Britain’s Lost Greatness
By J.P. Thackway
In Church and Nation
Seventy-one years ago, 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth succeeded to the Throne on the death of her father, King George VI. Her coronation date, 2 June 1953, was marked earlier this year by the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. They justly honoured a monarch who has been an example to the nation of service and dedication. Sadly, at the time of writing, the nation now mourns her passing.
In 1953, the late Queen’s Coronation reflected the Christian character of Great Britain at that time. She solemnly vowed to “Maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel.” She undertook also “to maintain … the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law.” Her Majesty was given the Holy Bible as, “the rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes.”
Heritage
This Christian heritage goes back to Anglo-Saxon times, and King Alfred the Great in the 9th century. He drew up an important code of laws and blended with it the 10 Commandments. This established a basis for biblical laws, recognising God as the ultimate Lawgiver and Judge.
This gave sanctity to the law of the land, and seriousness to being citizens. Over the centuries, thischaracterised British society, and came to its height in Victorian times. Britain professed to be a Christian nation, officially characterised by Sunday observance, hard work, thrift, honesty, moral decency, respect for others and their property, and the sanctity of human life. Victorians believed they were accountable to God. It was said that they expected the Day of Judgment as certainly as they expected their wages at the end of the week.
By the end of the Great War in 1918, confidence in the Bible had broken down. Theological liberalism, combined with the horrors of suffering, brought disillusionment, and undermined respect for Christianity. By the end of the Second World War in 1945, Christian standards also were being questioned. It has been said that World War I undermined Christian doctrine, and World War II Christian morality.
This double hit meant that by Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 we were living on Christian capital from better days. It was steadily running out. It only needed what happened in the next decade to use up nearly all that was left.
Ruinous
The 1960s and 70s were the most ruinous decades in recent history. During that time, especially the 1960s, British society, in common with other western countries, underwent a social revolution that has changed us into something beyond recognition. However, as I hope to show in this article, this transformation has also affected evangelical churches in almost equal measure.
Before the 1960s, the general belief was that our laws and values stem from Britain’s Christian past, our biblical and Protestant heritage. This was commonly accepted. However, the 1960s challenged this and was determined to sweep it away. Various factors helped bring this about.
a] A new brand of music
During the 1950s, Rock n’ Roll came from the USA with Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley and others. In the UK, the young Cliff Richard at first modelled himself on Presley. As new bands came and Rock developed, its music and lyrics gloried in rebellion against authority, immorality, drugs, drunkenness and even witchcraft. The “pop” scene of the 60s also degenerated into the same, as illustrated by the later history of the Beatles.
This was not just a new kind of music. Music is never neutral. This was a driven thing: it had a message and a purpose. As David Samuel put it: “Popular music was no longer simply a medium of light relief, but a battering ram for moral and social change.”
b] The cult of the teenager
Before the 1950s and 60s, children growing up tended not to have a separate identity. Older sons and daughters looked like smaller versions of their parents in dress, tastes, and lifestyle. It meant a straightforward navigation into adulthood. However, Rock and pop defined a new age group: the teenager. It gave them their own music, clothes, haircut, lifestyle, culture, language – and the rebellion against convention. The post-war baby boom created many disgruntled young people who became this separate and distinctive section of society. Some of these were a group of mostly working- and middle-class British playwrights and novelists known as “angry young men.”
c] Broadcasting media
Hugh Greene was the Director-General of the BBC who “modernised” the corporation. This is to say that he pioneered programmes that pushed the boundaries of taste and decency to limits never before allowed. Swearing, blasphemy, obscenity, and violence characterised the output in those days. Particularly effective were the satirical programmes that mocked and ridiculed the revered institutions of our country. Mrs. Mary Whitehouse and her Clean-up TV campaign was his bitterest critic. She once wrote, “If anyone were to ask me who, above all, was responsible for the moral collapse which characterised the sixties and seventies, I would unhesitatingly name Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, who was Director-General of the BBC from 1960-1969.”
d] The Government of the day
The Labour government of the 1960s had as its Home Secretary Mr. Roy Jenkins. During his office, 1965–1967, he helped create what became known as “The Permissive Society.” That included abolishing capital punishment for wilful murder, abolishing theatre censorship, legalising homosexuality, relaxing the divorce law and legalising abortion. In his book The Abolition of Britain Peter Hitchens accuses him of being a “cultural revolutionary,” largely responsible for the decline of traditional values in Britain.
In reply to his critics, Jenkins once famously said, “The permissive society is a civilized society.” If he were alive today, I wonder how civilized he would think we are now! Even secular commentators these days reflect upon what happened with regret. For example, distinguished Daily Telegraph columnist Charles Moore has written, “Sixties liberalism swept away our shared sense of decency.”
e] The Established Church
In this dismantling of our Christian heritage, what of the church? It is the Established church that the media looks to for comment on these things. Far from crying out against it, the church largely encouraged it. A notorious example was the Bishop of Woolwich, John A.T. Robinson. In 1961, he defended the publication of D.H. Lawrence’s immoral book Lady Chatterley’s Lover. His own book in 1963, Honest to God, criticised traditional Christian theology and caused a storm of controversy. Social liberals and theological liberals went hand in hand to help change a Christian-based society into a secular one.
But what of Evangelical churches? I suggest that, despite noble exceptions, evangelicalism mirrors the story of the nation. We have been through a social revolution. My contention is that during the same period a comparable spiritual revolution happened in evangelical churches. The spirit of the age has wormed its way into church congregations and changed their character almost beyond recognition.
What form has this taken? I want to state the main ones, and the harm they have done – and suggest the biblical remedy in each case.
1. The Charismatic Movement
This burst upon us in the 1960s. An important influence for this was Dennis Bennett, an Episcopal priest in Van Nuys, California. On 3rd April 1960, he told his congregation that he had received a Baptism with the Spirit. Nine o’clock in the Morning was his autobiography. It was the start of something huge.
Then, Michael Harper, curate with John Stott at All Souls in London, founded the Fountain Trust. He claimed that the apostolic, miraculous gifts of the Spirit had been restored. “Baptism in the Spirit,” with miraculous tongues as evidence, was the great sign of this. David Watson was a younger exponent of this in York. This Movement spread like wildfire throughout evangelical Anglicanism and in many nonconformist denominations.
It was a seismic shift of authority: from objective scripture to subjective experience. In reality, it was conformity to the age in which it happened: a rebellion against authority – divine authority. Michael Harper ended up a Greek orthodox archpriest: so much for the Spirit of Truth! David Watson declared at an evangelical Anglican conference in 1977: “In many ways, the Reformation was one of the greatest tragedies that ever happened to the church.” The Charismatic Movement is totally unscriptural: at best it is of the flesh; at worst it is of the devil.
This, then, amounted to a revolution in the House of God. What the permissive society did for lifestyle outside the church, the Charismatic Movement did for life inside the church. This revolution was no more biblical than the social revolution that influenced it. Far from being the Holy Spirit, it was simply the spirit of the age.
Two armed guards need to stand at every church door: the Old and the New Testaments. If only there had been clear preaching and teaching about the Holy Spirit and New Testament miracles, would the Charismatic Movement have infiltrated and overwhelmed us as it has? Few had clear and scriptural understanding to evaluate it and to withstand the onslaught. Since its time, many sound books and messages have emerged to rebut this, and how we need to heed their warnings!
However, we need more than this. We desperately need the authentic Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives and churches. We feel keenly that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). It is as our Lord said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth” … “without me ye can do nothing” (John 6:63; 15:5). And the great apostle: “my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4,5). When we have divine reality, the carnally false is seen for what it is. Orthodox doctrine about the Holy Spirit is not the whole solution. It needs also the true unction and power of the Holy Spirit.
2. New Worship
To begin with, it was only churches that became “charismatic” that had its distinctive worship styles. Other evangelical churches tended to continue in their biblical and reverent way. But then, over time, we began to see worship styles changing in other churches too – even reformed ones. The tell-tale signs were the overhead projector with modern songs on the screen, the worship band at the front, the pulpit replaced with a platform, dressing down on the Lord’s Day, and casualness.
This new worship was revolutionary. It had broken free from being biblically-regulated and reverent. Multiple musical instruments, catchy songs, emphasis on emotions, man-centred and experience-centred celebration are declared evidences of “the Spirit.” Anything else needs “liberating.” What really happened was this: “The Swinging Sixties” in the land became the swinging worship in the church.
A notorious proponent of this is Stuart Townend, whose compositions feature in Praise! and New Christian Hymns. He describes the influences upon his music as David Bowie, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder! Asked in an interview what music Jesus would write and sing if He were here, said either Thrash Metal or Hip-Hop! Truly the world has taken over the church. As one writer described new worship: “… exuberant singing – the charismatic equivalent of clubbing.”
Here we have, not the doctrine, but the practice of the Charismatic Movement. Yet, if the doctrine is wrong, surely the practice must be wrong as well. This strange dichotomy between doctrine and worship is seen in the preacher delivering reformed sermons in the pulpit – if one remains – and yet leading people in the pews in their charismatic-style worship!
The great ingredient missing is the fear of the Lord: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him” (Psalm 89:7). Such worship is called in Nehemiah 8:18 “a solemn assembly” (significantly in the margin: “a restraint”). Fleshly excesses in worship are always a danger, but they are restrained by God’s Word in the Regulative Principle. So that we have, as our Saviour said, “worship … in spirit” (enlivened by the Holy Spirit) “and in truth” (governed by the truth of God’s word) (John 4:24).
When you have real, spiritual, God-glorifying worship, exercised believers avoid its opposite like the plague. When worship is biblical the truth of Psalm 22:3 is enjoyed: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Far from being a “secondary issue,” whether God is pleased to make our worship His home must be one the most primary issues of all.
3. Obsession with young people
The cult of the teenager entered the church in the heady days of the 1960s. As in society, so in the church, they became a separate entity. And the church has gone overboard with “youthism” that almost makes them the authority for what the church does. Just home from university, having tasted charismatic-style worship at the Christian Union, the demand comes for the same in their home church. This has caused many a pastor the headache and heartache of seeing members following young people’s ideas instead of the unchanging scriptural pattern. Sometimes parents have followed the lead of their offspring in this, contrary to Genesis 18:19; Ephesians 6:1-4; 1 Timothy 3:4. We have even heard of a church which, instead of an evening service, holds a discussion group for young people!
The response of older Christians to such things has typically been, “If it gets the young people in, why not?” or, “It may be the only thing that will keep the young people.” It is ironic that the very youngsters who move the direction of the church from its biblical and historic moorings are often the ones who are too “tired” to come to prayer meetings, outreach activities and other commitments. This is not so in every case, we are thankful to say, but in far too many cases it is.
We are, of course, very thankful for the young people in our church fellowships. And we acknowledge that they face problems and pressures in our postmodern and decadent society. We need to pray for them very much, and kindly be alongside to help in any way we can – like the saints who helped us in our earlier years. The needs of young people are basically the same as any other age group. Being edified in the church along with everybody else, the ideal is as John writes, “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).
4 Entertainment evangelism
In keeping with the upbeat and fun culture of the 1960s, methods of communicating the gospel were revolutionised. Music bands, drama and mime grew in popularity. A notable case was David Watson’s “Riding Lights” theatre company acting out the gospel message in the street and other venues. In the early 1980s he also worked with “Christian comedian” and writer Adrian Plass. Nowadays, puppets, conjuring, even gospel clowns and gospel comedians are not uncommon, the latter in one case: “had the congregation rocking with laughter as the Gospel of Christ was communicated.”
Church services resemble the superficial entertainment world, making it clear where the cue has come from. “Outreach” makes sinners laugh rather than, under God, bring them to conviction and godly sorrow, leading to repentance and salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). Outsiders are not to be wooed into the church and entertained. So prevalent is this in evangelical and Reformed churches today that A.W. Tozer’s words are more apt than ever: “It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend (a church) where the only attraction is God.”
Yet this very attraction is what we as churches are called to have. When this is so, the salvation of sinners follows: “And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth” (1 Corinthians 14:25).
And when converted, they will stay because being born of God, they will want to be nourished up in sound doctrine, gracious experience and true discipleship. The antidote to entertainment evangelism is biblical evangelism that the Lord will truly bless.
5. Loss of godly fear
The terrible consequence in all of this is a lack of the fear of the Lord. Where has there been a serious reference to the will of God in the things mentioned thus far? Have these questions ever been asked, “Is this according to His word? Will this be pleasing to Him? Does this glorify God?” Rather, the mantra has often been: “Modernise or Perish.”
This is nothing other than capitulation and conformity to the world. There is no biblical case for these changes, and neither can one be made. And yet it is assumed that every church needs to adopt this modern model. Young ministers start in pastorates with an agenda more redolent of business executives with marketing skills rather than holy ministers of God. This has spread like a virus. One church after another goes down.
With so much sin in the church, is it any wonder that God does not bless us, despite claims to the contrary? It is not modern worship and methods that we need – it is old-fashioned repentance and return to authentic evangelicalism. Serious and faithful preaching establishes a climate of godliness and reverence for the word, and this brings the Lord into our midst: “to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). Then the testimony of everyone present is: “Surely the LORD is in this place … And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16,17).
We cannot turn the clock back to better times. But we must ensure that the church of God does not move with our decadent and degenerate times. What I have just outlined is a spiritual problem – and it can only have the spiritual solutions suggested. Times are bad but God is good. In place of the social revolution that has blighted society and the church, let there be a biblical revolution, and return to the old paths of authentic evangelicalism. We would say with Spurgeon: “We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God’s grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible.”
We stand for a cause that is greater and longer lasting than the agendas of this fallen world. Ours is “a kingdom which shall never be destroyed …. but it shall … stand for ever.” Whether appreciated or not, we shall do the most good in this world by maintaining and contending for doing God’s work in God’s way. God will then bless us, and make us a blessing to our generation, and for the generations to come.