(October 2001 Edition)
The following is a list of this month's articles.
Editorial - Fashionable Wickedness
Editorial
Fashionable Wickedness
When he entered the White House to initiate his office policies, George Bush made this comment: "There will be no more wearing of jeans in the White House". He implied that there would be a change in the dress code, with an immediate rejection of the casual approach that had been encouraged by the former president. But this attitude is not seen in society generally. Some go beyond being casual by deliberately attempting to make their garments rough and uncouth. One of the latest fads encourages an individual to rip and tear his clothing at the kneecaps or pockets so that it looks breezy and well worn. Of course, there is nothing wrong with dressing in a more relaxed style, provided it is appropriate for the circumstances: but to actually be destructive to clothing so that it can be identified as "fashionable" is grotesque.
The people of Israel were commanded to think carefully about the regulations governing their daily habits. They were instructed to reflect on the cultures and influences of the social conditions surrounding them, and to avoid imitating worldly attitudes. These cultures were characterized by an appallingly lackadaisical indifference to morals, relationships, dress, and conversation. We must be very careful to instill in our children at a young age the importance of respect, courtesy and good manners. This is the essential basis from which godliness can be developed in a practical way, so that we might influence others by our demeanor and attitude toward God and neighbor. The apostle John remarked that if we are unable to exercise good manners toward others, how could we ever be able to show respect to God?
Stephen Mansfield
The reason for this guest editorial is that it has become stylish and fashionable in the Caribbean to be wicked and to exalt ugliness. It gives no joy to a godly person to ride home in a minibus prominently named Bad to the Bone (or even Exterminator No. 4), with obscene lyrics blaring out from eight boom boxes, and pervaded by a not-so-subtle scent of ganja (marijuana). The slouching shine-head driver is dressed, and loudly converses, exactly as the editorial above describes. With one hand on the wheel and the other draped languidly out of the window, he weaves miraculously at breakneck speed through the mass of traffic, cheered on by the passengers for his "style". Such widespread Caribbean culture, shared as Bro. Stephen indicates by other "free" western societies, is deliberately intended to insult God and offend religious people. Not long ago Easter Sunday was hijacked by the organizers of the Jamaica Carnival for a blatantly pagan festival. In 2000, half a million people took over a huge area of London for three days of Carnival revelry amidst clouds of ganja smoke and unfortunately much violent behavior.
The western "free" media make a deliberate show of mocking God and religion. But there are many other indications of the growing boldness of modern God-defying paganism. For millions of passengers arriving in England, one of the first sights is a huge poster at Gatwick Airport in London showing a teenage girl sharing a hilarious joke with her friends: He asked me if I was a virgin. I said, No. I am a Scorpio. And below the words: Every nice girl needs to have FUN. In central London the historic landmark of St. Paul’s Cathedral is disappearing behind the new Swiss bank building known as "the erotic gherkin" from its defiantly sexually explicit design.
All this raises a very serious issue. By adopting such fashions and attitudes, we may well be in danger of committing the unforgivable sin. If you think this is extreme, then read on.
The apostle John tells us that there is such a sin (I John 5:16). And, moreover, there is no point in praying for someone who commits this terrible sin. Jesus himself indicates what this unforgivable sin is: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:31-32). But how do I commit "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit"? Those who heard Jesus were familiar with what Moses taught on the matter in Numbers 15:30-31: "Anyone who sins defiantly…blasphemes the LORD. Because he has despised the LORD’s word…his guilt remains on him". In this context, the last phrase means that there is no sacrifice that can be offered for him. God confirms this in Numbers 14:23: "No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it" (the Promised Land, the type or symbol of eternal salvation). Quite simply, treating God with contempt is unforgivable.
When Ezekiel was taken on a tour of the Temple in Jerusalem and shown various wicked practices, the "most detestable" of all was taking place in "the inner court of the house of the LORD" (8:16). At the very entrance to the sanctuary, there were twenty-five men who had deliberately turned their backs to God. Defiantly turning our backs on God and treating Him with contempt is not a sin of weakness or ignorance. It is a deliberate act of rebellion. One of the harshest things Jesus is ever recorded as saying is this: "Those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them – bring them here and kill them in front of me" (Luke 19:27).
The Editors
At
the Lord's Table
Amazing Faith
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Without faith we have no hope. But let us read Hebrews 11 carefully, and we will see how many amazing things can be done with and through faith.
Men and women of faith…
- still "speak" after they are dead, their lives
of faith bearing witness to the truth
- "condemn the world"
- "bless" others and "worship"
- "give instructions" that reflect confidence in the
resurrection, "looking ahead to the reward"
- forego the "pleasures of sin" so as to be sure of a place
in God’s kingdom.
Men and women of faith in Hebrews 11 are "commended". Not all did great things. Not all they did was heroic. Whatever they did, however small, was the outcome of their convictions. It proved they were genuine. It proved their hearts were right with their God. They knew God’s purpose and simply fitted themselves into it.
Take Rahab. She is not commended because she gave up her trade, though we can assume that she did. She is on God’s honor roll for one quick decision: to put her own life on the line to save two Jews. But that one decision says it all. It reflected Rahab’s deepest conviction. In this crisis of her life, so deep was her faith in the hope of Israel that she was unable to bring herself to betray two strangers because they were representatives of God’s covenant people. Faith makes us do things like that. According to Hebrews 11, it can even make us into a lion-tamer or a fire extinguisher.
But many of the things faith makes us do are quite simple things, like praying towards Jerusalem or blessing our children and grandchildren. We don’t have to be heroic to show God that we have true faith. One of the very simplest things faith inspires in us is a passionate desire to be at the Lord’s table.
Patrick Rodney, Cayman Island
Geophysical Research Letters is a serious international technical journal with a very specialized readership that has never been noted for sensationalism. It can hardly be considered a tabloid. All the more astonishing -- and important -- therefore is a sober article which presents incontrovertible evidence that the entire coastal belt of Guyana will be totally devastated by an event which is inevitable but the exact timing of which is uncertain. Moreover, Guyana’s entire population will be wiped out in a few seconds. In many other parts of the Caribbean, destruction will be catastrophic, and millions of West Indians are doomed to perish. All of this is documented with cold, clinical scientific objectivity and precision.
La Palma is the largest volcano of the western Canary Islands. It is potentially the most dangerous volcano on earth. On average it erupts every 40 years. It last erupted in 1949, so a big eruption is overdue. Over the centuries the erupting volcano has produced many destructive landslides. In the 1949 eruption the volcano cracked in two and a colossal chunk of land the size of Barbados became unstable, slipped several meters toward the Atlantic, and now is perilously poised, a disaster waiting to happen. Scientists have predicted that in the next eruption this huge chunk may fail altogether and plunge into the ocean, generating a dome of water a mile high. This will spread out, traveling at the speed of a jet plane. A series of waves 130 feet high will hit the Guyana coast, destroying everything miles inland of the sea wall. Barbados, Puerto Rico and some other West Indian islands will be battered by even mightier waves, up to 170 feet high. Islands without mountains such as Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, and St. Croix will, for a time, disappear entirely beneath the sea. In the U.S.A., most of the buildings in Washington, including the White House and the Pentagon will vanish. A conservative estimate of the death toll worldwide runs into hundreds of millions.
There is plenty of evidence that such events have happened in the past. Some scientists believe that the ten plagues recorded in Exodus, and the behavior of the Red Sea, followed and were the result of a smaller, but still massive, seismic wave generated by an explosive eruption of the island volcano of Thera in Greece. The same eruption destroyed many cities, the entire Greek army, and perhaps much of the high Minoan civilization. A mass of earth still smaller than the unstable mass on La Palma, which slid into the ocean in Hawaii, triggered waves of similar size on the east coast of Australia. If this prehistoric event should occur today, half the population of Australia would be drowned instantly. Preparations for such a coming event are impossible.
The Lord Jesus predicted that before his return "on the earth nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea" (Luke 21:25).
"We will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with the surging" (Psa. 46:2). Why? Because "God will be our refuge and strength" and there is a "city of God" and a "holy place where the Most High dwells".
The Editors
Listen to the Prophets of II Chronicles (2)
In our meditation on II Chronicles this month, men of God focus our attention on three divine principles.
- If we fight against the Lord we will not succeed.
- The LORD is with us when we are with Him.
- The eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.
Abijah’s words on Mount Zemaraim would seem to state the obvious. But to Jeroboam and "the worthless scoundrels" who supported him it was far from obvious. They had established a religious denomination or "fellowship" which was the result of division among God’s people. Furthermore, they had a big plan for advancing its interests. Unfortunately, it was based upon` pride, discord, self-interest, and numerical superiority, not truth and the "requirements of the LORD God". So it became, in consequence and in reality, a "a plan to resist the kingdom of the LORD". By so doing, they had "forsaken the LORD". So their plan came to naught, as it always will.
Numerically, Jeroboam’s schismatic "fellowship" was twice the size of Abijah’s, but "it did not succeed". Abijah called out, "All Israel, listen to me!" But as so often, Jeroboam’s faction refused to do so, and two-thirds of them perished.
From my own experience I know it is very easy for brethren to be like Jeroboam and provoke a war of words to justify separation and promote their private faction, often based on some notion, dogma or practice which God has never required for salvation. So we must continually ask ourselves: are our plans and schemes really advancing God’s kingdom or only our own interests?
The prophet Azariah Ben-Oded also said, "Listen to me!" And he gives us our second divine principle:
He also gave a consequence of this: if we seek the LORD, He will be found by us. Ben-Oded’s words are quoted by our Lord Jesus, "Seek and you will find". Solomon expands on the idea in Proverbs 2. Those who seek for the truth "as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure" will find it. This is a very comforting promise, and personally I have found this divine principle to have been true in the lives of many brethren and sisters who are close to me.
The Chronicler himself includes a very important word: "They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them". I do think that this "eagerness" is a part of real conversion. There are some stubborn, brave men in Guyana called porknockers (I am not sure if I have spelt it right). They spend their whole lives in the wilderness, sieving mountains of sand in a search for a few grains of gold dust. They endure incredible hardships in their search for hidden treasure. A few people are porknockers for truth.
Hanani the seer gives us our third divine principle.
For me, there are two wonderful things here. Firstly, God is not snooping on us. His searching vision have a purpose -- to observe our commitment, to watch over our safety, and to strengthen our resolve. Once I rode an XPT (high speed train) in Australia for 700 miles, and then found out it had no driver (engineer). But the conductor consoled me, "Don’t worry. You are quite safe. There’s a man in a control tower at Broadmeadow (300 miles away) who monitors all the XPTs wherever they are".
The second wonderful thing is that God’s vision extends throughout the earth. I am content that He sees my daughter on the other side of the earth with the same loving gaze as He sees me. I remember my late father commenting that if tens of millions all over the earth can watch a man walk on the moon on television, then everything about us is seen by God Almighty. It is really amazing how many of us hide parts of our lives from our brethren and sisters and even from our closest family (sometimes only until we are exposed!), stupidly oblivious of the uncomfortable fact that God sees everything.
Mary Eyre