We ignore the basic building blocks of God’s Creation at our peril.

Recently I discovered a booklet lodged between two books on a shelf in my study. I had not seen it for many years. It had been given to me by a colleague in the LSE when I was lecturing in Sociology in London University. Its title is ‘The Gay Liberation Front Manifesto: London 1971’. Here are a few quotes from it.

Under the heading ‘Family’ it says:

The oppression of gay people starts in the most basic unit of society, the family, consisting of the man in charge, a slave as his wife, and their children on whom they force themselves as the ideal models. The very form of the family works against homosexuality.

Under the heading ‘Church’ it says:

Formal religious education is still part of everyone’s schooling, and our whole legal structure is supposedly based upon Christianity, whose archaic and irrational teachings support the family and marriage as the only permitted condition for sex.

Under ‘Compulsive Monogamy’ it says:

We do not deny that it is as possible for gay couples as for some straight couples to live happily and constructively together. We question however as an ideal, the finding and settling down eternally with one 'right' partner. This is the blueprint of the straight world which gay people have taken over.

Under ‘Aims’ it says:

The long-term goal of the London Gay Liberation Front, which inevitably brings us into fundamental conflict with the institutionalised sexism of this society, is to rid society of the gender-role system which is at the root of our oppression. This can only be achieved by the abolition of the family as the unit in which children are brought up. (emphasis added)

In sociological terms, the family is the basic unit in society responsible not only for passing on the culture from generation to generation, but for the stability of society as a whole. Once the family breaks down, all the structures of society are destabilised (it is important to grasp that what we are dealing with here is a foundational social issue, not a critique of a particular minority group).

The family is the basic unit in society responsible not only for passing on the culture from generation to generation, but for the stability of society as a whole.

The Cost of Broken Homes

When family life crumbles the first to be affected are children, who depend upon the family not only for learning the rules of society, culture and language, but also for their identity, protection, security and confidence. Millions of children are damaged every year by domestic violence, the breakup of their parents’ relationship and the upheaval of an unstable home-life.

In 1998 I was one of a group of academics who did a survey of family life in Britain and presented a report to the then-Home Secretary, Jack Straw MP. The report presented irrefutable proof that the heterosexual married couple family is the most stable form of family life and presents the best outcome for children. All other types of family leave children disadvantaged and negatively affect their future life-chances.

Jack Straw responded stating “The family is the building block of society”. He recognised the need to prioritise the married family and promised to publish a White Paper with Government measures to strengthen it. But he ran into problems in the Cabinet because the Blair Government had been heavily infiltrated by LGBTQ+ supporters who were strongly opposed to family and marriage. Straw was never able to publish the White Paper.

Family Matters

The report, ‘Family Matters’,¹ gave strong warnings of what would happen if there were no measures to strengthen the married family. It stated that the number of fatherless children will increase; so too will sexually transmitted diseases among young people. The number of insecurely attached and disturbed children will increase, worsening behavioural and mental health problems among schoolchildren. The cumulative effect of these and other trends will put pressure on the health and welfare services, resulting in a wide range of social problems.

The warnings were ignored - with the result we see today in our daily newspapers and on TV: knife crime, guns and drugs, self-harm (affecting one in five girls aged 13-16), and the rise in the suicide rate among young people, especially teenagers.²

But all this is only the tip of the iceberg of what will happen in the future if we continue breaking down gender differences among children in our primary schools. The level of mental health problems will go through the sky! Gender is a basic building block of God’s Creation which we ignore at our peril!!

Gender is a basic building block of God’s Creation which we ignore at our peril!

Warnings Ignored

We are in a similar position to the people in Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s time, when he sent a strong warning to the King, on a scroll read by a court messenger. King Jehoiakim, instead of taking careful note of the warnings, destroyed the scroll: “Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the King cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the brazier, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire” (Jer 36:23).

Jeremiah went back before God in his prayer time and heard the response: “I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them because they have not listened” (36:31). Then Jeremiah took another scroll and dictated similar words and a lot more warnings. As we know from history, the warnings were ignored and Jerusalem was destroyed, with thousands losing their lives.

Even those who are not Bible-believing Christians should be aware that the heterosexual married couple family is the only unit in our culture capable of maintaining the very fabric of our civilisation. If it is destroyed, which is the stated aim of the LGBTQ+ lobby, they will actually destroy the foundational structures of society in the Western nations, which can only lead to chaos.

Deafness in Church and State

Yet politicians and church leaders are deaf to all warnings. Either they are so incompetent that they cannot grasp simple facts; or they are bent on a suicide mission to destroy Western civilisation that will bring about their own demise along with millions of others. The Methodist Church in their Annual Assembly are due to debate same-sex marriage next week. Will the successors of John Wesley uphold his commitment to biblical truth, or will they acquiesce to the powers of darkness seeking the destruction of humanity?

Politicians and church leaders are deaf to all warnings.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has already set down a marker for the ‘Apostate Church’ of the last days by encouraging CofE Primary Schools to promote cross-dressing among little children,³ to prepare them for living in the brave new world that the LGBTQ+ lobby are intent upon creating. Jesus said that it would be better for those who harm children to be thrown into the sea and drowned.

Surely God will bring judgment upon those who distort his word and play havoc with the truth. Billy Graham said that if God does not bring judgment upon America he will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Surely the same applies to Britain. But what will our new Prime Minister do, whether it is Boris or Jeremy (Hunt or Corbyn…)? Will any one of our politicians recognise the threat to the future of our civilisation posed by the destruction of the family and have the courage to reverse the tide of change – and will believing Christians have the courage to hold them to account?

References

1 Download the full report here.

2 E.g. see here and here (p7).

3 The Independent, 13 November 2017.

Politicians are missing the point on climate change.

A meditation on Proverbs 28:2

In the last few days I have found myself pondering this verse in the book of Proverbs: “When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability” (Prov 28:2 NLT). It seemed particularly striking in the context of the political turmoil currently engulfing Britain and a number of other countries at the moment.

Of course, it is dangerous to apply Old Testament passages to any modern political system. The world has changed: no modern nation is like ancient Israel and I doubt that any politician would be elected in a modern democracy if they promised to ‘rule like King David’.

Nevertheless, despite the vast gulf of time and culture between that world and ours, there is much in the wisdom of the Old Testament that is profoundly relevant to 21^st-Century politics. Let me suggest that this verse has three truths.

The simplest truth first: stability is a good thing. Revolutions may be very exciting but after you’ve taken a country apart it takes a long time to put it back together again. Stability may not make headlines and isn’t the most exciting of political goals but it is a condition that allows law and order to exist and allows everybody to get on with their lives.

The Old Testament illustrates the value of stability as it recounts the history of God’s people after Solomon’s death. The northern kingdom, which increasingly drifted away from the worship of the one true God, had a turbulent history in which it was ruled by a long string of monarchs whose reigns were almost always brief, brutal and bloodstained. In contrast the southern kingdom, with a faithfulness to God’s covenant and the line of King David, had much greater stability and peace.

In the New Testament we see that Paul – whose experience with Roman rule was far from happy – could write, “Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity” (1 Tim 2:2 NLT). Stable times of peace are worth seeking.

There is much in the wisdom of the Old Testament that is profoundly relevant to 21^st-Century politics.

A second truth concerns the character of those who lead us. This side of heaven a sinful human race will always need people to lead and govern: without leadership we would have tyranny. Yet precisely because the role of leading a nation is a hard task, we must pray that those who rule us are indeed ‘wise and knowledgeable’.

In the Bible that phrase does not refer to the possession of a high level of intelligence or an advanced educational qualification (although there’s nothing wrong with either) but more to a humble and reverent attitude of mind that respects God and his law. In a world controlled by the media, it’s not easy for the modest, God-fearing individual to rise to the top but God is perfectly capable of ensuring their promotion. Let’s pray that this would happen more often.

The third point is that the morality of a people affects how they are governed. This seemingly simple truth – the spiritual version of ‘a nation gets the leader it deserves’ – is profoundly important. It’s very tempting in times of instability to look to politicians for the answer, something encouraged by the way that in any crisis there is never a shortage of individuals who, with a minimum of modesty and a maximum of confidence, put themselves forward as those who will deliver the nation from its ills. Yet history provides very few examples of leaders who have genuinely put everything right. On the contrary, there are many cases where the coming to power of a political leadership has led either to widespread disillusionment or to a dictatorship.

The teaching in this proverb and elsewhere in the Bible is that what really determines the fate of nations is not the individual at the top but the people themselves. Politics alone can’t truly fix a nation; God and godliness can.

Politics alone can’t truly fix a nation; God and godliness can.

There’s a fascinating and apparently true story that when Billy Graham visited Camp David in the 1960s, the then US president Lyndon Johnson said to him, “Billy, you ought to be president of the United States. If you do run, I’d like to be your campaign manager.” It was an offer that Billy rejected then, and continued to do so in the years ahead. He felt to seek political office would be to fall far short of his appointed task as evangelist. He also knew the truth of this proverb: the best way of effectively changing a nation is not by changing leaders, but by altering what people believe.

If you are genuinely called by God to be a politician, then I wish you well and I’m very happy to pray for you. But in the meantime, I’m going to stick to my calling of preaching the good news of Jesus. True and lasting change begins at the bottom and not the top.

Revd Canon J.John

Director, Philo Trust

www.canonjjohn.com / Twitter: @Canonjjohn

Reprinted with permission.

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 present chaos and our future hope.

“Write down the revelation” is a word from Habakkuk 2:2 that strongly came to me 40 years ago and resulted in me writing the book Towards the Dawn which changed the direction of my life, leading me to apply academic sociological concepts to contemporary issues in a new way. The new way brought together my training as a sociologist with my biblical theology, seeking understanding of how God was working out his purposes through the forces of social change that have been driving Western civilisation.

The book was written in 1979 – 40 years ago! It’s been long out of print and I’d not looked at it for decades, but last week I felt a strong urge to take my solitary copy off the shelf and read it again.

The book looked at the situation in Church and State, where we had largely turned away from biblical truth since the 1960s. Listen to this from page 72: “There are no certainties, no yardsticks, no basic principles to provide a compass point of reference by which the changes occurring in society can be evaluated and on the basis of which they can either be rejected, modified or accepted. Without such a yardstick all is uncertain and the result will be chaos.”

State of Chaos

Looking ahead to the future, I said: “With no certain basis to the values of society and an ever-increasing rate of change, the end result in terms of mounting chaos, normative anarchy, the breakdown of social organisation and the final disintegration of the entire social system is inevitable.”

This, of course, is exactly what we are seeing today. It is not only our Westminster Parliament that is in a state of chaos: the social scene is also chaotic with knife crime, gang warfare, drugs, domestic violence, school exclusions, family breakdown, mental health problems, fatherlessness, homelessness and thousands of other symptoms of a sick society.

But my purpose here is not simply to recount daily news items that you can see on TV, on social media, on websites and in the newspapers. I want to offer an answer to the questions in the minds of millions in Britain today – why is all this happening? What has gone wrong and is there anything we can do about it?

It is not only our Westminster Parliament that is in a state of chaos: the social scene is also chaotic.

Pulling the Linchpin Out

The simple answer is that we have rejected the basic standard of truth, and therefore we have no yardstick by which to measure the changes in the value system upon which all our personal and corporate behaviour is based.

The linchpin that held the whole of our civilisation together was the Bible, regarded as the revealed word of God, the Creator of the universe. Basic biblical truth provided us with our personal and social values of faithfulness, integrity, loyalty and trustworthiness which determined our relationships with other people in our families, workplaces, neighbourhoods and nation. When you pull out the linchpin everything collapses; which is what we have done.

The bad news is that even more danger faces us because our chaotic Parliament has announced its intention to change the divorce laws – legalising ‘no-fault divorce’, which will have a devastating effect upon marriage and family stability in the nation.

The State of Marriage in Britain

A new analysis of national statistics data published last month shows that marriage is already in a bad way in Britain. Only half of today’s teenagers will get married, in spite of survey evidence showing that the vast majority of teens want to get married.¹

Marriage trends follow family tradition: where there is divorce or family breakdown in a family, the next generation usually follows the same example. Whereas 91% of women and 86% of men in their 60s have been married at some point in their lives, current research projects that only 57% of today’s teenage girls and 55% of teenage boys will marry.

The linchpin that held the whole of our civilisation together was the Bible, but this linchpin has been removed – and so everything is collapsing.

Marriage of under 25-year-olds has virtually disappeared. In 1970, 81% of women and 62% of men had married by the age of 25: today, only 8% of women and 4% of men have done so. Marriage before the age of 30 has fallen from 85% to 21% for men and from 91% to 30% for women.

In Defence of Marriage

Nevertheless, study after study shows that marriage is the only relationship that provides a stable, happy and successful family life for children. Couples who marry are significantly more likely to stay together than those who don’t. Marriage provides the best outcomes for children. Teenage self-esteem is boosted in families with married parents and this affects their education and life chances. Teenage mental health is best protected in families with married parents.

All other types of family, especially re-constituted families bringing together children from different relationships, negatively affect the mental health of children, especially teenagers. Even in intact families, having married parents (cf. cohabiting) has a unique protective value on the mental health of young people, especially teenage boys.

Despite all this massive evidence in favour of marriage, our confused politicians in this chaotic Parliament are likely to nod through with little informed debate this new legislation for ‘no-fault divorce’ (which is being welcomed almost universally in the press), making it easy for people to break their marriage vows of lifelong fidelity and commitment to each other.

But on the subject of finding fault, it is not just Brexit that has produced this Parliament of 650 individuals who cannot find any agreement with each other on the most fundamental issue affecting the future of the nation for decades to come. It is we as a nation, who elected them - and we as a nation have despised our biblical heritage, casting out truth from national life.

Marriage is already in a bad way in Britain – and the Government’s plans to introduce ‘no-fault divorce’ will only make things worse.

Time for Fresh Vision

But there is still a remnant of Bible-believing Christians scattered across the nation – many thousands meet regularly in small groups for prayer and Bible study.

This remnant has undoubtedly been galvanised by Brexit, but it is surely God’s intention to rouse, organise and strengthen us further, not only to fervent prayer but to make our voices heard and to declare Gospel truth into the nation, for the sake of our children and grandchildren and their future!

We need to catch a fresh vision for the testing season ahead, seeking the Lord for what each of us should be doing. If the remnant began by petitioning their MPs to vote against this diabolical divorce bill, it might make them start to think about the real issues in the nation!

Moreover, regarding Brexit, while the rest of Britain remains ‘in purgatory’, seemingly until October, what is the Lord calling believing Christians to do? Ought we to march on London demanding that our MPs fulfil the declared wish of the people? We certainly ought to be reminding ourselves just why Brexit is so worth defending (I warmly recommend my friend Nick Szkiler’s short film on this).

Action and Prayer

Now is the time for action, as well as for prayer! I am reminded of Jean Darnall’s vision of the myriad prayer groups across the nation as little lights shining in a dark place, gradually becoming brighter as they link together and as the darkness intensifies. The little lights become a great light shining across the nation that overcomes the darkness and brings light, truth and salvation to Britain – even flooding across to the continent of Europe.

Although I do believe that things are going to get darker for a season, I also believe Jean Darnall’s vision will one day be fulfilled, because God still has good purposes for Britain.

References

1 Benson, H. Unfulfilled aspirations: Half of teens will never marry. Marriage Foundation, March 2019. All subsequent statistics taken from this document.

The 'Mother of Parliaments' is in disarray - where is God?

Today, the eyes of the world are upon Britain, especially Westminster. Everywhere there is amazement that the British Parliament – the ‘Mother of Parliaments’ – is in disarray.

Why is this? In simple terms, it is because our Parliament, which is supposed to represent the people, is opposed to the people! The nation voted to leave the European Union and in Parliament, of 650 MPs, about 500 of them voted Remain.¹ Most of them will do everything possible to oppose the will of the people they represent, and keep Britain locked into the European Union. Clearly, it is the death of democracy when those elected to represent the people no longer do so.

There are, of course, many additional factors that go to make up the incredibly complicated situation in our House of Commons today. There are leadership ambitions on both sides of the House, and great dissatisfaction with their respective leaders. Among both Labour and Conservatives there is a desire to change the leader. Conservatives know that it would be disastrous to force Mrs May to stand down in the midst of a national crisis and Labour MPs know that Jeremy Corbyn has the backing of many of their new members and there is no outstanding leader to challenge him.

But our task at Prophecy Today UK is not simply to analyse the facts, but to see beyond them to the forces that are shaping our destiny, and to ask pertinent questions such as “What is God doing in the midst of all this chaos?” It is my belief that God is not simply sitting on the side-lines watching what is happening, but he is actually orchestrating the chaos in our Parliament.

Ever Seeing, Never Perceiving

Throughout the Bible we can see how God actively intervenes and creates a chaotic situation to which there appears no simple answer, in order to force people to recognise the utter folly of what they are doing. God actually uses disaster as a means of working out his purposes.

Just look at a few examples: God said to Moses “Go to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart…” (Ex 10:1). God put a “lying spirit” in the mouths of the prophets (1 Kings 22:23). He put “hooks in the jaws” of Gog and Magog to make them carry out his will (Ezek 38:4). He told Isaiah that he was hardening the hearts of the people so that they would be “ever seeing, but never perceiving” (Isa 6:9).

Throughout the Bible we can see how God actively intervenes and creates a chaotic situation - he uses disaster as a means of working out his purposes.

Jesus said the same about the people of Jerusalem, “If you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42).

One of the signs of judgment coming upon the people is “madness, blindness and confusion of mind” (Deut 28:28). And when the level of corruption in a nation reaches crisis point, God removes his cover of protection, “Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts” (Rom 1:24). He sends a “powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie” (2 Thess 2:11).

A Lying Spirit

Today, we are not only seeing our Parliament but the media, the means of communication, being infected with a lying spirit. It is an age of fake news and deception. Even our national broadcaster, the BBC, that was founded upon biblical truth and the objective of transmitting it to the world, can no longer be trusted.

Radio 4, the bulwark of news broadcasting, has since the beginning of the year been pushing consistently for a second referendum, with the objective of reversing the decision to leave the European Union.

Powerful figures such as John Humphrys have undoubtedly added to the division in Britain that threatens every part of our national life – the economy, trade and industry, and law and order - because another referendum would create a level of national division not seen in Britain since the Civil War four centuries ago. This is especially so given the spirit of violence that is currently driving social media, contributing to knife crime, gang warfare, race hatred and terrorism.

Under Judgment

The plain fact is that as a nation we do not know what we are doing – we are blindly heading for disaster, led by our MPs, so many of who are driven by lying spirits, because we are a nation under judgment.

Today, we are not only seeing our Parliament but the media, the means of communication, being infected with a lying spirit.

Theresa May is under judgment in the same way as David Cameron was - and for the same reason. They both conspired to drive the Same-Sex Marriage Bill through Parliament against the wishes of more than 100 of their own MPs and against the wishes of the majority of the British people at that time. She was Home Secretary; he was Prime Minister.

Both of them claim to be Christians, therefore they know the word of God and they deliberately chose to defy biblical commands and lead the nation astray. David Cameron swiftly brought judgment upon himself that ended his career. Theresa May cannot succeed in anything to which she puts her hand (Deut 28:20) and she can only be the instrument of bringing further judgment upon the nation.

The 11^th Hour

It gives me no pleasure to write these things - but they are the plain, unvarnished truth. Is there any way of avoiding the deepening judgment that is coming upon the nation? Yes, of course there is! There is always, in the mercy of God, up to the 11^th hour, the offer of forgiveness and redemption - if there is repentance and turning.

We are now in the 11^th hour. But if the nation were prepared to put their trust in God and walk away from the secular humanist constrictions of the European Union without a deal, it would surely be pleasing in God’s sight. It would also lead to great opportunity for spiritual revival - for biblical truth to transform the nation through the prayers and the witness of the faithful remnant, who understand the times and are prepared to tell the nation the truth.

It may be that God is actually answering the prayers of the faithful remnant by increasing the chaos in our Parliament, so that Britain falls out of the EU by accident rather than by design. Despite voting against leaving without a deal, it is still possible that this is precisely what will happen on 29 March 2019. Is this God’s intention for Britain?

Please respond to our poll below:

References

1 Jacob Rees-Mogg’s estimate.

The Church has remained silent on Israel for too long

As Jews the world over next week mark a feast they have celebrated annually for the past 2,500 years, it presents a perfect opportunity for the Church to step into the breach on behalf of God’s chosen people.

The feast of Purim recalls the time when a beautiful young orphan queen known as Esther saved her people from annihilation in ancient Persia.

Her identity as a Jew was a secret at the time of her accession to the throne, as the potential for anti-Semitism was so great that the Bible’s account of her heroics only mentions God in code.

But when her guardian, Mordecai, alerted her to Haman’s genocidal plot against all the Jews in an empire stretching from India to Egypt, he challenged her with these words: “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Est 4:14).

Esther knew it would be dangerous to approach the king without being summoned but, just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego risked the fiery furnace rather than compromise their faith, Esther too bit the bullet, defiantly declaring: “If I perish, I perish” (Est 4:16).

Modern Threats

Is it not time for the Church to stand up for the Jews as Esther did? The Church in Germany were, for the most part, silent as they watched Hitler’s anti-Semitic cancer spread.

Thankfully, para-church organisations like Christian Friends of Israel, representing thousands of individual Christians, have until now played the part of Mordecai in their attempt to alert the Church to the dangers.

One of them, Christians United for Israel, has actually launched a campaign called 'Operation Mordecai', warning of the danger posed by Iran (modern-day Persia) to Israel and the West, and is encouraging churches to nail their colours to the mast by showing corporate support for Israel rather than leaving it to individual believers.

Is it not time for the Church to stand up for the Jews just as Esther did?

Israel’s existence – and by extension that of the Jewish people – is threatened once again. First Pharaoh tried to obliterate them, then Haman, followed by Herod and Hitler. Now the likes of Hamas are inflicting their murder and mayhem on Israel’s southern borders while, in the north, Hezbollah have some 120,000 missiles hidden among Lebanon’s civilian population.

At the same time, a harrowing new wave of anti-Semitism is sweeping across Europe and America, while in Britain we are witnessing an unholy alliance between hard-left Labour and the far-right - including Islamists - viciously persecuting innocent Jews.

Time to Stand Up!

The Tory Government has made a start in repenting of past sins committed against the Jews. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has apologised for Britain’s blocking of those trying to escape the Nazi butchers and for its holding of others in detention camps like Atlit, near Haifa, during the 1940s. And Home Secretary Sajid Javid has finally pronounced a full ban on Hezbollah.

But the Church in Britain – as a whole – has badly neglected the Jews. We are not only responsible for the scourge of social engineering now blighting our beloved country, but also for the disgraceful scandal of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party.

Where have the strong Christian voices of support for Israel been over the years? Do we really think God has reneged on his promise of everlasting love for the Jews (Jer 31:3)? Do we realise that such misguided belief gives carte blanche to the sort of unbridled hatred for Israel pronounced by many of those seeking to wrest power from the Conservatives?

Jeremy Corbyn and his close allies – like terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas – believe Israel has no right to exist. It’s time to make amends for our indifference by taking on the role of Esther – intervening on behalf of an endangered people, both in prayer and action.

The Tory Government has made a start in repenting of past sins committed by Britain against the Jews. But the British Church – as a whole – remains silent.

Cursing Turned Around

In modern Persia, the ayatollahs are determined to wipe Israel off the map, using nuclear weapons if necessary. But the tables were turned on the anti-Semites of ancient Persia. Haman literally made a rope on which to hang himself and the evil scheme he had devised came back on his own head. Those who dare to stand against the Jews or their Messiah will surely come to ruin!

Indeed, the tables were turned on Germany, and it all came back on their own heads as their cities were reduced to rubble – Darmstadt, for instance, had its own 9/11 when, on 11 September 1944, the city was destroyed, leaving 12,000 dead and many more homeless.

Similar devastation awaits those who touch the apple of God’s eye today (Zech 2:8).

Britain toughens up over Iran-backed group threatening Israel.

Amidst the ongoing shame of anti-Semitic revelations surrounding the Labour Party, it is no small comfort to hear of positive moves in the opposite direction from Theresa May’s Tory Government.

Following an apology of sorts from Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt over Britain’s disgraceful treatment of Jews during our charge of Palestine, Home Secretary Sajid Javid this week announced the full banning of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, who have long been committed to wiping Israel off the map.

The Government has finally accepted that there is no distinction, as previously claimed, between the group’s political and military wings.

Israel the Divider

At long last we are seeing a clear dividing line between the two main parties which, for the past two decades, have become more or less indistinguishable from one another on many important issues, including the dreadful liberal social engineering which has seen the Judeo-Christian values of our society progressively replaced by those of aggressive minorities.

But now – over Israel – a gaping chasm has opened up, and Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn had better watch out. A supporter over the years of the IRA, North Korea, Eastern European and other socialist dictatorships, he has also famously referred to Hezbollah, along with equally frightening neighbours Hamas, as ‘friends’.

This certainly suggests that he shares their vision for Israel’s destruction, as apparently does Seumas Milne, Labour’s head of strategy and communications, who is considered so influential that he has been referred to as ‘Corbyn’s brain’.

According to The Mail on Sunday,¹ Milne’s links with terrorist groups dedicated to destroying the Jewish state are decades old. A party staff member, speaking anonymously, said: “Seumas has been supporting groups that deny Israel’s right to exist for many years.”²

At long last we are seeing a clear dividing line between our two main parties: over Israel, a gaping chasm has opened up. 

A Crisis of the Soul

Javid said: “My priority as Home Secretary is to protect the British people. As part of this, we identify and ban any terrorist organisation which threatens our safety and security…”

It will now be a criminal offence to be a member of, or to invite support for, Hezbollah, carrying a sentence of up to ten years’ imprisonment.³

Much of what goes on within the ranks of today’s Labour Party could surely be interpreted as “inviting support for Hezbollah”. Only last Sunday, Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson revealed he had received 50 new complaints relating to Jew-hatred in the previous week!

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Watson urged his boss to address “a crisis for the soul of the Labour Party”.

As I’ve said before, the position taken on Israel by nations, governments and even individuals or church denominations will inevitably have a bearing on their respective fortunes. This is based on a crucial promise in the early pages of the Bible (Gen 12:3) – that if you bless the seed of Abraham, you in turn will be blessed, but that if you curse them, you will come under judgment.

Britain has been under a curse since the time immediately before, during and after World War II when we refused entry to their ancient homeland for many of those Jews trying to flee Nazi Europe, while at the same time betraying our pledge to resettle them there through repeated appeasement of Arab demands.

Righteous Intervention

But a light has dawned at the Foreign Office, and we pray it will grow ever brighter. However, this is not just a political issue; it is intensely spiritual. And it is thanks in some measure to the efforts of Christians United for Israel UK (CUFI) that we have got this far.

Their current campaign, Operation Mordecai, is aimed at alerting Government to the grave threat posed to Israel and the West by Iran – supporter of Hezbollah, who have thousands of rockets on Israel’s northern border ready to fire at the Jewish state.

It was Mordecai who heard of a plot to destroy the Jews of ancient Persia and successfully persuaded his niece, Queen Esther, to intervene.

CUFI know full well the importance for Christians of standing with Israel. But there is a deafening silence from the Church in Britain as a whole. Israel Today journalist Ryan Jones told me: “It always amazes me how even many Christians still don’t grasp Israel’s importance when they can see how much impact policies and positions regarding the Jewish people have on the politics of the world’s greatest powers. How else can one explain the fact that tiny Israel and the Jews are consistently major election issues in the US, UK and other powerful nations?”

The position taken on Israel by nations, governments and even individuals or church denominations will inevitably have a bearing on their respective fortunes.

For the Gospel’s Sake

Clearly, today’s Jews are also under threat from hard-left politicians gaining momentum in our country. But this predicament is just the latest example of centuries of European persecution, as was brought home this week in a moving personal documentary on the Jews of Leeds by Simon Glass,⁴ some of whose Lithuanian ancestors were taken out and shot, along with the rest of their community, by invading Nazi soldiers.

CUFI and others have helped to unveil a modern plot against the Jews. But this isn’t just about preserving freedom, fairness or even lives. We need to clear the obstacles to the preaching of the Gospel – to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile (Rom 1:16).

When Rees Howells and his Bible College students fought the great battles of World War II on their knees in Wales, they were mindful that Hitler’s regime blocked the path to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission.

The Marxist, atheist agenda of the rising tide of hard-left MPs is a demonic distraction from our chief calling. And we desperately need to lance this poisonous boil – not as an end in itself, but so that we can concentrate on focusing the attention of both Jew and Gentile on the destiny of their souls.

The Gospel is the absolute priority for our nation. As St Paul wrote: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16).

References

1 The Mail on Sunday, 24 February 2019.

2 Quoted by United with Israel, 25 February 2019.

3 Christians United for Israel UK, 25 February 2019.

4 A Very British History, February 25 2019, BBC4.

Do not be hasty to point the finger at MPs.

No-one can deny that the nation is in a great crisis. The antics in the House of Commons in the past couple of months have been exposed to the world through television and reports in the British press. It has not been a pretty sight to see all our politicians shouting at each other and no-one listening to anyone else. Passions have been reaching fever pitch, yet no clear majority view has been emerging.

The plain truth is that nobody knows what to do or how to solve the problems that face the nation. Most of our MPs know what they do not like, but they are short on solutions.

The massive majority of the vote to reject Theresa May’s deal brought together people with vastly opposing views; but they were all in agreement on one thing – they did not like what was on offer. Even the Remainers who prefer to stay within the European Union voted against the deal because it would have reduced Britain to the status of having to observe EU rules and regulations without having any say in their formulation.

No Standard of Truth

As we have said many times in these editorials, there are no political solutions to the problems confronting the nation and this is the reason why there is such confusion. Our MPs do not understand the issues, because they have lost the objective standard of truth provided by the biblical foundations of our Judeo-Christian faith that has provided stability and direction for the nation over many centuries.

Without that standard of truth there is no yardstick for measuring different proposals. It allows the propagation of lies and the use of fear to promote proposals that have no basis in truth, such as the fear of leaving the EU with ‘no deal’. It is said that this will collapse the British economy. But less than half of our exports are linked to the European Union and Europe sells us £95 billion more in goods annually than we sell to them!¹ That’s the trade deficit with the EU.

As we have said many times in these editorials, there are no political solutions to the problems confronting the nation and this is the reason why there is such confusion.

It is clearly a pack of lies that our economy will collapse! Once we are free of obligations to the EU, we can do deals with the rest of the world and our economy will flourish if we put our trust in the Lord. But the truth is hidden from the British people by the lies of those who have no trust in God and no understanding of the way he blesses a nation that is founded upon righteousness and the teaching of the word of the Lord.

Lack of Vision

But who is to blame for the fact that our politicians have little or no knowledge of biblical teaching? Why are there so few voices in Parliament championing Judeo-Christian values? And why do only a minority of committed Christians engage in politics?

The simple answer to these questions is that church leaders and preachers do not rightly handle the word of the Lord, so the truth of God’s word does not get embedded in the lives of churchgoers, let alone those who have loose connections with the Church.

This is largely because most preachers lack prophetic vision - they no longer fearlessly declare the word of the Lord in their churches, or prophetically relate biblical teaching to social and national issues. They give nice, cosy little homilies on biblical themes that lack the dynamic thrust of the two-edged sword of the Lord. So, we now have a generation of closet Christians with no mission to transform the nation. If the whole word of the Lord is not heard in church, it will not reach out into the nation.

Silent Church

Let me put a plain question to all those of you who go to church regularly: when was the last time you heard the minister address national issues in the context of the word of God? Do you regularly hear from the pulpit the teaching of the Bible – both the word of God through the Prophets of Israel and the Gospel proclaimed by Jesus and taught by the apostles – expounded and applied, not only to personal and local issues, but also to national issues that our politicians and leaders are having to face?

In your church do you pray for the nation? Do you have intercessions for those in authority (1 Tim 2:2), where you pray for your town council, or your city council, or your Member of Parliament, or the Government, or the Queen?

If the whole word of the Lord is not heard in church, it will not reach out into the nation.

Why is the Church so silent on national issues and so separated from the world in which we all live? When was the last time you heard a sermon unpacking the Bible and applying its truth to current issues? Do you ever hear the preacher explaining the word of the Lord revealed through the Prophets in the Bible – Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel?

When did you last hear the basic teaching of the Torah expounded in your church?

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deut 6:4-7)

This surely shows that responsibility for passing on the faith rests not only with church leaders, but with ordinary believers. Do you impress biblical teaching in your conversation with your children or grandchildren? Do you talk about the word of the Lord at home and when you walk along the street?

We have no right to criticise our Members of Parliament for not knowing biblical truth if we have not rightly handled the word of the Lord in our own family, or among our friends and neighbours.

Reformation Starts with You and Me

Of course, the nation is in a mess; but who is really to blame? In biblical times God always held the preachers and prophets responsible for the nation – as Jeremiah said:

My people do not know the requirements of the Lord…actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely…From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. (Jer 8:7-11)

Can the same charge be levelled at the Church today? Not just the preachers: all of us, to some extent, bear responsibility. Should we not all be weeping before the Lord in repentance? The reformation of the nation does not start in Westminster: it starts in the Church - with you and me.

References

1 Statistics on UK-EU trade. Research Briefing, House of Commons Library, 30 November 2018.

Who rules Britain?

Some years ago when I was teaching students in London University for the BSc Sociology, the question that had caused the most difficulty in that year’s degree paper on ‘Modern Britain’ was simply three words: “Who rules Britain?”

Student answers at the time ranged from the Queen to voters. They included the Government, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, backbench MPs, the European Union, the Trade Union movement, bankers, the media, TV celebrities, political party activists, pressure groups and numerous other inventive suggestions.

Their answers revealed the complexity of our modern democracy where power is distributed over a wide range of institutions. They revealed the healthy checks and balances in our political system, but they also indicated a huge sense of powerlessness right across the nation. Nobody really has unlimited power.

The Queen has to sign whatever bills are presented to her - however much she may disagree with them. Whoever is Prime Minister continually has to look over their shoulder for those who are plotting to overthrow them. The Cabinet is there purely to do the bidding of the Prime Minister and may be summarily dismissed.

In a democracy, all political power is impermanent and transitory. Leaders exist at the whim of the public and face daily threats to their authority. The current challenges faced by both Theresa May and Donald Trump are cases in point: holding power in a democratic country is an uncertain and dangerous business!

Limits to power have been built in to our political system over centuries, but seasons of powerlessness can also be allowed by God to descend upon our national leaders.

There are limits to the exercise of power in every institution – even in dictatorships where mob rule can take over and wrest power from the hands of rulers like Mugabe as happened recently in Zimbabwe. But a sudden loss of power can also engulf leaders in a bank, or a great financial house such as Lehman Bros, or a shopping complex, or a manufacturer, or even in the Church.

Limits to power have been built in to our political system over centuries, but seasons of powerlessness and instability can also be allowed by God to descend upon our national leaders. In Britain today as the Brexit negotiations move towards deadlines, the sense of crisis is growing, but amongst both Remainers and Brexiteers there is also a growing sense of powerlessness!

This may seem like a negative thing, but it is actually a sign of great opportunity – if it is recognised by our leaders and responded to properly.

Why Powerlessness Can Be Good

Feelings of powerlessness are experienced at some point in life by all human beings. Circumstances conspire to leave us feeling unable to control and direct our lives as we would wish – and for each of us this presents a challenge: will we respond positively or negatively?

Negatively, feelings of powerlessness can lead to frustration, depression, mental illness and even suicide.

Positively, the recognition of our own powerlessness can also lead to creative thinking. Our objectives may be being frustrated, but if they are worthy we can think creatively to discover other ways of achieving them. If they are not worthy we may be forced to re-think our plans. More broadly, we might be challenged to re-evaluate who or what we serve, and in whom we are placing our trust.

This is the choice facing our political leaders in Britain today. They may well feel powerless in the face of a petulant EU, an angry electorate, divided MPs, concerned businesses and a media lynch mob. But this season in Britain’s history is nevertheless an opportunity to ask deeper, more creative questions about our future. What are we really seeking to achieve? What is in the best interests of the nation and what sort of people do we want to be? To whom, or to what, will we entrust our future?

Feelings of powerlessness are experienced at some point in life by all human beings: the question is, how will we respond?

It is not only Britain which is at a crossroads, but also the whole of Western civilisation. The General Election in Sweden last Sunday, which resulted in significant gains for the ultra-right populist Sweden Democrats, revealed public concern for the cultural threats posed by waves of mass immigration. The same concern for loss of traditional culture is to be seen in Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Austria, the USA, Australia and Britain, where populist movements are challenging previously dominant elite groups for control over the direction of social change.

Pro-Brexit protesters outside Downing Street, last week. See Photo Credits.These are all nations whose cultures have, to some extent, been built upon Judeo-Christian foundations for centuries. It is the loss of this heritage that is now being felt keenly by ordinary citizens in these nations; although many in positions of power do not recognise this.

The Only Answer

This is where national leaders in the Church should play a major part in redirecting the values and objectives of the state – calling upon political leaders to re-examine their objectives. What do we want from Brexit? There is opportunity today to re-emphasise Judeo-Christian values of truth, integrity, faithfulness, loyalty, generosity, unselfishness and all the other biblical ethics that have proved to promote prosperity and blessing in our history.

At the same time, there is also enormous opportunity in amongst the Brexit mess for Church leaders to teach the nation a biblical lesson about our own helplessness – our spiritual inability to pursue goodness and truth without God’s help. Probably the most insightful passage in all the Apostle Paul’s writings is in Romans 7 where he writes about his own personal experience of powerlessness. He confesses, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do.”

Billions of human beings today can say exactly the same thing: we don’t do the good things we want to do, but we find ourselves driven to do the very things that we hate. This is what leads to self-harm and depression among so many young people today.

Understanding and accepting our powerlessness in this ultimate spiritual battle against sin is the first step to rescue and recovery.

In answer to his own lament, the Apostle Paul points to the amazing, creative, transformative, life-giving power that came into his own life and can come to us. It comes when we cry out for help from Jesus, who through the Cross set us free from the power of both sin and death. Yes, in an instant, lives can be changed.

There is opportunity amid the Brexit mess for Church leaders to teach the nation a biblical lesson about our own helplessness – our spiritual inability to pursue goodness and truth without God’s help.

Revival?

And that goes for nations too! All that is needed now for revival to sweep across Britain is the recognition of our own powerlessness – individually and corporately - to resist the forces that are driving the nation towards devastating political and social destruction and blinding our leaders even to plain common sense.

Once we recognise that we have turned away from God’s truth and put ourselves outside his protection, and that on our own we are powerless to help ourselves, and once we cry out to God for help – his transforming power will come to our aid.

That would be revival! But revival cannot be organised. It is a sovereign act of God releasing a movement of the Holy Spirit among ordinary people like us. And right now, revival is the only hope for a better Britain. But it will not come unless believing Christians start declaring the truth and preparing the way through prayer.