles from them that apply to us today. God loves to use small numbers for carrying out his purposes as he used Gideon’s 300 to save the whole nation. In the same way, God preserves a small number in every generation who remain faithful through the darkest days.

At the right time he turns to them and uses them as the seedbed for sowing life into the soil of the land; as the kindle for lighting the fires of revival that spread across the countryside from village to village and town to town, until all the people lift up their heads again and come to Zion, to the God of Creation, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He is the One who has given the true faith for all time: who so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever shall believe in him will have eternal life.

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

The Equalities Commission will not have its cake, nor will it eat it.

In a rare win for freedom of expression, Belfast bakers Daniel and Amy McArthur have been exonerated by the UK Supreme Court of any liability, after refusing to bake a cake promoting gay marriage.

Four years of this high-profile legal battle have exposed the gross injustices of Britain’s ‘hate laws’. Well done to these two steadfast Christians for refusing to give in to the state bullies who have wrongly accused them. This is a real victory!

It is frightening that this case had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to get a verdict that plain common sense should have delivered instantly. It has also exposed the bias of the so-called ‘Equality Commission’ in Northern Ireland (ECNI) – a supposedly ‘independent’, publicly-funded body dedicated to promoting ‘equality’ and ‘human rights’. Here, effectively, is an arm of the state colluding with the LGBTQ+ lobby to punish ordinary citizens and small businesses for failing to affirm LGBTQ+ ideology, wasting £250,000 of tax-payers’ money in the process.¹

But despite these things, the verdict should still be a real cause for celebration. It is not an ‘offensive’ win, taking legal ground back for ‘Christendom’, but it is a landmark ‘defensive’ win, ensuring Christians’ continued freedom to refuse to partake in and affirm the sinful beliefs and practices of this generation.

Freedom for Conscience

Had it gone the other way, it would effectively have spelled the end of freedom of conscience, especially in the sphere of trade, setting a legal precedent for the state to enforce independent businesses to affirm values with which they disagree profoundly. It is therefore a win that should benefit everyone, not just Christians, as Daniel McArthur emphasised to the press after the judgment was given:

The judges have given a clear signal today. In fact, it couldn’t be clearer. Family businesses like ours are free to focus on giving all their customers the best service they can – without being forced to promote other people’s campaigns.

I know a lot of people will be very glad of this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone.²

By contrast, the ECNI revealed its contempt for the idea of individual freedom of conscience in its post-judgment statement, saying “There is a concern…that the beliefs of business owners may take precedence over a customer’s equality rights, which in our view is contrary to what the legislature intended”.³ Those in charge of equality law enforcement obviously consider their own brand of morality to be incontrovertible; they brook no dissent- and they don’t think that the courts should, either.

Had the judgment gone the other way, it would effectively have spelled the end of freedom of conscience, especially in the sphere of trade.

The Battle Underneath

Underlying the Ashers case is a deep conflict between the freedoms brought about by Judeo-Christian values – the vestiges of which still linger in Britain’s institutions and culture - and the secular humanist values of equality law, which promise freedom but tend towards tyranny.

This latter worldview has been encroaching on Britain for decades, helped along by the commandeering of positive-sounding words like ‘justice’, ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’. Instead of ‘equality’ meaning the dignity that should be afforded to all humans because they are made in God’s image, regardless of their personal beliefs, ‘equality’ has been co-opted to mean enforced compliance with an atheistic, sexually licentious worldview.

This kind of ‘equality’ is grounded in a rejection of the God of the Bible and his created order, and a devaluation of individual freedoms for the ‘greater good’.

Behind this again are spiritual forces of darkness aiming to thwart the salvation of millions by (a) promoting and seeking to compel ungodly beliefs and behaviours, and (b) working to shut down and punish godly behaviours and responses. In the Ashers case, both of these spiritual strategies have been in play. The McArthurs have come under enormous pressure to compromise their own convictions and bow to the spirit of the age.

But – praise the Lord – this time, the attempt to shut down Christian witness has backfired spectacularly. The Supreme Court’s verdict shows that there may yet be hope for our institutions. Even more deliciously, the case has afforded Daniel and Amy many opportunities to testify in front of national reporters and TV cameras to God’s goodness and truth, which they have done with grace, dignity and evident faith:

Victoria Jones/PA Wire/PA ImagesI want to start by thanking God. He has been with us during the challenges of the last four years. Through the Bible and the support of Christians, He has comforted us and sustained us. "He is our rock and all His ways are just.”

We're delighted and relieved at today's ruling. We always knew we hadn't done anything wrong in turning down this order. After more than four years, the Supreme Court has now recognised that and we're very grateful. Grateful to the judges and especially grateful to God.⁴

Praise the Lord – this time, the attempt to shut down Christian witness has backfired spectacularly.

The Light Shines

The victory and the witness are both enormously refreshing. The McArthurs have tasted the truth of Isaiah 54:17: “’no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,’ declares the Lord.”

But just as heartening is the amount of public support the couple has received, including from surprising quarters such as gay activist Peter Tatchell. Tatchell does not agree with the McArthurs’ beliefs, but vehemently defends their right to hold them without fear of punishment, understanding that vital freedoms are at stake. Tatchell joins a growing crowd - like the lesbians protesting trans ideology, and the students rejecting an inherited university culture of alcoholic excess (see last week’s editorial) - who seem to be realising that Britain’s culture change has gone too far. Though they may not understand fully, they can see that society is risking self-destruction and the loss of many hard-fought, hard-won freedoms.

Perhaps (I certainly hope) we are seeing the beginnings of a backlash against the seemingly relentless erosion of Judeo-Christian values in Britain. The war is certainly not over - God apparently still stands ready to intervene for his precious saints, granting continued freedom to the whole nation in the process. Who knows, we may yet see some unlikely characters joining the fight for freedom before long.

Meanwhile, we can pray that the McArthurs’ testimony bears abundant spiritual fruit. When believers stand their ground, graciously but firmly, against the attacks of the enemy, sometimes they are granted worldly victory and vindication - sometimes not. But God will never let their witness go to waste:

Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. But beware of men; for they will hand you over to their councils and flog you in their synagogues…But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to respond or what to say. In that hour you will be given what to say. For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you…

…Therefore, everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:16-33)

Notes

1 DUP MP Ian Paisley has written to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland in the aftermath of the Ashers ruling, calling for a review into the ECNI’s funding.

2 Watch Daniel’s full statement here (1 min 50).

3 Read the full ECNI statement here.

4 See note 3.

The Irish political game: North and South.

Have the lives of unborn children now become pawns in the political game? How low can we sink in the United Kingdom?

Satan’s cleverest lie is that he does not exist. Once that lie is accepted, the guard is down and a stream of further lies and deceptions can follow among which is the lie that there is no God presiding over the affairs of men.

In the course of just one generation, the majority of the people of the United Kingdom have become beguiled in this way: as a consequence, the laws of God have become trampled under our feet and some strange concoction of so-called ‘human rights’ has replaced the fear of the Lord. And this has happened in a nation whose Monarch made an Oath before Almighty God in the 1953 Coronation (whose 65^th anniversary is celebrated this very week) to maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel, to the utmost of her power.

Was it not the God of the Bible to whom the Oath was made? The personal God who does exist and cares about the affairs of our nation, to the extent shown in the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ, the total focus of the Gospel which the Queen, on behalf of the entire nation, vowed to proclaim!

satan’s cleverest lie is that he does not exist. Once that lie is accepted, the guard is down.

A multitude of our laws have changed over one generation to reverse what was once a much better reflection of the laws of God. Is it any wonder that God’s protection is being removed from our nation when we ourselves have reversed laws that were themselves intended to protect?

Thin End of the Wedge

This week, once more the protection of unborn children is in focus, wrapped up in the more clinical language of ‘abortion’ and the misguided language of human and feminist rights. The surprise referendum result in southern Ireland - a rebellion against the hold of the Roman Catholic religion - has sent a shockwave of opportunism up to Northern Ireland to those also wanting to legalise abortion there.

In 1967 a law was passed in Britain to counter back-street abortions so that women whose lives were at risk could find help in the NHS. We were concerned even with that first partial legalisation of abortion, and now we find that step by step, as the mindset of our nation has turned away from Almighty God, that law has become the thin end of the wedge.

Abortion is now more like a method of contraception than a questionable and sensitive measure in the most extreme circumstances of need to protect a mother or her baby when difficult choices have to be made on the grounds of health. And this week I would suggest that we have gone even beyond this, with the lives of unborn babies becoming pawns in the political power game.

Does God Approve?

Before taking this point further, let us pause and consider whether the Most Holy God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob approves of taking the lives of unborn babies. Does he really work on the principle of a woman’s ‘right’ to take control of her own body?

1967 was the thin end of the wedge.

The God who has protected Britain over hundreds of years until this day calls us to be like him and protect the vulnerable of society - and who can be more vulnerable than an unborn child? This is made clear by a principle of his laws found in Exodus 21:21-24. God shows his concern that we protect unborn children by imposing the penalty of the law when an unborn child is harmed. The penalty is: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, would for wound, stripe for stripe - life for life!

This is the seriousness before God of our taking the lives of unborn babies so casually - as if what is hidden in the womb to us is also hidden to him! How foolish!

Crossing Another Line

I believe we crossed yet another line on abortion this week. This is highlighted by the attempt of the Shadow Attorney General, Baroness Chakrabarti, in seeking to goad the Prime Minister on the grounds of feminism to enforce the Northern Ireland Parliament to take steps to bring in an abortion law to match the result of the referendum in southern Ireland. This was front-page news on Monday of this week.

Let’s unpack this a little more to see how far we have fallen before Almighty God since the Coronation of 1953. The Attorney General is the senior legal advisor to the Crown and should therefore interpret, on behalf of the Monarch, how to bring the laws of the Bible into the laws of our nation. The Shadow Attorney General, aspiring to this job, should be amongst the most devout Bible students of our nation, trembling daily before the Throne of God in prayer.

Instead, this particular politician has seized an opportunity to attempt to drive a humanistic political wedge between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), knowing the strength of resolve of the DUP not to allow abortion in Northern Ireland. Against this, the figure of more than 100,000 lives saved in Northern Ireland because of the resolve of the Northern Irish has been quoted by members of the DUP: 100,000 testimonies of children who lived rather than died.

How wonderful it would be to hear about some of these children who were protected and now can grow up and contribute to our world, rather than to have been cast onto the waste heap before they could even take their first breath.

The God who has protected Britain for centuries until this day calls us to be like him and protect the vulnerable of society.

Inferring the Real Motive

God knows if I am right in my further appraisal of this situation: God is the Judge and his judgement will one day be fully applied. Nothing escapes his notice.

I cannot help observing that politics at times is a game of words and we are left to infer what the real motive is behind what is sometimes said. Members of the Labour Party in opposition are likely to seize any opportunity to bring the Government down. It is known that for important issues, including Brexit, the Government needs the support of the DUP. Therefore, much can be achieved if an issue can be highlighted to break this co-operation.

If the abortion law is such an issue, with motives veiled to what this law would really be doing in taking lives of innocent babies, then even this could be a bargaining chip in the quest for political control.

Almighty Spiritual Battle

We are in an almighty spiritual battle in Britain not even considered by those whose minds have been so veiled by Satan himself. Those who understand what is going on in the spiritual realm must continue to sound the trumpet as watchmen appointed by God.

When lives of unborn babies become bargaining chips in the political power game, how far have we fallen? We raised this point in July last year. The battle has intensified even more this week.