I read some comments from people living in the Midlands who are already living in an Islamist dominated culture and are in fear, outside their own homes. Oh, that the rest of the country could understand the threat that is slowly spreading throughout the land.
Maybe the King, Queen and Archbish of Cant should spend a couple of days in central Bradford!
That would be great but listening to the last Archbish of Cant on the wireless this morning, Brighton would be a more appropriate place (1). I say this because he spoke as if the so called CofE must adopt cultural norms and discuss this at Synod .. and there's me thinking it should be about spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ! Silly me!
(1) BBC World (Climate Catastrophe) Service, "The Interview"; repeat today 31/3 1506.
I restacked part of this article, but found myself wanting for words that would not just repeat what you wrote. Far too many people enjoy the blanket comfort of "cultural Christianity", but do nothing of themselves to maintain it. The burden of the Cross is not easy, but the legacy and treasure that it bestows upon us cannot be had any other way.
Amen, thankyou for that. And your observation is very true. There is a great need of discernment right now between the kind of cultural Christianity that denies the way of the Cross, and the kind of cultural Christianity which should be fought for as a necessary outworking *of* the way of the Cross by those who truly follow Christ, and have a godly desire to see His Lordship recognised throughout culture.
These words are what need to be preached in all the pulpits in England - and in America for that matter. Several missional institutions here have allowed "multiculturalism" and "hospitality" to evolve into "anti-Western Christianity movements", even to the point of missionaries feeling guilty if they lead someone to Christ which results in that person leaving their "culture" entirely. Many cannot tell the difference between a cultural norm and religious practice, and in this case, symbols of domination. Thank you so much for these articles. I really hope they get much attention and inspire boldness in pulpits. "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Luke 9:26 (I live across a little church and they still ring their bell every Sunday morning and it has been comforting lately. Now I know why. :) )
Not only has this heresy of “diversity and inclusion” invaded churches and missional organisations, it has embedded itself in our Bible Colleges. In was cautioned not to “preach anything that may challenge diversity”, on pain of expulsion. I responded by stating that my first duty was to preach the truth that is Christ Jesus, regardless of who may be offended?
Glad I found you on here, brother. I think it’s incredibly important for the English in particular and the West more broadly to understand this point that you have made with crystal clear brilliance and clarity: the only way to save the West is for the people of the West to be saved [again] by Christ. Without this, we are doomed to Islamic subjugation.
A quick question if you end up seeing this: do you think that the Anglican Church is answer to this or do you think that a return to Catholicism is the way forward? While the Catholic Church has its problems with the present pope, the future (in the US at least) looks very bright with current seminarians identifying as “traditional” at 90%, 5% moderate, and a mere 5% “progressive” which is the total inverse of the polling in the 1970s.
The Anglican Church, it seems to me, is too far gone with lesbian bishops proclaiming the goodness of abortion to the glory of God the “Mother.”
It's certainly encouraging that people are embracing conservatism more broadly, and I agree it's a huge difference to fifty/sixty years ago where liberalism was so dominant. I still hope and pray there is a way for the Anglicans to reform. It will take more than a mere embrace of tradition, though that's certainly a good start. I also think there will be more missional coalition between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox in future along more conservative lines than has previously been the case. We shall see!
Thank you. This was an excellent article. I often see people complaining on social media about the erosion of Christian values and, in Protest, saying ‘England is a Christian country’—yet they don’t go to Church. There is no fruit of Christianity without Christ.
Thank you again brother. As I've heard from several of our brothers across the pond, "It's not whether, but which." It's not whether Britain will have a religion, but which. Will it be secularism, liberalism, Islamism or Christianity? As Christ is King, let's raise up His banner, and proclaim His name across Britain. The Lord wills it.
There is nothing new under the sun, so can we compare this with the First Century culture, and WWJD? Secularism is basically folk religion, what we practice to get by, as ‘moderates’. Most Jews no-doubt just wanted to get by. Judea was already taken over by an authoritarian Romanised Greek Seleucid culture. They had already experienced the cultural transformation of exile. One of the surprising things is how much of a multi-lingual societal mess it was, that the Messiah chose to come into. This was not the Godly model post-Moses and in Christendom, but it shows God is active supremely in all.
Dear Aaron, what a really great article and so ‘on the nose’. I do enjoy your writing. Islam is the greatest threat to our country. Once it takes root Great Britain will be lost. So sad to see.
Insponse to your question 1. I cannot read all your articles as I'm not a pAidsubscriber, so I'll limit my comments to this one. 2. Specific examples include the comment I responded to and the paragraph about Britain becoming an Islamic country in 50 years. 3. I think part of the problem is that you aren't engaging with the complexity of life for 2nd, 3rd and increasingly 4th gen descendants of immigrants. Alongside that, there are big questions in terms of what we should/shouldn't be expecting for a country. Faith response is surely about trusting God's sovereignty and seeing him build his kingdom, not about our fears for one country that will with all of earths proud empires fade away
There was another free post in the series (“Soft Jihad and a Cut-Price Christ”). I honestly cannot see how you cannot see the extent of the problem. Yes, a generation may be more culturally assimilated than others, but their assimilation still de-Christianises the norms of Britain.
You seem to have continued your assumption that I’m arguing from fear. I’m really not, and you haven’t demonstrated that I have (saying Britain could become a normatively Islamic country in 50yrs is not fearmongering; it’s a demographic fact relative to current trends for which there is no evidence of a coming reversal).
Yes, it’s in God’s hands. But that “card” is often played all too selectively in cases like this. If we were to talk about, say, tackling the problem of misogyny in society or in the Church, I expect you would not say that we shouldn’t worry about it and should stop spreading fear about it because it’s all in God’s hands anyway, would you? To have faith is not to say “let go and let God” but to trust God and to act in faith in the direction of your prayers, open as ever to the light of the Word and the discernment of the Spirit. In this case, that really should mean opposing the Islamisation of our nation, not just saying “well it will fall one day anyway, so why bother?” That is not the vision of the kingdom we are given by Christ.
Hi Aaron, there is a lot to unpack there. I think key things are 1. Trusting the sovereign God to build his kingdom is not the same as "let go and let God". 2. Disagreeing with your assessment of the situation now and looking forward longer term iare not the same things. 3. The situation is more complex. 4. Another complexity seems to be around different outlooks on what to expect further specific nations. That's more than we can cover in brief comments here. I'll try and write up something fuller (not so much a response to you as a general engagement with the question of Islam) on my site at some point
Bradford isn't the Midlands. I'm sure that anyone is willing to spend some time in central Bradford though. Or come to think of it, the actual Midlands. I'm from the former and live in the latter. If they do come and join is here, they'll get to meet many Muslims who are just getting on with their lives. They'll encounter the radicals too. In Bradford or Birmingham, they'll get to see churches faithfully and joyfully serving the Gospel without this kind of fear,
Dave, the point is that the Muslims who are "just getting on with their lives" are living inconsistently with the missiological tenets of Islam, and their presence (albeit subjectively benign) enables the radicals to flourish over time and accelerates the de-Christianization of the society at both a moral and cultural level.
There is no cause for fear, just for faith and wisdom over wilful naïveté. The answer to Islamisation is the Gospel: all of it.
The point is 1. That intentionally or unintentionally, the tone is fear. 2. That whilst we hear these at times rather sarcastic comments about people needing to go and spend time in places like Bradford and Birmingham, it is rare for people commenting on Islam, Islamisation and mission to talk to people who do live in those places and serve faithfully as witnesses for Jesus in them too. In terms of your comments above, I am not sure what you mean by "their presence (although subjectively benign) enables the radicals to flourish." If you could clarify that, I could comment further but my initial response is that no, this is not the case. The reality is that you have to treat each individual on their own terms. To be sure, there's inconsistency but that will be so in any context. For Christians our inconsistencies remind us of the now and the not yet, for those who don't know Christ, it's a reminder of common grace. My own experience is of growing up in Bradford and being part of a church that was right in the centre of the city. I have served as a church leader in the West Midlands for the last 15 years. Our previous church was in an area with significant numbers of people from Muslim backgrounds and so a significant proportion of our gospel work was with Muslims.
1. "Fear" is what liberal or naive Christians have always said about robust criticism of Islamisation. Can you evidence what in my articles is substantively expressive of fear? This includes, of course, whether I have not said things which exhort us to see the situation with faith.
2. I made this clear in the articles. Which of the articles did you read?
As the "peaceful Muslim" population grows and expands, so does the "radical Muslim" population, and not as an aberration but as a correlation with the tenets of the same religion as the peaceful Muslim.
Or perhaps when Christians who actually live among and have spent significant time sharing the Gospel with Muslims raise some questions and respond directly to the use of the word "fear" in a comment they seem to het the push back that they must be liberal or naive.
What is your overall point though, Dave? Whether you want to call it “fear” or something else, it is at the very least a legitimate concern that England in particular, and West at large, is importing massive numbers of Muslims who outbreed the natives and whose religion demands that they institute shariah law whenever it becomes politically possible to do so. The threat is existential. There nearly 2,000 years worth of Christian history and policy to stop this very thing so that the West doesn’t fall into the same fate as Christian Egypt and Christian Syria et al.
See my original response. It's pretty straightforward. There is often a lot of talk about Islam, Islamisation and mission. Cities are labeled etc. what if there were more conversations with those who are engaged in Gospel work in multi cultural and gospel contexts. 2. There's a lot to unpack in terms of your "legitimate concerns" bit but this probably isn't the place to attempt it.
I read some comments from people living in the Midlands who are already living in an Islamist dominated culture and are in fear, outside their own homes. Oh, that the rest of the country could understand the threat that is slowly spreading throughout the land.
Maybe the King, Queen and Archbish of Cant should spend a couple of days in central Bradford!
I think that's an excellent idea! Perhaps the next General Synod could take place in the heart of an Islamised city!
That would be great but listening to the last Archbish of Cant on the wireless this morning, Brighton would be a more appropriate place (1). I say this because he spoke as if the so called CofE must adopt cultural norms and discuss this at Synod .. and there's me thinking it should be about spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ! Silly me!
(1) BBC World (Climate Catastrophe) Service, "The Interview"; repeat today 31/3 1506.
Quite so!
I restacked part of this article, but found myself wanting for words that would not just repeat what you wrote. Far too many people enjoy the blanket comfort of "cultural Christianity", but do nothing of themselves to maintain it. The burden of the Cross is not easy, but the legacy and treasure that it bestows upon us cannot be had any other way.
Amen, thankyou for that. And your observation is very true. There is a great need of discernment right now between the kind of cultural Christianity that denies the way of the Cross, and the kind of cultural Christianity which should be fought for as a necessary outworking *of* the way of the Cross by those who truly follow Christ, and have a godly desire to see His Lordship recognised throughout culture.
These words are what need to be preached in all the pulpits in England - and in America for that matter. Several missional institutions here have allowed "multiculturalism" and "hospitality" to evolve into "anti-Western Christianity movements", even to the point of missionaries feeling guilty if they lead someone to Christ which results in that person leaving their "culture" entirely. Many cannot tell the difference between a cultural norm and religious practice, and in this case, symbols of domination. Thank you so much for these articles. I really hope they get much attention and inspire boldness in pulpits. "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Luke 9:26 (I live across a little church and they still ring their bell every Sunday morning and it has been comforting lately. Now I know why. :) )
Amen sister! And thankyou. Yes, it's ironic that much modern evangelical "hospitality" ends up undermining evangelism!
Perhaps you should say a prayer for your neighbours and your nation every time you hear those bells. God bless.
Not only has this heresy of “diversity and inclusion” invaded churches and missional organisations, it has embedded itself in our Bible Colleges. In was cautioned not to “preach anything that may challenge diversity”, on pain of expulsion. I responded by stating that my first duty was to preach the truth that is Christ Jesus, regardless of who may be offended?
Yes, sadly many "Bible colleges" today are a living embodiment of false advertising.
Many have become academies of utter heresy
Sadly so. Factories of unbelief.
Will do!!!
Glad I found you on here, brother. I think it’s incredibly important for the English in particular and the West more broadly to understand this point that you have made with crystal clear brilliance and clarity: the only way to save the West is for the people of the West to be saved [again] by Christ. Without this, we are doomed to Islamic subjugation.
A quick question if you end up seeing this: do you think that the Anglican Church is answer to this or do you think that a return to Catholicism is the way forward? While the Catholic Church has its problems with the present pope, the future (in the US at least) looks very bright with current seminarians identifying as “traditional” at 90%, 5% moderate, and a mere 5% “progressive” which is the total inverse of the polling in the 1970s.
The Anglican Church, it seems to me, is too far gone with lesbian bishops proclaiming the goodness of abortion to the glory of God the “Mother.”
Thankyou brother, glad you've found the articles helpful. Re. the Church of England, I did a post on this a few weeks ago: https://thatgoodfight.substack.com/p/a-lament-for-the-church-of-england Also did a podcast some time back on it: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QUofNzsCwk62DOcrq94Gs
It's certainly encouraging that people are embracing conservatism more broadly, and I agree it's a huge difference to fifty/sixty years ago where liberalism was so dominant. I still hope and pray there is a way for the Anglicans to reform. It will take more than a mere embrace of tradition, though that's certainly a good start. I also think there will be more missional coalition between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox in future along more conservative lines than has previously been the case. We shall see!
Thank you. This was an excellent article. I often see people complaining on social media about the erosion of Christian values and, in Protest, saying ‘England is a Christian country’—yet they don’t go to Church. There is no fruit of Christianity without Christ.
Thankyou, and amen indeed!
Thank you again brother. As I've heard from several of our brothers across the pond, "It's not whether, but which." It's not whether Britain will have a religion, but which. Will it be secularism, liberalism, Islamism or Christianity? As Christ is King, let's raise up His banner, and proclaim His name across Britain. The Lord wills it.
Amen brother! Christ is Lord.
There is nothing new under the sun, so can we compare this with the First Century culture, and WWJD? Secularism is basically folk religion, what we practice to get by, as ‘moderates’. Most Jews no-doubt just wanted to get by. Judea was already taken over by an authoritarian Romanised Greek Seleucid culture. They had already experienced the cultural transformation of exile. One of the surprising things is how much of a multi-lingual societal mess it was, that the Messiah chose to come into. This was not the Godly model post-Moses and in Christendom, but it shows God is active supremely in all.
Amen. The gathering at Pentecost also comes to mind here.
Dear Aaron, what a really great article and so ‘on the nose’. I do enjoy your writing. Islam is the greatest threat to our country. Once it takes root Great Britain will be lost. So sad to see.
Thankyou Terry, that's good to hear. And yes, I certainly agree. Britain needs to wake up, as does the Church.
Insponse to your question 1. I cannot read all your articles as I'm not a pAidsubscriber, so I'll limit my comments to this one. 2. Specific examples include the comment I responded to and the paragraph about Britain becoming an Islamic country in 50 years. 3. I think part of the problem is that you aren't engaging with the complexity of life for 2nd, 3rd and increasingly 4th gen descendants of immigrants. Alongside that, there are big questions in terms of what we should/shouldn't be expecting for a country. Faith response is surely about trusting God's sovereignty and seeing him build his kingdom, not about our fears for one country that will with all of earths proud empires fade away
There was another free post in the series (“Soft Jihad and a Cut-Price Christ”). I honestly cannot see how you cannot see the extent of the problem. Yes, a generation may be more culturally assimilated than others, but their assimilation still de-Christianises the norms of Britain.
You seem to have continued your assumption that I’m arguing from fear. I’m really not, and you haven’t demonstrated that I have (saying Britain could become a normatively Islamic country in 50yrs is not fearmongering; it’s a demographic fact relative to current trends for which there is no evidence of a coming reversal).
Yes, it’s in God’s hands. But that “card” is often played all too selectively in cases like this. If we were to talk about, say, tackling the problem of misogyny in society or in the Church, I expect you would not say that we shouldn’t worry about it and should stop spreading fear about it because it’s all in God’s hands anyway, would you? To have faith is not to say “let go and let God” but to trust God and to act in faith in the direction of your prayers, open as ever to the light of the Word and the discernment of the Spirit. In this case, that really should mean opposing the Islamisation of our nation, not just saying “well it will fall one day anyway, so why bother?” That is not the vision of the kingdom we are given by Christ.
Hi Aaron, there is a lot to unpack there. I think key things are 1. Trusting the sovereign God to build his kingdom is not the same as "let go and let God". 2. Disagreeing with your assessment of the situation now and looking forward longer term iare not the same things. 3. The situation is more complex. 4. Another complexity seems to be around different outlooks on what to expect further specific nations. That's more than we can cover in brief comments here. I'll try and write up something fuller (not so much a response to you as a general engagement with the question of Islam) on my site at some point
Bradford isn't the Midlands. I'm sure that anyone is willing to spend some time in central Bradford though. Or come to think of it, the actual Midlands. I'm from the former and live in the latter. If they do come and join is here, they'll get to meet many Muslims who are just getting on with their lives. They'll encounter the radicals too. In Bradford or Birmingham, they'll get to see churches faithfully and joyfully serving the Gospel without this kind of fear,
Dave, the point is that the Muslims who are "just getting on with their lives" are living inconsistently with the missiological tenets of Islam, and their presence (albeit subjectively benign) enables the radicals to flourish over time and accelerates the de-Christianization of the society at both a moral and cultural level.
There is no cause for fear, just for faith and wisdom over wilful naïveté. The answer to Islamisation is the Gospel: all of it.
The point is 1. That intentionally or unintentionally, the tone is fear. 2. That whilst we hear these at times rather sarcastic comments about people needing to go and spend time in places like Bradford and Birmingham, it is rare for people commenting on Islam, Islamisation and mission to talk to people who do live in those places and serve faithfully as witnesses for Jesus in them too. In terms of your comments above, I am not sure what you mean by "their presence (although subjectively benign) enables the radicals to flourish." If you could clarify that, I could comment further but my initial response is that no, this is not the case. The reality is that you have to treat each individual on their own terms. To be sure, there's inconsistency but that will be so in any context. For Christians our inconsistencies remind us of the now and the not yet, for those who don't know Christ, it's a reminder of common grace. My own experience is of growing up in Bradford and being part of a church that was right in the centre of the city. I have served as a church leader in the West Midlands for the last 15 years. Our previous church was in an area with significant numbers of people from Muslim backgrounds and so a significant proportion of our gospel work was with Muslims.
1. "Fear" is what liberal or naive Christians have always said about robust criticism of Islamisation. Can you evidence what in my articles is substantively expressive of fear? This includes, of course, whether I have not said things which exhort us to see the situation with faith.
2. I made this clear in the articles. Which of the articles did you read?
As the "peaceful Muslim" population grows and expands, so does the "radical Muslim" population, and not as an aberration but as a correlation with the tenets of the same religion as the peaceful Muslim.
Or perhaps when Christians who actually live among and have spent significant time sharing the Gospel with Muslims raise some questions and respond directly to the use of the word "fear" in a comment they seem to het the push back that they must be liberal or naive.
What is your overall point though, Dave? Whether you want to call it “fear” or something else, it is at the very least a legitimate concern that England in particular, and West at large, is importing massive numbers of Muslims who outbreed the natives and whose religion demands that they institute shariah law whenever it becomes politically possible to do so. The threat is existential. There nearly 2,000 years worth of Christian history and policy to stop this very thing so that the West doesn’t fall into the same fate as Christian Egypt and Christian Syria et al.
See my original response. It's pretty straightforward. There is often a lot of talk about Islam, Islamisation and mission. Cities are labeled etc. what if there were more conversations with those who are engaged in Gospel work in multi cultural and gospel contexts. 2. There's a lot to unpack in terms of your "legitimate concerns" bit but this probably isn't the place to attempt it.