Christian discipleship is summed up in four words: \u201cBe like your Father\u201d . David Andrew asks how do we represent His mercy in an increasingly cold-hearted world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Who do you think you are?\u2019 has become a surprisingly important question in the present day. It has generated at least one television show where people, often celebrities, investigate their family tree while viewers get to peep, as it were, through the family keyhole. Biblically speaking, it’s a question of huge importance for Christians.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus once put a very similar question to his disciples: \u201cWho do you say that I am?<\/em>\u201d The crowds that followed his every move had begun to speculate about his identity. But Peter\u2019s answer clearly originated in revelation, not speculation: \u201cYou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God\u201d<\/em> . (Matthew 16:15-17) What then about our own question? Who do we think we are \u2013 and who are we really? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there revelation to save us from speculation? Indeed there is \u2013 and once again, it\u2019s Peter standing ready with the amazing answer he gave the first Christians: \u201conce you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy<\/em>\u201d .(1 Peter 2:10) This is a parallel expression which is quite natural to Peter\u2019s Hebrew mind \u2013 two mutually reinforcing statements making a single point: namely, that divine mercy gives the people of God their unique identity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s amazing, but it\u2019s not exactly flattering. \u2018Mercy\u2019 is not a word that nourishes pride \u2013 quite the opposite. Mercy is God\u2019s withholding of what is deserved, namely judgment leading to punishment. Only humility is capable of asking for mercy. It\u2019s one half of God\u2019s protection and provision for those He rescues through faith in Jesus. Mercy\u2019s mirror image is \u2018grace\u2019 \u2013 God\u2019s extravagant provision of what we could never deserve. The protection is in the humiliation, because pride (literally) came before the Fall. If we doubt that human pride is the primary target of God\u2019s rescue strategy, we can find ample evidence of this in His Word\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus summed up the principle as “I am the vine; you are the branches\u2026 apart from me you can do nothing.<\/em>\u201d (John 15:5). The branches are the product of the Vine, not the other way round. He is the Author of our salvation (Hebrews 5:9 \u2013 KJV); we played no part in our own deliverance. He is the Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We cannot perfect ourselves, but we can learn obedience while His grace produces His likeness in us: \u201che who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.<\/em>\u201d (Philippians 1:6) <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most deadly divine blow to our pride, however, is not even in what mercy withholds or grace extravagantly provides. No indeed. Pride bristles to receive such unmerited kindness \u2013 but pride screams with terminal injury to learn that the Saviour is also the Substitute: \u201cFor Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous; that he might bring us to God<\/em>\u201d(1 Peter 3:18). Not only did He withhold death from us, He \u201ctasted death for everyone\u201d(Hebrews 2:9-NLT) \u2013 as predicted by Isaiah 700 years before Calvary: \u201cSurely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned \u2013 every one \u2013 to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all<\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d (Isaiah 53:4-6 \u2013 emphasis added) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now then Christian, if anyone asks you \u2018who do you think you are?\u2019, let God\u2019s mercy shape your answer \u2013 and because you have received mercy: \u201cif someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way\u2026<\/strong><\/em>\u201d(1 Peter 3:15-16). <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Respect\u2019\u2026 now there\u2019s a scarce commodity in modern Britain. A strange phenomenon is unfolding before our eyes: \u2018liberal\u2019 \u2013 of whatever party-political shade \u2013 now generally means \u2018intolerant of anyone who disagrees\u2019. And a specially merciless brand of persecution is reserved for Biblebelievers like recently resigned leader of the UK Lib-Dems, Tim Farron who, seemingly, is the wrong (i.e. Christian) kind of \u2018Liberal\u2019 and therefore \u2018unfit to hold political office\u2019 (because of his faith). But wait! Isn\u2019t that \u2018liberal\u2019 viewpoint just a tad too close to that of those extreme people who seem hell-bent (Hmmm) on bombing and stabbing us into submission to their<\/em> sharia law, their<\/em> god, their<\/em> Quran, their<\/em> dress code, their<\/em> hatred of Christianity (and Jews)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s Word to us? \u2018Don\u2019t look for the world\u2019s respect, but never fail to give it\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As in nature, so in the realm of the spiritual, a vacuum is an impossibility. If a nation rejects God, the consequence is not neutral, but opposite and extreme.<\/strong> Rejection of God produces a spiritual void into which every anti-God force conceivable will flood to seek out, to possess and to control empty hearts (Matthew 12:43-45) \u2013 and their nation. God rules by education, illumination and direction. Over centuries, the Gospel shaped Britain\u2019s government, justice, education, prisons, social welfare, health and hygiene\u2026 and international influence. Today\u2019s generations, ignorant of what is owed to the Christian Gospel, have rejected the Truth in favour of fashionable \u2018truths\u2019 that serve their shifting values. For two thousand years, global society has recognised only two genders \u2013 male and female. Today\u2019s bright young things now recognise 71 gender variants. (Try using the words \u2018he\u2019 and \u2018she\u2019 in today\u2019s campus environment). Satan rules through ignorance, darkness and confusion (2 Corinthians 4:4). Thus an evil spirituality grips the national life, manifesting in the loss of individual freedoms and accelerated imposition of restrictions on freedom of opinion, of belief, of speech and of assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those policy makers and media personalities who refuse to admit that the current wave of terror in the UK and Europe has everything<\/em> to do with Islamic doctrine don\u2019t hesitate to condemn \u2018religion\u2019 and \u2018fundamentalism\u2019 as if everyone of any faith that holds their beliefs without compromise is secretly building bombs and learning beheading techniques. This magazine is for fundamentalists \u2013 because the truth about Jesus Christ\u2019s death and resurrection is not for sale. It\u2019s contribution to our national heritage and freedoms is \u2018fundamental\u2019. It\u2019s non-negotiable and will outlive today\u2019s \u2018trending\u2019 views as eternity will outlive time. The truth of the Gospel and the Scriptures belongs, in the first place, to God, not mortals. It\u2019s not ours to trade off in a compromise with society\u2019s fashionable make-believe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because I am a Christian, my spiritual brothers and sisters are former secularists (like me), former Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, even former criminals, Nazis and Communists \u2013 because Jesus transforms His disciples. They are British, Italian, Polish, Irish, Germans, French, Jewish, Arab, Asian\u2026 They are bankers, teachers, factory workers, shopkeepers, male, female, married, single, elderly, middle-aged, teens\u2026 you can\u2019t get more \u2018multicultural\u2019 than the Body of Christ. As a Christian, I am commanded by Jesus to love my enemies, those who disagree with me, those who persecute me and yes, those who want me dead. He who died praying for mercy upon His killers would never permit His followers to kill anyone for His cause. (Matthew 26:52) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Truth is, those who tout multiculturalism at the expense of common sense and national security need to \u2018get out more\u2019. An elementary (and \u2018respectful\u2019) grasp of history wouldn\u2019t go wrong either. In reality, today\u2019s \u2018multiculturalism\u2019 is a huge deception. It\u2019s not about respecting all cultures, it\u2019s about losing their unique features and sacrificing national and racial identities \u2013 and frontiers \u2013 to achieve a \u2018bland blend\u2019 that will serve a global agenda. Some of us have been living in unprejudiced cultural harmony since before today\u2019s trendy prophets (or Islamists) were born. We are all migrants if we look back far enough, but British doesn\u2019t mean \u2018bland\u2019. We have never co-existed at the expense of sanity or by forgetting those who fought two world wars to protect our freedoms. I have been privileged to teach English language (and discuss scripture) with students from Spain, Japan, Germany, Bosnia, Poland, Mexico, Korea\u2026 I have shared a communal kitchen with a Muslim who became my friend. We ate each other\u2019s cooking, talked respectfully about our beliefs to the wee hours of the morning. The Gospel is multicultural good news because \u201c\u2026the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world<\/em>.\u201d (1 John 4:14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lies abound in a godless culture. It\u2019s a war in which the first casualty is truth. Liars are strangers to mercy. Our newspapers and electronic media routinely publish as \u2018news\u2019 what is, in reality, propaganda \u2013 more often than not Islamic propaganda intended to control western opinion against Israel. True to form, this \u2018news\u2019 is always presented as \u2018the voice of the oppressed\u2019 and western sympathies unquestioningly swallow lurid stories of \u2018apartheid\u2019 in Israel, of \u2018Israeli war crimes\u2019 against women and children in the hospitals and schools of Gaza and Lebanon, of Israeli soldiers shooting civilians \u2013 when behind these stories lies the ancient hatred of Islam for ANY Jewish presence in the Middle East. I routinely avoid all UK media reports when I need objective reporting from the Middle East. My news sources generally fear God and respect the truth or at least provide citations to support their journalism. Most westerners are unaware that the Quran permits the strategic use of deception in dialogue with the \u2018infidel\u2019 to promote the aims of Islam. To take just one of the false allegations above\u2026 It\u2019s a strange sort of \u2018apartheid\u2019 that has Arabs serving in the Israeli parliament, on the Supreme Court, teaching at the universities, using the same buses, being treated by the same doctors in the same hospital wards\u2026 because that is normal life in Israel. No nation is a paragon of virtue, not Britain, not Israel, but the only democracy in the Middle East is not guilty of the criminal charges routinely made by terrorist propaganda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If we Christians sympathise with the twisted journalism of anti-Semites we forget that we \u2018have received mercy\u2019. The apostles understood their responsibility under this divine generosity. They never subscribed to the \u2018all you need is love\u2019 dogma. It is unmerciful to preach God\u2019s love without God\u2019s truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brothers and sisters we must prove to be the truest, most merciful, friends our enemies could have. When Daniel received dread news from God for Nebuchadnezzar, the prophet\u2019s response was the height of mercy \u2013 a share in God\u2019s own compassion even for the cruel. Babylon\u2019s merciless army had shattered Jewish babies on rocks, ripped open pregnant women, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and torn Daniel away from his family, his homeland, his culture \u2013 even his identity. Yet, when he had to deliver the worst of news to his king, Daniel said: \u201cMy lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!<\/em>\u201d (Daniel 4:19). Can we hear Jesus saying: \u201clove your enemies; pray for those who persecute you\u2026\u201d? (Matthew 5:44) <\/p>\n\n\n\n To stand in mercy is to stand with God \u2013 loving the truth and loving with the truth. In these darkening days, the word goes out to every disciple:\u201cBe merciful, even as your Father is merciful<\/em>\u201d.(Luke 6:36) Dare to be a Daniel!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christian discipleship is summed up in four words: \u201cBe like your Father\u201d . David Andrew asks how do we represent His mercy in an increasingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[63],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1039,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Humbled \u2013 and protected<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Dangerous ignorance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Trust me, I\u2019m a terrorist\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n