The real stakes in the Brexit debate

Great Britain was gripped in the jaws of death. Stranded on the coast of Dunkirk, France, in May 1940, the British Army was surrounded by the advancing German Army. France was soon to fall, and it seemed that no physical force could stop Adolf Hitler’s war machine. The War Cabinet predicted that only 20,000 men would return to the British isles. Over 300,000 men fought bravely in France. A dark gloom of disaster enshrouded the nation.

In times of crisis, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill enjoyed pondering quotations that reflected his mood. After giving the orders for evacuation, he asked one of his secretaries to locate an excerpt from George Borrow’s “Prayer for England at Gibraltar.” It simply said, “Fear not the result, for either shall thy end be a majestic and an enviable one, or God shall perpetuate thy reign upon the waters.” It seemed oddly prophetic.

King George vi responded to the catastrophe by calling for a national day of prayer and fasting. He urged the people of the British Empire to commit their cause to God and to humbly seek His intervention. On May 26, thousands of Britons poured into churches across the country, including the royal family and the Churchills. Such a national act has not occurred since.

God did intervene in the conflict. A great storm broke out on May 28 that essentially grounded the German Air Force, stopping it from inflicting mass casualties on the unprotected British Army. Hitler mysteriously ordered his armies to stop advancing on the Allied positions. When Operation Dynamo began on June 9, the normally turbulent English Channel became so calm that even small rowboats were used to help evacuate the soldiers.

At the end of Operation Dynamo, more than 335,000 soldiers were rescued. They left all of their equipment behind, so it was not a victory, but it was a miracle. The greatest battles were ahead, but disaster had been averted. The event became known as the Miracle of Dunkirk.

In October 1942, Winston Churchill said:

I sometimes have a feeling of interference. I want to stress that. I have a feeling sometimes that some guiding hand has interfered. I have a feeling that we have a Guardian because we have a great cause and we shall have that Guardian so long as we serve that cause faithfully.

Today, Great Britain has little interest in such a Guardian.

The United Kingdom is expected to decide the nation’s involvement in the European Union on June 23. The European Union referendum could be the defining choice for 21st-century Britain.

Both the Leave and Remain campaigns are doing their best and worst to convince voters to take their side. Prime Minister David Cameron said that if Britain leaves the EU, war is more likely on the Continent. Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, has compared the EU to the regime of Hitler. Both sides have claimed that Churchill would support their position. Both have evoked history in their argument, claiming to represent the natural result of Britain’s historical narrative. However, both sides are ignoring the most important history.

The government and people of Britain have forgotten their Guardian, the great God, whom they have a history with. The Brexit debate is exposing how faithless the nation has become. The last time the nation asked God for help was in 1940. There is amazing proof that God intervened to help them in their stand against Hitler. With the Brexit question, the people of Britain need to look at how God views their history and place in the world.

However, the leaders and people of Britain have created a false dichotomy in which their only choice is to have faith in Europe or in themselves—God is not an option.

Faith in Europe?

One of the most disturbing trends in the Remain camp is the amount of faith it holds in the European Union. Should the British people trust Europe for their security and economic prosperity? This question has been at the heart of Britain’s decision-making for as long as it has been a nation. History shows that the entire modern world has benefited from Britain’s opposition to Europe, rather than its integration with it.

It is clear that the island nation has taken a trajectory different from the Continent. This is partly due to its geographic separation. The English Channel has provided security from aggressive neighbors and some level of cultural autonomy. It is undeniable that British culture has developed differently from that of Europe. The Roman system of law and government never took root in Britain. The autocratic tendencies of Europe and the Roman Catholic Church were repelled and a completely new form of law and order developed. The Magna Carta could not have been created in Paris, Berlin, Vienna or Rome. The foundation of modern freedom took its first breath on the grassy field of Runnymede, and now its heartbeat can be felt across the four corners of the Earth.

The empires of Charlemagne, Charles v, Louis xiv, Napoleon Bonaparte or Otto von Bismarck did not make this freedom possible. The curious originality and inventiveness of the United Kingdom accompanied the revolutionary government. The Industrial Revolution, capitalism, common law, King James Bible and the spread of a common language all began in the island nation. While Europe imploded in religious division and generational conflict, Britain was able to pull ahead and advance. The British fought many wars, including several on their own soil. But most of those wars were about countering European subversion and interference.

British history reveals that Britain’s heritage and traditions are different from Europe’s. Most attempts toward European unification have been made under authoritarian regimes, usually affiliated with the Catholic Church. Some European nations have only a shallow tradition of modern democracy, which is a thin veneer covering tyrannical tendencies. The EU is only the latest manifestation of the ancient goals of the Roman Empire; Caesar’s legions have been replaced by more sophisticated economic weapons.

European nations have played a major role in Bible prophecy. Each nation has benefited civilization to varying degrees. But Europe’s grand heritage has been the prophesied seven resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire written about in the biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. We are now seeing the seventh and last resurrection of this empire! The EU will develop into a final attempt for a pan-European empire orchestrated by the Catholic Church. The empires of Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Charles v, Louis xiv, Napoleon and Hitler are the foundation of the EU. Is that what the British people should put their faith in?

In 1980, world-renowned educator and unofficial ambassador for world peace Herbert W. Armstrong dogmatically declared that Britain would ultimately not be part of this seventh and last resurrection. Whether or not this is fulfilled on June 23 is unknown, but Britain will get out of the EU eventually.

Faith in Britain?

The Leave campaign has focused on the benefits of Britain recovering sovereignty over its economic, judicial and security concerns. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of EU regulations interfere with efficiency and competition. The Leave group believes Britain is better off negotiating its own free-trade agreements, rather than be hitched to the EU. At its core, the EU is a protectionist economic organization that can harm a nation like Britain that is dependent on imports for sustenance and exports for prosperity.

Another bone of contention is the recent leak of confidential plans for the creation of an EU army. Further details will not be released until after the Brexit referendum. Germany has already begun integrating Dutch units into its own military. It is unlikely that Britain would allow its regiments, older than some of the member nations, to become subservient to a European command structure.

Prime Minister Cameron is opposed to a Brexit, and many world leaders have warned Britain against leaving the EU. Among these is United States President Barack Obama, who commented that Britain “would be at the back of the queue” for a trade agreement with the U.S. if the Brexit did occur.

The disintegration of the “special relationship” between America and Britain makes the outlook more bleak. The U.S. was the only force that enabled Britain’s survival of two world wars and prevented the usual oblivion of imperial decline. Most empires end in conquest; British hegemony passed peacefully into pax-Americana. This special relationship was key to the World War ii victory, and to Britain’s relative stability even while declining. Today, this relationship is a mere shadow of what it once was. This makes Brexit even more difficult, as Britain is almost guaranteed to be isolated by Europe and America. In a sense, the Brexit question is whether Britain will anchor itself to Europe or retain its independence and rely on its special relationship with America.

The Leave campaign cites Britain’s historical role in Europe. Britain was once the world’s greatest empire, leading the world commercially, industrially and culturally. The British people were great. Could those days return? Is there any British exceptionalism left in the sceptered isle? To leave the EU is to put faith in the British people. No matter the uncertainty of leaving the EU, the Leave campaign says, Britain will successfully navigate its way to success.

Staying in the EU could end centuries-old institutions in Britain that were milestones of world history.

Britain was indeed great, but why? Answering this question is the key to understanding the Brexit question. The British Empire was the fulfillment of a promise made by the great God. Greatness did not come from the British people; it was bestowed from above.

Britain believing in itself will neither solve its problems nor prevent disaster. Placing its faith in Europe will only lead to a further loss of its identity. Both paths portend catastrophe. The wise choice for the British people would be to put their faith in God.

Faith in God

When King George vi called for a national day of prayer and fasting, he expected God to respond. The King knew physical circumstances could not guarantee a British victory. As a young man, he traveled to different parts of the empire around the world, and had been convinced that a divine destiny underpinned British rule. Surely, it would not end at the hands of Adolf Hitler, he thought.

His father, King George v, also called for a day of prayer during World War i. Soon after, the tide of war swung in favor of the alliance. Time after time, miracles saved Britain from defeat and delivered victory. Too many examples exist to discount the providential nature of British history.

However, King George v and his son did not know the true God. Their ancestors had rejected Him long before. God did intervene to save 20th-century Britain from destruction, but it was part of God’s larger plan. God catapulted Britain to global power for a specific purpose, and the British received blessings despite their own sins and mistakes. It is this purpose that should enlighten the referendum on June 23.

Four thousand years ago, a man named Abram lived in Mesopotamia at a place called Ur of the Chaldees. He was a man of great learning, influence and wealth. The post-Flood civilization was relatively young, and Abram was a faithful man who obeyed God’s laws. As recorded in Genesis 12:1-3, God spoke to Abram and promised him a future that would change world history:

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Abram was 75 years old when God gave him these dual promises: the promise of national greatness to his children (promise of race) and the promise that the Messiah would come through his family line (promise of grace). Many theologians recognize the promise of grace, but they completely disregard the promise of race. God intended for Abram’s descendants to become a model nation, obeying His laws and being a light for the rest of humanity.

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and made the promises unconditional after a severe test (Genesis 22).

Those promises were given to two of those descendants, Ephraim and Manasseh, known as Great Britain and the United States today. (To learn more, read Herbert W. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)

Ever since Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, either Britain or America has been the world superpower. The world has largely benefited from the bounty of God blessing these two nations, whether through economic benefits or military protection.

Here’s the point: Britain only became great because of promises made to Abraham, who unconditionally obeyed God. Those promises made over 4,000 years earlier put Britain in a position of power and prestige. Even though the 19th-century British people did not know the God of Abraham, He still gave them these blessings. But the sins of the people have caused God to remove those blessings. The world’s greatest empire has almost lost everything in 75 years. Now it is at another crossroads, with both choices leading to further ruin.

Instead of arguing about Brexit, the British people should agree to a return to God. Their only hope is to look to the great God for direction. However, their sins have been pulling them further and further away from God. Mr. Armstrong wrote in The United States and Britain in Prophecy:

How any … English-speaking inheritor of God’s choicest material blessings—can, in the face of such stupendous, overwhelming fulfillment of prophecy—such awe-inspiring demonstration of the power and might and faithfulness of Almighty God—accept and partake of these blessings, and then carelessly ignore God’s warning that our sins today are increasing, or fail to get to his knees before the great Almighty, repent, and intercede in heart-rending prayer for all Israelite nations, and help in every way he can to warn our people now of their impending peril, seems impossible to conceive.

On May 8, 1945, King George vi delivered his Victory in Europe speech. After five years of bitter war, the King reflected on the sacrifices and losses necessary for victory. Twice in his lifetime he had been in world war. He was a gunner in the battle of Jutland in 1916 and witnessed his father call for the nation to go to God in the midst of calamity. Later, he did the same. When he delivered the victory speech, the tyrannical Nazi regime had just been defeated. But the war for peace was just beginning. The King knew Britain needed God to guide it in the task of peace—Britain needs the true God now more than ever before. King George vi ended his speech with these words: