When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Yes, it is a sign.

Confusion came to Israel and Judah when they turned from God’s covenant, according to the clear statements of what would bring curse and what would bring blessing in Deuteronomy 28 – an increasingly severe set of circumstances besetting the nation, eventually resulting in the Babylonian captivity.

Early in the return from the captivity, Ezra summed it up:

Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. (Ezra 9:7 KJV, emphasis added)

The UK is not Israel, but the principles of the Bible are there for us to study. Indeed, we are a nation that has sought to covenant with God and to live by biblical constitutional principles developed over many centuries. These principles have been behind God’s favour and protection in past times - but they have been broken piecemeal through the present generation.

Escalating Signs

In this magazine, just as Amos warned Israel by interpreting the signs (Amos 4), we have highlighted the escalating signs in our nation for more than 30 years. Now, in the context of an election founded on the need to withdraw from an alliance with the EU, with terrorist acts of violence in the background, we have emerged with a hung Parliament and confusion abounding.

We are a nation that has sought to covenant with God and live by biblical constitutional principles – until the present generation.

We have recognised a period of grace from the Lord to withdraw from the EU and many of us hoped that this withdrawal would be enabled through a clear election result. But even then we would have recognised it as, at best, a beginning of potential recovery to the Lord’s favour – and by no means a guarantee.

However, it is not going to be that easy! God’s judgment, in whatever way Almighty God has brought this about in our nation, is not to make this path easy. If we could read the signs clearly, we would hear His voice calling, “return to me wholeheartedly and I will return to you and help you.”

Call for Repentance

At the time of writing, there is still an ongoing assessment of the fall-out of the election - discussions which go this way and that to try to understand the factors at work and the way forward. For the moment the Conservative Party holds the ground of leadership, though weakly, but change of the entire political landscape is very close.

Through the election campaigns, even from a human perspective there have been clear undercurrents in the country that mark a transition in our nation. There has been an undercurrent from young people, fired up by what seems like a faint light of hope from the leader of the Labour party. New forms of social media evident across the world have been playing a significant role, signalling a new form of democracy - he who captures the moment will capture the future. Yet despite high levels of voter engagement and turnout, the rallying cries from politicians have been on principles that are far from centred on the ways of the God of Israel.

God’s judgment is not to make this path easy.

The themes of the election campaigns have focussed on important issues, including Brexit, the NHS, social care, pensions, tax, education, Scottish devolution and defence. No-one would say that the party manifestoes were completely devoid of righteous ideals, but equally there has been no talk of honouring or rescuing the biblical underpinnings of our nation, or of reversing the laws that have been passed in our nation over this generation that are 100% against biblical principles.

The abounding confusion is a clear sign that God is calling for repentance and things will not get better unless and until there is a turning back to him. However righteous the words of the electioneering may seem, they will fail unless they are enabled through the righteousness of God.

Time to Unite

But what about the Christian community in Britain? Where was our voice in the public arena throughout these past two months of electioneering? Indeed, where has a united Christian voice been over the last generation of the UK’s falling away from God? We must admit that we are diverse and disjointed. We seek to highlight our concerns but we only talk to one another – to our relatively small groups of like-minded Christians.

Surely now is our time to unite together before God in watching and praying, so that we might hear from God together what we, his Priests of the New Covenant, are called to do with one heart and one voice. We, among all the people of the nation have the resources to find the way of calling the nation to God in repentance.

Surely now is the time for believers to unite together before God in watching and praying, that we might hear from God together.

By coincidence my reading this morning was from Hosea 10, which features principles that we have highlighted over many years and which could not be more appropriate for our nation today. I leave them here as a prompt to prayer:

For now they say, we have no king, because we did not fear the Lord. And as for a king, what would he do for us? They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgement springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field. (Hosea 10:3-4)

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12)

But the light of Christ will shine even brighter.

As the dust begins to settle on the General Election with a hung Parliament result, I believe we are entering a dark period for our nation. That’s not all bad news, because it is at such times that the light shines brightest.

One candidate seemed to sum up the situation, perhaps inadvertently, by quoting the first line of a well-known hymn, “The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended…”, no doubt referring to the long night he had endured waiting for the results.

But it was prophetic of where we are, especially in terms of the next line: “The darkness falls at thy behest…”.

The Gamble Didn’t Pay Off

Theresa May called the election in order to win a mandate for conducting Brexit negotiations from a position of strength, but the gamble has not paid off. The chips are down. Her Conservative Party will clearly have the most seats, but does not look like having an overall majority following a campaign which has come down to a two-horse race. Labour have done far better than expected despite being led by a man of the hard left who has courted the IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah, and who only two years ago paid a visit to the grave of a Palestinian terrorist.

But he has successfully won over swathes of impressionable young people, who have turned out to vote in apparently unprecedented numbers. Somehow they have rallied to his cause, which seems mainly about turning our backs on austerity (i.e. spending money we haven’t got) and promising to abolish university tuition fees – bait which has proved very tasty, not only for students, but also for their parents. But who’s going to pay for it?

I believe we are entering a dark period – but it is at such times that the light shines brightest.

It is hardly surprising that the youth of today – a second generation brought up largely without the biblical ethics that underpinned our civilisation for centuries – are for the most part interested in no-one but themselves. So a short-term magic wand proves very attractive while Mrs May’s social care policies cut little ice.

Threat from Without and Within

Though she has been a loyal supporter of Israel, which is obviously important, I’m not sure a large majority for Mrs May would have been a good thing.

The truth is that none of the main parties mentioned Christianity in their manifestoes. Policies in support of healthy family life were almost totally absent – in fact the opposite was the case. For they all appear determined to incorporate the LGBT+ agenda into every facet of national life, even to the point of compulsory education on sexual relationships (including the supposed normality of gay sex) for nursery school children.

Caroline Ansell, defending a slim Conservative majority in Eastbourne, was hounded by the Press over her evangelical faith and because she had dared to employ an intern from the Christian campaign group CARE.

For many in this country, the gay issue has become like the nursery classic about The Emperor’s New Clothes, in which the emperor is brainwashed into thinking he is wonderfully dressed until a small child shrieks in horror: “The Emperor has no clothes!”

We are facing a double whammy – the threat of Islamic terrorism on the one hand, and on the other the danger of collapse from within that comes to all decadent societies. I have a picture of a gaping wound which only Jesus can heal. The Prophet Isaiah foretold of how the Messiah would die on the Cross for the sins of the world, and that “by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

In discarding God from our culture following a world war when we could so easily have been invaded but for the prayers of the nation, we have poisoned ourselves with atheism. And we will only be cured when we acknowledge our diseased condition, and return to Christ for cleansing.

We are facing a double whammy – Islamic terror on the one hand, and collapse from within on the other.

Downward Spiral of Morality

The Church, meanwhile, has been intimidated into silence for fear of being dubbed homophobic. But Christians must stop denying their Lord. Part of the problem for Mrs May was that, while claiming to be guided by her (Christian) faith, she is said to have been the prime mover (as Home Secretary) behind the introduction onto the statute book of same-sex marriage – a total contradiction of biblical teaching and one of the worst laws ever passed in this land. And yet we have been largely silent in calling her to account.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, a committed believer, initially inspired hope among Christian voters until he too denied that gay sex was wrong. And then Mrs May sacked Isle of Wight MP Andrew Turner for his biblical views on sexual ethics.

The LGBT+ agenda has penetrated every crack and crevice of our national institutions, and you are simply not allowed to object – Christians who have done so have been hauled before the courts. We tolerate everyone else – but not Christians. Where is the place of personal conscience in our supposed liberal society?

We have seen a downward spiral of morality on a par with that which ultimately led to the collapse from within of Roman civilisation. St Paul’s famous letter to the 1^st Century Roman Christians makes this absolutely clear as he encourages them to avoid being influenced by the depraved culture of those around them, whose descent into lust and lawlessness started by denying God as Creator. God’s eternal power was obvious from the beauty of Creation, “but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom 1:21) Isn’t this what we have been teaching our children for generations: that we evolved from apes and God had nothing to do with the beauty we see all around us?

So for the Roman pagans, one thing led to another until they ended up engaging in “shameful lusts” (Rom 1:26) involving “unnatural” sexual relationships (i.e. lesbian and homosexual activity).

We have seen a downward spiral of morality on a par with that which ultimately led to the collapse of Roman civilisation.

It’s no use pussyfooting over this issue with supposed compassion. We have participated, as those unbelievers in Rome did, in the suppression of truth, and we wonder why our walls are falling down and our bridges are breached as we come under attack from enemies of God and democracy.

The Bible says: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people” (Prov 14:34).

Rebuilding on the Rock

We stand condemned as a nation, but there is a way out! Hear the wonderful words of Jesus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16f).

Our walls are broken down because of our sin, and they will only be restored when we address the decadence in our midst and return to the God of our fathers.

To use another biblical metaphor, we have built on sand and are now found wanting. A fierce storm has hit us, leaving us wobbling and about to collapse. We need to rebuild on the Rock, which is Christ, who said: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matt 7:26f).

Our walls are broken down because of our sin – they will only be restored when we return to the God of our fathers.

Thank God for media outlets like Revelation TV, who hosted their own election night commenting on the great issues from a biblical perspective. One of their panel made the pertinent point that Church leaders are failing to give guidance on voting to their congregations, as mosques clearly do. The Bible speaks into the issues at stake, so it is surely the duty of pastors and teachers to demonstrate, from the scriptures, how certain policies are either right or wrong.

Finally, we need to recapture total confidence in the Gospel as the sole means by which our beloved nation can be saved from its own folly. Let us say with St Paul: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Rom 1:16).