It wasn’t just the Sabbath day that the Israelites were to observe, but a Sabbath year too. Every seven years, “the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest” (Lev 25:3-5). It was to be a sign of trust in God, accompanied by great blessings. However, Israel failed to observe it, and the land had its rest whilst Israel was in exile. (Lev 26:33-35; 2 Chron 36:21).

Does this matter to us? Certainly, abandoning the Sabbath day has seemingly increased stress, whilst lowering productivity. Perhaps resting on the Sabbath year wouldn’t matter so much, if it was used for doing good (Ex 23:10-11; Deut 15:1-2; Matt 12:12). But we appear to have been using the Sabbath year for moving away from God, not towards him.

Late last year, I felt God moving me to compile a list of major events that have occurred during Sabbath years.¹ I have only covered Great Britain, the United States of America and Israel so far (and only the UK in this study), but I find the correlation to be significant. Others may consider it purely coincidental².   But given that we entered a Sabbath year this September, and the confusion swirling around due to the pandemic, I would not be surprised if a major event happened early in 2022. But that is another story.

It was to be a sign of trust in God, accompanied by great blessings.

As I recorded the events, specifically in Great Britain, that had occurred during Sabbath years then I began to see a pattern of biblical sin that traced our path away from God. This study details that path.

Legalisation of witchcraft, and the death of King George VI

The first of these actually occurs just shortly before a Sabbath year, which runs generally September to September, following the Jewish pattern. But it set the scene for the events that were to follow.

Despite many dramatic answers to the nation’s prayers during the Second World War, just seven years later, King George VI gave royal assent to an act that effectively legalised witchcraft and opened a door into Great Britain for the occult to flourish. With this bill the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was repealed and the spiritual veil that protects this nation was thinned. Less than three months later, at the beginning of the Sabbath year, King George was undergoing surgery for lung cancer, and the King’s death and Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne occupied the 1951/52 Sabbath year.

The new legislation was in direct contradiction to the Bible, where Leviticus 19:26 clearly states, “Do not practise fortune-telling or witchcraft,” and makes it a capital offence. (See also Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27),

Opening the door to pornography

Seven years later, and we see a further door open to the degradation of morality. The Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was ill-thought out, and weak, allowing for those who wished to push for greater freedoms to do so. This opened the door for pornography and other ills to be permitted, leading to where we are now, when both adults and children are exposed to extreme porn on the internet, encouraging them to believe such acts are ‘normal’, and damaging their physical and mental health – even on occasions death by extreme sexual acts.

Legalisation of homosexual practice

On the following Sabbath year, in February 1966 Conservative MP Humphry Berkeley’s bill to legalise homosexuality passed its second reading with 164 – 107 votes. Whilst its progress was disrupted by the 1966 general election, the course was set, and the victorious Labour government went on to enact the Sexual Offences Act that legalised homosexuality. This legislative decision was made in the face of biblical commands from both Old & New Testament, including Leviticus 18:22 “Do not practise homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.” (See also Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:26- 27; 1 Timothy 1:10.)

Now there were good arguments in favour of this law – indeed, there is no argument that can justify the chemical sterilisation that was carried out in the decades prior to this legislation, nor the brutal beatings administered to homosexuals. Equally, it is reasonable to accept that lifestyle choices that people make are between them and God. But, notwithstanding these points, this legislation – a statement of national intent – marked a further step away from a biblically oriented lifestyle and legal system.

Abortion

Also in 1966, during the Sabbath year, David Steel introduced his private members bill on Abortion to the Houses of Parliament. It was not given royal assent until 1967 and passed into law in 1968, but the thinking and lobbying behind it took place in 1966. Now let’s be clear, prior to this legislation abortion was already permissible if the ongoing pregnancy threatened the life of the mother. But this law opened the doors to abortion becoming a lifestyle choice, facilitating unfettered sexual relationships, and in doing so commenced a harvest of innocent lives that can be likened to a ‘holocaust of innocent blood’. Despite arguments by some that life is not considered present until birth, it is scientifically and morally clear that babies in the womb are alive. Indeed, the steady progression of later and later abortions goes way beyond the original provisions. Isaiah 49:1, Jeremiah 1:4-5 and Psalm 139 all attest to life beginning before birth, and the shedding of innocent blood is clearly something God hates – see 2 Kings 21:16; Proverbs 6:16-17; and Deuteronomy 19:10, for example.

But this law opened the doors to abortion becoming a lifestyle choice, facilitating unfettered sexual relationships, and in doing so commenced a harvest of innocent lives that can be likened to a ‘holocaust of innocent blood’.

DivorceWedding rings image, by Sandy Millar

Following on seven years later, the 1973 Marital Causes Act, another piece of legislation that eroded the established model of marriage, came onto the statute book. From a personal perspective, I am not an advocate of ‘no divorce at any cost’. It is simply not right to ask anyone to remain in an abusive marriage, regardless of the nature of the abuse. However, I also believe that marriage, as ordained by God, is a covenant relationship, not a contract that can be dropped if one side performs less than perfectly. A covenant relationship is one that is modelled by God’s faithful, enduring relationship with us, and anything that undermines that core understanding is a biblical sin. The biblical standard is high because of this. 1 Corinthians 7:10 says, “But for those who are married, I have a command that comes not from me, but from the Lord. A wife must not leave her husband.” See also Gen 2:24; Matt 19:9; Mal 2:10-16.

The diminishing of marriage was a further step on the road away from God, and was, I believe, symbolised by the breakdown of the marriages of the first and second sons of HM Queen.

These Acts, all linked to Sabbath years, eroded the biblical foundations of our legal system, affecting areas about which the Bible speaks strongly: witchcraft, killing of the innocent, family integrity, and sexual gratification. The focus then turns to money and wealth – another subject that the Bible has much to say on, and one which has been documented elsewhere.³

Financial deregulation

On October 29th, 1986, the London Stock Exchange was deregulated in what has become known as the Big Bang. It was designed to herald a new dawn of prosperity but actually ushered in a series of booms and busts, until 2008’s financial apocalypse. Suffice to say the Big Bang happened in a Sabbath year. Seven years later, and on another Sabbath year, the Sunday Trading Act was passed, allowing all stores to open (not just small ones) and so making our ‘Sabbath’ day just another day of trade. The dot.com bubble burst seven years after. Another seven years later, and again in a Sabbath year, Northern Rock’s collapse is the UK’s monument to the events that we encapsulate as the global economic meltdown. At the time taxpayer’s money was poured into propping up banks and financial institutions. The repercussions are still felt with the self-same pressures of unsustainable debt on the UK’s, and the world’s, economy, with everyone involved in it peddling madly to try and keep forward momentum.

The Sabbath year was designed for rest and the relief of poverty, not the relentless pursuit of sexual gratification and maximising wealth.

Scriptures relating to the love of money abound – use of money is one of the most common themes in the whole bible. The changes represented our reliance on money, not on God – breaking the core principle of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath year. As 1 Timothy 6:17 says, we are not to set our “hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God”. See also Genesis 2:3;  Proverbs 11:28; Ecclesiastes 5:10; Matthew 6:24; 2 Timothy 3:2.

Good intentions

I am sure that the authors, supporters and ultimately voters for each of these bills believed that they were doing the right thing. However, as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Each step of the way detailed above took this country a little further away from God. Generation after generation was drawn further down the road of convenience and self-indulgence. The very fabric of our nation has changed in the 70 years since the False Mediums Act, with a disproportionate number of the acts and events that have shaped life falling on the Sabbath years. Commentators will point to the accumulated wealth that has accompanied those years, but the spiritual man will point to the ever-widening fracture in our national relationship with the Living God. And the results are plain to see, with a mental health epidemic rife, children stabbed on our streets, abuse of children widespread, and increasing suicide and drug deaths. The Sabbath year was designed for rest and the relief of poverty, not the relentless pursuit of sexual gratification and maximising wealth, which the laws passed have led us to.

We can’t know what will happen this Sabbath year across the nation, or the world, as it climbs out of Covid-induced madness, but as God’s people, let us use this Sabbath year to do good, and to seek God’s face.

Notes

¹Which are the Sabbath years? We’re in one now: September 7, 2021 - September 25, 2022. They run from the 29th Elul, for a full year. See here for a calculation of the Sabbath year.  Wikipedia also has a list of Sabbath years since the creation of the modern state of Israel. 

²Not all are convinced that the Sabbath week has any bearings on events, seeing it as another instance of unhealthy fascination with numbers and dates. With many noteworthy events falling outside of the Sabbath years, can it be relevant? Have your say in the comments below.

³Interest in the seven year cycle for financial crashes entered into financial reporting, though interest diminished when there was no major crash in 2014/2015. See Investor Times, and Commonwealth.com.