Rishi Sunak is joined by his wife Akshata and daughters as they light candles in Downing Street to mark Diwali
“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works,” Psalm 145:8-9.
So read the headline in ‘The Daily Mail’. ‘Diwali’ is a a pagan celebration, chiefly marked by Hindus, though other pagan religions have a similar celebrations. Wikipedia says of this event: “Diwali is connected to various religious events, deities and personalities, such as being the day Rama returned to his kingdom in Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating the demon king Ravana. It is also widely associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and Ganesha, the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles. Other regional traditions connect the holiday to Vishnu, Krishna, Durga, Shiva, Kali, Hanuman, Kubera, Yama, Yami, Dhanvantari, or Vishvakarman.”
Many ungodly men have been pictured on the doorstep of ‘10 Downing Street’ over the years, but I believe that this is the first time it has been the site of the marking of a heathen event!
I read this morning from Psalm 145. Verse 9 says: “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” In a land where God’s Word, in past generations, has framed to a very large degree, the laws giving men ‘civil and religious liberty’, this goodness and tender mercy that David the Psalmist speaks of, is very much manifested.
It is through the liberties that the Lord has bestowed upon our nation that the Prime Minister and his family and others of their religion, can ‘celebrate’ and display their ‘faith’.
I believe I am correct in saying that such freedom is not evident in lands dominated by Hinduism! I have knowledge of the difficulties that Christians have in the land of India, which is some 80% Hindu!
While the true Christian will readily afford his neighbour the freedom to worship ‘whom and what and when’ he pleases, sadly such proffered freedom is abused, as the streets of the United Kingdom have witnessed all too frequently of late. Tolerance is deemed a weakness to be exploited and an opportunity to seek to overthrow the civil and social order in our land.
I believe the recently deposed Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, was very correct in pointing out the very obvious truth that the ‘police’ show favour to pro-Palestinian protesters. She could have gone on to say that this bias is shared by parliament and the civil service and other institutions of the state!
Is this not because we have a Prime Minister who can have no loyalty to a national order, the laws and rules regulating public behaviour, which were born in the past of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
In today’s ‘ecumenical, theologically liberal’, society, such a display is deemed a ‘success, a triumph’ for the ‘gospel of Christ’ that it adheres to. Such a claim is made of a ‘false gospel’ and of a ‘false Christ’!
Long ago, a similar spirit was seen in a day of similar apostasy.
“Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee,” Jeremiah 7:8-16.
Those closing words indicate that the ‘day of mercy’ had come to an an end for rebellious, unheeding Judah.
I believe that a like divine ‘sentence’ has been pronounced in these end-times upon our nation for the same reasons as it was pronounced upon Judah in the days of Jeremiah.
History is repeating itself yet again and that for the last time in this age!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
13th November, 2023