The Judgement of God?

During the summer of 2009, a pastor of a Pentecostal fellowship in my city of Melbourne, Australia, came under attack from both the wider church community and the media for saying that the horrendous bush-fires which took place that summer, were as a result of God’s judgement upon the nation and, particularly upon the state of Victoria, which had recently passed legislation to decriminalize abortion.

Apparently this man had a dream in which he saw fire everywhere with flames burning very high and uncontrollably.  When he awoke, he said the interpretation came in a flash from the Spirit of God, whereby His conditional protection had now been “removed…… for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb.”  Among many in the media, a talk-back radio host got hold of that story and blasted this pastor “to kingdom-come” for making such insensitive remarks during this time of immense suffering and human tragedy.  He also sought the opinion of an archbishop on the matter and interviewed him live on his program.

The archbishop was asked if he thought it was a judgement from God, to which he said it was not, bringing to mind the words of Jesus when citing the incident of the eighteen people who were killed when a tower fell on them, as is declared in Luke 13:4.  Personally, I agree with the archbishop’s reply.  But I was also greatly disappointed with him because he gave only half the truth.  Institutionalized church leaders seem to thrive on biblical half-truths, which is what makes them “media darlings” all around the world.  Every society feeds off lies and half-truths and this man played a perfect role in feeding ours that day.

In response to his criticism, the Pentecostal pastor said he was saying what people needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear, whereas, in my opinion, the archbishop told the radio man and his listeners what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear.  Like so many politically correct church leaders, the archbishop (that day at least), demonstrated his fear of man, but not his fear of God.  Why do I say that?  Because whilst he gave the “good news” in that Scripture passage, he omitted to share the verse before it and the one after it – both of which tell us that unless we repent, we will all likewise perish Luke 13:3,5.

Tragic events, such as those fires, may not be judgements from God in this age of grace where, “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” but they are wake up calls, for sure.  The Bible declares that soon, the age of God’s grace (undeserved benefits, favors) is coming to an end – and after that, the judgement.  In the meantime, God can use these (too often man-made) sadness’s and tragedies to remind us that we are all sinners, accountable to a holy God and that He wants us to turn to Him in the name of Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, receive Jesus Christ and His eternal (God’s quality of) life.

The archbishop did not at all refer to God’s grace coming to an end soon, nor to the return of Jesus Christ and His forthcoming judgement upon the unrepentant.  He had something to say about the love and mercy of God, but nothing to say about the wrath (anger, indignation, vengeance) of God, therefore he added to society’s (already) faulty concepts of God.  The radio man came across as very self-satisfied after his interview with the archbishop, perhaps for lots of reasons, but it seemed to me that he most certainly heard what he wanted to hear that day, as did most of his listeners, if a few phone calls are any indication.

Listening to a sermon one time, the minister said, “In the Bible colleges and seminaries today, students are being taught how to love people into hell.”  It’s true.  These institutions have forsaken the whole counsel (truth, advice, purpose, will) of God in favor of feelings, opinions, emotions, man-pleasing, political correctness, etc, and they have done a master job of seducing their graduates to embrace it all.  They are deemed in the church and society as loving men and women.  By contrast, we who uncompromisingly hold to the fundamental tenets of the Bible are deemed as Pharisaic, judgemental, creators of disunity, having no love.

The further the institutionalized church willingly moves away from God’s biblical ideal, the further it places itself on a downward slide beyond recovery, taking an increasingly unbelieving society down with it – also beyond recovery.  This now means, both “church” and society will reap what they sow.  We cannot blame God for that.  However, any sinful sowing reaped here on earth, can now be used by God and He can turn that into good, if we will but humble ourselves before Him.  Many of us know this to be a profound truth in our personal lives.  If it were not for adversities and adversaries in our lives many biblical believers would never have turned to God.

For whatever reason, the archbishop missed the golden opportunity to tell a captive audience of the true goodness, love and mercy of God by not declaring and explaining the need for repentance.  Speaking of the sowing and reaping principle – in relation to those fires – a current state government enquiry is making it clear that numerous warnings and much knowledge, wisdom & advice was simply ignored by too many people over too over many years, making such a disaster, sooner or later, impossible to avoid.  If society pays a high price for ignoring man’s advice, how much more for ignoring God’s advice?

The archbishop was not the only Christian to come down on the Pentecostal pastor for his insensitivity.  A well known federal politician did the same as did some pastors of popular churches throughout the nation.  But from what I have gleaned from their statements, they too failed to give mention of the event as a well timed wake-up call.  Throughout the world at this time, the need to be seen as sensitive and loving seems to be a more important reason for ministers to speak out against fellow ministers who say strange things, rather than true love for the gospel of Christ and for a spiritually dying society.

Without equating human disaster to the judgement of God, Christians, nevertheless, must speak up about the judgement of God which is most surely coming upon a non-repentant sinful, self-willed humanity, and that the Bible declares now is the day of salvation 2 Corinthians 6:2.  Regardless of what people think, do or say against that message and or the messenger, if we do not take up our mandate to proclaim God’s warnings, as well as blessings, we do not have God’s love for people.  Disasters cause people to question why.  We don’t often have answers, but we do have THE  ANSWER – Lord Jesus Christ.

Some Christians fail to speak up on God’s forthcoming judgement because they actually do not believe there will be one.  Perhaps that is the belief of the archbishop, I do not know.  Others fail to speak of it because they are desperate to be seen and thought of as compassionate and loving people – reputation is more important to them than anything else.  They have no desire whatsoever to be “offensive” and “judgemental.”   Perhaps that’s the problem with the Christian politician and popular church pastors – again, I do not know.  What I do know is, Jesus Christ will deliver us from the reputation trap if we are honest enough to tell Him it is a trap.

The Bible declares that when Jesus was on the earth He stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity and was happy to be a servant.  That’s not the way it is with most Christians and their leaders in the western world.  On the other hand, if we make the decision that we too are happy to give up our privileges and so-called rightful dignity to become a servant of the Lord, well then that same Lord will take us and fill us with His Spirit and with such wisdom & boldness that we will ever wonder why we thought our reputation was so important in the first place.  The judgement of God?  It’s coming.  “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.” Psalm 119:160.