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.