Saturday 11 July 2020

The Stakes Are Too Low



        Has it crossed your mind that perhaps one of the reasons for the recent surge of unrest and violence across the world is that no one is playing for high enough stakes? 

        A little perspective might not go amiss: right now, in North Korea, underground Christians risk death every single day. Up until the early nineties, many Christians in countries behind the Iron Curtain risked torture and long imprisonment. In the former Soviet bloc states, some still do. In China, there is significant persecution today - to what extent we don't really know, but it's not a walk in the park. Throughout many areas in Africa, Christians are under barbarous attack by devilish men who seek to kill and destroy, as we have seen over the past couple of weeks in Nigeria. Even in Hong Kong, which was one of the most free Asian states until this past year, the usurping Chinese government has just passed legislation which makes sharing the Gospel quite dangerous in different ways, calling it seditious. 

        But here, in the so-called Western world, where we are apparently so civilised and free and well-off, it seems every finger points to everyone else and accuses them of generational racial prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. We fight and argue on social media over strange ideas of injustice that somehow appear to have sprung up overnight, but yet are told they have been around forever. We flood the streets to protest and vandalise since our lives and feelings have been hurt. We aren't being arrested or tortured or killed for peacefully opining different ideas, actions, or speaking the Gospel. So what stakes are we as a culture actually playing for? More importantly, what stakes is the Christian church playing for?

        Of course, the sins of injustice, corruption, and prejudice have indeed been around for a long time. The Lord God already destroyed all of humanity, excepting eight persons, for complete and utter wickedness over 5000 years ago. And still, every so often something touches off the powder keg of emotions and feelings, and the resulting "boom" is heard and observed all over countries across the globe. Yet all that is merely symptoms of the greater issue. Zechariah 7:9-14 says the following:

        "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.' But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. 'As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,' says the Lord of hosts, 'and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.'"
 
        The prophet Zechariah was explaining the reasons for which God had judged the people of Israel after they had returned from their exile in Assyria. And it should be quite frightening to see that what happened 2500 years ago is what is happening today. Do we today think that we are immune or beyond the reaches of such wickedness as described so long ago?  The people of the world today stop their ears and shut their eyes to the true laws of God. Mankind devises evil and destruction against his neighbour just like before. We do not show kindness and mercy to each other. nor do we render justice as the Lord Almighty has instructed. Our hearts are hardened by the deceitfulness of pleasure, money, sexual immorality, laziness and self-love. Let no one say the Bible is irrelevant today. 

        Trying to solve injustice and sin without the Gospel is like kicking a soccer ball into the goal over and over again, cheering for each point scored, only to realise that you've been aiming at your own net every time. A good effort and decent skills, but a completely useless outcome. The people who riot and destroy, along with those who condone such lawlessness, are not shooting for the right goal - and they don't realise it. Neither are the politicians, the heads of public services, leaders of armed forces, CEO's of corporations, or anyone else. One can try to placate, calm down, and mollify those who complain about feelings and unfair ideas and never realise that nothing can solve any idea, any injustice, any hurt feelings. Legislation cannot do it; neither money nor apologies: absolutely nothing except for the truths of the Gospel.

        When Christians forsake the Gospel in the pursuit of ethnic social justice, we throw the baby out with the bathwater, and run from the very solution which we then desperately try by fruitless means to obtain. 1 John 5:1-4 says: 

        "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith." 
 
        If Christians do not obey God's commandments, we are not born of God. If we are not born of God, we cannot overcome the world. All the man-made projects and programs cannot meet the needs of the world. The commandments of Christ for his children cannot be fulfilled in any way other than He tells us in Scripture. There is an uncrossable gap between the world's many broken and useless solutions to the problem of sin, and God's one, infallible, perfect way of Salvation. C. S. Lewis, in his brilliant work, The Screwtape Letters, has the person of a senior demon in teaching a younger demon how to destroy a Christian, say this: 

        "About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our[the devils'] position is much more delicate: We do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything - even to social justice.  The thing to do is get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy[God] demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. The Enemy will not be used as a convenience."

         Lewis' point here is that we must beware of lowering the stakes of the Christian faith and theology to a base level "means" whereby man can obtain sociopolitical change.  Christians must be careful not to use Scripture and interpret it in light of a personal, autonomous morality. We ought to be wary of "means" which use the Bible to advance a moral cause for worldly measures. Such uses are abuses of the Gospel and serve only to detract from and lower the worth and power thereof. This is what is meant by the stakes being too low. Too often it would appear that Christians assume a knowledge of the Gospel, and relegate it to the backseat of their response to certain issues, which leads to a perchance morally idealised, but nevertheless man-centred persuasion of how to solve a social problem with a worldly solution.

        The early church father, St. Augustine, stated that "people hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is they love more than the truth. They love truth when it shines warmly on them, and hate it when it rebukes them." What do you love the most? What truth are you fighting for?  Are you playing for the ultimate stakes of the Gospel and Salvation? Or are you lowering Christ's Gospel to a petty human level? Those man-centred stakes are too low - if you are a Christian, you must raise the stakes to the ultimate level of the Gospel.



11 comments:

  1. I actually see the opposite, where social justice is the means by which we point people to Christ.

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    1. By saying that, Peter, you prove my point of how the church lowers the stakes of the Gospel to a worldly means. The philosophy of social justice tries to explain how man can fix himself, by himself, and for himself(Ephesians 4:17-18). That is precisely the opposite of the Gospel: man cannot fix himself, therefore he needs a Saviour to fix him for not his own sake, but the Lord's glory. One cannot hold both options together: it is either the world or Christ(1 Peter 1:13-19).

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  2. And how would you 'raise the stakes'? How do you preach the gospel in our western climate where people are facing injustice from hundreds of years of systemic racism?

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    1. Raising the stakes? Stop preaching the false gospel of social justice. Christ and him crucified is the only way that wrong will be made right and sin eradicated(Ephesians 3:6-10). The arguably false idea of systemic racism simply disappears in the face of the truth of the Gospel(2 Corinthians 5:16-20). I'm sending you a text, Peter, please do follow up.

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    2. How can you simply declare that the idea of systemic racism is false when there have been racist systems enacted by the government? Literal "you get less rights because you are of this race" systems. You can't just hand-wave that away.

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    3. Karl, systems that encourage and permit ethnic prejudice and injustice are created by sinful men who do not believe that all men are equal before God. A large group of folks can be duped and confused by sinful ideologies that do not acknowledge the truth of Scripture. They then create unjust and immoral conditions for different ethnic groups of people based on outward traits and features that have no relevance to a true understanding of who men are before their Creator. Since those who create such prejudiced systems do not base their actions upon a true and right understanding of the Bible, but rather upon a warped, if not completely Scripturally foreign belief system, it's no wonder why what we observe has occurred. Thus I would not use the term systemic racism, but rather a kind of systemic or generational sin which gives opportunity for ethnic or racial prejudice to manifest itself.

      That is as far as I shall post here in the comments. If you wish to continue the conversation, I would be more than happy to have a correspondence via email at: igogoniantcrist@gmail.com

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  3. So where does the rubber meet the road William? You keep saying "Legislation cannot do it; neither money nor apologies: absolutely nothing except for the truths of the Gospel." What concrete steps do you see being taken to affect change and create a just society? It all seems quite theoretical when you post - simply turn to God and the gospel. But what does that mean in practical terms? Do we stop being a democracy and turn to theocratic rule? If we stay a democracy then legislation is the manner in which change is enacted. And our society is strong because we permit a plurality of beliefs. Do we turn instead to the 10 commandments, having no other gods, and outlaw the right to worship Allah or the Buddha?

    Consider this: a great many of the perpetrators of historical injustice have considered themselves Christians and used the bible to justify their actions. Slave owners in America could point to Ephesians 6:5 as permission to own human beings.

    So I'd be interested to know, in your version of society what specifically happens that creates a more fair and just society. Be specific!

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, Karl. It's helpful to have a dialogue.

      Laws cannot legislate sin out of existence. If they did, you would only have to wait a generation or two, and then gone would be anything nasty or wrong. But that’s not what happens - or ever will.

      Yes, we do indeed turn to the Ten Commandments - remembering, of course, that the Law has a threefold purpose: to teach us our duty, show us our guilt, and point us to our need of a Saviour. Unless one is saved and redeemed by God, none of that will affect a person. Therefore, the Christian has the responsibility, duty, and privilege to preach the Gospel to the world, knowing that unless God saves a person, they cannot do good or act according to the principles of Christ. One does not “outlaw” heresy, for that would not and cannot save souls.

      You said “What does that [turning to God and the Gospel] mean in practical terms? . . . So I'd be interested to know, in your version of society what specifically happens that creates a more fair and just society. Be specific!”

      Zechariah 7:9-12 says this: ‘"Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart." But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.’

      Those diamond-hard hearts - everyone who refuses to acknowledge the kingship and sovereignty of the Lord and His Christ - need changing: and “How can they hear unless someone tells them?” Only when a person, an individual soul, is saved to be a servant of the Lord, will their heart and mind be changed and conformed to the image and likeness of Christ. Then will they be able to “render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

      That is as far as I shall post here in the comments. If you wish to continue the conversation, I would be more than happy to have a correspondence via email at: igogoniantcrist@gmail.com

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  4. Constantly quoting scripture will not change the fact that systemic racism exists. Don't change the word to sin either, that changes nothing. You need to educate yourself on what's really happening in the world. The dark, evil horrible world. Claiming man has sinned and absolutely nothing will change until everyone is saved does nothing. I'm curious the steps you have personally taken to change what's happening in our society, you seem to know so very much about. I believe there is good, lots of it, in our world. I have witnessed it, experienced it and passed it on. I have also experienced judgement, evil and horror. You write so much about how horrible everything is and until all of man turns to God nothing will change. You're not going to witness the existence of mankind turning to Christ within your lifetime. So WHAT are you doing, right now, to make change?? Please share!

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    1. "Constantly quoting scripture will not change the fact that systemic racism exists." Fact? On whose authority, and by what proof?

      "Claiming man has sinned and absolutely nothing will change until everyone is saved does nothing."
      I did not say "nothing will change until everyone is saved."

      "I believe there is good, lots of it, in our world. I have witnessed it, experienced it and passed it on."
      There is a kind of worldly 'good' which can be observed and used, but it is not true holiness. Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all else, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?"

      Romans 8:5-8 says "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

      Ephesians 2:1-3 tell us that "you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

      "I'm curious the steps you have personally taken to change what's happening in our society, you seem to know so very much about [it]." I don't, but I know One who does. Steps? Zechariah 7:9: "Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart." Busy working on that.

      "You're not going to witness the existence of mankind turning to Christ within your lifetime." According to whom?

      If you care to have a conversation on this topic further, please email me at igogoniantcrist@gmail.com

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  5. Meh, I guess I just don't really care to communicate with a boy who can only quote scripture and not provide any real life experiences or share insight. (gets old really quick, not the best way to witness or keep a person's interest) Kinda over it. Take care!

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