By Charles Gardner — 
In a profoundly moving ceremony in honor of those who fought for our freedom from tyranny, we were reminded of the immense cost incurred by those who engaged in the D-Day landings at Normandy 80 years ago.
It was a royal occasion befitting the 22,000 British servicemen who paid the ultimate price so we could enjoy a future in peace.
The testimony of veterans who survived – many of them 100 years old – left few dry eyes. They told how they landed on the beaches as naïve teenagers, only to witness carnage almost beyond description as their young friends perished all around them in the face of enemy slaughter.
The French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to King Charles III and all of Britain for rescuing them from Nazi occupation. Hats off to the BBC for their solemn and sensitive coverage of the event.
But having just returned from giving a talk on the dangerous threat we all face now in view of the rising tide of antisemitism, it’s hard to avoid the sense of de ja vu.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they made it perfectly clear that the Jews were to blame for all Germany’s economic and other troubles, but few correctly interpreted the ominous warning signs. And the pogroms soon began, even jumping the channel with the rise of Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement.
Appeasing the aggressors was the initial response of British politicians who at the same time did little to help Jews wishing to escape the growing threat against them, even severely restricting immigration to Palestine which they had been charged with preparing for Jewish statehood.
Who knows how many could have escaped the Holocaust had it not been for that White Paper, recently described as a “black moment” in our history by then Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt?
Mercifully, Winston Churchill then made his momentous entrance onto the world stage. But for too many, including six million Jews, the Normandy invasion came too late. We hadn’t responded nearly soon enough. And now a second Holocaust is being openly called for on the streets of our cities for whose freedom so many young men paid with their lives.
Pro-Palestinian marchers are plainly taking sides with those who want to rid the world of the Jewish people through ‘jihad’ (holy war). And we Brits (i.e. our police and government) just stand by and let them get on with it. All in the name of freedom of speech!
But where is the freedom for our Jewish people, and the Christians who would never have known Christ without them?
Tragically, after winning World War II, thanks not only to these brave men of D-Day fame but also through those who responded to the King’s repeated calls to prayer, we have since turned our backs on God and his laws.
We became selfish and godless, showing little or no gratitude to the One who saved us from Nazi tyranny. Succeeding generations became increasingly distanced from a knowledge of the God who made us.
This came home to me on my way back from Wakefield, where I had given my talk on Israel. It should have been a 17-minute rail journey, but it took over three hours. We were initially diverted when someone was hit by a train, meaning we had to travel north instead of south via Leeds and York.
At York we finally boarded a train going south, only to be told of a further delay caused by an accident on a bridge. Finally arriving at Doncaster, I got the bus for the last four miles home, only to be accompanied by foul-mouthed teenage schoolchildren shouting abuse to an elderly couple who had asked them to stop swearing.
I got the sense of a world in chaos, having lost all sense of what passes for acceptable behavior, totally out of control.
And we are in the middle of an election campaign for which immigration and the economy are among the perceived big issues.
But what about crime, and anti-social behavior? These kids show no gratitude for an education that, in many cases, would have been denied their ancestors. Our country is out of control, like children of parents who have refused to discipline them. And we are paying the price with an increasingly lawless generation.
But there is hope. I am praying for those wayward kids on the bus, that their eyes would be opened to the King of Glory who fought and died for them because he loves them so much, giving his life as a sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, that they might find true freedom and peace.
Only in Jesus will we, as a nation, fulfill our true calling and destiny. Whoever you vote for, pray for God to direct your choice.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
