For the progressive/regressive left it is always day zero. What I mean by this is that for the regressives history is always being revised, cast into a new light, or completely ignored, and we move forward from this day and whatever aspect of history they have just sought to delete from our consciousness as though what had come before is no more and does not matter. It is always day zero. If you have read 1984 you will be familiar with this concept. The past is being constantly overwritten by those who do not want to learn from it. It appears, from the outside at least, that this consistent blindness to history, and arrogance towards the past is being practiced by the Victorian government which has just decided to place itself squarely against the Church and the teachings of God’s word.
If you are not aware of what I am
referring to, I am speaking about the Victorian government passing legislation
making gay conversion therapy illegal, the Change or Suppression
(Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill. You might think that this is a
reasonable course of action for a caring conscientious government to take,
banning outdated and potentially harmful practices, but the bill goes far
beyond that. Indeed, do such practices even still exist in even moderate
numbers in Australia?
I have been in ministry for 10 years
as a paid pastor, and for several years before that as a volunteer ministry worker.
I grew up in various churches across various denominations, went to a Christian
school, have been part of denominational and inter-denominational pastoral
groups, been on Christian camps as a leader and attender, been to Christian
conferences in two states and in other countries, and I don’t recall once,
ever, seeing a conversion-therapy clinic, or small group, or anything of the
kind advertised, or even hearing such a thing mentioned in any of those places.
The only place I've seen this sort of thing talked about is on TV in American
TV shows or Hollywood movies. This is simply not a significant aspect of the
modern Church.
So, the justification of this Bill
makes no sense, until you read it and see they are making standard, orthodox
Christian teaching and practices potentially prosecutable. As Mark Powell notes
a forbidden practise includes—but is
not limited to—counselling or even offering prayer!” And to support this
assertion, here is a quote from the law itself, section 3:
For the purposes of subsection (1), a
practice includes, but is not limited to the following – a) providing a
psychiatry or psychotherapy consultation, treatment or therapy, or any similar
consultation, treatment or therapy; b) carrying out a religious practice,
including but not limited to, a prayer based practice, a deliverance practice
or an exorcism…[i]
Wait, does that outlaw prayer for
certain individuals regarding sexual orientation? Just in case those applying
this law were not sure how far this could be taken,
“…an Explanatory memo—which doesn’t
hold as much legal weight as the Bill itself but that a Court may refer to the
explanatory note—The Health Complaints Commissioner’s Report for the
Government, adds this information:
Conversion therapy/practices
reinforced homosexuality as a form of ‘brokenness’ and Church teachings that
homosexuality is sinful.”[ii]
The Victorian government, at threat
of fines or prison time, is seeking to regulate what the Church, and other
religious groups, can and cannot say about sexuality, there is no other way to
see this. (For more information on that read here and here). For obvious reasons these laws
have Christians and other religious groups deeply concerned. But my intention
is not to dwell on the devastating nature of these laws for religious freedoms
and frankly the continuation of basic common sense. I would like to remind the
government making these laws, that the Church has faced this kind of government
overreach before and come out the other side stronger than ever.
If these leaders knew their history
well they would know that seeking to stamp out Christian teachings through
legislation has consistently failed. But maybe they don’t know this. Maybe
they, like many people alive today, are modern supremacists, that is people who
think we are by virtue of living in the present, superior to those who came
before us in the past, and not prone to the same forces of human nature that
past generations experienced. Too often we can think that we are in the end of
history, that all that has come before is just that, history, and nothing else,
and therefore can just be ignored. But to ignore the history of the Church’s
peaceful resistance to government overreach is to ignore just how lovingly yet
stubbornly the Church will consistently hold to the Word of God, when we are
told to choose between state decree and God’s decree.
The current Aussie Church is in a
pretty weak state, but remember the Church started off quite weak. In fact it
consisted of only a handful of Jewish men and women who had just seen their
leader crucified by the Roman’s at the behest of the Jewish leadership in
Jerusalem. Most would have thought that was the end of the story, that this
troublesome religious group were finished. But after seeing their risen saviour
and hearing his mandate that they should prepare for power from on high to take
the message about Jesus of Nazareth out into the whole known world, these men
and women waited in prayer for that power to come,
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey
away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they
were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas,
Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and
Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves
to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his
brothers (Acts 1:12-14).
Then that power came. The Holy Spirit
was poured out on these humble believers on the day of Pentecost and from this
day forward they proclaimed the truth of God’s word and their testimony of
Jesus boldly and courageously throughout all of Jerusalem, including in the
temple. Indeed, the leaders of Jerusalem tried to stop these humble yet
powerful Jewish men and women from proclaiming the truth several times. But
they would not relent. They continued to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, even though it was offensive to the ears of many of their own
fellow countrymen. This passage from Acts 5 is particularly impressive:
25 And someone came and told them,
“Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching
the people.” 26 Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but
not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. 27 And when
they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest
questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name,
yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring
this man's blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must
obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you
killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader
and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we
are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to
those who obey him (Acts 5:25-32).
After being commanded not to preach
in the name of Jesus, to not preach the truth of the risen saviour and all that
follows from this, which includes teaching about sin, what is sin, and why we
should all repent from our sins and turn to Jesus, the disciples responded in
the only way they could, “We must obey God rather than men.” This has been the
catch cry of the faithful Church ever since, and these words have boldly advance
the kingdom of God around the world.
You see, the persecution of
Christians and commands to stop preaching their message continued after the
Church spread out from Jerusalem. These 11 Jewish men and another unlikely
Christian hero, the former Pharisee and persecutor of Christians, Paul, along
with a handful of other believers took this small and apparently weak church
from a small group of Jewish believers in one nation all the way to one of the largest multi-ethnic
religions ever, that swept across every nation of their era. All because they
were empowered by the power of God in them through the Holy Spirit. But they
faced resistance all along the way. Emperors stood against them.
First notably Nero, who was known as
a foolish leader of Rome, and is not remembered fondly by Christians or pagans,
sought to stamp out the Christian faith in Rome. This persecution was
devastating, and tradition tells us that it claimed the lives of both Peter and
Paul, along with many other faithful believers. But it failed to stamp out this
Holy Spirit empowered movement. Then came other persecutions.
Even a so-called noble pagan, like
Marcus Aurelius, who is remembered as a great emperor by history, because he saved
Rome from vast barbarian invasions and governed Rome better than many other of
its leaders, rose up against the Church, seeking to stop its rapid growth. Yet he
too failed to stamp it out. We read this in Foxe’s Book Of Martyrs about
the persecutions that happened un Aurelius,
The cruelties used in this
persecution were such, that many of the spectators shuddered with horror at the
sight, and were astonished at the intrepidity of the sufferers. Some of the
martyrs were obliged to pass, with their already wounded feet, over thorns,
nails, sharp shells, &c. upon their points, others were scourged till their
sinews and veins lay bare, and after suffering the most excruciating tortures
that could be devised, they were destroyed by the most terrible deaths.
Germanicus, a young man, but a true Christian,
being delivered to the wild beasts on account of his faith, behaved with such
astonishing courage, that several pagans became converts to a faith which
inspired such fortitude.[iii]
There are many accounts in this era
of Christians being so brave under persecution, that they converted many
pagans, just on that testimony alone.
For three centuries at various points
the Roman Emperors sought to stamp out the Church, or reign it in, or force it
to moderate its message about Jesus with persecution. But this all ended with
the Roman Empire bowing to Christ, rather than the Church of Christ bowing to
the Empire.
Since that day many leaders in pagan
and Christian nations have sought to overcome the Church. There were the
medieval persecutions of the famous Bible translators in the later Middle Ages.
There was the attempt of the Church of Rome to crush the resistance of men like
Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Menno Simons and others. There was
the persecution of the Non-Conformists in England, including the
Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Quakers. One notable example is
John Bunyan who spent years in prison for his unauthorized preaching, during
which he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, which is a wonderful story
illustrating the Christian walk and life, and battle with temptation during
suffering and persecution.
Wherever the Church has gone in the
world it has faced opposition of all kinds. Sometimes in pagan lands, sometimes
in pagan lands turned Christian, sometimes in Christian lands that have turned
back to paganism, as we now are witnessing here in Australia. Over and over
again bold and faithful Christians have said as the apostles said, “We must
obey God rather than men.”
As Christians we believe in
submitting lawfully to our secular leaders on secular matters and matters of
state. We recognize their authority to make good laws for the good of society
and understand how important this is. Give unto to Caesar what is Caesars and
unto God what is God’s, is an important principle we live by. We work hard to
be good citizens in society. We believe in praying for our leaders and for
their good and for their salvation. We believe in living peacefully among those
whom we disagree with. We respect our leaders and understand they have a
difficult job. We also believe that when anyone contradicts God’s word that we
should obey God over that man, or woman, no matter what authority they claim.
We must obey God rather than men. Our conscience will not allow us to do
otherwise. No, we don’t do this perfectly. No, we don’t always get this right.
But it appears that the Victorian government is seeking to command churches about what they can
and cannot teach on issues that go to the heart of Christian truth about
manhood, womanhood, and sexuality. As Christians our ultimate authority on this
issue is God and his word. We have to obey him. We have no choice in this
matter.
The West went through many
tribulations and troubles before it enshrined in its laws, and its
civilizational conscience, the necessity of allowing people to live according
to their conscience. This is a settled issue in Western history. Those of us
who know history do not want to have to see society learn all of these lessons
again. But for those for whom history is always being revised and renewed and
for whom we are always in day zero, I guess they will have to learn again that
the Church does peaceful resistance better than anyone else. Because we really
do believe in God and what he says and how he says we should live.
Right now, the Australian Church is
as weak and flabby as the audience at an e-sport event. But the Church only
began with a handful of men and women who were afraid, until they realized: God
is on their side, and he wanted to empower them to achieve his good in this
world. We Christians want to live peaceful and quiet lives, it is who we are
and what we would like to do. But we cannot allow human authorities to tell us
what we can and cannot teach from God’s word. Only God has the authority to
command his people on that.
We hope and pray that leaders who
seek to command the church to ignore their conscience on religious issues would
relent, but we know that if they don’t, well then we look to women like
Blandina:
The principal of these martyrs were
Vetius Agathus, a young man; Blandina, a christian lady, of a weak
constitution; Sanctus, a deacon of Vienna; red hot plates of brass were placed
upon the tenderest parts of his body; Biblias, a weak woman, once an apostate.
Attalus, of Pergamus; and Pothinus, the venerable bishop of Lyons, who was
ninety years of age. Blandina, on the day when she and the three other
champions were first brought into the amphitheatre, she was suspended on a
piece of wood fixed in the ground, and exposed as food for the wild beasts; at
which time, by her earnest prayers, she encouraged others. But none of the wild
beasts would touch her, so that she was remanded to prison. When she was again
produced for the third and last time, she was accompanied by Ponticus, a youth
of fifteen and the constancy of their faith so enraged the multitude, that
neither the sex of the one nor the youth of the other were respected, being
exposed to all manner of punishments and tortures. Being strengthened by
Blandina, he persevered unto death; and she, after enduring all the torments
heretofore mentioned, was at length slain with the sword.[iv]
If we must be persecuted for holding
to the stable teachings of God’s word, then at least we will make sure that we
peacefully stand strong and firm on that word. The Church has weathered that
storm before, and the Church still stands strong today. No leader has
legislated the Church’s teachings out of existence, they have tried, but the
Church has always risen again, just as its founder and saviour did as well.
List of References:
[i]
Powell, Mark 2020, “Ten Problems With Victoria’s Conversion Therapy Bill”, Caldron
Pool, https://caldronpool.com/ten-problems-with-victorias-conversion-therapy-bill/?fbclid=IwAR0nIwFgOsuJq4KrmM1v7Lda3uJaR1QnCsOxe3D-fMG1PvCbtImlwEOOSCA
[ii]
ibid
[iii] Foxe,
John. Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and
Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs. Kindle Edition.
[iv] Ibid.
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