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Jesus Loves ISIS

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For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! – Romans 5.

A young missionary couple, recently arrived in a country where speaking of Christianity is illegal, wrote a letter to their would-be executioners, saying they forgave them because of what Christ has already done. They assumed that at some point, they will be killed for their faith, and wanted to express beforehand their complete forgiveness and love.

Another young American couple, so convinced that Jesus loves ISIS as much as anybody else, gave up successful careers and moved to what is possibly the least favourite holiday hotspot in the world. It is right in the midst of where ISIS runs most rampant, and the mere mention of Jesus in any conversation is likely to be met with death. A middle-aged woman, with few qualifications and seemingly little to offer, is working alongside others in reaching the hardest to reach with the news that God loves them and has provided a way of transforming their hatred into love.

As I recently watched their stories unfold, I was dismayed to realise before the Lord that in my pre-Christ state I was absolutely no different to anyone signed up to ISIS. Even those who slit the throats of a group of orange suited believers down by the sea. In fact, I genuinely wonder if I wasn’t even more culpable given my privilege and background. The confronting reality of discovering and thinking about this, has shaken me. I have been closer in personality to a member of ISIS, than to Jesus Christ. I was God’s enemy, when horrifyingly, I always thought I was pretty good.

In a world that has adopted the mantra, ‘love humankind, but hate your neighbour’ this is an expression of the deepest love anyone can show another human being. The result, painfully slow and only at a cost few could ever contemplate, is that darkness is being pushed back in these places, replaced with the love of God found only in Jesus.

Why is this so important for you and me?

We have the lost the very sharp edge of Faith that says we are all equally, enemies of God. That outside of Christ, God sees all of us in much the same vein as he sees the average ISIS member; murderers, liars, thieves, adulterers and covetous. That outside of Christ, God is going to deal with us in a manner so terrifying, that none of us can imagine how that can be. We are so dulled by our culture, that we laugh such a notion off.

Worse, is that the average Christian suffers from a cultural malaise that denies there is really a problem, that God loves everyone and so what is the worry? Our ‘cultural Christianity’ has now become so bad, that even when the Bible clearly calls something sin, we tend to be uncertain as to whether God is really serious. Such is the condition, that the lines are blurred, and many who regularly ‘go to church’ and think they are saved, might be as prepped for hell as their unsaved neighbour.

God is looking for believers here and now, who will stand up and make the clarion call as to the real state of affairs. That, like missionaries serving in ISIS territory, are prepared to tell their neighbour that God has offered them a way out through Christ, but that unless they repent they are under severe judgement – God will treat them in much the same way as he is going to treat ISIS soldiers.

Few would deny that such people deserve everything God gives them, but what about us? Can we really call ourselves ‘followers of Jesus’ when we blithely let everyday people pass us by without reacting in any way? We must explain that God is love and has provided us with a way out from the coming terror of judgement. We, and they, must respond with urgency.  

So What?

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I’m having an email exchange with a pastor who writes a blog about the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. I agree entirely with his thinking, which to me at least, is fresh and exciting – in a nutshell, he says that Jesus was talking exclusively about AD70 in this passage, not the end times. The arguments, read with a determination not to be coloured by years of teaching, are persuasive. Most of all though, they are impactful.

Recently, I asked the writer, ‘so what does it mean’ if this is actually correct? He hadn’t answered that question, the most important question. He’s decided to answer it in the blog, but it would seem he’s missed the point. He, the writer, has simply loaded more doctrine onto more theology. The real ‘so what’ in my view at least, is that if Matthew 24 is only about AD70 and the Old Covenant at that point was totally destroyed, we exist in something fantastically new. Except we don’t.

We haven’t been out on the streets recently for various reasons, and things have changed. It’s meant that we don’t have that passion for taking the Gospel to the world – whereas once we would stop and pray for people anywhere (and everywhere) we are now more hesitant. Whereas once we were so unashamed of the Gospel, now we hide it more. We are more comfortable with the world and our Christianity becomes only for ourselves and other believers. As a result, our entire relationship with Christ has become more jaded. Fortunately though, Christ is not quite so content to leave things as they are with us.

I spent Sunday morning with an old addict friend of mine – someone I originally met on the streets. He has been clean for 100 days, and when he is clean he is the most delightful person in the world. I really enjoy his company. He is suspicious of Christians, and all things church, which in turn reflect his attitude towards Christ. But, he sees Christ in what we are trying to do, and it piques his interest. I get to bring Jesus into conversations and pray with him. This morning was a refreshing morning as I was reminded that we have many friendships from the streets, and many of the people still want to hear more of the Gospel. There is much work to be done and it has given me the impetus to start ‘getting out there’, wherever God shows ‘out there’ to be to us; who knows maybe even you too?

And the ‘So What?’ point of all this is..?

The New Covenant in Christ, changed everything. In particular, it changed where Christ would meet with people, and who he would meet with. The priesthood, the buildings, the structure of worship, the money, the tithing, the rules, all of it was gone. At least it should be. It certainly disappeared in the New Testament. Christ, the Disciples and his church moved out of the Temple, the synagogue and into the marketplace. Christ, the ‘perousia’ is ever present, ruling with his church in the here and now. I would challenge that wherever there is a move of the Spirit in revival, it is where people start proclaiming the Gospel in the marketplace. Indonesia, China, Arabia, think about it. Christ on the streets.

We have though, kept certain things from the Old Covenant. We have kept particularly the structure, but also the company – our Western churches especially are filled often with ‘nice people’ who are perhaps 2nd or 3rd generation believers. Few others, if we’re honest, would ever darken the doors of a church. There is a costly risk in embracing the New Covenant, and we don’t want to give up our day job so much to embrace it fully. The Old Covenant was so convenient, because we could go through the ritual without it having much impact in our lives. Sound familiar?

But reading this blog has become a revelation and a revolution in my own life. If the Old Covenant really did end in AD70, then the implications are enormous for how we, Christ’s church here on earth, live our lives. We are called to be very different, to deny ourselves, and to give up everything for him.  Are you and I living like that?

One poignant thing is this – in AD70 God enacted serious vengeance on the nation of Israel for rejecting his message over the centuries, and especially for rejecting his precious Son. It would seem that period was one of the worst in history, and one designed specifically by God. The message was clear.

I wonder if we feel so safe continuing to ignore him today. We shouldn’t test his patience.

Taslan

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Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared – 1 Tim 4

In CS Lewis’ book, The Last Battle, a rather shrewd ape (called Shift) sews a lion skin around a rather dumb donkey (Puzzle) and uses him to control Narnia. Shift the ape, parades the look-alike lion before the Narnians only during twilight, and the innocent Narnians are left speechless at what they perceive the remarkable and legendary Aslan has become. How could one so majestic and powerful, have become so revolting and pernicious.

The ape then joins forces with the arch enemy of Narnia, the Calormenes, who have a god called Tash. Tash is an evil spirit, a vulture with 2 feet and 4 arms, and eats children who are given to him in child sacrifice. In a masterstroke of brilliance, the ape and Calormenes declare that Tash and Aslan are one and the same, and Aslan becomes Taslan. Everyone is utterly confused.

In the saddest twist that eventually destroys Narnia forever, even when the truth is finally revealed, when Tash is banished and the donkey exposed, Narnians are too dismayed to put their faith in anything other than themselves. A once beautiful country has now become worthless and fit only for destruction.

The Last Battle mirrors our own society so closely, that it would seem Lewis was writing while reading today’s news. Our society is so confused about the truth and who is really in charge, that the only person they feel safe putting their faith in, is themselves. The West it seems, has finally caught up with the world inhabited by Paul.

Paul’s final letters are replete with warnings on false teachings, spirits and deception within the fledgling church. While he specifically addresses what was happening in the church, it seems that if his society was anything like ours, that confusion was just absorbed from the world. Both the world and the church appear very mystified about Jesus Christ.

I met with a disciple maker this week, and we had a wonderful time sharing times of prayer, elation and trials. Our conclusions were remarkably similar, and that is, it is extremely difficult to engage Western culture in anything that resembles the demands of Jesus Christ. Jesus, Mohammed or even faith in yourself, is it really such a big deal? Sometimes sadly, the church appears just as jumbled.

Those with eyes to see will see this though – this is only the beginning, soon it is going to get much worse.

A happy Christmas message you might ask?

Well, I think so. To me and those who are committed to growing in Jesus Christ, this time reminds us of the sheer extraordinariness of God. We have a lofty, majestic King, God’s own Son, who is far above all else, and yet, and yet, this Christ still will condescend himself to accept us, heal us, forgive us, grant us total amnesty if only we would accept him. His lightness is more brilliant than the darkest of our dark, and he alone has the power to rescue humanity. He works in the lives of individuals dealing with each of us so perfectly and exactly where we are. Above all though, my Jesus is alive. Two thousand years after we nailed him to a cross, he continues to reign in heaven.

The world and the church will continue to grow cold in their devotion to Jesus Christ, and one day in this country we will be forbidden from celebrating him publicly. I am certain that will be the case. But it is worth reminding ourselves at this time of year, that such a fact does not alter one iota who the person of Jesus Christ is. World systems, politicians and those who are so full of hatred towards him, can no more make him go away than they can blot out the sun.

In The Last Battle, Aslan comes back when he is least expected. When all have dismissed his presence as no more than a mythical legend, Aslan returns. But by then it is all too late, for he has come for but one purpose, to wind Narnia up and only those who have remained faithful will be saved. So it is with our King, this Jesus that the world has largely dismissed. He is coming back.

My question to you, as it has been to those who I have met out on the streets all year is this though, why would you not embrace him with everything you have? A God who by rights should be at war with us, instead offers himself so willingly, so humbly, to each of us through his Son. Come to me he says, all who are weary and I will give you rest, freedom and life, both here and ever after.

Embrace it, embrace him with your all. He will never disappoint.

Merry Christmas, thanks for reading. May he be your rest and your peace this season.

Faith

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I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.– Romans 10

Give me the faith that can remove; and sink the mountain to a plain – Charles Wesley, Hymn

I went to see a doctor today, a Jewish lady with a slightly new age understanding of Jesus though she did mention faith; I was able to share with her some passages in Romans that hopefully clarified who Jesus was (she was delighted he was Jewish) why he is still important (Grace rests on atonement) and how she might respond (repentance and have faith in who he is and what he did). I pray, in faith, that God will draw her towards the truth of his Son and wait expectantly.

The book of Romans, indeed most of Pauls entire writings are filled with this single concept, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and nothing else. This blog exists solely to point people to that truth. Why is it then, we struggle to grasp that, and our faith is so weak? I am in the midst of listening to what the Almighty has to say on the matter and it could be a long conversation.

In Romans 1, Paul speaks of ‘obedience unto faith,’ in itself challenging. Faith as the objective belief (the faith) or subjective (I trust); obedience as a result of faith or included in faith? We could go on.

Surely though, it is the subjective nature of our ‘faith’ in God, that has most running to add some formula or other to sure up the foundations. My faith in God is incomplete, slightly restless, growing (at times) and even tenuous. Where I am today, may be different to where I am tomorrow. Worse still, the incorrigible nature of God seems to rest easily with that. What shall we do with all this?

What we most often do, is to put a framework around the subjective nature of faith. We allow others to define it through their set of rules, that put it on more of a concrete footing. Dogma, tradition, interpretation – all that defines our faith. Regrettably, in fact horribly so, our ‘faith’ in God is weak because it is based on our “doing stuff” to get his nod of approval. It totally misses all that faith is.

My faith in God, is the foundation of a relationship with the living God of the universe; it says, because of my belief, however tenuous or fallible, I still have the right to call God ‘papa.’ That his Son has committed the ultimate act that enables that to happen, and my faith must encompass that as part of the relationship. God accepts that my faith may waver at times, in fact he will test me to see if it does. All of that though, is part of the deal of faith. It must be alive.

For his part, God reserves the right to do a little shaping himself, stretching my faith in him, such that our relationship can become even more intense, more alive.  He says, if I can just get you to trust me with all the details of your life, if instead of praying to me without the slightest notion that I might answer, you would walk through each day looking for my answer. If you would just trust me, test me even, in this area. Do you not believe that you are an heir to my Kingdom, my child, and that all that is said in the Bible of my fatherly nature towards you is really true?

Instead, let’s be honest here, our preference is to put our faith in more tangible assets than God; what test on our faith is there when we have a house with no mortgage, a decent car, constant food, water, money…really, is our faith ever tested, yours or mine?

When a woman of small means, offered her entire inheritance of 500 pounds to George Mueller (at a time when he really needed it) he advised her to go away and pray about it again for a few weeks just to be sure. He prayed about it for 134 days straight, confident that whatever the Lord’s (and her) decision would be it would be the right one. On the very day the money finally arrived, a suitable building came up that would allow them to expand the orphanage work, as Mueller knew the Lord had been directing him to pray for over several months.

You, me – we long to see this, to experience it in our lives. If we have any relationship with God, this is what we want. We long to see the shackles of tradition and dogma fall off, and to experience faith in a huge God such that when we pray, unworthy as we are, we would see God move mightily. To have such a relationship that we believed in unwaveringly, that when we prayed about something or better still someone, we would see him move. Oh, that you and I had that relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Do you know Mueller didn’t believe for one moment, that his gift of Faith was extraordinary or unique? Indeed, he wrote that it was every child of God’s birthright to expect God to answer and provide for their every need, and he warned everyone about the deception of Satan that tells us otherwise, makes us believe we are unworthy.

Let us keep going – and sharing. We need more faith in a faithful God. He will not let us down. Do you live like that?

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