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.