the road less travelled
In recent weeks we have been introducing new readers to some of our old posts to help accustom them to The Sojournal. We’ve looked at the secular psalm, “The State is My Shepherd“, and a conversation between a first-century Christian Jew and a modern Western Christian.
Today we are looking at Your most important ministry.
What most modern Western people (including many Christians) are asking for in the name of freedom’ is in fact a new slavery, when they attempt to secularize the public sphere and pursue freedom without the Lordship of Christ. To object to this by saying that non-believers are not accountable to God’s covenant law (moral law) is finally to say that we have no basis for presenting the gospel to the unbeliever – since Scripture defines sin as lawlessness and only lawbreakers need the gospel!
The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society by Joseph Boot)
Isn’t it interesting that the government which so keen to ‘save lives’ by locking us down in our homes to escape from a virus is also the same government that got behind the decriminalisation of Abortion Legislation Bill of 2020 that allows over a thousand NZ babies to be slaughtered every month.
I guess they don’t care about lives that don’t have a vote.
No doubt you’ve seen it on Instagram or Facebook, or whatever social media platform you have the misfortune of being compelled to use. Some self-congratulatory automaton sharing a photo of themself being vaccinated or a post about their vaccination and then the words, “You’re welcome.” Virtue Signalling. The latest way shallow and insufferable people get their feeling of righteousness.
This is a kind of modern-day Pharisee. They vaunt their socially acceptable views as proof of their righteousness and acceptability. I imagine a new scenario based on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, although, in our modern version, the tax collector would be seen as automatically righteous because the modern-day Pharisee is a state worshipper and loves confiscatory taxes because…#bekind.
A young man logged onto Facebook to worship himself. “God, I thank me, and demand others thank me that I am not like other people. Even though most of the opinions that I trumpet as righteous are exactly the same as my friends, I am still not like other people. You know, those deplorable evildoers who refuse to wear masks, those who refuse to get the new vaccine, those who refuse to bow to the will of the majority for the sake of convenience, those who hold different opinions to me. I fast twice a week and try to eat less meat for the sake of the environment and don’t give a 10th of all I get because I am righteous and support government redistribution of wealth.” I tell you the truth. This person logged off justified in the sight of his god.
Dear Christian, we ought not to be this person. Jesus wrote about this kind of ‘easy’ righteousness, which is no righteousness at all. He said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” It is all too easy for a good action to be performed in a way that erases all the heavenly value of that good deed. Not that I am for a minute suggesting that getting a vaccine of dubious efficacy is a righteous act. I don’t think righteousness will ever be as easy as getting a prick in the arm. And boasting about it on social media will never lead to it either.
In the universities there is a field of scholarship that goes by a number of names such as “Gender Studies”, “Identity Studies”, “Feminist Studies”, “Critical Pedagogy”, “Social Justice Studies”, “Critical Theory” and many more. For the sake of simplicity I will broadly refer to these fields as “Critical Theory” when addressing the foundational theories and I will use the term “Social Justice” when discussing their outworking and calls to social action. This field of study has had an increasing impact upon both the university campus and the broader society. The unifying element connecting all these fields is a predetermined commitment to a particular worldview that views society through the dual lenses of postmodernism and Marxism. The foundational principles of Critical Theory mandate a particular form of “problematizing” groups, and have a particular method for mitigating social injustices. Critical Theory is foundationally flawed and its framework for interpretation is detrimental to those whom it purports to help. This paper will offer an overview of the main ideas within Critical Theory and Social Justice Studies and elucidate a number of issues within these fields.
Read MoreToday we conclude our short series on disaster and the Lord. In part 1, we looked at the general principle of blessing following obedience and curses following disobedience which is seen throughout redemptive history. Yesterday, in part 2, we saw that it does seem to be a pattern in scripture that national disaster tends to follow disobedience, but on a personal level, suffering is not always the result of personal sin, since sin has social effects. Reading these posts is a helpful setup for this one.
The last two posts have provided a short theological backdrop and setup which allows us to finally deal with COVID-19. One way of thinking about the pandemic would be to consider what the God of the Bible might be telling us. What we have suffered over the last year and a half is not random. It is all part of His plan. I claim no supernatural inspiration. But I do read the Scriptures, and the Scriptures teach that disaster is often used against nations because of their sin and idolatry. Furthermore, let us acknowledge, that God has every reason to punish the Western world for their covenant-breaking and idolatry. We, who once placed God at the very centre of our social lives have for decades been steadily changing our values and allegiance. God says “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and we have allowed no-fault divorce and have refused to sanction those who break the sacred covenant of marriage. God says “Thou shalt not kill” and our hands are red with the blood of tens of thousands of unborn children. God says, “Thou shalt not steal”, and with envious hearts, we attempt to legitimise and call ‘good’ the theft of our neighbour’s goods through the redistributive state. God says, “Thou shalt not covet”, and we have made an art of it, envying successful groups and demonising them in the name of social justice.
Yet these are only sides accompanying our main. They are simply indicators of our great sin. God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and we have bowed down to many other idols. One of our national idols is the idol of state. Do you doubt me? Whose name has been hallowed such that criticism is almost sacrilegious in this crisis? Whose will is done on this patch of earth as God’s will is in heaven? Who do we look to to give us this day our daily bread when we lose our jobs? Who do we expect to deliver us from this evil? Who have we given radical power and dominion to with nary a second thought? Who do we expect to care for us in our old age if we don’t have enough money to cover things? Whose benefits are we expected not to forget if not the state who heals all our diseases, who redeems our life from the pit and crowns us with loving#bekindness and compassion and who satisfies us with good things? Who do we look to when things go wrong? Who do we expect to train our children? Who do we look to provide answers to every crisis from poverty, to housing to health and education?
Can we doubt at the very least the possibility that COVID-19 is a divine curse on our rejection of God and the breaking of the covenant of creation with him and turning to the state as our redeemer? And if it is, who could deny that it is richly deserved? God has often highlighted the impotence of idols in redemptive history. The very thing that people trust is shown to be empty, worthless and vain. Who could say that Western governments have managed this pandemic well? Have any of them come out of this looking like an omnipotent deity, or just petty tyrant clowns clutching at straws? It’s clearly beyond them. They are shown to be impotent by a microscopic virus. He that dwelleth in heaven is surely laughing!
At this point, there are two options. A nation and its leaders can take note of God’s hand of judgment and turn to Him in repentance. That would be wise. Wise, but uncommon. Idolatry tends to lead to blindness and folly. Rather than turn and be saved, people blindly think that what they need is more of their idol, not less. Frequently in redemptive history, people needed to suffer under the heavy hand of their idols for a long time before they turned in repentance to God.
In New Zealand, and in much of the Western world, there are not too many encouraging signs at this point. Instead of looking at our idol of state and seeing its impotence to save, we have doubled down like rebellious fools. Our idol promises that with ever more power and excessive regulation they will save us, but instead they enslave us. Unlike the God who creates from nothing, they cannot manufacture wealth and are plundering our children and grandchildren in their fruitless attempts at deity. In all this, the reality is that we are just increasing the wrath stored up against us and prolonging the pain that we as a people will suffer.
The call to all who have eyes to see is to repent. Let us repent of our idolatry of state. It cannot save, and is being shown for impotent idol it is. Repentance ought to start with the household of God, which has not been completely innocent in this idolatry. We have unfortunately been complicit. We have wanted our children educated at someone else’s expense. We’ve enjoyed not needing to use our tithes to help the poor among us since we’ve outsourced that. We’ve failed to speak and apply God’s Word to the politics of envy-driven redistributive government. We’ve not held the marriage bed to be honourable and suffered immorality to be named among us. We must repent and commit to living out God’s laws in our lives and calling our brothers and sisters to do the same. Then we must commit to the Great Commission, calling our fellow citizens to turn from their evil ways, embrace the king and his laws and live.
If any of you had any doubts about the bait and switch being conducted on the compliant sheeple of NZ regarding the conversion therapy ban, one only has to read Shaneel Lal’s comments quoted in an article on Stuff today. Shaneel is the founder of the group End Conversion Therapy NZ. He (I will not deign to play childish linguistic games persecuting the English language by using his favoured pronoun ‘they’), apparently came to the realisation that conversion therapy was legal in New Zealand and needed to end when someone offered to ‘pray the gay away’. He seems to equate this with psychological and physical torture of the most vulnerable people. Elsewhere in a TV interview referenced here, he suggested that praying to stop an individual from being gay is equivalent to “state-sanctioned torture”.
Apparently, our prima donna Lal is concerned about the fact that churches and Christians have banded together to support an amendment that would exclude from the ban “respectful and open discussions regarding sexuality and gender, and advice, guidance, prayer, or support….when such advice or support is requested and is respectful and non-coercive”. Oh my goodness, the Christians are literally trying to kill gay people! Everybody panic!
Seriously though, this silly womble wants to stop conversations about sexuality. He doesn’t want anyone to even willingly ask for guidance from another when they are struggling with their sexuality. Because, you know, we must protect the vulnerable in Wokeotearoa, by creating a new vulnerable group by stomping on and threatening with prison anyone who has disagrees with the Alphabet Cult.
Let’s face the facts. The Alphabet Cult are not a cute cuddly group of endangered pandas who we need to protect. They are an aggressive religious organisation who want to control and force people to sign their statement of faith and affirm their views of righteousness, salvation and sin. And unlike the old religion of Christianity, they prefer not to bother with a gospel announced with words which can be accepted or rejected. They want to baptise us all in their unrighteousness with or without a confession of faith. And to keep the numbers up, you cannot leave this cult. That’s why they want to ban even the opportunity for people to seek help to overcome a sexual attraction that they do not want. People are not allowed to leave their religion. Once in, you can never leave. A bit like the Hotel California really. What we are talking about here is the outlawing of one religion and the enthronement by fiat of a new religion.
Lal is the same chap who says that ‘misgendering’ a person could cost a life. Now having (in his topsy-turvy world) misgendered him, and ruthlessly made fun of him, (and I’m not done with precious petal Shaneel yet), am I potentially guilty of homicide? What a load of bosh. People this narcissistic aren’t likely to top themselves because of that. He couldn’t imagine a world without himself. How would he get the feeling of righteous indignation when he sees one sinner in the world who still hasn’t been crushed by his ideology? How would he keep track of all the likes and comments on his Twitter account as he cries his crocodile tears about the trauma and hurt he has suffered?
What is it with this guy? Here’s my take. What we have here is the example of a young man who has never left toddlerhood. He wants that yellow train and you have it, so there will be hell to pay. Screaming and wailing and stomping will ensue until his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Pass him the tissues someone.
Grow up Shaneel. The position of Christ for the universe is already taken.
In our previous post, we looked at the biblical foundations for believing that God is sovereign in disasters. We saw that God causes disasters and that he blesses covenant obedience and curses covenant disobedience. We further saw that even nations outside of Israel were expected to obey his law, and were held responsible and punished for egregious breaches.
Does this mean that all disaster is a result of God’s curse? Emphatically no. Scripture explores this issue at the personal level. For example, we have the case of Job, a righteous man who suffered disaster at the hands of Satan, because of a cosmic bet between God and Satan. Furthermore, Jesus himself warns against this kind of thinking. When his disciples asked if the blind man or his parents had sinned that he was born blind, Jesus replied that it was neither of those reasons. Rather it was that the “works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).
On another occasion, Jesus was asked about some Galileans who had evidently been killed by Pilate while they were offering sacrifices. Jesus asks whether these Galileans were worse sinners than all the others that they died in this way. He explicitly says “No”. He then mentions a tower that fell and killed some people in Siloam. Were these who died worse than others? No! Jesus then uses the events to highlight the importance of repentance. He says, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5). I suspect strongly, and I think the context supports it, that this repentance is acknowledging their Messiah and avoiding the covenant divorce judgment that would be the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
In the rest of the New Testament, we are encouraged to expect suffering as part of the Christian life. For example, the apostle Peter reminds his readers that they ought not to be surprised by the fiery trial they are going through (I Peter 4:12), Paul tells Timothy that all who desire to live a godly life will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), and the apostle John, of course, spent much of Revelation encouraging a church that would soon suffer the wrath of a diabolical state.
So where does this leave us? There are three things we can say about suffering and disasters. To begin with, we must recognise that disaster and suffering is God-ordained and therefore not random. We don’t live in a Darwinian world of randomness. There is a sovereign God on the throne. Secondly, we know that God uses disasters and suffering in a variety of ways. On a national level, suffering is often linked with national sin and idolatry. On a more individual level, things can be more confusing. Suffering may or may not be the result of personal sinful choices. Sin after all is social, and in society, the effects of sin ripple outwards like the disturbance a stone causes on the smooth water in a pond. Who suffers from the philandering husband who fails to father his children? He will. His wife and children will. And the ripples will spread out from there. Thirdly any kind of disaster or suffering ought to drive people toward God. For the unregenerate sinner, a disaster or personal suffering ought to drive him to repentance and the giving up of idolatry. For the believer, it ought to drive him closer to the Father who is His ultimate good.
One of the most infuriating aspects of the past year and a half has been the holier than thou sermonising from our new clergy – the ones who wear white coats. Especially the sanctimonious ones with pink hair. Like Reverend ‘Expert’ Siouxsie Wiles for instance. You know, the lady who hectored Aucklanders on social media for leaving the city on the eve of a Level 3 lockdown.
As one astute commenter on Kiwiblog put it, Siouxsie’s interpretation of the Holy Scriptureiences seems to be contradictory. On the one hand, she tells us she’s not worried about the infected chap who escaped MIQ a few days ago as he presents a low risk.
On the other hand, she was ‘gutted’ that opposition MPs pushed for parliament to open in Level 3 & 4 because she believes it “puts not just them at risk, but everyone who needs to now come to the Beehive so that they can work there.” This, despite none of these people having COVID-19.
Expert? Or maybe she is just a political shill who says what suits the political narrative of her favoured political party.
Posts like this and its sequel are risky. Some will deliberately misinterpret what I say. I will be cast as a ‘Brian Tamaki’ who was ridiculed for tying the natural disasters with homosexuality around the time of the Christchurch earthquake. But I believe what I am saying is clear from Scripture. So it is good and profitable for us to meditate and think about it. The secular materialist rules out supernatural causes of disasters because they are materialists. They don’t believe in anything beyond the material world. However Christians are not materialists, so we should see what God’s Word has to say about Disasters and our God.
Let us begin our meditation by looking at a passage from the prophet Amos. Amos warned the Northern kingdom of Israel of God’s impending doom because of their covenant-breaking idolatry in the 8th century B.C. In amongst a series of rhetorical questions, Amos asks,
Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the Lord has done it?
Disasters are not a surprise to God. Does a disaster come to a city taking God by surprise? No. Disaster comes because he causes it. Now here, this rhetorical device serves as a warning to a prosperous but idolatrous Israel. Do you think you are safe because you are rich and powerful? You are not, because you have broken covenant with God.
This is a general principle. God is sovereign. Nothing catches him by surprise. He does as he pleases (Psalm 115:3). He is the God who brings prosperity and brings disaster (Isaiah 45:7). He is the God who sets up and removes kings (Daniel 2:21).
And on what basis does God do all of this? On the basis of covenant faithfulness. It is righteousness that exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to it (Proverbs 14:34). Read Deuteronomy 28 to see how this principle applied to Israel itself. If Israel faithfully obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, then He would set them ‘high above all the nations of the earth‘ (Deuteronomy 28:1). Then the blessings that will overtake them for covenant faithfulness were enumerated. On the other hand, should they forsook the covenant, covenant curses would overtake them. There would be ‘frustration’ in all they undertook to do, and eventual removal from the land.
Does this apply to other nations? Are they under a similar covenant? Yes. While God covenanted in a special way with Israel, we see that God does deal with nations according to their sin. For example, the reason God allowed Israel to wipe out the people of Canaan under Joshua, was because of their sin, which at that point had reached full measure (Genesis 15:16). In Isaiah 24 we read of a judgment on the whole earth (not just Israel) because of their disregard of God’s laws. This is viewed as breaking the ‘everlasting covenant’ (Isaiah 24:5). As David says in 2 Samuel 23:3-4, The God of Israel has spoken; the rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. God does indeed bless nations when they live according to His laws and He punishes them for their evil.
Does this apply today? Why would it not? God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He continues to deal with mankind by covenant. And now, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and rules from on high. He is the king of Psalm 2. the nations might rage, but God orders all of their leaders to kiss the Son. Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching the nations to observe all of His commandments. What happens when nations refuse to kiss the Son? They are the Son’s inheritance. If they do not come to him they will be dashed to pieces. They will perish in their way. He will have the nations. I do not believe we have any reason to somehow imagine God no longer deals with groups of people according to their obedience to his laws now that Christ has come. In fact, I think there is more reason to think that he will do this if Acts 17:31 is anything to go by.