Let There Be Light

Some thoughts on the documentary Let There Be Light:

1 – First off, hats off to Matt Redman and Beth Redman for speaking out. I know some people will be asking what took them so long, but speaking as someone who has been taken advantage of by Christian leaders in the past, I know that if you are not confident enough in yourself or your cause compared to those who are in a position of power over you then taking a stand, even if others who know what they are talking about are telling you you are right to do so, it can be very hard to do so. It took me being in my third job where abuse of power took place before I could take a stand. On top of that, Matt in particular had been a young person with Mike as his youth leader before he became the worship leader at the festivals, so the impact of Mike’s longstanding relationship with him would have weighed very heavily on his decision to speak out. And on top of that, there would have been the question of how could he speak out when Mike’s ministry was so successful at Soul Survivor.

2 – Matt’s comment about forgiveness and accountability is hugely important. We should not forget what has happened to those who Mike abused, nor how the systems in place, both before and after Soul Survivor joined the CofE, failed to protect them. Nor should Mike go unpunished for what he did. That’s accountability. But nor should we forget that the heart of the Christian message is that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness. It’s not an “either/or” situation, both are important.

3 – A personal admission. When I first heard accusations about Mike, I’ll admit I was sceptical. Having seen a number of high profile accusations in the political sphere turn out to be false and the weaponisation of false claims, as well as having experienced the power of God through the ministry of Soul Survivor, I was not going to accept them without question. Then when I saw the first accusations, which were not going into as much detail as is in the video, it sounded like something that could be put down to to someone who was from a more “old school” style of youth work who had not changed their practice to modern standards of safeguarding. And I have a certain amount of sympathy with people who are actually like this, as I think that there are a lot of issues with how safeguarding, while being vital to keeping people safe from abuse, also seems to continue to create barriers in working in effective ways that build relationships through physical contact (something that can be hugely important for some people). However, upon watching this video the depth of the accusations made it clear that this went far beyond mere physical interactions. And so I willingly admit, I was wrong.

4 – There is very clearly a homo-erotic issue, related to the massages, that needs addressing. And it’s not just Mike who did this, Jonathan Fletcher is another (and he did this and much worse) and I am sure that there are others. The situation, at least in Mike’s case, appears to be almost one of brinkmanship. He has clearly expressed theological views that say that homosexual sex is unbiblical in the past, so was he doing the equivalent to heterosexual Christians wondering how far they could go and still consider they were keeping “pure” before marriage? So, my question is, how does the Church encourage and welcome people, whether leaders or not, to be honest and open about their sexuality and to recognise it, while also holding to Biblically orthodox teaching and practice on the matter. Possibly one for the Church to turn to Living Out as it seeks to move forward honestly and faithfully.

5 – My final point is a question as to what on earth happened with the safeguarding at Soul Survivor. As I mentioned before, Soul Survivor was not always a part of the Church of England, so the CofE is not solely to blame here. The trustees of Soul Survivor need to be held to account for how they allowed Mike to abuse his victims and not enable them to come forward when it happened and how they missed signs that others have said were obvious. The Church of England, St Albans Diocese in particular, needs to ask itself how it allowed Soul Survivor to become a part of the CofE and the abuse was able to continue under their watch. And maybe even before Soul Survivor, questions need to be asked of St Andrew’s Church, Chorley Wood. They were the church that Mike was at when Soul Survivor started as a part of New Wine and where he went from to plant Soul Survivor Church in Watford. Did any of the leadership at St Andrew’s know anything? Ultimately, all these questions in this final point are not about seeking to lay blame, but they come back to what Matt says – it’s about accountability. And, on top of that, it’s about recognising where things have gone wrong and seeking to ensure they don’t happen again. This is potentially a very hard subject for people to talk about, as for some it will mean talking about personal experiences that they have buried for years. It is something that for some has damaged their faith in God. And for others it will be highly embarrassing. But it is important that people to talk about it, engage honestly and frankly with it and, hopefully, enable victims to move forward and to both bring perpetrators to justice and to bring them to a recognition that they have sinned and need to seek forgiveness #LetThereBeLight

Christian Clichés #4

Laying Out A Fleece

Ok, so this is another one that has a very clear Biblical reference, namely Judges 6:36-40 where Gideon lays a fleece out and asks God to make it wet with dew while keeping the ground around it dry. And then, after God did that, Gideon asks for it to be done again, only this time with the fleece remaining dry while the ground around it was wet with dew, which God also did. God did both of these miracles as signs to prove to Gideon that He was going to save Israel through him. I will look into this a bit further later, but while looking into this (hence the gap since my last blog) I discovered that Gideon wasn’t the first to do something like this, even though the phrase that has gone into our lexicon is based on his story.
For the first to do something like this we have to go back to the time of Abraham, in Genesis 24. There we see that Abraham sends a servant to go and find a wife for Isaac. When the servant arrives where Abraham told him to go he prays to God, asking that the woman who was right for Isaac to marry would respond to him asking for water from the well by offering to also water his camels. It’s not quite putting down a fleece twice and asking for two miracles, but it is asking for a specific response to a situation that the person is creating so as to get clear guidance from God.
Both situations ask God for something so that the person asking might be assured of God’s will for their situation, but interestingly when I was looking into this cliché I found that they can get very different responses from the people commenting on them. So let’s have a look at that.

First let’s look at Gideon. Gideon is hiding wheat from the Midianites in a winepress. It’s possible that this also meant that he was also hiding in fear, as he’s here rather than with his family or out trying to defend the land from the Midianites, though that is very much up for debate rather than a certainty. First he has the Angel of the Lord (also known as another was of saying God Himself, not that Gideon knew this) visit him, telling him that “The Lord is with you”. Gideon is first told to tear down an Asherah pole and then told to gather an army to defeat the Midianites. And after Gideon has gathered all the men that are willing to follow him he then turns to God as asks for the two signs with the fleeces.
When looking into this story I saw a number of blogs that had a major issue with Gideon doing this, saying that it showed a man who was testing God despite having had an angel (at least in his understanding) speak to him and been told that he was going to lead Israel to victory over the Midianites. But by not only asking for one sign but two these blogs said that it was a sign of a weak and immature faith, comparing him to the “wicked and adulterous generation” that Jesus spoke of, who would still not believe even if they saw a miracle.

However, in the case of Abraham’s servant, Abraham wanted a wife for Isaac but didn’t want him to marry a Canaanite, so he made the servant swear an oath that he would go back to Abraham’s homeland and find a wife there. So the servant goes to Abraham’s homeland, to the town of Nahor, and when he gets there the Bible tells us that it was evening, “the time the women go out to draw water”, so he stops to pray. He prays for success, as a way of showing kindness to Abraham, and so says “May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac”.
When the women come out we see Rebekah coming out and doing exactly what the servant had asked. But then, interestingly, the servant pushes things further (the Bible saying it was so as to be sure she was the one God intended for Isaac to marry) and asks if her father has room for him to stay the night. When she says yes and reveals that she is related to Nahor, Abraham’s brother, the servant then knows that he’s found the right woman for Isaac.
In the blogs that I have found talking about this, there are 2 interesting things that I note. The first is that they don’t appear to mention the fact that the servant adds on a second part (although not as a prayer, merely expecting something more than he had prayed for) in his search for confirmation from God. The second thing is that this asking for confirmation is acceptable, although still could be seen as a bit risky. The reason given for why it was ok is that it was because Abraham was seeking for a wife for Isaac who shared his beliefs in God, on other words the principle of being equally yoked. And because this was about a Godly principle the request was fine, as the servant was already aligned with God’s will on the matter, so his request was seeking God to reveal the answer to him.

This is contrasted with Gideon, where his requests for the signs with the fleece are after he’s already been told what God wants him to do, additionally impacted by the fact that rather than being satisfied with the first fleece sign he then asks for a second. However, I think that the contexts of these two examples differ greatly in their setting and give a reason why, to my mind, Gideon asking for the signs is ok.
When we first meet Gideon in the story, Israel is being oppressed by the Midianites, as well as a number of other groups of peoples. On top of that, he is clearly lacking in confidence. Not only is he potentially hiding from the fight, but he also describes himself as the runt of his family, which is a part of the weakest clan in his tribe. Gideon is very clear that he is a nobody with no power to do anything to save Israel. And so even though he’s had a sign by the Angel of the Lord remaining after he went to get his offering (Genesis 24:17-19), Gideon is still not convinced that he’s the one to lead Israel to victory and so he then asks for the signs with the fleece.
Speaking as someone who struggles with self-confidence, I can empathise with Gideon in this situation. He’s just been asked to do something way beyond his comprehension having seen that the Midianites are currently running rampant over his people and he is likely both lacking in confidence and afraid for his life. Stepping out of your comfort zone is not an easy thing, even less so when you have no confidence in doing so, so Gideon is almost certainly wondering why him, questioning whether or not he’s actually seeing and hearing right and then after he’s gathered his army (before it’s whittled down) he then could well be wondering if he heard right when he was told to start doing this, so he decides that he wants reaffirmation with the first fleece sign and then his lack of self-confidence causes him to ask God to confirm this with the second. This may seem like a lot, but I could very easily see someone who may well be that lacking in confidence in themselves that it affects them taking on what God has said straight away. Interestingly, the blogs who speak against the idea of laying down a fleece don’t then look beyond the fleece. If we move on to chapter 7 (verses 1-7) we see God shrinking Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300. Both times that God tells Gideon to get rid of people he doesn’t question God, but now he is fully assured that he is following God’s will and doesn’t even question the interesting method God uses to get down to 300. He just does as God says. And he doesn’t question the way that God tells him to defeat the Midianites, he just followed what God wanted him to do. And the end result was that the Midianites were destroyed.

So what can we take from these?

Firstly, I think that we can say that when we look at what people say about things that take place in the Bible we have to remember the wider context that they are in to better understand what’s going on. A second thing is that while there are no other stories in the Bible about anyone laying down a fleece, like Gideon, there other examples that are similar in terms of what they are showing us. A third thing, which one of the blogs I read said, is that there is a reason for everything that is in the Bible. And while that isn’t necessarily a case for saying we should lay down fleeces when we are seeking God’s guidance, I think it points to a validity, at the very least in the context it is in, of the fleeces being laid down by Gideon and the fact that God answered him both times.
Looking specifically at the idea of whether or not it’s ok to “lay down a fleece”, I think there is one key aspect that both Abraham’s servant and Gideon are aligned with that says that it’s ok to do – your request for guidance is in line with God’s will. It is important to remember that that means that you are no testing God if you are in line with God’s will, as to test God would mean you are not asking for guidance so much as asking for permission to do something that you likely know you shouldn’t be doing.
Another reason that some have against the idea of laying down a fleece is that some people say that the Bible is all that we need to know God’s will for us. And I can agree with this, at least to a certain point, as the Bible is God’s written word for us to know Him and how He calls us to live. But I also would likely disagree with them as the inference seems to suggest that they do not believe in signs and wonders beyond the early Church times. As someone who very much believes in the charismatic I believe that God speaks to us in other ways beyond the Bible. However, I believe that when He does we need to be sure that it is in line with what we see in the Bible. God will never guide us through words of knowledge, dreams, visions etc that would see us going against His word.
Another thing to remember is that we should be asking God for wisdom. We see a prime example of this with Solomon, but the book of James also teaches this (chapter 1, verse 5). As such, asking God for guidance is seeking His wisdom on something and should be something that we are both encouraged to do and that we encourage others to do as well.

So what should we do if we are going to “lay down a fleece”?
Well, first of all, I would say that we shouldn’t be looking to do it on a regular basis. To do so would be to abuse God’s goodness.
When we do “lay down a fleece” we should be highly specific. Look at how specific Abraham’s servant was with his request for someone to both offer him and his camels water. Or Gideon asking for the fleece to be wet on dry ground and then dry on wet ground. Or look at what Jesus told Peter and John when they were going to find where they were going to have the Last Supper together.
We must also remember that if we are going to “lay down a fleece” then we have to be willing to obey God. We shouldn’t ask Him if we should accept a job offer and then decide that, after He tells us we should, we are going to turn it down, for example. That removes the entire point of asking for guidance to begin with.
Finally, we should remember that God does not always speak to us in ways that we clearly understand, or even hear Him at all. Therefore we should remember to continue to trust in God, even if we don’t hear Him give us an answer, remembering that, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass, darkly”. In other words, our understanding of God is limited as we are now in imperfect bodies in an imperfect world, which means that sometimes we will see/hear God and it will be clear and sometimes it won’t be.

A big thank you to the following blogs, that helped me think through this particular cliché:
– eBible
– Got Questions
– Emmanuel Community Church
– Exploring The Faith (and this, and this)
– Christianity Daily
– Christian Post
– Apply God’s Word

God’s Children Are Not For Sale – Sound Of Freedom review

Every now and then there are films that come out that are must-see films, for one reason or another. For some, it’s a cultural phenomenon, such as Star Wars. Others are because they are technologically impressive for their time, such as Avatar. Others are because the film has some of the greatest performances seen on the big screen, such as Marlon Brando in The Godfather or Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. And then there are those that have a message that rings a bell so loud that nothing can silence it. Sound Of Freedom is one such film!

Put simply, this is a film based on a true story about a guy who left a job with the US Homeland Security to work at saving children from sex trafficking. From the outset I should be clear that the film is not a 100% accurate representation of what Tim Ballard, the main character, did but it does tell a story about some of the sorts of things that those who are sex trafficking victims and brings into sharp focus both the fact that it is a huge tragedy that is taking place right now and that it’s not just something that happens in places like Thailand or Cambodia but that children can be stolen from places in the West and are also sold in the West. Indeed, at the end we are told that America is one of the biggest markets for sex trafficking in the world.

Things that kicked me in the gut were the opening sequence that showed CCTV footage of various children being stolen from the parents or siblings while on the streets, the scene after one of the children has been abused where she is crying in the bath and the moment when the brother and sister are separated. Things that brought a tear to my eye were the scenes where the brother, sister and father are reunited and the moment after over 50 children have been rescued and we hear them singing, where we hear the title in the dialogue – “Do you know what that is? That is the sound of freedom!”

There are some very good performances in this film. Jim Caviezel in the lead role is very impressive and there are a number of notable supporting performances. But for me the best performance goes to Cristal Paricio, who plays the sister who they are searching for. Her emotional responses in key scenes is amazing for such a young actress. And there is a fight scene that, I believe, has a unique way of being shown, through the eyes of the sister where she switches between having her eyes closed and occasionally opening them, so hats off to the whoever decided to show it in this way.

And now for possibly the most shocking part. This film was completed 5 years ago! It was due to be released by 20th Century Fox, only for Disney to buy Fox and then decided to not release it. It took the film makers to buy the rights to the film to see it released. But even then, it has seen challenges to getting in to cinemas and now it has been announced that Amazon (and Apple, I believe) will not be having it on their platform to stream. And yet, despite this, the film that cost less than $15m has made over $200m at the box office. This is clearly a film that has legs and appeal and is likely to go on for some time, particularly as it is getting into more and more cinemas around the world, and if my viewing is anything to go by it’s not just America that is seeing it get decent audience numbers.

Finally, we come to the message. While the film in and of itself shines a light on quite possibly the most horrific example of man’s inhumanity to man, it also has a mid-credits message from Jim Caviezel. He speaks about the issue of sex trafficking, the challenges the film has had with getting out into cinemas and also about their pay it forward ticket campaign, for those who feel that they can’t afford to go to the cinema but who can get a free ticket through this system.

In conclusion, I highly recommend that people go and see this film. If for no other reason than the fact that the message that child sex trafficking is happening needs to be heard so that we might have a hope that it can one day be eradicated. And if you are the sort of person who will get angry at the idea of children being abused and want something to cleanse the palette, I can also recommend watching The Equalizer 3 afterwards (another good film)!

Christian Clichés #3

To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain

Well, let’s immediately address the obvious, this isn’t just any old cliché, this is taken directly from the Bible, Philippians 1:21 to be precise, so how can this be a cliché? Well, maybe it’s not a cliché, but it’s certainly possible to call it a clichéd phrase, as I think it is often used but also often not fully thought through by the person saying it.

So let’s start with the context. It’s commonly accepted that Paul as in prison in Rome, which Paul references in the letter, so this is his situation at the time of writing. The church at Philippi was the first church that Paul established in Europe (Acs 16:6-40), so it holds some special significance for him, almost as that of a father and his child. And he is also writing in response to their kindness to him, specifically the gifts they sent him (Philippians 4:18). And then let’s look specifically at what he is saying around this one sentence:

“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.” Philippians 1:12-26

Paul is talking about what he sees with the spreading of the Gospel and balances that out with the apparent impending nod of his life at the hands of the Romans and he is almost wondering out loud, well, by pen and paper(!), which is better and which he should seek to do.

So what does he think on each matter?

Well, on the matter of death Paul I very clear, being with Christ in eternity is by far the more preferable option. After all, why would t not be? Being with you Lord and Saviour in a place where there is no more suffering, pain, sickness, persecution etc where everything is as God intends it to be and where we are made perfect can’t be anything other than the most attractive option, by a long, long way! And yet Paul is torn because he also knows that he has a task to do, one that God has given him. And not only does he have this task to do, but he gets great joy from this task, such as seeing when others are sharing the Gospel in the world. And this is why Paul’s ultimate conclusion is that he will remain because he is needed to support and nurture new churches in the growth in faith. And yet, interestingly we also know that not long after this (less than 5 years) Paul was finally executed.

So what do we take from what Paul says in verse 25? At first glance it might look like Paul is preempting God, His design for His Church and Paul’s role in it. But if we look a little deeper, particularly in his second letter to Timothy, we see here someone who is now seeing his end is near and has prepared himself, at least as much as anyone can, for that end. So in that context verse 25 reads to me more like someone who recognises who is in control of all things and that if He has a plan for Paul then no one can stand against him for as long as God wants Paul to do the task for Him. It reminds me of a video I saw about a pastor in Argentina who was attacked a number of times, including being shot at least once, and in the final interview he gave before his death he said that he was effectively unkillable for as long as God had something for him to do on earth. And not long after that interview he was shot dead. But rather than the video ending there a friend of the pastor is talking about his death and his friend said that God clearly had nothing more for him to do on earth.

We can also see this in the Bible, whether looking to prophecies that speak to things happening in the future or at people being called to certain tasks by God. We see this in the line of David, a line of many kings of Israel and Judah who could have been killed before having an heir to their throne but who were always replaced by someone of David’s descendants. Or in the story of Esther, where we see in Esther 4:14 Mordecai says that maybe she was in the position she was in, Queen of the Persian Empire, “for such a time as this”, meaning that she was in a position to help the Jews survive a potential genocide at the hands of Haman. Or we can see in Jeremiah 1:5 God tells Jeremiah that He had set him apart from before he was born to be a prophet for Him. Indeed, wet can even look at Paul’s ministry from the time of his conversion and see how God kept him safe, or if not safe then at least alive, on so many occasions up until, his death in Rome.

So I believe that Paul is saying we can be confident in our Heavenly Father keeping us safe for as long as He wants us on earth. But what does that mean in the practicalities of living our lives? Well, for starters I think we need to be very clear that it does not mean we set aside common sense when it comes to being in dangerous situations. Not only should we remember that God gave us the ability to think and reason so that we could do so, but we should also remember that we can never know when God’s plans for us run their course. Certainly I don’t believe that we should be reckless with our lives and I don’t think that Paul is saying that either. But we should be aware that for as long as we remain in this life God has plans for us. Indeed, as we can see from Jeremiah 29:11, God has plans for each of us. And we also need to remember what Paul says about his task, that he will be able to share in the joy of those who experience the joy of faith in God. And so too should we be looking to remember the joys that we get from doing the tasks that God sets before us. The joy of seeing people come to faith, the joy of seeing them grow in their faith and the joy of seeing them become people who join in the sharing of the faith themselves. And the thing we need to remember is that we never know where we might find moments of such joy. I remember reading about how a Christian was in hospital and it was not looking like they would last very long. And yet, in a brief moment where able to interact with someone in the room, they were able to share their faith with that person and they came to faith, before dying very soon after. We can lead people to Jesus even in moments where we might think it’s impossible to do so.

And yet there is the “to die is gain” to consider. For although Paul is right to say that for as long as he is alive he will focus on living for Christ, we also need to remember that for Christians there is nothing to fear from death, for as Paul rightly points out the life that is to come is definitely a better place than where we are now. And yet it is interesting to see how many Christians seem to have forgotten this in the way that they react to the potential approach of dying. Indeed, I believe that this is something that we saw on display from a huge number during the recent Covid years, where people were far keener on avoiding contact with people, rather than sharing the Gospel with them. The fear of dying from Covid as a very real thing across the world, and yet what have Christians to fear from Covid if death is the worst it can do? As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50-55:

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

‘Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?’

We have an imperishable immortality to look forward to, one where we are transformed from our fallen form to a perfected form and we will be with our Lord forever. Why would we not be excited for that moment to come? Not that I am suggesting that we should be looking to expedite our transition to it! And why would we not therefore look at the threat of death where, to completely butcher the well known quote of Ob-Wan Kenobi, if we are struck down we will become more than we can possibly imagine! Death is not the end, it is merely a point of transition from the mortal to the immortal. And while we may look around at those we hold dear and be fearful for them, if we trust in God then we must trust that she has them in His hand just as much as He has us in His hand.

And so, in conclusion, we need to remember that we should live our lives for Christ, for that is the ultimate purpose of the mortal life, as Paul shows in the statement “to live is Christ”, and continue to do so for as long as God calls us to. But we also need to remember that this life is not the only thing, that we have a far more wonderful thing to gain when this life concludes for us, and therefore we should have no fear of what this world might throw at us, for we have a far greater life in the world to come to look forward to.

Christian Clichés #2

“Only God Can Judge”

Other ways this can appear might include “It’s not my place to judge” and even as clichés used against Christians by people saying things like “Christians aren’t supposed to judge people”. But is this really true?

Well, let’s go to the Bible and see where it might come from, Matthew 7:1-5.
At first glance, especially when you take in verse 1, one might be forgiven for saying that it’s so clear that it’s not possible argue against it. However, context as ever is key.

The first aspect of context is that we need to look at what we are expected to do in life generally. Are we expected to make judgements on things? Of course we are. We make judgements on things all the time, whether they are judgements on activities that we do on the basis of whether they are good for us or not or whether they are judgements on activities that we do based on whether we like to do them or not. Indeed we might even find that what we like and what is good for us may be in conflict and we need to use our judgement to decide which to do. For example, I might choose to go home and eat a peanut butter and jam sandwich (my favourite sandwich filler) or I might decide to cook myself a proper meal.
We make judgements on what to wear each day, on whether we do jobs around the home and so on.
So us judging on something is necessary in most of our life.

What about people?

Ok, so the thought likely going through the head of anyone reading this is “Ah, but that’s not the sort of judging that we are talking about. What about judging people?”

Well, for that there are 2 very clear responses to make.
The first is to make the point that we make judgements on people every day. We might make a judgement on whether we spend time with another person, based on whether or not we enjoy doing so. Or maybe we are making a judgement on whether what someone says is worth taking on board. Or maybe we make decisions on people doing certain things based on judgements made about their ability to do so. For example, do you want the person who makes the meals at home to be the one who makes tasty meals or the one who makes disgusting meals? Our judgement on who people are, what they say and what they do is clearly on display.
And then the second response is to say that when it comes to who we associate with the Bible tells us that making judgements are important. In the Old Testament God tells the Israelites not to intermarry with certain peoples because by doing so they will turn away from God (Deuteronomy 7:3–4). In the New Testament Jesus talks about being salt and light, meaning that the more we mix the less we remain distinctive (Matthew 5:13-16), and also tells his disciples to judge people based on how they respond to them going around healing in Jesus’ name (Matthew 10:14).
In all these examples, the Bible is telling us that making judgements on people and their behaviour is important to following His will. And while the salty and light example might not necessarily be about not interacting with people, it’s certainly about allowing the influence of others to change our behaviours in a way that leads us away from God.

But what about when it’s personal?

“But”, I hear you say, “this is about being judgemental about specific things that people we know do.”
Yes, you are right, it is. But does this mean we shouldn’t judge others?
Well, here we need to turn to later on in Matthew, to Matthew 18:15, and we read there that Jesus is very clear that judging a fellow Christian’s actions is permissible. Indeed, if we read further on, verse 16 says that if a Christian refuses to listen to a fellow believer when challenged about their sin then other Christians should be brought in as witnesses. And that if they still refuse to listen, in verse 17 Jesus says that it should then be taken to the church leaders. Indeed, Jesus is very clear about the fact that judgement comes for the sin, as He says that they should treat the unrepentant Christian like “a pagan or a tax collector”, meaning that they should be removed from the community of believers until they repent.

So what does Jesus mean when he says we should not judge?

Ok, so judging is allowed by Jesus in other parts of Matthew, so what does this passage mean?
Well, let’s look at the verses:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

The first thing that we need to look at is how Jesus qualifies his own statement about not judging. Jesus talks about the speck and the plank, pointing out that those who judge are not perfect, therefore judging others on their falling short when they too fall short is not a good thing. But it’s deeper than just that, for we also need to look at the second part of verse 2, where Jesus talks about the judger being judged, which points us towards a more eternal teaching being given. Judging, in this context, is about condemning, not making judgements. It is about making the judgement on a person’s heart, something that only God can know and judge, and as a result placing ourselves in a position that is not ours to assume. As such, this then gives greater context to the speck and plank, as there we see that this is saying that we should not judge people as fallen when we too are fallen. A person that does this is someone who is holding themselves as better than the person they are judging. Jesus even gives a parable to explain this, in Luke 18:9-14, where He talks about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. In this parable we see Pharisee declaring that he does a variety of things that are required of him by the Law and that he is thankful that he is not a sinner, referencing, among others, the tax collector. The Pharisee refuses to look at his own failings, instead pointing to the failings of others as something that he is glad not to be doing. And while there is nothing wrong looking at sinful behaviour and being thankful for not doing them, if that’s all we do (be thankful for what we DON’T do) then we are not making ourselves right with God because we are not seeking forgiveness foe the things that we DO do.
By contrast, in this parable we also see the Tax Collector’s response in prayer. He recognises that he is a sinner and asks for forgiveness for his sins. He makes no comment about anyone else, he just says that he knows he has fallen short of God’s call perfection and that he requires forgiveness to be made right with God.
So when we are called not to judge in Matthew 7, we are called to not place ourselves in the position of God in making an eternal judgement on someone. The point being that if we do that then we are ignoring our own failings that also mean that we are to be suffering eternal judgement. The only way that we should act, when it comes to eternal judgement, is on our knees, begging for mercy, a forgiveness that we do not deserve, beating our chest as we recognise our own sin. And the great thing is that, if we believe in the Saviour who died so that we could be forgiven, that undeserved forgiveness comes through the Grace of God.

Christian Cliches #1

Cliches are so cliche!

There’s something to the idea that stereotypes are unhelpful. After all, just because someone is something (whether it’s their race, the place they come from, the sports team they support, the interests they have etc) doesn’t mean they are the same as another person who is that same thing. But at the same time, there is also something to the reason why stereotypes exist, that people who share certain things in common can sometimes also act similarly in certain situations.
In the same way, I believe that clichés can be unhelpful but at the same time may also have something to them. Unhelpful in that if you take them without being critical and thinking about what they are being used in relation to then you will have a major misunderstanding of what Christianity is. But at the same time there is sometimes some validity to what is being intended, albeit badly worded.
In what may be a regular series (I have currently got a list of more than 30!), I want to take a look at one in particular in this blog and see what, if anything, can be taken positively from it.

“Let Go And Let God”

So why start with this one? Well, it’s certainly been something that I have been thinking myself recently, even said it in a conversation with someone, but it’s also something that can so often be said among Christians when someone is having trouble letting go of something or where they find themselves not knowing what to do. I’m sure there are many other reasons it’s said too!

So what’s the problem with this cliché?

Well, the first thing to say is that it’s not something that’s directly said in the Bible, so that should be the first thing that makes us look at something more before taking it on board. Sure, it sounds good. After all, while it doesn’t rhyme (something that can also appear in Christian clichés) it does have an alliteration aspect to it and that can be part of the appeal for clichés to be taken on by people. But it is never, at least to my knowledge, something that you can give chapter and verse for it appearing there.
This doesn’t mean that something that doesn’t appear in the Bible can never be taken as helpful in any way, but we should immediately look to the Bible if we are seeking to find Godly advice and this cliché is not there verbatim in any translation I’ve seen.

Another issue with this is the potential ways that it could be taken. For example, completely letting go and doing nothing is not what we are supposed to do. We are told we need to endure (2 Timothy 2:3), to run the race to the end (2 Timothy 4:7), to stand against the Devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11) and to hold fast (Deuteronomy 10:20).
None of these things we are told to do are passive, where we simply stand back and let things happen to us. In all these things we are supposed to be taking an active part on what’s going on. Indeed, we are even called to take part WITH God (Matthew 28:19-20).

So is there a helpful side to this cliché?

Well, yes there is.
The first thing to point to is that the Bible is also very clear that we can’t do all things on our own. We are told to be strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10), rather than to rely upon our own strength. To put on the full armour of God (Ephesians 6:11) because we need Him to protect us. Without God’s power we are not strong, without His armour we are not protected.

Jesus points out that we need to be connected to Him. If we are not a part of Jesus then we will not bear fruit (John 15:4). We cannot be fruitful in a Godly way if we are not a part of Him.

We are also told that we should trust in God, not our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Also that we should cast our anxiety onto God because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

So why does this matter?

Speaking personally, it has been a recent realisation that has come from looking at a promise that I believe God has given me and then wondering how on earth it is going to happen. And this is something that we can all struggle with if we believe we feel God’s calling to something but we simply cannot see how we will get there.

And to this the story of Abraham speaks most clearly to me. Abram was promised that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars at a time when he was already getting on a bit and he and his wife Sarai had no children (Genesis 15:5). Abram and Sarai got so convinced that they had to do something to make God’s promise come true that they went outside of God’s promise by Sarai telling Abram to sleep with her maidservant Hagar (Genesis 16:2). Through Hagar, Abram had a son called Ishmael, but Ishmael was not the son of promise that God had given. Rather than trusting in God, Sarai and Abraham tried to do it themselves and there are many consequences to their actions that the descendants of the promised child, Isaac, had to deal with. However, Abraham clearly learned over time that he could trust God’s promises, for when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac to Him he was willing to do so because he trusted that if Isaac were to die then God would still fulfil His promise, because that is who God is (Genesis 22).

And to me, I believe that this speaks loudest and clearest to the idea of “let go and let God”, as it speaks to the point that we need to let God fulfil His promises in the way He sees fit. God can tell us that He has a plan for our lives, that He has gifts He will give to us and things for us to do for Him, but God also has a way for these things to take place in our lives. There is no amount of us trying to force the matter through that will make them happen sooner than God has planned.

And so, ultimately, it comes down to having faith and keeping going. To keep holding on to the promise and having faith that the God who gave that promise to you is also the God who will deliver on His promise to you.

You couldn’t make it up!

A good news blog from camp that is such a positive I started writing this while lying in bed at nearly half past midnight typing it up via my phone, although admittedly I then got some sleep and am now finishing it off the following morning!

So, there’s been this young persons at camp who has been quite the challenge over the week. The first 2 nights he was fine, but then after that things took a bit of a downward spiral, particularly at bedtime. Nights 3 and 4 were a real hassle, both ending up needing other leaders to come and take over as the young person was just not responding to me.

But last night there was a significant improvement and then tonight it was quite something. So this is what took place at tonight’s bedtime. We have a slightly earlier bedtime and lights out (for reasons that now escape me, it being far too late to recall such information!) and this young person is causing a little bit of hassle with going to bed, connected with issues we’d had earlier in the day. As a result, another leader has been sorting things out so that he’d get to bed. When I arrived and went in the light was out but there was chatting going on, so I take the view that getting him to chat quietly might help get others in the room to sleep and that might encourage him to be quieter. I just started chatting with this young person and a couple of his dorm-mates and decided that I was just going to start and chat for as long as it took. And boy, was it one heck of a conversation!

I mean, where to start! We covered global finance to the cost of milk, working for the government and not trusting the government, wireless cameras, computer coding, computer games (including the first edition of FIFA we each played!), the cost of petrol and much, much more. I even threw in some comments about reading the Bible and wanting them to be Christians by things for themselves, rather than just accepting it because we tell them (which also got a fantastic answer from this particular young person, who said he believes God exists, but that he just doesn’t understand it). To say that this came out of nowhere would be an understatement, but at the same time, knowing some of the backgrounds of the young people, it made sense as well.

And then, to top it all off, after about 45 minutes of chatting, I checked the time and told them that it was after 10pm and asked if they’d mind trying to get some sleep. All of them, including the challenging young person, agreed without even a hint of annoyance or frustration. They were happy to let me leave and all got under their covers before I left the room. It was absolutely awesome to see, not least because it was a response to a request, something that hasn’t always gone down well this week.

But that’s not the end of the story!

A little while later a message came through that this young person was out of his room and that there was an issue. When I arrived and saw him he was sitting on the floor with his head between his knees, a regular position he has taken when he’s been upset and refused to join in with things or respond to leaders, so I feared the worst was about to happen and that I was in for a long night. But no, it turned out that he could hear a buzzing in his room which was keeping him from sleeping.

And this is where things took a turn to the ridiculous, but in a good way. I went in to the room and listened for the buzzing. It was faint, but I could hear it, so I started to work out where it was coming from. I eventually went to near where the young person’s bed was and could hear it even clearer, so asked another member of the team to confirm that there was a buzzing and see if they had any ideas. They came in and ended up hearing something from the floor, so then invited me to return and put my ear to the floor! Then one of the camp leadership team arrived and we asked them to have a listen as well!!!

Not long after that we discovered what was causing the buzzing and fixed it (turns out extractor fans from down the corridor can cause a heck of a lot of noise!) and the young person was happy to return to bed and go to sleep. But not before he did something awesome. He gave each of the team that had been trying to help a fist bump. This might not sound like much to some people, but coming from this young person, but knowing what I know from his time on camp, his interactions in particular with me and his personal history, this was pretty big stuff. After we had closed the door to the room and were leaving, one of the team asked if we should wait a little while to see if things were ok. I said no, because that fist bump was the biggest sign we could have had that the young person was ok. He had shown us all some respect for helping him, so he was going to be respectful back and go back to bed. And sure enough, everything was fine after that.

It’s interesting, when reflecting back, on how all this came about. Effectively, what I had done when I had just allowed the chatting to take place, rather than telling them to get to sleep and telling them off if they didn’t keep quiet, was I had met a need that they had. A need to be respected in a conversation perhaps? Or maybe just to have someone give them time. Whatever it was, there was a need that was met and that left that young person feeling the need to express his respect for that, first by being willing to go to bed when asked and then by offering a fist bump after we fixed the buzzing, when he could just have returned to his room and gone to bed and we would all have been happy with that.

Meeting needs is so often at the heart of Christian ministry, though sometimes working out both what those needs are and then how we meet them can be a challenge. But it’s the example we see in Jesus. In John 6 we see the well known story of Him feeding the 5000, where a Jesus sees the needs of the crowd and then responds with a miracle to meet that need. We see it again where Jesus heals people, both because we see the healing that meets that need, but also because Jesus tells some of them that their sins are forgiven, meeting yet another (more pressing) need. In each of these things, Jesus meets the needs of the people that come to Him and the response that that gets is one of amazement, followed by people wanting to gather around Him for more. Obviously some just wanted more of the miracles, but others were willing to listen to Jesus as well, and this is often the key to getting the attention of young people (and even older people too) in order to share the Gospel.

Social capital. A phrase often used in more corporate settings but one that is very applicable here. We build up respect with those that we work with in order that they allow us to do what we really want to do with them, share the Gospel. Jesus would have been well aware that it is far easier to share the Good News with people who were fed, rather than with those who had constantly rumbling bellies. And because of this, we too should be looking to build relationships to the point where we will be accepted in sharing Jesus with others, rather than ignore if we try to foist it on those who have no interest in paying any attention to us or those who have the distractions of life getting in the way of listening.

Raging at God

Ever had one of those moments when you just have to shout or scream your lungs out? One of those days where everything seems to be going wrong for you and all you can do is vent your anger and frustration at the way things have turned out!

It can be pretty cathartic to get out all those frustrations – to let loose with an almighty roar, to utter untold expletives at the top of your lungs, to scream until your voice fails you, or however you choose to let loose upon the world. A release of chemicals in your body then makes you feel so much better afterwards.

But what have you achieved? How has shouting into the wind changed anything? When there is no one there that you are venting to, does it really mean anything, other than enabling endorphins to make your brain think that things are good? In a world where there is just you and no one else, that may be pretty much all you ever get to do to release your frustrations. Maybe, if you are lucky, you might have someone who you can vent to. But what if the things you are venting about are beyond their control, or that they are not things that they have done? Where does venting at so,done help in those situations?

Who do you vent at if you are having a hard time with your job because things aren’t going right? Who do you vent at if you are having issues in your relationships with people? Who do you vent at when you have things wrong with you that, for whatever reason, cannot be fixed and it leaves you unable to do things that you would otherwise be able to do? And what about if all of the above needs venting about at the same time? Who do you vent at for all of that in one big vent?

Fortunately, for Christians, there is an answer to that last question. We can vent at God. Now, that might sound like blasphemy to some. To others, that might sound pointless. It may seem silly, even ridiculous, to some people. This, however, is exactly what I did last night. I went for a walk in the dark, in a space where no one was near enough to hear me, other than God. And then I let loose with all the anger, frustration and pain that I have experienced in the last 10 or so years at the top of my lungs. I did this for at least an hour, refusing to let God off the hook for all the wrongs and unfairness that I was throwing at Him, of all the times in the past that I felt He seemed to make things harder for me and for all the questions I have over where I am going from this point into the future. And at the end, through all the tears and the anger, after all the invective and vitriol and after all the perceived injustices had been uttered, there I stood. And then God spoke.

Those who are parents will be well aware of the times when their child has a tantrum and they simply have to weather the storm, let the child wear themselves out and then they have a chance to respond when the child is all “tantrumed out”. Funnily enough, our Heavenly Father knows this parenting method too! And boy, did He do it to me!

All my self-righteous anger melted when He reminded me who made me to begin with. All my questions of what the future holds were dismissed as He told me that my future is irrelevant beyond being hidden with Christ, and that every breathe I have is His to give or to take as is His will. He told me that if I am made with what might be perceived as imperfections by the rest of the world, that is still how He has made me and that that should be enough for me, as it’s good enough for Him. He told me that I am where I am because of Him and that I am exactly where He wants me to be, that I am there for a reason and that His reasons are above and beyond anything that I might want them to be. And he told me that while I might wish to see some of my personal relationships being in different places from where they are, but that at the end of the day, I must recognise that knowing Him should be enough, first and foremost. Anything after that is His gift.

To be honest, I left feeling more than a little bit deflated. But isn’t that always the way when we try and argue with our Creator? As God said to Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” All the perceived wrongs I felt that the world had dealt me were utterly destroyed, by a loving Father who pointed out all of this to me after hearing me vent my spleen at Him for so long.

So why did I do it? And why do I think that it was ok to do it?

Well, for starters, as a youth worker, sometimes you just need to let young people vent and sometimes it’s just something that they need to do to get back on an even keel again. And I think that God is well aware of this and is willing to do the same, as it will help our relationship with Him.

But secondly, and far more importantly, this is something that we see in the Bible as well. We see it in Job, when he reacts to some of the things that happen to him. We see it, to a certain extent, in Lamentations. We also see it in Psalms.

Many of the Psalms have at least part of the psalm questioning what God is doing and taking issue with His lack of action. But I want to look specifically at Psalm 44.

It reads:

1 We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. 2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. 3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. 4 You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. 5 Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. 6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; 7 but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. 8 In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. 9 But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. 10 You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. 11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheepand have scattered us among the nations. 12 You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale. 13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. 14 You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. 15 My disgrace is before me all day long, and my face is covered with shame 16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge. 17 All this happened to us,though we had not forgotten youor been false to your covenant. 18 Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. 19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackalsand covered us over with deep darkness. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our Godor spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? 22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 23 Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. 24 Why do you hide your faceand forget our misery and oppression? 25 We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. 26 Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.

In verses 1-8 we see the psalmist looking back to what God did for their ancestors, showing all the times God saved them from their enemies. But then it switches to taking issue with God for what He’s allowed to happen to them, how they’ve been defeated, scattered and disgraced. In verse 7 he takes issue with this happening, as he claims to not have done anything wrong. In verse 20 he continues this, suggesting in 21 that God would have pointed out when they got things wrong. And we see how he complains in verse 19 and 22, first talking about how they are crushed and then how they face death for for God’s sake, clearly implying that it is not fair that they do so, for they claim they have done nothing wrong.

And then he finishes the Psalm by suggesting that God is taking a nap, rather than caring for His people. That God has rejected them, leaving them to be miserable as they lie in the dust.

But the psalmist does finish with a glimpse of hope. In verse 26 we see that he remembers that God’s love never fails, that no matter how far might try to remove ourselves from God we are never so far away that we escape His love for us and that no matter what we do, He will never stop loving us. God is longing for us to return to Him whenever we stray.

And to finish, I’ll let you into a little secret. God didn’t just destroy my arguments. After taking every single argument apart, with the love that only a Heavenly Father can offer, He then built me back up again. Did He fix me completely, making all the things I had complained about right in my own sight? No, don’t be silly! But He did tell me who I am and what He has given me. He reminded me of who’s I am and that I remain in Him. And then He told me to get back to it, because He has things for me to do!

#deepimpact2020 Live Blog: Main Session 4

Slight break recovering from a walk in the mountains yesterday, but back for the last session of the conference!

What does it look for resetting ourselves in our churches?

Deciding to go back from conferences and be better and try harder doesn’t work, so what can we do?

Romans 8:1-17

So often we can think that if we just do a little bit more, put in a couple of extra hours at the expense of our home life or say yes to things that we know we shouldn’t because we think it will make us look better we can fall into the trap of the Pharisees, thinking we can do it all and we can fall into the trap of pride.

If we left our ministry, where would we be in relation to God? Are we loving what we do for God more than we love Him? Is what we do for God merely a performance to please Him and earn His approval?

Do we settle for second best? Do we seek the approval of our boss, family, our friends etc? If we seek the approval of those who already approve of us we will keep on raising the approval bar higher and higher, which is not what God wants, indeed it can lead us to a spiritual death.

We are called to do more than copy Jesus, we are called to abide with Jesus, leaning in to Jesus at every turn. When we lean into Jesus we find His freedom.

If the Gospel doesn’t look like good news in our lives then how will it every be good news to the young people we work with?

When we are in the are in right relationship with God (righteous) and so we do not have to do anything to get God’s approval, we already have it. The Spirit tells us that we are children of God, we belong to God and cared for by God, regardless of what we do.

#deepimpact2020 Live Blog: Seminar 1

Reframing difficult Bible passage: Reclaiming the Old Testament

What are people saying about the Old Testament?

Kyllein Mackellerman – “The Old Testament is a collection of Hebrew folk tales. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Simon Schama – “For man archaeologists today the Bible is a distraction with nothing useful to say about what actually happened and when”

Adolf Von Harnack – “To reject the Old Testament in the second century as a mistake which the church rightly repudiated; to retain it in the sixteenth century was a fate which the reformation could not yet avoid; but to continue to keep it in Protestantism as a canonical document after the nineteenth century is the consequence of religious and ecclesiastical paralysis.”

Richard Dawkins – “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

3 issues:

1. OT plundered for exciting stories
2. “Grow out” of Ot
3. Can’t deal with complex issues – “it’s a hard book”

Lots of complex stuff in the OT. Almost all heroes could be seen as anti-heroes.

If we had no Old Testament:

• Sacrifice

Reconciliation through sacrifice is rooted in the OT

• Sin

Disobedience, rebellion, relational break, shame

• Holiness

Wholeness, health, beauty

• Worship

What God wants, not what we like doing, Amos 5

• Justice

Social structures

• Jubilee

Restoration and protection

• Shalom

Peace, well-being, fullness of life

Why read the Old Testament? – Key themes

• Creation and covenant

Humans made for relationship with God

• Earth is good

We are stewards of the world – priests in God’s temple

• Kingdom

God’s People; in God’s Place, under God’s Rule

• Redemption

Bringer of salvation and the heirs of salvation

• Particularity and universality

Why study the Old Testament?

Terence Fretheim

Why read the Old Testament?

• Library of books – life stories of faith

Fear – do not be afraid

Failure (Abraham Gen 15:6 and 16:3)

Success – how to be blessed

Wisdom – (proverbs formulaic, Job problematic, Ecclesiastes nihilistic’

Songs of Solomon – the erotic

All life is here

Difficult issues in the Old Testament

• Antoinette text

Specialist knowledge

• Violence against women

Loyalists, rejectionists, revisionists

• Land and Israel

The earth is the Lord’s

• Laws

Read Leviticus carefully

• Favouritism

Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated

• “Church” and state

Allure of theocracy

Violence in the Old Testament

Deuteronomy 20;16-17

• God is the author of life and has the right to take life, so it is not immoral for God to command the termination of someone’s life

Boyd – This does not look like the command or action of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

• Maybe it’s not as bad as I seems as it as only ever Moses who received the command to kill an entire nation. Even Joshua later appealed to. The authority of Moses for authority to kill the Canaanite tribes

Boyd – We should never do something because so,done in authority tells us to do it (the Nuremberg Defence), even if they claim God told them to do it!

• Babies slaughtered in genocide would go immediately to Heaven and that is surely a better place to be!

Boyd – (Crucifixion of the Warrior God)

• The command to kill all Canaanites was needed to eradicate idolatry. It is the rationale given in Scripture- Lev 18:24-25

Boyd – (Crucifixion of the Warrior God)

• The irredeemable wickedness of the Canaanites justified their death

Boyd – (Crucifixion of the Warrior God)

Body’s view on what God intended:

• God had a non-violent plan to remove the Canaanites from the Promised Land
• God said the land would vomit them out (Lev 18:24-25)
• God said He was planning to use hornets to drive them out (Ex 23:20&28)
• God said He would use signs and wonders to drive the Canaanites out (Deut 7)