Today, like so many nations of the world, the United Kingdom is in a most sorrowful mess. Whilst maintaining some of the external scaffolding of a national Christianity, we have gradually succumbed over the years to the evil agenda that has resulted in our becoming a multi-cultural society with all the abounding ungodliness, lawlessness, and spiritual adultery that comes with such a departure from the ways of the Lord (see 2 Tim 3:1-5). We witnessed a prominent illustration of the baneful effect of this experiment in social engineering a few weeks ago when tensions in specific sectors of our society became so volatile in parts of England and Northern Ireland that they resulted in riotous behaviour which in other countries might have led to civil war.
Swift action taken by the UK government, the police, together with the judicial services may have, for the present, checked the further spread of the riots. However, we should be concerned lest this action only remove some superficial symptoms (and possibly escalate the development of others) rather than directly address the complex, significant – but essentially spiritual – underlying malaise.
Unlike most countries, we were once a nation lifted high by God’s grace. But, alas, we have dramatically fallen from the eminent position to which God had exalted us. We have thus lost many blessings that we once were privileged to enjoy, proving the truth of the proverb, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov 14:34). “How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed!” (Lam 4:1). It appears that, as in the days of Jeremiah, we are today, like Jerusalem, experiencing God’s judgement and are in a state of spiritual desolation that anyone previously knowing us could hardly have conceived possible (see the apt parallelism in Lam 4:12).
Our day is indeed most solemn. The prospects before us are not bright. However, let us never forget that all things are possible with the Lord. The King of Zion, the Lord Jesus Christ, enthroned in glory at the right hand of God the Father, has all power in heaven and earth; may we earnestly pray that, for the glory of His Name, He may be pleased to revive His work amongst us mightily and most wondrously.
Without question, our land has seen much better days: we can read of the “days of the Son of man” (Lk 17:22), days when the Lord shone upon our peoples, when churches were full, and when, to a great extent, the Spirit of God powerfully and effectually accompanied the preaching of the Word of God. Those were the days when it was not an infrequent occurrence for hardened sinners, long dead in trespasses and sins, to be remarkably converted and brought to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ: days when the Lord’s people joyfully spoke one to another of the great blessings they received in both grace and providence, notwithstanding the many outward sorrows and difficulties they faced.
These were the days when, in the cities, towns and villages throughout the land, the heads of households believed it to be their solemn but blessed duty to conduct family worship in their homes. At these times, both morning and evening, prayer, praise, and reading of the Holy Scriptures were often an occasion of meaningful and objective spiritual profit to parents and children alike as they joyfully and keenly sought to adhere closely to the truth of God.
It was in such days that families wended their way together to their churches whenever the doors were open, Sabbath and weekday, prayerfully and avidly anticipating the presence of their Lord and Master in the tabernacles of His grace (see Ps 84:1). They sought the divine blessing upon the public means of grace, and often (by His grace) returned to their homes after service spiritually roasting that which they “took in hunting” (see Prov 12:27).
These were the days when young and old avidly read and prayed over the Holy Scriptures in private and read the writings of the godly of former days for spiritual light, instruction and guidance; the days when the tried and tempted saints of God lived from day to day in humble dependence on the Most High, whom they joyfully proved, again and again, to be (by grace alone) their refuge, their strength and their very present help in trouble (see Ps 46:1).
What has changed? What makes our day so very different? It is different, but why? Of course, we live in the present and not the past, in the twenty-first century and not the nineteenth. Yet we must assess what accounts for the significant changes that are so evident. Indeed, not everything has changed for the worse; some things have changed for the better. Not everything in the past was pleasant and wholesome. However, it would be accurate to state that the changes are, for the most part, very significant and significantly for the worse.
No doubt, some of the Christianity of that day was like ours: false,
shallow, hypocritical and self-righteous. Not all the churches in those days preached the pure and free gospel of the grace of God. Not all the church members of former generations joyfully radiated God’s grace in their lives, and not all ministers of those days had the glory of God and the spiritual good and care of souls as a high, if not the chief, motivation in their work.
May these questions and thoughts of significance and importance assist us in analysing the Christians’ place in society and the churches’ role today and for the future. We need to learn from the past. Therefore we must prayerfully and carefully reflect on questions and considerations of this nature, finding answers, in the inspired and authoritative Holy Scriptures, to how we should relate to our sad and solemnly wicked day.
We may not find the answers readily. Our answers should not be superficial or simplistic. We are to seek them prayerfully, hammering them out on the anvil of Holy Scripture.
The prayerful thought and consideration necessary to examine the matter ought (by the grace of God) to be of significant profit to all the spiritually minded readers of this Magazine. In His fear, it becomes us to endeavour to make this fundamental assessment so that we may be rightly informed from the Divine oracles how to frame our prayers for our nation. May we beseech the God of heaven to look upon us in His mercy and grace for our nation’s spiritual health and profit for the generations to come, for the glory and honour of His name!
DPR
St Giles’, Edinburgh – Nine Hundredth Anniversary
St Giles’ church is now 900 years old. It will celebrate the anniversary with “an immersive art installation exploring the idea of community”. Rev George Whyte, the interim moderator, said, “For 900 years, the voices of so many people have echoed around the walls of the cathedral. It is entirely fitting that, as we pass this milestone, we hear each other talk about the things which matter to us and which we hold in common.”
What would be really fitting is that people who come to the church would be able to listen to the pure gospel, through which sinners can be delivered from eternal condemnation. This is a building where, immediately after the Reformation and somewhat later, men like John Knox and Robert Bruce proclaimed the pure Word of God. They believed that churches were places where sinners could hear that they needed to be delivered from the wrath to come and to hear how that deliverance may be obtained – through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man that He might offer Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy God’s justice in the place of sinners.
Sadly there is very little in the above paragraph that the organisers of the
“immersive art installation” are likely to believe, although it is all biblical truth. May the Lord soon transform the whole spiritual landscape in Scotland! In particular, may large numbers of faithful preachers of the gospel be sent out to proclaim the whole counsel of God, but especially to make known the central message of the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven!