There seems to be a view within Christian circles that we in Western society don’t suffer from persecution. And it is true that the physical and emotional violence experienced by our Christian brothers and sisters in many parts of the world are not present in our society. But nevertheless Western Christians are also under attack, with a persecution of a more subtle kind. In the UK, our governments are increasingly passing laws and regulations that are at variance with Scripture. It has been said that the Scottish government is the Western leader in the race to try and convert society into a non-religious, amorphous mass where the moral foundations of previous generations count for nothing. Yes, we still have the freedom to meet in our churches and places of worship, but even there it is becoming increasingly clear that the words from the pulpit have to be carefully weighed in the light of certain types of legislation. Our schools and universities promote the strident calls from minority groups in a frenzy of liberalism, implementing “no-platforming” policies to silence those who dare to stand up and call out such policies. The nation’s children are being indoctrinated into such nonsense as the fluidity of gender, and “educated” with so-called morals that can never be reconciled with God’s laws. Even the BBC, the bastion of previous generations, is now riddled with a liberalistic “wokeness”, largely at variance with their audience around the country. Social media erupts in a cacophony of abuse should a Christian post dare to contradict the minority views of certain groups. Franklin Graham’s attempts to reach the nation for Jesus have come under attack from local councils because he dares to stand for the sanctity of God’s Word, with previously-booked venues being closed to him. And sadly, there are many in the traditional church who are now embracing liberalistic theology that denies the very Biblical precepts that God has been teaching through His servants for millennia.
So what should Bible-believing Christians in this country do? First and foremost we must pray for those people in authority in the UK (1 Timothy 2:1-4). There is a very active group of Christian parliamentarians at Westminster who need our prayers. I haven’t, sadly, found any such group in Holyrood but there is one SNP, recently elected, Christian politician who needs our prayers – Kate Forbes (new Scottish Government Finance Minister). And we should pray for organisations such as the Christian Institute, CARE and Christian Voice, as they courageously uphold Godly principles in our society. Secondly, we should be discerning of the times and take every opportunity to lovingly correct our friends and families if they start to embrace sinful or worldly philosophies. Thirdly, we should develop our “stories” so that we are certain of what we believe and why we believe it, readying ourselves to share at appropriate times with those in our communities. Fourthly, pray for a Holy Spirit revival to erupt in our nation, our communities, our families, bringing an outpouring of God’s grace like we have never seen before.
The encouraging thing in all of this is that God is still on His throne. He never slumbers or sleeps. He is watching what is going on. And He always answers our prayers with perfect timing.
Being a Pilgrim 
Hi Adrian, God is fully aware of the worlds’ decline into ungodliness and immorality. He even prophesied this through John in his book of Revelation.
But as Christians, we might ask ourselves how this could possibly have happened. The answer could well be as simple as our fundamental , pre-salvation thinking that drives us to be self sufficient in all that we do. We often consider those who seek assistance from others as being weak. We have applied this old attitudes to Christian living, subconsciously saying to God “show us what to do, and we can take from there. ” We have not grasped the vicious cunning of our enemy who seeks only to destroy us. Neither have we grasped the importance of continually calibrating our moral compasses. We do not understand that when we do not seek God on a daily, hourly, or even continual basis, our sound judgments will drift, and all we hold as absolutes are slowly undermined.
God loves so much that he respects our decisions. Unlike the Devil, he does not appeal to our sinful nature to entice us back with pleasures. People complain they never hear from God. To this I would say not true. God’s voice is a soft voice, and we have to actively filter out the noise in our head, hearts and soles, to hear it. This is not just a weak pathetic submitting to an oppressive force. As individuals, we have the choice to choose to seek God voice, and then to decide in our hearts to trust and follow his holy guidance. We will find that God’s voice will ask us to do things that we couldnt sustain by ourselves, but through trusting and following his lead, we will see incredible things happen around us and at our fingertips. This does not sit well with out desire to be self reliant, so not only do we often reject Gods lead, we dont even try to hear his voice. We settle for a form of God’s holiness, but deny his power. We listen to other wisdom that we think puts us in control of our destiny. We never stop to think where this other wisdom is coming from. Because it seems good for our self worth, our egos, we never consider it is leading us further into a life of sin, further from the God we claim to follow, and closer to our ultimate eternal destruction.
Christians of today, if you are reading this , I would challenge you to switch of your TVs and you social media. Pick up your bibles again, seek God with all your heart and invite him in to guide your life. Let his love live in your sole, and be amazed at the transformations you will see around you and through you. Continually give him the praise and the glory, and avoid being drawn away again by pride.
If we truly want to see Gods love and justice reign in our world, then we should be doing as his bibles has been telling us for 2000 years. There will be costs our lives as a consequence, but as we come to see and know God better, our values will also change, and what we once held dear, will pale in significance in the light of knowing Him.
We should be looking to the eternal things of God that will last, instead of trying cling on to the superficial things of the day, that will soon pass and be replaced by something else that will just as temporary.
We should not worry so about Brexit or the Coronavirus, but love those around us so they can be brought into God beautiful and everlasting Kingdom.
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That’s a lovely piece David. So true and thoughtful. Thanks for sharing it.
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