No Country for Christians

The world is becoming an increasingly hostile place for those who choose to live according to a Bible-based value system. Many of these individuals may call themselves “Christian” and they identify with many moral values that were once considered the norm in Western nations. Yet Britain, the nation that brought biblical morality and the Bible itself to countless cultures around the globe—the nation whose British common law undergirds the judicial fabric of many modern societies—is now, ironically, running headlong in the opposite social and moral direction.

According to a recent report by the Policy Institute at Kings College London, “Britain is now one of the most socially liberal countries in the world” (The Times, 7 March 2023). In recent years, the nation has undergone a colossal shift in moral values related to abortion, extramarital sex, divorce, and euthanasia. And Generation Z (people aged 11–26) maintains the most dubious values of any age group. Research findings show that a sizable proportion of Gen Z in Britain feel that “fare-dodging on public transport… cheating on taxes… and people claiming benefits they were not entitled to were justifiable.” Members of the oldest generations, those born before 1945, have changed little in their social and moral values—though they have clearly failed to instill those values in their children. The sobering question is, what will happen as that generation fades completely and younger generations become predominant?

Cancel Culture, Censorship, and Christianity

This moral sea change is transforming British society in many ways. In a recent article in the Telegraph (18 July 2023), journalist Emma Webb observed that, based on a host of recent faith-based incidents, many who hold a value system based on the Bible feel that Britain is no longer a place for them. She cited the following episodes as examples of such incidents:

• A Tory member of a district council who recently tweeted the message “Pride is not a virtue but a sin,” was ejected from the council. The man later explained that “pride” is a sinful character trait, despite the modern use of the term positively in approval of biblically sinful behaviours. His fellow council members were completely intolerant of his differing viewpoint.
• A charity worker was arrested twice and charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users” because she had been praying outside an abortion facility (BBC News, 16 February 2023). Nothing was said aloud by this person; she was just observed standing with a bowed head, which suggested prayer.
• A doctor who calls himself a Christian was fired for what was called “misgendering” patients because he said his conscience was violated by calling them their preferred gender, as opposed to their God-given birth gender.
• And more recently, The Guardian cited a leader in the Church of England, the Archbishop of York, reporting his claim that the “opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be ‘problematic’ because of their patriarchal association” (7 July 2023).

One archbishop’s discomfort at Christ’s instruction to pray to God the Father does not represent the perspective of all leaders in the Church of England, but it does reflect the social sea change occurring within this national church—a church that, historically, has largely sought to tie its moral tradition to biblical roots.

Those whose moral values are based on a biblical foundation and who identify with the “Christian” label are increasingly ostracized and shamed, or “cancelled,” by the same society that criticized these moral failures just a decade or two ago. As the Telegraph headline profoundly noted, “Britain is no country for Christians.”

Leading the Decline in Morality

When we look around the globe, it is instructive to observe that the nations leading the charge of moral decline are none other than the modern Israelite-descended nations of Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and other Western European countries like France and Sweden. (To learn more about the historical connection between these nations and the nation of ancient Israel, you can request our free booklet The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, or read it online at TomorrowsWorld.org.) Ironically, the nations with the most biblically aligned moral values today are those that the Western, so-called Christian world historically viewed as pagan—nations including South Korea and Iran (The Times, 7 March 2023).

For students of Bible prophecy, the moral decline and social inversion we are witnessing in Britain and many other Western nations should not be surprising. Wise King Solomon offered up a prayer as he dedicated the newly built temple to God, and in this prayer, he repeatedly asked God to forgive Israel’s future sins against God and His commands (1 Kings 8). The prophet Hosea warned that Ephraim (i.e., the modern-day British-descended peoples) would, in the future, commit spiritual harlotry against God (Hosea 5:3). Hosea went on to observe that these people would fail to “direct their deeds toward turning to their God” (v. 4). These British-descended peoples would “stumble in their iniquity” (v. 5) and would beget “pagan children” (v. 7) who would have nothing to do with the God of the Bible or His laws.

The prophet Isaiah also warned that “the leaders of this people cause them to err” and that “everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly” (Isaiah 9:16–17). And the prophet Malachi directed that the responsibility of God’s true religious leaders is to “keep knowledge,” not lose or reject it (Malachi 2:7)—something today’s so-called Christian leaders often fail to do. God’s true servants should point people to His holy law, not push them away from it in favor of what is socially convenient (vv. 7–9).

As we reflect on the moral upheaval in Britain and all the other Western, so-called Christian nations, we should be deeply saddened—but not surprised. The prophet Jeremiah was moved to express this sadness in the book of Lamentations. Christ Himself lamented over His rejection by His people (Matthew 23:37). The Israelite nations’ rejection of God and His laws has long been prophesied, but we are seeing it on a scale and at a speed that are unprecedented. This massive moral decline will result in the removal of God’s protection of and blessing upon these nations, and eventually these same nations will go into prophesied captivity as a result of their sins.

However, their punishment and captivity will be short-lived. As they recognize their sins and repent, God will hear, as King Solomon prayed He would. God will send His Son as the King of kings to establish His government on the earth and lead the British—and all peoples—in their turn to Him and His ways. Jesus Christ, the perfect leader and high priest, will come “judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness” (Isaiah 16:5). He and His saints will quickly work to help people turn to obeying His laws, which are the key to true freedom (James 1:25).

Britain today is rejecting biblical values and becoming intolerant of those who hold them. And Britain is not alone. But this hostility toward biblical morality will change when, one day soon, the Saviour of mankind returns to establish the kingdom of God on the earth. That kingdom will reintroduce biblical morality to the world and create an environment that true Christians can call home.