Editorial – Before and After

“… Such were some of you”. Sinners can write their own history – or they can let Jesus write their future!

A sober little headstone is multiplied in cemeteries around the world – suggesting multiple burial places for the deceased! Its weathered message is addressed to any casual visitor: Remember Man as you go by. As you are now so once was I. As I am now so shall you be. Prepare yourself to follow me

Whether the original arose from the regrets of one facing death or a stonemason indulging his black humour matters not; its thought-out message is clear “If you are reading this, you are living through your ‘before’ – but are you ready for your ‘after’?”

‘Thought out…’ – now there’s a novel idea for a ‘feelings-driven generation’!

For generations past, sanity has been under attack from twisted ideas that have been separated from the truth. If you believe there is no such thing as sin, but you desire to correct the glaring inequities between the super-rich and the poor, then you need a system of enforced re-distribution of wealth whereby all ownership passes from the individual to the state. Tragically, this good idea is undermined by the bit you haven’t thought out: “Sin”, observed Oswald Chambers, “has made the basis of everything wild and not rational”.You didn’t think of that because, of course, you calculated without factoring in the reality of sin. Thus, after 14 million of your own people have been murdered to protect your idea, you are bewildered to discover that, whilst all animals are equal, each one is determined to be more equal than the others and the ones with the guns are running the show…

Guns come in many forms. Sometimes the weapons by which minorities wield power at the expense of sanity (and the masses) are ungodly laws – or political correctness waiting to become law. “Laws are for law-breakers”, Paul the apostle ironically observed when he was the just political prisoner of unjust Nero. The apostle even insisted that Christians should pray “for kings and all those in authority” – irrespective of our politics or the ungodliness of whatever mad emperor compels global recognition of his horse as a Senator! Sad old Nero miscalculated. Truth, you see, is binary. It forces its every opponent to choose between reality and fiction, between right and wrong, between ‘true’ and ‘false’ – between ‘horse’ and ‘cabinet minister’!

I recently signed up for an online resource which required me to state whether I was ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘nonbinary’… It occurred to me that ‘animal, vegetable or mineral’ would have been equally logical options…

Engage your brain! 

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers…”(2 Corinthians 4:4), which, being interpreted, means: ‘thinking without God’s help is… not thinking’. If someone is seeking to force your submission to their ideology – Marxist or otherwise – their worst nightmare is that you will engage your brain with reality, instead of what you are permitted to think. Ideology can only control an unthinking society, and sane thinking starts from God’s end: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10). To calculate, to plan, to debate, to discuss, to think – but without God – is to become prisoners of our own limited intelligence. We can see the ‘wisdom’ in removing bad government, in working to undermine an evil ruler, but it never occurs to us that God (whom we have already discounted) might have a plan which that government will (unwittingly) advance. The thing is… wisdom also is binary. Either it is from God and is “…pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” or, by default, it has a more sinister source: “…earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (James 3:15-17). You can get your wisdom from God or… from the devil. There is no non-binary option.

Only a very few, like Jeremiah and Daniel, realised that God had raised up Nebuchadnezzar, not because the tyrant had divine approval, but to fulfil a twofold divine purpose. God made this pagan ruler His agent to preserve (in Babylon!) a remnant of faithful Jews who would, seven decades later, re-populate the Promised Land and re-build Jerusalem’s walls to the glory of God. Nebuchadnezzar’s limited brain thought these Jews were merely his prisoners! God’s secondary purpose was righteous judgment. His own people had, for generations, lived like the ancient Canaanitesand misrepresented their Holy God to the surrounding pagan societies. God’s patience had called time on their godless fiction…

You can watch Dr Who,five decades into his career, suddenly morph into womanhood, but fiction can’t become the new fact. You can install all the ungodly laws you like, you can enjoy the backing of the government and enforcement by the police, but falsedoes not miraculously become true, fiction does not become realityand evilcan’t reinvent itself as the new good– unless God is convinced. Go on then… insist that weightlessnessis the new gravity, but don’t put it to the test without a supporting ambulance – or an undertaker. Back to that headstone…

Captives of fiction

Once upon a time… (Disney was not involved, but there was a happy ever after), there was a group of truly blessed men in a sex-obsessed city in Greece – you see… (let’s not be ashamed to tell it) they had walked away from their same-sex lifestyle… They had had a ‘before’; now they had an ‘after’. The apostle notes their transformation – along with a crowd of other sinners – idolaters, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, swindlers – all changed by meeting Jesus. He goes so far as to say they have been washed, set apart for God, justified (themselves, not their sin) and that God Himself has made this happen for them. “Such were some of you”, Paul said, but that was then, this is now… Now they are ‘saints’, holy people – not superior, just different – called out by God and empowered to live as His children; lighting the path for others. If Paul sounds patronising to modern ears, he referred to himself as “the chief of sinners”: “I was once a violent man and a blasphemer… but I received mercy…”. Here’s the point, neither Paul nor the Corinthianmen had been born violent, blasphemous or… homosexual. God’s kindness made both ‘choice’ and ‘change’ possible for them.

Who lacks compassion more than the ‘father of lies’ (one of Jesus’ own names for the devil)? Truth and love are inseparable because God is the God of Truth and “God is love”.When people are being held captive by lies and clever fictions that maintain an entirely false ‘reality’, so that they believe that personal choice and change are impossible, whoever speaks for God will love them enough to speak the truth in love and stand against the fiction. Let’s see how God’s Word – the product of the most supreme Love and unchanging Truth – can help us sort fact from fiction, as the first step towards freedom for the devil’s captives…

Let’s start with a shocking question it seems no-one is asking because most (even evangelicals) have already assumed the answer: ‘Is there such a thing as a homosexual?’Suddenly, the elephant in the room can’t be ignored. Suddenly the discussion that has been stifled – forbidden even – for so long starts to flow again… Is it ‘homophobic’ to ask the question – or just plain merciful? Is homosexual behaviour a matter of identity or of choice? Let’s be careful Christians here, because the answer – one way or the other – will be a massive theological statement. The question can’t be answered without saying something about God…

Almost immediately, the shouting begins: “It’s DNA!!… It’s congenital!!… Offers of ‘therapy’ are cruel – you can’t heal a person’s identity!!…” Decibels are proportionate to weakness of argument. Fear also generates emotional noise. When we sinners take refuge in a lie, the truth uncovers our hiding place and we need to face reality – and responsibility.

God: our hiding place

Mercifully, (hold that word) the Bible helps us to see that the ‘identity’ arguments are too weak to stand – and it offers a far better hiding place than lies… God Himself.  Quite simply, the Bible helps because of its preoccupation with God – His character,His love, His holiness and His merciful intentions towards the human race.Let’s join some dots…

God is love… He does not change; never has, never will… He is righteous in all His ways – not something that can be said of any human being. So, if God Himself is the standard of righteousness and, if “all scripture is God-breathed” then Leviticus 18:22 is a revelation of God’s kindness, not His unfairness – far less His ‘homophobia’. (To the best of my knowledge, God is not afraid of anyone…) When He commands “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination”, He’s protecting His separated people from the self-destructive ways of their neighbours – that they may be a “light to the nations”. He is an educating God. He’s opposed to darkness, ignorance, demonic fiction and every lie that presents an evil as something ‘OK’. It’s not OK with God if sinners destroy themselves through ignorance when He has made the ultimate sacrifice to save them…

There will always be self-righteous people who think they have a right to condemn others – huge chunks of the New Testament and Jesus’ own teachings warned against that fakery. Paul was exactly that kind of violent hypocrite until He met Jesus.True Christians are too appalled by their own sinfulness and too grateful for God’s mercy to be condemning of other people – far less to beat them up for their chosen lifestyle. If we ignore God’s wisdom for how we use our bodies we will sure enough beat ourselves up without any help from religious hypocrites… God is not fooled by self-righteousness – He hates it as much as any sin, sexual or otherwise.

New person, new life

There’s a great and powerful truth at stake here. The history of true Christianity is the story of countless people who have been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus changes sinners into saints (they certainly don’t get there by their own good deeds). “…if a man is in Christ he becomes a new person altogether – the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new. All this is God’s doing…” (2 Corinthians 5:17 – Phillips).

If those Corinthian men had thought their lifestyle was truly ‘gay’ they would never have left it behind. Jesus gave their ‘before’ an ‘after’ – and not only for this life: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life” (John 5:24 – NLT). Trust Jesus to give even your ‘after’ an ‘after’ – forever with the Lord!