At the Conservative Party Conference in October 1993 the government launched their Back to Basics policy. Previously the party had been openly divided over Maastricht and was unpopular. A coherent new policy strategy was needed to unite the party and restore popularity. Hence, Back to Basics.
The Tory party often sees itself as the party of law and order and of traditional values. With many in the country believing that a return to old-fashioned values is needed the title looked like an ideal rallying cry.
In November education minister John Patten explained, 'You cannot legislate to make people good or to make married couples stay together. But we do have an interest, since we foot the bill, and we also have a duty to talk about the fabric of society'. Other Conservative's were also clearly convinced that back to basics applied as much to personal values as anything else. Many, in particular, spoke up for the family. Children are best brought up by two loving parents committed to a lifelong marriage.
However, recent embarrassing revelations concerning certain members of government and Mr Major's reaction to these has not only brought the campaign unstuck but raised the question of just what basics we are to try to get back to.
Alarm bells are set off by other facts too. For instance, Parliament has just passed a law effectively abolishing the traditional Lord's Day in the High Street. Then a bill is coming soon that seeks to lower the age of consent for sodomy; it may well have been discussed by the time you read this.
In the past Mr Major has publicly welcomed a leading advocate for homosexual activity into 10 Downing Street. Clearly we are not being urged to get back to Bible basics.
CONFUSION
Throughout the country many realise things are radically wrong but few know how to put them right. Some see the need of a return to more traditional morals. But few accept that what was good in such values came from the Bible. What they want is morality without religion; goodness without God; the second table of the Law without the first.
The Bible makes clear that this is an impossible dream. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we get that wrong everything else will be wrong too. Lecturing on Romans 1:18 during the last war Dr Lloyd-Jones pointed out the order in that verse: ungodliness (irreligion), unrighteousness (immorality). He goes on to describe how, in his own day, there was widespread rejection of religion yet a desire still to hold on to morality. Yet, once morality is put before religion the moral chaos described in Romans 1, and with us today, is inevitable. 'Religion, a true belief in Cod in Jesus Christ,' says Lloyd-Jones, 'is fundamental, vital, essential. Any attempt to organise society without that basis is doomed to failure ...' He gives reasons for this assertion.
To reverse the order not only insults God, it also insults man. More interest is shown in man's actions and associations than in man as man. It forgets that man is a spiritual being. Further, there is no authority or power in mere morality.
WE MUST TELL THEM!
To whose basics are we to return? Simply those that suit John Major and his party? Or those of some other party or individual? We must see that a moral crusade will never solve the country's problems, not even a government backed crusade. Such a movement, how ever robust, cannot deal with the fundamental problem: that is that men and women have turned their backs on God and on his word. Men want their own way, their own law, their own life-style. Some are waking up to the fact that this is not working. 'We've got to get back,' they say, 'to basics', 'back to the way it was'. But how? Not by man's policies.
It is incumbent on every Christian in the land to show how. Like a million signs at the crossroads of life, we must point men back to God. They need to get back to God, back to their fathers' God. The only way back is through Jesus Christ. Without faith in him there can be no return. It is not the government's duty to preach the gospel. But it has a duty to acknowledge God and to uphold his Law and not merely talk of a return to some imagined golden age.
While successive democratically elected governments continue to assume that they can ignore Divine Law with impunity and pass laws that ignore biblical teaching, the country will continue to go down hill. We must call out to God for a great turn around, for a turning back to the basics of the Bible at every level in society. Let's hold on to the basics ourselves. The Triune God has spoken in his all sufficient word. He calls all to repent and believe. There is a heaven and a hell and only one Saviour, Jesus Christ. These are the basics to which we must return, and to which we must call others before it is too late. We live at a crucial time. People are dissatisfied but they have no idea where to turn. We must call them to Christ. We must point them to the Only Saviour. There is no hope for any of us anywhere else.
This article originally appeared in Grace Magazine
