Occasionally, God intervenes in global affairs in dramatic ways. This episode documents one such instance which provides further evidence for God’s existence and his ongoing providential intervention in our world.
VIDEO & AUDIO LINKS
VIDEO: Episode 20, National Miracles
AUDIO PODCAST: Episode 20, National Miracles
…………………………………….
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Episode 20 of Evidence For Belief, a series which examines the evidence for the existence of God. As we approach the final episodes of this whole series, I want to include this brief episode about national miracles. Not only do I believe that God intervenes in people’s lives personally, but I also believe there are times when God intervenes in world affairs at national and international levels. In this episode I want to give you one very significant example.
The evacuation of the Allied army from the beach at Dunkirk in 1940, is, I believe, an occasion when God intervened in world affairs quite dramatically.
On May 10th, 1940, Hitler unleashed a military onslaught on France and Belgium. It was a massive push to wipe out the Allied forces and bring final victory to the German army.
Within days the Allied forces found themselves with their backs to the sea and hemmed in by the Germans. They were vastly outnumbered and under-equipped and were facing the very real possibility of complete annihilation.
Winston Churchill prepared a press statement to announce to the public an unprecedented military catastrophe involving the capture or death of over a third of a million soldiers – almost the entire British army. But it didn’t happen. King George VI requested that the following Sunday, May 26th be observed as a National Day of Prayer. On that Sunday, the entire nation devoted itself to prayer in an unprecedented way.
Photographs of that day show overflowing congregations in places of worship across the land. Long queues formed outside churches and cathedrals. Every church throughout the land was filled to capacity, with crowds overflowing onto the footpaths and surrounding grounds.
England had never seen a day like it. Almost the entire nation went to church and called out to God in prayer, asking for his miraculous intervention for the sons and husbands and brothers who were trapped in France and Belgium. The same day an urgent request went out for boats of all sizes and shapes to cross the English Channel to rescue the besieged army, a call that was ultimately answered by around 800 private vessels.
As a result of that day of prayer several miraculous events unfolded:
Firstly, in a decision that infuriated the German generals and still baffles historians, Hitler ordered his army to come to a halt. Had they pressed on and continued to fight, the complete destruction of the British and Allied forces would have been inevitable, and the war would have taken a different, darker and more terrible path. Yet for three days the German tanks and convoys and soldiers stood idle while the evacuation unfolded.
Secondly, God miraculously ‘tweaked’ the weather. Terrible weather on the Monday and Tuesday grounded the German Luftwaffe, allowing Allied soldiers to march unhindered to the beaches without being strafed by the German fighter planes.
Thirdly, on the following day, Wednesday, the day of the evacuation, the sea was extraordinarily calm, despite the storm that had grounded the Luftwaffe over the previous days. This allowed all the fleet of tiny private English yachts and other small vessels to sail right into shore to load the evacuees on water that looked more like a lake than the ocean!
By the time the German Army was finally ordered to renew its attack, over 338,000 troops had been snatched from the beaches; a third of a million! Many of them would return four years later to liberate Europe and win the war.
Some people might say this was all a coincidence, but I think not. It certainly wasn’t considered a coincidence at the time.
Sunday, June 9th, was declared a National Day of Thanksgiving, with the nation going to church again to thank God for his deliverance. The churches and Cathedrals of England were once again filled to overflowing and Winston Churchill referred to the evacuation as the ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’.
CONCLUSION
If you are looking for evidence of God’s existence, there is plenty to be found in everyday life. The testimony of people’s encounters with God and their experience of his miraculous intervention at both personal and national levels provides compelling evidence of a God who is both powerful and personal. Stories such as the ones I have recounted in this episode and the previous one should not surprise us. After all, if God exists, it is entirely reasonable to expect to encounter his influence at some level and at various times in our world.
For my own part, my experience of God’s intervention in my everyday life is a constant confirmation of not only his existence, but also of his loving, caring, personal nature. This is why, when I am asked if I believe in God, my response is often something like, “I don’t just believe in God; I know there is a God, because I experience him in my life.” I could no sooner deny the existence of God than deny the existence my wife and family. You see, for me, the question of God’s existence is no longer an abstract or theoretical one, because I have encountered him personally and powerfully.
In the previous episode I quoted Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good”. This is an invitation; an invitation to move beyond mere intellectual enquiry and to open yourself to encounter God personally. You see, intellectual enquiry will only take you so far. You will reach a point where, having examined all the evidence, you might reasonably conclude that there is a possibility that God exists. You may even conclude that it is highly probable that God exists. You may reach a point where you might say, “Yes, I do now believe in God.” Excellent! But at that point, God’s existence will still be an intellectual exercise for you. He will still be a distant deity whose existence you may concede but whose presence you have not yet encountered at a personal level.
That is when you must take the next step. And in the final episode of this series I’ll be explaining how to take that next step.
But before I do that, I want to deal with the problem of apathy, because for many people, the question of God’s existence is not a pressing issue. It’s not something they are deeply concerned about or which consumes much of their time or attention. For most people, if the question arises at all, it barely rates a passing thought before it is pushed to the back of the mind where it is placed in the “I’ll think about it later” box.
So in the next episode, I’m going to discuss Pascal’s Wager, a pair of very simple propositions that point out the urgency and importance of this issue. Also, keep an eye out for my upcoming series, “Answers”, which tackles the most common questions and objections against Christianity.
For more information on any of these topics, you can check out my books which are available on my website, smartfaith.net, where you can also subscribe to my weekly blog.