Imago Dei

Basing the right to life on equality of dignity sounds really good at first glance, but it is in reality a terrible argument. Because everyone can intrinsically see that a) equality doesn't really exist, b) that the child is in no quantifiable way equal to the mother. Whether in ability, capability, reason, power, or value to others, or even the mother herself. Ergo equaltarian societies often prioritize the "equality" of the strong over the "equality" of the weak, disabled or unborn.  

Because of this, in the mind of most people the "equality" of the mother will always trump the equality of the child, because the mother has first dibs on life. So basing dignity on equality is in the end fruitless, and falls down in practice. 

Dignity and value must be based on something greater: the imago dei, the image of God. Innocent human beings should not be killed in the womb because of some mythical, easily dismissed concept like equality. But something far more important: God's image is stamped on every human being, and because of this they have intrinsic value, sacred value, to harm this image bearing person is sacrilege. 

You don't have to be equal to be considered valuable, human dignity and value is based on something far more sacred and intrinsic. The sacred stamp of the image of God on all human beings is what makes them invaluable, and makes hurting innocent human beings high blasphemy.

Equality is the force upholding abortion, it's not capable of overcoming it. Five Catholic justices with a radical belief in the imago dei overturned abortion not equalitarian progressives, for a reason.

Family Not Individualism

The basic building block of society is not the individual, it is the family unit. Western individualism goes too far in making the individual supreme, and socialism goes too far in submitting the individual to the society, denying the individual, and significance of the family unit. 

Genesis 1:26-28 - 

"26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

Paul builds on this in 1 Corinthians 11:8-12 - 

"⁸ For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. ⁹ Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. ¹⁰ That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; ¹² for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God."

There is no society without man and woman functioning together as God intended, ergo man and woman together, the marriage unit, are the basic building block of society. Individualism and socialism both are well designed to undermine this unit. And we see both doing this in our society. Again, God's word challenges one of our most sacred ideologies.

Now Do Marriage

Abortion was never a right and it is now officially no longer a right again in the US, and states can now outlaw it:

"The US Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v Wade. The outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states and has sparked a furious reaction.

The court's decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals and in Washington, and Justice Clarence Thomas, part of the majority, called on the court to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives...

...Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday (Saturday NZT), wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the days they were decided and must be overturned.

"We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives," Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft."

The credit for this goes to Trump: 

"Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago. Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place."

Christians who constantly complained about Trump have been shown up again. Winsomeness didn't defeat abortion, mean tweets did, and Trump will be forever remembered as the greatest modern US president just for this one achievement. 

Nations in history which practiced child or human sacrifice often disappeared after not very long. But America has shown the practice can be turned away. Now they need to systematically make sure the practice doesn't happen across their nation. 

It's a good day. Let's see what else they can do, starting with re-correcring the definition of marriage. 

Feminism Is Anti-Woman

"Woman (definition) - an adult human female God designed to be joined with a man in holy matrimony, whom together make the basic building blocks of family and society."

Feminism equals the erasure of woman. If you think I am over stating that, then you can read a detailed argument for that position here about the intentions of early feminists to destroy all gender boundaries. 

Or you can read this news dot com dot au article:

"Maternity leave will be known as “birth-related leave” under gender-neutral changes to Queensland’s industrial relations laws.

The new language is one of a raft of changes to the industrial relations act in response to an independent five-year review of the state’s workplace legislation.

Changes to the act were put forward by Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace on Thursday, with the removal of gendered language from parental leave legislation included in the new Bill...

...Another clause outlined in the amendment included replacing the word “she” with “employee”."

Women, that is the distinctive nature of women, is being erased slowly but surely in our society. This is not accidental, it is not unguided, early feminists explicitly expressed the goal to erase what they called "detestable gender distinctions", and their ideological heirs, guided by the same spiritual forces are simply following through on these aims. They may not even be fully aware of the spiritual forces guiding them, but those forces are there. 

It's not possible for such a consistent multi-generational, muti-century plan to be fulfilled without clear "intelligent" guidance, and the early feminists told us their inspiration was the god of this world. He is still at work, and he remains almost completely unchecked by a western Church that has bought into many of his lies, which provides him cover to inspire the further degradation of our culture.

But note this statement:

"Ms Grace said the changes came as part of the government’s push to prevent gender inequality."

Equality is a pervasive poison, that many of us have been warning about for some time. It is an absolute concept that demands absolute adherence. Because 'equal' just means 'same', the consistent application of it to people can only ever result in the erasure of all gender roles and, this is important, gender distinctions in society. 

A few years ago people were told they were crazy fundamentalists for making such a statement, but here we see it happening before our eyes. Feminism will continue to march on towards the fulfilment of this goal, as long as the Church remains passive and quiet before its march. It is worse than that really in most churches, because in many churches the false god of equality is the lense through which gender roles are taught. 

Equality is a false god, requiring absolute adherence. Do you see this now? 

Some Good News In Sport

The culture wars continually rage. They are never settled, or over. The kingdom of darkness is always seeking to extinguish good, and the kingdom of God is continually advancing and growing. 

When we see wins, even little ones, we should celebrate them, because they encourage us to keep advocating for the good and true. Even in the highly converged world of sport, there are still glimpses of sanity:

"Rugby League has become the second major sporting body to ban transgender athletes from participating in international events.

According to The Daily Telegraph, International Rugby League will prohibit ‘male to female’ players from playing in international competitions until further research is carried out.

“In the interest of avoiding unnecessary welfare, legal and reputational risk to International Rugby League competitions, and those competing therein, the IRL believes there is a requirement and responsibility to further consult and complete additional research before finalising its policy,” the organization said.

“The IRL reaffirms its belief that rugby league is a game for all and that anyone and everyone can play our sport. It is the IRL’s responsibility to balance the individual’s right to participate — a longstanding principle of rugby league and at its heart from the day it was established — against perceived risk to other participants, and to ensure all are given a fair hearing.”

Not all of us are interested in women's sport, or even support the idea of it. But if it is going to happen, it should be impossible for a man to ever compete against women on their turf. Women's bodies are nowhere near as strong, sturdy or durable as men's bodies, and the damage a man can do while competing with women in sport is vast. It should not happen, especially in contact sport. 

Celebrate these small wins. It shows it is worth advocating for truth and goodness. The culture can be redirected, and we Christians have a responsibility to make sure we play our part in doing that. 

Justice Still Needs To Happen

Society is starting to settle back into a place of normality:

"Unvaccinated teachers, school staff and childcare workers will be free to return to work next week, just weeks after hundreds were officially terminated over their refusal to be inoculated against COVID-19.

The vaccine mandate that requires all education staff to have had three doses will expire at midnight on Friday and school leaders have been briefed on what they need to do to redeploy unvaccinated staff, as well as how to respond to any objections by parents.

Parents will not have the right to pull their children out of a class because a teacher is unvaccinated nor be informed of any school staff member's vaccination status.

"Parents do not have the right to ask for this information and no one at the school should have this information. Principals do not hold information about the vaccination status of staff or students," an information sheet for principals seen by The Age states." 

These people never should have lost their jobs, but it is good they are finally having their right to work in their profession restored. But all is not fine:

"A secondary school principal who had to terminate three staff members who refused to be vaccinated said they would welcome one of them back, despite disagreeing with their stance, because they were a terrific employee. But the other two had been aggressive in raising their objections to the mandate and "burnt their bridges", the principal said.

But the principal predicted that they would not struggle to find a teaching job elsewhere.

"At the moment there's so many vacancies that they could pick up a job in five seconds if they want to."

Another principal, also speaking anonymously so as to speak freely, said he anticipated some potential resentment from staff who had been vaccinated, but that he would not buy into it.

"You have to be professional and you move on as though nothing happened," he said. "Don't get caught up in emotional and political battles with your staff … When they come back they will slot into a job at the school and the tone of the school will be, we move on."

"...two had been aggressive in raising their objections". Really? They did not like being fired for no reason? How selfish of them... This kind of self-righteousness on behalf of those who enforced the mandates is itself a real problem. This "we were just following orders" mentality is not right. 

The implied message here in this article is that it is time to move on and that those who were fired should let it go, and those who stayed and submitted to the mandates and all that entails should not shun those brought back. 

But those who were fired were marginalised, victimized, segregated, had their careers damaged, and more, all over what should have been a personal choice in the first place. Some of those who stayed and submitted, many, were coerced to do so, and now suffer all sorts of effects, both psychological and physical from that coercion. 

There needs to be restoration for these people. There needs to justice brought to bear on those who brought down this hammer on our society. Don't listen to the calls to just let it go, be willing to forgive, but seek repentance from those who did wrong, seek justice, legally and ethically, where you can. If people are allowed to just move on like this never happened, as one principal explicitly said they want to do, then the conditions are set up for worse injustice in the future. There still needs to be justice.

Bad Views Of Hell

 

Last week we looked only briefly at the topic of hell, because my intention with last week’s sermon was to build up for you a glorious and encouraging image of the great destiny that we have in heaven. But we did look briefly at what we could call the ACDC theology of hell.

ACDC theology of Hell – The ACDC theology of hell, is the idea that hell is going to be a big party, and a fun time with all of the “cool” people. Now obviously we know this is ridiculous, because we know what the Bible says about hell, we read it last week, Revelation 14:9-11 – “9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” We know that hell is not a good place, but a terrible place, because we believe the Bible. But let’s meditate on the ACDC theology of hell just for a moment, and see if it makes any earthly sense. Cause these people believe their friends will be there too.

If all who reject the Lord go to hell, this means the worst oppressors the world ever saw, who did not repent, will be in Hell. Evil tyrants, corrupt and violent kings, Communist leaders, and Nazi leaders, just for a start. Hell will be filled with the pagan kings of old who terrorized the world, laid waste kingdoms, like Ghengis Kahn who burnt Baghdad, the largest city in the world at the time, to its foundations. Any of these men who did not repent will be there.  

-        All of the worst serial killers who did not repent will be there.

-        All of the worst rapists, murderers, thugs, pickpockets, drug dealers and con artists, who did not repent will be there.

-        All of pornographers, abortionists, sexual deviants, and worse, who did not repent will be there.

-        Have you read how bad the ancient Assyrians were? Any of them that did not repent will be there.

So, when ACDC says, “My friends are gonna be there too”. Maybe that’s true, but Attila the Hun’s friends will be there too, and Hannibal the Conqueror’s friends, and Julius Caesar’s friends. Assuming they did not repent. I mean, maybe they did, maybe all of these people repented, how are we to know?

But assuming they did not, would you want to risk spending an eternity in their version of a party? That would be like an Aztec temple religious service. If you don’t know what that is like, think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Think horrible human sacrifice and torture. People more evil than you can imagine.

So, without even referencing the Bible we can easily see that the kind of people that go to hell, make it an undesirable place.

The Bible makes this clear as well:

Revelation 21:8, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelation 22:14-15 – “14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

So, the ACDC theology of hell can be rejected both logically and biblically.  

Annihilationism – But there is another bad view of hell, that is incredibly popular that we need to deal with today, and that is the idea of annihilationism. Annihilationist’s believe that hell is eternal, but you do not suffer there consciously. Rather the sinner who is sent to hell is either destroyed on entering hell, or destroyed at some point after entering hell.

Annihilationists call the traditional view ECT or eternal conscience torment. Their view being Eternal Destruction or Eternal Annihilationism. This is an attractive view, and one you can understand people wanting to be true. There are even passages in the Bible that Annihilationists will use to seek and prove their view is biblical.

Isaiah 66:22-24 – “22 For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. 23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. 24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Isaiah 38:18-19 – Hezekiah’s prayer - “18 For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness. 19 The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.”

The annihilationist will argue that since it is only those who are saved that will be resurrected, that these passages are saying that the wicked will simply cease to exist consciously in hell. They will suffer for a time, or suffer utter annihilation, and then be gone forever.

This view is incredibly attractive, and it is a heresy that pops up again and again in Church history. It generally comes to prominence in times of great liberalization of the Church. I think this is because as the Church becomes more liberal, it downplays sin more and more, and then eventually it downplays it enough, that people cannot handle what the Bible says about hell.

Annihilationists read the Bible backwards. The Old Testament did not have a fully developed theology of hell. Annihilationists prioritize the Old Testament verses over what Jesus and the Apostle’s said, but we are supposed to do the opposite. But even towards the end of the Old Testament time we see the New Testament ideas of hell coming into the Bible. For example, Daniel 12:1-3 – “12 At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

How can those in hell be forever unconscious, or annihilated, if they experience everlasting shame and contempt? The clear answer is that they must be conscious.

Their eternal shame is contrasted with our eternal glory, we “shall shine like the brightness of the sky above” or as John Newton put, “bright shining as the sun.” And those who turn many to righteousness shall shine even brighter.

So, we can put these bad ideas to rest. People may go to hell with their friends, but it will not be the kind of atmosphere they were expecting. And the idea that people are just destroyed cannot be true, which we will prove conclusively as we go forward, and which the Old Testament itself even pointed to. So, let’s see what the New Testament tells us about hell.

If you want to hear this whole sermon titled: Hell Fire for the Damned, listen here.