A lesson from Amos on trusting God in times of great shaking

In order to build up a people of faith, God has to do some stripping away.

The promise of a new covenant

God is about to do mighty things in and through Britain.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Body Zero’ by Nicholas Paul Franks (self-published, 2019)

Calling for little ships of hope to rescue us from disaster

As we approach the 80^th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, I finally got round to watching the DVD of the movie Dunkirk which my son bought for my birthday. The subject has many lessons for the current state of Britain, facing a crisis even darker and more dangerous than confronted us then.

It was obvious, in May 1940, that we faced disaster from which the chances of successful escape were pretty much impossible. But what we had then, and we don’t have now, was a God-fearing nation. Most of the young people portrayed in the film would have had fresh memories of Sunday School and would have felt relatively comfortable about calling to Heaven for help while, at home, mums and dads were quick to respond to the King’s call for prayer, with queues forming outside churches up and down the country.

God was even mentioned in Churchill’s famous speech: “We will fight on the beaches; we will fight on the landing grounds…we shall never surrender…” until victory was achieved “in God’s good time”. It took five more years, but the great man got it right.

Yet none of these factors was reflected in Christopher Nolan’s epic film, which attributed our deliverance only to British grit and the ‘Dunkirk spirit’. Though otherwise brilliant as a production and cinematic experience, it failed miserably in this important aspect, especially considering the great care invested in ensuring accuracy in every detail.

Apart from a few oblique references to the need for a miracle, the ‘God factor’ was meticulously filtered out of the picture. And yet, as the producers made clear in the special features disc that comes with the DVD, they were trying to portray things at the deep end, as it were, in the heart of the action, from three different angles – those of the soldiers, the pilots and the brave boatmen.

Dunkirk has lessons for the current situation in Britain, facing a crisis even darker and more dangerous than confronted us then.

A Miracle Indeed

Three 'little ships' from the Dunkirk evacuation, 1940. Yes, it was our darkest hour of the war; we stood on the brink of invasion with our army trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. But the call for help went out, prayers were offered and 338,000 men lived to fight another day - ten times more than the most optimistic estimate of Churchill and the generals.

It was a miracle indeed. The sea was becalmed, Hitler inexplicably ordered his troops to halt for three days as they began to surround the British Expeditionary Force in a pincer-like movement, a combination of cloud cover and brave Spitfire pilots restricted carnage inflicted by the Luftwaffe, while some 800 fishing and pleasure boats mounted an extraordinary rescue.

Yet it had been an apparently hopeless situation, resembling the plight of the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt, trapped on a beach with the army bearing down upon them and nothing but the Red Sea in front of them. Thankfully, Moses had his instructions from God and, when he lifted up his staff, the sea parted to make way for their escape.

We too need the God of Moses. He is still there; and he is not deaf. He is merely awaiting our call for help. But many of today’s young men are being left on the beaches, apparently with no hope, because no-one has told them of Jesus (Rom 10:14).

Not by Might, Nor by Power

This is a darker hour even than Dunkirk, because our present climate of chaos and confusion is the result of switching off the light of Christ from our national life. We have turned our backs on the God of the Bible to follow our own selfish and foolish ways, leading to an unprecedented breakdown in family life. We are on the brink of complete ruin.

But a remnant of Christians is praying for deliverance from this evil. They represent the ‘little ships’ crossing the dangerous currents of secular culture to rescue Britain from despair and degradation, trapped by a godless ideology that offers neither hope nor comfort.

Small groups of Jesus followers, meeting in homes around the country as well as in more formal venues, are trimming their sails to the wind of the Spirit as they seek God’s victory in our nation. They are not great in numbers but, like Gideon’s 300-strong army, they do command huge potential power. For when the Israelites of old cried out to God for deliverance from the crushing oppression of the Midianites, God called Gideon – the least of the least in terms of personal stature – to lead the rescue.

We too must dispense with our idols, our false gods of materialism and humanism, and our politically correct agendas, as Gideon was ordered to do (Judg 6:25-32). And we must remember that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zech 4:6) that the enemies of God will be defeated.

This is a darker hour even than Dunkirk – but a remnant of Christians is praying for our deliverance from evil.

Biblical Boats, Spiritual Lessons

Noah’s Ark (and indeed the Red Sea crossing) also pictures rescue (salvation) for those trusting in Christ, who are saved from the depths of the sea that would otherwise have drowned them by putting their faith in the God of Israel.

Sea of Galilee: Much of Jesus’ earthly ministry was focused on boats plying this wondrous stretch of water. Photo: Charles GardnerIt is significant, I believe, that much of Jesus’ earthly ministry was carried out in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, particularly in or around boats. When the disciples were struggling in rough seas, Jesus came to them walking on water. And as soon as he got into the boat, they reached the shore – a miraculous intervention no doubt (John 6:16-21)!

On another occasion, in the midst of a squall that threatened to capsize the boat, Jesus rebuked the storm with a word and all was calm, causing the disciples to ask one another: “Who is this, who commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25). We all need Jesus in our lifeboat, and Britain is once again looking for little ships of disciples to rescue us from disaster.

Every Day with Jesus,¹ calling for biblical wisdom, underscores this point: “At this present time, enemy forces threaten us. Marriages are crumbling, and the moral ropes that once held us so fast and firm and now frayed.”

As with the Jews of ancient times, God came to our rescue in 1940. But, just like them, we soon forgot the means of our great deliverance by forsaking God’s commands, which produced a generation that tragically never saw the Promised Land. We mustn’t let that happen again.

Notes

1 Bible-reading notes produced by Crusade for World Revival, originally written by the late Selwyn Hughes.

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.

God's plans for the faithful remnant.

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

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

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

Calling Back the Remnant

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

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

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

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

Message of Hope

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

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

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

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

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

Preserving a Remnant

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

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

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

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

Sowing Life

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

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

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

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

How will God deal with Britain?

An incredible battle is raging over Britain. It is raging in the heavenlies above, and on the earth below, where it is centred upon our Parliament. Our MPs are in total disarray, fighting each other and not understanding the battle. Few of them realise that they are being driven by the powers of darkness intent on destroying this great nation that has turned its back upon God and despised its spiritual heritage.

The battle in the House of Commons is being fought between those who want to see Britain free from the European Union and those who want to see Britain continue enslaved to the rules and regulations of Brussels. It is as simple as that. But most of our MPs have no understanding of spiritual warfare and do not perceive the forces of darkness that are moving them like pawns on a chess board, driving them to destruction.

Come Out and Be Separate

The Prime Minister appears to have panicked under pressure and turned to Jeremy Corbyn, a notorious Marxist atheist, as her saviour, in a last-ditch attempt to get her deal approved by Parliament. As a professed Christian, has she never read the warnings in Scripture about being unequally yoked with unbelievers? The teaching of Paul could not be clearer:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).

In verse 17 Paul urges “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.” This is an instruction that all our MPs should take to heart in dealing with Brexit. Undoubtedly, the best outcome for Britain and the most feared outcome for the EU is that we leave next Friday without a deal. But if that cannot be achieved, provided we leave with any kind of deal that leaves us free to make changes in the future, that would be better than a long delay with the possibility of never getting away at all, which is the objective of the majority in our present House of Commons.

Undoubtedly, the best outcome for Britain and the most feared outcome for the EU is that we leave next Friday without a deal.

Egypt…or Babylon?

A number of commentators, including prominent politicians, have compared the present situation with the time of Moses and the release of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. But this is not the best biblical analogy, because we are not having to fight the EU for our freedom, as Moses fought Pharaoh. We are having to fight the morally corrupt and spiritually blind Members of our own Parliament, who do not understand the issues that face them.

A more instructive biblical analogy is the release of the faithful remnant of Israel and Judah from Babylon in 538 BC. Babylon had fallen to the Persians whose Emperor, Cyrus, issued a decree freeing all political prisoners. The people of Israel were free to return to the land of their forefathers, to rebuild Jerusalem and to restore the shattered economy, social structure, and towns and villages across the land.

A wonderful new opportunity was presented to Israel if they could face the one-thousand-mile trek across difficult country and undertake the great task of reconstruction and renewal. For many who had become comfortable in exile, the offer of freedom in the Promised Land was rejected for the fleshpots of Babylon. They were too comfortable and prosperous to risk embarking on an uncertain future.

But for those who had faith and vision and were prepared to put their trust in God, a wonderful new opportunity was presented. They obeyed the call to come out from Babylon and totally put their trust in God for the future. They were the faithful remnant who God would use to rebuild Jerusalem and prepare the way for Messiah and the coming Kingdom.

Yes, they had lots of hardships to face and difficulties to endure in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its surrounding walls, but they had a shared vision which enabled them to work together, and God blessed their labours - especially when they rebuilt the Temple in the heart of the city and re-emphasised their faith in God at the centre of national life.

A more instructive biblical analogy than the Exodus is the release of the faithful remnant of Israel and Judah from Babylon in 538 BC.

Calling on God

This is surely a biblical parable for us today caught up in the conflict of Brexit with an unbelieving Parliament leading the nation.

The great unknown at the moment is precisely how God will deal with Britain. We know that judgment is thoroughly deserved for the way we have rejected our spiritual heritage, squandered the responsibilities we had for bringing the light of the Gospel to more than a third of the world’s population in the great Empire to which God entrusted us, and in the terrible way that we reneged on our promises to Israel - as Charles Gardner shows elsewhere in this week's issue of Prophecy Today.

Despite deserved judgment, we know that our God is loving and merciful – more ready to forgive than we are to repent. And we know that the Referendum result was a gracious allowance from God to give us a greater opportunity to return to him. Now is the time to petition God for his help to overcome the powers of darkness that are trying to sweep Britain into an abyss of chaos, which will inevitably result if we fail to leave the European Union within the next few weeks.

We ask all Bible-believing Christians to call upon the Lord for his mercy and intervention in what appears to be a hopeless situation. Let all the prayer groups and intercessors throughout the land acknowledge the plight of the nation before the throne of grace and call upon God for an outpouring of his power, which is the only means of saving Britain from the folly of its own leaders.

In the current confusion - our only hope is in God!

Some insights from the Editor-in-Chief at the head of the year.

1. What is God Doing Today?

We are entering a time of immense turbulence that is of great significance in the history of the nation. It is essential to understand what God is doing and not be blinded by what human beings are doing. What is God doing today?

In the past God has spoken to us about shaking the nations. Back in 1986 he highlighted Haggai 2:6 and 7: “I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations…” Much of what we are seeing today is God’s activity in shaking the nations, exposing corruption and turning upside-down the institutions in which people have put their trust; which is a modern form of idolatry. We need to keep our eyes upon him and understand what he is doing.

There is still a faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians in Britain who are greatly needed in this time of turbulence. The message that Jesus gave in Nazareth when the scroll of Isaiah was given to him in the synagogue is important. Jesus chose to read from Chapter 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news…” The whole of this chapter is significant for the faithful remnant today and it needs careful study. The faithful remnant will be called “Oaks of righteousness” and be “a planting of the Lord for the display of HIS splendour.”

Their task is to “rebuild the ancient ruins”; to recall the nation to the biblical foundations of truth upon which the nation was founded. This requires study and teamwork, working together, honouring one another and in everything keeping our eyes upon the Lord and only doing what he tells us to do. A key Scripture is John 5:19: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing.”

So, what is God doing? What are we seeing all around us in Britain? An excellent description is in Ezekiel 12:2: “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but they do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.” This provides the key to understanding what is happening in the nation – a nation that is under judgment, whose leaders have no vision, who rush about in confusion looking for solutions that cannot be found; because there are no political solutions to the spiritual problems in the nation.

It is essential to understand what God is doing and not be blinded by what human beings are doing.

But this is not only the condition of our political leaders. It is also the condition of church leaders of all denominations, most of whom have either been swept up into the maelstrom of secular humanist values in a post-Christian world or have retreated into a cosy little pseudo-biblical world, feeding pastoral comfort to their flock, but have lost the prophetic cutting edge of the Gospel and no longer fearlessly declare the unchanging word of God to a lost generation!

The words of Jesus in telling the parable of the sower applies to the Church in Britain today: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matt 13:13). They do not understand because they do not have the Spirit of God. Paul makes this very clear in 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” … but the faithful remnant can say “But we have the mind of Christ”.

The faithful remnant in Britain today is largely composed of the older generation: but God is doing something quite remarkable! He is using the spirit of rebellion that is sweeping the nation to bring young people into the kingdom!

There are many signs that thinking young people are tired of the antics of our politicians and in their search for the truth they are rejecting the post-modernist philosophy that has driven society to the point we have reached today. They can see the social disaster vividly portrayed in social media that reflects their world. But God is actually using the spirit of rebellion to work out his purposes.

Young people are joining the faithful remnant and it is in the purposes of God to ensure that his precious word that has been kept in the old wineskins will not be lost, but will be poured out into the new wineskins before the older generation are taken into glory. My own grandson, Mark, who is due to be ordained this year, is an example of this.

2. The Faithful Remnant

The faithful remnant is a stump in the land. Isaiah 6:13 is significant and needs to be studied. As the oak leaves a stump when it is cut down so “The holy seed will be the stump in the land”. Issachar Ministries has a special calling for mobilising and resourcing the older generation of believers.

The Lord has given to Monica and me a living parable. In our garden we had a beautiful old plum tree that bore luscious fruit. In the middle of a very dry summer some six years ago it was heavily laden with fruit when a great storm with a powerful wind blew it down. We had no alternative but to harvest its fruit and then cut it in pieces for our log fire. With great sadness we cut its trunk near to the ground just leaving a stump. To our amazement another tree has grown up from the stump and in the past two or three years it has been producing fruit – not quite the same kind of fruit, smaller but good quality and very eatable.

The faithful remnant is the stump in the land – but that stump can bear good fruit.

The Lord spoke to us through this parable that the stump can produce good fruit, like the potter working at his wheel when Jeremiah called to see him (Jer 18) and the piece of clay he was working could not be fashioned into the intended pot. Instead of throwing away the clay the potter put it back onto the wheel and re-fashioned it into another pot – not the original beautiful vase intended to grace a rich person’s living room, but a useful pot that would bless a busy housewife in her kitchen.

The message for the faithful remnant is that the Lord never throws away any of his people, even when they have messed up their lives. Repentance and reformation are a key part of the Lord’s intention for all his people and it is this message of salvation through death and resurrection that is at the heart of the Gospel. It should always be present as part of the message of hope proclaimed by the faithful remnant.

3. God Holds the Church Responsible

God holds his Church responsible for the state of the nation. This is what we learn from the biblical account of God’s dealings with his covenant people Israel and Judah. A keyword to the institutional churches in Britain for 2019 is Ezekiel 13:4, “You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it.”

The wall around the city was there to protect all its citizens. The safety of everyone was in peril when there were breaks in the wall that were left unattended. Every walled city in ancient Israel had its engineers charged with the responsibility of constant surveillance. Hence the illustration in Amos 7, where he saw the Lord standing beside a wall with a plumb-line in his hand checking to see if there was a bulge, which would indicate corruption inside the wall that could lead to a sudden collapse such as that foreseen in Isaiah 30:12-14.

It was because Jeremiah had seen the inevitable consequences of the corruption in the nation that gave such an urgent cutting edge to his message: “Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart! Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, I have heard the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins…” This had not yet happened but prophetically Jeremiah could already see the disaster and because he loved his nation and he loved the city of Jerusalem, he could not keep quiet.

This is the kind of urgent prophetic compulsion that is needed in the faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians in Britain today, if there is to be any chance of saving the nation from utter disaster. It is not too late to save the nation! But the task is urgent. The faithful remnant in the older generation has to be mobilised and stirred into action to ensure that the truth of the Gospel reaches the younger generation. Grandparents are in a unique position in Britain today and they are valued by their grandchildren.

It is not too late to save the nation! But the task is urgent.

These young people understand social media and the multitude of apps on their mobile phones. Their spiritual antennae enables them to detect fake news in a way that is beyond the capacity of the older generation. It is God’s intention to blend the old and the new in a unique way to advance the kingdom.

The message the faithful remnant (old and young) have to declare will not win them many friends but it will have such a ring of truth that it will penetrate the darkness that is enveloping all generations. The word of the Lord in Jeremiah 5:21 needs to be declared and it will be heard through the mouths of the faithful remnant, “Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. Should you not fear me? declares the Lord. Should you not tremble in my presence?”

The old and the new generations of believers are both needed in 2019 if the nation is to survive the period of intense turmoil that lies ahead. The battle facing us in Britain is a direct clash between the powers of darkness and those of the light. It is essential to understand the nature of this battle and much can be discerned from the life and ministry of Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 5:3 he recognised that God had sent many warning signs to the nation: “You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them but they refused correction”. He saw that they were only the ordinary people, so he went to the leaders, religious and political, “but with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds” that connected them with the Lord God of Israel.

Jeremiah recognised that it was primarily the religious leaders of Judah who were responsible for the godless state of the nation: “Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness, declares the Lord” (Jer 23:11). He describes this in some detail:

Among the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing: they prophesy by Baal and lead my people Israel astray. And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: they commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me, the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah... (Jer 23:13-14)

In understanding the spiritual battle erupting in Britain, much can be discerned from the life and ministry of Jeremiah.

This is what is happening in Britain among some of its church leaders who have embraced secular humanist values and are teaching lies to the people: devising celebrations for transgender people in the name of God instead of teaching them the truth and calling for repentance and change. They even pollute the minds of little children by encouraging them to cross-dress and to question their God-given gender created in the image of the God of Creation. God will hold to account the wickedness of these church leaders.

But even in the midst of judgment, the faithful remnant must proclaim a message of hope. Psalm 81 is a key to understanding this blend of judgment and hope. It begins with singing joyfully to God and moves into its message of warning and hope with the keywords “If only!”

Hear, O my people, and I will warn you – if you would but listen to me O Israel! You shall have no foreign God among you; you shall not bow down to an alien God. I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it…If My People would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!…You would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you… (Ps 81:8-16)

This is the message that needs to be proclaimed by the faithful remnant – the message of warning and of hope – if my people. It is the same message that Solomon received at the dedication of the First Temple (2 Chron 7:14). If those who are faithful in declaring the word of the Lord put their trust in him and are prepared to embody the message in their lifestyles as well as to fearlessly declare it through every media at their disposal, it will make an impact in the nation in the turbulent post-Brexit days ahead. We may yet see the promises of blessings given through the prophets coming into our nation.

Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing… (Joel 2:2-14)