Yesterday’s Potentialities, Today’s Realities

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May talks with the President of the European Council Donald Franciszek Tusk.
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Yesterday’s Potentialities, Today’s Realities

What’s behind Britain’s failed Brexit talks?

The following is from the Trumpet Brief sent out yesterday. These daily e-mails contain personal messages from the Trumpet staff. Click here to join the over 20,000 members of our mailing list, so you don’t miss another message.

162 days. That’s how long Britain has left to negotiate its release from the European Union. It sounds like plenty of time, but it’s not—not when you consider the number, complexity and magnitude of the issues that need to be negotiated and agreed between now and March.

Exacerbating the problem is the state of British politics in general and Prime Minister Theresa May’s government in particular. It’s no secret that most of Britain’s elites have little to no interest in leaving the EU. They lack the political and moral courage to implement the will of the British people. More than anything, this is a crisis of character and leadership; this is the main reason why Brexit now feels so utterly intractable.

For those who haven’t followed Brexit closely, this is what the United Kingdom potentially faces in the coming weeks and months.

First, nearly everyone now believes that it will be impossible to secure an acceptable deal before March 29, 2019. The operative word here is acceptable. Any agreement that Theresa May (or her replacement) negotiates will have to be acceptable to both the EU and the British Parliament. Enough evidence now exists to conclude that this will be virtually impossible.

Second, many British no longer have confidence in Theresa May’s ability or even desire to secure a suitable Brexit deal. Even many within her Conservative Party have lost faith; some colleagues are actively working to undermine her. Rumors abound that a vote of no confidence is inevitable and that the Tories will have to select a new prime minster (this will not be straightforward).

Third, there is talk of another Brexit referendum. Many elites and media pundits are actively pushing for another vote on Brexit. If this happens, it will not only portray the nation to the world as equivocating, but also infuriate millions of British who already voted on this issue in June 2016.

Fourth, there is concern that Brexit will spark a constitutional crisis. If the government somehow hammers out a compromise that the EU agrees to, the deal will still have to pass the British Parliament. This will be difficult to impossible, and many are already worried that the government will go so far as to alter the constitutional process in order to force the deal through.

Fifth, there is concern that the Brexit crisis could literally split up the United Kingdom. The EU wants to separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. Meanwhile, Scotland is threatening to hold its own referendum and break away. Scotland and Northern Ireland breaking away from England seems unimaginable, but the fear is very real.

Finally, many think that an emergency general election is now inevitable. This would open the door for a potential Labour Party victory and the installment of the hard-left, anti-Semitic, socialist Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.

This, in brief, is the fast-rolling train wreck called Brexit.

I want to conclude by quoting a stunning forecast. As you might expect, it comes from Herbert W. Armstrong. Here’s what he wrote in the March 1973 Plain Truth:

Britain is going to look back on Monday, Jan. 1, 1973, in all probability, as a most tragically historic date—a date fraught with ominous potentialities! For that date marked the United Kingdom’s entry into the European Community.

Have you read a more prescient statement? Mr. Armstrong’s “ominous potentialities” are now alarming realities. Britain today is realizing what a mistake it was to hitch itself to the EU in January 1973!

The Bible has a lot to say about the end-time descendants of ancient Israel, which include Britain. Most of those prophecies are negative, at least in the short term. Isaiah 1-3 describe Britain as a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers.” Isaiah describes the nation being sick from head to toe, and the nation’s leadership being especially infirmed and weak. The Prophet Hosea says Britain behaves like a “silly dove without heart” and as having a debilitating “sickness.”

Is Brexit revealing Britain’s “sickness?” Look at the dysfunction; look at the lack of courage and resolution, the chicanery and deceit, the shameful moral weakness. Brexit is a sign of Britain’s failure of character and leadership, and it’s a sign that the nation, as God prophesied, is desperately sick.