Pastor David Carson from Chester, Pastor John Sherwood from Finchley, North London, Pastor Peter Simpson from High Wycombe, Dr David Mackereth from Kidderminster, Pastor Roger Winter-Smith from Stroud Green, East London, and Mr Ross Holmes, Mr Simon Bell and Mr Simon Hailes – all from Northern Ireland (and having flown over specially to help) – were proclaiming the necessity of repentance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at the enormous London Pride parade on June 29th.
The capital city was tragically given over to a celebration of the rejection of the Christian revelation and the rubbishing of plain Biblical teaching on the sinfulness of homosexuality. Though few participants would have explicitly admitted to this, this was in reality nothing but a blatant anti-Christian demonstration.
One would have thought that by now, having achieved all their objectives, the LGBT activists would be content with their victories in having won over society, but they still seem to have to take on the role of victim and campaigners against alleged inequality, despite the fact that the establishment, including on this particular occasion, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who was leading the parade, are fulsome in their praise of them.
Mr Khan stated, This incredible event is a shining light for LGBTQI+ rights and shows why our city is a beacon for openness and inclusion – a place where you are embraced and celebrated for who you are”. One wonders then if Bible-believing Christians who consider homosexuality to be sinful are also embraced and cerated for who they are. From the behaviour towards them at the parade one could only conclude, Most definitely not!
Illustrating just how mainstream and establishment this event is, there follows is a random list of some of the parade participants : Hewlett Packard, Heathrow Express coach service, the London Fire Brigade, Siemens, Tesco, the Institute of Biomedical Science, Cambridge University, London University, Coca-Cola, Transport for London, Historic Royal Palaces, The Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, the Scouts, the National Grid, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Bank of England and M&S.
As the witnessing Christians held up relevant Bible verses, so many younger people walked by contemptuously laughing, leading Pastor Simpson to ask them, Why are you laughing at the Bible?, why are you mocking the word of God?; are you wiser than the God who gives you your daily breath? One wonders if they would be willing publicly to mock the Qur’an?
Amongst the 32,000 people participating in the parade was the ‘Queers for Palestine’ group, whose chants included ‘From the River to the Sea’. The connection between this geopolitical viewpoint and the promotion of the LGBT agenda was not apparent.
If there was one particular phenomenon which this event demonstrated it was the complete failure of the mainstream churches in the last 50 or 60 years to proclaim what the Bible actually teaches. Time and time again the witnessing Christians were told, “Jesus never judges anyone”. Vast numbers of young people evidently believe that Christianity is a nothing more than a replication of 1960s hippie culture and of the Beatles creed of ‘all you need is love’. Have they never read, for example, the Lord’s words in Luke 13:3, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”?
Numerous parade supporters shouted out, “Jesus loves everyone”, and so they were asked in response, Does that mean that all the evil tyrants of history are now in heaven, because God loves and never condemns? Are you really arguing that Almighty God never exercises the role of Judge?
As the day progressed, it became increasingly apparent how the word ’love’ is one of the most abused words in the English language. The mantra of ‘love is love’ was frequently chanted or proclaimed. What does this expression actually mean? Does it mean that all types of love must be valid, such as, for example, adulterous love, or downright lust? Have those who utter this slogan ever thought this through? Have they ever considered the Lord’s teaching about loving one’s enemies? There was certainly an absence of love shown towards those endeavouring to set forth in our capital city the gospel, whose message includes as an integral aspect of it the need to repent of sin.
As Pastor Simpson preached, he explained to the thousands of parade supporters that their conduct was revealing an utter susceptibility to the demands of the crowd, to the dictates of majority thinking. They were doing nothing but following the fashion of the day, and revealing their captivity to the spirit of the age. They were told that they are the conformists, the establishment, the mainstream, whereas to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is to come apart and be separate from the ways of this world and the received propaganda of any particular generation.
How tragic it was to see so many young people seemingly incapable of reasonable discussion, or any valid response to a declaration of Biblical morality other than to make vulgar gestures and insult those whom they disagreed. Every time that they did this, Pastor Simpson told them in response that he had just won the argument, because of ad hominem nature of their response. “I am a Christian”, immediately followed by an appalling verbal profanity and expression of contempt.
There were some periods during the public preaching, especially before the parade itself passed by, when the waiting crowds had no choice but to hear God’s word proclaimed. They were unequivocally told about the urgency of repentance from sin and of faith in Jesus Christ as the only Saviour.
By God’s grace, some useful conversations were entered into in which the parade supporters were told that the witnessing Christians were claiming no moral superiority over them, for all men are sinners by nature, and need to flee to Christ for mercy and salvation.
One passing young man began to blow a plastic trumpet right in the ear of an elderly lady who was holding up a home-made poster with a Bible text upon it. The police thankfully intervened and he was made to realise the callousness of his actions, and it was good that he then apologised to the lady.
However, many others used the occasion of the small band of witnessing Christians daring to challenge establishment orthodoxy to engage in abusive gestures, and even in simulated acts of highly indecent behaviour, hoping thereby to shock the Christians. It was, however, to no avail, as those proclaiming Biblical truth were simply filled instead with deep sadness about what has happened in respect of the brainwashing of so many younger people. So many have been coaxed by LGBT propaganda into believing that if they feel a certain inclination in their heart concerning a mode of behaviour, then that inclination must of necessity be right and legitimate. This, however, is nothing but the idolatry of self, and it ignores the teaching of God’s word that the heart of fallen man is by nature corrupted (e.g. Jeremiah 17:9).
The London Pride parade was a public celebration of the rejection of the Christian faith and of the Trinitarian God who brought this world into being, creating every single one of us. That is why the small band of witnessing Christians just had to be there. Many, many thousands of people were called to repentance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of sinners.
Much prayer is now being offered up that there might be lasting fruit from this public testimony in the saving of souls, because the gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed this nation’s only hope.