Spencer D Gear

Last Christmas my two grandchildren, Zeke & Mackenzie, sang a couple of Christmas songs for you. Some of you have met them. I was driving Zeke & Mackenzie to school last week and we had an interesting conversation about the tooth fairy. Mackenzie is 6 and she started talking about her teeth and I said that one day she will lose all of her first teeth except the double teeth. Zeke, age 9, chimed in that he had lost many of his first teeth.

They said that the tooth fairy leaves money for them if they leave the tooth out overnight. I asked if they thought that Mum and Dad might know the tooth fairy. Of course not, they said. Because Mum and Dad go to bed before the tooth fairy comes when they are sleeping.

Do you believe in what you can’t see? Is the tooth fairy real? You know it is not, but my 2 grandchildren think she exists.

Is there anything in life that you can’t see that you believe in? A few things come to my mind:

(1) I can’t see the wind but I see what it does to the trees and the dust. I know the wind exists because I can feel what it does when it blows on me.

(2) When I throw a ball up in the air, why doesn’t it keep going up, up and away? Why does that ball come back down to earth? When a parachutist jumps out of a plane, he or she falls to the ground and doesn’t keep going up and up, because of an unseen force called gravity. I believe in the unseen gravity because I see what it does.[2]

(3) Do you have a conscience that tells you right from wrong? Can you see it? No! Does it exist? Certainly! But it is invisible.

(4) Do you believe in the Equator?[3] The equator is that invisible line that goes around the centre of the world. It’s about 40,000km or 25,000 miles long.[4] Why do you think it’s in the middle of summer (August) now in London, Moscow & New York, when we in Bundaberg, and people in Auckland, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown are experiencing winter? That’s because London, Moscow, & New York are in the northern hemisphere and Bundaberg, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro and Capetown are in the southern hemisphere. We’re separated by that invisible line called the equator.

“The surface of the Earth at the Equator is mostly ocean”.[5] But it does go through countries such as Indonesia, countries in Africa such as Kenya, Uganda, and the Congo; countries in South America such as Ecuador, Colombia & Brazil. The equator was named by the German mathematician – philosopher Gottlob Frege (1848-1925).[6]

Road sign marking the Equator near Nanyuki, Kenya[7]	Nations that touch the Equator (red) or the Prime Meridian (blue)[8]

Do we believe the wind exists even though we can’t see it? I do.

What about gravity, does it exist? Yes it does, but we can’t see it.

Our consciences exist, even though we can’t see them.

The equator exists, but we can’t see it.

(5) But there’s someone far greater than the wind, gravity conscience and the equator who exists and we cannot see him. He’s the one who made the wind, gravity, conscience and the equator. This is how he is described in the very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”.

How would we describe God? Jesus said in John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”. Since he is Spirit, He is invisible. So can you believe in God even though you can’t see Him?

I like this very short definition of God given by one theologian, Augustus Strong, “God is the infinite and perfect Spirit in whom all things have their source, support and end”.[9] That’s a nice, short description of God: “God is the infinite and perfect Spirit in whom all things have their source, support and end”.

Since God is invisible, how do we know he exists? The Bible tells us at least two ways we know the invisible God exists:

(1) Firstly, Romans 1:20, says, “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse”.

So, we know that the invisible God exists because we see him in nature and the heavens.

Have you thought about the earth and the speed it orbits around the sun? The earth on which you and I sit and stand travels at the rate of 30 km per second or 108,000 km per hour around the sun.[10] This earth doesn’t fly off into outer space with this phenomenal speed. And we sit and stand here and we don’t become dizzy by this enormous speed. That’s evidence for the existence of God.

Have you thought about the mountains, the valleys and the beautiful flowers that we will soon see in Spring? All these are evidence for the existence of God. Think of the way that a Mum and Dad join together and create a lovely baby. All of this is evidence of God’s existence.

The Bible states in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (ESV).

So the Bible tells us that one of the ways that we know the invisible God exists, is when we look at what God has made in the heavens and earth.

But there’s a second way we can know the invisible God exists.

(2) We know that the invisible God exists, based on what Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (ESV). If you want to know what the invisible God is like, look at Jesus. Take a read of Jesus’ life and actions in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and this is what you will find Jesus is like: Jesus is eternal (John 1:15; 8:58; 17:5, 24); Jesus knows all things, except the time of his second coming (Matt. 24:35; John 16:30; 21:17); Jesus is all-powerful; he says “I am the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). We know his power from the miracles he performed when on earth. Remember the raising of Lazarus from the dead?

Jesus’ character is that:

• He is absolutely holy (Acts 2:21);
• He has genuine love for all people (John 3:16; Eph. 3:19);
• He is truly humble (Phil. 2:5-8); he is not proud or arrogant; he is modest.
• He was thoroughly meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29). To be meek is being the opposite of being harsh and argumentative; Jesus is gentle and tender in dealing with others.
• He was joyful without being light-hearted (John 15:11);
• He lived a life of prayer (Heb. 5:7);
• He loved to work as John 9:4 states, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work”.
• When Jesus was on earth he only did what was good; he had compassion and mercy on the unfortunates like Mary Magdalene, the man born blind who was healed.

So we can know the invisible God exists from what we see in creation and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Do we believe in what you cannot see? Yes, we do! The wind, gravity, our consciences, and the equator. So we should not have any difficulty in believing in the invisible God who made the heavens and the earth. We can see God through what he has made and through the person of Jesus.

The tooth fairy is imaginary and not real, but the invisible God is real and exists.

You might wonder why I have addressed this topic on the existence of God. Some people place God in the same category as the tooth fairy & Santa Clause – fantasy.

People say to me, “I can’t believe anything or anyone I cannot see”. The fact is, all people believe in what they cannot see, so an invisible God should not be any great difficulty when we look at God’s creation and when we look at the nature of Jesus.

Notes:

[1] This was the devotional that I, Spencer Gear, used for the church service for the residents of Kepnock Grove Retirement Village in Bundaberg, Qld, Australia on 3^rdAugust 2010.

[2] For an explanation of “gravitation”, see Wikipedia, “Gravitation”, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation (Accessed 6 August 2010).

[3] This idea is from William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, Question 94 – Classifying immaterial objects, available at: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6879 (Accessed 31 July 2010). I highly recommend your receiving the Reasonable Faith newsletters, available from: [email protected].

[4] “The length of earth’s equator is 40,008.629 kilometres (24,860.2 mi)”, Wikipedia, “Equator”, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equator (Accessed 31 July 2010).

[5] Ibid.

[6] From W. L. Craig’s newsletter, May 2010.

[7] This image is from Wikipedia, “Equator”, ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Augustus Hopkins Strong 1907. Systematic Theology. Philadelphia: The Judson Press, p. 52.

[10] Wikipedia, “Earth orbit”, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_orbit (Accessed 31 July 2010).

Copyright © 2010 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 16 June 2018.

By Spencer D Gear

“When there is no God, everything is permitted. Crime becomes inevitable” (Fyodor Dostoyevski).

But the Lord said to [Jeremiah], “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord (Jeremiah 1:7-8)

I suggest that the church that becomes a prophetic voice or the person who speaks for God, will demonstrate some of the following:

1. It will speak out on issues.

On all matters affecting the nation (but particularly those involving injustice, unrighteousness, ungodliness, ethics, and proclamation), the church will have a “voice” not an “echo.” It will be a church that takes the initiative and leads the way.

John Anderson wrote:

“Our day calls for resolute involvement. Our world needs the Church doing what only the Church can do: raising a prophetic voice. The Church must forthrightly ask: ‘If not us, who? If not now, when?’ It is time for the Church to take risks, new risks, risks that may threaten reputation, status, programs, finances, even life. It is time to confront secularism, and one risk will be doing so. Our society is reaping a damning harvest. The choice in the risk will be between remaining an ‘echo’ or becoming a ‘voice’.”[1]

Taking risks?? Could it be that there are so few prophetic voices today because we have lost that pioneering spirit which experiments? The Church is never an experiment. But we need a church that will be blazing new paths, seeking to speak the message of reconciliation to our own age.

To deal with issues facing the culture, the Church of the Saviour (Washington D.C., USA) formed mission groups which consisted of two or more people who “have been grasped by the same concept of God’s task for them, and who have been grasped by God, which is deeper and more profound than being grasped by a concept.”[2]

It is interesting that it took an American, John Anderson (who ministers in Australia regularly), to remind me that the Australian motto is “Advance Australia.” One of the common traits of the emu and the kangaroo is that neither will back down; they only go forward.

That is the thrust of a prophetic voice–never retreating.

Questions:

a. What issues should the church be speaking out on?

b. What would happen in your city if, say, 20% of the pastors and church members raised impassioned prophetic voices (with warning, pleading and compassion)?

Dare we follow John Anderson’s advice and “instead of just building bigger churches, start confronting and shaking society with a prophetic voice?” (p. 179). Anderson predicts that if the church raises a prophetic voice, there will be a great harvest and great persecution (p. 184).

Charles Colson’s assessment of the problem is:

“For effective evangelism we must penetrate the mainstream of thought in secular culture. Much of our Christianity today is, sadly, entertainment for the faithful. We talk in our own language to like-minded friends, and the world is content to let us put on our own show, as long as we don’t bother anyone.

“We are meant to bother the world–bother it by presenting a message which convicts people of their sin, which offers an alternative to the hollowness and nihilism* of secular life.

“To invade the secular mainstream–on their turf–requires great creativity and boldness. It means aggressively reaching out and battling for the hearts and minds of our neighbors.”[3]

[* Nihilism is an attitude or doctrine that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.]

Truth demands confrontation. To speak out on issues, one must develop:

2. A Christian mind

If we are going to address political and social issues; if Christianity is true; if we are to live with the perspective of eternity in view, then Christianity applies to all of life. We have got to examine the temporal things of this life in the light of God’s eternal values. We dare not restrict our thinking and action to “matters of faith.” If we do, we will be navel-gazing and speaking only to the church club.

If your Christianity is practised on Sunday, when having a quiet time, when sharing your faith, or when doing other ‘religious’ activities, there is no way that you will be a prophetic voice.

I was speaking to a woman recently who is leaving a mainline Protestant denomination and investigating Islam. Why? She said, “Because it is a total way of life to them.”

If your Christianity is to be something more than an ‘extra’ activity, you will need to develop a Christian mind–a biblical way of looking at all of life.

For me, the best ways to do this are:

a. The Word of God must become my daily diet.

b. Daily time spent in prayer to get God’s perspective.

c. Read extensively (provocative Christian and secular books & magazines).

d. Engage in regular discussion with thoughtful Christians on issues impacting our community.

e. Regularly engage in dialogue with people in the secular world, personally, letters to the editor, public presentations, debates, etc.

Out of this environment, I am able to “contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) in many areas of life.

Harry Blamires states the problem for the person who is not developing a Christian mind:

“As a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion–its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal.”[4]

At an evangelical church in my city recently, a visiting preacher said that Christians should not engage in theological debate. It’s a waste of time. Question: Is the existence of God a theological issue? What about Christ’s substitutionary atonement? Did he mean to say that if the liberals are attacking the core of Christianity, we keep quiet and let it happen without even a word of confrontation or correction? To do that would be anti-biblical. The Scripture commands us to “contend for the faith.”

If Australia is to be turned around, I believe the church will need a good percentage of

3. Christian activists

John Whitehead believes

“it will take Christian rebels to stem the tide of the humanistic state–rebels in the sense that they will resist, challenge, or protest all institutions and thought forms that are at variance with the Bible… It is not foreign to Christianity to protest the illegitimate acts of civil government. Total silence by the church is received as an endorsement of all the state does. But it is viewed as an act of treason by God.”[5]

I believe a better term is “Christian radicals.”  “Radical” means “arising from or going to a root or source; fundamental; basic.”[6] Isn’t that what a “salty” Christian is about?

4. The Church must not be a reflection of the values of society.

The more like the world it is, the more marginal the church becomes.

Questions:

a. In what ways is the Australian church adopting society’s secular views and actions?

b. Why could it be that a survey of European attitudes found that “abortion, extramarital affairs, suicide, euthanasia and homosexuality are now private matters, not church business”?[7]

Colson observed that:

“Too often in recent years the church has suffered from the same collapse of character that is so widespread in our culture… If the church today is to be the church, it must diligently protect its spiritual integrity.”[8]

The church needs to be a radical community of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. What an example that would by to a hostile world!

5. It will make a solid stand for biblical revelation

On radio recently, I heard a discussion of the Ten Commandments. The host was maintaining they were no longer relevant. The emphasis was: okay once, but outdated now. We must object to and reject such reasoning because God’s Word is not for some historically pious, irrelevant people. No matter how often it is broken, God’s Word stands forever and people will be judged by how they measure up to it.

I Peter 1:24-25 reads: “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands for ever.”

The Christian mind judges abortion, euthanasia, pornography, prostitution, adultery, poverty, the environment, etc., according to God’s infallible standard–the Bible. But the Christian mind also judges the value systems perpetrated by government, media, education, and all other people or organisations impacting our culture.

It used to be that people allowed God’s Word to break them. Now people are wanting to break the Word of God. “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

It will mean being hard when the world wants us to be soft. It may mean being soft when the culture wants hardness. It will mean condemning the homosexual lifestyle and being labelled as bigots, but compassionately leading people out of the lifestyle and ministering to homosexuals and AIDS patients. It will mean respecting the law in a lawless culture.

We must stand for and on the authority of Scripture.

6. One person can make a difference.

It is men and women, under the sovereign hand of God, who write history. People make choices. We never know if a small courageous action, a word spoken in defence of truth, a letter written, or a public statement made might swing the balance and change the world. Hitler? Luther? Wilberforce? Mother Teresa? Napoleon? Individuals who made a difference–for better or for ill.

Edmund Burke pointed out that

“The death of a man at a critical juncture, his disgust, his retreat, his disgrace, have brought innumerable calamities on a whole nation. A common soldier, a child, a girl at the door of an inn, have changed the face of fortune, and almost of Nature.”[9]

7. Christians standing for truth in all areas of society

How we need Christians who will promote God’s standards of righteousness and justice in parliament, law courts, mass media, education, health–all areas of society. It is critical that prophetic voices be heard in community affairs.

One of the most titanic struggles and compelling examples of a prophetic voice was the work of William Wilberforce in the British Parliament in the 18th century to abolish the slave trade. (An excellent chapter, “For the Good of the Nation,” is in Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict, p. 95f.)

It is a myth to say that ‘you cannot legislate morality.’ Morality is legislated all the time, based on some value system. The question is not whether we will legislate morality or not, but whose morality will be legislated.

Fence-sitting and waffling have never been part of godliness. Where is the robust vision of the gospel that affects every area of life today? Franky Schaeffer believes “a gospel preached without the duties of the gospel being taught along with salvation is not the true gospel.”[10]

John Whitehead writes that:

“We as Christians must once again commit ourselves to the whole view of Christianity. We must influence all areas of life including law and politics. We can leave nothing untouched by the Bible. We must begin anew to study all intellectual disciplines and apply the Bible to them. We must prepare to be the warrior we should be…

“Christians literally stagnate in churches that have no external political, legal or moral impact upon the world. Truth cannot be bottled up and be effective.”[11]

8. Churches equipping Christians to live as a minority in a secular culture

We must equip Christians to understand the issues of the day from a distinctly Christian point of view. They must be armed or they will be slaughtered by the secularists. How could we do this? Mission groups? Sunday school and cell group classes with a title like: “Living consistently as a Christian minority in a secular world.” Colson and Klug have study guides on “Transforming Society”, “Political Action”, and “Justice.” Preaching from the pulpit is needed.

Personally, this is where I see many of our Bible and ministry colleges failing. We are not equipping our people to “earnestly contend for the faith.” This means that apologetics (including cultural apologetics) must be an essential part of the Bible college curriculum. Practical issues relating to ethics and counselling should also be high on the agenda.

But we are too busy deciding whether we are Calvinist or Arminian, filled with the Holy Spirit or not, pre-, mid- or post-tribulation, to be engaged in our dying, secular culture.

Any other ideas?

It has been said that the strength of the Whitefield and Wesley revivals of the 18th century was that they did apply the teachings of Scripture to the generation in which they lived.

9. People with a moral vision for society

Providing such a vision does not belong to the government, but to the church. We saw this in Poland where the government over-stepped its authority and the church became an effective means of moral resistance.

John Anderson says that:

“We sow death in the womb and try to reap life in society. We will not accept the proposition that releasing inhumanity in the womb has any effect on releasing inhumanity in society, that there is any connection with the concurrent rise of violence against the unborn and violence against children and women…

“It is said that the seeds of collapse of any society are resident in the very sins they permit.”[12]

The correlation between religious values and public order has been dramatically demonstrated during religious revivals. When men and women profess new life in Christ, they become models of decency for the rest of society.

Secular historians, Will and Ariel Durant made this telling remark:

“We will find it no easy task to mold a natural ethic strong enough to maintain moral restraint and social order without the support of supernatural consolations, hopes, and fears…

“If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder.”[13]

Will the church set the moral agenda, or will we leave it to the government, media and public education?

Yes, the church must be the instrument of nurture, evangelisation, service, ministering to the spiritual needs of people, but it must also be the conscience of society, the instrument of moral accountability.

As a moral conscience, Charles Colson believes the church’s role in society is to:

a. Publicly expose the state’s immorality,

b. Refuse to have any part in the state’s immorality,

c. Unjust laws should be disobeyed (Acts 5:29)[14]

Francis Schaeffer adds:[15]

d. At this time in our history, protest is our most viable alternative.

This amounts to asserting the Lordship of Christ in all areas of life. To become Christian means that the living Christ rules the whole of life. Everything must change–values, goals, priorities, desires and habits. If our own lordship supersedes Christ’s Lordship, then our Christian conversion must be called into question.

10. People with a commitment to the value of human life

Since one of the surest signs of the decay of a society is the disregard of the elderly, the unborn and the handicapped, the ‘Elijah’ church will have a commitment to the sanctity of human life (human beings made in the image of God). I am convinced that as Christians we must be unapologetically pro-life.

11. Serious about sin

We often talk readily about people’s problems, hassles, demons. But what about sin? How dare we talk about defacto relationships, pre- or extra-marital sex, materialism, greed, gossip, swearing, etc., when God calls it all sin.

Since there is little awareness of sin in our society, people see little need for repentance. This is speeding them towards judgment. God hates sin, and the prophetic voice, a person or church, will name it for what it is.

There are too many easy invitations, “Come to Jesus,” without calling people to repent of their sin, and warning about the cost of following Jesus. God is love, but he is precise about evil and sin. There is no salvation without acknowledgment of sin. There is no salvation without repentance from sin.

See how serious Paul was about sin in Romans 1, Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5. “The world will be precise about sin when the church is.”[16] This is the mission of the prophetic person or church.

12. An action church

Matthew 5:13 makes it clear that a church that is not “salty” is “no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” The silent church cannot hide behind the guise of non-involvement. Non-involvement is not neutral. It is a choice. A silent church will sooner or later submit to and be dominated by the secular culture which will not tolerate Christianity.

John Whitehead stressed:

“The church cannot be timid in the face of crises. One strong local church can demand respect from the entire community. The world is looking for someone or something that will take a stand. Moreover, the bolder the church becomes, the stronger Christians in general become. The church is not to have a spirit of timidity but of power: the power of God, which is at the church’s disposal.[17]

Let me share with you an example from the Teen Challenge campaign against the decriminalisation of marijuana, in which I was involved, in the ACT. This was the churches’ response:

We contacted four denominational headquarters, two of them very large, provided them with information and asked them to make a public statement about the drug situation, but no statement came forth.

At the burial of the suicide victim I buried on the day the ACT decriminalised marijuana, the funeral director asked me a very penetrating question: Isn’t the church supposed to be the moral conscience of the nation?

I believe the church needs to stand up and be counted. This nation will continue to go downhill morally if we are not the “salt of the earth” to stop the rot, and the “light of the world” to direct the way.

The illicit drug problem is ruining our nation. Will you join me in standing against the drug monster, to save our youth, our nation? Or will you sit silently by and let the youth be led astray by the lies from the politicians and media–and the sin of omission by a silent church?

This is a day for determined involvement. Australia needs a church that will do what only the church can do: raise a prophetic voice. The church must speak out. It is time for the church to take risks. Will the church remain an “echo” or become a voice? A relevant church is one that speaks up.

Martin Luther said:

“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. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”[18]

The need is desperate. It is imperative that we start confronting and shaking society with a prophetic voice. What would happen in any community if the pastors and people raised impassioned prophetic voices and cried against the injustice and immorality in our society, while at the same time proclaiming hope and salvation in Jesus Christ?

We are aware that the church needs to be educated about drugs, their impact on the individual, the family, the church and society, and how people can be set free in Jesus’ name. I am ready and willing to equip churches in this needy area.

One pastor of a prominent church in Canberra who was contacted for support at the time of the campaign against marijuana said, honestly, “This marijuana legislation has crept up on us and caught us unawares,” yet the Legislative Assembly’s Committee report on marijuana was issued (with lots of local publicity) twelve months before the parliamentary debate.

It’s not just drugs. What about youth suicide? Sexual promiscuity, under the illusion of “safe sex.” Abortion and euthanasia. Pornography and prostitution. Homelessness and unemployment. What about the selfish greed in our society? Christians who are more sold out to materialism than Jesus? Christians who are more committed to television than evangelism and social action!

This generation is filling its God-shaped vacuum with all kinds of counterfeits. How dare we sit idly by!

Will the church be an echo or a voice?

a. We can’t retreat.

The times are too perilous and the church’s message too penetrating to become passive and silent. We must continue to analyse and critique the world around us, particularly the media.

I find it amazing that last week a television journalist contacted me for a comment about the porn and violence coming through Internet. Yet that television network pumps out sex and violence, violence and sex, week in and week out, and doesn’t see the paradox. It’s the pot calling the kettle black.

b. Christians need to pull together in solidarity.

Maybe a Christian teacher is sacked for speaking of God in the classroom. An elder’s services are no longer required because he picketed an abortion clinic and ’embarrassed’ the pastor. We need to pull together.

Franky Schaeffer believes:

“We should make our authorities and Christian leaders acutely aware of the presence of many thousands of orthodox Christians who are ready to march, picket, protest, vote, write letters, agitate, impeach officials, preach, donate their time and money, pray, and take strong and decisive action on behalf of all those whose rights of religious liberty, assembly, speaking, conscience, and practice are threatened.”[19]

c. Expect resistance from the secular society.

Heat will be placed on the ‘Elijah’ church. We must not be embarrassed by this. Stand with them and share in their agony.

Charles Colson challenges Christians to take direct action to turn our culture around:

“Believers today have many ancestral radicals in their family tree. In fact, the kingdom of God is full of them. John Wesley passionately argued that there could be ‘no holiness but social holiness…and to turn Christianity into a solitary religion is to destroy it.’ Wesley was branded a radical for his St. Mary’s speech, an angry, but accurate denunciation of his fellow Oxford faculty members for their weak-kneed faith (he was never invited to speak there again). Later he captured the essence of radical holiness when he wrote: ‘Making an open stand against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness, which overspreads our land as a flood, is one of the noblest ways of confessing Christ in the face of his enemies.”[20]

However, we know that when the secular heat increases, we must fall to our knees in spiritual warfare.

I Corinthians 10:3-5:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Get involved in local community affairs, politics and legal battles. If 20% of Christians in any city would join the political parties of their choice, they could change the policies around to promote righteousness. Perhaps one of the most powerful tools for the individual or organised group is the vote you cast at election time.

Another idea: The ‘Elijah’ church could find out what the “hot issues” are in the community and post or do a letter-box-drop of a specialised newsletter (dealing with one issue) several times a year.

d. The church needs to wake up NOW!

A great deal can be done if the church becomes the ‘Elijah’ church and wakes up NOW. You and I had better do something pretty radical right now. The time to pray, search the Scriptures, and ACT is NOW.

13. THE HOPE

God reigns through political activities, and citizens of the Kingdom of God need to bring His light to bear on the kingdoms of men. However, the most powerful witnesses I have seen are in the individual, ordinary lives of people who have allowed the Lord to break into their terrible situations and bring reconciliation out of violence–forgiveness is powerful. The “little platoons” can live and speak God’s transcendent values by loving God and loving one’s neighbour.

As we approach the twilight of our culture, is there any hope? I endorse what Charles Colson says:

“If there is any hope, it is to be found in a renewed and repentant people possessed of a moral vision informed by Scripture, respecting of tradition, and committed to the recovery of character. We must be a people of conviction, prepared to offer the world a story filled with courage, duty, commitment, and heroic effort–that will inflame the moral imagination of the West.[21]

Will we succeed? That’s in God’s hands. However, we have a duty to be obedient to the King. He says we are salt and light. Let us be that.

C.S. Lewis wrote: “The greatest thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years” (in God in the Dock).

Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is death, life. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.”

John Greenleaf Whittier:

“Now, when our land to ruin’s brink is verging.

In God’s name let us speak while there is time:

Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging,

Silence is a crime.”

Notes:

[1] John O. Anderson, The Cry of Compassion: The Church’s Needed Voice in Today’s World. Klamath Falls, Oregon: John O. Anderson (PO Box 152, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, USA), 1992, p. 137.

[2] Elizabeth O’Connor, Call to Commitment. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963, p. 49.

[3] Charles Colson with Ron Klug. Transforming Society: A Bible Study. Colorado Springs, Colorado: NavPress, 1988a, p. 77.

[4] Charles Colson, Against the Night. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, pp. 165-66.

[5] John W. Whitehead, The Second American Revolution. Elgin, Illinois: David C. Cook Publishing Co., 1982, pp. 149, 152.

[6] The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language.

[7] In John Anderson, p. 15.

[8] Charles Colson, 1990, pp. 139-140.

[9] In Colson, 1990, p. 111.

[10] Franky Schaeffer, Bad News For Modern Man: An Agenda for Christian Activism. Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1984, p. 133.

[11] John Whitehead, The Second American Revolution, pp. 159, 162.

[12] John Anderson, p. 122.

[13] In Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto, p. 45.

[14] Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton, 1987, pp. 331-330.

[15] Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto, p. 108.

[16] John Anderson, p. 119.

[17] John Whitehead, 1982, p. 179.

[18] In Francis A. Schaeffer, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, “The God Who Is There,” Vol. I. Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1982, p. 11)

[19] Franky Schaeffer, 1984, p. 136.

[20] In Franky Schaeffer, 1984, p. 105.

[21] Charles Colson, 1990, pp. 181-82.

Copyright © 2013 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 29 September 2016.

“If we are not governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants” (William Penn).

“Is the Lord saying, ‘The party’s over’?” (John Anderson)

“But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath” (Jeremiah 10:10).

What is the future for Australia? We have seen that the moral, financial and spiritual mess of the nation is easily documented. Is there any destiny for Australia? Or, is the party over?

Does Romans 3:10-18 describe Australia?

A. SIN AND JUDGMENT

Will God continue to ‘wink’ at the sin of Australians? Can we get away with sexual promiscuity, killing the unborn (elderly and handicapped, if we get a chance), crime, violence, drug addiction, massive economic debts, etc.? Will we get away with a humanistic, utilitarian value system: I will do what’s right for me, the end justifies the means.

David Chilton observes:

“In the midst of what many experts believe to be the most savage disease in a millennium [AIDS], God is speaking.

God is speaking to a world that has winked at sin and is paying the price medically, judicially, and economically.

God is speaking to a Church that has tolerated disobedience by preaching a message of accommodation and tolerance.

And God is speaking to Christians who have surrendered to the enemy. As a result of ignorance regarding God’s Holy Word, fear of rejection for taking a stand, or lack of confidence in a Sovereign Creator, many have stood idly by, fruitlessly hoping that things will get better.”[1]

Are Christians just left hoping? Jeremiah 8:7; 10:10 and Obadiah 15 are key verses to understand the mind of God.

“Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements [law, ordinance, judgment] of the Lord” (Jer. 8:7).

“But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath” (Jer. 10:10).

“The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return ypon your own head” (Obadiah 15).

What brings on God’s wrath? Read Jeremiah 4:4; 8:9; 10:8, 14-15; Hosea 4:1-3, 6-9; Romans 1:18; 2:5:

• “because of evil you have done”
• idolatry
• “no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land”
• sin that “breaks all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed”
• “against all the godlessness and wickedness of men”
• “your stubbornness and unrepentant heart”

Those who proclaim peace when there is no peace are false prophets who will be brought down with the other sinful people when judgment comes. (See Jeremiah 6:13-15.) There is a clear link between sin and judgment.

To see this link in a contemporary sense, I include this incident that happened to American, David Chilton:

“A few years ago, when I worked with the Institute for Christian Economics, a reporter for a national Christian magazine called. He was polling economists and economic writers around the country, asking us a single question: ‘If you could change one government policy in order to pull us out of our economic problems, what would that change be?‘

‘That’s easy,’ I said. ‘Stop killing the babies.’

His journalistic instincts keen, he said: ‘Uh…what?’

‘Stop killing babies,’ I repeated. ‘You know, abortion? In case you’ve missed the story, over 4,000 unborn babies are slaughtered in this country every day. They’re poisoned, chopped in pieces, suctioned, or simply delivered and left to die. Sometimes the doctor strangles or smothers them…’

‘Uh, yeah, I know that.’ He sounded nervous. ‘But I think you misunderstood the question. I was asking what economic policy you would recommend to alleviate the country’s problems.’

‘Yes, I know that. But you misunderstood my answer. I said that if I could change only one thing to solve our economic problems, I would stop abortion. That’s not the only thing wrong, of course. Many other things should be stopped, such as the government’s manipulation of money and credit. Confiscatory taxation should be stopped. Protectionism should be abolished. Fractional reserve banking should be outlawed. We could talk about a lot of things. But you asked for one thing. Life isn’t that simple, but I was willing to play along. So I said baby-killing.’

‘Wait a minute,’ he said, exasperated. ‘What has abortion got to do with our economic problems?’

‘Maybe that’s the real problem,’ I replied. ‘Here you are, a writer for a respected Christian publication, and you don’t get the connection between (a) the legalized murder of one and a half million people every year, and (b) the fact that God is selling us into economic bondage to other nations. It’s called Divine Judgment. And it won’t stop with mere economic judgment. Murder is a capital crime.

The reporter suddenly discovered he had other calls to make.”[2]

There is something fundamental here. God’s law is eternal. His justice works throughout history to fulfil His purposes. Nobody can escape the consequences of God’s absolute and universal law. When a nation breaks His law, it suffers the consequences. Australian culture is under the sentence of judgment. We have failed to outlaw the abominations that are plagues in our culture.

I believe Rousas J. Rushdoony is correct when he says:

“When a people reaches a certain level of moral depravity, punishment ceases to be particular and becomes national. The civil order has lost its ability to act for God, and God then acts against that order. In other words, there is punishment, but the punishment is from God and the people or nation shall fall.”[3]

Don’t miss this connection between personal and national sin, and judgment. The Bible makes it clear in the prophets.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, saw this:

“I looked upon the world around me as being in actual rebellion against God…that He was mocked, and scorned, and hated, as when on earth…I came to realize that…the men and women around me in consequence of their rebellion ‘were in great danger of damnation,’ and that ‘all of their miseries, present and to come, were the results of their rebellion against God.”[4]

Billy Graham acknowledges it:

“The crack in the moral dam is widening, but like the people in Noah’s day before the flood, life goes on as usual with only a few concerned and scarcely anyone alarmed. However, apathy will not deter catastrophe. The people of Noah’s day were not expecting judgment but it came.”[5]

John Anderson examined the Book of Amos’ judgments and found this pattern:

1. This is what the Lord says.

2. For three sins of [the nation] and for four.

3. I will not turn back my wrath.

4. Because [of one sin the nation has committed].

5. I will send fire [and then tells the particular way the judgment would come].

The phrase, “For three sins…and for four…” is a poetic phrase that means “extensive, habitual sin, one sin after another. It is repeated, innumerable, extensive, widely practiced sin [a ‘defining sin’] bringing national guilt–the condition is terminal.” When this continues, “I will not turn back my wrath.” This is a terrifying statement. If we continue to sin, there will be no more mercy. We will face God’s wrath. “For sin, there is one of two things we receive from God: mercy or judgment.”[6]

Question: Do you think Australia is committing a dominant ‘defining sin’ that will bring judgment, if we don’t repent? If so, what is it?

A prophetic voice will speak up and it must proclaim the connection between sin and judgment.

John Anderson says:

“Today as the thundercloud forms, the Church must see the significance of the present situation, see the moral and spiritual aspect of things, and faithfully and fearlessly and compassionately speak up. Its cry of compassion must be filled with the reality of judgment.

In speaking up, the Church should remember that unrepentant society and individuals will delude themselves to the very last and will buoy themselves up with false hopes that they can escape judgment; so the message of the Church needs to speak to the heart and conscience, probing them before God.

…The Church must confront a society wilfully deluded by clever lies while the blood of millions of destroyed unborn cries out for God’s judgment. Convinced of our sin and of God’s righteousness, we must be equally convinced of judgment ‘because the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of violence’.”[7]

Remember what Jesus said about the times of Noah and Lot? (Matt. 24:37-38; Luke 17:26-29)

What, therefore, should the church do?

B. SOUND THE ALARM!

When the nation was rushing toward judgment, Joel the prophet was told by God: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill” (Joel 2:1). Hosea was told: “Put the trumpet to your lips” (Hosea 8:1). Amos said: “The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem” (Amos 1:2).

Who wants this task today? It will be a compelling message of the ‘Elijah’ church. Leonard Ravenhill believes “there is a suffocating indifference in the Church to the peril of judgment for the nation’s sin.” He tells of a Presbyterian friend of many years who wrote to him, expressing concern at the country’s condition:

“I’m still thinking that we have just two alternatives in the final analysis-wrath or revival. We can have Christian schools; political action; Christian protests; letters to our [parliamentarians]; food storage; moving to the country; home meetings; bookstores; Christian radio; evangelism; Christian ministries of every conceivable variety; retreats; bigger and better churches; feeding the poor; giving our bodies to be burned; prophecies galore; prognostications; timetables for the future; etc., but unless we have a veritable explosion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ out into the world, the world will explode in on us.”[8]

1. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MORALITY AND BLESSINGS/CURSINGS

The Old Testament prophets saw the clear link between a nation’s morality and God’s blessing or judgment. They knew that if people cheat, lie, commit adultery and fornication, kill and resist the nation’s laws, the country will come under judgment. It is one of God’s infallible laws. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 makes this especially clear.

Today’s world faces the same sort of judgment that Israel faced. The day of judgment is coming for Australia. Our cup of iniquity is almost full. To turn the tide away from judgment, the Lord said: “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2:12-13).

Is this message too convicting, too hot to handle? Where is the urgency about God’s judgment on sin? We are too busy preaching success, prosperity and endless material blessings. David Wilkerson believes

“there should be a heartrending cry from our pulpits, from every television evangelist, of soon-coming judgment on this nation. We have far surpassed the violence of Noah’s day, and God is going to shorten the days and pour out His wrath…

“The congregation of Zion is spoiled! The day of the Lord is at hand; the land is perplexed; there is desolation and destruction threatening on all sides–yet, the Lord’s people do not take it to heart. The church is in the valley of indecision; the Spirit has gone forth to awaken and stir the sleeping–yet there is no fear of God before their eyes. Approaching judgment? Not until they see the end of their favorite television series. Not until the last dregs of pleasure have been wrung out. Not until the easy life ebbs and withers. Not until all fleshly desires and ambitions have been fulfilled. ‘Do not interrupt us, O God,’ they seem to be saying, ‘for the Lord’s coming or sudden judgment would deny us of all that our hearts are set upon.’

“O ye backslidden people of Zion, will you never return to the Lord with all your hearts and put away the adulteries, the fornications, the pleasure madness?”[9]

Amos brought a message of judgment to the six nations (Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, and Moab) that were surrounding Israel and Judah. Where are those nations today? Only one survives. Every nation is accountable to God. All nations will face the eternal, impartial Judge. Love that will not punish sin is not real love.

Judgment is at Australia’s door! Every year we slaughter about 100,000 unborn children. That’s a million people over a 10-year period. I understand that in 1992, Medicare funded its one-millionth abortion. John Anderson calls it as it is:

“But our guilt is multipliedd immeasurably by the callous deceptions that tell our public conscience it is proper and moral to choose such violence. Such bloody injustice is the kind of sin God can use to bare the magnitude of our iniquity and to show why He will no longer hold back His wrath and our society will be judged. In Israel’s case, the nation as such ceased to exist. So did the six neighboring nations. Will ours? Is God impartial?”[10]

The Lord says we are to sound the alarm. We are to warn the people. False prophets (a false ministry) will not warn because they think they know better than God.

Where does judgment begin? Peter could not be clearer:

“For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17)

Where is the warning being sounded? We need to work with greater urgency! Where are the churches, pastors, denominations who are warning Australia about cultural and economic collapse because of the nation’s sin? God’s laws cannot be broken, without punishment, forever!

2. WHAT, THEN, IS THE MESSAGE?

a. Warn of the coming judgment.

(1) Show the link between immorality (which is much broader than sexual impurity) and judgment.

(2) Warn about what happens to a nation that ignores or rejects God.

Throughout Anderson’s book he refers to modern people who “live as if God were not there.” This is Australia! Show the connection between godlessness and God’s wrath (Romans 1:18).

(3) Show God’s grief over sin.

At the time of Noah, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). What was God’s response before judgment came? “The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain” (Gen. 6:6).

God has deep grief and pain over the rampant sin in the world. The Lord doesn’t bring judgment without warning. Will you participate in this warning, or will you go on living in peace and prosperity oblivious to Australia’s approaching danger?

b. Repent or perish

Every news item that speaks of devastation, disaster, sin and its consequences, should alert people who have ears to hear and eyes to see. It should drive us to our knees in humility and repentance.

Repentance means a complete turn around in everything about our lives and country.

Recently, a Christian friend in my home church was killed in a tragic car accident, less than two weeks before her wedding. It has been a solemn warning to the people in the church to be right with God. Will that country city where the accident happened be called to repentance? Every tragedy like this should remind us, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). It should also cause us to consider the seriousness of eternal things, sin and judgment for sin.

In compassion, we must call people and the nation to repentance for the sin we commit. Repentance must be the focus of our Christian proclamation.

God is holding off judgment to lead people to repentance:

“Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

Arthur Pink believed that, “Not until we have realized that our rebellion against God was such that nothing but the death of Christ could possibly atone for it, have we truly repented.”[11]

My heart beats with that of John Anderson when he says:

“Repentance of sin must be out public and personal priority. Let the Church lead the way in open, humble and public repentance of our idolatry, our pride, our ignoring God, our immorality, our killing of our unborn, our other violence, and so on. Let the churches get together to repent and cry out to God for spiritual awakening…

“The world will be precise about sin when the Church is.”[12]

A good place for the church to understand repentance is by reading the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 & 3.

This nation is being shaken economically, politically, socially and culturally. We are reaping the sinful choices we have sowed over decades, and judgment will come.

“Do modern Christians really believe this? Not many seem to. They do not confront the whole society with the call of repentance. They do not seem to recognize that our whole civilization is in rebellion against God, from top to bottom.”[13]

Has Australia gone too far? Are we too far into the sewer of degradation to be rescued? Yes! Unless we repent!

David Chilton:

“If we abandon our apostasy, confess our individual and national sins, and seek atonement through the only sufficient covering that God has provided, there is hope (Jeremiah 18:1-10; Ezekiel 33:11-19). But if we love death–if we continue to embrace the contaminating corpse of sin, the rottenness that devours our bodies and souls–there is no salvation.”[14]

“Could God be shaking us about our priorities, and our message–and where and when that message is proclaimed?”[15] Will you be part of the solution by warning that we will repent or perish?

C. INTERCESSION

Ernie Abella, a humble, gentle-spirited man from the Philippines, spoke at a summer camp in the U.S. in 1990. What he said about America can be applied to Australia:

“Your nation will be shaken so that there will be passion in your prayers. The reason there is no passion in your prayers is because your hearts have become fat. You are dying from obesity of the spirit… You are to cry, you are to repent, you are to seek forgiveness of your God because you have had so much, received so much and yet you do not act on what you have heard.”[16]

Intercessory prayer is a critical aspect of spiritual warfare in Australia. Christians and pastors urgently need to place prayer at the centre of God’s agenda today. This intercession will involve some of the following:

• repentance and confession for personal sin (including what one has not done to be a prophetic voice),
• repentance on behalf of the country,
• intercession for those involved in the moral & spiritual struggle in Australia,
• prayer for God’s answer concerning that “what” of one’s personal involvement in being salt and light today,
• to seek the Lord for a spiritual awakening in Australia,
• it is critical that we engage in Mighty Prevailing Prayer (the title of Wesley Duewel’s book).[17]
• to put on the armour of God (Ephesians 6).

The revivalist of the nineteenth century, Charles Finney, said:

“Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could not do anything. If I lost the spirit of grace and supplication even for a day or an hour, I found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency, or to win a soul by personal conversation.”[18]

If we will spend time in prayer, several things are certain:

• You’ll become super-sensitive to your own personal sin and its abhorrence before a holy God,
• You’ll weep over the grievous sin of Australia,
• You’ll develop the Lord’s deep passion to proclaim the good news, warn about judgment to come, and call people to repentance.
• the Lord may give you the burden to pray for revival.

Prayer and spiritual warfare are critical for these times. Will you be a partner in intercession?

D. THIS IS A CALL FOR SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

We so desperately need Christian leaders who know their God, spend time with him (in the Word and in prayer), and observe the Australian culture from God’s perspective–and then become involved.

We need a sense of outrage at what is happening to ‘the lucky country.’ But it must be righteous indignation that leads to positive action. How can we tolerate what is intolerable to God and remain passive and indifferent?

Christian leaders of conviction and vision will be people of action. But it will take perseverance. “To persevere is to succeed.”

E. REVIVAL

If we proclaim God’s message of judgment to our culture, weep in prayer for our nation, issue a cry of compassion for Australia to confess its sin and repent, and preach salvation through Jesus Christ alone, God may open the windows of heaven and pour out Australia’s first spiritual awakening of consequence.

I have a heart-longing for God to send revival, like he did in the days of Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Finney, Evan Roberts (Wales) and Duncan Campbell. Do it again, Lord, is my prayer.

Duncan Campbell, the leader of the Hebrides revival in 1949, defined revival simply as “a community saturated with God.” Revival brings the church to its knees and radically changes society.

“Whole books can be written analysing what is wrong with the church today, but there is hardly a need for this. We must simply admit that we are not an eternity-minded people. We live like the world we are supposed to be saving: for the things of time rather than for the things of eternity. Our priorities are world-related rather than heaven-directed; our treasure is on earth. Revival always begins by putting eternity back into the minds of the Christians, and only when the church takes eternity seriously can we expect the world to do so.“[19]

Second Chronicles 7:14 is still the answer to national revival: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

WILL YOU PRAY FOR THE LORD TO GIVE YOU A BURDEN FOR REVIVAL?

THE HOPE

1. That this conference will have provoked you to pray and then act as a prophetic voice in your community.

2. You are now aware of the biblical teaching that people cannot continue to live a lifestyle of sin and escape God’s judgment. We must call them to repentance.

3. Will you commit yourself to personal righteousness and pray and work for national righteousness?

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

4. There will be men and women who rise up from within the churches who want to hear from God and will spend time with him to hear his voice.

I believe John Anderson is correct when he says that “Western society is now at a crossroads, a watershed moment. The days ahead will be a time of accountability for our choices. Right now we desperately need a word from God.”[20]

Our churches need a deep hunger and thirst for the genuine ministry of the

Holy Spirit. We need a consuming thirst to know God. I am confident some will emerge who will be like the psalmist: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God” (Psalm 42: 1-2).

5. My hope is that men and women of God will recognise the inroads of secularism into society and the church and will refuse to succumb to a dilution of the Word of God for the sake of tolerance and acceptance.

One of the themes of this conference has been the truth of the biblical assessment of what is happening in Australia: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18).

Never feel ashamed of standing on the truth of God’s authority. God’s revelation

lasts forever and authoritatively describes people, the diagnosis of the problem, and the final solution for all of society.

6. As you proclaim judgment on this nation, it must be with a broken heart of compassion for lost Australians. This is a special breed of Christian that I am confident God is raising up.

“Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins? Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: ‘We have sinned and rebelled…’ Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed” (Lamentations 3:39-42, 48).

The sinners of Australia can expect only two things from God: mercy or judgment. The awesome God is one of mercy, grace and limitless compassion. “His hands [are] compassionately opened toward those who are rebelliously pursuing evil and headed toward judgment.”[21] Our nation needs the compassionate who will put their arms around people and cry with them over their sin.

7. John Anderson believes there are four key essentials of churches that God will use. I am confident some of these will emerge in the years to come. They will be believers who are:

• in unity [but never at the expense of truth],
• anointed [making God’s truth powerful and interesting. It attracts, edifies, convicts and saves, only through the power of the Spirit. It comes only through prevailing prayer by the messenger],
• Christ-centred,
• determined to be a prophetic voice.[22]

8. This is a call for radical Christians. (Remember, radical means “arising from or going to a root or source; fundamental; basic.”)

David Wilkerson says:

“I think God has come to hate the word balance–because what He is seeking now is radical Christianity… What should we be but radical in our service and devotion! God is calling for Holy Ghost radicals who will cast down all idols, come to His holy hill with clean hands and pure hearts, and live detached from this world, having in them an eternal vision. God wants to smash all idols.”[23]

A prophetic voice will speak and demonstrate radical Christianity in all of life. It will be a “cry of compassion” with the warning: repent or perish. It will have the perspective of the tribe of Issachar “who understood the times and knew what Israel ought to do” (I Chron. 12:32).

LET US PRAY:

Great King of nations, hear our prayer,

While at Thy feet we fall,

And humbly with united cry

To Thee for mercy call.

The guilt is ours, but grace is Thine;

O turn us not away,

But hear us from Thy lofty throne,

And help us when we pray.

With one consent we meekly bow

Beneath Thy chastening hand,

And pouring forth confession meet,

Mourn with our mourning land.

With pitying eye behold our need,

As thus we lift our prayer;

Correct us with Thy judgments, Lord,

Then let Thy mercy spare.

–John Hampden Gurney (1802-62)–

Reading on revival

Edwards, Brian H. Revival: A people saturated with God. Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1990.

Finney, Charles G. Revival Lectures. Broadview, Illinois: Cicero Bible Press.

Finney, Charles G. Charles G. Finney: An Autobiography. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1908.

Hulse, Erroll. Give Him No Rest. Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1991.

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Revival. Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1987.

Ravenhill, Leonard. Revival Praying. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1962.

Ravenhill, Leonard. Why Revival Tarries. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1959.

Thornbury, J.F. God Sent Revival. Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1977.

Notes:

[1]David Chilton, Power in the Blood: A Christian Response to AIDS. Brentwood, Tennessee: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987, back cover.

^[2]Chilton, pp. 41-42.

^[3]In Chilton, p. 43.

^[4]John O. Anderson, The Cry of Compassion: The Church’s Needed Voice in Today’s World. Klamath Falls, Oregon: John O. Anderson (PO Box 152, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, USA), 1992, p. 121.

^[5]Ibid., 55.

^[6]Ibid., p. 19.

^[7]Ibid., pp. 131-32.

^[8]Leonard Ravenhill, Revival God’s Way. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1983, p. 80, emphasis added.

^[9]David Wilkerson, Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth. Lindale, Texas: World Challenge, Inc., (PO Box 260, Lindale Texas 75771), 1985, pp. 134, 160.

^[10]Anderson, p. 72.

^[11]In Anderson, p. 117.

^[12]Anderson, p. 118.

^[13]Gary North, Backward Christian Soldiers: An Action Manual for Christian Reconstruction. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1984, p. 44.

^[14]Chilton, p. 56.

^[15]Anderson, p. 132.

^[16]In Anderson, pp. 142-43.

^[17]Grand Rapids, Michigan: Francis Asbury Press (Zondervan Publishing House), 1990.

^[18]In Anderson, p. 147.

^[19]Brian H. Edwards, Revival! A people saturated with God. Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1990, pp. 44-45.

^[20]Anderson, p. 128.

^[21]Anderson, p. xiv.

^[22]Anderson, pp. 166-172.

^[23]Wilkerson, p. 72.

Whytehouse designs

(image courtesy ianmacky.net)

By Spencer D Gear

“If I had my choice, I’d much rather be the mercy shower than the prophetic voice” (Keith Green).

“Making an open stand against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which overspreads our land as a flood is one of the noblest ways of confessing Christ in the face of His enemies” (John Wesley).

“The prophets threw out and denounced any message that didn’t speak to the true need of society…. Let’s be as bold as the prophets, and raise forcefully a prophetic, compassionate voice to vigorously confront–not accommodate–our dissolute world and careless Christians… We face a sinning society that has wilfully rebelled against God and now is reaping the ravaging harvest of its sin. We must boldly put back into our Gospel message such words as repentance, sin and judgment, and speak with the grief of God” (John Anderson).

The one who speaks for God will have a prophetic voice:

I. WHAT IS A PROPHETIC VOICE?

It does not refer specifically to the gift of prophecy of I Corinthians 12 or Romans 12.

Our nation is going downhill rapidly and is asleep to its peril. A prophetic voice will get in the way of our secular society and confront forcefully the unrighteousness and ungodliness of the nation, state or city and present God’s message so the people of Australia will be confronted with God and His requirements and have the opportunity to come to Him.

Australians have little sense of God or their sin. They need to be cut to the heart over their iniquity. A prophetic voice will be compelling in its manner. We desperately need to hear from such bold voices today. They face the issues with a fair dinkum manner that calls us to account for our sins, warns us that judgment is coming and commands us to repent.

The church is too often more concerned with being ‘nice’ and congenial. But Australia is in dire spiritual danger. The times demand this kind of prophetic voice. Or, to put it another way: We are at a stage in Australia’s history where we need to hear those who speak for God. Remember Peter’s words on the day of Pentecost: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40).

However, too often the church is more interested in success, peace, prosperity, church growth and the current doctrinal fad, than in confronting sin.

A prophetic voice will say: You are wasting your time looking to human beings and government for solutions to the rot that is eating into Australia. A change of government will not do it.

When the people heard Peter’s preaching, they were “cut to the heart.” A prophetic voice will stab Australia’s conscience and through it God will bring conviction of sin. As Charles Colson has pointed out so powerfully: “The crisis is not political; it is moral and spiritual. And so is the solution. That’s why Christians are the only ones who can offer viable solutions.”[1]

A prophetic voice will powerfully alarm Australians with these conclusions:

A prophetic voice is a warning voice.

Remember the tragic accident that happened at Hobart a number of years ago when the large ship accidentally slammed into that large arching bridge over the Derwent River? It knocked out several pillars holding up the bridge and a whole section of the bridge plunged into the river.

Cars travelling over the bridge began falling into the river. I understand that one car came to a stop right on the edge of the broken section. The driver leaped out of his car and ran back on the bridge to stop others from plunging into the river. To his horror, as he waved frantically and shouted warnings, the drivers ignored him and sped on to disaster.[2]

This is one of the tasks of a prophetic church. It will warn and confront, but with compassion, love and grief.

II. WHAT WILL MOTIVATE US TO BE PROPHETIC VOICES?

I find it amazing that a secular Australian historian, the late Manning Clark, could see the need so clearly and many Christians are missing it. He said: “What distinguishes this generation from all its predecessors is that no one has anything to say: no one knows the direction of the great river of life.”[3]

However, if you are open to get the Lord’s burden and delivering it, I suggest the following:

A. Read the Prophets

Begin seeing our country, its dilemma and the solution, from God’s point of view, as you read the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah-Malachi. Bathe your reading in prayer, asking the Lord to show you His message for Australia. This will help you get to know God’s heart for a nation that is racing toward judgment.

Jeremiah 10:10 is critical to understand: “But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.”

Maybe this will cause you to repent towards God for the inexcusable sin you have allowed to prosper in this country by your silence. (e.g. What have you been doing about the mass slaughter of unborn children, the killing of the elderly and distressed by euthanasia? What have you done about pornography in the family market place? What have you done about the avalanche of sex and violence on network television and on videos?)

B. See Australia’s sin from God’s perspective

When Paul visited Athens and looked around the city, he became “greatly distressed to see the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). J.B. Phillips’ paraphrase reads: “While [Paul] was there, his soul was exasperated beyond endurance at the sight of the city so completely idolatrous.”

Although Athens represented the highest level of culture (sculpture, literature, oratory and philosophy). Whatever Paul may have felt in the way of artistic appreciation, the sense that was foremost in his mind was his “great distress” over the worship of gods. This is not some irritation or sudden temper. It was a settled reaction he had arrived at. He was provoked to anger, grief and indignation, just as God Himself is, over sin and idolatry. It was inward pain and horror. This moved Paul to share the good news of the gospel with the Athenian idolaters.

When this happens for you, you will develop:

1. Moral indignation

We expect sin in a fallen world. But what is not expected is godly people who accept it. Charles Colson says, “If Christ is Lord of all, Christians must recapture their sense of moral outrage.”[4]

Leonard Ravenhill goes even further:

2. “We need a baptism of holy anger”

“To me it is a shocking commentary on a patent Christian feebleness that while in the first century 120 men could move from an upperroom closet and shake Jerusalem, nowadays 120 churches claiming a like experience of the Holy Spirit can be in one of our cities and yet that city at large hardly knows they are there. In our spiritual warfare we churches must be guilty of shooting with dummy bullets.”[5]

I believe Ephesians 4:26-27 often has been misapplied. The NIV reads: “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”

Kenneth S. Wuest’s expanded translation says: “Be constantly angry with a righteous indignation, and stop sinning. Do not allow the sun to go down upon your irritated, exasperated, embittered anger. And stop giving an occasion for acting [opportunity] to the devil.”[6]

We need a baptism of holy anger against the immorality, injustice and unrighteousness in our country. Anger that will lead to action!

C. Intercessory Prayer

The desire and burden to be a prophetic voice will be gained on your knees and will be followed by action. John Anderson asks:

“If this world is headed into judgment, if we are in the last days, why are not Christians rushing into the streets urging–demanding–repentance and righteousness from us? Why is not intercessory prayer a primary emphasis? Where is our heart after God? Why are Christians in the West as materialistically settled in as the rest of our idolatrous society–something Christ warned us about?”[7]

When you know God and live for Him, you walk to the beat of a different drum. You “discern with a different ear and eye, to show us the true from the false, and the correct way from the incorrect… Society’s most pressing need today is for men and women who know God.”[8] You get to know him by spending time with him.

But be prepared for the consequences. Through the centuries, men and women who have known God and brought His convictions to their world have been killed or ostracised.

My prayer is that in these times of crisis, God will raise up men and women who will be prophetic voices in Australia.

D. Come to a biblical understanding of what it means to”salt” and “light.”

Read Matthew 5:13-16 and Eph. 5:11. We have a commission to:

• Be the salt of the earth to stop the world from going putrid.

• Let our light shine by doing good works.

“We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). It is this law of the Kingdom of God that motivates Christians to love and serve their society. This has been the case throughout Church history. It has been the Christians who have started hospitals and schools. They have given welfare assistance and fed the hungry. They have campaigned to end the injustices of slavery, prison degradation, hunger and deprivation. Even though government agencies have taken over the work, it was Christians who gave the initial thrust. Even today, Christians contribute many of the resources for private charities of compassion. How many atheists, for example, do you know who have been active in founding hospitals?

This does not mean that Christians are the only ones who do good works. However, for the Christian it is a matter of obedience to God’s commandments. We do works of mercy, justice and compassion. We have a godly obligation to obey God’s description of what we are: the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.”

This “cultural commission” (as Colson calls it) also includes the need:

• To expose the deeds of darkness (Eph. 5:11)

“Expose” (elegcho) can be used in several contexts:

• For the Christian leader in the church, he/she has the task of rebuking church members (I Tim. 5:20; 2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 2:15) and of convicting opponents of their error (Titus 1:9, 13).
• The New English Bible translates Eph. 5:11, “expose,” as “show them up for what they are.” It means to show someone his/her sin and urge the person to repentance. It means more than just exposing an evil, but to show it to be evil and do our best to correct it. It is not merely to reply to an opponent, but to refute him/her. It does not mean just to silence opponents, but to convince them of their error.

This is the consistent and sustained battle of New Testament Christianity against personal sin and sin at all levels of society. It is the Christians’ responsibility to bring to light the true character of a person and his/her conduct.

We may not want to do this, but we have no other option. This is what the light invariably does. Evil deeds, personally, interpersonally, nationally, deserve to be exposed, unmasked, rebuked. That’s the God-given responsibility of the church (Christians) inside and outside the church. Those who live in the light cannot be neutral about the world of darkness.

“Sin must be exposed. One is not being `nice’ to a wicked man by endeavoring to make him feel what a fine fellow he is. The cancerous tumor must be removed, not humored. It is not really an act of love to smooth things over as if the terrible evil committed by those still living in the realm of darkness is not so bad after all.”[9]

To do less than this is to be flagrantly disobedient to God and a contributor to the destruction in our degraded society.

• This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the world (John 16:8)–exposing sin.

That’s what the cultural commission, of being salt and light, involves. If we are negligent in this area, society will become putrid, go from bad to worse–all because the Church is not doing its job. We evangelical Christians must be inspectors and correctors of evil. To be less is sub-biblical. I believe one of the most prominent reasons why Australia is in the wretched state it is in because the church isn’t being the church. But there is always the tendency of salt losing its saltiness (Matt. 5:13). A prophetic voice is a church that has become tasty again.

Edmund Burke spoke of “little platoons.” These are voluntary groups of citizens (individuals or groups) who perform works of mercy and oppose injustice. These are the salt and light that Jesus said the church was to be. These “platoons” will shape the conscience of Australia. Or, as Charles Colson put it, we are called to be “communities of light.”

There is something fundamental about salt, as a preservative, that must be remembered: As a youngster on the cane farm near Bundaberg, I remember my father curing hams for the family. He would have to rub the salt into the pork–rub it hard and long. It wasn’t enough for him just to put the salt in a dish in the smoke house to cure ham. To preserve meat, salt must be rubbed deeply into the meat.

The parallel is that Christians are not meant just to exist in society. We must penetrate it (be rubbed in). This is compulsory if our needy society is to be stopped from becoming rotten. There are two primary ways this can be done:

“We must not only serve the physical needs of those around us, but articulate Christian values in a responsible way to a secular world…

“The challenge before us, then, is to get back to basics: to be the Body of Christ; to do the gospel; to speak the good news with wisdom and love.”[10]

It is time for Christians to show that Christianity is the Truth of total reality in the open market place. Francis Schaeffer believed, “Most fundamentally, our culture, society, government, and law are in the condition they are in, not because of a conspiracy, but because the church has forsaken its duty to be the salt of the culture.”[11]

Then add the fact that governments are promoting ungodliness. The Scriptures are clear: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

“Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it fully”(Proverbs 24:4-5)

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18).

QUESTIONS:

1. If the church is to become a prophetic voice, what do you expect it to do?

2. If you, personally, are to become a prophetic voice in your community, in what actions do you expect to be engaged?

Notes:

[1]Charles Colson, Against the Night. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, p. 11.

[2]Told in John O. Anderson, The Cry of Compassion: The Church’s Needed Voice in Today’s World. Klamath Falls, Oregon: John O. Anderson (PO Box 152, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, USA), 1992, p. 6.

[3]In ibid., p. xiii.

[4]Colson, Charles. Kingdoms in Conflict. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton, 1987, p. 68.

[5]The Refiner’s Fire, Volume II, pp. 67-68.

[6]Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament: An Expanded Translation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961.

[7]John Anderson, p. 6.

[8]Ibid., p. 90.

[9]William Hendriksen, Ephesians: New Testament Commentary. Edinburgh, Scotland: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1967, p. 233.

[10]Charles Colson with Klug, Ron. Transforming Society: A Bible Study. Colorado Springs, Colorado: NavPress, 1988a, p. 8.

[11]Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto. Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1981, p. 56.

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