Uncertain times in the UK but God is in control

It’s been a few weeks since the General Election and this has coincided with a fairly chaotic time in the UK. We are living in times of increased uncertainty with fears on security, safety, Brexit and a government in total disarray – but despite all of this, we remain convinced that God IS in control and is everything ultimately works for His good purposes.

The snap General Election was always a gamble from Teresa May’s perspective, but it backfired massively due to a hopeless campaign with a succession of hapless own-goals. The fact that she still won the election (although through a minority government) is more a testament to the lack of a viable alternative than the electorate having confidence in her. The irony from our perspective is that despite the jubilant celebrations from anti-Tory supporters, we now have a situation where our government have to co-operate with Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to secure a majority government. God must have a sense of humour – our government now works alongside those who have long campaigned for the Biblical definition of marriage and is firmly anti-abortion. Whilst we are not political experts, we can only assume this is a step in the right direction and must be a positive influence on our government.

Another election casualty was Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who stepped down after claiming he found it ‘impossible’ to hold the Bible’s teaching and lead the Liberal Democrats. This is quite something given he was the leader of the supposedly most tolerant political party we have – tolerance is now reserved only for those who tow the cultural agenda and the political and social environment is increasingly toxic for anyone expressing Biblical views. This growing intolerance was highlighted by Nick Spencer (Research Director at the think-tank Theos) where he commented that ‘Liberalism has a much-needed role to play in contemporary society, but it is increasingly being hijacked by those who think that liberal tolerance is only for tolerant liberals’. So much for broad-mindedness and tolerance within British politics – we wonder why MP’s of other faiths aren’t ever hounded like Tim Farron for holding similar faith-based views? Why is it only the Christian that has to endure this?

Whilst this has been going on, the UK has suffered a series of terror attacks in recent weeks. For us, one of the most noticeable features of these attacks is their similarity to those that Israel has suffered at the hands of the Palestinians over the last few years – specifically these involve the use of vehicles as a weapon and the random stabbings of innocent civilians.

At times, the Israeli’s have received criticism for the way it deals with these incidents and have been accused of being too heavy-handed – now that this is occurring in our own cities, there has been no suggestion that our own police were heavy-handed when the 3 attackers in Borough Market were shot dead. The more sinister side of this is that is have revealed some gross inconsistency and misreporting on incidents like this. This link provides a perfect example of how misleading the BBC reporting can be. When 3 Palestinians stabbed a 23-year-old female Israeli soldier to death recently and were then shot by the police on arrival, the BBC ran the headline ‘Three Palestinians Killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem’. As was pointed out in the link, this is the same as reporting on the Borough Market attack, by using the headline ‘3 men killed after deadly stabbings in Borough market’. Can you imagine reporting on the London incident in that way? It is inconceivable, yet this is the deceptive headline the BBC used on the attack in Israel. This is no subtle error – this is deliberate misreporting due to an obvious anti-Israel bias that clearly attempts to portray the attackers as the victims.

This week, Prophecy Today UK point out that when we as a nation turn our backs toward God, the battle for truth and honesty will also be lost and we are increasingly seeing that in a number of ways. God will not be mocked and we believe there is often irony in how events unfold – with great sadness, that we suspect further judgment will be brought on this country with more of the very same attacks that Israeli’s routinely suffer. Another worrying observation is how slow and shy our government is about calling out Islamic extremism and coming up with any practical solutions. We wonder how many more attacks like this it will take for us to begin to wake up – with the disturbing attack on the Finsbury Park Mosque this week, we fear that some will begin to take matters into their own hands as the government demonstrates it is either unable or unwilling to tackle the problem. This is a very sad situation that will only fuel further violence. We will have to face up to the fact that a deadly form of Islamic terrorism has been imported into our country and it won’t go away through appeasement – in fact, appeasement will only wet its appetite. In reality, it is probably already too late to prevent more attacks – this is further compounded by the shackles of political correctness and general naivety which make speaking out on the real roots and causes impossible – the rights of the potential attackers are far more valuable than their potential victims in our legal climate.

The words below from Isaiah perfectly describe where we stand before God as a nation – we deserve judgment and only our repentance and faithfulness will open the door for God’s grace and mercy to begin healing a hurting and backsliding nation.

In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. (Isaiah 59:13-15)

Despite this, we must pray for our leaders and follow the Lord with hope and faithfulness as we near His return – God’s work is often seen most clearly when things are beyond human control – our world will continue to unravel until there is only one person who will be able to put things right, namely our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Whatever the cause of Christian oppression, we must faithfully ‘turn the other cheek’ and remember our salvation came at a huge cost. We owe our lives to Jesus Christ and it’s only through Him that we can be reconciled with God and look forward to the Kingdom to come.

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