Saints of Great Britain and Ireland

Yes, the saints pictured in this wonderful ikon, yes, they were the saints of Great Britain and Ireland, in ages past, but what about the saints living in the British Isles today?

At Νεκρος για τον κοσμο, ‘Dead to the World’, a great Christian blog in the Greek language, I ran across this excellent article about the current state of Christianity in the United Kingdom. Even though I am pretty fluent in understanding evangelical Greek (koiné), I still must run this blog through the translator to read it. Modern Greek is just too hard!

If you don't read Greek, it is still possible to read the article through machine translation into your language.

Pressures and Persecution of Christians in Britain is how the title of the article translates into English, and the translation is understandable enough. The story is summarised right at the beginning of the post—political and social forces in the UK now moving aggressively against Christians in their country. I suppose, in general, many of us already knew this was happening, but then, similar things are happening everywhere, and we've just about gotten used to it. There are actually several stories amalgamated in the post, giving various angles on what is happening. I do not want to focus on the issue from a social, cultural or religious perspective, which many do for the purpose of activism. I only want to share this information about the suffering Church, so we can be aware of the present and future challenges—challenges not to our religious heritage, but to us as individuals and as members of Christian communities. ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 6:12), yes, but we still experience this struggle in our day to day lives. The arena is not just a story to be handed down, but an experience that we live, even now. No, we're not being thrown to lions yet, but the same dynamic is going on. Once again, as history draws to its close, the Church of Jesus Christ is again taking on the form of life it started out with. There is nothing to do but accept it as part of God's plan. Our victories are not the same as the victories of the crusaders of former centuries, or of the conquistadors, not to devalue them at all, but this is a different time, and we must be very sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God, poised to obey immediately whatever He commands, so that we won't be left behind as He leads His people through the last leg of our exodus from Egypt to the land of Promise.

Pray, brethren, for wisdom, courage, for all the virtues, that is, strengths, of the Spirit of God, and for the will to affirm the right, whatever happens. The monarchies of Britain and Spain are possibly the last two anointed kingships in Christendom, the others having been divested of their anointed ministry by yielding to secularization, but even these last two seem to be giving way. Something more dangerous than the Moorish invasions is at hand, something more sinister than Marxism-Leninism ever was, and so, without firing a shot, we must stand firm on the Rock of our salvation, and ‘proclaim the Message’ this one last time, ‘welcome or unwelcome, in season or out of season.’

Do the pagans ask, ‘Where is their God?’
Ours is the God whose will is sovereign
in the heavens and on earth,
whereas their idols in silver and gold,
products of human skill,
have mouths, but never speak,
eyes, but never see,
ears, but never hear,
noses, but never smell,
hands, but never touch,
feet, but never walk,
and not a sound from their throats.
Their makers will end up like them,
and so will anyone who relies on them.

Psalm 115

Read the post, pause, and pray for the brethren in ‘Albion's kingdoms three’ (Robert Burns, The Bonie Lass of Albanie), and then stand firm in faith and hope, with them, for the deliverance of our true and faithful God is, as the Word declares, ‘very near’ (Revelation 1:3).