Today I set before the church of England a choice of life and death, glory and shame, prosperity and poverty, clarity and confusion.
I am the your Lord and Teacher, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, faithful and true, and I am the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the commander in chief. And yet many of those who claim they are part of my army, who call me ‘Lord, Lord’ disobey me and promote lawlessness.
In ancient times, I condemned the false prophets and faithless priests of my people for their idolatry and spiritual adultery, and for their promotion of sexual immorality. I, the Lord, do not change, nor am I a man that I should lie or shift my charge from one day to the next. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. They blessed what I did not bless, condoned what I did not condone, and embraced that which I opposed with all my heart as a loving Father. As I disciplined them, should I not discipline you when you do the same things with even less excuse?
I rebuked by my prophets those who taught and prophesied in my name, those priests who manifestly and persistently failed in the task of teaching my truth and my law, those who did violence to my law and profaned my holy things, who did not distinguish between the holy and the common, the righteous and the sinful. How can I not do the same to you?
You have many among you who condemn those who seek to remain true to the teaching of the apostles in morals and in doctrine, who think they are wise, but are fools, because they do not walk in the fear of the Lord. You weave words and justifications to deny my commands, just like the Pharisees, nullifying my Word handed down not just by apostolic tradition, but also in my written word. These arguments are fig leaves of sophistry and are offensive to me, but you are too anxious to avoid offending the world. You forget the word through my very own brother James, that the friendship you seek with the world is enmity against me and my Father.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the Spirit he has caused to dwell within us longs with jealousy against all such idolatrous entanglements. But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.”
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
I say again, this day I set before you a choice of life and death, glory and shame, prosperity and poverty, clarity and confusion. I do this according to my word which is the way to eternal life.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
If you continue to follow the way of wickedness, of blessing that which I do not bless, I will increase your irrelevance to smash the idol of worldly relevance you seek. I will cause your coffers and your pews to empty accordingly, and in the end it won’t just be church buildings that are sold off and profaned, but a cathedral too. However, if you repent and come back to faithful adherence to my commands, if you stop thinking that you know better than me, the crucified Lamb who is love, and remember that those who love me obey my commands, not spin and twist them and not defy them and scorn those commands, I will open the doors of heaven on you, and your pews and your coffers and your prophetic relevance will increase. You will again be salt and true light in the land, not salt that has lost it’s saltiness and is useless, fit only to for the rubbish heap, and not deceptive shadow-light that leads people astray into darkness. Many people who have left will return, even whole congregations. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Beware, because you are walking the path of Balaam who led my people to sin and destruction by sexual immorality. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to this church in this hour.
The author is a British layman active in his church
