Suffering

This from Matthew Minix reminding us that the persecution of our brothers and sisters in China continues:

Seven priests of the underground Catholic Church were arrested in China's Heibei province on Wednesday, April 27, the Cardinal Kung Foundation reports.

The priests had been attending a spiritual retreat led by Bishop Jian Zhiguo of the Zhending diocese-- who had been under 24-hour surveillance by police for most of the past month. Bishop Jia had reportedly been warned by Chinese officials that he should not schedule any religious activities.

The tight surveillance of Bishop Jia had begun when the death of Pope John Paul II (bio - news) appeared imminent, and continued through the election of Pope Benedict XVI. The Chinese government has established a history of crackdowns on the underground Church at times when religious sentiments are high-- such as Easter and Christmas-- as well as the time of major national holidays and Communist Party meetings.

Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning. It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, That it may do whatever He commands it On the face of the inhabited earth. Whether for correction, or for His world, Or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen. (Job 37:11-13).

American evangelicals deny the plain teaching of Scripture that God is active in our midst, disciplining His sons and sending those who hate Him a foretaste of their coming eternal torment. The denial is not in the form of a denunciation of these disciplinary and retributive acts in the past as they are recorded in Scripture and Church history, but rather a denunciation of anyone who has the faith to believe that such things are happening among us today and who blows the trumpet with a certain note of warning.

Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, "O wicked man, you will surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life. (Ezekiel 33:7-9).

As we face New Orleans and 9/11 and AIDS, exactly why is it that we have the freedom to maintain a strict silence concerning God's agency and will in these great disasters when all previous believers used similar disasters to issue specific calls to repentance? Here is Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaking of World War I & World War II, calling them God's specific judgment against specific sin:

So we have had the self-same thing in the Church and in the world. False worship, false religion, false gods, and an appalling state of evil, sin and vice. And then what happens? Well, you remember what happened to the Israelites? God punished them, and He always punishes sin. I repeat again what I have often said, that I regard the two World Wars which we have experienced in this century as God's punishment of the apostasy of the last century. I see no other adequate explanation. God punished the Israelites in a terrible manner, Moses came down from the Mount and saw the appalling condition of the people and he sent out his great challenge. He stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me" (Exodus 32:26).

-from Martyn Lloyd-Jones' book, Revival, p. 151.

Cultivated agnosticism concerning the purposes of God in human suffering is nothing new. It's always been a temptation for men called to speak for God to deny that God has anything specific to say other than "Peace! Peace!" But such unfaithfulness to our calling carries a terrible price: we will face God ourselves with blood on our hands...

(Jesus said) "Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:4,5)

Concerning the account of the disciples' response to the collapse of the Tower of Siloam and Jesus' rebuke of them, at World's sub-blog, Zeitgeist, Dr. Gene Edward Veith writes, "(Here) our Lord Jesus Christ clearly teaches how we are to regard natural and unnatural disasters...."

But if this is the classic location to use to interpret calamities and suffering, what do we make of all the other texts of Scripture where God tells us that people suffered and died because they were notorious (worse than others) sinners? For instance, what are we to make of Nadab and Abihu, Uzzah, and Ananias and Saphira? What of Nabal and Jezebel? And what of Herod who so angered God by his pride that Scripture tells us, "...immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died" (Acts 12:23)?

No, the words of Jesus following the collapse of the Tower of Siloam are no more of a universal rule for the interpretation of calamities and suffering than...

Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. (Hebrews 13:12-14)

Saturday, I wrote about my gratitude for the unity and peace of our own congregation, Church of the Good Shepherd. Since then, I've been thinking about how our unity came to be and I realize how central the battles a number of us went through in another prior congregation were for the development of this unity. In our prior congregation, the central issue was the refusal of a small group of influential leaders to allow any exercise of correction or rebuke by the congregation's elders. They considered anathema even the most private forms of church discipline.

It was a painful ordeal, but the Holy Spirit used it to produce the unity and peace of Church of the Good Shepherd we presently enjoy--including, now, ten years of loving and peaceful congregational meetings.

This comes to mind as I read of attacks other pastors are suffering, particularly our dear brother, Pastor Doug Wilson. David and I are not surprised Doug is under attack. He's a strong leader with biblical convictions, and he's at his greatest precision and boldness in preaching those convictions where the Evil One has focused his attack and there's a breach in the wall. But instead of other church officers giving thanks to God for raising up such a warrior, Pastor Wilson is the object of much envy and resentment. Like all of us, Pastor Wilson is a sinner in both his conduct and doctrine and we are confident he appreciates the licks he takes for his sin.

But taking his licks from fellow presbyters, his children, or his wife is a far cry from having any Tom, Dick, or Harry set himself up as a judge over every word of his pastoral conversations and session meetings extending years into the past and posting those judgments on this gabfest and gossip-pool known as the internet. Need I point out that Doug Wilson is not the only one suffering such persecution?

In both the church and secular world, leaders have lost the manly traits and pander to their constituency. Church officers are given to mollycoddling, equivocation, and self-doubt. One of my favorite cartoons shows a consultant meeting with a pastor in his office. The wall holds a graph of the congregation's attendance trends and they're down, down, down. Pointing to the graph the consultant says, "I'm no expert in these things, but I think it might help if you didn't end every sermon with, 'But then again what do I know, anyhow?'"

Pastor Wilson preaches, teaches, and leads as if he has received the good deposit and intends, come hell or high water, to pass it on to reliable men...

Note: Surrounding disasters such as Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and 9/11, there has been a vigorous debate over God's role in each tragedy; and more particularly, whether such tragedies should ever be seen as God's warning against sin? During this debate, Tony Campolo and others have been quick to deny that there was any particular lesson to be learned, other than the call to show compassion to those in need. In fact, Campolo's writing on the subject gave reason to wonder whether he'd not moved from theism to deism, and whether he no longer believed in an immanent or sovereign God?

Texts such as John 9:1-3 and Luke 13:1-5 have figured prominently in the debate, but the conclusions drawn from these texts have often done violence to their plain meaning. Here's a solid piece by Vern Poythress, a prof at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and fellow PCA elder, addressing these matters in a thoroughly biblical manner. I commend the essay to our good readers.

Incidentally, Christ the Word and Church of the Good Shepherd have both taken part in seeking the permission of Vern and John Frame to create a web site containing everything they've ever written. Since the site's creation, many works have been added and I am pleased to recommend this valuable resource to you. If you find this site valuable, please send an encouraging note to Rev. Andrew Dionne, the site's webmaster and constant gardener.

And of course, also encourage Vern and John. These men are rare treasures within the reformed church, and they take enough hits to need encouragment. For a sample of work John has done that I've found very helpful in building Church of the Good Shepherd, read this.

Do Modern People Have Room for the Wrath of God?

by Vern Sheridan Poythress

Jan. 17, 2007

How do we think about disasters? On 9/11, disaster struck in the form of plane hijackings, loss of lives, the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, and the damage to the Pentagon. A few years later, a tsunami struck in southern Asia. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Some Christians thought that one or more of these disasters were judgments from God. Let me call them the doom-sayers. Other Christians quickly rose and criticized the thought. Let me call them the comforters. This disagreement among Christians raises the question as to how we will interpret the next disaster that strikes.

I am writing as one who believes the Bible. The Bible does indicate that God comprehensively controls the events in the world, including disasters (Lam. 3:37-38; Eph. 1:11; Amos 3:6; Isa. 45:7). That is not the question I wish to discuss. Rather, I want to ask how we are supposed to interpret these disasters.

The comforters, that is the Christians who criticize the idea of judgment, have pointed to several passages...

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Many clergy in the Solomon Islands - which have been wracked by years of ethnic and political turmoil - have blamed the catastrophe on people straying from Christian ways.

In Malakera, someone has painted on a smashed water tank the slogan: "Sin - contributing factor to destruction".

"This is a turning point for everybody. A reminder that God created the Earth," one young female survivor told smh.com.au today.

(by Tim) Now the count stands at two brothers in Christ martyred at the hands of the Taliban: first, the group's leader, Presbyterian Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu; and then today, Shim Sung-min.

In the midst of the continued captivity and deaths of these believers at the hands of heartless and cruel followers of that great heresy, Islam, how I rejoice at the faithful witness these brothers and sisters in Christ are giving to our Lord Jesus Christ!

We often write about fruitfulness, here; but principally the fruitfulness of marriage. Let's remember that our Lord commanded His Bride, the Church, to be fruitful, also, and that nothing is used by Him more to that end than martyrdom. Tertullian first made the observation during the Church's earliest centuries, and it's equally true today, that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

(Tim) Tonight, family devotions fell in 1Peter 4 and again we read that wonderful exhortation of verse twelve that is destined to become ever more precious to American believers in the coming years:

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you...

Sharing the sufferings of Christ is a great privilege which should cause us to rejoice. But it rarely does. Instead, our normal response is to express shock and horror that things have come to this and to ask, "Whatever happened to our Christian nation?"

It seems clear that, rather than being surprised at persecution, we're to be surprised when it's absent. This is why our Lord warned us, "Beware when all men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26). Having a stellar reputation in this evil day is a good indication that we have not been faithful to the Lord and His Word...

(Tim) First, if you haven't read the sermon David preached yesterday posted just below (A Sermon for the President--and for the People of God), I commend it to you. We need sermons like this to be preached across our country until those called by God as civil magistrates lead us to return to the fear of God and mercy to the poor, helpless, sojourners in our midst, and unborn. Note particularly David's comment about our self-made bonds.

Second, we're still getting the occasional Christmas/Easter letter and I thought we'd all benefit from this statement from my dear Roman Catholic friends from Denver, John and Molly Archibold:

Just right...

(Jesus said) "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep" (John 10:11).

(Tim, w/thanks to Todd W.) The NYTimes' David Brooks sets out to explain how a nation of five million won as many gold medals as our nation of three-hundred million at the Winter Olympics this year. So he tells a brief version of the story of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian instrument maker who tried to get back into Norway to help the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War.

The account reminds me of the Apostle Paul. What courage and tenacity in the face of the most terrible danger and suffering these hardened men demonstrated!

Which prompts me to ask when it was, precisely, that the sign of godliness in a pastor changed...

They went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach. They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. -Mark 1:21, 22

(Tim: this is third in an ongoing series, with the first here and the second here) Whether in classroom discussions, the dorm late at night, our accountant’s office, or coffee with a neighbor, the believer is hard pressed on all sides to give up truth. The radical relativism that permeates our world is absolutely antithetical to Scripture. Those seeking to preach Scripture faithfully will immediately face the world's dogmatic declaration that there is no truth--only stories, perspectives, and narratives; only my truth and your truth.

The intensity of the opposition we face is directly related to our faithfulness in preaching God’s Word with a form of delivery and content that is contextualized to the end that it appears radically authoritative to those acclimated to an effeminate relativism. Or, to put it another way, in our world one way to judge whether of not a preacher is a faithful servant of God is whether he is accused of arrogance. A faithful man will employ a method and content that bears witness to his faith that he is not communicating the words of men, but of God. With Calvin, he will declare that preaching is the Word of God. And the world has no way of understanding such declarations as anything but an arrogance that's sick and pathetic.

My wife and I were out for dinner one night. As we prepared to leave, we struck up a conversation with another couple at an adjoining table. In their mid-seventies, both were strikingly tall and dignified. During the preliminary small talk, we learned they had been married fifteen years, were from the Pacific Northwest, had several children from previous marriages, and he'd spent fifty years working as a computer programmer.

Our deeper conversation started with the woman exclaiming over the beauty of the ocean. She had learned I was a pastor and, trying to relate to us on a spiritual level, she told us how the sea gave her permission to commune with God as “she” rather than “he...”

(Tim) Yesterday, a friend sent me a satirical piece his son and several friends had written about a bunch of new city church plants with names like Elevation Church, Dust, The Line, Infusion Church, and Austin City Life (see Howard Davis' comment, below). He commented, "What is really amazing is their unique web sites all look alike (and) I bet all their unique worship services are the same. And... they're all about being in the 'city.'"

From reading many city church web sites, it's clear such churches normally aren't missional if missional means faithfulness to Jesus' Great Commission commands. Most indicate no practice of rebuke, preaching God's Law, or calls to repentance. Instead, they prattle on about being "for the city" and they're positively chipper.

It's all about seeking common ground with unbelievers. And if they mention God's perfections, it's only those perfections that would be likely to make unbelievers feel good about themselves and think God might not be so high and mighty and scary after all. Christian faith and the Church are presenting as uniting believers and unbelievers in the same brotherhood and sisterhood of man in and for the city. Convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment is out and assuring the world of our goodwill toward them in God's Name is in.

Reading Augustine's City of God earlier today, I came across this excerpt. Augustine knew something about preaching the Gospel in the city and contextualizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ to urbane men and women world-weary in a decadent

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) A bunch of self-affirming feminists who claim to be Christians met in Orlando, Florida recently, and issued a letter accompanying a set of demands. These women are convinced that God and the plain commands contained in His Word have produced wife abuse. As they see it, the faithful proclamation of God's Order of Creation--Adam first, then Eve--is responsible for many of the bad things that ever happened to women. 

Of course, they'd deny the above accurately reflects their letter and demands, but read it for yourself and see their hatred for the Word of God's commands. This is not to say terrible grievances against women don't inundate us, today. Regularly in my work, I cry for the suffering of the weaker sex at the hands of men.

There's no question husband's have murdered their wives. But think about it: there's also no question mothers have murdered their sons and daughters. And just as the command that children submit to their mothers isn't to be thrown out because it subjugates children to abusive and murderous mothers, so the command that wives submit to their husbands is not to be thrown out because it subjugates wives to abusive and murderous husbands.

Rather, the solution is...

(Tim) David Canfield forwarded this news piece about the Vatican working to stem the tide of Christian refugees flowing from the Middle East, adding this comment: "It's interesting that the US sought to re-introduce political freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, but did virtually nothing to secure religious freedom in those places. Considering that the US was first settled primarily by men and women seeking religious freedom, it would seem that we are abandoning our very roots by trying to promote the one without the other."

(Andrew Henry) The conflict over Joseph Maraachli throws into stark relief our modern age's attack on the authority of fathers and mothers.

The circumstances are simple and painful. Several years ago, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader lost their daughter, Zina, to a degenerative neurological condition. Her respiratory function deteriorated so severely that she was placed on a ventilator. Rather than allowing her to die in the hospital, her parents decided to take her home. A simple tracheotomy allowed her to breathe without the aid of a ventilator and she lived for six more months at home with her family before passing away.

Fast forward several years to the birth of Joseph. He was considered to be at high risk for the same genetic condition and was closely monitored as he grew. At four months old, he began having seizures and his parents worst fears were confirmed...

Sure I am, if it were well understood how much of the pastoral authority and work consisteth in church guidance, it would be also discerned, that to be against discipline, is near to being against the ministry; and to be against the ministry is near to being absolutely against the Church; and to be against the Church, is near to being absolutely against Christ. Blame not the harshness of the inference, till you can avoid it, and free yourselves from the charge of it before the Lord. - Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, (Banner of Truth, Carlisle PA: 1974) p. 111.

When a man rejects the exhortations and admonitions of his elders over a period of years, the time will come when he will turn his back on Christ's Church. If he refuses to repent and continues to give himself to sin, his sin will bear fruit and he will be separated from the Body of Christ. He may find another church that will allow him to hide in his sin; that church may marry and baptize and bury him and his family as churches have done across the centuries; but his repudiation of the discipline of Christ's Bride is his repudiation of Jesus Christ. The binding of earth and Heaven is no game of Angry Birds or Where's Waldo...

He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground." (Genesis 4:10)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has taken the first step towards doing for the Cult of Mao what Kruschev did for the Cult of Stalin: he's publicly spoken of the terrible suffering of his own family at the hands of the Red Guards during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Melinda Liu reports: 

The Cultural Revolution remains a neuralgic political topic because it reflects poorly on Mao, who presided over that decade but is revered by many Chinese as their nation’s “Great Helmsman.” During that decade, youthful Red Guard radicals rampaged through the country, sowing violence and terror.... Even today, the government wiggles around Mao’s responsibility for the Cultural Revolution with an ambiguous formula that declares his achievements to have been “70 percent good, 30 percent bad.”

It's about time one of China's premiers officially acknowledges Mao's riot of blood. Chinese ignorance or silence concerning the over fifty million souls who were slaughtered by Chairman Mao is complicity in that slaughter and the perfect seedbed for more slaughter to come.

Christians who know and love Chinese must speak with our Chinese friends about Mao's slaughter as often as we speak with our American friends of the slaughter of the unborn. Jews aren't bashful...

But Abraham said, "Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony" (Luke 16:25).

Lately I've been thinking about addictions, whether they be fixations on fantasy or money or knowledge or alcohol or prescribed drugs or illegal drugs or sex. Solomon gave himself to these tasty pleasures: "All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure... (Eccl. 2:10). The Temple he built had it's songs and sacrifices but Solomon's palace was rockin'. He concludes that there is no mountaintop-experience, no lasting high: "All a man's labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied" (Eccl. 6:7). In the end, all that this fallen world offers—all of it's vacations and tastes and pleasures and buzzes and escapes—are merely pleasure for a moment. Everything under the sun is only vapor and a striving after wind (Eccl. 1:14).

Yet,  that vaporous moment is goooood, no? Let's string together moment after moment, and we'll get through this alright...