"And still they did not repent..."
How long will we keep pointing the finger at everyone else?
There’s a verse in the Bible which I find deeply chilling and troubling. It’s not because I disagree with the message, but because it highlights a profound truth about human nature. The verse in question is Revelation 9:20.
Many people fear the book of Revelation because it has a reputation of being obscure and difficult to understand. Not to mention the fact that many people seem to disagree over arcane understandings of something called the ‘millenium’ and so on - many people just don’t bother to read and study it. This is a shame, because Revelation is one of the most important books in the Bible. It describes the battle we face until the return of Christ, and then - at that point - the ultimate destruction of all that is evil.
If you’re looking for some help getting started with Revelation, I did a whole video series on Revelation which is still available on YouTube.
The verse I am talking about occurs in chapter nine, which describes the judgements that God is bringing upon the people of the earth as a result of their sins. After a section talking about plagues and death and injury, there comes the verse in question:
The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 9:20-21
Think about this: as a result of their sins, God brought upon the people terrible consequences - death and destruction, chaos, social breakdown, all of these things. And yet, it says, they “still did not repent of the work of their hands.” They were too wedded to their idols and immorality to repent and turn to God.
I find this passage deeply disturbing, because it means that things can get almost impossibly bad before people will repent and turn back to God. In fact, many people will flat-out refuse to repent no matter what - come hell or high water, so to speak.
I want to explore this verse in the context of what’s happening in our country. In particular, I want to challenge those of a more ‘Christian’ or conservative disposition - we can’t simply point the finger at others and ask them to repent while doing nothing ourselves. More on that in a moment.
We are under God’s judgement
The first thing to say is, it seems abundantly clear to me that we are under God’s judgement as a country. Some people doubt the fact that God might punish a nation for its sins, but I say - just look at the Old Testament! God punished Israel for her sins all the time. But it’s not just Israel: in the prophets, God made it clear that he held every nation accountable for the way that they acted. For example, much of Isaiah is about God’s judgement on other nations, e.g. Isaiah 19 prophecies against Egypt; Isaiah 21 is against Babylon, Edom, Arabia, and so on.
However, God always held Israel to a higher standard, because Israel had uniquely been “entrusted with the very words of God” (Romans 3:2). God judges us according to the measure that we have been given: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48).
I think something similar could be said for us in the Western world. The Western world has received much from its Christian history (I know I keep mentioning Tom Holland’s book Dominion here, but - seriously - if you doubt what I’m saying, read the book). But we have squandered our inheritance, we have turned away from God, we have rejected his ways. The light that burned here has now virtually been extinguished. As a country we have utterly given in to secularism and materialism.
I believe what we are seeing is not simply a result of us turning away from God, in the way that jail is the natural consequence of committing a serious crime. I think God is actually angry with us, in the way that a friend is angry with someone who has betrayed them.
Can there be any doubt that God is angry with us when you compare what Revelation said in those verses I quoted above with what we are seeing in our country:
Worshipping demons - it’s true that people don’t say, “we’re worshipping demons” - but Satanism is becoming a bigger thing than it used to be, and aspects of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony looked very ‘demonic’. It is clear that our elites no longer worship God, but in many cases think they are gods - as Yuval Harari said, “Scientists today can do much better than the Old Testament God.”
Idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood. People seem to put more stock in material goods now than they ever did. Do you not think that we seem to be addicted to stuff? Life now seems to be about the accumulation of more and more stuff - a nicer house, a better car, a new phone, a new TV… I always remember the moment a few years back at a marriage preparation course where one of the bridegrooms-to-be talked about getting a new 4K TV even though they had only recently bought a great big HD TV. People just want more money, more possessions, more stuff. We’re addicted to it.
Murders. If you think about it, this one is pretty obvious: our culture is not a culture of life but of death. We abort over 200,000 babies every year - a statistic which never fails to sicken me. (In 2022 we actually aborted over a quarter of a million.) Politicians will not stop trying to legalise euthanasia. During covid, we were continually told about the number of people supposedly dying of covid - but no attention has been given since to the extraordinary numbers of excess deaths since, or people who were injured by the covid vaccines. This is not to mention all the things we would normally call ‘murder’, such as the young girls from Southport, not to mention young people running around with machetes.
Magic arts. I wonder if magic in today’s world could be read, ‘technology’ or ‘medicine’? Rather than looking to witch doctors to heal us, we instead look to Big Pharma and their snake oil salesmen to give us a few more pills.
Thefts. Again, one of the things I find most disturbing about the modern world is the way that many shoplifters have become so brazen that they can take what they want and walk out of the shop with it, knowing full well that they will not face any consequences.
We as a country have fallen under God’s judgement. In fact, I even saw someone on Reddit the other day asking “what has happened to this country - there seems to be so much evil around.” Even REDDIT recognises it, to an extent! And yet, people will still not repent.
However, this is where I want to make clear that this message applies to ALL of us - not just to ‘those bad people over there’. Let me explain.
Personal repentance
G.K. Chesterton was once reportedly asked to write a piece for a newspaper about the problems in the world today. His reply was simple: “Dear Sir, I am.”
This story is possibly apocryphal, but it’s so good and relevant I think it’s worth keeping!
One of the things which concerns me most about society at the moment is the lack of repentance - from every quarter. And I will be up front here, my concerns are especially with Christians and conservatives. As I said in my post about Islam, we human beings love to point the finger at other people. We love to say “they’re the ones who are in the wrong. It’s their fault we’re in trouble.” This has been going on as far back as Genesis 3, when Adam blamed Eve for giving him the apple, and Eve blamed the serpent.
I think there is a tendency among conservative circles at the moment to point the finger at everyone else. People love to blame the woke brigade, or the government, or the WEF, or Bill Gates, or Islam, or mass migration, or the Labour government, or the ‘Conservative’ government, or whatever. And, truly, all of these are to some extent to blame and will answer before God for their deeds.
It goes against the grain to take responsibility for our actions, to say “it’s a fair cop - I confess, it’s my fault.” However, this is exactly what repentance requires of us. Repentance requires us to take responsibility, to acknowledge our own failings and our own part in the problems we face. We may not have participated in the same evils as others, but our evil is certainly a contributing factor. We have not stood against evil where we have seen it, we have not loved our neighbours, we have not taught the faith, and - most seriously - we have tried to depend on our own strength rather than on God’s.
If you are Christian and conservative, if you want the UK to be a Christian country, are you reading the Bible? Are you praying and worshipping with other Christians? Are you seeking the Lord’s will for your life, seeking to put to death the deeds of the body and live in the power of the Holy Spirit?
I believe there are a lot of British people out there who are firm about this being a Christian country and not an Islamic or secularist one. And yet, they do not want to go to all the trouble of putting God first in their own lives. This is not what is going to save us.
I believe there are a lot of British people who are firm about this being a Christian country and not an Islamic or secularist one. And yet, they do not want to go to all the trouble of putting God first in their own lives.
At such a time as this, it’s so easy to see all the immorality around us and blame them for the problems. But we must continually remind ourselves that the problem is not them alone. To quote from Solzhenitsyn:
The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts.
That includes your heart and my heart too. When it comes to evil, you and I are acquainted with it as well - and we must repent.
If we as a country are going to have a future, if we as a country are going to escape God’s judgement and come to him, then we need to learn to repent, each one of us, for the part we have played in the mess. We can’t simply point the finger at other people’s sins and tell them to repent - even though their sins may be grievous. We must first and foremost repent ourselves and seek to put God first in our own lives, whatever that may bring.
The good news is, true repentance can bring true blessing.
The good news
If we as a country fall to our knees before the Lord and confess our sins and our part in bringing his anger against us, then I believe he will hear us, forgive us, and restore us. There are many examples of this in the Bible, but one which might be particularly relevant for us is Daniel’s prayer from Daniel 9. The people of Israel had been invaded by the mighty Babylonian army, and many Israelites had died or been taken captive. Daniel prayed this prayer from exile in Babylon:
“Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favour of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
“Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
“Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favour on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
Daniel 9:13-19
Obviously, this prayer was prayed in a particular context - we in Britain are not the Israelites. Nonetheless, we have been a Christian country for centuries, we have a monarch who is constitutionally bound to uphold the Christian faith, and we have had many Christian politicians and thinkers who have shaped the laws and culture of the country.
Daniel’s prayer shows us the only way forward:
To confess and acknowledge that what has happened to our country is the result of our sins. Not the sins of them over there, but OUR sins - yours and mine. I’m sure Daniel could legitimately have pointed the finger at others who were doing far worse things, but he accepts his corporate responsibility as a member of the people of Israel.
To ask God to forgive us our sins, even though we are unworthy. I think it’s significant that Daniel recognises it is not because of the people’s righteousness that he asks, but because of the mercy of God. We know that we are not worthy for God to rescue us, we can depend only on his mercy.
To ask God for his name’s sake. Again, not because we are worthy, but because this country in some sense bears his name - it is God’s reputation which is at stake. God will not have his name blasphemed - he is not mocked.
I believe that, if we do acknowledge our sins and cry out to the Lord, he will hear us. The question is, how bad does it have to get before people are willing to get to their knees and humble themselves before God?
Post script
There’s a lovely song called ‘Help Me’ by Johnny Cash. I only came across it while I was preparing a video last year, but I think the attitude he sings about in this song is exactly what we need right now.
“I never thought I needed help before
Thought I could get by by myself
Now I know I just can’t take it anymore
And with a humble heart on bended knee
I’m begging you, please, for help.”