Why is God invisible?

 

I’m a Christian, and I follow God, whom I can’t see or hear in any physical sense. To a lot of people this seems foolish. So why is God physically invisible and inaudible? I think the answer is that He made us with freedom of choice which is a fantastic gift. He didn’t make us to be slavish puppets who would be forced to serve him.

Idol worship

People love to have something visible to idolise or worship. In ancient times this was literal – they worshipped idols, - and in some places today idols are still worshipped. Today our idols are different. We have pop idols and sports idols. An acquaintance of ours says he isn’t interested in coming to church on a Sunday because he polishes and maintains his (very special) car at the weekend. Thus it’s an idol for him.

Invisibility

If God were visible we’d be forced to believe in him, because the evidence of his existence would be too strong to contradict. Because he is invisible we have to make a choice as to whether we will believe in him and whether we will submit to him or not. Unfortunately many people in western society can’t be bothered to make that choice and remain in the ‘don’t know’ or ‘don’t care’ camp. That will be no defence though – it’s a poor position to take once you’ve been challenged to think about it.

For guidance

One thing that God has given us to help us in our decision here is the Bible, a best selling but yet neglected book, in which there are both stories and advice to point us in the right direction.

Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader of the Hebrews in the Exodus from Egypt. God said to Joshua

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1.7, 8)

Later on Joshua challenged all the Hebrews with the same choice:

Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24.14)

When Jesus had risen from the dead, one of his followers, Thomas found this fact very hard to believe. He’s been known ever since as ‘Doubting Thomas’. Jesus came to him and showed him his wounded hands and side. He then said “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

In the 19^th Century a hymnwriter named Walter Smith caught the thought of invisibility well, in what became a very popular hymn:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Finally, a challenge from the Bible :

Sitting on the fence about whether to believe in or follow God isn’t an option. Once you’ve been challenged to think about it it’s important to make a decision. Saint Paul knew this when he challenged the citizens of Corinth to make up their minds:

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6.2)

Why am I a Bible-believing Christian?

I come from a Christian family, and can trace our family’s Christianity back for many generations. Back in the early 19^th Century my great(x3) grandmother Pamela Ann Woods Prior was praying daily that “Not one will be missing from the family on the Coming Day of Great Glory around the throne of God”. 

Wow! Quite a prayer! 

But am I a Christian just because I come from a long line of Christians? I became a Christian when I was 11 years old. It was a conscious decision. You could say I was ‘born again’ (a phrase that Jesus used when he was talking to Nicodemus). 'Born again' has become something of a journalistic catchphrase, but actually it is a very good description of what happened. As I was talking to Jesus and committing my life to him I genuinely felt that a new life was beginning for me.   I was at the time attending weekly a boy’s bible-class called Crusaders.   (See footnote)

However, in adulthood I thought it through again. Was I a Christian simply because I had been indoctrinated by my family and by Crusaders? Or was there more to it than that? I’m sure there was more to it. I didn’t simply accept everything my parents wanted for me. You can read in my blog in ‘Grandpa’s story’ how and why I decided against going into the family business and became a schoolteacher instead. But I did accept and follow the Christian faith which they had. A major part of my re-think was based on the Bible, which I had been reading daily (and still do) since childhood. Christianity could only be true if the Bible is true. Is it? I have written about the bible and whether it is true elsewhere.   (See footnotes)

Here are some more detailed thoughts about why I believe the Bible, and whether the Bible is inspired by God.

It claims to be inspired: (This may seem like begging the question, but we need to start by asking what claims it makes for itself)

Moses claimed that the 10 Commandments and the moral law were given to him by God and should be followed by the Hebrews

The Old testament prophets often said “Thus says the Lord” , and their words were quotted in the Bible.

Jesus referred to himself as the ‘Son of Man’ , thus telling his listeners (Jews who knew their Bible well) that he was the one referred to in Daniel 7.13 who is given everlasting dominion and glory.

He also quoted from the Bible many times, for example when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and when he was teaching the people. Often he said “It is written...”

The apostles, who first spread Christianity, also assumed that their words had authority. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, saying “All scripture is inspired by God…” (2 Timothy 3.16)

The apostle Peter took the same view. 2 Peter 1.20-21. “no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

In 2 Peter 3.16 he accords the same authority to Paul's writings: 

"Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him.... His

letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which 

ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures

to their own destruction. "

 

 So all this is a challenge, either to faith or 

to  unbelief.  

 The Bible is still to this day a best-seller – maybe the biggest 

bestseller there is, yet in Britain there are many households who 

don’t even have a bible, let alone read one! (Though intriguingly I 

read recently that sales of  Bibles rose in 2025 by 135%!) 

There are plenty of people who think the Bible is simply a book, 

liable to inaccuracy as much as any other history book. And 

probably simply reading it with that attitude will not do much for 

you. But if you really want to know God (He who created you, no 

less!) and read the Bible believing that God speaks with authority 

through it, you will find it, as I have done, to be inspired, just as it 

claims to be.

 

Back to my original question: Why am I a 

Christian?  

It's  to do with relationship. We all experience love in our lives - love

by a child for their parents, by parents for their child, love for a pet, 

love between partners, and so on. Now 

   if it delights the one who created us to love us, and 

   if He shows us how to develop this relationship by inspiring 

writers to tell us about it in a compilation of writings which we now 

call the Bible, and

   if He tells us that this love relationship will continue even after we 

die 

 .....then who would choose NOT to respond to ths? 

 

Belief 

Belief is basic to a relationship with God, and the Bible comments 

on it. One of the earliest believers was Abraham, and the Bible tells

us that "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as 

righteousness."   (i.e. like the rest of us Abraham wasn't good 

enough to receive God's favour, but God graciously blessed him

because he believed.    See footnote) 

When Jesus rose from the dead. 'Doubting Thomas' intially refused 

to believe it had happened, until he met the risen Jesus. Jesus said 

to him "Because you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are 

those who have not seen, yet have believed."  (see footnote).

 

Disbelief

Many people in the western world put belief on one side,  saying 

"I'm not religious".  This is a careless cop-out for those who can't be 

bothered to investigate, or who fear that the challenge of belief

might upset their daily life.  Or they think wrongly that belief 

automatically means that they'll have to go to church.

But what if I'm right? The Bible says that there will one day be a

judgement day for everyone!  What a feeble defence it will be if all 

you can say in your defence is "I wasn't religious".  (See footnote re

Judgement Day)

 

Footnotes

The story of Nicodemus is in the Bible in John's gospel  chapter 3 

 You can read more about Crusaders in the middle of my blog entitled Grandpa’s story,   August 25^th 2023

 I wrote about the Bible and whether it is true in my blog in December 2019

Abraham's story is in the Bible in Genesis 12 to 25, and the quotation is from Genesis 15.6 

The story of Doubting Thomas is in John's gospel chapter 20. See 20.29 for the quotation.  

Judgement Day is described in the Bible in Revelation 20, from verse 11 onwards 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why does God allow suffering?

 There is so much suffering in the world that some people find it difficult or even impossible to believe in a God who cares for us or is interested in us.


Stephen Fry has stated clearly that it’s a good reason for atheism. He questions how one could respect a God who creates a world filled with misery, stating that such a being would be "capricious, mean-minded, and stupid." Fry argues that if a God exists, He is "quite clearly a maniac" for allowing pain and suffering in the world. (!) So Fry believes that rejecting the notion of God can lead to a simpler and more fulfilling life.


But it’s not a new question. It’s been with us since the dawn of human existence, and many centuries ago (maybe 4000 years ago) the problem was highlighted in the story of Job, which is one of the books in the Bible. People like me who trust in the Bible as the main way in which God speaks to us today can learn a lot from this story. (Spoiler alert: I’ll summarize the story here – but it’s better to read the story in the Bible for yourself).


Job is a good man, who suffers the most appalling disasters in quick succession. He has disasters to his property, his family and his health. The prevailing view at the time was that suffering is a punishment from God for sin. Job’s friends are so shocked by his suffering that they sit silently with him for a week before they dare say anything at all. Then they try to convince him that he must have done wrong to bring this upon himself. But we’re actually told in the first chapter of the book that these disasters are brought about by Satan, God’s enemy, with God’s permission, to prove that a good man will not give up on God even when suffering great disasters. Job, of course, doesn’t know why he is suffering and he pleads with God for an answer. God doesn’t give him an answer to his question, but states his almighty power and makes it clear that Job has no right to know the answer but must simply trust that God knows best.


The story of Job does have a happy ending (described in chapter 42), but the lesson for the reader is that anyone who wants to be part of God’s kingdom must trust that God know best and that he will not always explain why he allows suffering to happen. And we have no right to know. We are challenged to trust in God without expecting our maker to justify his actions or inactions.


As I write this, there is a lot of tension in the world. There is a war in Ukraine, and a war in the Middle East centred mainly on Gaza. Christians are being massively persecuted in Northern Nigeria, in an under-reported but lengthy conflict. There are growing tensions between the democracies of the Western World and the autocratic regimes of Russia, China and Iran, with the threat of escalation into warfare. All of this could cause even more suffering. Is God ultimately in control? In another book of the Bible, Nehemiah, we can read of the way in which God controlled in a very detailed way what was going on in the great empire of Babylon and Persia (modern day Iran). It’s a reminder that even when there seems to be chaos, God is indeed ultimately in control.


A final thought: although God does not give us any cut-and-dried explanation of the reason for suffering, what he has done is to come alongside us and experience it himself! He knows what it is like! As Jesus hung on the cross, the Son of God suffered pain, humiliation and death, whilst God the Father endured the agony of His Son enduring this. The 18th century hymnwriter John Newton in his hymn ‘Begone Unbelief’ was moved by this to write

How bitter that cup

No heart can conceive

Which He drank quite up

That sinners may live!

His way was much rougher

and darker than mine

Did Jesus thus suffer

And shall I repine? 

Lindsay Prior

 

My first wife, Lindsay, died 31 years ago.  She had been ill for many years with cancer, and a liver transplant extended her life  by four years.  During her final year, a pain specialist from our local hospice at Dorothy House told her how impressed he was that she, unlike most people he met, had had done more than merely come to terms with the fact that she was dying. She had overcome and was in no way daunted by her situation. Could she, he asked, write down her account of how she had achieved this?   Lindsay had no strength left even to hold a pen, but I interviewed her and wrote down her responses

 

CONVERSATION WITH LINDSAY, written down by Michael.   29.1.94  - ten days before she died (and three days before she lost consciousness).

 

Fear of what lies ahead

I am not in the least frightened, although this time I know that I am dying. But I'm  not in the least bit afraid of death. I'm looking forward to it with great excitement: in a very peaceful sort of way, if you can be excited and at peace.

 

I've looked forward all my life to going to heaven, and now that it's coming about, I'm longing to know what it's going to be like.  I've talked about it, I've sung about it, I've prayed about it all my  life, as most Christians have, and now it's actually coming about I  find it absolutely fascinating to know just how it's going to manifest  itself and what it's going to be like.

 

I've had a wonderful, wonderful life with lots and lots of great happiness, particularly with family affairs. I've had lots of wonderful family holidays and outings and occasions and there are many of those which leave me with great memories. And I'm very pleased about that because they will stand the family in good stead I hope, as they're left behind without me.

 It won't be a wrench to leave my family and friends. I know that sounds absolutely awful, and I  don't really know how it is that I can say it. But I'm going to such a wonderful place that I can't even miss them. I feel terribly sorry  because the family will miss me, but I'm afraid I don't think I'll miss  them.

I am so looking forward to where I am going.  I've been brought up as a committed Christian all my life I suppose, and the Lord Jesus Christ has been my friend and  my guide for all that time. And as I've learnt various things about Him it's gradually built up, and with it has built up a picture of what is to come. A hazy picture, I might say, but an exciting picture nevertheless. 

I have never had any doubts about this. It's really to my sorrow in a way, because I'm no use to people who do have doubts. I can't be of any use to them, because I can't  understand what their problem is, and so I'm useless, whereas the doubter who has forged his way through and come out the other end is  much more useful, because He's got an answer to the questions. That's a more useful situation to be in.

I have been asked what my relationship with Jesus is like, and whether he talks to me.

I do spend a lot of time in prayer and I feel He answers me.  I find it difficult to say how He answers me except that I believe that He does.

I don't hear a human voice. But I do know instinctively on many occasions what I should be doing, and what the Lord's answer is, even if it's something that I don't what to do myself. He gives me a very clear answer which I can grasp and experience. 

 

Fear of pain

 I think it's vital to accept the advice of the doctors around you. There's no merit in being noble, so if you are in pain I think it's a good thing to admit it. I haven't always done so myself, but I think where I haven't, I've made a mistake and I should have done.

 

Fear of death

This is where it's very difficult, because I find even in the last week  or so my attitude has changed anyway, and a lovely chorus has come very much to the  full in my life in a way which I didn't realise would happen even as  recently as a month ago. 

‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face;

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace.’

 

It's now become very true, and the things of earth have faded, and with them the fear of what might happen when I die. So I have no fears now.

 

 

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Well the first thing is, it's very debatable whether or not I'm good.  And if I am good, then so are a very large number of other people, because we're all a mixture of good and bad, of nasty and unpleasant things, and of lots of lovely things as well. Far more important than that, why shouldn't they? What reason is there for me to be spared? I  see no reason of any sort why I shouldn't experience exactly the same as every other human being. If I were to have a charmed life then non-Christians could look and say, "Well of course it's easy to be a Christian. You have a charmed life." But if I am able to be a Christian when life is ordinary and just like everybody else's then that is when  it is more recognisable as being something which is worth-while. Despite all the pain and weakness, and the fact that I'm still young, I feel my heavenly Father has looked after me through thick and thin, and it's His right to bless us in whatever way He wishes, and I feel that this is what He has done. 

 

Why does a good and powerful God let you suffer?

It means that life is full of mysteries. I'm sorry to just leave it at  that, but life is full of mysteries which this side of heaven we will not understand because He is all-powerful and so He could do whatever He chose, and we do not understand why He chooses one way and rejects  another way in one particular person's life. We just have to accept that that is what He does, and he has every right to, because He is the sovereign Lord. And so I feel that I have complete peace to leave the choice to Him to permit me to be treated in whatever way He sees fit.  And I'm absolutely convinced that His way has been best for me. 

 

I think too that our family has benefitted by the suffering because it  has drawn us together and taught us very valuable, very difficult lessons. And when you think of all sorts of things in nature: a diamond can't be made without great pressure, a gemstone is something which takes a great deal of making, a beautiful garden requires a great deal  of pruning, and there are many instances in nature of things which  have to be treated in a way which you might consider to be unkind in  order to bring out the very best. And we have been privileged in our family that He has considered us worthy to treat us in this way and bring out the very best. I see in my children that they have learnt a great deal of love and care and joy in their lives because of the sorrow that we have been through, and I'm grateful that they have  been permitted to do this. It's been a real privilege to be their mother, and to be Michael's wife. 

 

 

 

Is the timing wrong if a young person dies?

All I can say is that the timing that I can see has always been  perfect. I've had a lot of very happy occasions in the last few years.  I suppose the first one is my successful liver transplant, which came absolutely spot on time. If it had waited any longer it would have been too late. But since then we've had family holidays where I've been ill  beforehand, then for the time it was booked I've been really well for the whole period of the holiday. We've had family occasions when the same thing has happened: where there was something that we really wanted to go to.

 

In Leeds after the liver transplant

What about the loneliness of those you leave behind?

Well I hope no-one will be bitter, because I personally believe that the Lord Jesus' timing has been absolutely spot on. I can't pretend to understand that because it is a mystery, but I do feel that if it's right for me to be dead, and it must be because that's my heavenly  Father's plan for me, then it must be right for all those around me, for me to be dead. It cannot be right for me and wrong for them, and so there must be some even more glorious explanation of why it was  necessary to do it just this way. And the Lord promises he will give us His comfort. He says, "I will not leave you comfortless" and He promises that when He goes away He will leave His Holy Spirit, and that is still valid today. His Holy Spirit is still here, willing and able and longing to be a comfort to all those who are left behind.

 

I think He's given a baton to me to carry up to now, and now for whatever reason He sees fit, my carrying of it is over. I've done my bit. Like a relay runner I've done my bit and now the next runner has to take over to do his bit. No relay runner can run three laps of the relay: he only runs his one, and I'm only running my one. 

 

One wish for future.

My wish for those I leave behind is that they all have a strong and determined faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they continue to walk with Him. 

That's the only wish I have. If that is right, then everything else falls into place. Basically if that bit of your life is right, then if you are wanting to serve Him, and that is the paramount wish in your life, then everything else has got to fall into place, and then you will be blessed as I have  been blessed. I know, from utter conviction.

 

Has your life been a success?

Oh yes, my life has been an infinite success. I have had a very happy, contented life for many years, and I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that came my way, because I was determined to live it through the Lord Jesus Christ. I have had sorrows; there have been quite a few sorrows, but they have nearly all been because of my own stupidity and on occasions when I upset the applecart, and had to come back to the Lord and ask His forgiveness and pick up things and carry on; but while I have let Him do the ruling, everything has gone well.

 

I believe the secret of life is to spend it with the Lord Jesus Christ, so the transition from this life to the next really won't be that great. It'll be just like changing trains, only the new train will be a corker!

 

I haven't got a clear imagination of what heaven is going to be like but it doesn't matter a bit. It's quite exciting waiting to find out what it's going to be like.  I'm really looking forward to it, and not just because I shall no longer be in pain.  I shall meet again those who have gone before me. I don't know whether I shall be conscious of having to wait for those who follow behind me because I will have stepped out of time as we know it. But the Lord Jesus said that when He returns He will raise the dead in Christ, and that will be me and my father; and then they who are alive, and that will be Michael and the children. And we'll all meet the Lord together. I think that makes absolute sense to me.

 

But sadly I think there will be some people whom I will not meet in heaven. Good people, who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't bear to think of it but I'm afraid there are those who just haven't had it in them to accept Him. But I do wish that they  would think very seriously about Him and decide that He is worth their  allegiance from many points of view. I think the other thing is that there will be many people there that we'll be surprised by. People whom we didn't expect to see there, and they are there too.  I myself have been very blessed. A lot of people haven't had  the opportunities that I've had. But I do long that they will take advantage in the time that's left. I think we need to be positive because there are a lot of people are very close and I feel many of  them have never rejected the Lord. And if you haven't rejected Him then you are with Him, I believe. I think there may even be Christians there who didn't know they were.

 

The kingdom of heaven is open to absolutely everybody. Secondly,  there are people all over the place who would be very willing to help you., or if you just pick up a Bible from a bookshop, or in your own home, and read  through it. Talk with a believer. He or she will be able to guide you to the Lord Jesus Christ, who can make  all the difference in your life. 

 

I've never been very courageous for the Lord, which is  one of my great shames, and perhaps it's because I'm so near the  end that I've got the courage to talk for Him, at least to redeem a little bit of time right at the end.  

Teenager in Northern Rhodesia

 

In our garden in Uganda, with Janine

Moor Park Quarry, Neston.

 

When I came to Neston in the early 1970s,  Moor Park Quarry inhabited the area now occupied by Moor Park, The Stoneworks and Sheppards. The quarry itself is probably still there, under the field between the two housing estates, and there are a few photos of it in ‘Secret Underground Corsham’ p57-58 by Nick McCamley. There is a ventilation shaft beside the final corner of the road into The Stoneworks. There was a two-story office block straddling what is now the entrance to Moor Park, owned by the Bath and Portland Stone Company. Behind it was a stone-cutting yard, a deep and dangerous pond (roughly where the field now is), and a large spoil heap which extended all the way to Greenhill, where the Sheppards housing estate has subsequently been built. The quarry was already disused in the 1970s, I think. Later, the land where The Stoneworks is sited was turned into what we called ‘the Fireworks Factory’. I think the factory made emergency flares (as used aboard ships in distress), and I believe it was owned by Leafield Engineering Ltd (on Leafield Industrial Estate), later renamed Honeywell Aerospace & Defence Ltd. The old spoil heap provided a useful barrier around the factory to protect Neston if there were ever an accidental explosion on the site. This remains in place to this day. The entrance drive to the factory was where the footpath to Westwells Road now lies.

When the factory eventually closed it remained unoccupied for years, and from time to time travellers would come and park their caravans on the drive, eventually leaving the area in a considerable mess. 

 

The driveway to the 'Fireworks Factory'

 

Fireworks Factory being demolished

Sheppards

The spoil heap extended to Greenhill, and that end of it was a wilderness area full of buddleia and bramble bushes where our children loved to play.  When the bungalows were built there, the road was named Sheppards after Ernie and Ena Sheppard who had lived in the house further up Greenhill next to the spoil heap. Ernie had been a stonemason before retirement.

 

Moor Park and The Stoneworks

After the quarry works and the office block were demolished, diggers and levellers spent many months preparing the area for housing. There was even a proposal to shift Neston School to a new site on Moor Park (where the field is), and my wife who was a school governor used to pore over the plans for the school with fellow governors. The old fireworks factory site was cleared and The Stoneworks housing estate built in its place. To our surprise, the entrance road was connected to Moor Park and the original entrance road turned into a footpath.

D-Day afterthoughts

In all the commemorations of D-Day on our TV screens in the last few days there is one aspect of the success of D-Day that is barely mentioned today, yet it was of huge importance at the time – and those in charge of the invasion knew it well.  

 

Two of the most astounding events of the the Second World War happened on the coast of France. The first was at Dunkirk in 1940 – rightly called ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’ by Winston Churchill.  The second was of course D-Day in 1944.

 

The King

In 1940, King George VI rallied the public to a national Day of Prayer – and miraculously well over 300,000 troops were saved from the shores of France, far more than anyone might have expected.  

 

Queuing for the National Day of Prayer

 

Then again in 1944 the King called the nation to prayer again, saying    Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve. After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour. We and our Allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honour may be the foundation of the life of men in every land…….  I  desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication. We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God: and we dare to believe that God has used our Nation and Empire as an instrument for fulfilling his high purpose.

 

Eisenhower

Several of  the key leaders of the invasion were committed Christians who knew well that in fighting Naziism we were fighting a great evil.  They knew they could not achieve the necessary victory on the shores of France without divine help, and they echoed the words of the King.  The Commander in Chief was General Eisenhower, and his Order of the Day included these words:  “… The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you … let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”

 

Later, in 1952  he said “This day eight years ago, I made the most agonising decision of my life. I had to decide to postpone by at least twenty-four hours the most formidable array of fighting ships and of fighting man that was ever launched across the sea against a hostile shore. … If there were nothing else in my life to prove the existence of an almighty and merciful God, the events of the next twenty-four hours did it … The greatest break in a terrible outlay of weather occurred the next day and allowed that great invasion to proceed, with losses far below those we had anticipated …”

 

General Eisenhower

 

General Montgomery

The Commander of Land Troops was General Montgomery. Some years earlier, before Alamein,  he had said “I would as soon think of going into battle without my artillery as without my chaplains”. 

Now, on the eve of D-Day, Montgomery sent a message to all his troops :  “To us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history; and in the better days that lie ahead men will speak with pride in our doings. We have a great and righteous cause.  Let us pray that ‘The Lord Mighty in Battle’ will go forth with our armies, and that His special providence will aid us in the struggle.”

 

General Bernard Montgomery

Chaplains

Prayer surrounded D-Day. Army chaplains prayed with troops. On Sunday 4 June there was a prayer vigil attended by 400 officers and men of the Second Army HQ, where the final prayer included the following:“As we stand upon the threshold of the greatest adventure in our history, let us now offer to Almighty God all our powers of body, mind and spirit, so that our great endeavour may be thoroughly finished.”

The D-Day invasion of Normandy was the largest and most complex invasion in history.  If it had failed, Britain and Europe would be very different today. There were many reasons why it might have gone disastrously wrong – the most dramatic of which was the uncertain weather. There is a good 10-minute video about this at 

https://youtu.be/W4piAK9uRhk      

 

Films about D Day or about Dunkirk concentrate on the events themselves. Generally there are no references in them to the role of prayer or to God’s blessing. Yet I believe that ultimately prayer was the most vital ingredient in these events. Would it be the same if we were involved in a battle against evil today?

Neston Gospel Hall - and other places of worship in Neston

Corshamside Gospel Hall, Neston

Corshamside

In the  early 19th century Neston did not exist. An area of hamlets including Elley Green, Moor Green, Greenhill and Westwells were all part of what was known as Corshamside, and the little clusters of houses in the area were occupied by farmworkers and quarrymen and their families.  There were several farms, the oldest of which was Overmoor Farm, part of which dates back to the 12th century.  There was no church.

Overmoor Farm 1972

 In 1856 Corshamside Gospel Hall was built on the southern edge of this area in a rural setting where the land adjoins Neston Park.  

A visitor today might wonder why the Gospel Hall was built right out in the country.  But one has only to think back 170 years to the days when people went  everywhere on foot, to realise that it was a central location for villagers of Corsham, Atworth, Wadswick and Corshamside, who walked to the Gospel Hall on Sundays. Unusually, this nonconformist chapel was the first place of worship in the Corshamside area.

 

Gospel Halls as a rule do not have burial grounds, but Corshamside Gospel Hall is unique in Britain in having its own graveyard, which is still in use. This came about because it predated the building of  the Parish Church in Neston, and was therefore the only graveyard in the neighbourhood for a while.

 

 Although the Gospel Hall has been converted into a private house, the graveyard continues to be supervised by the Brethren.

Looked at from the perspective of today, when the industrial infrastructure of the Corsham stone quarries has all but vanished, it is worth noting that the Gospel Hall was built for and by the men who worked in the stone quarries and who used the stone to build their Chapel.

Brethren assemblies

The Gospel Hall was built by the Brethren (sometimes known as the Plymouth Brethren). Their chapels were known as 'Brethren Assemblies' The origins of the Brethren movement date back to the 1830s, when groups of Christians sought to return to the simplicity of worship described in the New Testament and began meeting without clergy to ‘break bread’ (hold communion services), initially in people’s homes. In 1832 Rev John Methuen, the vicar of Corsham, resigned his living to join the group of Brethren in Neston.  In the early days  the group met in Pockeridge House, then owned by Mr John Edridge. (now part of the MoD estate at Basil Hill).

 Subsequently the Gospel Hall and the adjoining ground in Chapel Lane Neston were given to the assembly by Mr. Edridge  as a ‘place of preaching and a graveyard for the society of brethren’. Unfortunately, the generous donor died whilst the hall was being built and was buried alongside it in the graveyard. He died in January 1856 aged 68 years and was the first to be buried there. The local believers erected a large memorial expressing their indebtedness to one ‘who had it in his heart to build this place of worship.’ His relatives sought (but failed) to have his body exhumed, since they did not want him to be buried in some ‘ unconsecrated field ’.   Later in 1856 the Gospel Hall was opened and amongst the trustees were a local gamekeeper, a butcher, a blacksmith, and Captain H. M. Becher who was associated with George Muller of Ashley Down Orphanages in Bristol. The gamekeeper was Daniel Davis,  gamekeeper to Squire George Fuller of Neston Park. In 1864, it is recorded that “Daniel gained a place in history whilst out shooting with Squire George Fuller and his cousin, the African explorer, John Hanning Speke. When climbing over a wall, Capt Speke’s gun discharged with fatal consequences. Daniel was one of the carriers of Speke from the field in Wadswick where he died.”

(For more on Speke, see my entry of January 2020 entitled 'Death in Neston'.     It's at  

https://mpriorblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/death-in-neston_14.html     )

 

Moor Green Baptist Chapel

In 1860 a chapel was built at Moor Green by the Baptists. This photo was taken in 1956 when a stone quarry operated immediately opposite (where Moor Park has subsequently been built).

Moor Green Baptist Chapel, 1956

 The Parish Church

In 1866  the Church of England Parish Church of St Philip and St James was built about half a mile away, and because some of the benefactors of this church lived at Neston Park, it was regularly referred to as Neston Parish Church. Thus 'Neston' came into existence.  

 

Neston Parish Church

But wasn't until the 1970s that Corshamside Gospel Hall changed its name to Neston Gospel Hall. (I was responsible for that! As a member there I persuaded the leadership that a change of name would be a good idea because the public, espedially incomers,  were no longer familiar with where Corshamside was).

Over the past 170 years or so, the Assembly exercised an influence in the surrounding district more than its founders could have ever imagined. Few of the older established families in the area have not had a family member in fellowship at one time or another. In its heyday the gospel hall (which could seat about 120 people) was regularly full, had two choirs, a Sunday-school and a teenagers’ study group.

Neston Gospel Hall 1903

I have many personal memories of the Gospel Hall, having been a member of the congregation for 20 years during the  1970s and 1980s. My first wife Lindsay was buried in the graveyard there. 

As the years have passed, the Gospel Hall (though not its graveyard) has fallen victim like so many other village chapels, schools, post offices and shops to the onslaught of widespread car ownership, which results in local facilities diminishing as people choose instead to travel to nearby towns.  It is now a private home. But there must have been other factors at play too: only a mile or so away the beautiful and historic Monks Chapel survives as a rural place of worship.

 

Monks Chapel

 The Gospel Hall has become a private house, as has Moor Green Baptist Chapel, which at the time of writing this footnote is under extensive renovation.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Corsham Baptist Church is extending its reach by not only using its own premises in Corsham , but also making use of Neston Memorial Hall, where (in 2024) a lively and thriving congregation meets every Sunday morning at 10 a.m.