Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching)

by Philip Quenby

  The need is one that we share. We, too, need “to contend for the faith” (Jude 1:3). Of late, we seem to have forgotten how to do this. We have sunk into apathy and are mired in defeatism. We find it difficult to bestir ourselves, either when our faith is threatened at home or when our Christian brothers and sisters are under attack overseas. This is to our shame and disgrace. We must reclaim whole areas of our nation and its people for God and this can only happen if we are prepared to stand up and be counted. To contend means to exert oneself in defence or support of anything; to strive to obtain or keep; to compete; to dispute; to maintain by argument; to strive in opposition. The definition neatly sums up the actions that are required. These should be our priorities.

  What Jude next says is instructive: “Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.” (Jude 1:5). Like his readers, we already know the facts behind God’s work of redemption and the consequences for those who reject the Almighty, but we need to be reminded. We need to be reminded about the spiritual significance of these things, about their impact on individual lives and about our need to take action as a result.

  We have to adjust our priorities. It is wholesome and good to reflect upon “the salvation we share” (Jude 1:3), but if this is all we do, we will miss the bigger picture.

  Panorama.

  The wider canvas comprises the spiritual conflict of which our lives form part. It is played out on a personal, national and international level. We cannot and should not be indifferent to its impact:

  • Personal. The ungodly lifestyles that are pursued and promoted in our land and further afield are not simply an issue of personal choice with no wider significance. They lead directly to the degradation and ultimately the damnation of individuals. They involve rebellion against God and are akin to speaking maliciously against what is good, for they discredit and undermine those who stand for righteousness: “In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.” (Jude 1:8).

  • National. The effect of large numbers thinking, choosing and acting in ungodly ways is that their personal degradation is mirrored countrywide. When such people are allowed to set the agenda for the nation and to dominate debate, they project their own misdeeds and misconceptions onto the land as a whole: “these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals – these are the very things that destroy them.” (Jude 1:10). If we do not provide a counterweight through our voices and example, we will leave our nation “like sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:17, I Kings 22:17 and Matthew 9:36).

  • International. Across the globe we see the consequences: “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.” (Jude 1:11). The ills of the world are not random events. They have a cause. They are subject to the same laws of action and reaction as govern the rest of the universe. Where there is selfishness, unrestrained appetite, hatred and murder (the way of Cain), greed and a desire for personal gain (Balaam’s error) or rebellion against rightful leadership and godly laws (Korah’s rebellion), human suffering results.

  If we allow these things to persist without raising our voices against them, we are complicit in what is being said and done. We need a good shaking. When “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion ... [they suffered] the punishment of eternal fire.” (Jude 1:7). These towns were doubtless full of people who abhorred the conduct around them, but did nothing about it. They therefore shared the fate of those who were directly involved in sinful behaviour. In the same way, the decent majority in this land will share in the degradation of a sinful minority unless action is taken.

  Programme.

  Lest we give way to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, we need at this point to remind ourselves of something else. We worship a God “who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25).

  Twice mentioned in these lines is glory: “his glorious presence” (Jude :24) and “to the only God our Saviour be glory” (Jude 1:25). This reminds us that glory when applied to God has two meanings. It describes the superlative honour that should be given to God by everything in the universe and this is the sense in which Jude says, “to the only God our Saviour be glory” (Jude 1:25). However, it also describes one of God’s attributes, something which belongs to him alone and which is an outward expression of his excellence. This glory is the bright light that surrounds God’s presence and his revelation of himself: “You are clothed with honour and majesty, you who cover yourself with light as with a garment” (Psalm 104:1).

  God’s glory is reflected, albeit imperfectly, by the activities of believers in every field of endeavour. Although our good deeds are often tainted by sinful motives, they can nevertheless mirror the excellence of our Creator and thereby bring glory to him. To reflect God’s glory and to bring him glory should be our aims in life. Jude has seven pieces of advice to help us in this. It is a programme which we can readily put into effect in our daily lives:

  • “Build yourselves up in your most holy faith” (Jude 1:20).

  • “Pray in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 1:20).

  • “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” (Jude :21).

  • “Be merciful to those who doubt” (Jude 1:22).

  • “Snatch others from the fire and save them” (Jude 1:23).

  • “To others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 1:23). In other words, to quote St Augustine of Hippo: “hate the sin and love the sinner.”

  We were made by God to reflect his glory. St Paul speaks of our being “changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This should embolden us and give us confidence. In following each of the pieces of advice that Jude gives, we have the security of knowing that the Lord himself will “keep [us] from falling” (Jude 1:24) and that he will “present [us] before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy” (Jude 1:24).

  Conclusion.

  General Douglas Macarthur was Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific during the Second World War. It was he who masterminded the island-hopping campaign that chipped away at Japanese conquests in that theatre and made possible their ultimate defeat. On Japan’s surrender, he became for several years America’s viceroy in its defeated foe, ruling as de facto Emperor. Undoubtedly, it was his masterstroke at Inchon which saved the whole of South Korea from being overrun by the North. Unfortunately, he was a man whose genius was matched only by cantankerous self-regard. In the end this brought him low. He was relieved of command by President Truman in 1951, deemed a danger and a menace in a world where every conflict was liable to draw in opposing power blocs and threaten nuclear war. It was an inglorious end to a glorious career. Macarthur died in 1964, the blot on his record never wholly erased.

  In following his own whims and disregarding the orders of his commander-in-chief, the President of the United States, General Macarthur overstepped the mark. Glory became vainglory, and hence the high renown he had won earlier was tarnished. By contrast (and with the exception of a lucky few), rather than dreams of glory those men of the Gloucester Regiment who fought on the Imjin River faced the ignominy of captivity. As they trudged weary and defeated into long, hard months as prisoners of a ruthless enemy, they were not to know that their conduct had won them lasting honour. They battled on even though victory seemed impossible and surrender might have appeared the sensible option.

  So it is w
ith us. What seems great and glorious to man is not always so. Neither should we take at face value the things that others deem unworthy and despised, for outcomes are often hidden from us. Our aim is the pursuit of true glory: the glory of God and our ultimate presentation “before his glorious presence” (Jude 1:24). The road that leads thither does not lie through an easy country, nor does it wend by way of things that the world esteems. These are fool’s gold, trinkets and trifles that are undeserving of serious consideration or concern. Our path involves “[contending] for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3). There will assuredly be times when victory looks impossible for us, too, when surrender to the enemy seems the advisable course and when our courage fails us. Jude exhorts us then to “remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These are the men who will divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.” (Jude 1:17-19). We must follow a different course and not break rank. Whatever might be happening around us, we should obey our commander-in-chief, “the only God our Saviour” (Jude 1:25).

  We should not let appearances deceive us and neither should we slacken, for ahead lies something glorious.

  57. Crisis

  Malachi 3:6-15.

  Key word: blessing.

  Anthony Eden was Britain’s youngest foreign secretary when he was appointed in 1935, but had to wait twenty years to become Prime Minister. By that time he was 58 years old and youthful promise had been blunted by age and ill health. Scarred by memories of the appeasement of Hitler’s Germany in the nineteen thirties, for him the nationalisation of the Suez Canal by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1956 was the act of another dangerous dictator in the making. In concert with France, Eden therefore secretly encouraged Israel to attack Egypt on the understanding that an Anglo-French force would intervene on the pretext of stopping the fighting. The resulting campaign was a military success but a political disaster. The United States under President Eisenhower made clear its displeasure. Such was Britain’s economic dependence on her wartime ally that she had no option but to withdraw, leaving the Suez Canal blocked by sunken ships, but under Egyptian control. The humiliation was enormous and Eden resigned in 1957.[122]

  With the threadbare nature of British power laid bare, Eden’s successor Harold Macmillan fondly imagined that the country could still play Athens to the United States’ Rome. So, as the nation struggled to come to terms with its diminished status it strove nevertheless to outdo America in art, music and sport. The pale shadow of Americana that resulted only served to emphasise the gulf, for in reality there was no contest: Elvis Presley or Cliff Richard, Marilyn Monroe or Diana Dors, Hollywood or the Rank Charm School, Muhammad Ali or Henry Cooper. In business, the story was the same: the car giants of Detroit or strike-ridden British Leyland, the power and innovation of American finance or the stuffy, clubby Old Boys’ network of the City, the all-conquering greenback or rickety sterling.

  The harsh truth was that the country was in hock to the United States: for war loans, Marshall Aid and defence against the Soviet threat. She seemed in perpetual economic crisis, her industry bedevilled by labour disputes, her confidence dented not just by Suez but by devaluation in 1967, her public finances wrecked by profligate government and the burdens of Empire, her innovation stifled by ruinous taxes. A miners’ strike brought about a three-day week and in due course a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Even then, the madness continued. During the Winter of Discontent from 1978 to 1979 there were heaps of rotting rubbish in the streets and corpses lay unburied. Civil servants talked unashamedly of their job being to “manage decline” whilst Macmillan spoke of the “wind of change” in terms that suggested that the country had no choice but to drift rudderless before it. Within the political classes, there seemed little hope or expectation of anything but a long slide towards being a second- or even a third-rate power.

  Changing and unchangeable.

  Britain had once been ruler of the greatest Empire the world has ever known, encompassing a quarter of the earth’s land mass and a similar proportion of her population. As recently as 1900 her power had seemed unassailable and set only to grow. Yet sixty years later she was bereft, unsure and hesitant. If a nation can be gauged by those it honours, the change in outlook was as dramatic as those in circumstance: musicians and media stars took the place occupied not so long before by engineers, soldiers and statesmen. Well might some have said, “It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.” (Malachi 3:14-15).

  Yet whilst our outward circumstances change, God does not: “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” (Malachi 3:6).[123] This is something that we need to hold on to at times of crisis, both national and personal. The same faithfulness that the Lord displayed to our forefathers is what he continues to show to us, despite all that we have said and done against him. It is for this reason that “we are not destroyed.” (Malachi 3:6). God longs to go beyond merely keeping us from destruction, however. His greatest desire is to bless. It is in his nature to do so, for he “is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abiding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities ... as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:8-10 and 13). The fullness of blessing that once was ours in this land can be ours again if we will only turn back to our heavenly Father in repentance and faith.

  Honouring God, robbing God.

  Seldom, if ever, do we reflect at the deepest level on how and why Britain gained an Empire “acquired in a fit of absence of mind”[124] and then so suddenly lost it. We tend to examine the issue in terms of mechanics, but not in terms of the spiritual. The lack of introspection is not merely curious, but almost negligent. If we are to understand properly the way in which God has worked in the life of this nation, to learn from what we have done right and what we have done wrong, we need to consider the past. We need to ask: for what purpose was such dominion given to a small offshore island, whose resources were not the greatest, whose population was not the largest, whose enemies were frequently confounded as to how she was able to defeat them? For what reason was this same dominion then taken away?

  The answer comes down to this: honouring God and robbing God. Our nation has in years gone by honoured God and thus was used by him. We were elevated to one end: “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:16). This does not mean that we were the brightest or the best, still less that we were in any way superior to other peoples. It means simply this: that the Lord worked through us. As time passed, we forgot this basic truth. We began to imagine that dominion was the result of our own genius and our own innate abilities. We began to see ourselves as above others. One of the most depressing results of Empire is that it persuaded us that we were racially superior. That concept is not just morally repugnant. It is wholly unscriptural.

  By thinking and acting in this way, we robbed God. We robbed him of the glory that belongs to his name and of the credit for what he has done through us. God was justified in telling us: “you rob me” (Malachi 3:8) and “You have said harsh things about me” (Malachi 3:13). The result for us was the same as it was for the Israelites in the days of Malachi: “You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me.” (Malachi 3:9). We are an illustration of the fact that those who neglect or squander what is given them will become doubly impoverished. We are like the servant in the parable told by Jesus, to whom his master said: “to everyone who has, more will be given, but as
for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.” (Luke 19:26). Jesus made the same point elsewhere: “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” (Matthew 13:12).

  We cannot say that we deserved the Empire God gave us, but we certainly deserved to have it taken away. It ceased to be for his glory and became for ours, and in doing so it became worthless in the eyes of the Almighty. The curse that we experienced by robbing God is one under which we still labour today. For all our worldly possessions, great buildings and material comforts we have very little that is of spiritual value, and much of what we have has not been used wisely. We have done the equivalent of digging a hole in the ground and putting our gifts from God in it, instead of using them to do his work. We stand under his judgment and under his curse as a result.

  Returning to God.

  The prescription for lifting the curse is the same as in Malachi’s day: “’Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.” (Malachi 3:7). If we are to return to God, we need to regain a godly perspective. Malachi describes a number of common misconceptions that are prevalent in our day, as of old: