“I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Luke 11:9
Wherever there is true prayer, there is importunity. Wherever the Lord brings trials upon the soul, he pours out upon it the spirit of grace and supplications. He thus encourages and enables the soul to be importunate with him. The blessings and benefits of perseverance and importunity in prayer the Lord has brought prominently before us in two parables—one, of the man in bed with his children, who would not get up and relieve his friend, but yet was overcome by his importunity; and the other, of the woman, who had a cause at issue, and went before the judge, who feared not God, neither regarded man; yet by her continual going to him, overcame him at last by her importunity (Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-7).
Thus importunity and perseverance form the very feature of true prayer. If the child of God has a burden—if he is labouring under a strong temptation—if his soul is passing through some pressing trial—he is not satisfied with merely going to a throne of grace and coming away. There is at such times and seasons, as the Lord enables, real importunity; there is a holy wrestling; there are fervent desires; there are unceasing groans; there is a labouring to enter into rest; there is a struggling after deliverance; there is a crying unto the Lord, until he appears and manifests himself in the soul.
The CRE (Christian Resources Exhibition) was held this year on 9th and 10th October at Milton Keynes – the first time the CRE has visited this area. Over 160 stalls were in evidence, promoting a range of products from holy socks, curious berries and Christian puppetry to church insurance, church furniture and church amplification, together with a wide-ranging variety of missionary organisations.
The backdrop to our stall comprised of full length portraits of Jon Huss, William Tyndale, Hugh Latimer and Martin Luther, which created considerable interest and comment, together with TBS (Trinitarian Bible Society) text posters which were much in evidence.
Vast supplies of free literature were handed out in specially prepared bags displaying Bible texts, including calendars (with Gospel texts), Gospel tracts, Christian Watch Newsletters, ‘Perilous Times’ books and various sundry booklets and leaflets – on abortion, LGBT, Conversion Therapy, the Authorised Version and National Borders.
Although the CRE is a Christian exhibition, it is sadly abundantly clear that many ‘professing Christians’ who spoke with us knew little or nothing of the Scriptures.
However, it was good to meet with several Christian Watch members who visited the stall – and we give God all the praise for His provision for us throughout the two days.
Next year – for its 40th anniversary – the CRE is returning to Sandown in Esher, Surrey and, if the Lord wills, Christian Watch will again be present to distribute God’s Word, together with good Christian literature, to all who pass by.
REMEMBRANCE Sunday is a solemn reminder of our distinctive identity and culture as one of the most important occasions in Britain’s national life. Its ceremonies are carried out in the context of a national and constitutional alignment with the historic Christian faith according to the Scriptures.
The contemporary liberal establishment, the elite class which now dominates all aspects of our national life, has, tragically, no comprehension either of this meaning or of the enormous benefits the Christian faith has brought to Britain, not least in the development of our parliamentary democracy.
Biblical Christianity, when keenly embraced by even just some of a nation’s citizens, carries with it an immense purifying influence on the greater whole – it is a source of salt and light, to use the Biblical metaphors. It makes society gentler and more wholesome. It makes the country a good place to live in. As King Solomon, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells us, ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation’ (Proverbs 14:34). To cite a single example, it was not globalist secularists who initiated all the great social reforms of the 19th century, it was Bible-believing Christians.
The Bible has much to say about individual countries with distinctive borders; and it is abundantly clear that God deals with nations as nations. For example, in Isaiah 13-23 we have separate prophetic announcements concerning the God-ordained futures of ten different countries. So God judges individual nations in different ways according to whether or not they honour Him. Therefore, it is not remotely ‘unChristian’ for those belonging to a specific nation to have a distinctly national perspective. Furthermore, it needs to be emphasised that the very concept of nationhood ceases to have meaning if national borders are not controlled rigorously.
What was it that the honourable fallen whom we especially remember today actually died for if it was not the defence of their country’s borders and their unique cultural identity and way of life?
Another benefit they fought for and was worth fighting for was the personal freedom to hold views other than those the state tries to impose; something that was a major factor in being British. We now, however, live in a society where to maintain national identity is not valued at all, and where personal freedom of conscience is seriously under threat where, for example, Christians are losing their jobs for not accepting the dictates of LGBT activism. A society which bans silent prayer in public spaces.
There is enormous ignorance in modern Britain concerning the doctrine of God’s providence in respect of the destiny of nations. Many today might laugh in disbelief at the highly significant role which prayer played in getting through of some of the most challenging and testing times during World War Two. There were no fewer than 12 national days of prayer during the war, which were widely supported, as shown by packed churches up and down the land. People were humbled by the Nazi threat and the horrors of another war so relatively soon after the Great War. They realised that the ultimate solution lay not just in strong political leadership and military might, but in belief: that the hand of the sovereign God was also at work, and that His aid had to be sought.
Those days of prayer speak to us of a distinctive and unifying national identity linked unashamedly to the Christian faith. The modern idols of diversity and multiculturalism, along with rampant secularism and the abandonment of the Bible by compromised churches have, together, destroyed this Christian identity. Today such exclusively Christian national days of prayer would, perversely, be deemed harmful to social cohesion, or even unfair, because people of other faiths or no faith reside in the land.
In fact many in government as well as opposition circles deeply regret Britain’s departure from the European Union and would seek to draw us back into the EU fold and its globalist approach to political action. How many of the political leaders publicly paying their respects today as they should do, to the fallen, believe any longer in national self-determination as a fundamental and inalienable principle? How many understand that God Himself ordained nationhood from the earliest times in the world’s history, as is clearly demonstrated in Genesis 9-11?
Globalism, not nationalism, is the order of the day. The contemporary ‘progressive’ preference with politicians is for defining and tackling problems through global organisations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), rather than through the national parliament of a United Kingdom at Westminster.
This desire to dilute and emasculate British identity is also seen at the other end of the spectrum, in the agenda for further devolution and regionalisation of the UK, from citizens assemblies to a Council of the Nations and Regions as opposed to the single national gathering of parliament.
The contemporary Indian philosopher and author Vishal Mangalwadi sharing his insights into the influence of the Bible upon western society in The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization, points out that from the 16th century onward in Europe the translation of the Scriptures into national languages had a critical and beneficial effect upon the development of the national identities of Germany, the Netherlands and Britain. It was as people read God’s word in their own tongues that they became more aware of their identity as a distinct grouping in the sight of God.
In the 19th century, Mangalwadi also explains, it was Christian missionaries who worked on bringing system, form and structure to various Indian dialects, so as to translate the Bible into those tongues. This became, he says, a major factor in the development of what are today the national languages of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In other words, Christianity is quite simply good for nationhood, because nationhood is the Lord’s own institution.
Thankfully, some in the West are finally waking up to the significance of nationhood and national identity. The outcome of the US election this last week can certainly be seen as a positive step in this direction. Belief in nationhood is not, however, enough on its own. The ultimate solution to all our national woes is not merely to rely on a certain political philosophy, but rather to engage in a national turning, in repentance and faith, to our precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Peter Simpson
Pastor Peter Simpson has been Minister of Penn Free Methodist Church in Buckinghamshire since 1990, and is a keen open air preacher. He is the author of a book on World War II entitled ‘When a Nation Prays’, which is currently available on Amazon.
Christian Watch committee member, Pastor Peter Simpson, was involved in preaching the gospel at the Manchester Pride parade in the centre of the city on August 24th. He was alongside Pastors John Sherwood (Finchley, N. London), Pastor David Carson (Chester) and Mr Christopher Wild (also from Chester). They were helped by a small and valiant number of others in support. Various relevant portions of Scripture were on display, which the many thousands of people attending the parade could not help but reading.
The Manchester parade is big, taking some 3 hours to pass through the streets. The band of those witnessing was located on a major thoroughfare of the city on the parade route. What was especially distressing was seeing parents bringing their young children to watch the proceedings, and their encouraging them to wave LGBT flags in an act of celebration. Children were even on some of the floats in the parade. What appalling harm is being done to impressionable young minds by the public display of drag queens and others who were cross-dressing. This event was nothing less than a public trashing of God’s commandments. It was a specifically anti-Christian event in that it involved the public rejection and mockery of the Bible, which is the very word of God.
Parade supporters frequently tried to drown out the preachers by blowing trumpets, and cover up God’s word by waving rainbow flags in front of those witnessing. Drivers of parade-float lorries made a point of incessantly blowing their horns when in the front of the preachers, making it much more difficult for the amplified preaching to be heard. We are reminded of Zechariah 7:10 : “They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear”.
Many of those walking by the witnessing Christians uncannily adopted the same practice of shaking their heads and laughing, as if to say, How can anyone in this day and age hold such primitive and unenlightened opinions? However, one wonders if the laughter was in fact no more than a feeble device to try and shake off being suddenly confronted with the harsh reality and fearful consequences of ignoring Almighty God’s holy commandments.
At one point a large number of opponents stood in front of the preachers and their helpers repeatedly chanting : ‘God loves gays’. By this of course they meant that God finds their lifestyle acceptable, and condones their sin, not that He reaches out to
sinners in mercy, if only they will repent. This chant was actually bordering on the blasphemous, implying that the holy God happily embraces flagrant moral wickedness. This action was in effect no different to chanting, say, ‘God loves adultery’, which is listed alongside homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 as keeping men outside of the kingdom of God.
The fashion-following parade supporters, hopelessly captive to the spirit of the age, were obviously oblivious of Bible texts such as Luke 13:3, where the Lord Jesus declares, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”. To publicly lie and deceive many others about God’s righteous laws, and about His anger at the sins of men, is no minor aberration, but an arrogant shaking of the fist at Almighty God in an act of foolish and reckless rebellion. Furthermore, what a terrible guilt lies upon the false, Bible-denying churches which promote such lies and deception.
Out of love for their unbelieving neighbours the preachers did not shrink from speaking of the reality of the wrath of God and of the place of eternal condemnation for all the unrepentant, namely hell. At one point Pastor Simpson told the parade participants and supporters that they were merely conformists, the establishment, the mainstream, those who were meekly following the crowd. It really is about time that the homosexual activists ceased claiming that they are an oppressed minority. They have the complete upper hand, having won over the education system, big business and our major national institutions. This is demonstrated by the following list of some of the bodies involved in the parade :
The National Trust, Aldi, the Civil Service, the NHS, Cadent Gas, the Quakers, Cheshire Fire Service, Greater Manchester Fire Service, Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s, AstraZeneca, The Science and Industry Museum, Wickes, Argos, the National Education Union, United Utilities (water company) and even the Royal British Legion.
One Roman Catholic young woman tried to justify her support of all that was taking place by saying that she went to church every Sunday. It was pointed out to her that church-going never saved a single soul, and the witnessing brother questioned what her church must be teaching her. Attending a place of worship is very important, but the message of the Christian gospel is all about inward transformation by means of repentance and faith. It focuses on the reality that “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). All need a complete radical inward change, because “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
A parade supporter asked one of those witnessing, “Why do you care so much about what we are doing?” She was told that it is because all have immortal spirits, and as
Christians we care for our neighbours, and do not want to see them end up in hell. We want them to experience true “joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13), not the shallow and fleeting exuberance of fleshly indulgence, worked up as it is by music with a heavy beat and by the euphoria of belonging to a crowd.
Towards the end of the parade there were some meaningful conversations with some pro-LGBT young people, and at least two of them seemed to be genuinely moved by the Biblical arguments put forward to them, and were beginning to rethink their attitude. May the Lord work powerfully on their hearts and lead them into all truth, as indeed is now being prayed for the thousands who heard and saw the word of God being set forth in the midst of all the gross spiritual darkness which characterised this day.
THE London Pride parade held last Saturday in the centre of the capital is as good a barometer as any for illustrating the spiritual and moral condition of contemporary Britain. I and a small group of preachers and other Christians in support from all around the UK endeavoured to make a stand for Biblical truth and preach the gospel, as the centre of our capital was given over to a celebration of the trashing of God’s eternal moral law. The 32,000 people in the parade, and the many more thousands of members of the public cheering it on, were in reality engaged in a blatant anti-Christian and anti-God demonstration.
One would have thought that by now, having achieved all their objectives, the LGBT activists would be content with their victories of having won over society to their cause and of having redefined marriage in British law. Nevertheless, they still seem to have to take on the role of victim and campaigners against alleged inequality, despite having the fulsome praise of the establishment heaped upon them.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, led the parade. He stated: ‘This incredible event is a shining light for LGBTQI+ rights and shows why our city is a beacon for openness and inclusion – a place where you are embraced and celebrated for who you are.’ One wonders then if Bible-believing Christians who consider homosexuality to be sinful are also embraced and celebrated for who they are. From the behaviour towards them at the parade one could only conclude, Most definitely not!
Illustrating just how mainstream and establishment this event is, a random list of some of the parade participants: Hewlett Packard, Heathrow Express, the London Fire Brigade, Siemens, Tesco, the Institute of Biomedical Science, Cambridge University, London University, Coca-Cola, Transport for London, Historic Royal Palaces, the Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, the Scouts, the National Grid, the Bank of England, the Financial Ombudsman Service and M&S.
As the witnessing Christians held up relevant Bible verses, so many younger people walked by contemptuously laughing, leading me each time to ask them, ‘Why are you laughing at the Bible?; why are you mocking the word of God?; are you wiser than the God who gives you your daily breath?’ One wonders if they would be willing publicly to mock the Qur’an?
If there was one particular phenomenon which this event demonstrated, it was the complete failure of the mainstream churches in the last 50 or 60 years to proclaim what the Bible actually teaches. It exposes the churches’ utter unwillingness to confront head-on the fashionable trends in society for fear of not being seen to move with the times. It is as if the Biblical injunction, ’Be not conformed to this world’ (Romans 12:2) had never been written.
Repeatedly the witnessing Christians were told, ‘Jesus never judges anyone’. Vast numbers of young people evidently believe that the Christian faith is nothing more than a replication of 1960s hippie culture and of the Beatles’ creed of ‘all you need is love’. Have they never read, for example, the Lord’s words in Luke 13:3, ’Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish’?
Many parade supporters also shouted out, ‘Jesus loves everyone’, and so they were asked in response, Does that mean that everyone without exception ends up in heaven, no matter what they have done in their lives? Are you really arguing that the Son of God, to whom the Father has assigned the role of Judge (John 5:22), never actually will judge, and will always overlook and condone all sin? Must we now abandon the Apostles’ Creed which says of the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He will come to judge the living and the dead’.
As the day progressed, it became increasingly apparent how the word ‘love’ is one of the most abused words in the English language. The mantra of ‘love is love’ was frequently chanted, but what does this expression actually mean? Does it mean that all types of love must be valid, such as, for example, adulterous love or fornication outside of marriage? What this parade made blindingly obvious was the complete absence of love, indeed the outright hostility and contempt, within the LGBT movement towards those who dare to challenge on Biblical grounds their worldview.
For those who would argue that the presence at the parade of Christians preaching about repentance also demonstrated an absence of love towards homosexual and trans people, our response is this: it is an aspect of profound love to one’s neighbour, if one sees him in danger, to warn him and to show him the means of escaping the danger, and to point him also to the means of receiving abundant blessing.
This parade was such a depressing snapshot of a collapsing civilisation. Sexual acts between men were simulated in front of the Christians as a means of expressing contempt for their presence. Young children were amongst the crowds watching this enormous event as men in scanty underwear, dressed in skirts, or in leather and as dogs, paraded through the streets. How tragic it was to see so many young people seemingly incapable of any valid response to a declaration of Biblical morality other than to make vulgar hand gestures, swear at and insult those whom they disagreed. Every time that they did this, this writer told them that he had just won the argument, because of the ad hominem nature of their response, devoid of actual substance.
The preachers endeavoured to explain to the many thousands of parade supporters that their conduct was exposing an utter susceptibility to the dictates of majority thinking. They were revealing their captivity to the spirit of the age. They are the conformists, the establishment, the mainstream, whereas to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is to come apart and be separate from the ways of this world. May the God of grace and mercy, who is also a terrifying Judge if there is no repentance, speak powerfully to their hearts.
