Thinx 123: Two Christmases

Every year two Christmases are celebrated in parallel. 

One is about eating, drinking, making merry in the here and now, and some fat man with a white beard in a red suit.

The other is also a feast but has both here-and-now and transcendant elements. God made a promise thousands of years ago to destroy death, the "shroud that covers all nations"¹. At Christmas we celebrate the incarnation, the enfleshment, of God: Jesus, "conceived by the Holy Spirit [of God], born of the Virgin Mary"² as the Apostles' Creed (and early summary of Christian teaching) says. This Jesus in his death, resurrection and ascension, lived (and lives) the perfect life our forefather Adam failed to live.

There was no death when God created the world. It came into existence as the consequence of rebellion against God by the first humans, Adam and Eve. God calls that rebellion "sin" and it's been part of mankind ever since, a disease of the heart, will and mind with many symptoms.

Those who turn away (and keep turning away) from their sin and believe (and keep on believing) in this Jesus are given eternal life. Jesus himself said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."³

Thinx 122: The preacher couldn't see the irony of what he was preaching

I was at a Baptist church recently. The pastor was preaching on prayer and the text for the lesson was Acts 4:23-31. By Acts 4:23-31, the Jerusalem congregation numbered almost 10,000 people (if Acts 2:41, Acts 2:47 and Acts 4:4 are anything to go by.) The pastor told us that the apostles along with their congregation disobeyed the civil authorities so as to be obedient to Christ's commands. These were authorities which had been instituted by God (as per Romans 13:1-2.) Nevertheless, the congregation disobeyed the authorities, and apparently with God's blessing: Acts 5:32 says that God only gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him and Acts 4:31 relates how the Holy Spirit was poured out afresh on the congregation. They disobeyed the civil authorities because to obey them would have meant disobeying Christ's clear command, including the command to make disciples, baptise in the triune Name, and teach obedience to Christ's commands.

The pastor seemed oblivious to the irony of what he was teaching. His church had just come out of a two-year period where the civil authorities effectively banned the church from meeting. The state told the church to disobey Christ's command not to give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25) and the church obeyed the state without question. And in doing so, the church forced those whose conscience demanded that they meet together to act against their conscience. Not a good look, given Romans 14. It would have been far better to have permitted those who wanted to stay at home to stay at home and permit those who were convinced of the need to obey Hebrews 10:25 to do so.

He went on to speak glowingly of the power of Christians praying, referring to Acts 4:24-30 which records the church praying for boldness, the meeting place being shaken and the Holy Spirit equipping the members of the congregation to continue their work. But where was his church's boldness during 2020-21? Whatever power may be in prayer, the example he and his church had given to the wider community was that the state rules the church and that the church lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Mark McGowan and his Chief Medical Officer. Should another pandemic come along (monkey pox perhaps?) where will their local community find the church? Probably hiding under the table, as much enslaved by the fear of death as anyone else (Hebrews 2:15).

Thinx 121: The New Apartheid

Full disclosure: I have received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. When Novavax can be used for boosters I will probably get one. I am hesitant about receiving another mRNA or equivalent-technology dose. I am yet to understand how a vaccine developed for Alpha helps me with Omicron and whatever other strains may follow. I opted to receive the first two doses due to co-morbidities -- a childhood full of respiratory diseases.

Lots of sad news in the world today. I heard this week that one of the larger churches in my city, Riverview Church, had chosen to implement a Proof of Vaccination in the 9am gathering. Accompanied by a video the announcement applied to services starting this Sunday 13 Feb 2022. I hope someone put up a marquee outside and provided refreshment and teaching for those who were excluded from the main meeting.

About four months ago, there was an interesting opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald written by one Phil Colgan, the senior minister of St George North Anglican Church in Sydney. It was entitled, "The word from a vaccinated preacher: we don’t urge law-breaking, but we cherish religious freedom". The summary read: "Our churches support emergency action during the pandemic. Longer term, the idea that Christians would exclude anyone from church is extremely problematic."

And it is problematic. As Colgan goes on to say:

It goes against the very essence of the gospel. Jesus sought to welcome the “sinners” of his day – the people who the self-righteous elite sought to exclude from their temple. When we seek to include people, it is not an affirmation of their viewpoints, but an expression of love for them, with the hope that they might come to know God’s love shown to them in Jesus, and then even change their manner of life. Given that reality, of course churches want to talk about whether a vaccine passport is a good and necessary step.

What worries me in this whole experience is that it seems we can’t even do that – that is, talk about it. Perhaps I was unclear or unhelpful in my words? However, to arrive at good outcomes, people need to be free to discuss things in theory, disagree, listen to others and then seek to arrive at some sort of consensus. This is not possible when we demonise people with whom we disagree (or perhaps who don’t even disagree, but only raise the issue?)

I've just come from being on the side of a conversation between some vaccinated Christians talking about this very category of people: those who are vaccine-hesitant or even actively resistant to the political, societal and peer-group pressure to be vaccinated, and specifically those who claim to be Christian. What I heard was not love, nor any willingness to bear with the weakness of other brothers and sisters, in the Romans 15 sense, but rather demonising and stereotyping -- lumping them all together with home-schoolers and Trump supporters. They even went so far as to suggest that Christians who refuse to be vaccinated or delay their boosting for whatever reason should go and form their own churches. 

I'm strongly inclined to try and find such a church just so that I can join it. Identifying with the leper-class seems to me to be something that Jesus would do. Talking up an "aren't we great, we're triple-vaxxed" line seems so Pharisee and Sadducee.

As Colgan says, we don't encourage law-breaking. We don't. We strongly urge obedience to the laws of the land as per Romans 13. But we don't necessarily encourage obedience to the law when that law goes beyond its God-given limits. When the government starts telling Christians how to be Christians, when they start talking religio licita and illicita, then the church needs to ask itself whether being obedient to the state at the expense of obedience to Christ is worthwhile. Of course, disobedience to the state will mean great suffering for the church. When the believers disobeyed the Sanhedrin in the months after Pentecost they experienced persecution of all kinds including floggings, imprisonment and execution. God occasionally stepped in to save, miraculously releasing Peter from prison for example, but generally, that wasn't (and isn't) the case. 

I've been telling people for years that these days were coming. Now they're here. The time to chose whether you worship the state or Christ has come. We can make a god of the state or we can resist that urge and worship and serve the Creator who is blessed forever. The secret police aren't breaking down our front doors yet, so there's still time to pray and think things through, but the time to sweep the issue under the carpet one more time has passed. Many prayed for (and died for) the end of apartheid in South Africa. How many for this new apartheid?

Thinx 120: Dressed casually to preach

“A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’

“By offering defiled food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’

“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty. -- Malachi 1:6-8 NIV

I think I've finally twigged to why it bugs me when the preacher stands up dressed casually: we wouldn't dress like that if we were to meet the Prime Minister or the Queen. We're supposedly meeting with God but we're happy to show more respect to the Prime Minister or the Queen that we are to him. 

And one might say, "well that's Australian culture" and I might say in response, "So is every culture of equal value in God's sight?" but in any case even in this culture we show deference to those in authority by dressing up to meet them. Why not demonstrate the state of our heart by the state of our body?

Thinx 119: Stay Safe

A friend of mine, in a WhatsApp message finished the conversation with, "Stay safe." 

I responded with: "Why stay safe? What if God's will is to do something that isn't safe (like tell a sinner to repent)? Sure, don't take irrational risks but consider Paul, whose life story demonstrated a stronger commitment to his Lord than to his own personal safety. 

Sorry, my friend, it's just that 'stay safe' is fine coming off the lips of the ungodly, but for a man of your maturity in Christ, words like 'keep the faith' or similar would be far more encouraging and strengthening."

Thinx 118: Conspiracy

Yes, there is a conspiracy. It is the conspiracy of the flesh against the Spirit which has existed since Genesis 3, some six thousand or so years ago. Perhaps this is what 2 Thessalonians 2:7 is talking about where is says that "the mystery of lawlessness is already at work."

Notice how bipartisan this conspiracy is: both the political left, the political right and everything in between can join in without compromising their own principles. Yes, the political left is often styled as the enemy of the gospel but the political right is not necessarily a friend. Each of the Ten Commandments, God's moral law, can be as readily broken by a Conservative as by a Communist.

Conflating a political stance with the gospel is dangerous. It is a form of syncretism. It is always the gospel that suffers. 

Thinx 117: Over breakfast

We have an idolatry going on here: scientism. The lab-coat is the new surplice, the new liturgical vestment. We "follow the science", largely uncritically, and wonder why we later fall in a heap. 

Thinx 116: Melanin

I was born with a mediocre amount of melanin in my skin. 

My ethnic ancestors invented the "black/white" distinction to differentiate between equals on the basis of the amount of melanin in one's skin. Now everyone uses it, even the folk being discriminated against. Can no one challenge the status quo? Must we, forever, differentiate between equals based on a false dichotomy?

The Bible says there's only one race, but we've got so used to talking in terms of a multiplicity of races that we find it next to impossible not to use those terms when talking about people from different ethnic groups. How would you introduce Dr Voddie Baucham? Do you draw attention to his melanin levels by saying that he's African American (a term he hates, by the way) or do you just say he's an American born preacher/teacher currently working in Zambia? 

Thinx 115: Luther on Salvation

Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers? 

-- from Martin Luther's "Treatise on Christian Liberty" 

Thinx 114: Custom and Creed, Conventions and Commandments

 “This man's spiritual power has been precisely this, that he has distinguished between custom and creed. He has broken the conventions, but he has kept the commandments.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Manalive

Thinx 113: On Hearing a Christian Support Sexual Perversion But Not Saying Anything in Response

So here is the question: Am I upset because I feel personally threatened or am I upset because God's name and character are being smeared? Is my primary concern that God's name, character and reputation be hallowed and that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, or am I worried about some future curtailment of my creature comforts and security? 

To say that God makes someone gay or trans misrepresents God. It breaks the third commandment which forbids not only misusing God's name but also forbids misrepresenting him to the world.  

Thinx 112: God's Gospel

Context: Romans 1:1. Paul introduces himself and his role. He is an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. 

So often we read that and think the "of" means "about". In that case it doesn't. The Greek says, "εὐαγγέλιον Θεοῦ." The ending on the word for God is a genitive. It means that the good news that Paul has been set apart for is owned by God.

It's God's gospel. Thus the power of gospel is in itself because God himself acts through it. God is interested in it being proclaimed in a way that glorifies him. He will take action in the short-term and in the long against those who act like it's their own gospel. 

There will be a performance review at the end of time where all believers will stand before God and give account for what they have said and done. If the gospel does indeed belong to God, it will be terrifying for those who attempted to steal it from him.

Thinx 111: On Atheism

Is this what it's all about: keeping God at arms length (or further)? Practical atheism -- seeing as absolute atheism is so hard to sustain -- denies some aspect of God's nature or character. 

Deny that he's the creator and then you can do all kinds of evil things and think you're okay. If he didn't create space, matter and time then who does he think he is barging into the cosmos, throwing his weight around, demanding people obey him and then damning to hell those who disagree. Totally unfair, right?

But consider Isaiah 6, Isaiah's vision of God. Judging himself correctly for the first time in his life in the presence of absolute holiness, he cries out, "Woe is me. I am undone." In my own words: I am demolished. Whatever righteousness I thought I possessed is worthless, futile, nothing! I can get by with comparing myself to other people because there's always someone more depraved than me. But here I am before God, the holy, fearsome, righteous God before whom my righteousness is like used bandages full of pus and clotted blood. And there's nowhere to hide. I see him seeing me, seeing all my imagined strength as the weakness it really is; seeing my righteousness as filthy; seeing my wisdom as the babbling of a baby. 

And yet, rather than words of condemnation or reproach, atonement is made for Isaiah's sins and rather than being tossed aside he is commissioned for service. As the Psalm 51 says, "A broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise."

Thinx 110: When asked if I trust the Lord

When asked, in the context of Covid-19, whether I trust the Lord, I wrote:

I do trust in the Lord.

 

There's a interesting saying from the US Civil War: praise the Lord and keep your powder dry. 

I'm sure you remember the Lord's Prayer. After the opening address the first three petitions are all about God: his name/reputation/character; his long term plans; and his will and decrees. After that come petitions declaring our dependence upon him for everything. But I don't see much there about him doing for me what he expects me to do. We ask for daily needs. He provides us with the means to acquire them; daily whatever doesn't just fall through a hole below the ceiling. He expects me to forgive. He expects me to flee temptation. He expects me to trust him for outcomes that aren't currently obvious. 

Believing in Jesus isn't a ticket to a problem free life full of glory, gold and girls. It can be a ticket to a life of suffering. But the suffering is never pointless. 

One may imagine no heaven and no hell. I'm persuaded that these places exist and I'm pursuing the one who owns the former. 

The Bible teaches that everyone goes to hell. One does not need to sell one's soul to the Devil as he already owns it. If a different destination is desired, God has provided a way: repentance of sins and faith in his son, Jesus.