No doubt many of you have, like me, watched with horror, dismay and a growing sense of distaste the recent reports in the British media of the introduction of legalised "Civil Partnerships"  for homosexuals. We have seen the relish with which the British press and media has reported this "momentous"  event in our history. We have seen the open and shameless displays of homosexual partners celebrating their new found legal standing. We now have the spectacle freely displayed on our television screens of men kissing each other in public - make no mistake about it, the floodgates have only just begun to open!

It is equally revealing just what the British media has left out, namely the protests and arguments against this new act in the degradation of British society. The event is reported either as if there are no objectors or as if the (supposedly) "few"  objectors represent an extreme, dangerous and out of date Christian fundamentalism. We should not be surprised at this, the British media is more and more controlled by homosexuals, and their (numerical) influence both in the entertainment and managerial sides of the media makes for a very real repression of opposing views, and in particular, Biblically based views. The same is true when it comes to religion, very rarely is space given to an evangelical, Biblical and theologically sound representation of Christianity. The face of Christianity the British media foisters on its public is the Roman Catholic face; the (pagan) Archbishop's face; the liberal female vicar's face; the battling for acceptance homosexual priest's face, etc. etc. This is the face of compromise, these people who supposedly represent Christian values and beliefs are in fact those who have fallen so far short of Biblical truth and are so compromised with the values of the world that we must seriously object to their use of the name "Christian." 

Another area where British society is falling down is in its justice system, only today (20th Dec. 05) a review of the murder laws was announced. Apparently research into this issue has looked at examples in 3 continents. There was a time when British justice was the envy of the world, then it was the Bible which was held in high esteem and provided the pattern and example for our judicial system. Today an innocent victim of crime takes a big risk in going to our courts for justice, the judgment often going in favour of the transgressor with the innocent having to foot the bill. Psalm 82 casts the following pronouncement on a nation whose judges judge unjustly and fail to protect the innocent, the weak and the vulnerable:

"They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable." Ps. 82:5

I think many of us can see the truth of those words being worked out in Britain today. Yes, many are in spiritual darkness, devoid of understanding. And yes the foundations of our present society are unstable, built on human reasoning with no recourse to the counsels of God and His word. Such a society can only go one way - down into total moral and ethical collapse.

Recently I was at a meeting where the speaker claimed that Britain was no longer a nation under judgment. He claimed that judgment had already fallen and now God was in the process of restoration. He took Jer. 31:28 as his text: "As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant says the LORD,"  and claimed that his ministry was that of doing the building and planting. I felt very uncomfortable with this message, and found no witness to it in my heart. The recent events in our land tell me that we are still waiting to see the judgment of God fall upon our nation, in fact with this new law making homosexual relationships a "normalised"  part of our lives, we must surely wonder how God's judgment can but fail to fall on our nation.

Romans 1:24-32 tells us only too clearly of the sure and rapid slide of a society into decadence once it has turned from worship of the Creator. Homosexual practices play a large role in this decline, and where they are accepted and prevalent it is a sure sign that God has given the people over to a debased mind. From there the slide is alarming; beginning with unrighteousness and sexual immorality (v.29) the list goes down until people become "unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful"  (v.31). This is surely the state that Britain is falling into today.

How can we prevent the judgment of God falling on this nation with great disaster and horror? Is there a word for us in this present situation? I believe there is - in the book of Jonah. Nineveh was a wicked city, yet they responded to the warning of judgment preached by Jonah (3:4), and from the king down there was national repentance and a turning from wickedness; as a result God "relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them"  (Jonah 3:10). Where are the Jonah's in our land, those who will cry out against the wickedness of this present evil age and declare that God's judgment will fall? Only when we have done this and when we have seen a great repentance through every strata of our society do we dare to say that we are no longer a land facing the judgment of God. The Lord may well be asking, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?"  Who is ready, willing and bold enough to say, "Here am I. Send me"?

"For they have healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, 'Peace, peace!' when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; In the time of their punishment they shall be cast down, says the LORD." Jer. 8:11,12.

Rev. Paul Sherbird
http://www.spreadthetruth.co.uk