John Stevens thinks about current Britain on his long walk

 

A reflection from a poor navigator
Yesterday, I made 5 navigational errors using an OS Map in my attempt to walk from The Tradesman’s Inn at Scorriton to Chagford. It was always billed as a long walk, 18.5 miles, but my unplanned variations added an extra 2.5 miles…and that was with an off-route shortcut in the final few miles to The Chagford Inn, Chagford.
In terms of time, the walk lasted over 10 hours – about 2 extra hours.
The lesson? 
Many old basic map reading skills were put to the test. Distances, counting steps, compass direction, landscape, shapes of roads, wearing glasses (!), taking time at junctions…all in relation to studying the 1:25000 OS Map.
Leave one of these elements out and…5 minutes later, and you’re way off track and need to correct.
A parable?
There’s much talk from politicians, and activists such as Tommy Robinson, calling on us to return to our Christian heritage, values, and belief, as if we’ve strayed. The seemingly spontaneous Union Jack and English flag movements marches, and protests are, of course, in direct opposition to the alliance of the Far Left and radical Islamist marches chanting ‘Free Palestine from the River to the Sea’ and calling for the destruction of the State of Israel; the aim of both groups. This in turn, is a reaction to the Israeli actions in Gaza, killing 70,000 Gazans in an attempt to rid the menace posed by Hamas who orchestrated the murderous attack against unarmed civilians in Israel on 7th October 2023, taking hostage 251 and murdering 1,195.
How to process this spiritually.
Most English and British folk know they are not Muslims, and are not attracted to Islam, certainly not the version of Islam that exports terror and death to anyone who fails to submit to Allah and Mohammad i.e. infidels.
But it is equally true to say that most English folk rejected the form of Christianity that required attendance at Sunday services for Communion, ie ‘organised religion’. Christianity, for many, was hollowed out and became a shell of the original firebrand glory associated with the miracles and mass following of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. 
Into the spiritual void has poured materialistic alternatives such as atheism, agnosticism, and humanism. And for those who see through materialism to an unseen spiritual dimension: Buddhism, Eastern mysticism, New Age, spiritualism, Yoga, and many variants, has attracted thousands if not millions of thirsty for inner illumination and soul food.
With arch atheist, Richard Dawkins, describing himself as a ‘cultural Christian’, acknowledging that his whole moral framework within which his moral sensitivities are exercised, is derived from our collective Christian heritage, we seem to be facing an uncomfortable truth.
That truth is simply this. The Law of Moses as handed down in the Old Testament, and the gospel of grace in the New Testament has been the roadmap for England and the rest of the Unite Kingdom and much of Europe, for over ten centuries, shaping our culture, its institutions, and traditions – for example Christmas.
If you visit a bible-believing church of any denomination this Sunday (there are plenty churches that have long since dropped the notion of scriptural authority) you will quickly pick up the two guardrails, even if left unsaid, that act like an OS Map, and keep us on track.
1. We are no longer under law but under grace Rom 6v14
2. The Law acted as our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith Gal 3v24
One further verse will give us a window into the spiritual pinch-point that we are currently experiencing.
‘For the Law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’ John 1v17
The gospel (Greek for good news) is this: the law is good but it can’t produce perfect behaviour or spiritual maturity in us. It accurately points out our faults, transgressions, and sins, and shows us that although we are trapped in sin, it can’t save us or deliver us. All that sin was placed on Jesus on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice, and so, by having faith that this is so, we are given a priceless gift (grace means free gift); if we repent from struggling on our own (Christian or not), and receive the gift of eternal life and righteousness. We emerge forgiven, cleansed, and live a new life relying on Christ not ourselves.
But right now, in 2025, there is a real need to revisit Gal 3v24, and reacquaint ourselves with the Law – in essence to go back to school. Not, I must add, to be placed under the law and regulate our lives by self-effort to do the right thing, or resurrect organised religion, and end up duty bound to observe a range of sacraments or rituals, but to rediscover the moral framework, which we fail to meet, so that we’re brought to Christ Himself.
This walk I am on, the Two Moors Challenge, Coast to Coast, is a seven day trek with taking Saturday, today, as a sabbath, a rest day. It is forcing me to go back to school – navigational school. 

Britain will not return to Christ by waving flags, by marching, by bemoaning our lost heritage. The harder miles will require us to open our bibles and read Deuteronomy, read the OT commandments, find out what God loves and what He considers to be detestable, or abominable. Sparks will fly when this is at odds with our Parliamentary Law.
The gospel – the good news – can only be truly appreciated when it dawns on us that the Law is good, but that we cannot and have not kept it and need forgiveness an the new way of grace and truth contained in Christ.
If, and only if we take this journey, will our churches be filled with those who have been well-schooled by the law and sing for joy that they have been led to the escape route which is Christ Himself and the love of God, not a false version of Christianity that preaches law without grace; Moses without Christ, religion without Jesus.
To conclude, Richard Dawkins is right. He has inherited his moral compass, not from some vague Christian heritage, fading as it might be, but from holy writ, the Bible. But, whilst he is looking to the past, the past is not the right place to look. It’s the wrong end of the telescope. No one needs to look at the retreating tide of historical Christianity, that admittedly gave us so much; church buildings built in the shape of the cross on which Christ died for us, is one visible heritage. 
No, to start requires two simple steps. One is to convert your questions into the cry of the human heart and open up, direct your thoughts, frustrations, longings to God – even if you’re uncertain whether He exists or listens. Secondly, walk over to your bookshelf, and take your bible off the shelf, or download a free version of an online bible, and start reading. I suggest start with John’s gospel.
Tomorrow, I take to the road again, confident in one thing; it’s likely that I shall still make navigation errors but that my map, compass, and eyes will come to my rescue, if I stop relying on my instincts alone.