The United Kingdom’s Call to Repentance

repentance2 As a new year dawns over the United Kingdom, we stand at a threshold moment; an age-defining hinge in our national story. The skies above us echo with the thunder of a divine summons, the same call spoken through the prophets of old: “Return to Me, and I will return to you,” declares YHWH of Hosts. (Mal 3:7)

Every nation experiences moments in its history when the eternal God issues a summons that cuts through political noise, cultural tremors and spiritual lethargy. Such moments function as divine crossroads, where decisions taken, or refused, shape the destiny of generations. The United Kingdom has reached such a moment.

But the reality is that ours is not the first generation to lose its way. However, we may be the first in centuries to do so with the full knowledge of God’s Word, His blessings, His covenantal heritage, and the testimony of our forebears; yet while still insisting that we can reshape morality, truth and identity apart from Him.

This message is written not in anger but in love, not in despair but in fierce hope, not in judgement but in response to a call. This message is a trumpet-blast, a warning, a wake-up call and a promise.

The same God who tore down Jerusalem’s walls for her unfaithfulness also restored her with everlasting love (Jer 31). The same God who judged Israel’s idolatry in Ezekiel also promised to give His people a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek 36). The same God who disciplines His children is the One calling out to us today, “Return to Me.”

The same God who disciplines His children is the One calling out to us today, “Return to Me.”

The UK, our beloved nation, is being given one final chance to return.

The Prophets Still Speak

I believe that if Jeremiah walked the streets of London today, if Ezekiel stood by the River Thames as he once stood by the Kebar, then their words would need little updating.

Jeremiah would say: “You have abandoned the fountain of living waters and dug broken cisterns that hold no water” (Jer 2:13). Ezekiel would cry out: You have followed the gods of the nations, you have defiled the sanctuary of My name, and you call evil good and good evil (Ezek 6:11).

And yet, here is the astonishing thing, the prophetic heart of God beats not with destruction, but restoration. My friend and mentor Dr Dwight Pryor always said that the covenant is not simply a contract, it is the heartbeat of a faithful husband pursuing an unfaithful bride.

Israel’s exile was not YHWH abandoning His people but YHWH refusing to give them over to their sins. Judgment was not the last word, restoration was. And it is the same for us today. The UK resembles ancient Judah in at least four ways:

A blessed spiritual heritage now despised.
A rejection of the moral law as burdensome and outdated.
A fascination with foreign gods; pluralism, expressive individualism, self-deification.
A belief that national identity can be rebuilt without reference to God

Like in the time of Ezekiel, the United Kingdom has desecrated the foundations that once made it a fountain of gospel proclamation, moral order and missionary zeal.

The covenant is not simply a contract, it is the heartbeat of a faithful husband pursuing an unfaithful bride.

Thus, when the UK rejects the statutes and judgments that formed its legal and moral architecture, it does not simply decline culturally; it falls under covenantal warning. The prophetic pattern is always the same: Blessing; Drift; Idolatry; Warning; Judgment; Repentance; Restoration. In my estimation the UK right now is somewhere between warning and judgement. The time is short.

A Cosmic Stage: The Reality Behind Our Crisis

The Bible consists not only of moral instruction; it is a cosmic drama that we are part of. There are powers, principalities and unseen rulers aligned against the purposes of God (Deut 32; Eph 6:12). Nations are not merely political constructions; they are spiritual inheritances contested in the heavenly realm.

As a result, when a nation rejects God’s authority, when it enthrones idols of identity, autonomy and self-definition, and when it disconnects itself from Scripture and moral truth, it becomes vulnerable to the influence of lesser gods, malignant spiritual powers that seek our ruin. The UK’s current and ongoing crisis is therefore not merely cultural or political. It is cosmic.

This is why our drift has felt so sudden, so aggressive and so disordered. The UK has legally, culturally and morally detached itself from biblical foundations It has entered a secular vacuum and has entered spiritual occupation. This is why the rapid cultural transformations of the last decades feel too coordinated, too charged and too irrational to be mere political fashion.

Our children are catechised by worldviews that deny the Creator and our society calls holiness ‘hate’ and celebrates rebellion as righteousness

Our disordered nation has become a playground for disordered powers. These powers, arrayed against truth, have accelerated their assault; our institutions have been discipled by ideologies that mock God’s design; our children are catechised by worldviews that deny the Creator and our society calls holiness ‘hate’ and celebrates rebellion as righteousness. This is not merely decline, this is war!

The darkest hour is very often the hour before awakening. Arriving at this dark hour has included one of the most significant theological failures of modern British Christianity; its retreat from a biblical understanding of and alignment with Israel.

This outline of the UK’s repudiation of Israel is written carefully, historically, prophetically and theologically.

Our Biblical Foundations for National Alignment with Israel

God’s covenant with Israel is everlasting, as demonstrated in Jeremiah 31:35-37. It is grounded not merely in history but in creation itself.

To bless or curse Israel, Scripture teaches, is not only morally consequential, it is spiritually determinative (Gen 12:3). Nations that honour Israel participate in God’s covenantal blessing, while nations that oppose it incur Gods judgment. Paul affirms this in Romans: ‘They are beloved for the sake of the fathers. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.’ (11:28-29). Thus, the national posturing toward Israel is not political positioning, it is covenantal alignment.

Britain increasingly aligned with hostile Arab powers for geopolitical expediency. This legacy continues to haunt Britain spiritually.

The UK’s role in Jewish history is paradoxical. 1917’s Balfour Declaration was a monumental act of favour toward the Jewish people, and the post-WWI Mandate for Palestine placed Britain in a position of stewardship. Yet the stewardship was often marked by hesitation, duplicity, political anxiety and broken promises.

During the 1930s-40s the Mandatory British authorities restricted Jewish immigration to the Land, even while Jewish refugees fled European extermination. British forces actively prevented Holocaust survivors from reaching the Land of Israel. Britain increasingly aligned with hostile Arab powers for geopolitical expediency. This legacy continues to haunt Britain spiritually.

When Israel declared independence in 1948, Britain withdrew in confusion, leaving chaos behind. The UK refused to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. For decades UK foreign policy tilted toward appeasing Israel’s enemies. This confusion and inconsistency has only deepened in the modern era. From a covenantal standpoint, blessing Israel is alignment with God and withholding blessing, or participating in political hostility, is spiritual misalignment.

It is not necessary to endorse all Israeli policies to affirm God’s covenant with Israel. But a nation that denies Israel’s biblical legitimacy, or treats her as morally suspect for defending her existence, enters spiritual contradiction. Historically, nations that turned against Israel eventually turned against themselves.

The UK’s moral disintegration, societal fragmentation and spiritual confusion can be understood partly through this lens, that separation from Israel has mirrored a deeper separation from God’s blessings.

Historically, nations that turned against Israel eventually turned against themselves.

Seismic Shifts

These two paths often converge, and I would suggest that they have in the UK, a nation that once trembled at the Word of God. Where once our laws, institutions, universities, and ancient traditions were shaped by Scripture, whose hymnody, literature and moral imagination were rooted in a biblical worldview, the UK has seen a seismic shift. Actually, a number of shifts took place:

We moved from reverence to neglect.
The Bible was no longer honoured.
Church attendance waned.
Faith became private rather than public.
We moved from neglect to rejection.
God’s laws were dismissed as outdated.
The moral foundations that built this nation were knowingly dismantled.
Truth became subjective; morality became expressive.
We moved from rejection to inversion.

Thus it is that:

Today we celebrate what Scripture condemns.
Today we condemn what Scripture celebrates.
Today we have become like Israel in the days of the judges: ‘Every man did what was right in his own eyes.’

A Prophetic Warning

As the prophets warned pagan nations that opposed Israel (Ezek 25 - 32), and as God held gentile nations accountable for their treatment of His people, so too Scripture teaches that the nations will be judged for their dealings with Israel in the last days (Joel 3:1-2). Therefore:

A nation that forgets God will forget Israel.
A nation that despises Israel will soon despise righteousness.
A nation in rebellion against God’s covenant purposes will drift into spiritual captivity.

The UK must repent not only of its internal sins, but also of its external failures. These include its inconsistent and often hostile posture toward the very people through whom God gave Scripture and the Messiah. Do we not know that a nation cannot change God’s moral order and expect blessing?

The UK must repent not only of its internal sins, but also of its external failures.

Led by apostate shepherds, wilfully blind politicians and the foot soldiers of the Adversary, we have sown to the wind. Now the whirlwind is gathering. But God is telling us that this doesn’t have to be the end. We can heed His call to return.

The Warning of Jesus: Wheat and Tares

Jesus described the end of the age with frightening clarity. In the field of the world, wheat grows alongside tares, truth alongside deception, holiness alongside rebellion, the kingdom of God alongside the kingdom of darkness. But Jesus warned: “At the end of the age… the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers.” (Matt 13:41)

The shaking has begun. The separation is intensifying. The exposure of hearts is underway. The UK is being sifted and the question we have to answer is whether we harden our hearts or repent.

Apostolic Voices: A Call to Repentance

The apostles spoke with urgency to their own generation: “Repent, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)

“Judgment begins with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17).

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

Repentance is not shame. Repentance is turning to the One who heals, restores, renews and empowers. YHWH is saying that the UK can yet experience ‘times of refreshing’, but not without repentance.

The Spirit of God is calling the United Kingdom to repentance.

A Nation at the Crossroads: The Trumpet Call to the UK

This new year is not a ritual moment, it is a prophetic crossroads. The Spirit of God is calling the United Kingdom to repentance:

Repent of abandoning God’s Word: Return to the Scriptures as the foundation of truth, morality and national identity.
Repent of redefining what God has defined: Marriage, family, human identity, justice and righteousness; these are not for us to engineer.
Repent of silencing the voice of conscience. We have ignored the warnings. We must now humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand.
Repent of trusting in political saviours: No party, no ideology, nor policy can heal our spiritual crisis. Only repentance before YHWH can do that.
Repent of national pride that refuses divine correction: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Righteousness exalts a nation whilst pride goes before destruction and arrogance before failure.

The prophets spoke to individuals as well as nations; their message still stands.

YHWH’s Promise if We Return

The God of Jeremiah 31 still speaks: “I have loved you with an everlasting love … I will build you again …I will turn your mourning into joy.” If the UK repents at the national, institutional, ecclesial and personal level; if we return, then restoration will follow in various forms:

Spiritual awakening
Renewed moral clarity
Righteousness restored
Strengthened families
Healed divisions
God’s blessings returning to our land.

The same God who restored Israel after the exile can restore this nation after its long wandering.

We confess our sins: our pride, our rebellion, our moral confusion, our idolatry of self and our abandonment of Your Word.

A Prayer for Our Nation

   Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Shepherd of Israel, Ruler over the nations – have mercy upon the United Kingdom, we pray.
   We confess our sins: our pride, our rebellion, our moral confusion, our idolatry of self and our abandonment of Your Word. We ask for cleansing, awakening and holy fear. Pour out upon us the spirit of grace and supplication. Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.
   Renew Your covenant mercies in our day. Restore Your presence in our land. Revive Your Church. Save our nation. In the name of Jesus the Messiah, the King above all kings. Amen.

A Final Charge

2026 is the year for courageous repentance, and the year for Jesus’ Church to rise. This is the year for the UK to return to the God who has not forgotten her. For YHWH declares: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jer 6:16)

United Kingdom; choose the ancient path. Return to the Lord. He will return to you. “Choose this day whom you will serve.”

(Image by Pexels from Pixabay)

Nick Thompson, 12/01/2026

Feedback:

		John Shipton (Guest)	13/01/2026 00:02
Nick, you are a gem for this article published. You dare to stand up and be counted as there are not many folk, and their church leaders, who will say otherwise. Church establishments are not or refuse to take heed over the Judgement of God; nor do they wish to make a such calling. Many are playing the spiritual game of power and control of their own destinies without facing the consequences. A number refuse to Go Ye because of not offending the religious status quo and other religions who have set up shop in the United Kingdom. While others despise the national flag of Israel, blame Israel for the crisis in the Middle East, and are anti Semitic towards God's chosen people, the Jews. Instead, religious people attending the so-called Christian churches, like to indulge in demonstrations under the Palestinian flag, supporting the Palestinian cause - a choice of political reasoning. Many have not the time (as an excuse) to pray for our nation, church leaderships refuse to open church doors for Believers to come together to pray, and play ignorant to the call by Almighty God to Repentance and Salvation. Becoming naive appears a way of life when fear rules the hearts of members of the denominational and independent church institutions, and the fear of persecution prevails in the consequences following in standing up to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and His commandment to preach the message of the Gospel. That is one reason as to why church establishments avoid in contending the Faith in city and town centres, especially shopping areas and market places, whereby openly and publicly, this is considered out of date and no longer appropriate for any occasion. Instead, the approach is for people to go to church services held on a Sunday, to be entertained by modern methods of persuasion, and folk to go home enlightened. All behind this is because professional ordained clergymen (lack in abundance) are more concerned about their position and authority, pensionable rights and home ownership, and having a suitable salary of their liking with all of the quirks that go with it. For they have become paid hirelings and are not true shepherds of the flock, entertaining every wind and doctrine that comes to hand, allowing suspect erroneous teachings and practices to rule their hearts and of their followers, while giving credence to false signs and wonders. It is no wonder the nation has turned aside to the Almighty God's calling when the Judgement of God has befolded and is upon the Christian Church as it is portrayed and seen in the 21st century. Until it wakes up, the downturn will continue as brethren continue to argue and debate the way forward until the cows come home, with rather than the predicted revival said to be on the cards, instead the falling away gains momentum, and church chapels seen closing down and abandoned all over the UK. Until Believers, wherever they may be, stand up for Jesus, encourage Christians to do so, and take the helm when church leaderships are failing, put on the whole Amour of God to be prepared to Fight the good Fight in the power of the Holy Spirit given. And not remain silent on the issue of Repentance and Salvation which Nick has mentioned. Praise the Lord! Maranatha!!