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. This includes its critical role 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, rendering 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, making it 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.
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 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 live in a society where maintaining national identity is not valued at all, and personal freedom of conscience is seriously under threat.
For example, Christians are losing their jobs for not accepting the dictates of LGBT activism, and society now 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 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. They recognized that the hand of the sovereign God was 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 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 seek to draw us back into the EU fold and its globalist approach. How many political leaders publicly paying their respects to the fallen believe any longer in national self-determination as an 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. This ranges 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 shares 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. He 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 national identities in 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 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.