The reason why Scotland and England united as one nation was in order to promote the Christian gospel. You won’t hear that spoken by the leaders of the yes campaign or the no campaign, but we must not be unaware of this as Christians. The Scottish King James VI became King James I of England in 1603 because he was a Protestant and because the two nations hoped that, by uniting two great Protestant kingdoms as one, they might be able to promote the cause of Christ far better in the world. This union of crowns became a union of parliaments in 1707, and the historian Linda Colley argues that “Protestantism was the foundation that made this invention of Great Britain possible.”
The Union succeeded in its goal. Great Britain went on to preach the gospel to more nations than any other nation in history ”“across Africa and Asia and America and Australia. This wave of British missionaries was led, not by an Englishman, but by a Scot. David Livingstone’s heroic example inspired a nation of imperialists to become a nation of missionaries. Niall Ferguson observes in his book Empire that: “There could not be a greater contrast between the missionaries’ motives and those of previous generations of empire-builders, the swashbucklers, the slavers and the settlers ”¦ Their readiness to sacrifice themselves not for gain but for God was what made the Victorian Empire different from all that had gone before.” I’ll be honest. I am as repulsed by much of the history of the British Empire as anyone, but I still feel challenged. What would it be like if the United Kingdom did more than survive next Thursday? What would it be like if the British renewed their commitment to promote the cause of Christ around the world?
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[Phil Moore] 3 things to remember when praying for Scotland
The reason why Scotland and England united as one nation was in order to promote the Christian gospel. You won’t hear that spoken by the leaders of the yes campaign or the no campaign, but we must not be unaware of this as Christians. The Scottish King James VI became King James I of England in 1603 because he was a Protestant and because the two nations hoped that, by uniting two great Protestant kingdoms as one, they might be able to promote the cause of Christ far better in the world. This union of crowns became a union of parliaments in 1707, and the historian Linda Colley argues that “Protestantism was the foundation that made this invention of Great Britain possible.”
The Union succeeded in its goal. Great Britain went on to preach the gospel to more nations than any other nation in history ”“across Africa and Asia and America and Australia. This wave of British missionaries was led, not by an Englishman, but by a Scot. David Livingstone’s heroic example inspired a nation of imperialists to become a nation of missionaries. Niall Ferguson observes in his book Empire that: “There could not be a greater contrast between the missionaries’ motives and those of previous generations of empire-builders, the swashbucklers, the slavers and the settlers ”¦ Their readiness to sacrifice themselves not for gain but for God was what made the Victorian Empire different from all that had gone before.” I’ll be honest. I am as repulsed by much of the history of the British Empire as anyone, but I still feel challenged. What would it be like if the United Kingdom did more than survive next Thursday? What would it be like if the British renewed their commitment to promote the cause of Christ around the world?
Read it all