As this nation commemorates the 80th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June, let us remember that there would have been no D-Day, without God’s deliverance at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation four years earlier. Shamefully today, neither church nor nation gives much thought to this miracle of deliverance.
It was on 26 May 1940 that a National Day of Prayer was called by King George VI at the time of the Dunkirk crisis. 350,000 Allied troops were trapped across the Channel by the advancing German army and if they weren’t rescued, then the UK would have been invaded. Britain was on the verge of total defeat and panic was beginning to set in.
During the 1930s, all the warning signs of an impending war had been ignored by successive governments in both Britain and Europe. Many people argued that such a war would never happen, that cast-iron alliances had now been formed between nations and common sense would prevail. Indeed, there was an almost hypnotic denial of these warning signs. Those like Churchill who repeatedly warned of a coming storm were mocked and ignored.
Wake-up call
In 1936, Churchill and his friends embarked on a strenuous campaign to awaken Britain to the danger ahead. In one newspaper article which was published in 14 countries, he wrote: ‘The peoples of Britain and Europe are chattering, busy, sporting, and toiling, amused from day to day by headlines and from night to night by cinemas … Stop it now. It is worth supreme effort to control the hideous drift of events which we are witnessing’. But few listened.
Instead, the majority of people simply continued to plan their careers, build up their businesses, and arrange their next holiday, pretty much oblivious to the coming storm. Now the Nazis were able to sweep all before them and Britain was next. There was no human help. As we know however, there was Divine help.
In a national broadcast, the King called for the people of the UK to turn back to Almighty God in a spirit of repentance and plead for divine intervention. Literally millions of people across the British Isles responded to his call and flocked into churches humbly praying for deliverance. Many who read this article will have seen the iconic photograph of the queue of people a quarter of a mile long trying to get into Westminster Abbey to pray for divine intervention. This demonstrates just how terrified people were and yet how, instinctively, they knew God could help.
Following prayer
Two events immediately followed this National Day of Prayer. Firstly, a violent storm arose over the Dunkirk region grounding the Luftwaffe which had been killing thousands on the beaches. And then secondly, a great calm descended on the Channel, the like of which hadn’t been seen for a generation, which allowed hundreds of tiny boats to sail across and rescue 335,000 soldiers, rather than the estimated 20–30,000. God’s response to the National Day of Prayer was so clear and so dramatic, people of that generation referred to it as ‘the miracle of Dunkirk’ and Sunday June 9th was officially appointed as a Day of National Thanksgiving. In the film Dunkirk, reference is only made to the ‘little boats’ and shamefully fails to admit that without the miraculous Channel calm coming precisely when it did, those little craft wouldn’t have been able to sail. God’s intervention in answer to prayer is totally ignored in the film just as it is today by many churches and politicians.
In all, seven National Days of Prayer where held at crisis points throughout the War and after each one, God responded with His blessing and protection. Looking back at these events the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr H.A. Wilson wrote: ‘If ever a great nation was on the point of supreme and final disaster, and yet was saved and reinstated it was ourselves … it does not require an exceptionally religious mind to detect in all this the Hand of God.’
Fast forward to 2024, living in what is now being called ‘Broken Britain’. We are in chaos socially, morally, politically, economically and spiritually. Many people are frightened not just by world events but by what they see happening here in our own society.
Today’s generation thinks that the teaching of the Bible, Christianity and churchgoing are irrelevant. The Lord who delivered the nation from invasion has now been driven out of our culture, out of our government, out of the education of our children, and literally hundreds of churches have closed down. The result has not been peace and harmony but the very opposite; turmoil and discontentment. These consequences are a direct fulfilment of the principle that a fruitful nation will become impoverished because of the sinfulness of those who dwell in it (see Psalm 107:34). This principle has never been revoked because God is holy and will not be mocked. ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ (Prov. 14:34).
God wants to bless our nation and our individual lives. He wants us to enjoy good things. But for years people in Britain have ignored and rejected the very moral laws and commandments in Scripture which would have brought blessing and plenty. As a nation we are now simply reaping what we have sown.
Many politicians have come up with ideas on how to fix broken Britain, but actually there is no political answer. Scripture teaches that there is no political answer because the root cause of our problems are spiritual – and being spiritual, only a spiritual solution will solve them.
To reverse our national decline and the disintegration of our society, Britain needs to return to obeying the laws of Almighty God, the God of the Bible, who delivered us from invasion in the past. This will encourage us to love Him more and depend on Him for our protection and deliverance as he did before.
