Weep for Britain: she has lost her soul.
If that’s too much, well, sorry! It’s the mother country. As an American, I’ll always feel an attachment to Britain–even if they were the bad guys in 1812.
This year, for the first time ever, the Office for National Statistics reported Christians in the minority in England and Wales–46.2 percent, down 13.1 percent from 2011 (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/29/uk-census-christians-now-minority-england-wales-first-time/). That’s an awful lot of ground to lose, in just ten years between surveys.
Cradle of saints! David, Aaron, Julius, Kentigern, Bede, Augustine of Canterbury–it would take all day to list them all.
Even the massive importation of Muslims can’t fully account for the numbers.
Second on the list, the No. 2 spot, went to “No Religion,” at 37.2 percent. In fact, all “religions” increased their numbers except for Christianity.
There are reasons for this change. There have to be reasons for it. Meanwhile, although they bear the title “Defender of the Faith,” British royals have left us in doubt as to what faith they mean to defend, if any.
It’s an evil age in a fallen world; and we pray, “God defend us!”
Yes, this has been going on for some time, and the main reason is their tolerance of their invaders who clearly state that they intend to take over the world and rule. Guess who they are.
I’m afraid it goes back a lot farther than that.
I think a lot of it has to do with Christians giving up on the culture wars. Not only do few Christians know how to defend their faith, with logic, reason and evidence, we can’t even properly defend it with emotion. We need to reclaim the world of art and culture again.
The churches in England have been emptying out for a long time. The Church of England itself went woke early, before “woke” was even a word. “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound….”
I first spotted this in some “Upstairs, Downstairs” episodes.
I have read the post and the comments. Yes, it is very discouraging, sad, and somewhat disheartening. This is a bit long, nevertheless, please consider what I wrote in my book “Israel, Rapture, Tribulation.”
“If we could go back in time, what was the world like on the day of Pentecost? Before that day there was no Christian Church. That day, when Peter preached, there were no teachers, pastors, missionaries, or ministers of the Gospel. There were no evangelists or even a New Testament to read. The churches, to whom many of the epistles were addressed, had not yet come into existence. The Apostle Paul, who at first persecuted the Christian Church, did not even know what a Christian was. The field was white unto harvest, but had no laborers to bring it in, and no barns to store such bounty.
What lay before those in one accord, when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit? What did the 3,000 who were added to the Church on Pentecost see in their future? As “they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship … And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:42, 47), what did tomorrow hold for them?
For the early Church, the entire world lay barren. It was like a desert—windswept, hot, and dry. No oasis awaited the weary traveler to cool his perspiring brow. The Gospel, however, would make this parched land come alive, as the Church labored with joy and hope…
But is it really worse today than it was for the early Church?35 Today there are millions and millions of believers worldwide. Christians are no longer being thrown to the lions, burned at the stake, or pulled apart on the rack. There are no Jewish mobs stoning Christians or putting them in jail. There are TV ministries and Christian radio programs. You can travel from coast to coast in the USA and hear Christian programming all the way. Churches exist by the thousands around the globe. There are outreach programs, campaigns, and rallies all over the world. The Church is expanding in many countries. It is growing behind the former Iron Curtain in Europe and behind the Bamboo Curtain in China…
Let us return to the Church on the day of Pentecost. Everything—and I mean everything—was standing in the way of the Church. The establishment in Rome was hostile right from the beginning. The world was seemingly being ruled by the devil. Even “God’s people,” the Jews, targeted every Christian and, allied with the power of Rome, stopped at nothing (including murder and deceit) to terminate the small band of believers. The early Christians were indeed “a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant militant paganism.”
With many Christians still besieged today, what an opportunity we have for growth! The whole world lay before the early believers, and they saw this as a great opportunity. So should we. The fields are white unto harvest. Do we share Paul’s philosophy or the pessimistic and hopeless Dispensational outlook of men like Cornelius Vanderwaal, who said, “God’s church has no right to take an optimistic triumphalistic attitude.”36 But I will say, in lockstep with the early Church, we have every right to a triumphant attitude, for all power is given unto us through Christ (Matt. 28:18). “And greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4).”
If they could do it, so can we–by the grace of God.