I’ve just had this article published at Sight. It’s another look at the Victorian bushfires from the point of view of where God was that day. Rather than looking specifically at Danny Nalliah’s comments, and without wanting to sound like a glib response to what is, for many, unbearable suffering, it is simply my humble opinion on how I have seen God at work.
Category: Faith (Page 9 of 11)
Many people will be aware of the comments by Pastor Danny Nalliah of Catch the Fire Ministries concerning the Victorian bushfires. He had a dream back in November in which he saw Victoria on fire and that God told him that Victoria would be judged for the Government’s decision to de-criminalise abortion. Pastor Danny sees Black Saturday as that judgment being fulfilled.
As with many others, I see Danny’s comments as offensive in the extreme, arrogant, and based on very poor theology. His comments are far from biblical. Two well-thought-through responses have come from Barney Zwartz at The Age and Mark Conner of City Life Church in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Danny Nalliah’s comments are simply wrong for the following reasons:
- They contradict the very nature of God. God is a God of grace and love. It could be said that at least Nalliah’s comments are based on the Old Testament. But even this falls down. If you take Sodom and Gomorrah, perhaps the most famous subject of judgment in the Old Testament, even there God was willing to save the town if even a handful of people were found to be following the right way. Do we really believe that God does not find anyone good in Victoria? That thought is a blight on the amazing good being done by so many in the name of Christ here.
- Following on from the above point, the idea of God judging a whole lot of innocent people for the sins of some is the same ideology that guides al-Qaeda. They believe in murdering as many innocent Westerners as possible because of mainly American foreign policy.
- Jesus said that the rain falls on the good and the bad alike. When 18 people were killed at the tower of Siloam, as told in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus was asked who sinned that this happened. Jesus’ response was that no one sinned.
- The thinking of many leaders in the Pentecostal tradition is that of being ‘anointed and appointed’, and that any questioning of their authority is akin to being of the devil. Therefore they have an aura of a kind of papal infallibility about pronouncements they make. As a result of this attitude, you have people like Danny Nalliah making these outlandish statements based on a dream they had, rather than basing it on the character of God. This is where I much prefer the evangelical idea of the Bible being seen as an authority (though not necessarily the only one – as Fuzz Kitto says, we need to be careful that we worship God and not the Bible), as it shows clearly who Jesus is, and is, I believe, inspired by God.
- I think Barney Zwartz is spot on when he says that at times like these, the role of religion is consolation. It’s interesting how many people have talked about prayer. John Brumby, television reporters and others have all talked about offering their thoughts and prayers. In my mind, God weeps at a time like this.
- In the story of the feeding of the 5,000, there is no record of Jesus saying that they were hungry because of the judgment of God. On the contrary, Jesus looked on them with compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he proceeded to feed them and there was plenty of food left over, a sign of God’s outlandish generosity.
I have no problem with the idea of God speaking through dreams, but I also recall something that Rowland Croucher has said about prophecy. In his dealings with thousands of counselling clients over many years, he says that an overwhelming amount of them have had their lives destroyed because someone told them they had had a prophecy about them and they trusted them and went along with it. Croucher also says that if someone claims to have a word from the Lord and they have not heard it in a period of extended solitude, then they are not in the biblical tradition.
What I know is that the fullest revelation of God we have is Jesus, the crucified God who wept over Jerusalem and showed grace and love to all.
I also see God at work in the aftermath of the fires, in the amazing outpouring of generosity of Australians in giving money, clothes and time to total strangers. I also see it in the picture of the firefighter bottle-feeding a heat-stressed koala. This is the image of God in humanity.
These thoughts above are from my knowledge of God in my life, in the lives of others, and from the Bible. The comments of Danny Nalliah have no place in the kingdom of God.
It was only this morning that I had a good look at Rev. Joseph Lowery’s benediction prayer at Barack Obama’s inauguration. What a lovely prayer – a prayer of confession, humility and thanksgiving. It’s just the sort of prayer that we all need to pray, as individuals and as nations. May we all seek God and his kingdom in the spirit of Rev. Lowery’s prayer. Check it out below, or read the transcript here.
[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=7pEH37JIgBU]
Like much of the world, I was reflecting on the outpouring of deep emotion and sheer joy at the inauguration of Barack Obama last week. As I took it all in, my thoughts turned to how the disciples would have felt after the resurrection of Jesus. Imagine their joy. It was actually true! After 3 of the longest days spent in utter disillusionment at the death of the Messiah, they suddenly had the awesome realisation that what Jesus had said all along was actually true. Death really had been defeated. Joy inexpressible!
Whilst not putting too much of a spin on it, I reckon Inauguration Day was a tiny glimpse of that. Hope had been realised. The dream had taken a massive step to fulfillment. After all these years (and for so many, after the despair of the Bush years), the sun had finally risen. This was a day when African Americans, and indeed Africans everywhere, stood taller. Finally, they were being recognised as equals.
Of course, the fact that Barack Obama has become a Messiah-like figure is actually quite dangerous. The expectation on the man is simply enormous. Kevin Rudd even called him the hope of our time. What a weight to carry. After all, to paraphrase Brian’s mother (of ‘Life of Brian’ fame), he’s not the Messiah, he’s just the President. He will never be able to fulfil the enormous hope put in him, and for this reason, he will inevitably disappoint. It is only hoped that when he does, we will not become disillusioned for it.
But despite the burden this man carries, this was a day when we caught a tiny glimpse of hope, of what it will really be like when the world is put to rights. Suddenly, for a fleeting moment, we knew what it was to have hope renewed. We saw that, when a person has hope, the attractiveness of living purely for yourself fades hopelessly into the distance. You see that choosing war reflects a loss of hope, you see that giving in to temptation reflects a loss of hope. And you see that when you have hope, it really is something better, that you have finally found what you were looking for all these years. This is how it will be on an immeasurably larger scale when the new heavens and the new earth come together. What one President may be able to do pales into obscurity when compared to the glory that awaits (Rev. 21:4). Hope does not disappoint.
Check out another review I have just written. This one is of Mark Sayers’ book, The Trouble with Paris. Very relevant especially over this holiday period as we continue to spend , spend, spend. What will it profit a person…
In Australia this Christmas, we spent $1billion on unwanted presents. This further illustrates our society’s addiction to buying presents just for the heck of it at Christmas. As usual, the Murdoch press encourages people to have a whinge by prompting readers to tell them all about any shocker Christmas gifts they received. Thankfully only a couple of people have responded at the time of writing this post, and one of those was thankful for what they received.
It’s interesting that while we have returned so many presents, Boxing Day sales have been booming. One of the presents I received was Mark Sayers’ brilliant book, The Trouble with Paris. In this book, Sayers talks about ‘hyper-reality’ and the fact that, living in a consumerist society, we now believe the marketers who say that that next item is going to solve all our problems, and that retail therapy is all the panacea we need when we’re having a bad day.
This financial crisis is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the church to make a very loud statement about the failures and the lies of the promises of consumerism. In a society that values ‘having’ Jesus says that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions. In a society that values image and individualism, Jesus asks what will it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose your self in the process? It also goes back further than that, to the prophet Samuel when God reminds him that people look at the externals but God looks at the heart. Nothing has changed except that which we worship. The void in the human heart needs to be filled. Where our treasure is there will our heart be also.
Will the church take up the challenge to proclaim the good news of Jesus in these times of turmoil for so many? Many people will be disillusioned by these times, not least many in the church who have bought the message of health, wealth and prosperity. Now is the time for the church to be the prophetic, counter-cultural community that so distinguished itself in the 1st century. Jesus’ message is good news indeed for he comes to free us from our slavery to stuff so we are no longer conformed to the pattern of this world but are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
I’ve been thinking about what Christmas holds in store this year – and by ‘store’ I don’t mean Myers! But isn’t that just what Christmas has become? Every year we hear the plea from those of us inclined to a religious/spiritual view of life to bring Christ back into Christmas. My hope is that this Christmas, as the world goes through financial turmoil, we may know again that what we celebrate does not have to be more presents, that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions.
This Christmas many people the world over are suffering, and this time it isn’t just in the developing world. The global financial situation has meant that many will come to this Christmas having to tell their children that mum or dad no longer has a job and therefore we can’t afford as many presents this year. If that is you, then this Christmas can be more meaningful than ever. Because despite the consumerist madness that still lures us, despite its clear failures, and despite the fact that with interest rate cuts and government bailouts, we are being told to spend up big, the truth is that Christmas is actually much bigger than that. This is a time when another One who suffered, the Suffering Servant himself, came into the world to relate to us in our human condition. This is a God who knows what we are going through, because he has been through it himself. This is a God who immersed himself in our world-weary lives, rolled up his sleeves and got himself dirty.
Christmas doesn’t have to be merry to be meaningful. So it was with the Christ-child. Born to an unmarried teenager in an occupied third world country, his birth was first announced to simple labourers who were herding someone else’s sheep. Jesus was associated with suffering from the beginning of his life to the end. The Old Testament foreshadows him as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. As we remember the genocide in the Congo we remember that Jesus too was the target of genocide. As we remember refugees fleeing wars for a foreign land, we remember that Jesus too was forced to flee as a refugee to Egypt. When we remember the despised and rejected ones in our own society, we remember that Jesus too was despised and rejected by his own people. And when we remember ourselves, with less money and more job insecurity, we remember that Jesus said blessed are you who mourn for you will be comforted.
The Prince of Peace came so that God’s kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. To a world of suffering he offers hope, and to our troubled hearts he offers peace. May you know the peace of Christ this Christmas, and may he give you the strength you need to see hope in our troubled land.
These thoughts came to me one day when I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife. It was a rare time for me to sit, be still and reflect. This is what I came up with:
The older I get, the more I realise how much I don’t know about the Christian life. I feel like I’m still searching. I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I’ve found the answer. But I believe in a God who, when I give myself to him, slowly conforms me into his image, transforms me into his likeness.
I’m quite content with being like this. A former pastor of mine called it a holy dissatisfaction with life. It’s like when we spend our whole lives scrambling to the top of the mountain only to find there’s nothing there anyway.
Life is not about the destination. It is about the journey. The journey matters more than arriving at the destination.
Check out my latest sermon – preached on Sunday 23 November at St Martin’s Lilydale. It takes a look at the first section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian believers and then links this with the parable of the sheep and the goats.
With the inherent weaknesses of unfettered market capitalism being exposed in recent months by the global economic situation, socialists have been trumpeting the apparent downfall of this economic system. And well they might. I have already explained my views on unregulated capitalism. However, on the cover of one left-leaning publication was the proud headline ‘Capitalism is bankrupt; socialism is the only answer’. I think the first part of that headline is correct and the second part is not.
Socialism is no more the answer to humanity’s problems than capitalism. While capitalism survives no the backs of the poor, the history of socialism survives the same way. Any look at the atrocities committed in Eastern Europe since the Second World War have shown that. While socialism as an idea is fine – public ownership of the means of production, in practice it has limited freedom for its own citizens.
At the centre of socialism lies the idea of the utopian society being achieved through the work of humanity, unaided by any higher power. The classless society is a great idea, outlined in Acts, but it can never be achieved as long as humanity works on its own.
Human hearts need changing and no human economic system can ever do that. Martin Luther King, talking about communism, said that it
thrives on the grand illusion that man, unaided by any divine power, can save himself and usher in a new society.
Socialism does not take into account the fact of humanity’s tendency toward selfishness. Bono has said that the 20th century is not a good advertisement for atheism. What does atheism have to do with it? Well, socialism is based on a secular vision of the new society, a kingdom without a king. The 20th century proves once and for all that a kingdom without a king will eventually fall in on itself.
For more on Dr. King’s views of a Christian response to communism, see his Strength to Love, pp 97-106.
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