Pro-Gay is False Gospel?

The news headline from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reads:

Conservative Anglicans vow to fight 'false gospel' in liberal churches
Members set themselves apart, but reject formal split

A battle has been raging in many churches as church leadership and members confront the current social and political acceptance of something that was once considered a psychiatric problem and blatant sin. What do we do about homosexuality in our churches? Some say that in the name of tolerance and love, all people, regardless of sexual orientation should have equal access to all that is available in churches, including marriage and pastoral positions. Others declare that the Bible distinctly says that homosexual behaviour is sinful. Of those with the second view, there are a variety of questions to answer and impliment: Do we allow people who are in obvious, unrepentant sin to attend? Become members? Participate in the Christian sacraments (of which marriage is one)? Take on leadership roles? It's a painful and difficult subject for most churches because not everyone agrees. What to do?

The Anglican Church worldwide is dealing with this question. Whole countries of churches are taking opposing sides and there has been talk about a split in the church--with North America and Europe embracing the more liberal stance and countries in Africa and elsewhere insisting that homosexual behaviour is not part of God's will for his people and refusing to sanction it in their congregations. Oil and water. Can they mix? Can both factions remain part of the same denomination and continue to function as a cohesive whole? The conservative Anglicans are hoping they can. Despite calling the liberal view a "false gospel," they "cherish [their] Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing from it."

Is this feasible? What do you think?

The Visitation

I was suprised to discover that Frank Peretti's The Visitation has much the same theme as John White's The Dark Lord's Demise. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does following Jesus look like? Is it enough to believe, say and do the right things or is there something more? The first third of the book seems to mock the Christian culture, which made me wonder about my own relationship with God. Is it real or superficial?

When a young man with flowing, long hair, parted neatly in the centre comes to town and starts healing people and miraculously producing loaves of bread, people are certain that he is Jesus returned. Out-of-towners move in with their mobile homes and trailers, hoping to be healed and to bask in the presence of his goodness. Who is this man? Why is he claiming to be the Messiah? And if he's not Jesus, how did the spike-driven scars on his wrists get there?

"When Jesus came to the earth the first time...he went about doing good. Well, why not now? And I'm not just talking about myself. I'm talking about all of us. You may define me any way you wish. Maybe I'm Jesus. Maybe I'm the reincarnation of Jesus. Maybe I'm only a channel of his power. It doesn't matter. However I become Jesus for you, you have to be Jesus to others and the time to start is right now."

Could this be true? Would you be brave enough to declare in a letter to the editor that this kind and gentle miracle-worker is of the devil? How would you respond to what the newspaper editor wrote:

"I saw a kindly doer of good who allowed everyone the dignity of their own convictions. He touched and healed but did not judge, he blessed and did not condemn. He dared to speak of the good in all of us and inspired us to do some good in this world. He was there for the people and not the other way around."

Is this the essence of Christianity? If not, what is? Is Christianity strident, strict, inflexible, legalistic and pharisaical? Is there:

"...a long list of complex, tangled, sometimes contradictory, often hypocritical, but absolutely essential requirements and taboos defining what it [means] to be a Christian"?

Or is

the real Jesus...greater than the best show any man can put on? ...greater than any building you could put him in or any tradition you could wrap around him or any expectations you could impose on him?

How do we know? How do we find out who the real Jesus is?

The Dark Lord's Demise

One person I have great respect for is Dr. John White. He was a man of compassion and wisdom--a psychiatrist who preached most Sundays at the church I attended in the 1970s. His spiritual journey was one that has greatly inspired me.

A prolific writer, at the request of his children, he wrote a series of fantasy novels unabashedly mimicking "The Chronicles of Narnia" called "The Archives of Anthropos." The stories begin in Winnipeg but the children are transported to another world, Anthropos, where they have a variety of experiences with spiritual insight for the reader. I think my favourite is Quest for the King because of the accurate and helpful description of spiritual warfare.

Dr. White was working on a final book for the series before his death. Friends of his generously took on the project of finishing The Dark Lord's Demise on his behalf. I'm disappointed. It wasn't as meaty as Quest for the King. I saw a theme about the dangers of some New Age spiritual ideas develop part way through the book that wasn't brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Even though it's a book for children, there could have been more depth and a more thorough examination of some of the questions raised. Betty's character, for instance, wasn't adequately developed and her movement from the side of Lord Lunacy (Satan) to that of Gaal (Jesus) didn't adequately show the struggle it must have been for her. The transition was too flat.

Still, the story asks some good questions. Who is Jesus? What is the difference between believing that he is always present and believing that he is in all things and in fact is all things? What does believing in Jesus actually mean? Is it sufficient to believe that he exists or is something else needed?

Despite my disappointment in this final book of the series, I highly recommend the series to you, especially Quest for the King.

Today I start The Visitation by Frank Peretti. I'm already intrigued.

Surgery

I had my gallbladder removed Thursday morning. I became more and more nervous and scared as the day came closer. Wednesday, I was an emotional mess and that night I hardly slept. Tears were falling down my face as the anesthetic took effect.

My fears were the result of previous experiences with general anesthetic--waking up to nauseousness and vomitting and taking forever to heal--but to my amazement, as awareness began coming to me in the Recovery Room, I was not sick at all. It pays to tell the anesthesiologist how anesthetic has affected you in the past. She gave me a concoction of drugs to prevent the nausea and it worked! Thank you Jesus!

I continue to be amazed at how well I am doing. Yes, simple things tire me and now, at home, without morphine at the touch of a button, I'm hurting more but I don't feel sick. I was even able to cook my own cereal this morning. God is good.

I bought a pile of Christian novels to read while I recover--thinking that my brain would be too groggy for anything meatier. I think I'll share some of them with you.

Impregnated and Nourished

“You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'” John 3:7 NIV

“The words [‘you must be born again’] were spoken…to an upright, godly man.”*

“If I am ever going to have the heredity of the Son of God…my personal life must be impregnated by the Holy Ghost….”

“I enter into the life of God by its entering into me, that is, I deliberately undertake to become the home of the life of the Son of God.”

“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him…and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:2-3 NIV

“The time a Christian gives to prayer and communion with God is…meant to nourish the life of the Son of God in him…and enables [God] to manifest Himself in my mortal flesh.”

To be born again requires an impregnation of the Holy Spirit and a deliberate decision to become the home of God. Then I must nourish the Life in me so that God's life in me can be seen. (This is a mere rewording of what Oswald Chambers has to say but to add more would be to subtract.)

Father, I have chosen you over all else and you have filled me with your Spirit. Grow in me, Lord, so that you and not I will be seen. Keep me in communion with you at all times. In Jesus' name, Amen.


Non-Biblical quotes are from "Spiritual Evolution" in "Biblical Ethics" in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers. Pages 102, 103

Why are You Hated?

“…you will be hated by all nations because of me.” Matthew 24:9 NIV

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” John 17:14 NIV

What stirs up this hatred Jesus said the world would have towards his followers? Oswald Chambers writes, “I have no business to stir up the hatred of the world through a domineering religious opinionativeness—that has nothing whatever to do with the spirit of Jesus.”* This is something I have been believing more and more but sadly, it is our “domineering religious opinionativeness” that is seen and hated most by those who do not follow Jesus.

Think about it! How much time do we expend trying to persuade non-Christians that homosexuality is wrong and that our laws must reflect that? In North America today, Christians are known far more for our religious opinionativeness than for anything else. How sad! This is not the gospel. This isn’t the good news that Jesus brought to earth. The good news is that God loves us! He loves the homosexual. He loves the abortionist. He loves the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son….”

Then why might the world hate us, if not for our religious opinionativeness? Why are Christians hated in other parts of the world? Why are Christians imprisoned, tortured and killed in places like China and the Islamic nations? Is it because they are crying out against their fellow countrymen for breaking God’s laws? No! It is because they simply choose to believe in and follow Jesus and encourage others to do the same—not in loud, attention-getting pronouncements but in the quiet, living out of their lives as Jesus called us to do.

Chambers writes, “…when in all modesty I am standing for the honour of Jesus Christ and a crisis arises when the Spirit of God requires that I declare my otherworldliness, then I learn what Jesus meant when he said, men will hate you.”*

Father, I want to live my life for you, to bring honour to you and your son, Jesus, through your Holy Spirit. May my life reflect your love and holiness rather than my own, self-righteous declarations of others’ sin. Amen.


"The Moral Individual--II" in "Biblical Ethics" in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers, page 100.