God is working his purposes out.

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to a packed fringe meeting at the Church of England Synod in Westminster. There were a number of bishops and clergy of all ranks and the general atmosphere was one of deep concern for the state of the nation. The meeting was in Church House alongside Westminster Abbey and I think we were all aware of events across the road, where our politicians are struggling with seemingly intractable problems.

If any of those attending the meeting came expecting, or even hoping for, easy answers or joyful tidings, I’m afraid they would have gone away disappointed. The primary message I had to give was that God holds the Church responsible for the moral and spiritual state of the nation. I had been asked to speak about my latest book, ‘The Reshaping of Britain: Church and State since the 1960s’. I spoke about the last four Archbishops of Canterbury who I’ve known and worked alongside; and I spoke about the lack of a prophetic voice from the Church giving leadership to the nation in a time of revolutionary social, economic and political change.

It was not a comfortable message and in the short time of discussion it was clear that there are no easy answers to the situation. How do you bring creative, biblically-based change into an organisation as massive as the Church of England? I was only able to repeat what I’ve said so many times that there will be no revival in the nation until there is repentance in the Church. Of course, this is no easy message for those who are dealing with a multitude of pastoral problems in their congregations.

Right Understanding

One of the clergy asked, “Should we be encouraging young people in our churches to go into politics?” I know it is a very lonely and difficult place for Christians in the House of Commons at present. If there were a significant number of those who uphold biblical values and whose trust is in God, it would undoubtedly change the dynamics of politics and that should be a future hope and objective for all church leaders.

But I think it would take away a lot of our fear about the present political mess in the nation and our vast array of social problems if we simply understood what is going on. This means discerning the difference between the social engineering that has been driving the nation for the past 40 or 50 years generated by secular humanist advocates, and what is divine activity initiated by God.

It would take away a lot of our fear about the present political mess in the nation and our vast array of social problems if we simply understood what is going on.

Most Christians do not think in these terms because we do not rightly handle the whole word of God. We concentrate upon the Gospels and Epistles, but neglect to study the biblical Prophets, whom God used to reveal his nature and purposes to humanity in preparation for the coming of Messiah. Without a thorough understanding of this background we can never understand what God is doing in the world today. I said yesterday that this should be the major concern of church leaders today.

Listen to this from Isaiah 45:7: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” All the Prophets recognised that God creates disaster! But he is more than ready to change disaster into prosperity!!! In fact, that is God’s purpose! He is longing to see his children enjoying the blessings of those who uphold righteousness and live by the standards of truth he has revealed in his word over many thousands of years.

Shaking All Things

God is at present shaking all the nations, as he first revealed to the Prophet Haggai in 520 BC, the significance of which for today is explained in the New Testament in Hebrews 12. You can see this in the upheavals and bitter Brexit divisions in Britain, in the rise of the populist movement in many countries throughout Europe, and in the fear of the Brussels elite at what may happen in the EU election in May this year.

You can see it in the USA, where there has never before been such bitter division between Republicans and Democrats. You can see it in the upheavals in South America, in Venezuela; similarly in Africa, especially in Nigeria in recent days, in the Middle East, in the distressing humanitarian crises in Yemen and Syria, and in many other parts of the world.

It is not only the nations that are being shaken, but all the great institutions in which we human beings put our trust – including the Church! Right now, the Roman Catholic Church is being torn asunder by having to face the sexual sins of its clergy over many decades that are being revealed to the public. Successive Popes have delayed the day of reckoning for many years, but the Vatican is having to face the uncomfortable truth that a system of forced celibacy in a social climate of sexual libertarianism is a recipe for disaster! Large numbers of clergy have misused their spiritual power for sexual gratification, exploiting vulnerable children and adults. The day of judgment has arrived, and this has not just been brought about by social pressure, but by the judgment of God.

All the Prophets recognised that God creates disaster! But he is more than ready to change disaster into prosperity!

For Love

Why is God shaking everything? It may be amazing to those who do not study the whole word of God – but when God brings judgment upon the evil institutions of humanity it is an expression of his LOVE!

God so loved the world that he gave his own Son to save humanity from self-destruction. But our tiny minds simply cannot comprehend the magnitude of God’s purposes without the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit to flood his truth into our lives.

Let me give a small illustration of the great truth that I’m trying to convey. For more than 30 years I have been trying to teach a basic sociological truth that when you weaken and undermine the family, you destroy the social fabric of society, because the family is the linchpin holding everything together. This is what we have done in Western society and this is the underlying cause of knife crime, gang warfare, drug use, bullying, depression and suicide. We have crucified truth and produced an age of fake news, lies, hatred and violence, driven by the forces of darkness that we have embraced.

But amidst all this, God is working out his purposes to bring human beings to the point where they recognise that they have no solutions to the problems they have created. When they begin to cry out ‘O God, what has gone wrong?’ God knows they will be then open to the truth. He is calling upon his Church to be ready for a great spiritual awakening! Not a revival of the old institutions that we call churches, but a genuine new openness to the truth, met by a Church that genuinely both lives and declares the unchanging word of God.

That is the way disaster will be turned into prosperity! And the good news is that we may not be far from the turning point!

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

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

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

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

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

How to Pray?

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

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

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

Political and Religious Red Lines

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

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

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

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

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

Britain’s Red Lines

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

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

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

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

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

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

God’s Good Purposes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes

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

A personal statement from the Editor-in-Chief.

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

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

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

Living in Babylon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Defiance in the Church

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

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

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

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

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

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

Babylon in the Churches

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

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

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

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

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

Has the glory departed from the Church of England?

A great tragedy has befallen the Church of England, whose Synod (parliament) has just completed a session in the ancient city of York. It could well be argued that, as a result of decisions made there, the lights have gone out and the glory has departed.

Having already conveyed mixed messages on sexual ethics and failed to rule out ‘marriage’ for same-sex couples, the body has now voted to provide special services designed to mark a person’s gender transition. And the Archbishop of York has effectively rejected the authority of the Bible.

When a motion called for politicians to “prioritise the common good of all people”, synod member Andrea Williams proposed an amendment inserting the words “as revealed in the Bible and taught by the church”.

She spoke of the need for the Bible to inform our understanding of the common good and proposed a further amendment calling for the protection of life, the promotion of marriage and family and the maintenance of Christian freedoms.

Bishop John Sentamu. See Photo Credits.But both amendments were rejected, with Archbishop of York John Sentamu replying: "If you’re going to serve the whole community, please don’t limit our language…The Word became flesh and sadly we are now making it Word, Word and Word again. Resist the amendments."¹

Conforming to the World

In an interview with Premier Radio, Andrea said it was “unkind – not gracious – to leave people in their sin,” adding that the Church had merely reflected the world and its standards by ingratiating herself to man’s demands, which of course flies in the face of St Paul’s teaching against being conformed to the world’s pattern of thinking (Rom 12:2).

She said she was “so upset at the lack of witness to the truth, beauty and glory of the gospel,” which was a message of healing, hope and transformation, adding that “Jesus welcomes us just as we are, but doesn’t leave us where we are.”

She said it was possible that the Church of England’s mission to the nation had been irreparably damaged, and that it was “absolutely shocking” that the Archbishops had failed to give a lead on the subject.²

Andrea Williams' amendment recognising the authority of the Bible was rejected.

Indeed, we are urged by Jude, Jesus’ half-brother, “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3). As Sam Gordon puts it in his new book, Cuckoos in the Nest (Christian Year Publications), “It is the written Word of God that he is focusing on. It is the truth of God, penned by men of God, under the control and illumination of the Spirit of God, for all the people of God.”

He goes on: “This truth has not been thought up by a handful of people sitting in a committee room…it has come from God. It is the good news that the holy God has revealed and made known to man…It has come from heaven.”

The Glory Has Departed

Andrea had earlier reminded the Synod of how, 64 years ago, the Queen had assented to a Coronation Oath acknowledging the Bible as “the most valuable thing that this world affords”. Clearly, its value has significantly diminished among today’s bishops.

However, most of the world’s 70 million Anglicans neither live, nor worship, in England – and the Synod’s latest suicide pact is unlikely to bring the whole house down because most of our African brothers, for whom many British missionaries gave their lives, will have no truck with it. And despite the diabolical vote, neither will a significant minority of C of E clergymen.

It is possible that the Church of England’s mission to the nation has been irreparably damaged.

One of them, a vicar known to me, told of a harrowing experience which conveyed to him that the lights had gone out in the Church of England, and the glory of the Lord had departed.

“At the very time the transgender vote was being passed, I was leading communion and in the middle of the consecration prayer when an altar candle went out. And it was in a glass container, so it was not blown out by a breeze.

“At the next service at another of my churches, when I was talking about the state of the nation, I noticed that none of the altar candles had been lit, which was highly unusual as the person in charge is so vigilant – and worse still, I saw petals and leaves from a large display of flowers suddenly fall to the floor!³ I was so overwhelmed that I cried and, at that moment, the Lord said to me, ‘Ichabod – the glory of the Lord has departed!’

“In 1 Samuel 4.21, the boy Ichabod was so-called because he was born after the capture of the Ark of God by the Philistines. In the same way, it would seem, God’s presence has left an institution whose leaders have denied his glory and his unchanging word.”

A Profound History…But What Future?

Jesus warned the early Christians at Ephesus that he would remove their lamp-stand if they did not recover their first love for him (Rev 2:5), and conveyed dire warnings of intense suffering to those in the church at Thyatira who tolerated teaching which leads to sexual immorality (Rev 2:20).

Far from being merely the result of Henry VIII’s pique at the Pope’s refusal to grant him a divorce, the C of E was largely a product of the Protestant Reformation – as can be attested by its thoroughly biblical ‘39 Articles’. As such, she has served this country – and indeed the world at large – with great distinction.

Christianity across the globe has been profoundly shaped by figures such as John Wesley, William Wilberforce, Bishop J C Ryle and John Stott, and the Church’s sons and daughters have taken the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Historically, the C of E has served the world with great distinction – but a light has undoubtedly been snuffed out.

I owe a great debt to my own Anglican background, which was steeped in a biblical liturgy that proved a strong foundation when I finally put my personal trust in Christ. At All Souls, Langham Place, in London’s West End I was thoroughly grounded in the scriptures and even now I am proud to be associated with the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people, an Anglican society dedicated to the spiritual re-birth of Israel.

But a light has undoubtedly been snuffed out, and maybe God is calling those who refuse to bow the knee to Baal to “come out from among them”? As St Paul asks in this context, “What fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14-17).

References

1 Christian Concern, 7 July 2017.

2 Premier Christian Radio, 10 July 2017.

3 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isa 40:8)

The Synod’s vote this week shows how compromised the established Church is on the issue of gay marriage.

It must seem utterly amazing to people outside the church that Christians could spend such a long time discussing the issue of same-sex relationships.

To young people in particular, it appears to be a non-issue – not even worth discussing. For most of them sex is sex – it’s just a fact of life and it’s entirely optional whether you have it with the opposite sex or the same sex.

So why has the Church of England Synod spent so much time this week discussing a ‘non-issue’?

Most young people, other than those educated in faith schools or home-educated, have been subjected, over the past two or three decades, to a process of social engineering that has radically changed the structure of society. The change has seen a fundamental shift from the centrality of the family as the building block of society to a form of individualism that diminishes the family to a kind of ‘optional extra’ that can take any shape or form.

In the brave new world of reconstructed families, marriage has no special significance and is just one of those relationships that can be entered or dissolved at the desire of the individuals involved, regardless of the effects this might have upon the lives of others.

In the brave new world of reconstructed families, marriage has no special significance.

The Truth of Scripture

It is against this background that the Church of England, as the established church, has been struggling for several decades. At root, it is a theological issue that is determined by one’s attitude to Scripture. If you accept the Bible as the unchangeable word of God, you believe that marriage is part of God’s act of creation and that it is only between a man and a woman who pledge themselves to each other in a lifelong covenant of love and faithfulness.

You accept that marriage is at the heart of family life for the pro-creation and upbringing of children and that this form of society is ordained by God for the health and well-being of humanity. It is not just the ideal – it is the only form of sexual relationship between the genders that is acceptable in the sight of God.

This is where the problem arises with LGBT people who defend this lifestyle but who also desire to be part of the Church. They often emphasise that love is part of the very nature of God and therefore assume that God will bless any form of love relationship between human beings whom he has created in his own image.

This is why homosexual people have been so persistent in pressurising Church leaders of all denominations to recognise same-sex marriage, which is now legally recognised by the state. Those living an LGBT lifestyle want to be assured of God’s blessing upon their relationships.

Not Denying Difficulty

Of course, these decisions are extremely difficult because they involve people’s hearts, identities and lives. No Christian hates or wishes to hurt their friends or family who choose to pursue an LGBT lifestyle. However, we must all also consider the wider implications of their decisions upon the health and well-being of the whole of society.

I saw at first hand the cost to Dr Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury, when he made the decision not to appoint Jeffrey John (who was openly gay) as Bishop of Reading. On the day before his meeting with Jeffrey John and Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, I spent three hours with him in prayer and seeking the Lord.

It was an agonising decision for Rowan, not simply in terms of affirming biblical truth but because he had been friends with Jeffrey since college days and yet he knew that such an appointment could split the Church and have implications for the worldwide Anglican Communion. The wider repercussions of Church decisions are far-reaching and long-lasting even in this secular age when so much of our Judaeo-Christian heritage has been eroded.

Marriage is not just the ideal – it is the only form of sexual relationship between the genders that is acceptable in the sight of God.

It is a plain sociological fact, demonstrated by hundreds of research findings, that faithful loving marriage produces the healthiest form of society. It is also true that family breakdown has disastrous consequences - not only for individuals, both children and adults - but also for the physical and mental health and even the economic prosperity of wider society.

Members of the House of Clergy, meeting earlier this week. See Photo Credits.This Week’s Synod Vote

The situation faced by the Synod of the Church of England is complicated by three major factors:

• Biblical truth
  
• The pastoral care needed for individuals, and
  
• The demands of the LGBT lobby
  

All three are represented within both the hierarchy and the Synod of the Church of England. There is no easy path for the Synod, which is reflected in what happened this week when all  three groups had members who voted against the report presented by the House of Bishops. Despite upholding marriage as only being between a man and a woman, the report was also presented as "a stepping stone toward greater inclusiveness".¹

Evangelicals voted against it because it indicated a departure from Scripture. The LGBT members voted against it because it did not give them the full equality that they wanted; and other clergy voted against it because they have concerns for the people in their pastoral care.

The Church of England always wants to be a ’broad’ church that includes everyone – but the Bishops’ Report satisfied no-one. It was presented with lots of apologies which showed that the Bishops knew that it would not please anyone: it was just a fudge. But that is the very nature of a church that tries to be all things to all people!

The Church of England wants to be a ’broad’ church that includes everyone – but the Bishops’ Report satisfied no-one.

Reflecting Society?

The Rev Bertrand Olivier, who is a gay man, told the BBC that the Church needed to “reflect modern society”.² But that is the very thing that the Church must not do! Its mission is to declare the unchangeable word of the Living God and apply it to the changing times in which we live; however unpopular that may be. The Church must be different from secular society.

Archbishop Justin Welby called for “a radical new Christian inclusion”³ for homosexual Christians, which sounds very much as though he is advocating a Church that reflects modern society just as Bertrand Oliver wants.

But the Church is answerable to God for its teaching, not to human beings. The Church of England will continue to be divided so long as it tries to please everyone. Surely the only thing that should matter is the presentation of the unvarnished truth in a world where truth has disappeared, or has become ‘alternative facts’ or ‘fake news’.

The Prophet Isaiah provides a pinpoint description of our nation today. He says:

Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honestly cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. (Isa 59:14-15)

Surely, what is most needed in the nation today is for a Church that does not follow popular trends in society, but sets an example to the nation by lovingly and fearlessly declaring the truth of the word of the Lord!

References

1 Church of England votes against gay marriage report. BBC News, 15 February 2017.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.