The Common Market Referendum
The Common Market Referendum is due to be held on Thursday, 5th June 1975. This poll, to establish the views of the British people on continued membership of the European Economic Community, will be an historic one. Whether Parliament will accept the decision of the people is not yet clear. We trust that the British people, given the opportunity in this way to express their attitude to the Common Market, will vote conclusively for rejection of the Market, otherwise Britain’s interests will be inextricably linked-up with those of Europe. Unless there was an outpouring of the Spirit upon the nations of Europe, such close ties with the Nine and control from Europe could only be to the religious and moral detriment of our nation.
The Fall of Vietnam and Cambodia
In Vietnam the war has ended in defeat for the Vietnamese by the Communist aggressor. The result for the Vietnamese is enslavement. How tragic an end this is to more than three decades of conflict. The Vietnamese, who are mostly Buddhist or Roman Catholic in religion, must now bear the Marxist yoke. The Christian Church, too, which has suffered so much during the years of guerilla warfare, is bound to suffer more deeply still under the Communists. Let us remember these Christians, the fruit of Protestant missionary work in that land, and also the people of Vietnam, and pray for the day when the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. The death of 140 Vietnamese orphans in an air crash shortly before the end of hostilities was a sad reminder of the perils to which young and old are exposed in a war situation.
In Cambodia also, the Communist Khmer Rouge forces were victorious when, after five years of civil war, Phnom Penh, the capital of the country, fell to them. It is estimated that a quarter of a million died in the war, while in Vietnam the toll of lives has been far higher.
The Rising Tide of Communism
Events are moving swiftly in different parts of the world. Free nations are being threatened by the rising tide of Communism; others have already fallen or are about to fall to Communist domination. At the end of the Second World War the whole of Eastern Europe became enslaved. Since then, North Korea and Tibet in the Far East came under Communist control as well as North Vietnam; while at present practically
the whole of Indo-china has succumbed to the Communist threat. In America the island of Cuba is under the Communists; while Chile only narrowly escaped this danger, as was true also of Indonesia in the Far East a little earlier. Nearer home, Portugal, so long under a dictatorship, has shaken herself free from that yoke only to come under the yoke of a Communist military regime. In our own Country, in Europe, in America and elsewhere the ceaseless activity of Marxists to undermine the fabric of ordered society to pave the way for a Communist takeover is well known. Clearly Communism is on the march.
The danger to our own nation from this source is real. The low spiritual and moral state of the nation renders us an easy prey to our adversaries. The undermining of the moral fabric of the nation so assiduously pursued for many years by the enemies of the state is bearing fruit. Communists have infiltrated the corridors of power in the nation and present a real threat to our freedom as a nation. What the result of a Communist takeover would mean for the true people of God in our land can be well realised by all who have knowledge of the Communists attitude to true religion in those lands where they already have power. Oppression and persecution for the kingdom of Christ’s sake would be the lot of the people of God.
In what way then can we help to avert such a crisis and calamity? First we ought to recognise the danger and not think of it as something which cannot overtake us. If we are aware of our gross backslidings as a nation from the living and true God, we will have to own that we deserve to be given over into the hand of our enemies, just as Israel and Judah were. We ought then to take the threat seriously and humble ourselves in the sight of God on account of it.
Second, we ought to remember that the Lord is the hearer and answerer of prayer; and that He is to be entreated of by His people. Let us take the danger posed by the Communist threat to a Throne of grace, as Hezekiah did in his day the threat of Assyrian domination. Let there be no looking to man or to other nations for safety and deliverance but to the mighty God of Jacob. Let us plead there at His footstool not only for the protection of our own land from the Communist power but that the Lord would in infinite mercy turn back the rising tide of Communism which at present threatens to engulf the whole world.