We are living in the prophesied last days of moral confusion and spiritual rebellion and a great falling away from Biblical truth. As the prophet Isaiah was inspired to write:

“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!” Isaiah 5:20

Christians have always had a sacred responsibility to speak God’s word both privately to individuals as well as publicly to those in authority. The Church in Australia though seems to have lost its nerve and has gone silent. Once again, the words of Isaiah could be applied to ourselves.

“Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream,  they love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, they seek their own gain. ‘Come,’ each one cries, ‘let me get wine!  Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.’” Isaiah 56:10-12

Rarely do we hear a pastor or denominational leader speak with clarity, boldness or conviction regarding the issues of our day. Even worse, there are more than a few who would even discourage such an activity claiming that it is a distraction from preaching the gospel. But by the grace of God though, there still are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ such as Rev. Chris Wickland in the UK. Rev. Wickland says that a number of recent issues have left him deeply ‘vexed’, and I would contend that anyone who is a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ should be vexed as well.

Rev. Wickland is right the King of England should step down or be told to do so. One cannot claim the exalted title of being the head of a Christian denomination and at the same time not defend God’s people against those who are seeking to destroy it.

However, the Church of England is not alone. The rot of spiritual compromise has also infected the Church of Rome. As Rev. Wickland states:

“Then I saw some other footage this week of the Pope blessing all the illegal migrants coming into the country… and it’s just like one of those forehead slapping moments. It’s like why do we have a woke pope? Why do we have in this country an apostate archbishop and a whole bunch of viper bishops that sit underneath her? Why, why are we living in times where we seem to have this? Where’s the good men? Where’s the good leaders? Where’s the brave men? Where’s the brave leaders that speak up against injustice? Where are they?

“Instead, we have the archbishop going to the mythical country of ‘Palestine’ and talking about the occupiers. What you mean [by occupiers] is Israel and the Jewish people that live there, and actually all those other people that live there. So, they’re the ‘occupiers’, are they? Again, we have a virtue signalling head of the Church of England who is more interested in looking good to the liberal left rather than standing up for the truth of the gospel.”

Again, Rev. Wickland makes an excellent and salient point. The Vatican is the most protected, as well as restricted, country in the world. If the Pope really wanted to make a point about showing hospitality to refugees, then he should welcome them into his own country first. In short, he should practice what he preaches. Anything else is political posturing under the guise of Christian compassion. But of course, the Pope won’t do that even though he has the material resources to do so.

There is an even more important rebuke which the vicar is issuing though, and it’s where are all the men and women who own the name of Christ and who are willing to speak the truth in love? Being a prophet is messy and dangerous. That is why they are routinely despised, rejected and even killed (Matthew 23:29–36).

Unbelievers Want the Truth?

There is a strange irony which Rev. Wickland picks up on next. It’s that unbelievers long to hear the truth. We saw this especially during Covid when the churches — especially in England — enthusiastically shut their doors. Conservative commentator, Douglas Murray, who as a homosexual is not a natural ally of Christians, wrote at the time how saddened he was at both the closure of churches as well as the missed opportunity for spiritual leadership.

In Matthew 23, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees calling them “blind guides”, “blind fools” and even “snakes” and a “brood of vipers”. In fact, Jesus calls them “hypocrites” in one form or another no less than seven times!

There is no greater rebuke for a Christian than to be labelled as a hypocrite. Indeed, the most terrifying words one could ever hear from the Lord Jesus after rightly calling Him “Lord, Lord” is the response, “I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). When followers of Jesus then are ashamed to declare what God’s Word says to an increasing hostile culture are we not guilty of hypocrisy?

Large swathes of the Christian Church today want to be liked by the world. They don’t want to confront or challenge people about their sin or the injustices they see in the world around them. They are like the Church of Laodicea:

‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:15-17

We are already in the Biblical prophesied end times, the Laodicean church will be left behind to face the wrath of God with the coming Trumpet and Bowl judgements of Revelation 8 and 16.