Post-Brexit Britain - Atlantis Reborn?

December at last! And the start of the party season which marks Christmas and New Year's Eve respectively. Next weekend (that is Sunday 15th) there will be a Carol Service at Ascot Life Church beginning at 4.00 pm and another one at the Kerith Centre at 7.00 pm. I'll be attending both, God willing, the later service through an invitation made by my good friend Dr Andrew Milnthorpe, who, this week, offered me a level of prayerful comfort after finding out that I'm waiting for a hospital appointment for tests to rule out the possibility of bladder cancer.

But the atmosphere of "goodwill and peace to all men" made manifest by the presence of Christmas trees illuminated by coloured light bulbs, fake glittery presents purposely placed around these trees in a public setting, tinsel and baubles hanging from wall to wall - such a festive air of goodwill seems tainted with anxiety and a feeling of uncertainty by the coming general election for the leaders of either of the two main parties for Government power. Those two candidates are our present Prime Minister Boris Johnson for upholding a free-market economy, against the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn for promoting "extreme Marxism" which to many, poses a threat to the future of our country.

And so the two were up for an hour-long debate, with BBC reporter Nick Robinson as the monitor. With The Daily Mail national newspaper making a lot of fuss about Johnson's very narrow victory of the debate, a 52/48% majority, according to a snap YouGov poll, leaving he newspaper pleading with the electorate to vote Conservative at the next election, itself taking place less than a week after this blog is written and published. The narrowness of the capitalist's victory over the socialist leader does pose a threat of a hung-Parliament with a chance of Corbyn, with the support of, or even a coalition with, the Scottish National Party's leader Nicola Sturgeon, taking the keys of number 10 Downing Street.

Therefore the newspaper promises "a fabulous golden age of National Sovereignty and independence from Europe, where businesses will thrive, people will have well-paid jobs, world-wide trading being established, the building of up to sixty hospitals, the training of thousands of nurses, the immigration of skilled people only into the UK" - all promised to happen after Brexit. Or in other words, an independent nation of engineering skills and technology, along with a thriving economy.

Yet the newspaper is running scared. And that is despite that during the early stages of the BBC debate, no mention was made whatsoever by The Daily Mail of Johnson's constant er-er-humming in hesitation when an awkward question was presented to him. All he could come up with was GET BREXIT DONE! over and over again like a computerised zombie programmed by some insane maniac. Even then, a YouGov poll reveals a higher level of trustworthiness towards Corbyn despite his defeat in the debate. On Johnson's constant hesitation to answer directly, the Tory-leaning newspaper remains ominously quiet.

I suppose the unrealistic optimism of promising something of a resurrection of Atlantis after Brexit takes quite a beating! This was a fabulous island-continent somewhere "beyond the Pillars of Hercules" - according to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, meaning somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean. This landmass supported a population who was supposed to be so advanced in engineering and technology and enjoying a thriving economy before descending into wickedness, eventually resulting in a mass swallowing up by the ocean. A fabulous myth? Maybe so, but there is that distant echo of the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished - 2 Peter 3:6 - a strong indication of not being a mythical but a historic event. And a global event too, not just restricted to the Atlantic Ocean.

Fantasy image of Atlantis submerged by the ocean.

Perhaps for the Tory-voting, Brexit-supporting businesses and entrepreneurs, the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is accused of supporting or endorsing antisemitism within his own party might offer some hope of this Labour leader will suffer defeat at the election. But among these Tory hopefuls, I actually wonder how many of them are familiar with that one verse in the Bible:

I will bless those who bless you, but anyone who curses you will be cursed (Genesis 12:3.)

It's so unfortunate that the greater majority of the electorate, both Tory and Labour, are not aware that a leader's attitude towards the Jews can be the reason for either his elevation or his downfall. If Corbyn is defeated at the coming election, then one cause of his downfall could be from his antisemitic attitude both within himself and in other members of his party. That is my opinion. But the many, who are aware of this verse, having learnt it at Religious Education classes at school but without conversion, will equate it as a fairy tale, although still acknowledging that Abraham might have existed, unlike that of Adam or Noah.

Maybe that's the reason sceptical scientists laugh at the idea of Atlantis having ever existed, just as much as Noah having ever existed at all. Both Plato's Atlantis and Noah's Flood speak of the same thing - a judgement sent from heaven to punish wickedness within a thriving society. And what I can see, Boris' optimistic utopia following Brexit looks to be very parallel to Atlantis and the antediluvian world. All three reached the height of technological splendour and with a flourishing economy - but all three rejecting God. As Jesus himself once said,

In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and took them all away (Matthew 24:38, Luke 17:26.)

If that wasn't enough, then Jesus continues:

It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone came and destroyed them all (Luke 17:28-29.)

Little wonder the Bible is mocked or even hated to this day. Here were two flourishing economies, both divinely destroyed. Therefore Jesus must be endorsing history, for he spoke as if these events were history. There was nothing bad about these cultures (eg heterosexual marriage), nothing bad about these economies, nothing bad about these projects - their skills, their ability to educate themselves and become experts in architectural and engineering marvels. Their main shortcoming was to reject God and deny his existence. That left them feeling optimistic, fueled by self-confidence, opening the door for every kind of debauchery, along with all the sexual, covetous, and murderous sins the human heart could ever bring up.

Therefore my doubts on Boris Johnson's long-term optimism for a flourishing golden age of post-Brexit Britain. Although it's a crying shame, such hope doesn't have its foundation on the Rock of Christ but on the sand of Darwinism. Okay, for you who may be regular readers of this page, I know, I go on and on about this Darwinian theory opposing Divine Creation. But it's this, I believe, which has sent millions into a lost eternity in the past couple of centuries! A terrible tragedy. Tragic because it was a lost destiny I could have been heading myself, as I was once an atheist, a God-hater and a devout evolutionist.

It gives me no joy to write like this, hence my wish for all my Christian brothers not to bother so much about Brexit, but to be more emphatic about Divine Creation, along with Christ and his Kingdom, the final destiny, so wished for by the apostles that the speeding of his coming as part of their prayers - for a quick redemption of both body and soul alike. Heaven is about being in the presence of God, who is Love, the eternal love shared between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and God's gracious wish and desire to share this eternal love with his Creation, with mankind, actually partaking in this love and sharing all the joys which go with it.

At Creation, God appointed a federal head of all mankind, Adam. But since the Fall, God appointed two more. Those two were Abraham, the father of all Jews, a nation appointed to intercede for all nations, and Jesus Christ himself, the Second Adam. All mankind is born in Adam, but through faith in the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the believer becomes one in Christ. Furthermore, the Christian receives the imputed righteousness of Christ into his account. That means that God the Father sees him in the same way as he sees his Son, the believer in Christ and Christ in the believer. And because the Father sees the believer in the same way as his Son, the believer can never be lost again.

As for Adam himself, the federal head of all mankind, is he in Christ? Yes, I actually believe he is (along with Eve). When God rebuked the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve believed, and thus, the righteousness of Christ was imputed into their accounts (Genesis 3:15). But they were still driven out of the garden due to their sinful bodies. The fact that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God is why, when a saint dies, his spirit and soul goes to Heaven to be with Christ while his body goes to the grave.

Three federal heads: Adam, Abraham, and Jesus Christ. As such the plan of salvation which is infinitely greater than any utopian ideal dreamt by any political leader. Each of the three has a bride, a wife for the husband to love and care for. Adam had Eve, Abraham had Serah, and as for Jesus, his bride is still in the making. She is the Church, a nation of called-out saints who have received his imputed righteousness. 

Reader, if you are a believer in Christ and you are indwelt by his Holy Spirit, then I beseech you to let go of Brexit and take hold of the greater promises God has in store for you. As I say of Brexit, is the same instruction Jesus gave to one of his listeners:

Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60.)