Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II
The funeral of the late Queen was a solemn and appropriately regal occasion, watched in various ways by millions of people across the nation and the wider world. While some things related to the event should make us thankful, others caused sadness and pain. The funeral service was wholly Christian and the use of the Authorised Version of the Scriptures and the reverential way of addressing the Most High were pleasing aspects. Some psalms were sung. It was fitting that the women wore head coverings and the main female mourners were in female dress.
The longstanding funeral plan had the funeral taking place ten days after the Queen’s death. Because this occurred on a Thursday, it would have meant a Sabbath funeral, but thankfully it was changed to the Monday. However, the moving of the Queen’s remains by hearse from Balmoral to Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, on Sabbath, October 11, a journey that took six hours – to allow the public to pay their respects en route – was unnecessary; it was a contravention of the Fourth Commandment. The following Sabbath, the queues filed past the coffin in Westminster Hall as on the weekdays. Leading politicians from many countries took the opportunity to hold meetings on the Lord’s Day.
During the funeral service in Westminster Abbey the coffin was the focus of attention, with the main mourners sitting facing it. The Dean of Westminster began with prayer, which included a eulogy about the late Queen’s life, sense of duty, Christian faith and love for her family. The prayers throughout the service were read, and it was clear that the congregation had copies to read for themselves. One questions whether this was prayer at all. It was certainly not a spontaneous offering up of desires unto God with the confession of sin. It seemed ritualistic, formal and spiritually dead compared to the evangelical prayers we are privileged to hear offered at funerals. Sadly, the readings and prayers were taken by both men and women and one by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Nichols.
The short sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury was mainly a eulogy and the service was concluded by the Archbishop commending the Queen’s soul to go in peace in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is surely popish. The Queen’s soul had passed to eternity at the moment of her death and prayers and commendations for her were no longer required. The service was concluded with a piper’s lament.
Although the beauty and grandeur of Westminster Abbey is pleasing and stirring to the eye of sense and the natural heart, we must contrast the Queen’s funeral to the simplicity of the family worship of which the Free Presbyterian funeral is comprised. Here there is no extolling of the creature, only the worship of God, the pointing out of death as being the wages of sin and the exaltation of Christ as the way of salvation from sin and the directing of mourners to the Most High as the only source of comfort and help.
We conclude that the state funeral of our late Monarch contained elements for which we are thankful. But was it the worship of God, or simply an occasion of pomp and ceremony to which the worship of God was coincidental? FRD
Scottish Gender Recognition Reform
A Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) is a certificate that legally recognises that a person’s gender is not the gender they were “assigned” at birth but their “acquired gender”. The current process for obtaining a GRC is set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004. A new bill, the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, seeks to amend the 2004 Act and set up a new process, and is currently passing through the Scottish Parliament. On October 27 the Bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle by a large majority (88 votes to 33) even though a Scottish Government minister resigned and seven Scottish National Party MSPs defied the whip and voted against the bill, with an additional 2 abstentions.
The bill seeks to:
- remove the requirement currently in place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria when seeking a Gender Recognition Certificate;
- reduce the time an applicant must live in their acquired gender from two years to three months, with an additional 3-month period of reflection;
- reduce the minimum age for getting a GRC from 18 to 16.
One reads of children much younger than 16 whose lives have been blighted by medical interventions of one kind or another. No one doubts that young people can be confused about sexuality and gender issues but the majority of those who are confused need guidance, help and time for their confusion to clear. They should not be encouraged and enabled to make life-changing decisions at a young age.
The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who support the Bill, described the above changes as simply a technical amendment to the law!
Many people have raised concerns that the resultant ease of altering one’s gender will put women’s and girls’ rights at risk even more than they are at the moment. Predatory men could abuse the system in order to enter single-sex spaces. It is argued that women’s refuges, changing rooms, single-sex wards and similar spaces would no longer be safe places for women.
In advocating the change, the Social Justice Secretary, Shona Robison, called the current system, “intrusive, medicalised and bureaucratic,” and said, “Our support for trans rights does not conflict with our continued strong commitment to uphold the rights and protections that women and girls currently have under the 2010 Equality Act”.
In stage two of the process, MSPs are able to propose changes or amendments to the Bill. It has been reported that some of those who voted in support of the first stage of the Bill have serious reservations about some of its proposals. However, having voted for the thrust of the Bill they are not likely to vote against it. There will be another debate and a vote on the updated Bill which, if successful, will see it pass into law.
The mad march down the transgender road continues, and one finds it difficult to believe how far the nation has strayed from its Christian heritage. We should be praying earnestly that the Lord would turn us, rulers and people, to Himself once again and that the Bible would become the nation’s guide and rule.
FRD
Pagan Origins of Christmas
The fact that Christmas has pagan origins should be familiar enough to readers of this Magazine. However, it is still important to remind ourselves of the true nature of this ungodly festival lest we cease to contend against it as earnestly as previous generations did. The festival of the winter solstice has been widely practised in Asia and Europe over thousands of years. It has been closely associated with giving and receiving gifts, partaking of special food and drink and, often, with excess in fleshly indulgence. But behind all of this a religious aspect lurks. December 25 was celebrated in the ancient world to mark the passing of the old life, symbolised by the winter, and the beginning of new life. In ancient Roman religion, this feast was celebrated to mark the birth of the unconquered god of the sun.
These widespread, popular festivities were easily adopted by the Christian Church when it began its rapid course of declension in the period from the fourth century AD, when many former heathen idolaters were admitted to the Church through baptism. It was obvious that many of these people had not forsaken their strong attachment to many aspects of heathenism. As a result, the Christian Church became more and more conformed to the practices and superstitions of the ungodly world. The development of apostate Popery – Satan’s great masterpiece – was greatly aided by this policy of accommodating pagan practices within the pale of the Christian Church.
Sadly, the celebration of Christmas is now almost universal in Reformed and Evangelical Churches. As the pure light of the truth has been obscured or lost, so the false light of Christmas has appeared more and more prominently. This stands in stark contrast to the complete repudiation of it which was practised by the Scottish Presbyterians and the English Puritans in the period after the Reformation. They rightly concluded that it had no place in the Church and should have no place in our lives.
We must be careful that we do not give place to the culture of the unbelieving world all around us, nor to the downgrade in practice which has infiltrated the Churches in our day. Let us not give way to the blandishments which would soften our opposition to observing Christmas by treating it as a family day or a special day for children. Such an outlook only encourages others to observe a festival which is highly displeasing in the eyes of the Lord. “What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Or what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” (2 Cor 6:14-16). AWM
Britain as a Lunatic Asylum
A famous engraving by the satirical artist William Hogarth shows two fashionable ladies visiting the London lunatic asylum known as Bedlam in 1735. It is an open day at the asylum, and visitors can pay to see the inmates. Some of them are confined to their cells, including a naked man with a crown on his head who thinks that he is a king, and a religious fanatic worshipping his cross. Other inmates are allowed into the gallery. Here are found two deranged scientists – one studying the stars through a useless tube of paper; the other calculating the longitude from scribbles on the wall. A mad musician plays his violin with a stick, wearing the score on his head; a man with a dunce’s hat supposes that he is the Pope; and a love-sick man with a dog barking at him has carved the initials of his obsession (a notorious prostitute of the day) on the banister. From outside, the attendants look in through the bars.
Britain must currently present a similar sight to the angels. Here are people pretending that they can change their sex; here are others gluing themselves to the road because of climate-change. Here are people slaughtering hundreds of thousands of beautiful unborn babies; and here is a Parliament passing laws to protect the sensitive feelings of these murderers. Here are thousands of illegal immigrants being helped ashore to enjoy benefits and healthcare that they cannot get elsewhere. Here is a prime minister worshipping an elephant-god. Here are scientists and philosophers, surrounded by evidence of God’s Being and wisdom but denying His existence. Here are religious leaders with the Bible in their hands, yet missing the way of salvation themselves and pointing others away from it. Here is Satan, looking on through the bars. And here, underneath it all, are the jaws of hell daily receiving multitudes.
Truly, God has given Britain up to judgement, because of her rejection of Christ. “Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee” (Hos 4:6). “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22).
DWBS