A Call to Church Leaders to Repent over Their Sin of Silence on Unethical Covid Policies 

The ever-increasing withdrawal of trust between the governed and the governors in the UK

Greg Stevenson reviews ‘Watchmen or Wolves?’ by Chris and Michele Neal (2019, The Lockman Foundation)

Leadership in the Old Testament

Where is the prophetic voice that is so desperately needed?

We should not be surprised at the scenes of chaos in Parliament. Each of the MPs has been voted as a representative of the people. A rebellious Parliament is a reflection of a rebellious nation. The chaotic scenes are simply a reflection of a nation in chaos. We have rejected the venerated heritage of our fathers and what we are seeing is the result of our own folly.

The House of Commons is a reflection of family life in the nation. There is hardly a family in Britain that has not been affected by breakdown. Millions of children suffer from the disruptive behaviour of their parents; they lose the security of home life and they lose their friends, their education is disrupted and their life chances lessened. Millions of children now suffer mental and emotional problems because the nation has lost its moral and spiritual compass.

The Bible that provided the basis for personal and corporate behaviour is no longer taught in our schools to all children and is absent from the vast majority of homes; so family life no longer reflects the values of truth, integrity, faithfulness and loyalty.

This is why we have a chaotic and dysfunctional Parliament. It all starts in the family! If children are brought up in loving, stable and secure families and taught biblical values at a young age, the chances are very high that they will grow up to be stable and trustworthy adults, speaking the truth and making a good contribution to the community.

The House of Commons is a reflection of family life in the nation: dysfunctional, rebellious, chaotic.

50 Years of Change

For 50 years this nation has been steadily eroding its biblical foundation that made it a great nation and what we now see in our dysfunctional, rebellious Parliament is the result. Both the Leader of the Opposition and our Prime Minister have been notorious rebels throughout their political careers. They now shout at each other across the despatch box, the world looking on with amazement to see the famous ‘Mother of Parliaments’ torn asunder by 650 rebels in utter disarray.

For the older generation who were brought up with biblical values of gentleness, respect and unselfishness – (God first, others second, self last) – it is simply excruciating to watch this generation of overgrown, unruly infants tearing the nation apart with their mindless behaviour. I can echo the words of the Prophet Ezekiel: “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people” (Ezek 12:2).

Who is to Blame?

When everything goes wrong in the nation, the biblical principle is not to blame the politicians but to blame the religious leaders. Listen to this, also from Ezekiel: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves” (Ezek 34:10).

And from Jeremiah: “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” (Jer 23:14).

As a senior churchman who has worked alongside the last four archbishops of Canterbury (Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan Williams), I have been a close observer of church leadership in the nation since the mid-1970s.

I saw at first-hand what a group of unbelieving bishops did when Donald Coggan made an impassioned ‘call to the nation’ to return to biblical values in 1975. They hounded him out of office, vowing that they would oppose any other Bible-believing evangelical getting into Lambeth Palace – hence the appointment of Robert Runcie, the most liberal Archbishop we have ever had, at a time of radical social change when the prophetic voice of the Church was desperately needed.¹

When everything goes wrong in the nation, the biblical principle is not to blame the politicians but to blame the religious leaders.

No Prophetic Voice

Today we have a group of 25 Church of England bishops publishing a statement about Brexit that is full of political correctness but has no Gospel in it. It has no prophetic call to the nation to turn to God. In fact, there is no mention of God!!! No call to prayer, no call to ‘repentance’, no recognition of our departure from the word of the Lord which is why the nation is in such trouble!

The bishops reflect the same secular humanist, globalist spirit as the rest of the establishment who are defying the referendum and trying to keep Britain locked into the European Union.

Replacing Israel

If church leaders would only bother to read the Bible – the whole Bible, not just little bits of the New Testament – they would understand the nature of the spiritual battle that is raging across Britain and much of Europe today.

In their ignorance, they think that the Church has replaced Israel, so they don’t bother to study the Old Testament. Therefore, they do not understand the lessons we can learn from the history of Israel: they don’t know what the prophets refer to as the ‘deeds of the Lord’ and they don’t understand the way God is working out his purposes today – how he is shaking the nations, even sending natural disasters that we label ‘climate change’. They don’t understand why God is doing all these things – in fact they do not even recognise that God is active today in the world he created! The Church is silent at a time when the word of the Lord is desperately needed.

We are a nation under judgment - that is why there is such confusion. There are strong warnings in the Bible about the consequences of rejecting the teaching God has given to us: “The Lord will send on you...confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to…” (Deut 28:20). This is what we are seeing in our Parliament and on our city streets. The only hope is for repentance and turning to God - but when will the prophetic voice be heard? Do we have to wait until catastrophe envelops the nation?

References

1 See Clifford Hill, The Reshaping of Britain. Wilberforce Publications, 2018.

A meditation on Proverbs 28:2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revd Canon J.John

Director, Philo Trust

www.canonjjohn.com / Twitter: @Canonjjohn

Reprinted with permission.

Are We Heading for an Apostate Church?

In last week’s editorial Dr Clifford Denton gave solemn warnings about the vulnerability to judgement of Church and State in Britain. I want to follow this by exposing some of the things that are happening in the denominational churches of Britain – particularly the Church of England and the Methodist Church.

Information comes into our office on a daily basis from readers all over the country showing the degree to which post-modernist beliefs and practices are entering the churches in Britain. We see it as our duty to share some of this information with our readers for two major purposes.

Post-modernist beliefs and practices are entering the churches in Britain.

First, it is our hope that those who have leadership influence in the churches will recognise the degree to which they are drifting away from the truth of the New Testament Gospel that has been at the heart of Christian mission followed by faithful believers for nearly 2000 years and is in grave danger of being lost. Secondly, we would like all Bible-believing Christians to be informed in their prayer life so that they can pray in line with the will of God for his church.

Church of England

Last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, informed Synod that it was his intention to lead the Church of England to become a ‘radically inclusive church’. He failed to define exactly what he meant by such a term, but before the end of the year he sent a letter to all Church of England Primary Schools telling the teachers to encourage the children to cross-dress in preparation for living in a pro-LGBTQ+ nation.

Anglican Primary Schools promote LGBTQ+ values

Some six months later a meeting was held in Church House Westminster to discuss education in Anglican Primary Schools where it was stated by the leader that it was Church of England educational policy to promote LGBTQ+ values in its schools. Only one voice was raised pointing out that this was a denial of biblical truth and the man who raised the objection was firmly told that this policy was not open for discussion.

No Discussion

A similar thing happened last month at an educational policy discussion in the Anglican diocese of Derbyshire where homosexual teaching is replacing biblical truth in Church of England Primary Schools. Bible-believing Christians are not only being side-lined but are being banned from raising any objections, or are simply being told that the Bible has got it all wrong and that the church is now teaching a different gospel.

Abandoned Church Organ / See Photo Credits

Methodist Church

It is not only the Church of England that is abandoning biblical truth – the Methodist Church has gone even farther. They have recently appointed an American minister from the United Methodist Church in Chicago USA to a key national position. This man and his ‘husband’, who is a lecturer at Queens College Birmingham, has been working as a minister among Methodist churches in Birmingham where he took groups on the Birmingham Gay Pride March, led training days and was working on planting a ‘radically inclusive church group’ in the City of Birmingham with a plan to establish eight more across the Midlands.

He has now left Birmingham for London where he has been appointed to a key national role in the Methodist Church as ‘Director of Evangelism and Church Growth’. This is described as “a new position aimed at supporting the development of these vital areas in church life”. This man is said to be “young, intelligent, personable, energetic and hard-working” and has “the ear of the Methodist Church leaders”.

Promoting Radical Inclusion

As the national Director of Evangelism for the Methodist Church in Britain this man is reported to be “preaching another gospel of radical inclusion where people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community are encouraged into fellowship and leadership without any requirement for a change of lifestyle. The LGBTQ+ lifestyles are promoted as completely acceptable.”

Our reader who wrote to us states –

“The gospel he promotes has other very worrying elements as well. A flavour of his theology can be seen by reading some of his Twitter feeds and also from the statements put out by the ‘Urban Village Church’ in Chicago where he was a pastor. They describe him as ‘A missionary to Europe and the UK’. From his blogs he is called a ‘Recovering Control Freak’ (whatever that means!). He also works as a coach with something called ‘Epicentre’ where he gets alongside ministers and clergy of all denominations to develop Mission and Church Growth.”

A false gospel will destroy the church, not build it.

Abandoning Truth

The truth of the gospel is under attack today from many different sources – not only from the secular post-modernist world, but from within the church where truth is being sacrificed on the altar of expediency. But a false gospel may promote church growth by increasing numbers in the pews, but once we abandon the gospel of ‘salvation only in the Name of Jesus’ we are entering realms that will destroy the church, not build it.

There are numerous warnings in the New Testament against preaching another gospel, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). Paul also severely warned the Galatians, “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal 1.7).

What we are seeing today is a destructive power of deception spreading through the churches. It will inevitably lead to their further decline and eventual collapse. Maybe it is God’s will to destroy the corrupt man-made denominations that we call ‘churches’ so that out of the rubble the true ‘ecclesia of the Lord’ will emerge.

Maybe we are already seeing the beginnings of this true church in the multitude of home-based small groups meeting for prayer and studying the word of God.

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.

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).

In the next of our series on the relevance of the message of the prophets for today, Fred Wright looks at Isaiah and his call for a return to the Word of God.

Isaiah ben Amoz, according to the superscription of the prophecies bearing his name, lived during the turbulent rule of three kings - four if we include the apostate Manasseh (whom in Rabbinic tradition had Isaiah put to death by being sawn asunder). His messages of warning, impending judgment, salvation and restoration are as relevant today as they were in the late 7^th Century BC.

Time of Skewed Priorities

Uzziah's death around 742 BC seems to have had a remarkable effect on Isaiah and opened the way for his commissioning (Is 6:1). The death of Uzziah marked the end of a period of wealth, strength and glory, as the shadow of Assyrian aggression fell over the land. Materialism and self-interest had overshadowed spiritual considerations; the wealthy had dispossessed the poor and the venal nature of the courts meant that there was no redress (Is 5:8-10, 10:1-4, cf Micah 2:1f, 3:1-3).

The national religious leaders and the believing community had become so involved with themselves that they raised little or no protest, centring their thoughts only upon lavish ritual and a misguided belief that their assumed special position with God protected them from all external matters (Is 1:10-20, cf Micah 3:9-11).

Isaiah was commissioned at a time when materialism and self-interest had overshadowed spiritual considerations.

This mirrors the situation today within the believing Christian community; little is said about the plight of the poor within the nation and minimal attention is paid to the suffering church in real and concrete terms. What concern is being shown for the remnant in the Middle East, Libya and other persecuted areas today?

Modern Rebellions

At the present time there has been a dangerous shift of emphasis, especially among charismatics, to focus attention on personal 'felt needs' and pragmatism, rather than on the scriptures and on seeking the Lord in prayer and intercession.

Isaiah's initial complaint was that Israel did not know their own Lord (Is 1:2-3). Even two of the dumbest animals, the ox and the ass, are in a better position than the people. The ox rejoices in the knowledge of his master and even the donkey knows his place of security, comfort and nourishment.

The people, on the other hand, are in rebellion. Though they have received nourishment and been made great by the Lord (Heb = gadal has several applications, 'make great' being an appropriate use here), they have turned away. This begs the question, what in our modern context is rebellion?

There has been in a shift in the Church, especially among charismatics, towards personal 'felt needs' rather than the scriptures and seeking the Lord.

Departure from Scripture

One important manifestation of rebellion is a move away from the scriptures and their authority.

Similarly, today there is a departure from the scriptures, as seen in the ministry of some charismatic leaders, both in the UK and USA. The Old Testament is regarded by some as a record of divine revelation to Israel and therefore ipso facto located in time and space; likewise, the New Testament is regarded as revelation to the early Church. The scriptures are seen simply as a record of events that involved an interaction between God and man at a specific time. The consequences of such a viewpoint inevitably lead to deviant teaching.

When looking at any written sources one should always look for internal testimony. The scriptures quite clearly express their own divinely given authority. Two passages of special application are Luke 4:4, where Jesus refers to the Old Testament writings with the preamble "it is written", and in John 10:35, where he states bluntly that the scriptures cannot be broken, that is to say they have an eternal application.

Paul claimed divine authority for his own writings (1 Cor 2: 4, Rom 1:11) which was endorsed by Peter (2 Pet 3:15). As there was no canon of New Testament writing for the first believers, they drew their understanding from the Hebrew scriptures. It is interesting that the early Jerusalem church also continued in their Judaic practices.

One important manifestation of rebellion in the Church is the move away from Scripture and its authority.

Pathway to Error

The trend of departure from the scriptures was noted in the mid-1970s by the one-time vice-president of Fuller Theological Seminary, Harold Lindsell. Lindsell's two books, The Battle for the Bible (Zondervan, 1976) and The Bible in Balance (1979), sounded an early warning that some evangelicals and Pentecostals were departing from their traditional stance on the scriptures.

In Isaiah's time the drift away from the Lord and his instructions on worship and devotion, which were given by divine revelation through the law and the prophets, was typified by reliance on self, elaborate rituals and occult practice (Is 2:6, 8:17f). A move away from the scriptures today may lead believers into the same errors.

History and Experience

Christianity is both an historical and experiential faith. Historicity (or historical truth) enables our faith to be objective, in that it has sources that may be studied, researched, analysed, and tested. Without historicity we are left with subjectivity which centres around emotions, bias and experiences that may only be compared with similar experiences that have little or nothing to draw upon outside of the events themselves.

Wolfhart Pannenberg suggests that the history of Israel (and this may include the early church) consists of a series of special events "that communicate something special which could not be got out of other events. This special aspect is the event itself, not the attitude with which one confronts the event" (Revelation in History, p132, London, 1969). Following Pannenberg, we can suggest that, as the events of salvation fall into this category, and the scriptures are a record of these events, the casual attitude towards the scriptures exhibited in some charismatic circles can only lead to a lack of knowledge of God (Is 1:2).

There is little doubt that the church needs the prophetic revelation of the quality of Isaiah today and the full operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Austrian philosopher Freidrich Heer, writing in the late 1960s under the shadow of nuclear conflict, suggested that the Christian church had withdrawn from the historical process (God's First Love, London 1970). By this, Heer meant that the Church had chosen to concentrate upon its inner self rather than real and concrete events. In turn, this irresponsibility towards the Jew, the other person, and even the Christian was the ultimate cause of past catastrophes in human behaviour and might well be the cause of a final catastrophe in the future. By the historical process we mean events involving mankind, including current affairs.

The failure of the Church to stand for righteousness and justice, which establish the throne of God in a nation (Ps 97:2; Prov 16:12), is a direct cause of its ineffectiveness in missions both at home and overseas.

Lack of Theological Training

The inherent danger of a move away from the Bible is exacerbated by a lack of proper theological training of leaders and Bible study in some new independent churches. The move towards the pragmatic notion that 'if it works then it's OK', accompanied by practices that have no biblical foundation, inevitably leads to a man-created security and dependency upon experience rather than on God. The fact that something works does not mean that it is an initiative of the Lord.

At a recent Christian gathering it was suggested by an international speaker that there was now no real need for a full-time ministry as it was virtually redundant; the Holy Spirit was doing it all. The notion that teaching and intercession are of less importance than experiential gatherings leaves believers in a vulnerable position as they have no means of testing the spirit, neither will they be able to reach maturity.

Meaningless Worship

Isaiah lamented that the people were about to depart into exile because of their lack of knowledge (of the Lord) (Is 5:13 cf). In a similar way, the prophet brings the painful rebuke of the Lord (Is 1:10-20) that the people were involved in religious activity (worship) that was meaningless. The lives of the worshippers were making their offerings unacceptable. We may well ask ourselves today if our worship – regarded as a sacrifice of praise – is acceptable to God? What, in reality is being worshipped - God or an idea about God?

The failure of the Church to stand for righteousness and justice, which establish the throne of God in a nation, is a direct cause of its ineffectiveness in mission.

There is a lack of respect for God (in opposition to Ps 5:7; Prov 1:7, 8:13, 9:10, 14:27) which is so vividly illustrated in some worship meetings. It is alarming to realise that some leaders feel that they are in a position to elevate their opinions over those who wrote the scriptures under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16), especially those who were personally acquainted with Jesus!

With them, we find ourselves in a position where not only is our activity of worship unacceptable, it is despised by the Lord (Is 1:11). A convergent tension is that the worship service often centres around the event rather than the reason for the event; the worship and adoration of the Lord. Isaiah pleads with the people to walk by the light of the Lord as they have forsaken the ways of their own people. By the expression 'your people' is meant the people living under God's rule.

This call to return to the ways of the Lord rings powerfully in our ears today as we may observe all manner of alien practices finding their ways into Christian activities in similar manner to the tensions faced by Isaiah (2:6).

Leaders as Babes

Isaiah laments that the leaders were as babes (Is 3:12) which reflects the leadership situation in some circles today. The lack of theological training which we have already noted among charismatic leaders has caused a double tension.

First, there has been a move to pragmatism instead of working from a biblical base. Secondly, many leaders have expended their energies on management of resources and programmes that owe more to secular management studies and psychology than to theology and pastoral practice.

Professor Carson, in Hermeneutics, Authority and Canon, remarks that the diminishing authority of the scriptures reflects the 'anti-authoritarian' position generally taken in the Western world. The other side of the coin is that, within the circles of those who have departed from the scriptures whilst giving lip service to them, there has been a strong line taken on the authority of the leader and his opinions.

In much modern worship there is a lack of respect for God, and services often centre around the event itself, not the worship and adoration of the Lord.

Ways Out Offered

For every proclamation of impending disaster, the Lord spoke through the prophet to offer a way out, and continually points to repentance, restoration and redemption. Throughout the writings of the prophet the reiteration of the Lord's promises to David may be found. "Come now let us reason together" (NIV), or "reach an understanding" (JPS) declares the Lord (Is 1:18).

The loving call of the Lord echoes through the centuries to the believing community today. How can one enter into a meaningful dialogue with the Lord unless one has something more than an existential knowledge of what is assumed to be his power? A part of the current battle for the Bible is knowing the character of God.

Hope for Refining

When Isaiah received his commission (Is 6:1f) it was with the knowledge that he would need to be faithful as his message would be ignored (Is 6:9ff). The people were blind and deaf, suffering a wholesale deception that they were in some way inviolable.

Isaiah, throughout his long ministry, nourished a hope – often frustrated, that the calamities would be as refiner's fire from which a purified remnant would emerge who would put their trust in the Lord (Is 1:24-26, 10:20f). The unswerving dedication of Isaiah and the other prophets was due to their knowledge of the character of God. The question for the intercessor is what will God do at this time to refine his Church?

There is little doubt that the Church needs prophetic revelation of the quality of Isaiah today and the full operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The painful lesson to be gained from the prophecies of Isaiah is that there needs to be reliance on the revealed character of God, which can only be found through the scriptures and in prayer. Worshipping an idea about God can only lead to disaster.

Judah ignored the warnings and were taken into exile by the Babylonians in 587 BC, from whence came the lament "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land" (Ps 137). Christians who leave the scriptures might well find themselves in a strange land, albeit the land in which they dwell.

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 12 No 5, September 1996. Revised July 2016.