The day before Britain left the EU – pertinent comments by Neville Clark to Christadelphia.

1. Comments made by Neville Clark, the day BEFORE Britain voted to leave the EU

Just before we do begin our study on the book of Romans, Brothers and Sisters,  I thought we might talk a little bit about current events, because it is only 24 hours, isn’t it, until Britain’s vote on whether they will remain in the EU or not.

Now I know we had a lecture about this on Sunday, but I’ve just got, maybe five minutes of points to make on it, just because we are nearer to events than we were on Sunday.

Up until a couple of weeks ago it might have seemed to be a “sure thing,” that the majority of the voters would vote Britain out of the EU, until of course, the assassination of Joe Cox, the British politician near Leeds, and now the country appears to be split 50/50. that might also be because it is easier to stay with what you know than to jump off the cliff into the unknown. Even apparently “bullish” people might think twice and breathe deeply before they vote to exit the EU. So for a number of reasons as we get up towards the final day, you can see the whole issue becoming a lot more 50/50 than once it was in the past, and the fact is, everybody’s worried. George Sorossi, as you might know, a billionaire financial speculator, a currency speculator, actually, said that financial markets in the world are now bracing themselves for “black Friday.” Tomorrow in the UK is the vote, and Friday he says, will be “black Friday.” Well, what he means by that is that if the Brits vote to leave the Eu it will crash the pound, that is to say, it will devalue the pound sterling, which will be a big problem in London.

The European council fellow, this is the ex-Polish prime minister, a fellow called Donald Tusk says, “If Briton’s leave the EU tomorrow, it could be the beginning of the end for the EU and for Western Political civilization.” Now that might sound very alarmist, but his point is, “this will likely begin a domino effect, because Britain is not the only country that is talking about leaving the European Union.” Europe’s got some big problems, she’s got a big debt problem, she’s got a big migration problem, and there is political instability all across the Union.

You might say, “Well, yes, but financial markets will recover,” which of course is true. “Europe will reorganise,” which of course is true, “Britain will simply go and forge deeper trading relationships with the ‘young lions,’” which of course is true. Donald Trump in fact, is in the UK next week, of all things, to open a golf course in Scotland, but he’s coincided his visit with the Referendum because he supports Britain leaving the EU, and in an interview that he had with CBS News, he said, well, the question was posed to him, “Where would Britain stand in relation to the US if they leave the EU?” and he said, “They certainly wouldn’t be at the back of the queue!” So if he becomes the next president of the United States, you might expect to see greater ties forged between him and Britain than there might otherwise have been if Britain stayed in the EU.

The big problem, however, if Britain leaves the EU, that is, the big problem for the EU, is Defence. I mean, we’ve got all sorts of financial speculation going on about what may or may not happen, there’s no speculation about the Defence problem Britain causes, you see, alongside France, Britain is the only other country with a sizeable expeditionary military force. The only other country with nuclear weapons and a United Nations Security Council Veto, she’s a very big player in the EU in relation to Defence. The point is, if Britain leaves the EU, the EU can’t defend itself, that’s a big problem, particularly in the face of a migrant crisis.

The Wall Street Journal made this interesting comment, “There is at least one place in Europe, however, where a British exit from the EU would be applauded,” where do you think they were talking about? one place in Europe where a British exit from the EU would be applauded? and that’s in the Kremlin, and you can almost hear the bear licking its chops as he waits for Britain leaving the EU because if they have a Defence problem, who is it that is going to step in to fill that void? Well, only the Russians of course, and if there has to be a reorganisation of the EU away from American centric lines and back towards a more European focused organisation, who will it be that seriously tries to influence those politics, of course, Mr Putin, and of course, that is exactly what we would expect to see. There are just one or two things to bear in mind however, the first one is this, this Referendum is not binding, so if the Brits do vote to leave the EU, David Cameron doesn’t have to do it. Now you’ve got to believe it would be political suicide, if the majority of the country wants to leave and he decides he is not going to, but of course, he could stall, I mean, they are talking about an amicable divorce, Britain’s been in the EU since 1973, so it is not a straightforward thing to just leave, you’ve got to renegotiate a whole lot of treaties as they leave and the Europeans don’t want them to take any more money with them than they can afford.

The other thing is, even if Britain doesn’t vote to leave the EU tomorrow, she will, eventually, do it, bear in mind, that as far as Bible Prophecy is concerned the only thing that must happen is that Britain must be out of the EU by the time Russia invades Israel, that is by the time Ezekiel 38 is fulfilled. If Bro Thomas is right and Christ came tonight, Armageddon is not for 10 years, so either Britain is going to leave the EU tomorrow or sometime in the next year or two after that as they negotiate their way out, or sometime a little later on in the next decade. Either way, if you could see Russia invading the Middle East, in the next decade, then Christ is obviously at the door. This is a major signpost, Brothers and Sisters and young people, heralding the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I’ve got to believe that all the instability and chaos that might be caused around the world as a consequence of Britain leaving the EU, do you think God really cares about individual people in the world, that they might lose their superannuation, that they might lose their jobs? Not really, not a great deal, this is a wake up call for Christadelphians, these sorts of things happen are simply “birth pains,” warning Christadelphians to shape up and to take their lives seriously. because Christ is soon going to be here.