Army cadets are asking for Bibles - it’s another positive sign of renewal in the UK

There has been a lot of discussion over the last couple of years about whether the UK is experiencing a ‘quiet revival’. While the Bible Society’s eponymous report has now been withdrawn over questions around the polling method, I have no doubt that there is some – indeed a lot – of truth in this.

Leaving aside the evidence from my own home church, where we have seen a number of younger people coming along, I have also seen this reality inside the UK military.

Chaplains working in our recruit training regiments among sailors, the Royal Marines, soldiers and airmen and women, along with those in our Army and Combined Cadet Force organisations, are quite clear. These 17 and 18-year-old recruits and 14-to-16-year-old cadets are asking for copies of the Bible, and they are reading them for themselves and coming back with questions.

Young people are finding answers to questions in the Bible that they aren’t getting elsewhere

I have also been speaking to the Christian fellowship at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst over many years. While there has always been interest in Christianity from some of the cadets there, attendance has always been around a dozen people, meeting together in the chaplain’s house. However, over the last couple of years, the fellowship have moved to a lecture theatre in the academic block, because the numbers have greatly increased. It’s called ‘Christian Encounter’ now, and it’s not unusual to have 30 to 50 cadets attending on a Sunday evening.

Most are aged between 22 and 25, but some are younger - and they are all showing great interest in studying the Bible and prayerfully discussing how it should be influencing their future careers.

And, finally, I have been speaking to members of the Armed Forces Christian Union’s (the AFCU) Issachar programmes. This is an 18-month Christian leadership and discipleship course for men and women from the military community who have a vision to see God’s kingdom grow within the Armed Forces. AFCU membership has grown at a rate of more than one a day for the past couple of years, which is extraordinary in a declining military! Current numbers are 3,700 members, with more than 1,500 currently serving - many of the new joiners are under 35 years old.

Hope in an uncertain world

None of this surprises me. Young people today are living in a largely secular society which has abandoned any belief in anything other than itself. With a constantly negative media - including social media – they have seen for themselves how things have turned out; and it’s not going too well. So, they want to explore the alternatives.

In the military environment in particular, many want to know what the Bible has to say about how they can serve as Christians in the military. They are asking questions about the morality of war, particularly as a result of all that is happening in Ukraine and the Middle East. And they want to understand what peace really means in their individual lives – to which Jesus has, of course, got the answer!

Cadets are asking for copies of the Bible, and they are reading them

The principal role of the British military is to deliver “fighting power” when needed, not to be nice. The test is war and battle; the result either triumph or defeat. There are no prizes for coming second on a battlefield. But when and how we fight matters greatly. People want to understand their place in it, and how they should conduct themselves under, for example, Christian Just War principles.

The UK Government argues that our military can be “a force for good” in the world - and I for one believe that to be true. But it will only be the case if we have members of the Navy, Army and Air Force who hold firm to Christian values and beliefs, and who don’t abuse their power.

The evidence that I am seeing is that many of our young people take this very seriously, and are finding answers to questions in the Bible that they aren’t getting elsewhere. They are asking themselves some very sensible and important questions. And that can only be a good thing.