For a Fair Desire

A little while ago I posted a blog entitled 'After God's Own Heart' in which I intimated at the end that there would be more to follow on this topic. This blog will seek to pick up where the previous left off...

The last paragraph of the said blog began:

"God is a jealous God. God is jealous for His Holy name. That means He is both angered and heartbroken by the idolatry of this world."

Yesturday I returned from Bulstrode, the UK headquarters of WEC international, where I had undertaken an orientation course for my impending short mission trip to Japan in July. While I was there I was once again reminded of the heart of God and the Great Commision that Jesus gave His disciples before ascending into Heaven. At the end of the day I am going to Japan to help share the Gospel with a people who are in desperate need of hope. It is this message of hope conquering despair and of life conquering death that is at the heart of the Gospel - and at the heart of God. For God is a jealous God, jealous in His love and jealous for His holy name. This principle seems very clear to me:

As humans we take pride in our achievements and qualifications. So many of us define ourselves through our accomplishments. In academia if someone copies your work and passes it off as their own it is known as plagiarism and is a very serious acadmic offence, after all it basically amounts to intellectual theft. If we do not tolerate someone else taking the credit for our work then why should God be happy with false gods and religions receiving the praise, adoration, faith and worship that is due His name?

Relativists would say 'there is no absolute truth, live and let live" but what is the basis of such a truth claim? Has it been given by divine revelation? No. It has come from the intellectual reasoning of humanity that bears much influence (known or unbeknown to them) of utilitarianism, the philosophical system whereby how we act should be towards the greatest amount of happiness of the greatest amount of people. It is also a decidedly Post-Modern rationale, a cynicism towards objective knowledge. As the famous analogy goes 'all paths up the mountain lead to the same summit'. But what gave the relativist or post-modernist that vantage point? Not to mention the self-contradictory nature of a statement that exerts no absolute truth exists (which in itself is an absolute truth statement). This position is as morally offensive as the 'exclusivism' of monotheistic religions so many reject and is a hidden kind of exclusivism in its own right.

Back to my point: whether you use the scientific methodology of Occam's razor (that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily) or the deductive philosophical Kalam Cosmological argument that everything that has a beginning must have a first cause or primary mover - in the universe's case: God; the universe points to there being one God. This one God is the I AM, YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and most importantly the God of Jesus Christ. Therefore God is jealous for His Holy name:

"And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them..." Exodus 20:1-5

Even Hinduism, commonly known as the world's major polytheistic religion would argue there is only one Supreme Being - Brahman. Yet nevertheless the religion consists of many lesser gods such as the Hindu Triumvirate of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. So how do we account for all the discrepencies in world religions over the nature, character and person of this one supreme being? Human reason and scientific methods can only take us so far. For the final piece of the puzzle we need divine revelation. However the problem arises when we take into account the existence of the Devil. As a fallen angel, corrupted by jealousy Satan was cast out of Heaven and subsequently became the 'Father of Lies' as Jesus describes him. Therefore Satan has continually sought throughout human history, beginning in the Garden of Eden, to deceive humanity and distort God's Word. Thus he has led astray into false teachings and false religions many people.

But God has not tolerated these cancerous lies and sent His own Son Jesus - whom the Bible says is full of grace and truth to reveal the one true living God to us. Jesus said nothing on his own accord, only what the Father instructed him to say; he did not believe equality with God something to be grasped but humbled himself even to death upon a cross. As Christians are we content to see others go through life believing a lie, forming their world view and moral code around an untruth or an incomplete picture of God? Is God content to see people worshipping false gods who have no power to hear or save? False gods who did not create them! As human beings we understand our human right to acknowledgement and praise for our accomplishments and achievements. We would not sit back placidly as someone steals our identity - we have laws against Fraud and Identity theft! So why should we deny God what is rightfully His?

Therefore I urge any Christians reading this to prayfully seek God's will for their lives; listen to what God may be calling you to do, so that others may hear the truth and the truth set them free!

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands." Revelation 7:9

Let us make this a reality here on earth, receive the call and be a part of God's great salvation plan; reach out in loving kindness to your family, your colleagues, your friends and maybe even to others around the world.

Who will guard the guardians?

I was not anticipating writing another blog so soon after my last. I like to let my blogs be digested and to internalise my thoughts before creating new ones. However I have just read something that has left me so dumbfounded and quite frankly angry. What is the cause of my unbrage? Judgementalism - specifically judgementalism about Christian metal about very trivial matters. Let me explain. Practically since Christians started playing heavy metal there have been detractors who have accused the said Christians of deceit, hypocrisy and out right satanism! Yet not only do Christian bands have to face the full force of the genres critics but also of Christian fans who believe it is their prerogative to shoot down and judge any Christian band they feel is not being 'Christian enough'. So on the one hand you have a pharisaical spirit that denounces all Christian metal as of the Devil and on the other you have a religious spirit that condemns bands for not conforming to their ideal of the perfect evangelistic super holy and righteous Christian metal band.


I have been listening to metal for the past 10 years and I have seen the way many of my favourite bands have been judged and condemned for the reasons stated above. It is extremely sad and disappointing. But only this afternoon I learnt of the most recent example. Becoming the Archetype, a progressive death metal band and one of the most important Christian bands of the last decade in my opinion, released their new album a few days ago. Sarcastically the band made a comment on their facebook about the album containing Fred Durst like hand gestures, which may be unsuitable for children - Fred Durst was at one time one of the most well known nu-metal frontmen from the band Limp Bizkit and was famous for his outlandish image and antics. The comment was clearly a joke aimed at Fred Durst, and while its humour may have been subtle and its barb at the music of Limp Bizkit may only have been funny to long term fans of metal it was met with some vitriolic indignation by some fans.


According to a blog written by the band to defend themselves against many cruel and unfounded accusations they were even called 'satan's sellouts' by some and the integrity of their beliefs were brought into question. I couldn't believe what I was reading! Incidents like these are absolutey ridiculous and are perfect examples of an un-Christ-like heart. Did Jesus respond with scorn and rejection to sinners? No. Jesus conversed with such people with patience, compassion and love. None of us are perfect and even if the aforementioned joke was a little distasteful to some peoples' sense of humour it in no way deserved the hateful reaction it got. The Church and many Christians need to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror. There is too much judgementalism surrounding the sincerity of Christian metal bands. If they are not treated with suspicion because of the style of music they play, they are judged for not being good enough Christians. But none of us are perfect and if God only used perfect people then no one would be a Christian today. Fact.


As a metalhead (although I use the label less as a medal of honour than I used to) Christian bands like Becoming the Archetype have been nothing short of God-sends, a ray of light in an otherwise darkened genre. They are so important not only in supporting me spiritually but as a witness in the secular music world. Christian fans should do everything in their power to support spiritually through prayer their favourite bands rather than condemn them unjustly and hypocritically. For the Bible says that breaking just one law makes us law breakers. It doesn't matter whether our sins are the same as others, we are all sinners. My message to any Christian metal fan reading this: stop putting Christian bands on pedestals and pray that God would give you the gift of discerning of spirits to reveal to you whether you have a religious or pharisaical spirit that is not of God. Jesus said beware the yeast of the Pharisees - it is not true Christianity.