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…