Turn Back to God before it's too late!

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is explaining how to distinguish between true and false prophets, and He is using the analogy of a good or bad fruiting tree. He points out that we should be able to distinguish the good from the bad by the fruit produced. This the passage from Matthew 7: 15-20 (NIV):

¹⁵"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

One of the greatest problems facing many nations today , particularly in both Europe and the USA, is the disregard and rejection of God. A recent survey has been carried out amongst 1000 teenagers regarding their attitude to religion and the findings are extremely disturbing, even should the results are not fully representative of all teenagers. The survey found that 60% of teenagers believe that religion has 'a negative influence on the world', with 55% claiming that other things such as family, friends, money and entertainment, are more important. On the subject of prayer, 50% claim that they have never prayed, whilst 16% have never entered a church for any reason, not even for a wedding, baptism or funeral. Whilst 3% believe that there is an afterlife, 1% believes in reincarnation.

So, who is to blame for these attitudes? Is it the governments who seem to be concerned, generally speaking, with the destruction of the family unit and promoting increased reliance on a 'Nanny State'? Is the parents who believe that it's their right to go out and enjoy themselves, generally doing what they want rather than bothering too much about their children, and treating their children as 'best friends' rather than offspring in need of moral and ethical guidance? Perhaps we can blame the schools who often spend more time, according to the reports, on form-filling and report-filing than they do on educating? Then there is the bastion of moral and ethical influence, the Church. What part does the Church at large play in the whole scenario of our God-less society?

We live in an age aptly described as a 'Blame Culture', one portion of society constantly seeking to blame another for anything and everything, so how do we get to the truth and thereby to the possibility of an answer?

One way would be to apply the words of Jesus in the concluding verse of the passage quoted above, 'by their fruit you will recognise them'. When we look at the government in the UK what do we see? What is the over-riding impression that we are left with when we investigate them? Ask most people the question and they will quickly point to the corruption that has been reported in such detail in recent years, whether it be the current 'expenses scandal' where so much dishonesty and fraudulent activity has been exposed, or the recent cases of Peers prepared to accept bribes in order to support particular causes, or the instances of sexual immorality that come to light on a fairly regular basis. Yet all of these issues pale when held against the significance of the destruction of the spiritual and moral conscience of the people whom the government is supposed to protect and nurture. Their can be no doubt that the government must share the blame for the nation turning away from God and rejecting His Son and teaching.

Then we turn to look at the parents in our society. The break-up of the family unit and the turning away from the sanctity of marriage has resulted in a society where children are often left to their own devices, and it has long been recognised that when that happens then it leads to trouble. As a result we have a generation of youngsters who are saturated with sexual imagery to the extent that they are led to believe that it is perfectly okay for them to indulge in the same sort of behaviour, which, left to their own devices by absenting parents, they do. The result is that there are huge numbers of teenage pregnancies, added to which, sexually transmitted diseases are rampant. Meanwhile, parents are busy 'doing their own thing', whatever that happens to be, whether it is sitting back watching the TV whilst their children are ensconced in their rooms with their own TV, computer and all the peripheral items, or whether they are out enjoying themselves and leaving their children to simply get on with learning how to grow up as long as it doesn't interfere with their parents' lives. Their can be no doubt that the parents must share the blame for the nation turning away from God and rejecting His Son and teaching.

What about the schools and those appointed to teach the children? Here the answer is not so straightforward, for here is a case where the schools can rightly apportion blame both on the government and parents. One universal complaint of Head Teachers is that they are given so much paper-work to do that they can no longer find the time to teach, and so the government must shoulder the blame for this. Do we really train our teachers so that they can work their way up the teaching ladder in order to become clerks? Is that really the best use of their knowledge and skills? Then again, speak to most teachers and they will have a story to tell about being threatened by a parent for correcting a youngster who was caught doing wrong, the result of such threats being that eventually, because the children know the position, teaching itself suffers because teaching and classroom disruption do not fit side by side. Yet, despite these provisos, teaching has undoubtedly suffered because God has been shut out of the equation to a large extent. Assemblies used to start the school day by instructing the children to some extent in religious belief, whilst nowadays that rarely is the case, although it does thankfully exist still in some cases. Add to these factors the media reports of teachers who are dismissed or even imprisoned for unbecoming conduct or sexual liaisons with students and you start to see a picture of a spiritually bereft situation. Their can be no doubt that the schools must share the blame for the nation turning away from God and rejecting His Son and teaching.

Well, at least we still have the Church, don't we? Yet in the vast number of instances the church itself is so far removed from Biblical teaching that it must take a large share of the blame for the situation, particularly when considered that the Church should be leading the way for the nation towards God, yet it is so often in a situation where one wonders whether God acknowledges the existence of the Church as it is displayed in so many instances.

The churches are filled in many cases with churchgoers rather than committed Christians; people for whom going to church is an important ritual in their calender, important because it declares to people that they are good Christians. Yet the reality is that if every person in the UK who claimed to be a Christian went to church regularly to join in the worship then our churches would be fairly full week by week rather than virtually empty.

Visit many churches and you will struggle to hear the message of the Gospel being preached at all, let alone regularly. Instead a diet of personally-based homilies is served up in a manner designed to make the congregation feel more comfortable. Mention the word 'Mission' in many churches and you will hear at best how they give money to this or that cause, or how some of the members of the congregation help out as volunteers in local Charity shops, yet this is not Mission. At best this is good works, provided that the intent is correct. In all denominations there are those who occupy the pulpit and yet who are unbelievers themselves, people with no personal relationship with Jesus Christ, merely a knowledge of Him through Scripture. These are the people who discount much of what the Bible says as being myth and legend, preferring instead their own interpretation of events. These are the people who claim that their was no resurrection or that the virgin birth is simply a nice story. These are the people who preach an inclusive gospel, claiming that there are many ways of reaching heaven. These are the people who are responsible for teaching that is so far removed from the truth that they will ultimately be held to answer for their false teaching by God Himself. These are the people who are happy to go against Scriptural teaching when it comes to issues such as homosexuality and the blessing of same-sex unions. Many of these clerics will be women, yet it is un-Scriptural for women to be put over the heads of men as teachers of Scripture. Their can be no doubt that the Church itself must share the blame for the nation turning away from God and rejecting His Son and teaching.

If only the Church were to return to Scripture and embrace the teaching of 2 Chronicles 7:14, If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Generations flout God at their peril. I believe that the ills of the present day are just a taste of what is to come if the nations continue along the path that they have forged for themselves.

• I urge the leaders of government to change their direction to go in the direction that God desires of His people and not the direction that the Antichrist is leading in.
• I urge parents to take the responsibility and control of their children, leading them according to God's ways.
• I urge the schools to become focused according to the manner in which children should be taught according to God's way, rejecting the unwholesome aspects that successive governments have imposed.
• I urge the Church to cleanse itself of heretics and false teachers, and to teach and preach only in accordance with the teachings of Holy Scripture.
• There is only ONE way to heaven, as Jesus Himself laid down in John 14:6: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me.