The Bible and Brexit

There is no doubt that Brexit has divided the country with a 50/50 split almost. Friendships have broken down, families have split up because of disagreements on whether this country that we live in should be or shouldn’t be part of a club with other nations in Europe.

Even people who proclaim to have a faith have split views.

The evangelist David Hathaway declared Brexit as “an answer to prayer” after connecting it with prophecies in the book of Daniel. On the other hand the bishop of Leeds declared Brexit to be “Calamitous, wrong, misguided and crazy”.

So is it divine intervention or a disaster?! The answer could be a bit of both or neither if I’m honest!

Keep focused

There are those who are excited by Brexit as they feel that prophecy is being fulfilled. I, however, don’t think we can be dogmatic about that, and when excitement can be mistaken for political opinion, this can do damage to the gospel message.

As Christians we should stick to preaching about what we were told to preach. We need to actively respond to his message by preaching about things we have been told to preach – to love God, first and foremost and obey his commands, to love one another including our enemies and to preach the return of our Lord to this Earth and the Kingdom.

Christians should not be trying to shoe horn prophecy into current affairs to be able to say “I told you so” in the vain hope that it will make people listen, if we predict the socio-economic future of this nation.

It’s been said that Brexit happened as the people wanted more control from immigrants coming into the country. I’ve heard people shouting at the radio about immigrants and saying “GET THEM OUT!” Many of these immigrants work hard in our schools and in our NHS or have fled their own war torn country. Where is the compassion? Where is the love for our neighbours?

When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.

Leviticus 19:33-34

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command:

Love your neighbour as yourself.

Galatians 5:14

Jesus said…

Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan as an example of how to treat people. Especially people who we don’t know or are foreign. We should treat them as we would want to be treated. If we only love a select few people who are close to us then we are not showing love at all, it’s not true unconditional love.

I’m comforted with the words and actions of Jesus to be my guide. Jesus knew how to treat foreigners, he loved them as he loves us, he knew how to treat sinners. We are all foreigners somewhere and we are all sinners. We should all try to love one another and look to Jesus’ example instead of looking for ways to trip each other up.

Jesus gave himself up for us on the cross for us because He loved us. He didn’t know us but he still loved us and gave his life for us. When so many people are disagreeing with each other politically we must keep in mind what Jesus actually taught us. That we should show love to one another, and look after one another, no matter where they come from.

We can’t predict the future or predict what will happen next with Brexit so let’s focus on what we do know – that we should show love to our God, to each other and look to the Kingdom that we believe is coming. If you’d like to learn more about God’s Kingdom then check out our Bible Basics article on The Kingdom of God on Earth