Italy’s new Government puts another strain on Brussels.

The wave of populism continues to sweep across Europe with Italy being the latest nation to feel its ‘people power’ unsettling the political establishment. But it is not only Rome that is fearing radical change: the shockwaves are reaching Brussels and shaking the EU. The past week has been one of turbulence in Italy with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) doing a deal with the right-wing anti-immigration League after more than 12 weeks of haggling.

The two parties nominated Giuseppe Conte, a professor of law with no political experience, as Prime Minister and Paolo Savona – a fierce opponent of the Euro – as Finance Minister. Both were overruled by the President who refused to appoint them. President Mattarella was widely reported to be following instructions from Brussels with particular pressure from Germany. A compromise has been reached with Conte remaining as Prime Minister but Savona being moved to Minister for European Affairs and Giovanni Tria – who favours remaining in the Eurozone – becoming Finance Minister.

But Italy’s new populist Government still presents a headache for Brussels because both M5S’s leader Luigi Di Maio and the League’s Matteo Salvini – now Deputy Prime Ministers - are strongly Eurosceptic and have declared that the Euro is not good for Italy. The President’s intervention, far from steering Italy into calmer waters, enraged voters who support these two parties precisely because they are anti-EU and anti-establishment.

Justified Anger

The rise of the populist parties reflects the justified anger at the political class both in Rome and in Brussels. Italy has 30% of young people unemployed and more than 20% unemployment in the southern half of the country. Vital reforms have not been carried out by previous governments and the situation has been greatly exacerbated by the flow of immigrants coming across the Mediterranean from North Africa.

The shockwaves of populism are reaching Brussels and shaking the European Union.

Appeals to the EU for help with the migrant crisis have been ignored; so too have the desperate needs for tackling corruption and improving the country’s education and youth services. Italy’s economy has not grown for the past two decades, which has caused the people at last to rise up and say “Enough is Enough! We will not have these people ruling over us any longer!” Historically, this has been the cry of oppressed people throughout the ages.

The new Coalition, due to be sworn in today, plans to increase spending, cut taxes and disperse half a million immigrants across the Eurozone - to the horror of Brussels! The new populist Government in Italy takes power at the same time as Britain concludes its negotiations for exiting the European Union – all putting additional strain on the EU that could result in the collapse of the whole enterprise of a united Europe.

Resentment and Revolt

Even if Italy does not abandon the Euro, the shockwaves of its new populist Government’s policies will be enough to shake the EU to its foundations. Italy is the fourth largest economy in Europe and their national debt is already at 132% of GDP. No nation can go on spending more than it earns without courting disaster. But that is what Italy’s new Coalition plans to do – to increase spending massively in order to give a living wage to the poorest families which could send the Euro spinning out of control.

The plain fact is that Italians are contemptuous of their political establishment and of the Brussels hierarchy. In particular, they deeply resent the power exercised by Germany. They saw the brutal treatment of Greece by Germany’s bankers last year which was in line with the way the Nazis dealt with Greece in the Second World War. The Italians are determined that this is not going to happen to them. They want to shake off the power of the EU over them.

Even if Italy does not abandon the Euro, its new populist Government’s policies will be enough to shake the EU to its foundations.

Last week there was talk of impeaching the President for refusing to recognise the democratic will of the people. But this would have resulted in a General Election which was the last thing that Italy’s President or the EU wanted, because public opinion was swinging increasingly to the populists who could have won an increased majority. That is the strength of the populist movement sweeping the country, with its strong nationalist and anti-immigration sentiment which is likely to strengthen the same movement throughout Europe.

Demand for Justice

The demands of the people for justice and righteousness cannot be ignored for ever. There is something in our human nature that recognises corruption, lies, oppression and injustice as wrong. Perhaps it is because we are created in the image of the God of the Bible, who abhors these things. Truth, righteousness and justice are part of the nature of God, but corruption and lies are the works of the devil – the father of lies.

It looks as though the European Union is facing judgment day. The warning shots fired by Britain through Brexit and the many calls for reform from other nations across Europe have all been ignored by the liberal postmodernist intelligentsia that rules Brussels, enjoying wealthy lifestyles and practising oppression and corruption.

There is something in our human nature that recognises corruption, lies, oppression and injustice as wrong.

The populist movement is probably not a paragon of virtue! But God often uses imperfect instruments to accomplish his purposes. He even used Cyrus the Persian to deliver his people from Babylon. One thing the Bible makes abundantly clear is that God hates injustice and corruption. Here is a selection of verses from the biblical prophets that illustrate this:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…Who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. (Isa 5:20-23)

Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth I will forgive this city. (Jer 5:1)

Sow for yourself righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love…But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception because you have depended on your own strength. (Hos 10:12-13)

They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (Amos 2:6-7)

Woe to those who plan iniquity…They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance. Therefore, says the Lord: I am planning disaster against this people. (Mic 2:1-3)

Maybe the word of the Lord to the EU today is similar to that which he pronounced against Israel when their leaders were steeped in corruption:

Therefore, this is what the Holy one of Israel says: because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly in an instant. (Isa 30:12)

Our leaders have a veil over their eyes.

Up to 50,000 people attempted to break through the border between Gaza and Israel this week according to press reports. Their use of smoke and mirrors, petrol bombs, incendiary kites and other weapons must have been a terrifying experience for the tiny detachment of Israeli part-time soldiers guarding the border to protect Israeli citizens from slaughter.

But far from giving a factual picture of events, the BBC, The Guardian and others¹ poured out their anti-Semitic invective against Israel.

The BBC had been preparing for this event for a long time and sent some of their senior reporters to give maximum cover to criticise Israel. In the event there was no breakthrough and no massacre.

Though each life lost is a heart-rending matter, it is to the credit of those defending the border that relatively few died, and most casualties were known terrorists. Hamas called off the protest the next day after Egyptian intervention; but not before they achieved their objective of getting anti-Israel propaganda into the Western media and calling for a UN enquiry - even at the expense of lives of their own people.

The Creation of the Gazan Refugees

The whole Gaza issue is tragic, both for the people who live there and for Israel. But it has been deliberately created as the front line in the drive to destroy Israel. The Palestinians themselves are despised by the Arab nations. Before they were brought together in the 1960s, there never was a Palestinian nation.

Historically, before the Jewish resettlement began in the early 20^th Century, Palestine was a largely barren land. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1900, there were less than 100 trees in the whole of Palestine with a sparse population of nomadic Arabs living in tents, whose goats ate every bit of vegetation. The absentee land-owning Arabs were only too willing to sell land to the Jews in those days.

The whole Gaza issue is tragic, but it has been deliberately created as the front line in the drive to destroy Israel.

When the state of Israel was created in 1948 the neighbouring states of Jordan, Egypt and Syria combined their armies, ordered any non-Jewish residents to leave their homes and go to two newly created refugee camps at Jericho and Gaza so that their forces could clear the land and drive the Jews into the Mediterranean. What they now call their ‘catastrophe’ was the failure of their armies to defeat the tiny group of Holocaust survivors who, in successive conflicts, went on to retake Jerusalem and to clear the whole land of foreign fighters.

With 70 years and a high birthrate the dreadful conditions in Gaza have been created by the Arab nations, who could easily have solved the situation by taking in the Palestinians. But even the small groups who succeeded in crossing the River Jordan and settling in Jordan and Syria were never accepted and today live in separate enclaves, denied citizenship. This is the measure of hypocrisy among the Arab nations who simply use the West Bank and Gaza situations for political purposes – in their drive to destroy Israel.

Leaders Without Knowledge

The Gaza issue was debated in the House of Commons this week with the usual mixture of anti-Israel and friendly comments. I was particularly disappointed to hear Alistair Burt, Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, whom I’ve counted among my friends for the past 25 years, making a politically-correct bland statement.

The UN Security Council has strongly condemned Israel's activity at the Gaza border. See Photo Credits.As a Bible-believing evangelical brother I was hoping that he would put some backbone into the Foreign Office and declare that the time has come for Britain to implement the policy it advocated 100 years ago in the Balfour Declaration and move the British Embassy up to Jerusalem, alongside that of the USA.

But postmodernism, with its Darwinian and Marxist roots, has not only driven radical change to the social and personal values of the nation, but has spread a veil over the eyes of the leaders of both Church and state, so that they are unable to perceive the truth. They are like the leaders whom the Prophet Isaiah referred to as ‘blind watchmen’ who “all lack knowledge” (Isa 56:10). They cannot see the big picture because they do not understand the purposes of God and what is happening in the world today.

Postmodernism has spread a veil over the eyes of the leaders of both Church and state, so they are unable to perceive the truth.

Our leaders are part of a generation of biblical eunuchs: they have no understanding of the ways of God because they have turned their backs upon the word of God. For years we have been living upon the spiritual capital of our 19^th Century Victorian Bible-believing forefathers; but it is not enough to support us today, as the world moves onto the cusp of the most incredible period of turmoil since the creation of the world. There is a desperate need for people to hear the word of God before it is too late.

Coming Judgment

In the spring of 1986 there was a gathering of men and women with prophetic insight who met in Israel for a time of prayer and seeking God, to understand what is happening in the world today. One day I was standing alone with Lance Lambert on the top of Mt Carmel looking up at a remarkable sight I’d never seen before, of a complete rainbow encircling the sun; although Lance said it’s not unusual in Israel. We both received words which we shared with others in the evening meeting.

I was led to the prophecy in Haggai 2:6:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty.

I said that the USSR, the mighty communist empire that appeared all-powerful in 1986, would very soon collapse. Three weeks later the Chernobyl nuclear power station blew up which began the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

That same evening Lance Lambert gave one of the most remarkable prophecies of our time. He said:

It will not be long before there will come upon the world a time of unparalleled upheaval and turmoil. Do not fear for it is I the Lord who am shaking all things. I began this shaking with the First World War and I greatly increased it through the Second World War. Since 1973 I have given it an even greater impetus. In the last stage, I plan to complete it with the shaking of the universe itself, with signs in the sun and moon and stars. But before that point is reached, I will judge the nations, and the time is near.

It will not only be by war and civil war, by anarchy and terrorism, and by monetary collapses that I will judge the nations, but also by natural disasters: by earthquakes, by shortages and famines, and by old and new plague diseases. I will also judge them by giving them over to their own ways, to lawlessness, to loveless selfishness, to delusion and to believing a lie, to false religion and an apostate church, even to a Christianity without me.

Our leaders are part of a generation of biblical eunuchs: they have no understanding of the ways of God because they have turned their backs upon the word of God.

Need for the Word of God

This next stage in the history of the world has now been reached. Most of the nations of the world are conspiring to hate Israel, as foretold in the word of God: “Come, they say, let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more” (Ps 83:4).

The Prophet Zechariah received a revelation that the day would come when the focus of the world would be upon Jerusalem. He said:

This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel…I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure [rupture] themselves.

Never has there been a greater need for biblical truth to be brought into the affairs of the nations than today, with the nations armed with weapons capable of destroying the world and driven by a spirit of hatred and destruction.

Jeremiah foresaw the fall of the mighty Babylonian Empire and that Babylon would become “a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals” (Jer 51:37), as it is today. So, in our lifetime, unless the nations of the world study the word of God and bring their policies in line with his truth, they will create a catastrophe that will engulf the world.

The great question is: – Will the Bible-believing faithful remnant in the Western nations break their silence and declare the word of the Lord to bring life and light to this generation, and hope for our children and grandchildren?

Notes

1 For further information on this, we recommend UK Media Watch, a watchdog seeking to hold the British media to account for their biased treatment of Israel.

The future of the Church in Britain.

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

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

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

Liberal Theology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Undermining Truth

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

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

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

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

What is ‘the Church’?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope for Reformation

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

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

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

Further Response from Clifford Hill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cliff

Hurricanes, floods and wildfires – are we in the last days?

“Are we in the last days?” is the question many people are asking as our newspapers and TVs are filled with horrendous accounts of the destructive powers of nature that are shaking the world.

Hurricane Irma has flattened whole islands where the rich and powerful enjoy their Caribbean paradise in the breath-taking beauty of secluded estates, surrounded by the frail wooden homes of those who serve them. Rich and poor alike have suffered catastrophic damage to their property and lives have been lost.

But it’s not only the small islands that have suffered; a powerful earthquake hit Mexico at the same time as the Irma made landfall on the USA mainland around Miami and tremendous damage was done as the hurricane moved inland across Florida. This was hot on the heels of Hurricane Harvey and ahead of Hurricanes José and Katia: battering the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and south-east USA with unprecedented fury.

Other parts of the world have also been experiencing devastating flooding and landslides. Monsoonal rains sweeping across a vast swathe of northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh have left 1,200 dead and over 40 million people affected in the worst flooding for half a century.¹ Also, wildfires driven by high winds have been wreaking havoc in many parts of the world.² So, what’s the significance of all this?

While hurricanes have battered the Americas, other parts of the world have been experiencing devastating flooding and landslides.

Signs in the Heavens and on the Earth

2017 has seen an unusually high number of wildfires worldwide.Bible-believing Christians are asking if these horrendous events have any bearing upon the times of great shaking among the nations that we are experiencing. When referring to his own Second Coming, Jesus said:

There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming upon the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. (Luke 21:25-26)

Is it just an interesting coincidence that last week there was a spectacular aurora of lights dancing across Britain’s skies as a huge solar flare, the most powerful for 12 years, erupted on the sun? The Times reported that “Its blast of radiation was so intense that it caused high-frequency radio blackouts for an hour over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic.”³

The report said that the explosion on the sun “unleashed vast bubbles of superheated electrified gas that shot through space at 1 million mph…and came crashing into Earth.”⁴

First Israel, Then the World

Warnings of vast disturbances on earth are found throughout the Bible. Isaiah 24 begins with the statement, “See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it.” This is followed by, “The earth will be completely laid waste…The earth dries up and withers…The earth is defiled by people…Therefore a curse consumes the earth.”

This sounds as though some catastrophic worldwide destruction is forecast, such as a nuclear holocaust that many are fearing today as Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un face each other, with North Korea’s newly acquired nuclear capability. But reading Isaiah 24 in the Hebrew gives a very different impression.

Isaiah 24 seems to predict some catastrophic worldwide destruction, but reading it in the Hebrew gives a different impression.

All the above references to ‘the Earth’ use the Hebrew word erets which throughout the Bible usually means ‘the land’, or more specifically ‘the land of Israel’. Suddenly in verse 21 (of Isaiah 24) the word changes from ‘erets’ to ‘adarmah’ which elsewhere in the Bible means ‘the whole world’.

So, suddenly, the text changes from the land of Israel being thoroughly shaken to the statement “In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the Earth below”, meaning that some great judgment will come upon the land of Israel, after which the great shaking is extended to bring judgment upon the whole world.

The Times of the Gentiles

If we now go forward to the New Testament, we find Jesus probably referring to Isaiah 24 when he says “For this is the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written” (Luke 21:22). He follows that by referring to events that took place just 40 years later in the war with Rome (AD 66-70), which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the slaughter of some half a million people in Judea.⁵

Jesus then jumps forward to the times approaching his own Second Coming. He says “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).

The big question facing us today is whether or not “the times of the Gentiles” have been fulfilled. Although most of Jerusalem is back in Jewish hands, the Temple Mount is still occupied by Muslims which causes many biblical scholars to say that the prophetic words of Jesus have not yet been fulfilled.

The big question facing us today is whether or not the ‘times of the Gentiles’ have been fulfilled.

The Days of Noah

Jesus also referred to ‘the days of Noah’:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-39)

This warning about being prepared should at least make us stop and think about what is happening in our world today, and review our own relationship with God through our faith in the Lord Jesus. The Second Coming of our Lord may be much nearer than we think. An unbelieving generation takes no notice of the warning signs. Bible-believing Christians have no such excuse!

References

1 E.g. see news coverage here.

2 Click here to see maps of 2017 wildfires around the world.

3 Simons, P. Solar storm means aurora borealis could light up British skies. The Times, 9 September 2017.

4 Ibid.

5 It is always difficult to be sure of what Jesus meant in his statements to the disciples in Luke 21 and Matthew 24, because some of his words refer to events in the near future and others to the far future. He was clearly in conversation with them about the Temple which they had just left when he said that "not one stone will be left on another" (Matt 24:2). This was undoubtedly fulfilled in AD 70. But his prophecy that the Gospel will be preached in all the world (Matt 24:14) has obviously not yet been fulfilled, although with the present rapid worldwide growth of the Church, it may be fulfilled in the lifetime of the present generation of young people. It should also be remembered that biblical prophecies can refer to more than one event.

Who is God holding accountable in Britain – and why?

We at Prophecy Today are encouraging our readers to pray in a focussed way as we face an inevitable shaking of the nation. Looking around the world at one catastrophe after another, it is rather like the situation in Amos’s time.

At the beginning of the Book of Amos the prophet considered one nation surrounding Israel after another whom God was calling to repentance. Then he turned to Judah and Israel last of all: “Thus says the Lord: for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away its punishment…” (Amos 2:6). Proud Israel may have felt immune from God’s displeasure and quite ready to watch him judge other nations, but Israel of all nations should have known the ways of God. The time did come when it was no use praying for God to turn back his judgment.

So it will be for Britain, which once built herself upon the foundation of Scripture and chose to declare herself a Christian nation, faithful to God. We believe that God has said it is no use praying against the woe that will soon come to our nation, as part of the redemptive purposes of God.

Looking around the world at one catastrophe after another, it is rather like the situation in Amos’s time.

But who is being judged? Who has displeased God to bring this shaking upon us? My purpose in this article is to urge our readers to fine-tune their perspective, distinguishing the good from the bad in the nation, so that we might target our prayers effectively.

‘Church’ and ‘Nation’

For too long, many of us have over-generalised. We may want to pray for ‘the nation’. We may believe that ‘the Church’ must repent. There is some value in using these generalisations, but now perhaps the time has come for a sharper focus.

There is a diverse population in our nation and there are many branches of the Christian Church. There will always be areas for ‘Church’ and ‘nation’ to each address in collective repentance but if we are to understand God’s coming judgment fully, we should not bunch everything together as if all Christians (i.e. ‘the Church’) are apostate and all members of ‘the nation’ are being judged equally.

Achieving a Sharper Focus

As far as the Christian Church is concerned, surely God is pleased with many individual praying and serving Christians and many fellowships who seek holiness, true worship and outreach, desiring ‘holiness to the Lord’ constantly. They may still need to continue to listen to God and keep maturing, but they are willing.

God knows those who are seeking to walk close to him, so the general call for repentance in the Church must be brought into sharper focus, in consideration of those branches and denominations that are wilfully departing from God’s ways and deafening themselves to the prophetic voice.

We should not bunch everything together as if all Christians are apostate and all members of ‘the nation’ are being judged equally.

The same goes for the nation as a whole. There is still a residue of our historical biblical heritage within Britain’s culture and many people, though as yet unbelievers, have consciences and mindsets cultivated by our biblical heritage. Their good deeds will not save them but there are many people loving their neighbours, bringing up their families well, and genuinely seeking answers to life’s fundamental questions, whom God is not seeking to punish for their sins but to win to salvation.

God’s Care for the ‘Good Figs’

There are no simple divisions in either Church or nation, but it is my suggestion that we cease to lump everyone into broad categories. This is reminiscent of the good figs and the bad figs of Jeremiah 24. When the Babylonian captivity came, God kept a special eye on those whom he considered to be ‘good figs’.

These ‘good figs’ still felt the effects of the captivity and all of them needed to consider their ways and their relationship with God, but God did not raise up the Babylonians to be the agents of judgment on Judah because of their wrongdoing.

More recently, take for example the catastrophe of Grenfell Tower. The way the local churches mobilised to care for the needy and the way the local community rose up to provide food and shelter was wonderful to see. Yet, it was negligence from those responsible for care and protection that had left the building vulnerable to be consumed by fire in the first place. It was those who did not properly secure the building who were responsible, not those who lived in the building.

Many such areas of poor leadership are evident behind the scenes in our national life, leading to God’s protection being removed for a season in our land, so that what has been sown will be reaped. But there are remnants of good in both Church and wider society that are not the prime cause of this judgment from on high.

When the Babylonian captivity came, God kept a special eye on those whom he considered to be ‘good figs’.

Shepherds Held Responsible

In the days of Israel and Judah, God’s main accusations were always against the shepherds (e.g. Jer 10:21), rather than the flock - for it is the leaders who determine the direction of a nation. Surely this is the same in Britain.

Every leader of our nation who serves in Government, constitutionally, is intended to serve in the light of biblical truth. This is on account of the Queen’s Coronation Oath. Where they have strayed as leaders (shepherds) they have led vulnerable subjects of the Queen (sheep) into wrong pasture. This applies especially to law changes that are against the ways of God, but also to changes in our national priorities, which have been increasingly for financial security over faithfulness to God.

The same goes for the shepherds of the churches, whether leaders of denominations or of individual fellowships. It is the responsibility of these shepherds to follow the Chief Shepherd and lead believers into good pastures.

Time to Seek God’s Heart

If there is woe on the horizon for Britain we need to fine-tune more clearly whom we believe God holds accountable and for what reason. It is time for us to seek the heart of God, which surely is full of sadness, and to avoid over-generalising, so that our prayers may come into clearer and more meaningful focus.

Meanwhile, there should be no sense of guilt descending on those who are willing to rise up, pray and serve when the nation as a whole is shaken, providing we carefully consider the precise reasons for Britain’s decline before God and come before him in confession and renewed willingness to serve the needy as the time draws near.

How to pray for a nation that has turned its back on God.

Today, 8 September, is being observed as a day of prayer by many Christians throughout Britain. Exactly 77 years ago, on 8 September 1940 (a Sunday), King George VI called the nation to a day of prayer.

It was intended to be a day of thanksgiving for what had become known as the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’, when some 330,000 troops were evacuated safely with the help of an armada of little boats to get them off the beaches in France and back to England. But 8 September, as if by some prophetic foreknowledge, came at the height of the Battle of Britain, with thousands of enemy bombers darkening the skies of England.

The prayer day was perfectly timed and the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the RAF took a tremendous toll of the German air force. Then, for no rational reason, Hitler suddenly ordered the Luftwaffe to cease attacking RAF airfields. By 17 September 1940 the German Supreme Command issued an order saying that the invasion of England was postponed “until further notice”. The Battle of Britain was won and Winston Churchill addressed the nation with his iconic speech, declaring, “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

Exactly 77 years ago today, the King called the nation to a day of prayer.

How to Pray?

I am on record as saying that I can no longer pray for the health and wellbeing of the United Kingdom. That does not mean that I do not pray for the nation - but I am careful how I pray. I need to pray in line with what I’m hearing from the Lord.

I cannot pray “peace, peace”, if the Lord is saying “There is no peace”! And I cannot pray for revival and blessing if I know the Lord is saying there will be no revival until there is repentance – at least repentance in the Church, if not repentance in the nation.

If there were repentance in the Church, there would undoubtedly be an outpouring of the Spirit of God. This could be the spark that ignites evangelism to the nation as a whole, with the potential of widespread revival. But that is unlikely, because there is so little understanding among Christians of the nature of the battle we are facing.

Political and Religious Red Lines

In Jeremiah’s day both the politicians and the religious leaders were in rebellion against God. They each crossed a red line and that was why Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the wellbeing of the nation and concentrate instead upon praying for those things that would lead to the fulfilment of God’s good purposes.

Jeremiah was appalled by the actions of the king and his political advisers when the envoys of all the nations surrounding Israel met in Jerusalem to hatch a plot to revolt against the Babylonian Empire (Jer 27). Zedekiah had sworn an oath in the Name of the God of Israel to be loyal to Nebuchadnezzar when he was appointed king, so Jeremiah saw this plot as dishonouring to God. He knew that it would lead to disaster for Jerusalem and the whole nation - it was a political red line.

Jeremiah knew that both politicians and religious leaders had crossed red lines – which was why he was told to stop praying for the nation’s wellbeing.

The religious red line was in the rejection by the priests of what’s known as Jeremiah’s ‘Temple Sermon’ (Jer 7), where he outlined the sins of Jerusalem and followed this with a vivid description of the way whole families were involved in idolatry on the streets of the city: “The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven.”¹

All this was going on under the noses of the priests and Temple authorities, who were so convinced that God would never allow the Gentiles to destroy the Temple or the Holy City that they did not care what the people were doing. They were deaf and blind to the dangers facing them.

Britain’s Red Lines

In Britain, there have been successive warnings to both Church and State as we have drifted farther away from biblical truth as a nation and embraced secular values that are directly against the word of God.

As far back as 1985 we began our warnings in Prophecy Today, commenting on the lightning strike on York Minster the previous year, which had occurred only hours after the consecration of David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham. Jenkins had famously described the resurrection of Jesus as a “conjuring trick with bones”. His lack of belief in the Bible shocked the nation, but he was appointed by Archbishop Runcie, who also had little respect for the Bible and was more interested in forming a one-world religion. He led the Anglican Church for 10 years while the forces of secular humanism were gathering momentum in the nation and there was a great need for a strong Christian presence.

In Britain, there have been successive warnings to both Church and State as we have drifted farther away from biblical truth as a nation.

We believe that the political red line was crossed in the UK when David Cameron came back from an EU leaders’ meeting in 2010 determined to be a good European and obey their directive that all member states should accept same-sex marriage by the year 2013. Cameron managed to meet that deadline by driving the Act through Parliament, against the wishes of more than a hundred of his own MPs.

Judgment immediately fell upon Maria Miller, the Minister who had steered the Act through Parliament, who lost her job within weeks. Cameron was spared long enough to call the Referendum enabling Britain to get out of the godless EU, but Brexit immediately ended his political career.

The Church of England Synod in July this year breached a religious red line when it rejected an amendment committing the Church to be more active in evangelism and sharing the Gospel with people of other faiths in Britain, while at the same time agreeing to devise a service to celebrate the new gender of transgender people. This committed the state Church to supporting the objectives of the LGBTQ movement, which is determined to destroy the family and human identity as men and women created by God.

God’s Good Purposes

I believe the Lord has now removed his cover of protection over the land which has already resulted in an increase in acts of terrorism and disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire. So how do we pray for a nation that has deliberately put itself against God?

I believe the Lord has now removed his cover of protection over the land.

Again, Jeremiah gives us the answer. He says, “The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord” (Jer 24:1). One was full of good figs and the other full of rotting fruit. Through this picture God revealed his long-term purposes for the good of the nation.

We need to discern the purposes of God for Britain – for the Church and for the nation as a whole. I am convinced that in the long-term God does have good purposes for the nation that will bring blessings and prosperity, but we will have to go through a difficult time which will truly test the dwindling faith of the nation.

This is where the faithful Christian minority has a vital role to play, to do what Ezekiel calls ‘standing in the gap’ (Ezek 22:30): to seek the Lord together, to intercede for those who do not know how, to discern how the Lord would help us recover what is being lost to our spiritual enemy and to pray positively into these issues.

This is where the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is vital and where mature, Bible-believing Christians can play an historic part in reviving the Church and bringing the nation back under God’s protection.

Notes

1 The ‘Queen of Heaven’ was a title for Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess (also known as Ashtoreth/Astarte).

A personal statement from the Editor-in-Chief.

So many people have contacted me since last week’s Editorial that I feel I must make a statement to clarify what I was saying. It wasn’t really anything very new, because in Issachar Ministries we have been teaching along these lines for some time.

We have always tried to teach the necessity of understanding what God is doing so that we can pray in line with his will. It’s no good praying “Peace! Peace!” if the Lord is saying “There is no peace”. And it’s no good praying shalom upon the nation if the Lord is saying, “I am shaking the nation”!

We have to say, “Lord, help us to understand why you are shaking the nation so that we can pray for your shaking to be effective, so that you may work out your purposes in the nation.” This is the right way to intercede, even though it may be uncomfortable for us.

Living in Babylon

Issachar Ministries has long been teaching that for many decades Britain has been defying God by passing ungodly laws – and that as a nation we crossed a red line when our Parliament passed the Same-Sex Marriage Act in 2013. This was a direct act of defiance of the God of Creation – the God of the Bible and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Parliament immediately put the nation outside the protecting cover of God. Judgment began immediately upon those most responsible for this heinous Act. Maria Miller, the Minister responsible for the Act lost her job within weeks. David Cameron was spared only long enough to offer the Referendum on the EU to the nation. Then judgment fell upon him that ended his political career.

We have always tried to teach the necessity of understanding what God is doing so that we can pray in line with his will.

Since 2013 mature Christians have been praying for mercy in the midst of judgment. The Referendum was a specific target for believing prayer which, as an act of mercy, God answered positively, giving us the opportunity to sever connection with the demonic institution that the EU has become. But Brexit can only succeed if there is sufficient Godly repentance in the nation to allow God to act in mercy.

Since 2013 the faithful remnant of the Lord’s people in Britain have been ‘in Babylon’ – much as the faithful remnant of Israel were sent to Babylon in 598 BC and when Jeremiah heard of their misery (as per Psalm 137) he sent them his famous letter (Jeremiah 29) telling them to settle down as God had got good plans for them.

The faithful remnant in Britain today are in a similar position: not physically separated, but culturally and spiritually separated from the nation. We are living by a different set of values – kingdom values, not the politically correct, secular values of the nation.

Defiance in the Church

The new thing for me was last month when the Archbishop of York refused to accept an amendment that would have committed the CofE to biblically-based evangelism.

Specifically, an amendment was suggested by Andrea Williams recognising the importance of Scripture in informing and directing how the Church engages with the nation, which the Archbishop of York (with nodding agreement from the Archbishop of Canterbury) urged the rest of the Synod to resist, saying “If you’re going to serve the whole community please don’t limit our language…The Word became flesh and sadly we are now making it Word, Word and Word again. Resist the amendments.” He was clearly committing the Church to conform to the political correctness of secular society.

Since 2013 the faithful remnant of the Lord’s people in Britain have been ‘in Babylon’ – culturally and spiritually separated from the nation.

The same Synod agreed to compose a service to recognise and celebrate the new identity of transsexuals, which is surely an offence against the God of Creation. Putting these two things together I sensed that the CofE had now passed a red line in much the same way as the nation did in 2013. It was at that point that I felt the Lord saying to me the time had come to share with other believers what we have already been teaching about the nation in small groups of intercessors around the country who were seeking to pray in line with the will of God.

I first checked this with our trustees at our retreat last month and they encouraged me to share it with the prayer partners who would be with us the following day. I did this and there was a very positive response – people were even saying that they felt a sense of relief as they had been hearing something similar for some time.

Once I had done this I knew that word would go round rapidly, so then planned to say something in Prophecy Today UK, which I did last week. I believe that our state Church has stepped over a red line. There is a faithful, believing remnant in every church, but in many cases they are as much ‘in Babylon’ in their church as they are in the nation.

Babylon in the Churches

This is the new thing: the faithful remnant is having to learn to live victoriously in Babylon in the institutional churches as well as in the secular nation! Of course, God’s judgment will never come upon the faithful believing Church that is the Body of Christ – but we may well see judgment come upon the unfaithful institutions that are called churches! The Church of England may only be held together so long as our present Queen is head of state. After that – who knows what will happen?

The faithful remnant is having to learn to live victoriously in Babylon in the institutional churches – as well as in the secular nation!

I can no longer pray God’s shalom upon the institutional churches any more than I can pray peace and prosperity upon our secular humanist state – I can only ask for mercy and pray for the faithful remnant to be preserved as the shaking intensifies.

However, that does not mean I intend to stop praying – for there is much I can pray for – and much we can all pray for! Each of us has the freedom in this to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit about how to pray in line with the will of God.

Personally, I pray that truth will be preserved and that the day will come when eyes that are blinded by secular humanism will be opened; and ears that are deafened by fake news and Darwinian lies will be unstopped; and that God will preserve his faithful remnant until the day that a harvest for the Kingdom may be reaped, in a time of his choosing. I probably won’t see the harvest in my lifetime but I have great hope that there will be a harvest for the Kingdom in the lifetime of my grandchildren!

A word from Dr Clifford Hill.

For several weeks, in my prayer times, I have been hearing something I did not want to hear. The weekend before last, at a team retreat with Issachar Ministries trustees and the Editorial Board of Prophecy Today, I shared with them the message that I’m hearing – “stop praying for the nation”.

This sounds outrageous, but before you pick up stones to throw at me, please join me in a little Bible study. The Prophet Jeremiah spent 40 years of his life bringing God-inspired warnings to the people of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. He pleaded with them to repent of their idolatry, injustice, oppression, violence and immorality; all of which are detailed in his famous ‘Temple Sermon’ in chapter 7.

He constantly pleaded with God on behalf of the nation for mercy and for God’s continuing protection, even though he knew the people to be unworthy of the Lord’s blessings.

But there came a point where God told Jeremiah to stop praying for the nation as he would no longer listen to his pleas. His Temple Sermon concluded with a striking passage:

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”…?

Jeremiah then almost exploded,

Safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

This was followed by the Lord’s declaration, “I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.” This was followed by a direct command to Jeremiah, “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you” (Jer 7:16).

Jeremiah constantly pleaded with God for mercy on behalf of the nation, but there came a point where God told him to stop praying.

Repeated Warnings Ignored

Three times Jeremiah was given the same instruction, to cease praying for the nation. The other two times are in 11:14 and 14:11. The latter enables us to understand just what God was saying. It says, “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.’”

You notice that God did not say that he would not listen if they repented, but that he was no longer interested in their ritual religious offerings while they continued all their idolatrous practices and showed no trust in him. This is very similar to what Isaiah had said some 200 years earlier:

The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me? Says the Lord. I have had more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals…When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. (Isa 1:11, 15)

God had been calling for repentance for 40 years and his words, through Jeremiah, had been ignored. The corruption in the nation had now reached the point where the people were being driven by evil forces that made them blind to the danger facing them and deaf to the warnings they were given.

After giving his Temple Sermon, God said to Jeremiah, “When you tell them all this they will not listen to you; when you call to them they will not answer. Therefore, say to them, this is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer 7:27).

Disaster Inevitable

I believe this is the situation we have reached in Britain – not only in the nation where our politicians are squabbling among themselves in confusion and the BBC forces homosexual propaganda on us on a daily basis, but also in the Church of England, our official state church, which has departed from the truth. As Charles Gardner pointed out two weeks ago, the Archbishop of York declared to the General Synod that the Bible should be ignored and measures passed to please lesbians and homosexuals.

The Synod also voted to call on the Government to ban the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ for gay people and is considering whether transgender people could be given special church services to celebrate their new gender identity. 25 years ago David Noakes sent a prophetic warning to Dr George Carey, who was then Archbishop of Canterbury. The warning is even more relevant and urgent today.

Surely the Lord is saying of the Church of England: “Truth has perished from their lips!”

I believe this is the situation we have reached in Britain - not only in the nation but also in the Church of England.

Justine Greening, the lesbian Secretary of State for Education who is determined to brainwash all our children with LGBT values from the age of five, put further pressure upon the Church last month saying, that if churches do not perform same-sex marriages they are “not part of a modern country”.¹ Our politicians and our church leaders are colluding to distort the truth and deceive the nation: “truth has perished from their lips!”

By contrast this week, the Archbishop of Uganda has stated that he will not attend the next meeting of Anglican leaders because he cannot have fellowship with those who deny biblical truth. Good for him!

God holds his Church primarily responsible for the spiritual and moral state of the nation. When the church becomes as corrupt as the nation, judgment becomes inevitable.

This is the reason why I can no longer pray for the welfare of this nation. I cannot pray, “Peace! Peace!” When the Lord is saying: “There is no peace!” I believe some kind of catastrophe is now inevitable in order to open eyes that are blind and ears that are deaf, and the Lord will use it to bring the nation to our knees. I also believe that this is the only way that God’s salvation is going to reach this nation.

A Coming Harvest!

In the 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the year 586 BC, God raised up three prophets in Judah – Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Habakkuk. All three brought strong warnings to the people; but all three saw beyond the catastrophe to the time of restoration, blessing and prosperity that would follow.

I am convinced that there will be a great spiritual awakening and harvest for the Kingdom in Great Britain with multitudes being saved - but it will not happen until there is repentance and turning. Just as many people whose lives are broken by sin, hear the Gospel and respond with joy as their sins are forgiven and they come into a right relationship with God, the same can happen with the nation.

I believe that some kind of catastrophe is now inevitable in order to open eyes that are blind and ears that are deaf.

For many years God has been warning that the time will come when he will shake all nations. The prophecy of Haggai 2:6-7, repeated in Hebrews 12, is coming true today: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations’”. Note also that the prophecy concludes with a promise of restoration, “I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty”.

I am looking forward to the great spiritual awakening that will follow the great shaking! I can no longer plead with God to spare this nation from the judgment we so richly deserve. My prayer now is, “Make the shaking effective, Lord! And work out your good purposes!”

References

1 Interview with Sky News, 23 July 2017.

Grenfell Tower and God’s purposes for Britain.

The Grenfell Tower disaster continues to fill our newspapers and will no doubt do so for a long time to come. Left-wing politicians see it as an opportunity to lambast a Conservative Council for neglecting the poor, the powerless and the immigrant. Anarchists are stirring up rage while seeking the opportunity for overthrowing an elected government.

Lawyers are rubbing their hands at the prospect of prolonged legal battles. Criminals are said to have spirited away huge amounts of gifts and clothing donated by the public, and millions of pounds have been donated to online appeals, some of which have been set up by crooks.

But what about the survivors who have suffered the cruel loss of loved ones reduced to ashes – and the loss of everything they own, their homes, passports, precious family photos and mementos? Who is caring for them? How are they coping with devastating bereavement and shock?

In this issue of Prophecy Today we are publishing an interview with the pastor of a local church that has been intimately involved with the survivors since the first hours of the fire. I also have spoken to this pastor and heard some of his amazing testimony to the grace of God. They have just been filmed for the BBC’s Songs of Praise, so some of these testimonies may well be broadcast to the world.

Warning After Warning

Jesus also had to deal with a tower disaster during his ministry in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4). Jesus saw this disaster, which God had allowed, as a warning that something was severely wrong in the city and unless people took heed, a greater disaster would occur. History shows the result of his warning being ignored. Less than 40 years later, Jerusalem was totally destroyed by the Romans after a disastrous four years’ war.

Jesus also had to deal with a tower disaster during his ministry in Jerusalem – he saw it as a warning that something was severely wrong.

Christians who are alert to the times in which we are living know that God has been sending us warnings for a long time. Our nation has deliberately turned away from truth to embrace every kind of evil, from child abuse and gross immorality to lies and corruption in high places in the governance and commercial life of the UK.

We have deliberately defied the word of God, even to attempting to ‘re-define’ the founding principles of Creation. In so doing we have put ourselves outside the protection of God and we are already reaping the whirlwind of our own creation.

Is Repentance Still Possible?

Disaster will undoubtedly follow and I believe the Grenfell Tower inferno is the latest warning sign that God has sent to us. Of course, it is not too late for national repentance. Jeremiah was still calling for repentance when the Babylonian army was outside the gates of the city, because he knew that God could strike them down and save Jerusalem even at the last moment. But he also knew that there would be no repentance because of the blindness and wickedness that gripped the nation, so he knew that God would allow disaster to happen.

In the 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, God raised up three prophets – Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah – all with a similar message. They each gave severe warnings; they each said that only repentance and turning to God would prevent disaster; and they each looked beyond the inevitable disaster to a time of restoration and blessing.

I personally believe that the people of Britain, America and Europe have all passed the point where repentance (although still possible) could save us from inevitable disaster. We are being driven by powerful forces of destruction. This is vividly illustrated in the spirit of death that is gripping many young people who are being driven to self-harm and suicide via the internet. In the same way, Western nations are being manipulated and steered by forces of evil.

I personally believe that Britain, America and Europe have all passed the point where repentance, though still possible, can save us from inevitable disaster.

Severe Testing – But with Purpose

Of course, these forces of darkness could be broken if there arose in the Western nations a powerful army of intercessors empowered by the Holy Spirit to scatter the darkness and heal the land. But there is little sign of this at the moment because churches are either gently sleeping in their cosy traditions or actively pursuing the policies of apostasy – the fruit of false teaching and rejection of the truth.

The three pre-exilic prophets of Judah were each told that God would actually use the disaster to further his purposes by sweeping idolatry, immorality and injustice out of the land to prepare the way for the new covenant relationship inaugurated by Messiah. The promises of restoration given by each of these prophets can be found in Jeremiah 31:27f, Habakkuk 2:14 and 3:16f, and Zephaniah 3:14f.

In the recent prayer times led by Issachar Ministries in different parts of the country where we have had intercessory gatherings to spend time together listening to the Lord, the outstanding words that have been received have been urgent calls for repentance, but also calls for strengthening the Body of believers to enable them to stand firm during the coming storm. Christians need equipping with the full armour of God, which is not only for defence but also for declaring the word of God in a hostile environment - that is, we must exercise the sword of the Spirit as well as raise the shield of faith!

The major revelation from these times of waiting upon God is that Christians in Western nations are going to go through days of severe testing, but those days will undoubtedly be followed by times of renewal, spiritual awakening and blessing.

Signs of Future Blessing

A little sign of future blessing can be seen in the Grenfell Tower disaster, out of which many people are entering into a new relationship with God - according to the reports we are hearing from churches in the area. Local Muslims in particular have been greatly shaken, not least because the inferno occurred during Ramadan, which they normally regard as a time of blessing; and because no Muslim would ever have his body cremated - yet so many have been reduced to ashes.

Christians in Western nations are going to go through severe testing, but those days will undoubtedly be followed by times of renewal.

There are reports of Muslims questioning their faith in the wake of Grenfell Tower, and the recent terrorist atrocities committed in the name of Allah, as well as the widespread tragedy unfolding in the Middle East – particularly in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where Muslims are slaughtering each other. Many Muslims in Kensington are said to be responding to the love being shown to them by Christians and there is a new openness to the Gospel. Is this the beginning of a new harvest for the Kingdom?

The nation is reeling – but why, and what can we do about it?

I have had a few days up in the Austrian Tyrol, walking, praying and breathing fresh mountain air. It was a little glimpse of paradise – physically and spiritually refreshing. Coming back to Britain there was a palpable sense of heaviness and depression hanging over the nation. Even the immigration officer inspecting my passport at London airport gloomily referred to the state of the nation and commented that I would have done better not to have come back!

We reached home at 1 o’clock on Wednesday morning, which was just the time the terrible fire broke out in the Kensington tower block. The tragic news in the morning could only add to the depression hanging over the nation like the thick black cloud of smoke drifting over London.

Since then I’ve been searching for good news – something I could say in this editorial that would lift the hearts of our readers. The last thing I want to do is to add to the doom and gloom coming out of Westminster and filling our news media. Then, with the still burning Grenfell Tower in the background, the TV news showed crowds of people bringing food and clothing and toiletries and a multitude of gifts for the survivors of the inferno.

The spontaneous generosity and goodness of the ordinary people of London who immediately sprang into action on behalf of their neighbours was a wonderful reminder that love and goodness are not dead in our nation. People were coming from every part of the multi-ethnic community in Kensington, which was a powerful testimony to the latent goodness of human nature that goes beyond race, colour, class, nationality and every other human distinction.

Nation Under Judgment

This outpouring of love and generosity is a true picture of our nature created in the image of God. But we reserve this outpouring for special occasions; we do not carry it over into our everyday lives, where we display our fallen human nature marred by selfishness and corrupted by personal ambition.

This gives us a clue to the central problem affecting the nation. Everyone is asking why the nation is in such a mess. The plain and honest answer is that we are a nation under judgment.

The spontaneous generosity of the ordinary people of London was a wonderful reminder that love and goodness are not dead in our nation.

No-one really wants to face this unpleasant truth because Christians who firmly hold to biblical values are scorned and labelled, ‘right-wing’, ‘homophobic’, ‘Islamophobic’ and all the other clichés and invectives invented by secular humanists to try to discredit those who stand firm against the liberalisation of the nation and the rejection of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Sadly, some who call themselves Christians have adopted this language to abuse those who remain true to the Bible.

God’s Ultimate Authority

Just look at the facts: our Prime Minister had a perfectly workable majority in the Commons which she gambled and lost through putting her trust in the polls. It is probable that she also trusted advisers who elevated her to ‘celebrity’ status, basing the election campaign around her rather than the ‘strong and stable’ government we were promised. So the hoped-for landslide fell into the valley of disaster.

This is where Scripture comes to our aid in understanding what has happened in the political sphere. Paul’s teaching is very clear: “There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Rom 13:1).

Then in Deuteronomy 28:20 we read what God does when a nation deliberately turns their backs upon biblical truth: “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.”

But this harsh statement is tempered by the solemn promise of God in Jeremiah 18:7: “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.”

Call to Remain Faithful

We should always be careful not to apply biblical statements literally to our contemporary situation, but look at the situation when they were written. The Deuteronomy quote was specifically to Israel, a nation in a covenant relationship with God. The promise given in Jeremiah was to all nations at any time. Paul’s teaching was designed to re-assure the Roman authorities that the small company of Christian believers had no political ambitions or desire to challenge the authority of the Emperor.

We are a nation under judgment – but nobody wants to face this unpleasant truth.

Again, look at the facts: Britain is a self-declared Christian nation in which our monarch pledged on behalf of us all to be faithful to the Protestant religion and to uphold the word of the Lord. So long as we, as a nation, remain faithful to uphold biblical values and the Lord’s name, we can be sure of his protection and blessing. When we forsake the Truth, we put ourselves outside God’s protection. That is judgment.

Although the Conservatives have the most seats in the new Parliament, the only way they can form a Government is by co-operating with the DUP, whose distinctive feature is their commitment to upholding biblical beliefs and values. Surely we have to conclude that God is speaking to our nation through this situation.

Time for Christians to Rise Up

Disasters will continue to happen unless we acknowledge that as a nation we have departed from the ways of truth and earnestly seek God’s forgiveness and blessing, which he is more than eager to bestow upon us. We cannot expect the whole nation to understand this situation and to respond rightly: but surely Christians can understand the ways of God! Now is the time for us to steady the nation with the word of the Lord. God’s love has not been withdrawn and never will be, but we have brought this situation upon ourselves.

It is time for Christians to steady the nation with the word of the Lord.

The greatest need today is for the mobilisation of Christians to intercede on behalf of the nation. God does not wait until there is a democratic majority before responding – he’s looking for the faithful remnant of believers to break their silence, to ask for the power of his Holy Spirit in making our witness in the nation and to re-affirm our love for him and for Britain. The fruit of judgment will quickly be removed if we are faithful and blessings will flow.