Christian community is in and through Jesus Christ.
'1. First, a Christian needs others because of Christ.The Christian seeks salvation and justification not in himself but in Christ alone. He lives by the Word of Christ that pronounces him not guilty but righteous. His righteousness is an 'alien' righteousness. But God has put this Word that brings us redemption into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. Therefore a Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. And that clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they need one another as bringers of the message of salvation.
'2. Secondly, a Christian comes to others only through Christ. Among men there is strife. He is our peace (Eph 2:14). Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother. To eternity he remains the one Mediator.
'3. Third,in Jesus Christ we have been chosen for eternity, accepted in time and united for eternity. When God's Son took on flesh, he truly and bodily took on, out of pure grace, our being, our nature, ourselves. Now we are in him. We belong to him because we are in him. So we also belong to him in eternity with one another. We who live here in fellowship with him will one day be with him in eternal fellowship.'
Christian community is not an Ideal but a Divine Reality.
'Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realise it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely we must be overwhelmed by a great general disillusionment with others, with Christians in general and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.
'By sheer grace God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. God is not a God of the emotions but a God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight. He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself, becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest. God hates visionary dreaming...'
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Monday, 6 June 2011
Bonhoeffer's 'Life Together' (1)
On 'Community':
'It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians...[B]etween the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the gospel in heathen lands stand alone.
'The physical presence of other Christians is a source of joy and strength to the believer. Longingly the imprisoned apostle Paul calls his 'dearly beloved son in the faith'., Timothy, to come to him again and have him near.
'It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trampled under foot by those who have the gift every day. ...It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.'
Of course, Bonhoeffer was speaking in the particular context of the 'live-in seminary' of the Confessing Church at Finkenwalde, Germany, before the Second World War. But his thoughts in this book are applicable with little difficulty to the life of the church generally.
'It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians...[B]etween the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the gospel in heathen lands stand alone.
'The physical presence of other Christians is a source of joy and strength to the believer. Longingly the imprisoned apostle Paul calls his 'dearly beloved son in the faith'., Timothy, to come to him again and have him near.
'It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trampled under foot by those who have the gift every day. ...It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.'
Of course, Bonhoeffer was speaking in the particular context of the 'live-in seminary' of the Confessing Church at Finkenwalde, Germany, before the Second World War. But his thoughts in this book are applicable with little difficulty to the life of the church generally.
Friday, 27 May 2011
Bonhoeffer on the Bible
"First of all I will confess quite freely - I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive the answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one's own strength, one has to enquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us. Of course it is also possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism, etc.; there is nothing to be said against that. Only that that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in our minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love; and just as those words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, 'pondering them in our heart', so it will be with the words of the Bible. Only if we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible as though in them this God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will us to leave us along with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible...
"And I would like to tell you now quite personally: since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way - and this has not been for very long - it becomes every day more wonderful to me. I read it in the morning and the evening, often during the day as well, and every day I consider a text I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as really to hear what it is saying. I know that without this I could not live properly any longer."
Quoted in 'Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy' by Eric Metaxas, p 136.
"And I would like to tell you now quite personally: since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way - and this has not been for very long - it becomes every day more wonderful to me. I read it in the morning and the evening, often during the day as well, and every day I consider a text I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as really to hear what it is saying. I know that without this I could not live properly any longer."
Quoted in 'Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy' by Eric Metaxas, p 136.
Monday, 16 May 2011
A Trip to Sri Lanka
Things have been quiet here recently largely because I was in Sri Lanka for two weeks after Easter. Rarely have I been so conscious of the meaning of Paul's thanksgiving to 'the Lord who has given me strength' - physical health and stamina which enabled me to preach or teach (through interpreters) some 26 times in the time I was there, including sessions at the youth conference (four studies on Jonah and two from Mark’s gospel), the Christian workers’ conference (twelve sessions on the doctrines of man, sin and the church) and Sunday services and Bible studies. Thankfully I suffered no illness and though tired after it all I was able to complete everything that was asked of me. The spiritual fruit must be left up to God and for this we can still pray.
Perhaps the greatest privileges in ministry were three unexpected ones: to preach at a baptism service on the beach where 27 young people were baptised – I knew this was going to happen but was not asked to preach until the evening before; to preach at a wedding in a village about 15 miles from Trincomalee; and to preach at a funeral where the immediate family was Christian but the wider family was Hindu, so 60 or more Hindus heard the gospel.
Our base was the children’s home run by the Lanka Evangelical Fellowship of Churches near Trincomalee on the north east coast of Sri Lanka. The people were predominantly Tamil Christians though some Sinhalese speakers were among us. The LEFC has 27 churches, all but two being Tamil. My travelling companions were Gary Donaldson the secretary of the LEFC in England, and Pastor Jeyekanth, its founder; Alan Peel, a young man from Liverpool came with us to help out at the children’s home. For the first week there was also a small group of young German Christians from a church in Koblenz.
Much of the strain of a trip such as this is the coping with all that is new and strange –the heat and humidity, the language, food, habits, and the sheer unpredictability of each day – ‘take things a day at a time’ has never been so meaningful. Plans would change frequently. For example the workers’ studies changed from being three each day over four days, to three days of five, three and four studies respectively.
It was not all work; we made some memorable trips into the ‘bush’ to visit village churches, and saw elephants, monkeys, snakes, buffalo and beautiful birds, all without leaving the vehicle. The last two days were spent in the tea plantation areas of Hatton, in the hill country east of Colombo and south of Kandy: beautiful scenery, tea picking and production as it has been going on for generations, and memorable fellowship with local Christians.
The crying need of this group of Reformed Baptist churches is a trained leadership. The men are good gospel men, utterly dedicated to Christ, his people and his work, their evangelistic zeal proven by the number of churches planted in the last 15 years. Yet the pastors need theological education; able young men need training and the opportunity to come through as leaders. Pray for pastor Jeyekanth as he and others wrestle with these issues.
Perhaps the greatest privileges in ministry were three unexpected ones: to preach at a baptism service on the beach where 27 young people were baptised – I knew this was going to happen but was not asked to preach until the evening before; to preach at a wedding in a village about 15 miles from Trincomalee; and to preach at a funeral where the immediate family was Christian but the wider family was Hindu, so 60 or more Hindus heard the gospel.
Our base was the children’s home run by the Lanka Evangelical Fellowship of Churches near Trincomalee on the north east coast of Sri Lanka. The people were predominantly Tamil Christians though some Sinhalese speakers were among us. The LEFC has 27 churches, all but two being Tamil. My travelling companions were Gary Donaldson the secretary of the LEFC in England, and Pastor Jeyekanth, its founder; Alan Peel, a young man from Liverpool came with us to help out at the children’s home. For the first week there was also a small group of young German Christians from a church in Koblenz.
Much of the strain of a trip such as this is the coping with all that is new and strange –the heat and humidity, the language, food, habits, and the sheer unpredictability of each day – ‘take things a day at a time’ has never been so meaningful. Plans would change frequently. For example the workers’ studies changed from being three each day over four days, to three days of five, three and four studies respectively.
It was not all work; we made some memorable trips into the ‘bush’ to visit village churches, and saw elephants, monkeys, snakes, buffalo and beautiful birds, all without leaving the vehicle. The last two days were spent in the tea plantation areas of Hatton, in the hill country east of Colombo and south of Kandy: beautiful scenery, tea picking and production as it has been going on for generations, and memorable fellowship with local Christians.
The crying need of this group of Reformed Baptist churches is a trained leadership. The men are good gospel men, utterly dedicated to Christ, his people and his work, their evangelistic zeal proven by the number of churches planted in the last 15 years. Yet the pastors need theological education; able young men need training and the opportunity to come through as leaders. Pray for pastor Jeyekanth as he and others wrestle with these issues.
Friday, 15 April 2011
Banner of Truth Conference 2011
Back again after the annual pilgrimage to Leicester. A lot of the same faces, some new ones, some familiar ones not there - Gary Brady where were you? It seems no time at all since I was a newcomer; now I am introduced to visitors from abroad as an old stager.
The location was slightly different - smaller Digby Hall for our meetings while the Gilbert Murray is being refurbished or demolished. A good enough venue with a spacious bookroom - better than the usual black hole of Calcutta. But there was a quarter of a mile walk to and from the dining room. Coffee and tea in the accommodation blocks was in a central kitchen not in the rooms - which unfortunately some punters did not discover till the last night. Mind you, it was a lot easier to get to morning coffee in the marquee just outside the meeting room - and also after meals in the dining hall - not the usual scrums and queues.
The cooked breakfasts were good; I skipped lunch but enjoyed excellent evening meals at least on Tuesday and Wednesday; the chicken on Monday evening could have done sterling service as a bouncy ball.
One additional attraction in the region is that the nearby village of Oadby now boasts a Costa's - nice for a break in the afternoons, unless you were playing football.
And the ministry? In the opening sermon Stephen Curry began searching our spiritual lives from Matthew 6 - the imperative of a secret prayer life where the Father sees. Martin Holdt challenged us all on our experience of the Holy Spirit in personal life and preaching. Lewis Allen challenged us on our love for Christ and our longing for him. Iain Murray, standing in for Ted Donnelly, gave two very thoughtful expositions of John 17 and a biography of Archibald Brown, a wonderful Baptist pastor in London in the late 19th and early 20th century. In a 'short' slot one morning, Geoff Thomas gave us a clear and passionate reminder to preach nothing less than the free offer of the gospel.
In his closing sermon from John 17, Mr Murray referred back to Stephen Curry's opening sermon, and said: if there is no public reward evident in our ministries, is this a reflection of not much going on in secret?
For many the highlight was Phil Arthur's brilliant paper on William Tyndale - a masterclass in how to turn a historical lecture into a sermon!
So 'a challenge to our personal spiritual life' was the theme (at least for me) from the conference. The messages dovetailed and reinforced each other. Yet it would be unfair to suggest that the preachers only challenged us about our spiritual lives. There was constant exhortation and direction to put Christ first in our love, our lives and our preaching.
A non-scheduled meeting was that, late on Wednesday evening, of the 'Tafia' (the Welsh 'mafia'). A small group this year. We invited that well known Welshman Ian Hamilton along, and we discussed why the conference was so much lower in numbers than in the past . In 2006 - 370 men, last year 270; this year, 170. Holidays? No Ted Donnelly? Younger men going elsewhere? New Word Alive the same week? Not scratching where men are itching? Cost? Not-so-well-known speakers?
It's difficult to tell; no doubt the Banner could improve in places; it is still notoriously unfriendly for first timers - very little practical information is given to help people who do not know where to go and what to do - eg simple things like where to find a hot drink at night. Get a woman in on the organisation!
But the values of the Banner need to be communicated. Men who are excited by Reformed things today are excited by John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller , C.J. Mahaney, not by the speakers and ethos of Banner. Maybe the Banner will not be as big as before. But it would be good to find out why and do one's best to explain to the disenchanted what it is aiming at.
The location was slightly different - smaller Digby Hall for our meetings while the Gilbert Murray is being refurbished or demolished. A good enough venue with a spacious bookroom - better than the usual black hole of Calcutta. But there was a quarter of a mile walk to and from the dining room. Coffee and tea in the accommodation blocks was in a central kitchen not in the rooms - which unfortunately some punters did not discover till the last night. Mind you, it was a lot easier to get to morning coffee in the marquee just outside the meeting room - and also after meals in the dining hall - not the usual scrums and queues.
The cooked breakfasts were good; I skipped lunch but enjoyed excellent evening meals at least on Tuesday and Wednesday; the chicken on Monday evening could have done sterling service as a bouncy ball.
One additional attraction in the region is that the nearby village of Oadby now boasts a Costa's - nice for a break in the afternoons, unless you were playing football.
And the ministry? In the opening sermon Stephen Curry began searching our spiritual lives from Matthew 6 - the imperative of a secret prayer life where the Father sees. Martin Holdt challenged us all on our experience of the Holy Spirit in personal life and preaching. Lewis Allen challenged us on our love for Christ and our longing for him. Iain Murray, standing in for Ted Donnelly, gave two very thoughtful expositions of John 17 and a biography of Archibald Brown, a wonderful Baptist pastor in London in the late 19th and early 20th century. In a 'short' slot one morning, Geoff Thomas gave us a clear and passionate reminder to preach nothing less than the free offer of the gospel.
In his closing sermon from John 17, Mr Murray referred back to Stephen Curry's opening sermon, and said: if there is no public reward evident in our ministries, is this a reflection of not much going on in secret?
For many the highlight was Phil Arthur's brilliant paper on William Tyndale - a masterclass in how to turn a historical lecture into a sermon!
So 'a challenge to our personal spiritual life' was the theme (at least for me) from the conference. The messages dovetailed and reinforced each other. Yet it would be unfair to suggest that the preachers only challenged us about our spiritual lives. There was constant exhortation and direction to put Christ first in our love, our lives and our preaching.
A non-scheduled meeting was that, late on Wednesday evening, of the 'Tafia' (the Welsh 'mafia'). A small group this year. We invited that well known Welshman Ian Hamilton along, and we discussed why the conference was so much lower in numbers than in the past . In 2006 - 370 men, last year 270; this year, 170. Holidays? No Ted Donnelly? Younger men going elsewhere? New Word Alive the same week? Not scratching where men are itching? Cost? Not-so-well-known speakers?
It's difficult to tell; no doubt the Banner could improve in places; it is still notoriously unfriendly for first timers - very little practical information is given to help people who do not know where to go and what to do - eg simple things like where to find a hot drink at night. Get a woman in on the organisation!
But the values of the Banner need to be communicated. Men who are excited by Reformed things today are excited by John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller , C.J. Mahaney, not by the speakers and ethos of Banner. Maybe the Banner will not be as big as before. But it would be good to find out why and do one's best to explain to the disenchanted what it is aiming at.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
A kind of madness
'It is one of those times when I feel estranged from the country and not comprehending of what we are doing and why everyone is so gung-ho for it all'.
I was so glad to read those words of Rod Liddle in 'The Spectator' today. It is just what I have been feeling since the UN went to war in Libya. I could not understand it, yet no-one seemed to be shocked by it. Even opposition politicians were docile. Apparently only 13 MPs voted against it. 'The Spectator' notes that the moon was very close to the earth last weekend. Perhaps it is all a kind of lunacy.
I understand that Gaddafi is a nasty piece of work and probably a kind of lunatic himself. But then he has been for 40 years. I can understand too that he is cruelly treating the rebels. But - so are the Syrians and the Yemenis. When are French, British and American warplanes going to bomb their armouries? And what of Robert Mugabe who has been brutal not to rebels but to peaceful citizens of Zimbabwe for years?
Why are the UN and Nato and Britain and America so selective in their application of high flown principles?
What hypocritical bilge is William Hague spewing forth as he (who cannot get even a couple of planes off the ground to remove British citizens before the fighting started) talks of this moment as more significant than anything else in recent history, or some such hogwash?
Why do they pretend it is not about 'regime change' when they also speak openly about getting rid of Gaddafi? Why do they have no idea about what they are actually aiming at; or what to do if Gaddafi goes; or if he stays and fights; or if the Arab League decides that after all western planes bombing Arab cities is not such a pretty sight and withdraw their already luke-warm support?
Why does a new Prime Minister, after the debacle of Iraq, decide that in his first year he too must take some supposedly moral high ground and engage in yet another foreign adventure?
If there were not oil at stake, would it be different? Perhaps that is Zimbabwe's problem; it does not mean enough to western economic interests.
Gaddafi is after all an authority ordained by God and though I am enough of a Calvinist to believe in the right of revolution against tyrants, I seriously question the right of other nations to move against a ruler in support of rebels. Say the 250,000 plus in London today turned nasty and made a serious attempt on the seat of government or 10, Downing Street (though I expect Mr Cameron was well away from there) - how long would it be before our government too turned guns on its own people? What do governments do, after all? How will the western powers decide when and when not to support a rebellion? And what succour their action will give to potential rebels in other countries. Perhaps, even their own. Then, indeed, the gung-ho approach in north Africa will come back to haunt them.
'Estranged' is a good word for how I feel about this latest military escapade, whatever sympathy I may have for the subjects of Gaddafi. But then, maybe there are more like me, apart from Rod Liddle.
I was so glad to read those words of Rod Liddle in 'The Spectator' today. It is just what I have been feeling since the UN went to war in Libya. I could not understand it, yet no-one seemed to be shocked by it. Even opposition politicians were docile. Apparently only 13 MPs voted against it. 'The Spectator' notes that the moon was very close to the earth last weekend. Perhaps it is all a kind of lunacy.
I understand that Gaddafi is a nasty piece of work and probably a kind of lunatic himself. But then he has been for 40 years. I can understand too that he is cruelly treating the rebels. But - so are the Syrians and the Yemenis. When are French, British and American warplanes going to bomb their armouries? And what of Robert Mugabe who has been brutal not to rebels but to peaceful citizens of Zimbabwe for years?
Why are the UN and Nato and Britain and America so selective in their application of high flown principles?
What hypocritical bilge is William Hague spewing forth as he (who cannot get even a couple of planes off the ground to remove British citizens before the fighting started) talks of this moment as more significant than anything else in recent history, or some such hogwash?
Why do they pretend it is not about 'regime change' when they also speak openly about getting rid of Gaddafi? Why do they have no idea about what they are actually aiming at; or what to do if Gaddafi goes; or if he stays and fights; or if the Arab League decides that after all western planes bombing Arab cities is not such a pretty sight and withdraw their already luke-warm support?
Why does a new Prime Minister, after the debacle of Iraq, decide that in his first year he too must take some supposedly moral high ground and engage in yet another foreign adventure?
If there were not oil at stake, would it be different? Perhaps that is Zimbabwe's problem; it does not mean enough to western economic interests.
Gaddafi is after all an authority ordained by God and though I am enough of a Calvinist to believe in the right of revolution against tyrants, I seriously question the right of other nations to move against a ruler in support of rebels. Say the 250,000 plus in London today turned nasty and made a serious attempt on the seat of government or 10, Downing Street (though I expect Mr Cameron was well away from there) - how long would it be before our government too turned guns on its own people? What do governments do, after all? How will the western powers decide when and when not to support a rebellion? And what succour their action will give to potential rebels in other countries. Perhaps, even their own. Then, indeed, the gung-ho approach in north Africa will come back to haunt them.
'Estranged' is a good word for how I feel about this latest military escapade, whatever sympathy I may have for the subjects of Gaddafi. But then, maybe there are more like me, apart from Rod Liddle.
Monday, 7 March 2011
The Johns, Equality and Diversity
Two new goddesses have been dominating the pantheon of public ideology in the last decade. Rather as Paul's discourse in Athens led the philosophers there to hear him further on 'Jesus ' and 'Anastasis' ('Resurrection') so 'Equality' and 'Diversity' are the latest divinities to entrance the public imagination.
Unlike the message Paul proclaimed, though, which, however it might have been initially misunderstood, could have done nothing but good to the intellectually curious but spiritually confused Athenians, this current pair are themselves a couple of faded old harridans who are doing nothing but harm.
Take 'Equality' for example. She used to be a beauty. Every man or woman stood equal before God. Arising out of this, every man or woman stood equal before the law. The person created in God's image was precious and was not to be maltreated. She proclaimed and protected, by law where necessary, the principle of strict justice in the treatment of individuals.
Time has not treated this old girl well. Her back is bent - principial scoliosis perhaps? She no longer stands erect to defend persons. She has been twisted to apply to ideologies. Not individuals, but beliefs, moral standards and values are all declared 'equal'. Not a person's right to hold them, but the ideas themselves. Poor old Equality. She was a handmaid to a higher principle and a maidservant of the true God, but now she has been tarted up and made into a goddess in her own right. She has been prostituted, in fact, to the service of a tyrant, the great god Relativism. She is not herself; she cannot be. For people are equal before God and before the law. Ideas are not. Some are wrong, even if in a free society we may defend a person's right to hold them; some ideas are right. But Relativism holds no ideas to be wrong other than, of course, the idea that something may be wrong. In Relativism's realm, only the statement that some statements are False is false; only the myth, so clear it is painted across the sky in letters of Scotch mist, that there are no Absolutes, is absolute.
And to this god Relativism, Equality, once so fair a maid, is a slave, a poor downtrodden thing, a shadow of her former self, so that people who once delighted in her feel ashamed to mention her or be acquainted with her. Because after all, she is not in truth the lady she once was. She is exploited to perpetrate the lie that all ideas are the same, instead of preserving the truth that all people are equal before God and the law.
Or take Diversity. She and Equality would be seen walking arm in arm, Diversity a delightful complement to her elder sister, preserving the truth that because all are equal, differences will be tolerated and even rejoiced in. Equality and Diversity therefore represented two sides of the same coin, and both could hold their heads high in a society that professed Christian values.
As Equality faded, however, inevitably Diversity was tarnished too. She now means in practice that 'whatever you believe or however you live will be tolerated'. Funnily enough, though, that is what the jaded version of Equality means too. As a Lady, Diversity complemented Equality; now she merely echoes her. As the servants of a higher God have become the slaves of a lesser god, they have become more and more alike. Sin does that. The two principles have become so alike that they have come to mean the same thing: anything goes.
Except of course, when someone comes along and says 'not everything is the same' and 'not everything goes'. Such as, for example, consistent Christians, like Mr and Mrs Johns who will not tell children who might be fostered to them that homosexuality is OK. They are quite right not to agree to say that, because it would truly be an offence to their conscience and against the law of God. Now the masks of Equality and Diversity slip and the ugly face of the real god behind them both, Relativism, is seen in his full horror. As Ladies, Equality and Diversity protected the weak; now these raddled old harpies devour human flesh.
The sheer irrationality of evil is also seen, for of course not everything does go. Not only does the view of the Johns 'not go' but the social workers and courts who have deprived the Johns of the right to foster children will of course not insist on foster parents telling children that paedophilia or bestiality are OK. At least, not this decade. But who makes up the rules? It is a sliding scale, a majority vote morality.
So we have the nonsense that perfectly good and wholesome homes like that of the Johns will be denied to many children who need love and stability and who need to know the meaning of absolutes and of Equality and Diversity in their unsullied youth, and the same poor children may instead be placed quite possibly with homosexual or lesbian couples who also worship at the altar of the god Relativism and the great qualifying factor is that they will 'affirm' children in any sexual choices they care to make. This, it appears, is the definition of 'supportive' in the kingdom of Relativism. To such doctrinaire nonsense are we reduced when we lose our grip on moral absolutes.
For whom should we weep? It is sad for people like the Johns of Derby. But it is a tragedy for society, for our nation. The salt of the earth is being confined to the salt cellar of private opinion; the light of the world is being extinguished in our land as Christians are pushed to the sidelines. Children are being sacrificed to the Molech of Relativism. The nation is cutting off the branch on which it sits as God's Word is ridiculed and rejected. It is for the nation we should pray, and ask God to raise up a generation of preachers whose voices he will cause to be heard.
Unlike the message Paul proclaimed, though, which, however it might have been initially misunderstood, could have done nothing but good to the intellectually curious but spiritually confused Athenians, this current pair are themselves a couple of faded old harridans who are doing nothing but harm.
Take 'Equality' for example. She used to be a beauty. Every man or woman stood equal before God. Arising out of this, every man or woman stood equal before the law. The person created in God's image was precious and was not to be maltreated. She proclaimed and protected, by law where necessary, the principle of strict justice in the treatment of individuals.
Time has not treated this old girl well. Her back is bent - principial scoliosis perhaps? She no longer stands erect to defend persons. She has been twisted to apply to ideologies. Not individuals, but beliefs, moral standards and values are all declared 'equal'. Not a person's right to hold them, but the ideas themselves. Poor old Equality. She was a handmaid to a higher principle and a maidservant of the true God, but now she has been tarted up and made into a goddess in her own right. She has been prostituted, in fact, to the service of a tyrant, the great god Relativism. She is not herself; she cannot be. For people are equal before God and before the law. Ideas are not. Some are wrong, even if in a free society we may defend a person's right to hold them; some ideas are right. But Relativism holds no ideas to be wrong other than, of course, the idea that something may be wrong. In Relativism's realm, only the statement that some statements are False is false; only the myth, so clear it is painted across the sky in letters of Scotch mist, that there are no Absolutes, is absolute.
And to this god Relativism, Equality, once so fair a maid, is a slave, a poor downtrodden thing, a shadow of her former self, so that people who once delighted in her feel ashamed to mention her or be acquainted with her. Because after all, she is not in truth the lady she once was. She is exploited to perpetrate the lie that all ideas are the same, instead of preserving the truth that all people are equal before God and the law.
Or take Diversity. She and Equality would be seen walking arm in arm, Diversity a delightful complement to her elder sister, preserving the truth that because all are equal, differences will be tolerated and even rejoiced in. Equality and Diversity therefore represented two sides of the same coin, and both could hold their heads high in a society that professed Christian values.
As Equality faded, however, inevitably Diversity was tarnished too. She now means in practice that 'whatever you believe or however you live will be tolerated'. Funnily enough, though, that is what the jaded version of Equality means too. As a Lady, Diversity complemented Equality; now she merely echoes her. As the servants of a higher God have become the slaves of a lesser god, they have become more and more alike. Sin does that. The two principles have become so alike that they have come to mean the same thing: anything goes.
Except of course, when someone comes along and says 'not everything is the same' and 'not everything goes'. Such as, for example, consistent Christians, like Mr and Mrs Johns who will not tell children who might be fostered to them that homosexuality is OK. They are quite right not to agree to say that, because it would truly be an offence to their conscience and against the law of God. Now the masks of Equality and Diversity slip and the ugly face of the real god behind them both, Relativism, is seen in his full horror. As Ladies, Equality and Diversity protected the weak; now these raddled old harpies devour human flesh.
The sheer irrationality of evil is also seen, for of course not everything does go. Not only does the view of the Johns 'not go' but the social workers and courts who have deprived the Johns of the right to foster children will of course not insist on foster parents telling children that paedophilia or bestiality are OK. At least, not this decade. But who makes up the rules? It is a sliding scale, a majority vote morality.
So we have the nonsense that perfectly good and wholesome homes like that of the Johns will be denied to many children who need love and stability and who need to know the meaning of absolutes and of Equality and Diversity in their unsullied youth, and the same poor children may instead be placed quite possibly with homosexual or lesbian couples who also worship at the altar of the god Relativism and the great qualifying factor is that they will 'affirm' children in any sexual choices they care to make. This, it appears, is the definition of 'supportive' in the kingdom of Relativism. To such doctrinaire nonsense are we reduced when we lose our grip on moral absolutes.
For whom should we weep? It is sad for people like the Johns of Derby. But it is a tragedy for society, for our nation. The salt of the earth is being confined to the salt cellar of private opinion; the light of the world is being extinguished in our land as Christians are pushed to the sidelines. Children are being sacrificed to the Molech of Relativism. The nation is cutting off the branch on which it sits as God's Word is ridiculed and rejected. It is for the nation we should pray, and ask God to raise up a generation of preachers whose voices he will cause to be heard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)