Can this land live?

Last week the nation was shocked to hear the Princess of Wales’ announcement that she was receiving treatment for cancer.  Over the last weeks, the conspiracy theories surrounding Kate have grown more and more outlandish, not to mention cruel and intrusive.  Terrible things have been suggested about her and William on social media, and there’s been a lot of criticism – fuelled, as we now learn, by hostile states seeking to destabilise our nation by rumour and misinformation.  For the greater part of the country, however, and indeed across the world, there’s been an outpouring of sympathy and support for the Princess and her young family.  We are all praying for Kate’s complete and speedy recovery.
 
But the news, coming so quickly after the King’s diagnosis, and that of Sarah, Duchess of York, will inevitably have plunged the royal family into turmoil.  Quite apart from the logistical headache of managing royal engagements with the King and Kate out of action, and William rightly prioritising the needs of his family, there will be the strain and anxiety of watching loved ones suffer, and it is inevitable that, with three members of the family affected at the same time, a shadow will have been cast over the wider family.  A shadow that, by extension, now lies across the nation as a whole.  
 
We are, without doubt, facing difficult times, and many are asking, why?  Why have three members of our royal family been struck down with the same disease at the same time?  To find an answer, perhaps we should try looking at this from God’s perspective.
 
Over the last 70 – 80 years, as the shadow of war appeared to recede and we’ve grown more prosperous and technologically advanced, men and women have increasingly rejected God.   We don’t need Him anymore, we say, we can manage things better by ourselves.  Nominally, of course, we remain a Christian country, but the gods we worship today are consumerism, sexual licence, diversity, climate change, and science, with 24/7 worship offered on the altar of ‘Self’.
 
The truth is, as a society we have wilfully and knowingly rejected our Creator, and so become ‘God-less’, with the result that into this vacuum, fed by ‘sacred prostitution’ and the blood sacrifice of over ten and a half million unborn, the demonic has gleefully rushed in and taken over control.  By our rejection of Christ, we have once again, and voluntarily, placed ourselves under bondage to evil.   
 
But there can be no compromise between goodness and sin, and God will not uphold or bless evil, so as a result of our choices He has withdrawn His protection.  Small wonder then that in recent years we have found ourselves caught in such a downward spiral of chaos.   But while God has withdrawn His protection, He has not withdrawn His presence, and throughout all that is happening, He remains sovereign.  Now a storm is gathering, and unless we urgently repent and once more pledge our allegiance to the One, true God, there will be terrible judgement.  
 
In specific relation to what is happening to our Royal family, however, it is perhaps instructive at this point to have a brief look at history.  Under pagan belief systems, it was believed that the person and wellbeing of the king was supernaturally tied to the life, strength, and welfare of the nation.  In his person, the king held power over the fertility of the soil, over the climate, and over the general wellbeing of the people.  If the land suffered misfortune, plague, famine, crop failure, flood, or defeat in battle, the king would be held responsible.  Similarly, if there was something inherently wrong with the land – some ‘sin’ that somehow put it out of alignment – then this would be reflected in the person and health of the king.
 
In recent years, the UK has increasingly reverted to a pagan mindset.  The current obsession with our ability to control climate change is a version of this, as too is the national fascination with magic, our celebration of promiscuity, and our societal acceptance of the worship of alien gods.  As part of the gift of free will, God allows us this ‘choice’, but the point is, we cannot choose only part of what is included.  If we choose ‘pagan’ belief over redemption and the freedom offered by Christ, then we place ourselves under the domination of sin, with all the consequences that flow from that.  Under paganism, the royal family, and most especially the person of the monarch, would be seen as a figurehead – to put it another way, a supernaturally appointed ‘frontman’. If, therefore, the land is diseased, small wonder the accredited representative then mirrors that affliction.  Similarly, if the monarch is spiritually and morally out of alignment, that influence will be reflected in the state of the nation. 
 
We all pray now for a speedy restoration to health for the King, Kate, and the Duchess of York.  But for full healing for both them and the nation, it is urgent that we reject this pseudo-allegiance to paganism, and that our society undergoes immediate and radical surgery – to cut out the disease we have allowed to take root.  And then, like Kate and the King, our nation will require follow up treatment to make sure the disease does not return.
 
We need urgently to repent our casual and unthinking slaughter of the unborn; our celebration of sexual licence and deviance; our rejection of biology and natural law, and attempted control of the environment; and, most important of all, our attempt to remake God in our own image.  The UK has long been a Christian country.  Our society, culture, and laws are all founded on Christian belief, as set down in the Bible. 
 
Can this land be restored to health and live again?  Yes, but only if it returns to the values and belief on which our nation is founded, and if we once again swear obedience to Christ, so that we return to His protection.  God’s will is to save, but the only way we can now escape judgment is by repentance.