150 years earlier in 1848, John Thomas wrote “Europe… as a united dominion... Britain cannot be included among them”. Before the E.U. was even formed, Bible believers were convinced that firstly, there would be a united Europe (something that looked unlikely during the Napoleonic wars), and secondly that Britain would be independent of it.

These views seemed laughable for decades, but in 2016, the world (except Bible believers) were shocked to wake up to the news that Britain had voted to leave the European Union. Even after this vote, there was much debate about whether “Brexit”, as it was known, would ever take place. Time and time again it was delayed, until finally in early 2020 Britain finally left the E.U. 

We as Bible believers are not involved in politics, nor are we involved in the arguments of whether Brexit was a good idea, economically, politically, internationally or from any other perspective you might evaluate the decision from. We never claimed to know whether this decision was a good or bad decision for the British economy, neither was it a question that we were particularly interested in, compared to the question of Bible prophecy. What interested us as Bible believers, was how it was consistent with our understanding of prophecy and the situation at the time of Armageddon. 

Britain had taken a path consistent with her role as being part of a group of nations who would be critical of the invasion of Israel and Egypt as described in many Armageddon passages, such as Daniel 12 and Ezekiel 38.

Britain leaving the European Union was controversial at the time, and remains so to this day. There still exist movements and campaigns that seek to rebuild the ties between the UK and EU, and even some who would like to see Britain re-join the EU. 

While Britain has left the E.U., according to the polling YouGov the public are far less sure about the June 23rd 2016 decision than they were at the time. While the percentage of the population who believe Brexit was a mistake has increased to 55% from 48% in the referendum, the Leave vote has dropped from 52% down to just 30% with 14% of voters now not sure.

With these figures as the fundamentals you would expect a reversal of Brexit to be a real political possibility, with political parties holding this as their policy. You would expect pro E.U. voices to have momentum, with pro-Brexit politicians being hit hard by the 55% of the population who believe it was a mistake.

However the opposite is true. The idea of re-joining the E.U. is not supported by a single mainstream political party. The Liberal Democrats, who during the Brexit years were known (and accepted the label proudly) as the “stop Brexit party”, who still claim on their website to be the most pro E.U. party in the UK, did not commit to rejoining the E.U. in their 2024 manifesto, nor do they hold this position today.

At the same time, self styled “Mr Brexit” Nigel Farage has never been so popular. Last week in the UK’s local election, Nigel Farage’s party Reform UK, swept to a victory even larger than had been expected. Reform gained control of 10 councils, while 3 were won by the Liberal Democrats, and the rest were all under no overall control. The two main parties didn’t win a single council. Reform also won a by-election and two mayorships. Sky News used the results to project the support for the various parties nationwide, putting Reform at 32%, compared to Labour and the Conservatives on 19% and 18% respectively. Laura Kuenssberg wrote a BBC News article entitled “This week proves Nigel Farage’s PM ambition is not a wild notion”.

Now again as Bible believers we are not interested in politics for political reasons but for prophetical reasons. The political landscape we see in the UK is one where despite the fact that a vote to re-join the E.U. would be the likely vote of any new referendum, the existence of Reform makes the idea of such a referendum a political impossibility. Reform forces the two main parties to compete for the anti-EU vote, making Labour wary of improving ties with the EU, and the conservatives consider leaving the ECHR (which is a European court) more seriously.

As Bible believers we believe that Britain didn’t leave the EU because it was the will of the people, but because it was the will of God. Britain has a role that isn’t one she has chosen, but one that God has chosen. That role is to be with Sheba and Dedan, with her young lion powers, and weakly criticise what the nations are doing to God’s people. 

References

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/51484-how-do-britons-feel-about-brexit-five-years-on

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx20zgwve43o

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2025/england/results