1989 Prophesy warned Christians then to Wake Up…

Earthquake in the City Book Review

Written by Dr. Clifford Denton and Paul Slennett, Earthquake in the City was first published in 1997, and focuses around a prophesy given to Paul Slennett in 1989. It was reprinted in 2008 unchanged apart from a new preface, and demonstrated the accuracy of the prophesy in predicting the current nationwide and catastrophic collapses in the City and wider, and its impact nationwide. It has been distributed quite widely, in particular to those in government in various roles and has therefore been a reminder to them of God’s sovereignty in the affairs of nations. Its warnings about the European Community are becoming true, although the interpretation that there may be a physical earthquake in the future does not appear to be supported within the original prophetic text. However, there is a critical weakness in the book’s failure to understand what the Holy Spirit was saying within the prophesy about the role of the Church in bringing about national repentance.

The authors do write about the Welsh Revival influencing secular local communities (p178), but this suggests the only way of bringing about change nationally is a Welsh Revival equivalent across the nation, which reflects a common evangelical belief that if you have enough Holy Spirit filled Christians everything will change. My contention is that this interpretation of the prophesy is wrong. As it says in para.2 ‘My children, repent now before it is too late…but awake my children, and be my watchmen, and speak with a prophetic voice of the judgement that is about to come upon the nations’, . The Church is ‘unrighteous’ in failing to be a watchman, and not speaking with a prophetic voice. In other words the Lord was saying in 1989 that the Church has failed to be salt and light and must change. But what should it be doing?

If Christians have a responsibility to speak out, then we have to follow scripture principles. Focusing on the culture is insufficient, one has to challenge the lawmakers to use their authority. Romans 13:1 points out that ‘The powers that be are ordained (appointed) by God’. In other words, Governments as God’s agents have the responsibility to put in place and sustain moral parameters to restrain outward sin by the populace. This of course is because of the nature of fallen man to drift into increasing wickedness unless there are enforceable restraints of law. An unsaved person cannot ‘repent’ in a godly way, but can alter his behaviour under duress traceable ultimately to enforceable law. A nation therefore cannot come to true repentance, but can change. True repentance is surely only possible by the grace of God when there is a response to an awareness of personal sinfulness and a revelation of Christ as Saviour.