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understanding and teaching the truth. In their
ignorance, compounded with complacency and a
spirit of compromise, they have fallen into the
condition that Jesus anticipated in Mark 7:6-7.
" 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their
heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'"
(Revised Authorized Version).
l s God Concerned for Brltaln?
But has God Iost interest
in Britain as the island's
inhab itants are losing
interest in him? The
answer to this question
shou ld astonish our
British readers. This
battered but still pr0ud
nation
is
sti ll a very
special
concern to
Almighty God. He
r emembers someth ing
about the British that
they eitber don't know, or
if they do know it, tend to
dismiss as ridiculous.
God has not forgotten
who they real/y are.
Above the heads of the
congregation in that
ra tber inconsequential
service in York Cathedral
was a magnificent stained
glass window, one of the
largest in the world. lts
many panels portrayed
scenes from the Hebrew
Bible.
even though these nations have lost the knowledge of
their origins. God has blessed the United States and
the Bri tisb nations more than any other nations have
ever been blessed.
But with those blessings carne a responsibility.
Modero Ephraim and Manasseh should have been
God's model nations, setting the world an example
of a right way of life. This they have failed to do.
And so, also as he promised, God has begun to strip
his blessings away. Britain is already deep in decline,
its former greatness a
memory, its industry
limping, its people
becoming ever more
frustrated and
disillusioned.
Greatness to Be Restored
Toward the end of the
service that moroing in
York Minster the
clergyman read a prayer
with a plea to "restore
the triumphs of Jacob."
1 wonder how many
realize the significance
of that?
One of the panels
pictured the patriarch
J acob blessing his 12
sons. The morning sun
streamed through that
beautiful window, filling
Firemen struggle to control lightning-caused blaze in tbe
catbedral's south transept- opposite page. Tbe morning
after-above.
It is exactly what
God is intending to do.
He will eventually
restore the preeminent
position of the
descendants of J acob.
But not before they
have suffered the worst
national catastrophe that
has befallen any nation
anywhere. That was
essentially the good
news-bad news message
of the prophets that
God once sent to the
people of ancient Israel.
That message was
also
the Lady Cbapel with light. Light perhaps, but not
understanding.
In the biblical account of this event, Jacob, who
had been renamed Israel, passed on the promises
that he had inherited from his forefathers Abraham
and Isaac (Gen. 49). He had already bequeathed his
name " Israel" on Ephraim and Manasseh, the
children of bis favorite son Joseph (Gen. 48:16).
Ephraim was to become a multitude of nations and
Manasseh a single great nation (verses 17-20). T his
promise of national greatness was unconditional- a
promise from God that would be fulfilled come what
may.
Now believe it or not (and 1 realize not all readers
do) , the descendants of these two grandsons of J acob
have become the dominant people making up the
modero nations of the British Commonwealtb and
the United States of America. God kept bis promise
January
1985
intended for thei r 20th century descendants. So
why doesn't the established church of the nation
teach it?
It is time the British people were told the real
reason for their decline-from the greatest empire
the world has ever seen to a down-at-heel,
second-rate power struggling to make ends meet.
Jt
isn't
just bad luck or the ebb and ftow of history.
The same God who blessed the British is stripping
them of their greatness because of their national sins.
He must deal witb them just as he dealt with their
forefathers in ancient Israel. Then and only then can he
"restore the triumphs of J acob."
That has been the consistent message of this
magazine for more tban 50 years.
That- not
a bolt of lightning on a cathedral
roof- is God's message for Britain
today.- John
Halford
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