Riots in France should be a wake-up call to Britain.
It is often said that the only thing we ever learn from history is that we never learn anything from history. Watching the scenes on TV from Paris last weekend of rioting crowds wreaking havoc around the Arc de Triomphe reminded me of the fear that gripped Britain back in the days of William Pitt and William Wilberforce. There was genuine dread that the violence from the French Revolution would spread across the channel and sweep away law and order in Britain.
The anti-Macron riots ought to act as a wake-up call in Britain, with our politicians locked in acrimonious debate of the Brexit deal presented to Parliament by Theresa May. The latest polls indicate that the country is even more divided today than it was at the time of the 2016 Referendum. A poll this week showed that 44% of the nation would like to remain in the EU while 50% want the Government to get on with the deal and complete Brexit.
Despite overwhelming evidence that the country is evenly split on this issue there are still loud calls from the public (aided and abetted by the BBC) and among pro-EU politicians for a second referendum. The motive behind this is, of course, the desire to keep Britain locked into the European Union. But a second referendum would be disastrous - both in terms of the economy and for social order.
In the 2½ years since the Referendum a revolution has been taking place affecting social attitudes and values, driven by the advancing post-modernist agenda and the unrestrained use of hate-filled social media. Britain simply could not cope with another six months’ campaign as required by law in the lead up to another referendum. The breakdown in law and order would be horrendous. There would undoubtedly be riots on the streets of our cities with tempers running high and rival parties taking the nation to the brink of civil war.
The motive behind calls for a second referendum, which would be disastrous for the country, is the desire to keep Britain locked into the European Union.
Breaking Off the Yoke
Tim Ireland/Xinhua News Agency/PA ImagesBut what are the alternatives? Our politicians are faced with the choice between Mrs May’s EU deal, no deal, or going back to the people. It is surely time to face the fact that there is no easy solution, because we are a nation under judgment!
We chose to align ourselves with the secular humanist European Union 45 years ago, in defiance of our biblical heritage and the word of God that clearly warns against being unequally yoked: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14).
We are reaping the harvest of our own foolishness and lack of trust in God. We have had numerous warnings that our national life has been going in the wrong direction but every warning sign has been ignored since the 1980s when we joined the EU. In the printed version of this magazine we interpreted sign after sign, such as the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the 1987 hurricane that hit south-east England, Black Monday and the stock market crash, the King’s Cross fire and numerous others that carried a spiritual warning to the nation. But ears were deaf and eyes were blind to the word of the Lord.
We are now in a similar position to that of Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah when God told him to go up and down the streets of the city and see if he could find one person who dealt honestly and seeks the truth. He couldn’t find anyone and he thought “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke” (Jer 5:4-5).
They had severed all connection with God, so the nation was no longer under his protection at the time when the Babylonian army was already invading the land. The destruction of Jerusalem was inevitable unless there was divine intervention.
We are now in a similar position to that of Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah when God told him to go up and down the streets of the city and see if he could find one person who dealt honestly and seeks the truth.
Judgment on the Whole World
This is the situation facing us in Britain today. Our political leaders are in disarray. No-one knows what to do, so they spend their days in Parliament shouting at each other, heaping abuse on those who hold different views and growing in frustration and bitterness that is spilling over into the nation through the media. No one stops to ask, “Is there any word from the Lord?” If they would look back along the way we have come, they would see that God has been warning us for many years!
The word received in Jerusalem in 1986 was that a time of judgment was coming upon the whole world:
It will not only be by war and civil war, by anarchy and terrorism, and by monetary collapses that I will judge the nations but also by natural disasters: by earthquakes, by shortages and famines, and by old and new plague diseases.
I will also judge them by giving them over to their own ways, to lawlessness, to loveless selfishness, to delusion and to believing a lie, to false religion and an apostate church, even to a Christianity without me.1
The Way Ahead
We cannot blame the PM for the deal she has reached, because the EU was never going to give us a good deal. They have plenty of problems of their own with the rising power of populism threatening to tear the Union apart. Even if we changed our PM for a radical Brexiteer, he would not achieve an advantageous deal for Britain and anyway, the public are rapidly losing faith in all politicians.
The way ahead is to accept where we are now, repent, and urgently seek the Lord for the way forward. Of course, we know that repentance is not going to happen with our godless politicians. Meanwhile, Brexit itself is being threatened by a combined assault from post-modernists and assorted powers of darkness which are determined to force another referendum and keep Britain locked into the EU. God have mercy on us!
The way ahead is to accept where we are now, repent, and urgently seek the Lord for the way forward.
But…
But there is still a faithful remnant of believers in Britain whose prayers could change the situation. We should concentrate our prayers on Brexit being achieved on 29 March 2019 – one way or another – and put our trust in God for the future. The prayers of good and faithful men and women could still influence the future history of Britain.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea…Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Ps 46)
Not since the days of Dunkirk has there been so great a need for sustained, believing prayer for the future of Britain.
Editorial note: To this end, we are publishing some prayer points gleaned from prophetic words and editorials published on Prophecy Today UK since the Referendum in 2016. Read them here. We hope to publish more prayer resources in the coming weeks. We have also gathered together prophecies and articles of particular relevance that we have published since Prophecy Today re-launched in 2015, to aid you in your prayers. Find them here.
