Posted by vincevincevince on February 16, 2010
Tomorrow (Wednesday) marks the start of Lent, a period of 40 days (not counting Sundays) that ends at Easter. Traditionally it is a time to reflect upon the times when we have not been as loving as we could have been, whether to God or to our neighbour; when we have been selfish, greedy, lustful or disrespectful. This concept of acknowledging this our sin reminds us that we are not by any means acceptable before God, but rather that we are criminals standing condemned. God cannot accept us who have turned away from his will, a will we know well as it is written both on our conscience and in the scriptures.
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul explains (Romans 3:10-18):
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Romans 3:13
So why should we go through such a depressing season, a time when we focus not on the positive but on the negative? What purpose does bringing up so much negative energy serve? Can such a focus on our wretched state and the impending wrath of God actually serve a useful purpose?
It comes down to answering a simple but very central question – “why did Jesus die upon the cross?” The Prophet Isaiah, writing around 700 years before Jesus was born, prophesied (Isaiah 53:4-6):
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
During Lent we remember that it is us – you, and me – who like sheep have all gone astray, turning to our own ways. It is because of this turning away, because of our sin, that Jesus died on the cross, so that through bearing our sin he could bring us to salvation. Those who are able to help themselves need no saviour; those who do not see their own sinful condition need no salvation. There then appears no meaning to the work of Jesus, no reason to trust in him, no value in his death upon the cross, unless we are able to see the reality of our own sin.
LORD, I am not righteous, not even a little.
I do not understand;
I do not seek after God;
I have departed from your commands, and become worse than useless;
I do no good, not even a little.
My words are like the stench of the open grave;
My tounge is accustomed to lying and deciving;
My lips are armed with venom against my neighbour;
My mouth is full of curses and bitter hatred.
I hasten my feet to the shedding of blood;
I leave destruction and misery in my wake;
I know not the way of peace;
Nor does my heart fear my God.
LORD, have mercy on me, a wretched sinner.
Amen
Posted by vincevincevince on January 24, 2010
Can we really take the Bible seriously when it talks about Jesus wondering around, bumping into people with demons possessing them, and casting them out? In the light of modern science, how can we reconcile the presence and threat of demons, devils and sorcery with our lack of evidence for any of them? Perhaps the demons, the devils and the sorcery are all myths, and perhaps so is their counterbalance, God.
Matthew 8:16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
Taking the part of the devils advocate – where have all the demons gone? Now; we know that it is the assigned work of Satan to tempt us, bringing us to rebellion against God. I can think of three types of rebellion against God, the first being to disobey the revealed law of God, the second is to disobey the law of God written upon our hearts, and the third is to deny the revealed God entirely. The first two are classical definitions of sin as disobedience to God, yet the third is something a bit deeper. When we deny God despite him having revealed himself to us, we make ourselves god for we acknowledge nobody and nothing as having a greater power than man.
The first two commandments together require us to acknowledge only God, and to put nothing and no person in his place. When we raise ourselves up as God then we fall so surely and so heavily by making an idol of ourselves. This is both blasphemy and idolatry and of the very highest level. This is the state of post-modern philosophy today – there is nothing supernatural and there is nothing beyond us. God is at best conceptual, and usually merely figurative. I do not believe that such a state of godless philosophy has existed in any time since that of Christ; for even savages who know nothing of the special revelation of God acknowledge that there is something or someone greater than them, some form of supernatural power. What a victory for Satan! What an easy job for Satan, when even those who have learned of God deny him and his law, denying the very concept of sin and hence the reason to resist it.
At first, such a philosophy seems fine, we assume that people are generally good and know how to behave. Even without God, we should be able to keep going on a reasonable path, at least no worse than before. Unfortunately, this neglects to ask where our moral anchor comes from, and it comes from God and the Word of God. When a ship raises its anchor nothing happens, the ship does not move, everything remains the same as it was before; yet it is clear that the ship will now drift anywhere it likes, being driven even unto destruction on the rocks. The same is true for a society uncoupled from its anchor – although at first all seems well and of no effect, it is both sure and certain that over time society will drift from its remembered patterns of Christian life into the depths of moral depravity and sin. When nobody has the ability to say “this is wrong” then all that was once wrong drifts towards being right. What a victory for Satan indeed!
Now consider if at this time, Satan were to openly send demons out amongst mankind, possessing them and causing them to curse God, exhibiting supernatural strengths in their depravity and evil. What a disaster that would be for Satan! The post-modern philosophy would evaporate like the morning dew with the clear demonstration of the existence of the supernatural devil and his evil. What a strong testimony to God the devil is when he is perceived by man, for in acknowledging the forces of evil man must acknowledge the existence of evil and hence sin. If a man realises the existence of sin then he too testifies to some form of God – as without a god there can be no definition of what is sinful and what is not. What a disaster that would be indeed for Satan, if man were to again acknowledge the concept of sin and the supernatural, and begin to think of taking care to avoid the former and seek the later.
Matthew 8:28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
Therefore I suggest that it is not due to greater revelation and the closeness of Christ that we rarely see physical manifestations of demons amongst us, but rather due to our denial of even the general revelation of God and our failure to acknowledge the sin that Christ came to take away. Our condition today as those who deny not only the God of the Bible but the very concepts of God, righteousness and sin, is very much more evil than even savages to whom the Gospel has never been preached. The devil has no need to scare us away from righteousness through open works of evil, for we are quite happy to depart for hell of our own accord.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us, and mercifully open our ears to hear you and our hearts to receive you as the sole Lord and master of mankind; that through a knowledge of you we might take heed of the depth of our sin, being drawn to repentance and forgiveness in your name. Amen.
