Many of us have prayed for revival in our nation for many years. Ministries have been founded for this sole purpose, songs have been written crying out for revival, conferences have been held to pray for our nation. Yet we have to face the reality that to date our prayers have borne no fruit from God. Indeed, Britain is in a far worse state before God today than it was even in the heady and hedonistic days of the sixties and the birth of the charismatic renewal.

Now we are in the first years of a new millennium. Are we going to carry on praying, singing and holding conferences in denial of reality, or is it time for a fresh, tougher view of the times we are living in? Are you frustrated and losing heart at God's delay in sending the revival we all long for?

What is the stumbling block? Why is God not answering our prayers? Since God is never a stumbling block, it must be us, the Church. The world is swift to tell us what is wrong in God's church; things we gloss over or read with a self-righteous and proud attitude. We need to face the truth about ourselves as God's people; we disobey and deny the truth of God's Word and Laws; we permit in the very leadership of the Church things that God calls abominations; we are weak in declaring Truth to a world where all truth is relative; we have held for centuries to teachings that simply do not bear up under close scrutiny in the Bible. Held up to the pure light of Scripture, We are in danger of becoming an apostate Church.

In Ezekiel 13, God addresses those in the nation of Israel, whom He held responsible for speaking His truth to His people. His warnings and judgements should cause us to be in a state of alarm, for the Church in Britain is guilty of the same sins of complacency and self-righteousness as the Israel being addressed by Ezekiel.

The loving discipline of God when we are going astray comes in three stages. The first is warnings and rebukes to turn us back to the truth. If the warnings fall on deaf ears, then that same loving discipline of God moves into acts of judgement. We can see all of this in the history of Israel in the Old Testament (for example, Ezekiel 22:31). If the warnings and the judgements are rejected, then God lifts His hand of protection and leaves us to reap the evil results of our own foolishness. (As an example, let us consider that within a year from the date of this publication we will largely have lost our national sovereignty unless God intervenes).

During the last half century, we have seen the catastrophic decline of both church and nation. As a nation, we have been stripped of our empire; all biblical standards of morality have been cast aside, while the church has accepted without protest or even applauded standards the world has set. In the light of scripture it is no coincidence that our national decline has run a parallel course to our unfavourable attitude to the nation of Israel. That is not to say that the political state of Israel is perfect, but that we have ignored the revelation in Scripture of the heart of God concerning Israel as His representative people on earth (Amos 3:2 "…you only have I chosen among all the families of the earth,").

The prophetic writings of the Bible speak consistently of a period of time known as "The Day of the Lord", the central feature of which is the second coming of Jesus. This period commences with the events which He Himself described as "birth-pangs"; a time of increasing upheaval and tribulation among the nations of the earth, which culminates in His bodily return and the establishment of His millennial Kingdom on the earth. Central to these events are God's dealings with the nation of Israel. The testimony of scripture is that the return of Jesus is specifically linked to an attack by the nations of the world on the Land of Israel. This culminates in a disastrous siege of the city of Jerusalem, from which a remnant of the nation will be rescued by the return of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah (Zechariah 14:1-15). Immediately after that return, He will judge all nations in the light of their treatment of the Jewish people and the sin of having divided up the Land of Israel (Joel 3:1,2).

What is the significance of this for us as believers living in Britain today?

In Genesis 12:3, God tells Abraham that those who bless his descendants will be blessed and those who curse them will themselves be cursed. In the context of the "Day of The Lord", God is much stronger in Isaiah 60:12, where He says unequivocally, "For the nation and kingdom which shall not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined."

This verse should fill once again with considerable concern, all who believe the Word of God and take it seriously. In this statement, God confronts all nations with a stark choice; those who show favour to the nation of Israel will receive His favour and blessing, but those that will not will come to utter ruin and will perish. According to the clear word of Scripture, therefore, any nation, including Britain, who will not serve Israel and treat her with favour will perish.

In the days in which we are now living, we are perpetuating our sin by our continuing attitudes, which deny the Word of God. Far from favouring the Hebrew nation in the land of Israel, we have been active participants in present day attempts to impose solutions such as Oslo and the Road Map Peace Plan, which involve further dividing the Land of Israel. The world has effectively renamed anti-Semitism as "anti-Zionism"; but despite the altered terminology, it is exactly the same evil which is being perpetuated.

According to the Word of God, unless we in Britain repent, the nation stands in great danger of falling under His judgment, even to the extent of coming to total ruin according to Is. 60:12. The responsibility of the Church is to declare to the world the truth of the Word of God; but in Britain much of the Church denies that truth by embracing the teaching known as Replacement Theology, which declares that God's purposes for the nation of Israel have been superseded and cast aside, and that the Church has now taken the place of the Hebrew nation in God's purposes.

The responsibility of the Church is to sound a trumpet of warning to the nation in Britain, that if we do not have a change of heart and show favour and support to Israel in accordance with the Word of God we shall inevitably fall under the judgment of God. In very few places, however, is the Church saying anything of the sort. Rather, we are corporately guilty of continuing the evil of anti-Semitism in our teaching, and consequently denying to the Hebrew nation the favour which God intends for her.

"For the nation and kingdom which shall not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined". The choice in Britain for both Church and Nation is squarely before us in these words of Scripture, and the issue is stark and clear-cut. Will we repent and receive God's blessing and favour; or will we continue in both teaching and actions which deny the truth of the Word of God and fall under His curse? The time for decision is now and if we do not soon repent, the die will be cast and it will be too late. If we care about the nation of Britain, then we will show concern and favour for the nation of Israel, because it is what the Word of God requires of us.