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Confessing Christ in a culture that has forgotten how to shudder.  June 2010.

Genesis 1:27,28

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

1 Kings 18:21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”  But the people said nothing.

1 Chr 12:32 men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do

Jer 22:1-3 This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there:  ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne–you, your officials and your people who come through these gates.  This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right.  Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.’”

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

Martin Luther

Humour me please.  In a moment I am going to ask all those over the age of 25 to please stand.  I have picked that age group as you are more likely to be aware of your family medical history.  So, will you please stand.  Now if you or any of your family or parents or grandparents have or have had any of the following would you please sit down.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease or stroke

Asthma

Gut disorders like stomach ulcers or diverticulitis

Depression, BPD, other mental disorders

Cancer

Diabetes

But also glaucoma, gallstones, rheumatoid arthritis.

Thankyou.  Now the only ones left will be the only ones who will exist in a new generation if we continue to follow the path of our present ethical course as all of these diseases have a genetic component.  The rest of you will have been eliminated as embryos or “de-selected” – this wonderful term for abortion – “therapeutic” of course.

And why should we not eliminate depression? As the leading cause of disability in the western world think of the money we would save.  But also think of the creative people we would eliminate: all the musicians and poets (they’re all depressives), all the comedians, and people like Bunyan, Luther, Spurgeon, Dostoyevsky, Churchill, and Lincoln.

Now this is serious.  It is happening clandestinely now without any recognition of public policy or approval. We are already eliminating 90-95% of Down’s Syndrome babies, spina bifida, dwarfism – in UK there is a move to eliminate males where there is a family history of autism and also to eliminate deafness.  Genetic screening is becoming routine with an implied expectation that parents will automatically choose to kill their child if the test is positive even for minor and treatable problems e.g. cleft lip.  Many mothers have little idea of the possible implications of antenatal testing.

Down’s Syndrome people of course can be lovely and valuable members of the community and the possibility of this is so much greater now with the facilities available.

Now some babies that are aborted because of suspected abnormalities are in fact completely normal and have been aborted “unnecessarily”.  This of course is regarded as being undesirable and so it has been said that banning infanticide unfairly discriminates against the normal child by forcing a late abortion when major abnormality is suspected but not proven.  The logic is that if infanticide was legal then we could allow the baby to be born before making the decision to kill it.  At least then the baby would then have the benefit of anaesthesia. So there are two reasons for supporting the legalization of infanticide – we can then be sure of the diagnosis and we can anaesthetize the baby.

But indeed we have a new infanticide here in Oz.  In Victoria according to figures from the state gov’t for 2007, 54 aborted babies were “accidentally” born alive and then left to die.  Please let that sink in…

We live in a world that has forgotten how to shudder. (Using a phrase borrowed from Leon Kass 1997*.)

In Nov 2006 a historic bill was passed legalising human cloning in Australia for destructive research, the condition being that the clone is destroyed before 14 days and implantation is prohibited.  Although ESCR is now almost a non-issue because of the great success of adult SCR, the legislation has also been passed by the state governments of NSW, Vic and Qld – but failed in WA.

Now there are very educated and persuasive voices pushing for these things.  Indeed the costs to the community of disability have been calculated and this has led to the labelling of parents who do not agree to have their babies “de-selected” as “genetic outlaws” and facing the accusation “how dare they bring this financial impost on the community.”

We live in a world that has forgotten how to shudder.

Now I know that many of you would be only too well aware of the potential horror of what we are doing and I pray that we will all share this horror to an extent.  I am reminded of Daniel’s reaction to the visions that God gave him.  I am also aware that we can dwell too much on such things but we also forget too easily.

^7:28 “This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.”

^8:27 I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business.

^10:2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. ³ I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips…

But Daniel was not left helpless.  He was given strength and told to go about his business.  And so are we – in the sure knowledge that God is in charge of our lives and our future.  And if you are not yet in that place where you have committed yourself to God then now is the time to do just that.  There is no other safe place.

But we have only just started the nightmare.  There are prominent world voices – Professors of Ethics – already calling for the use of organs from later-stage foetuses and infanticide of new-born babies up to 4-6 weeks after birth before they become self-aware if they are found to be defective.

We live in a world that has forgotten how to shudder.

British researchers in 2006 (http://www.lifenews.com/nat2191.html) concluded that premature babies around 20 weeks did actually feel pain when withdrawing their feet with heel prick rather than this just being a reflex action. Surprise, surprise, but before this the withdrawal was just regarded by some as being reflex.  How did we even think they might not feel pain?  We do not know and to pretend that a 32-week unborn infant does not feel that stab of the scissors in the back of the neck prior to its brain being scrambled and then sucked out is mind-boggling in its denial.  Nerve pathways are laid down from around 7 weeks.  How could we think that an 18-week unborn does not feel excruciating pain when it is ripped limb from limb to extract it?  (I am fed-up with mollycoddling these issues so people won’t be upset.  Yes, the facts are deeply disturbing but if you leave here without being disturbed then I have failed.)  In the US state of Nebraska a law has been passed banning abortions after 20 weeks – it is called the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

We live in a world that has forgotten how to shudder.

At this point in Australia we have banned the mixing of human genes with animal eggs but in England they have recently approved this citing the fact that the public are now more at ease with the concept of hybrids or chimeras as long as they are also destroyed at 14 days. Note the justification – the public are now more at ease with this.  This is frightening – we are becoming desensitized to things we would never have contemplated.

The focus has been sharpened.  The destructive embryo research battle was only one bridge in the deeper and fundamental battle of what it means to be human and represents the rebellion against what it means to be created in the Image of God, man’s ultimate push to be free of the Creator God, to render Him unnecessary and be our own gods.

One of our Aussie expatriates Peter Singer, Professor of Ethics at Princeton University – an atheist – is perceptive enough to understand where the battle line is – as recorded in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:27,28. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Talking about the relative value of human life compared with animal life he said in a recent interview:

The major religions are an obstacle because they teach that humans alone are made in the image of God, humans alone have an immortal soul, God gave us dominion over the animals, and those ideas are an obstacle to treating the animals as we may treat humans.

Yes, well summarised Professor Singer!  There we have it in a nutshell.  It’s just that we are not mistaken.  We have it on God’s authority.  We live in a society that is in danger of losing its soul, a society in which we have forgotten how to shudder, an advancing culture of death.  This is where the battle is at.

The divide is getting wider.  There always was a great gulf fixed between those who belong to Christ and those who don’t.  This should always create a sense of urgency for us but sadly we slip into complacency and don’t like to disturb or offend people.  We are at war.  Not only do we face these huge ethical and moral issues in our society but we are also under direct attack.

But wait, there’s more. Two years ago Victoria passed the most liberal abortion laws in Australia permitting abortion through to 24 weeks for any reason without any approval except finding someone to do it and over 24 weeks it only requires the approval of two doctors for any reason that those doctors may approve.  No counselling is required, nor is there any “cooling-off” period.  There is no restriction as to method of abortion including the horrific partial birth abortion, nor are there any guidelines re abortion for foetal abnormality.

But wait, there’s more. In that abortion legislation is the provision to force doctors – even when such is against their deeply held convictions and conscience – to participate in the process of referral for abortion when asked by a patient.

Now it is one thing to pass a law that permits evil but it is something more to pass a law that compels evil.

Do you see that there are two levels of evil here?  One is to permit killing of the unborn child for no other reason than that the mother-to-be chooses not to be pregnant and for uncontrolled eugenic selection in our society but the other, more sinister and greater, evil is to compel medical participation in this process.  Medicine, justly, has the highest level of ethics in the world.  It must.  And yet, here we have a government that has – quite unnecessarily in fact because there is no restriction on a pregnant mother going straight to abortion providers that advertise widely – punitively forcing doctors to act against their conscience and participate in this process.

Now your reaction to this may be that it cannot be this bad.  I can assure you that it is.  It is the first time in the Western world since Hitler’s Germany that doctors have been forced by government legislation to participate in evil.  If we refuse then we are breaking the law.  Please let that sink in…

In 2006 we celebrated the Centenary of the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The church in Germany also found themselves in a culture that had forgotten how to shudder.  I have been reminded of the ‘silent’ church and the ‘confessing’ church.  In the silent church I can almost hear what people were saying: this is political, keep out of it; our purpose is evangelism – let this one go; there’s no point – what chance do we have when there is such support for this man Hitler?  Will we be like the silent church in Germany?

1 Kings 18:21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”  But the people said nothing.

Will we be like the children of Israel when confronted by Elijah?  We read there that the people said nothing or as in another version “the people were silent”.

Bonhoeffer challenged the church to action, to stand, to “confess”, against the evil of the time but realised that Christians out of fear or not wanting to offend would shrink into their “sanctuaries of private virtuousness” and silence.  Bonhoeffer got political and when the situation demands so must we.  The church that did confess Christ and spoke up was of course subject to being silenced and Bonhoeffer himself was executed – the day before his particular concentration camp at Flossenberg was liberated.

Remember Martin Luther:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

What does it mean to confess Christ?

It means to acknowledge Christ.  Confessing is acknowledging; it means “owning up” – to who we are, what we’ve done, what we believe.  To use someone else’s illustration it’s wearing a label – all day, every day like a can of beans.  The label on the can gladly confesses its contents. The Christian can “put a label on the can” by acknowledging who dwells within: “Christ lives in me. He’s the One who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

How do we confess Christ?

The first and greatest need is if we haven’t yet come to Him in repentance and acknowledged Christ to Christ himself and to the Father. If you have not yet done this, today is the day to do it.  Come and see someone in the front here after and tell them – this also is confessing Christ.  In light of the world situation you should not delay.  Sometimes this is a very intellectual thing and done with reluctance – CSLewis called himself possibly the most reluctant convert in all of England, finally being persuaded that Jesus was the Son of God and having to acknowledge this.  Do it today.  Do it now: “Lord, I acknowledge You to be the Son of God; I acknowledge and confess my sin, and that You died for my sin.  I thank You now for the gift of life.”

The second and next greatest need is when we are with a person who does not know Christ.

This might be the person we work with; it might be the person in need.  It might mean first of all meeting that need but then telling them The Story – the greatest story ever told, that Christ was born in Bethlehem, the Son of God came to earth in fulfilment of ancient prophecy, but that we didn’t recognise Him and killed Him because He offended us – but that in His death He opened the door to reconciliation with God by paying the penalty of our sin.  Now no other story comes within cooeee of this one – this is magnificent and it just happens to be true.  Get excited.  Christ is real – He lives within me.  Wear it like the label on the can of beans.

So, first of all to Christ, then to our neighbour, then in holy living – which, I remind you, is a command Be holy, for I am holy says the Lord. It is not optional.  Being holy is not just something we become, it is what we do and think – it is confessing Christ in our manner of living.  There are the places we go and don’t go.  Confessing Christ might mean we choose not to go to the party where there are drugs and alcohol – unless we go with the purpose of mission and with prayer backing from others.  We must not go into the devil’s territory unless we go with Christ.  Yes, He mixed with publicans and sinners and so must we – with Christ.

But there’s more as Luther reminds us:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

We are being attacked on so many fronts.  We are being attacked in our celebration of Christmas, in having a Christian voice and of course in just being Christians but Jesus told us that – you will be persecuted because you own My name, because you confess me.

So what does it mean to confess Christ in a culture that has forgotten how to shudder?

Firstly it means keeping our eyes open and being alert – we need to know what’s going on.  As with confessing Christ to become a Christian it means being aware of our need before God, for our neighbour it means being aware of his need, and it means being aware of where we are and what is happening.  We need to know where the battle is.  As God’s people we need to be like the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.

(1 Chr 12:32) men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do

It means telling the truth and proclaiming the truth.  This is the prophetic role and will involve us in different ways and different levels.  But we all must confront untruth wherever we are.

Let’s tell the truth about sex.

Let’s tell the truth about abortion.

Let’s tell the truth when life begins.

Let’s tell the truth about euthanasia.

Let’s tell the truth about cloning.

Let us defend human life as created in the Image of God, that every human life is of value, and let us defend with vehemence liberty of conscience.

When God is being dishonoured in our communities and in our parliaments it is time to have a Christian voice, no better expressed than by Abraham Kuyper:

When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin.  You must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the fire of your faith.

We need to speak to issues involving our culture, to be a prophetic voice and say what needs to be said as God’s people and watchmen.  We need to proclaim the Word of God – as Jeremiah had to – to the rulers and people of this land.

This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there:  ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne–you, your officials and your people who come through these gates.  This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right.  Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.’” Jeremiah 22:1-3.

It might mean offending people.  I would be so bold as to say it will mean offending people.  The cross of Christ is an offence to those who will not believe.  The very presence of Jesus offended the religious rulers of the day.  If we are not offending someone, somewhere, then we are probably not confessing Christ as we should.  The prophets offended people.  Jesus is calling you today to be a prophetic people, ready to proclaim Him, ready to proclaim the need for repentance, ready to proclaim that Jesus saves, ready to proclaim for righteousness and justice and mercy and peace to all who will hear it.  Just being a distinctive people in our culture is going to offend some people because we are not like them

So, confessing Christ.

Lord, how do you want me to confess You today? In the bus?  As I drive?  At work?  As I teach?  As I share with my fellow students?  Lord, with this person, what does it mean to confess you?  What does it mean in this situation I now find myself?

Sometimes you just gently teach

Sometimes you preach with invitation

Sometimes you confront and challenge

Sometimes you have to condemn

Sometimes you have to drive the money-changers out of the temple

Sometimes you have to walk to Calvary.

We live in a world that has forgotten how to shudder.  There is a call for a prophetic Christian Voice in this culture of decay.  There is a strong need for Christian men and women at the highest levels of government – and we need to know how to put them there.  I pray that we will be a confessing church, that we will not be silent and that we will understand the times and know what to do.

Lachlan Dunjey.  June 2010.

http://chooselifeaustralia.org.au

http://medicinewithmorality.org.au

http://thebeltoftruth.org.au

http://www.thepeoplescharter.net.au/

http://www.repealsection8.net.au/

*Leon Kass 1997 The Wisdom of Repugnance.

Repugnance, here as elsewhere, revolts against the excesses of human wilfulness, warning us not to transgress what is unspeakably profound.

Indeed, in this age in which everything is held to be permissible so long as it is freely done, in which our given human nature no longer commands respect, in which our bodies are regarded as mere instruments of our autonomous rational wills, repugnance may be the only voice left that speaks up to defend the central core of our humanity.

Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder.