16 June - three terrible things in one week
- cover up of rape gangs by core agents of society: police, social services, councils
- lawful to kill your baby up to birth
- lawful for the state to help kill yourself, eventually for no reason (hard cases don’t make good laws)
These achieved by a parliament made up largely of spiritual, moral and intellectual 'ghosts'.
'There are moments in history when the veil is pulled back — when we glimpse not just a lapse in judgment, but a rupture in the moral fabric of our society.' Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was referring to Glastonbury but it equally applies to the terrible three. Looking at just one of these:
Assisted Suicide
A couple of us decided to support the Christian Concern gathering outside Parliament on Friday 20 June.
There was a good crowd and we saw others we knew. There were people from different groups including 'Families Against Involuntary Medical Euthenasia' (a helpful discussion here).
It was a long session but talking with others, the time passed quite quickly.
It was an important time to be gathered - physical presence is somehow more important than it seems.
We had approaches from people who said they were from The Independent and BBC (may not have been) looking for sound-bites. One of our group had a personal experience in this area - so that was useful to relate. We also had a long chat with a women to just seemed a curious visitor.
Humanists UK were there in a big group – they seemed well-organised and there were some polite interactions.
There was a real sense of blessing while singing worshipfully and praying the Lord's prayer (while the 'yes' group chanted - which didn’t matter).
When the result came through I think many were not surprised and it did not alter the value or importance of being there nor the sense of God seeing what people will do in this context. Judging in the sense of Romans 1 – giving them up to what they want so they can see the results of it.
It was not a win for the others but a loss.
Human falleness
MP Danny Kruger – who lead the opposition to this bill said afterwards – speaking for the first time from a Christian perspective: https://x.com/danny__kruger/status/1936142392467300664
Christians by contrast think human beings are fallen - weak, selfish, dangerous - so we don't trust them with absolute power. That's why over the centuries, especially in England, the idea developed that the law should protect us from each other, and even from ourselves, and certainly from the state. In objecting to assisted suicide I was trying to defend this old fashioned idea that the law should protect the vulnerable. And in abandoning this idea we are opening the door to a terrible dystopia.
...
Maybe I'm exaggerating. But these are apocalyptic times. As the world beyond Britain blows up, as technology rewrites everything, and as our own security, economy and society are increasingly, desperately, precarious - how do we feel about junking the ideas that created and sustained the peace and prosperity of these islands for 1500 years? What's the alternative story we're going to tell ourselves, in place of the one about us being individually, uniquely valuable but also chronically prone to wrongdoing? The opposite story, that we're perfect moral beings but that if we're weak or unwanted we will be killed - feels less appealing to me, and certainly less useful to the challenges of the times.
It’s notable that he says earlier that the people pushing for assisted suicide are ‘militant anti-Christians’. He recognises that this Bill is not really about doing good as reasonable a-theists but being anti-good – anti-God. That’s a pretty strong statement! He also attacks the insinuation that having religious/Christian faith make you hardened, rigid and blinkered and thus someone whose arguments can be dismissed. He points out that their ‘faith’ is just as real but is actually a fantasy given the reality of human nature.
John Lennox seems to have been inspired by the same thought in his address to the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast on 24 June (https://www.youtube.com/live/ScvKE372mhM). It’s good to see these arguments, truths, more boldly expressed. From my perspective though it's our preachers who need to see what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. Many are in a different place altogether.
Apocalyptic times
Danny Kruger's urgency is notable 'But these are apocalyptic times.' If a Shadow minister who presumably has access to insights we don't and can more accurately sum up the state of the nation says: 'our own security, economy and society are increasingly, desperately, precarious', then we should feel anxious too! We have effectively said that life is not infinitely precious (other than ours, of course) but can be disposed of whenever it’s of no use. That’s the same basic attitude that permits slavery - dehumanising the other. There is also the demonic lust for death, blood. We have officially become pagans in the same way as James Cook found with the peoples of the South Seas.
It is also the same attitude that powers the Global elites, with growing control over us ‘deplorables’ during COVID, with intentional immigration and widened control under the guise of ‘Climate Change’. We’re currently seeing the wilful destruction of our country – the same as planned by the Democrats for the US.
1500 years of grace
Danny Kruger’s ‘1500 years’ refers back to King Alfred the Great, who having come from burning cakes to converting would-be conquerors, founded the laws of England on the 10 Commandments, and received a prophecy that his family would unite Britain. We probably underestimate the boldness and spiritual confidence that was needed to do that. Alfred faced unwillingness from his regional chiefs for his Christian statecraft and had difficulty persuading clerics to restart Christian education, but he also knew this was the only hope. No doubt he felt considerable affinity with the writer of the psalms that he translated into Anglo Saxon.
We need to get back to that, knowing God loves all people, wants all to thrive, rain falling on just and unjust. There is a power in proclaiming his Word in public as was done on June 20.
Standing in the gap
They forgot God, their Saviour,
who had done great things in Egypt,…
Therefore he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him,
to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
The British people have forgotten the God who saved them – redeemed many to Himself, changed their moral code, gave them wealth and influence, made them a blessing to the world because they served His ways. We need to be the Moses for them, who stands in the Gap, the breach, to ask for His right-judgement to be, not just held back, but that people would turn from their wicked ways and live.
So we’re part of this mission, to all aspects of Britain, as Wilberforce and Shaftesbury were alongside Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Booth – John Stott, Martin Lloyd-Jones. God loves every part of His world, not just those we want to get into church, and is always seeking to restore it, in His love.
Which of the churches in Revelation are we? Most don't have a lot to smile about, and perseverance is a key theme.
Do we have a reputation of being alive but are dead? It's a scary thought, one we can barely stomach, especially if we're not big on preaching repentance and bearing persecution for Him. As Bob Dylan says to us and our leaders, civil and spiritual, from
'When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up, When you gonna wake up - strengthen the things that remain' ????
It just needs for us to be filled and moved with the un-grieved, un-quenched Holy Spirit.
