Is There Any Word From The Lord?

The nation is reeling – but why, and what can we do about it?

I have had a few days up in the Austrian Tyrol, walking, praying and breathing fresh mountain air. It was a little glimpse of paradise – physically and spiritually refreshing. Coming back to Britain there was a palpable sense of heaviness and depression hanging over the nation. Even the immigration officer inspecting my passport at London airport gloomily referred to the state of the nation and commented that I would have done better not to have come back!

We reached home at 1 o’clock on Wednesday morning, which was just the time the terrible fire broke out in the Kensington tower block. The tragic news in the morning could only add to the depression hanging over the nation like the thick black cloud of smoke drifting over London.

Since then I’ve been searching for good news – something I could say in this editorial that would lift the hearts of our readers. The last thing I want to do is to add to the doom and gloom coming out of Westminster and filling our news media. Then, with the still burning Grenfell Tower in the background, the TV news showed crowds of people bringing food and clothing and toiletries and a multitude of gifts for the survivors of the inferno.

The spontaneous generosity and goodness of the ordinary people of London who immediately sprang into action on behalf of their neighbours was a wonderful reminder that love and goodness are not dead in our nation. People were coming from every part of the multi-ethnic community in Kensington, which was a powerful testimony to the latent goodness of human nature that goes beyond race, colour, class, nationality and every other human distinction.

Nation Under Judgment

This outpouring of love and generosity is a true picture of our nature created in the image of God. But we reserve this outpouring for special occasions; we do not carry it over into our everyday lives, where we display our fallen human nature marred by selfishness and corrupted by personal ambition.

This gives us a clue to the central problem affecting the nation. Everyone is asking why the nation is in such a mess. The plain and honest answer is that we are a nation under judgment.

The spontaneous generosity of the ordinary people of London was a wonderful reminder that love and goodness are not dead in our nation.

No-one really wants to face this unpleasant truth because Christians who firmly hold to biblical values are scorned and labelled, ‘right-wing’, ‘homophobic’, ‘Islamophobic’ and all the other clichés and invectives invented by secular humanists to try to discredit those who stand firm against the liberalisation of the nation and the rejection of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Sadly, some who call themselves Christians have adopted this language to abuse those who remain true to the Bible.

God’s Ultimate Authority

Just look at the facts: our Prime Minister had a perfectly workable majority in the Commons which she gambled and lost through putting her trust in the polls. It is probable that she also trusted advisers who elevated her to ‘celebrity’ status, basing the election campaign around her rather than the ‘strong and stable’ government we were promised. So the hoped-for landslide fell into the valley of disaster.

This is where Scripture comes to our aid in understanding what has happened in the political sphere. Paul’s teaching is very clear: “There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Rom 13:1).

Martin Luther And The Reformation

Then in Deuteronomy 28:20 we read what God does when a nation deliberately turns their backs upon biblical truth: “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.”

But this harsh statement is tempered by the solemn promise of God in Jeremiah 18:7: “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.”

Call to Remain Faithful

We should always be careful not to apply biblical statements literally to our contemporary situation, but look at the situation when they were written. The Deuteronomy quote was specifically to Israel, a nation in a covenant relationship with God. The promise given in Jeremiah was to all nations at any time. Paul’s teaching was designed to re-assure the Roman authorities that the small company of Christian believers had no political ambitions or desire to challenge the authority of the Emperor.

We are a nation under judgment – but nobody wants to face this unpleasant truth.

Again, look at the facts: Britain is a self-declared Christian nation in which our monarch pledged on behalf of us all to be faithful to the Protestant religion and to uphold the word of the Lord. So long as we, as a nation, remain faithful to uphold biblical values and the Lord’s name, we can be sure of his protection and blessing. When we forsake the Truth, we put ourselves outside God’s protection. That is judgment.

Although the Conservatives have the most seats in the new Parliament, the only way they can form a Government is by co-operating with the DUP, whose distinctive feature is their commitment to upholding biblical beliefs and values. Surely we have to conclude that God is speaking to our nation through this situation.

Time for Christians to Rise Up

Disasters will continue to happen unless we acknowledge that as a nation we have departed from the ways of truth and earnestly seek God’s forgiveness and blessing, which he is more than eager to bestow upon us. We cannot expect the whole nation to understand this situation and to respond rightly: but surely Christians can understand the ways of God! Now is the time for us to steady the nation with the word of the Lord. God’s love has not been withdrawn and never will be, but we have brought this situation upon ourselves.

It is time for Christians to steady the nation with the word of the Lord.

The greatest need today is for the mobilisation of Christians to intercede on behalf of the nation. God does not wait until there is a democratic majority before responding – he’s looking for the faithful remnant of believers to break their silence, to ask for the power of his Holy Spirit in making our witness in the nation and to re-affirm our love for him and for Britain. The fruit of judgment will quickly be removed if we are faithful and blessings will flow.

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