Why I am still proud to be South African

For the next generation – and for this one.

The controversy begun by the remarks of Australian rugby player Israel Folau, supported by England’s number 8, Billy Vunipola, has caused a stir far beyond the game of rugby. Izzy Folau simply quoted the Bible in warning that those who practice homosexuality go to hell.

Biblical teaching says “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman, that is detestable” (Lev 18:22). And the Apostle Paul states explicitly, “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-10).

According to Paul’s teaching, practising homosexuals should be treated in the same way as drunkards, swindlers, slanderers in our society and not given preferential treatment or be allowed to promote their activities.

These rugby players are simply stating the obvious. It’s a bit like the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Everyone was simply copying everyone else in praising the Emperor’s non-existent clothes. It took an innocent child to state the truth: “The Emperor is naked!”.

The New Normal

Billy Vunipola is quite right in saying that “man was made for woman to procreate”.¹ Two men practising anal intercourse cannot create life any more than two lesbian women pleasuring each other can create a human baby. But our teachers are told to tell the children that these are normal relationships and that gay parents having children through adoption, surrogacy or artificial insemination creates ‘normal’ families.

We all know that the ‘new normal’ being taught to our children in state schools is a blatant lie! There is a mass of sound academic research to show that the only type of family that consistently produces good results for children is the happy, faithful, heterosexual married couple. But we have a Parliament that has passed a law forcing teachers to indoctrinate four-year-olds with the idea that it is quite normal for some children to have two mummies or two daddies, and that all forms of family are equal.

We all know that the ‘new normal’ being taught to our children in state schools is a blatant lie!

Slippery Slope

This is a reversal of truth, an utter lie that can only lead to the destruction of society. It is social engineering: trying to mould the minds of children to accept LGBTQ+ values before they are able to think for themselves. It was Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May who started us down this slippery slope, forcing the legalisation of gay ‘marriage’ through Parliament with the support of the Labour Party, against the wishes of more than a hundred Conservative MPs.

This virtually pronounced the death knell of the Conservative Party as the party of the family, and the party that works to conserve our heritage of biblically-based values - the Judeo-Christian foundation stones of Western civilisation.

It produced the Parliament that we have today consisting of 650 individuals who cannot agree on anything to give clear guidance for the future of the nation. The plain fact is that when they passed the Same-Sex Marriage Bill, Parliament brought judgment upon itself. It is, in effect, a Parliament doomed to fail, and no doubt that is how it will be known by future historians.

A Soulless Nation

Yes, of course we need to get out of the European Union, which is the most secular humanist political institution in the world. But leaving the EU will not solve our national problems or redeem our Parliament.

Indeed, this whole Parliament needs to be swept away and replaced by a new reforming group of politicians, not only with high moral principles but with an understanding of the Judeo-Christian spiritual convictions that have been at the heart of our Parliamentary system for hundreds of years and formed the bedrock of the British character that was admired by the world. We need a political revolution - and maybe, if we have to participate in the EU elections, we might just get one, as the result is likely to further shatter and divide our political parties.

Of course we need to get out of the European Union, but leaving will not solve our national problems or redeem our Parliament.

Meanwhile, the whole world is viewing Britain with amazement! They simply cannot understand what is happening in our Westminster Parliament, which for centuries has been renowned as a model of democratic government. Even those who were not great friends of Britain admired our stability and reliability. Today that has been shattered – maybe irretrievably; certainly it will not be easily retrieved.

Winston Churchill, reminding the nation of the great Christian heritage underlying the British Commonwealth of Nations, rightly warned that “A nation without a conscience is a nation without a soul, and a nation without a soul is a nation that cannot live.”²

The Message of Good Friday

This is where the message of today, Good Friday, offers the only hope for our nation. On this day nearly 2,000 years ago, God carried out an act of divine intervention into human history by allowing his own Son to commit his life into the hands of violent, hate-filled, sinful human beings. He willingly sacrificed his own life to make possible a new relationship with God the Father, Creator of the universe.

Through faith in Jesus we all have the opportunity, not only of forgiveness of our sins, but of actually entering into a new relationship with God that transforms our sinful human nature.

This is the good news that Christians have to proclaim to the world: that God has done something for us that we could not do for ourselves, in overcoming our self-centred propensity to love the world and indulge in everything that is evil and corrupt, rather than things that bring health and happiness and put the welfare of others ahead of ourselves.

Hope for Britain

As any sociologist will tell you, all forms of social change tend to go to extremes: the pendulum swings too far one way and then the backlash begins. The rugby players who have dared to tell the truth, bringing on themselves the wrath of the secular humanist establishment, may be a little sign that the backlash has begun.

There are many other signs that young people are open to the truth: they are fed up with the mess that the older generations have created and they are looking for a new way. Last week Charles Gardner reported on evangelism happening in schools in Doncaster – and since then we have heard other reports from elsewhere in the country of hundreds of young people giving their lives to Christ.

There are many signs that young people are open to the truth.

There is a group of Christian rap artists, singers and dancers based in Manchester who are touring northern towns and cities and seeing hundreds of young people respond to the Gospel. Next month there is a great Christian gathering planned in Trafalgar Square on Pentecost Sunday, when thousands of young people are expected to fill the Square and demonstrate their faith in Jesus.

For those who have eyes to see and an understanding of the times, these may be little signs of the turning of the tide. The message of this Good Friday, that Jesus is the hope of the world, is our only hope for a turning point in the history of Britain. This is certainly something to which we should be directing our prayers!

References

1 The Times, 13 April 2019.

2 Sandys, J, 2015. God and Churchill. London: SPCK, p182.

Our spiritual enemy does not want the truth to be heard.

Some years ago I belonged to a church congregation in which some of us suspected the influence of witchcraft.

It was in an area of the country where witches’ covens met in secret. We believed that we had identified at least one person who belonged to such a coven who had also become a member of our congregation. We saw this as an attempt to infiltrate and bring down the congregation.

Strangling Prayers

I met regularly with a prayer partner to pray about many of the concerns of the day and for the witness of the Gospel to overcome the darkness all around. On one particular evening, we met specially to pray concerning the witchcraft that we perceived to be in the area.

As I began to pray, immediately I had a powerful sensation as if someone was seeking to throttle me. It was as if unseen hands took hold of my throat in order to prevent my speaking out the prayer. The pressure got more intense so that I could barely speak and the only way to utter my prayer was to attempt to shout it out at the top of my voice, thus overcoming the choking sensation.

It was only when I was able to verbalise my prayer in this way that the choking sensation disappeared. It was a real physical manifestation of the power of evil at work, linked to the witchcraft in the area.

As I began to pray, I had a powerful sensation as if someone was seeking to throttle me: as if unseen hands took hold of my throat to prevent my prayer being spoken out.

Shutting Down the Gospel

I remembered this last week when I read about the Australian rugby player Israel Folau being dismissed from the national rugby team, and being denied the completion of a prestigious and lucrative career. He is one of the foremost rugby players in the entire world. Nevertheless, he is willing to give up his career because he will not be quenched of his bold assertion about what the Bible says concerning the ultimate destiny of those in unbiblical sexual relationships.

He said that his Christian belief was more important than his career when it became a matter of asserting the truth. A second rugby player, who plays for the England team, Billy Vunipola, was given a formal warning for speaking in support of Folau.

This is a very prominent case of the way the powers ruling this world are seeking to quench anyone speaking against the new unbiblical norms that have crept into society. We hear, for example, of street preachers being confronted by police in the UK, accused of disturbing the peace, this being a false accusation to prevent the speaking out of the Gospel message.

There are spiritual powers behind these world systems that are seeking to quench the word of God, subtler but equally as powerful as that choking grip that I experienced to prevent my prayer against witchcraft.

Fearing to Prophesy

It is not my purpose here to discuss the merits of any individual case, but to highlight a growing trend. We have entered an age in which there seems to be a move towards the one world system spoken about in the Book of Revelation, which will seek to quench any dissenting voices that speak against the system or speak truth within the system.

This is truly a spiritual battle that is intensifying daily. We will be left alone only if we compromise to the system, and at a time when believers should be speaking up on many vital issues of the day, the Christian voice has indeed become muted.

The spiritual battle is intensifying daily – and at a time when believers should be speaking up, the Christian voice has become muted.

It says in the Book of Zechariah that a time will come when there will be fear among those given to prophesy. In Zechariah 13:3-5 the picture given is of those who are given prophetic words but who are afraid to speak them and end up pretending that they are not prophetic at all. The context of this happening is the soon return of the Lord, the time-frame that we believe we are in, in our day.

A Time to Speak

On our yearly calendar, this is the season of Passover and Easter, a time to remember when there was a mass turning against the Lord Jesus. Why? Because for corrupt reasons they wanted silence him, by taking his life. They could not silence him, because he left both his words and his witnesses – people like you and me – to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

What, then, shall we do in this day with the signs of powers, both spiritual and temporal, increasingly seeking to quench the word of God through compromise, exclusion or legal action? Now, more than ever, it is time to seek the Lord for what he would say to the world around us and to carry that message fearlessly to whom it is being sent, not fearing to speak up against the tides of wickedness rising around us.

And, of course, this weekend we celebrate not only his death but also his glorious resurrection! Jesus lives, and all our efforts are focussed on bringing his own living word to this generation. More than that, he will return: the Word of God incarnate will come back to judge the living and the dead. All truth and holiness, embodied in him, will be alive and supreme for all eternity.

Let us take courage from this when we, as he commanded, use bread and wine like he did at the Last Supper to remember his death until he comes.