It is my habit to challenge my brothers and sisters who spend time and energy denouncing this form of abortion, that reason for abortion, or the other context for abortion. The problem with late term or partial birth abortions isn’t late term or partial birth, but abortions. The problem with sex selection, multiple reduction or Down Syndrome abortions isn’t sex selection, multiples or Down Syndrome, but abortions. The problem with unsafe, unsanitary abortions in run down, unregulated buildings is not unsafe, unsanitary, run down or unregulated. The problem is abortions. The problem isn’t when, why or how they are murdering babies. The problem is they are murdering babies.
That said, I fear one reason we refuse to come to grips with the horror of abortion is because of its horror. That is, if we live in a country that every five years kills more babies than the Nazis killed Jews, well, we live in a country worse than Nazi Germany. That would mean shame. That would mean darkness. That would mean revulsion. That would mean we have to do something.
That would mean having to completely restructure our meta-narrative. That is, we would have to recognize that our simple view of the world, where Nazi Germany, North Korea, China are on one side, while the white hats are places like Canada, Australia and these United States is not only self-serving, but wrong. Given the scope and power of sin in general we ought to be suspicious of putting white hats on just about any institution, especially our own institutions. Given the desperate wickedness and deception in our own hearts, however, we tend to do so.
Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq all have far greater restrictions on abortion than most western countries. There are, of course, all manner of great evils in those countries. But abortion mills on every other corner is not among those evils. When it comes to the murder of the unborn, however, there is an axis of evil. Four nations stand apart from the rest of the world. Four nations, not Muslim, not isolated, not under-educated, four nations alone freely protect the “rights” of moms even beyond twenty weeks pregnant to murder their babies. The four most radically pro-abortion nations on the entire planet are China, North Korea, Canada and these United States. That is our axis of evil.
I know it is a painful truth. I do not delight to speak it. We are not merely off track, losing ground, beginning to stray. I know it sticks in the craw, that it is hard to swallow. But the truth is we are an evil nation. We are a nation that since 1973 has elected seven presidents who promised at least to protect the legal “right” of some moms to murder some babies. We are a nation where tens of millions of moms have murdered their own children, with the help of tens of millions of fathers, boyfriends, husbands. We are a nation where Christians, real Christians just like me, spend more time and energy worrying about our favorite sports team than murdered babies.
When we find blood on our hands we are fools to close our eyes. Instead we must wash them in the blood from His hands. We must repent, confess ourselves to be guilty before God. Guilty of blasphemy in thinking we are God’s favored ones. Guilty of taking His name in vain by vainly asking that He would bless this nation. Guilty of rebellion against the wisdom of our fathers. Guilty of adultery in chasing after our nation more than our Husband. We are guilty of stealing the future of God’s children, guilty of lying to ourselves. We are guilty of coveting a reputation we haven’t earned. We are guilty of being the axis of evil because we are guilty of murder. Lord grant us the wisdom to see us for what we are, and the faith to see what You are making of us.
It’s a fool’s errand to try to understand why someone breaks up with you. The notion that we can pinpoint one flaw, excise it and then live happily ever after is well, false. When someone breaks up with you, no matter what they say, there’s only one reason- they don’t want to be with you. Voting is often similar. We usually instinctively, unthinkingly choose our candidate, and then start coming up with a rationale. The rationale is just window dressing. We like whom we like. Before we pull the levers, however, we would be wise to pursue wisdom. Below are five thoughts we should bring with us into the booth.
1. Jesus reigns. He has decided from before all time who will rule under Him in this nation and every nation. That, of course, doesn’t mean your vote doesn’t matter. He works through means. It does mean, however, that you can leave fear behind. The fate of the future is not in your hands, but in the hands that received the nails we all deserve.
2. Jesus is right beside you. You have the opportunity in that booth to demonstrate your trust in Him. What you do in that booth is far more about you and Him than it is about you and the next president. Of course this is true of every moral crossroads we find ourselves at throughout our lives.
3. Jesus loves you. It is important to vote wisely. It is important that we learn the Word of God and what it calls the state to do, and not to do. It is important that we put to use this opportunity to seek justice from our rulers. So yes, bring with you true and biblical wisdom. But don’t go in without the knowledge that our failures to act with wisdom are covered by the blood of Christ. Your vote may be right or wrong. Labor faithfully to see that it is right. But remember it isn’t the hinge of your eternity.
4. Jesus calls you to love Him. How often do we carry into the booth the expectations of our friends and family? We see them looking over our shoulder, either giving their approval or disapproval. We, however, don’t work for them. We work for Jesus. He is our Master, and it is His blessing we should be seeking. Do not let the expectations of others cloud this truth.
5. Jesus is coming back. And when He does He will judge the quick and the dead. The Bible tells us the martyrs cry out from under the heavenly altar, pleading with Jesus to vindicate them. How many of those martyrs are the spirits of the more than sixty million babies who have been sacrificed to Moloch right here in our own country?
After you have left the booth, keep these five truths with you. They are true at all times and in all places. And they are faithful guides for all our decisions. Rest in Him. Trust in Him. Hear Him. Love Him. And, whoever wins the election, cry with equal vigor, “Maranatha Lord Jesus.”
Thesis 46 We must seek always to see Christ.
Neil Postman, in his compelling book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, argues that we have moved as a culture from one wherein the printed word drives us, to one wherein the image drives us. With the advent of the printing press, we became better able to think in abstract terms, to follow arguments, and to reach conclusions. Now, in a world driven by television, we think less and feel more. Now we emote on the basis of images, rather than think on the basis of arguments. We are more likely to be moved, than we are to be persuaded.
As is so often the case, however, what we are called to here is balance. We do not want to be carried away with our emotions, nor by what we see. Neither, on the other hand, do we want to suppress our emotions and live like robots. Our goal is that we would think rightly, that our minds would be renewed, and having had this happen, that we would be changed in our hearts, that we would be transformed.
That same balance is reflected in how the Word reaches us. Far too often in the history of the church theologians have pitted the sacraments against preaching, failing to see their organic connection. The Bible is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is the bread and the wine. The bread and the wine is the Word of God. To put it better perhaps, in the worship service we are blessed by the Word preached, as we are blessed by the Word touched, and tasted, at the table.
To push our analogy a step further, we must also remember that the church is the body of Christ, and the bread is the body of Christ. God has not given us just words on a page. He has given us the Word visible in the sacrament, and in the church. Our calling is to seek to see Him in both. We need to see Him in our brothers and sisters in the pew, and when we come to His table.
In both instances we are changed. In both instances we draw near to Him. In both instances we are changed, in our whole being. Jesus told us that the world would know we were His by our love one for another (John 13:35). Given that we are still sinners, how can we rightly love one another? Because we grow in our capacity to see Jesus in one another. He indwells each of us, and He is altogether lovely. We in ourselves are merely dust and rebellion. But Christ in us, that is glory and beauty and all that is lovely.
Our calling is to keep our eyes on the prize. Jesus not only secures our reward, but is our reward. As we look to Him, whether we find Him in the Bible, at the table, or in the pews, we move toward our eternal home. Jesus promised that lo, He is with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). We ought then always to see Him with us.
I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isaiah 6b-7).
It was Millenium Bug season, and many of my friends thought I was sick. They feared for me that my manic concern about the potential for untold hardship at the turn of the new year, 2000, not only was evidence that I suffered from Chicken Little Disease, but that I was giving up my commitment to the Reformed faith. We Reformed folk, if we believe anything, believe in the sovereignty of God. How, these friends worried, could I have even the slightest concern about this grave hardship befalling us, when I supposedly believed in the sovereignty of God? I told them often, “It’s because I believe in the sovereignty of God.” My friends reasoned in this manner- Cultural meltdown is a bad thing. God is in control of the future. Therefore bad things cannot happen. I reasoned this way- Cultural meltdown is a bad thing. God is in control of the future. Therefore “bad” things can happen. The difference in our views was that each of us believed competing unspoken premises. They believed God could not will for bad things to happen. I believe He not only could so will, but likely one day would.
Isaiah the prophet is, if only parenthetically, making the same point. That is, his larger point, which is in point of fact on point, is that God is God. He is the almighty one. To suggest that anything would come to pass that He did not sovereignly orchestrate is an affront to His sublime deity. To get us to more fully grasp this hard truth Isaiah, speaking for God, speaks an even harder truth. That is to say, neither is content to merely affirm that God is sovereign over all things, but both go the extra mile to affirm, yes, that includes the bad stuff too.
The easier version of the problem of evil addresses not the question of how men became sinners, but instead addresses the question of the fruit of that sin- why do bad things happen? Those outside the kingdom are wont to ask why bad things happen to good people. Those inside the kingdom don’t have such a pressing question for we know there are no good people. But we still struggle with the whys of hurricanes, pandemics, and in the case of Isaiah, oppression by foreign powers. Indeed we are so perplexed by the reality of suffering that we find ourselves in a rather bizarre position- trying to get God off the hook. We deny implicitly that we deserve the suffering we experience (which is true enough- we deserve far worse than any suffering we ever experience on this side of the veil) because we feel the need to justify God, to put distance between Him and our suffering lest He be found guilty for treating us unfairly.
My friends, thankfully, didn’t want to go in that direction. They were not willing to negotiate God’s sovereignty. God is sovereign, they rightly affirmed. God is good, they rightly affirmed. God won’t let these United States become a wasteland they wrongly concluded. My friends’ real problem is that they confused these United States with the kingdom of God and they confused a pleasant and safe life with a good one. It is precisely because we were a wicked nation that worshipped affluence in 1999 that I feared for our safety. Though God spared us an earth-shaking calamity that time, does that mean He always will? Have we as a nation come to repentance? Have we owned our sin and turned from it?
That is not to say that I am now once again breaking out my “The End is Near” sandwich board. I don’t know now any more than I knew then what God was going to do in the near term future. I don’t know if our currency will go the way of the German mark, circa 1923. I don’t know if the ship of state will veer so far to the left that we’ll take on water and sink. I do know this however. If God sends a new and surprising kind of calamity upon us, it will be God who sends it. I know that His goodness and His sovereignty are not hedges against this. For we together stand guilty before Him. The very ground cries out because of the innocent blood.
More important, I know this. Isaiah’s prophecies end with the promise of the fullness of the kingdom. I know that because our God reigns, that if He sends calamity He sends it always for His glory, and for our good. Nothing truly “evil” could ever befall we who are His own. Hardship, yes. Cross bearing, by all means. Even death, of course. All of which are tools in His hand to make us more like Jesus. That, in the end, is not only not a calamity, but is the very height of glory. Fear not. He has already overcome the world.
No one, when they are in the midst of a beating, enjoys it. Such doesn’t undo the truth that beatings are blessings. They are among that list of gifts from our Father, all of which are good and perfect. What are they? Hardships, which can come via verbal rebuke, physical pain, humiliations, all of which, for the believer, trace back to the loving hand of our heavenly Father. Here are five reasons such are blessings.
1. They remind us that God is active in our lives, and bringing to pass His good will for us. The author of Hebrews writes, “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (12: 7, 8). Our response should be one of gratitude. Our Father loves us.
2. They drive us to Him. Doctors say that pain is a kind of alarm system letting us know something isn’t right. True enough, but it’s also an alarm system calling us to prayer, and to Him. How easy it is to forget Him when all is well, to grow complacent and self-satisfied. Paul’s thorn in his flesh worked just in this way, which is precisely why God determined not to take it away despite the earnestness of Paul’s prayers.
3. They can soften us. It’s true that hardships can also make us hard. When we are in pain we might be given to short tempers, to being easily agitated. We might also, however, be given to deeper tenderness. We reach out to others because we don’t want to be alone. We seek comfort, and so speak comfort to others. They weary us such that our defenses come down and we embrace a vulnerability that cultivates connection.
4. They encourage a long-term view, and a longing for THE view. When we are in the midst of hardship it makes perfect sense that our minds and hearts would turn to what lies ahead, a place where there are no more hardships, no more tears. We are not only headed for paradise, but are headed for eternity there. This is why Paul writes, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Corinthians 4:17). There we will enjoy what God’s people call “the beatific vision.” We will see the very face of God. Anything that encourages us to contemplate that glory is a blessing.
5. They cultivate in us compassion for others. Or, to put it another way, they remake us into the image of Christ. He is a man well acquainted with sorrows and if we would be like Him, so must we be. We need to be able to say in all our hardships, “This hurts so much is must be good for me.”
The Bible, on more than one occasion, calls upon us to give thanks to God for our hardships. When our passion is not comfort but that we would be like Jesus, we do so naturally, easily, earnestly. Lord, teach us to count our beatings, count them one by one, and teach us to count them blessings.
