Were the entire world to disagree with me, I would still have no choice but to be faithful to the conviction of my heart before the God of heaven and Earth Who, “Keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to Him“:
It is sacrilege for any church leader in England to summon the Government of the United Kingdom to account for “over-stepping” their authority (“restricting religious liberty”/closing the churches) all the while refusing to repent for their abdicating complicity in allowing British society to have plunged into the state we are now in.
Why? Because it is a false assumption – a “sunk cost fallacy” – that God wouldn’t call the damaging unfaithfulness of the witness of the Church to stop, to die and then to revive in wholeheartedness. Because repentance is intended by Him to be a profound, ongoing, accumulative, increasing way of life that we have substituted for an occasional, isolated event. Because we can not expect the unsaved population of Great Britain to behave as though they were saved – as though they were the redeemed of the LORD.
When British church leaders resist our closing, we are resisting what God is wanting to finally happen:- a coming to the end of ourselves in a historic posture of Body Zero. (This is the sole purpose of my book available here).
When the global Church resists the closing of the churches, we resist the truth that, “…this thing is from Him”.
It seems very clear indeed that we don’t believe that God is this radical and yet, biblically, He always, always wants to get to the very roots of a problem. (See Jeremiah 1:9-10).
Only the Penitent Church Will Stand
God is asking us to look at our chaotic reflection in the mirror of His word and to act accordingly/proportionally. Indeed, it was the late Sean Connery who once famously said on set to his son, (Indiana Jones), “Only the penitent man will pass…”.
Only the penitent Church will stand. And we are certainly not penitent.
Although there will undoubtedly be elements of discrimination towards Christians in the mix of what’s going on, (I’m not completely arguing against that), this specific issue of church closures has got nothing to do with true persecution.
Not As Unified As You Might Think
Although a signed petition by a conclave of Christian leaders submitted to the highest Government authority of the land strongly suggests Christian unity, (as did a certain music video back a few months), the actual reality is that there is not the kind of Christian unity beneath the surface that commands the blessing of God.
Eh?
It is an obvious and fundamental problem that these churches – these leaders – want to pool their collective powers of persuasion and outrage regarding the closure of churches – the hiatus to their “business as usual” – but they don’t want to protest (or teach) about the heinous evil of abortion, the disgrace of “marriage redefined” or of the plague of pornography pilfering society.
God Wants Separation
It is extremely short-sighted, biblically illiterate and naive to think that God would never orchestrate division or, indeed, closure.
The Church are commanding the Government to repent all the while refusing to repent themselves. This is beyond hypocrisy…
firebrandnotes.com 
Amen!
Absolutely spot on Nick!
Thanks for reading, Michele!
Pull no punches Nick, shades of a wild man eating locusts and storming through the Judean wilderness proclaiming “repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” and “Behold the LAMB, who takes away the sin of the world” It’s time we BEHELD the Lamb again!
Amen, Dave…amen and amen. 🙏
I agree. The government reflects the Church. Here in South Africa we have a Marxist, Socialist, Communist government. The Church is silent. The Church is in apostasy.
Thanks for taking the time to read/comment, Craig. I do think the bar is more low than we have the faith to admit, as evidenced by some other comments on this blog.
I must then assume if your wife, children, or parents becomes ill, you will not fight for them, for example, through seeking medical help. After all, those who fight only resist God. This is a truly confused potpourri of pseudo-piety and deeply unbiblical logic.
On the contrary, Will; you really shouldn’t assume anything. Happy to read anything you’ve spent the time writing on the subject, though.
If that is the case, then you are not being consistent. Or does adversity and outward resistance only “come from Him” when it afflicts those who do not get along with? Consistency matters.
Nope, your whole approach is based on assumption. If you want to start and try again, you’re more than welcome to. If you want to continue along this line, you will be blocked.
Such a hostile response. Yet I am merely mirroring your own statements back at you. You are quite quick to call others to repentance but so stiff-necked, resistant, and slow to repent yourself. It’s no surprise that you do not get along with any of the other Christian ministries and churches laboring near you.
One final question before you cowardly block me, since you have already indicated this will be your response to my very legitimate questions: Is that glamour-shot/ministry-pic you took of yourself, with your chest hair garishly sprouting forth from your leather jacket intended to be taken seriously? Take the plank out of your own eye before you seek to remove the speck from your brother’s.
Superb comment! Because you approached an exchange without hostility or with a desire to listen and learn?!!! I love that jacket and my chest hair.
And don’t you dare talk to me about being cowardly all the while you post with a false name and a made up email address. This is childish and pathetic. You know how to get in touch with me if you want to lose the cloak and dagger. I would happily have a face-to-face with you.
Many of the churches involved in the Judicial review were NOT closed. Many opened, apart from a couple of weeks at the beginning of the deceptions, once they realised that they were deceptions. Many sing. Many hold Bible study. Many have fellowship.
The reality Dominic is that all churches were forcibly closed by the godless government. This on its own (even if it was for just one day) should strike the fear of the Lord into the hearts of the people of God. The point is NOT that the government were discriminating against the Church but rather that, come the point of national crisis, the Church were utterly irrelevant in their eyes. And so we generally are. This should make us pause rather than complain but complaining is easier than repenting. I’ve made my case. In January 2020, The Lord asked me to call every church in the country to close/stop. This then happened. https://vimeo.com/399333114 Do with it as you will.