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 PrintableVersion Sins of the FathersSINS OF THE FATHERS The authors are 'international intercessors' who have discerned that a 'spirit of murder' grips the nation of Britain. A demonic stronghold has established itself on the centuries-old legacy of unconfessed and unforgiven corporate sin. The major hope for Christ to start driving out the demons lies in the British church identifying the sins of the nation and repenting on behalf of the entire people group. The ministry of identificational repentance begins as the Holy Spirit places his finger on the crucial factors in a nation's history. So Mills and Mitchell offer an impressively wide survey of British colonial atrocities showing their roots in earlier history and shoots in more recent national sins. The trail of tears runs from Fiji to Flodden Field, via Australia, China, USA and Ireland. Identificational repentance is then called for, with Christian representatives from the sinning and sinned against groups offering mutual confession and forgiveness at public events at significant historical sites. The emphasis on repentance as the prerequisite to revival was encouraging to read, given its relative absence in some modern revivalism. The authors consciously claim the Old Testament prophetic tradition as their basis. The extent to which you might agree with their overall thesis will depend on your view of the relationship between the old and new covenants. If the New Testament is seen as emphasising the church as God's key instrument fulfilling the old role of ethnic Israel to bless the nations, then confident claims about the Lord's specific purposes for this or that modern nation will appear highly speculative. If the corporate challenge of both testaments is primarily viewed as a wake-up call to the church, then the main value of identificational repentance will not be the symbolic public confessions in themselves, but the encouragement they may give to grassroots Christians to practise real reconciliation in local churches and communities. To their credit, the authors do graciously admit: 'Nowadays, one of our Caribbean friends says: 'Not another reconciliation event - we need some action together!' (p.78)'. The authors freely concede they are not historians, but do claim historical accuracy. My prior reading of several parts of the litany of colonial crimes led me to question the over-simplicity of some of their condemnations. For example, they showed no awareness of the emerging voices of African Christian scholars like Lamin Sanneh who suggest that, as Western missionaries promoted Scriptural translation projects, indigenous cultures were revitalised and eventually equipped to challenge Western claims of cultural superiority. Mills and Mitchell claim the gospel message was frequently defiled by Britain's sins. Perhaps this underestimates the sovereign power of the gospel to rise through and transform all cultures. I suspect identificational repentance will be increasingly attractive in renewal circles in the UK. I would encourage EN readers to read this book in order to familiarise themselves with a potentially powerful trend in British churches. Nick Cole,
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