Are you mock-worthy? Are you worthy of satirical comedy?

One of the most specific accusations of Satan today against the Church who are being prepared for their wedding day — for when the Bridegroom will finally come — is that they are a dangerous cult or, perhaps, a suspicious sect.

Starting this month in the U.K. (channel 4), Everyone Else Burns is set to be a high-profile example of this blinding caricature, scribbled by Satan, of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

We must pay close attention if we are not already.

The devil can not stand to see the radical activity of the Holy Spirit in which the Church are being genuinely prepared for Armageddon and the return of Christ. And so he mocks. He does so by adding satirical fuel to the crackling fires of secular atheism that is proud enough to think that it has any understanding of spiritual realities when, in fact, it does not. (1 Corinthians 2:6-8).

Inane caricatures of Christian disciples and accusatory fury concealed by satire is really all the devil has. Nevertheless, it should daily shoot adrenaline into our nauseous stomachs so that we feel sick at the thought of hell – which, when all of the comedy series have finished, is where all of this is headed.

As a demonstrable proof of our utterly unprepared state, the Church do not live in the reality of either heaven or hell, neither of Jesus’ glorious return nor of the horrors that He has delivered us from – churches generally teach on neither. It was William Booth who wished he could hang every new recruit over hell for five minutes.

Listen! Everyone Else Burns exists because the Church do not really care that they will, not really. Because the world therefore do not see the radicals of God, nor the Radical God of the radicalised, it is easy for the world to create the Vicar of Dibley and worse.

But although the West has been lost, the Church remain firmly found despite the world not seeing the ‘real deal’ for a long time.

Will this unimaginable reality, (of those hurtling toward hell whilst mocking it), provoke and inspire the Church to be prepared, to be humbled?

Probably not.

Most likely, Everyone Else Burns will actually entertain the ‘seeker-sensitives’ (who will essentially agree with its satirical premise); it will probably further harden the ‘conservative evangelicals’ (who will doubtless rebuff its premise while simultaneously fulfilling it with aplomb).

But like the depressing LGBT narratives that traipse our society today — and the all-time low in the nation of Scotland a fortnight ago — disciples of Jesus Christ, the coming Jewish Bridegroom, must see Everyone Else Burns as further evidence that God is sovereign and that, despite this present darkness, He is preparing His people – at least, those who are listening.

The question for you, dear reader, is at least two-fold:

1. Will you even feel mocked by Everyone Else Burns? Will it mock your vision, your church, your plans and your hope? Will it mock your prayer life and your deepest longings? Will it counterfeit the genuine work of the Holy Spirit in your life and your church, especially in the last three years?
2. Will you respond in faith to the gift that it is of being aware of the devil’s schemes? Will you allow his very worst (perhaps his most mocking) tones to jolt you awake?

The Church that is being faithfully prepared for the end of the age (whether in our lifetime or not) is going to be increasingly accused of being a sect/cult and fiercely despised by the world who themselves do not love His appearing.

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:8

Currently, thousands of churches in the U.K. think that they are faithful when they are not; thousands of churches in the U.K. think that they are preparing when they are not; thousands of church leaders in the U.K. think that they are surrendered to the Holy Spirit…when they are not.

We would do well to sit through the sacrilegious pain of this six-episode channel 4 comedy, (language permitting), take some notes and reflect on these questions, above, as well as these following:

1. Am I willing to be prepared by the Holy Spirit, to be a man/woman of God who is able to gloriously disengage and abandon every false vestige of unfaithful discipleship, to fall on my knees and call for the Lord to move in fire?
2. Am I willing to become mock-worthy? Am I willing to become the authentic radical of God which is mocked by the desperation of the devil who is leashed, flailing and very limited in time?

The answers to these questions are covered in depth in my new, forthcoming book and they will begin in your home, permeate your Sundays and ultimately set you apart for relocation and reconnection of kin.