Tag Archive for: Jesus Christ

What is so sacred about sex? – Part 2

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This continues from part 1…..

In part one of this article, we discussed the sexual mood of our present culture and whether or not as human beings, we are the owners of our own bodies and minds. We ended on the note that if it is the case that we have been made or created by someone else for his own purposes, then surely we would have a lot more obligations than we would have if we only belonged to ourselves. But we also noted that, this is a big “IF” because some people do not believe (or at least they live as if they don’t believe) that there is any Being higher than ourselves, to whom we must be responsible. Is it reasonable to believe that an actual Being exists who is responsible for our existence and to whom we might be accountable to, regarding our sexual lives? If there is the possibility for such a Being to exist, why would he be interested in what we do with our bodies sexually?

For starters, let us be brutally honest with ourselves: everything in this world – from ourselves to the flowers to the stars to sea to animals etc – points to the fact that some sort of careful designing has gone into the creation of our world and of ourselves, doesn’t it? We often take it for granted that this physical world of ours is structured the way it is. But mathematically speaking, the probability of this world happening by a mindless random or unordered process is incredibly small. According to Astrophysicist Hugh Ross’ conservative calculation, the chance of a planet like ours existing in the universe is about 1 in a trillion billion billion (i.e. 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 1 in 10 raised to the power 30).

 Scientists are discovering that had even a single feature of our universe been just a little bit different, the stars, galaxies and human life would not exist. Let us briefly look at a few amazing scientific discoveries before we go on. The distance from the earth to the sun is just right. Why? Even a small change of around 2% and all life would cease. If the earth was too near the sun, water would evaporate. If it was too far from the sun, its coldness level would not support life. In fact, even the rotation speed of the earth is just right; if it was too slow, the temperature differences between day and night would be too extreme, and if it was too fast the wind speeds would be catastrophic. Furthermore, if the ratio of the electromagnetic and gravitational forces had differed by about one part in ten thousand billion billion billion billion (i.e. 1 part in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000), then stars such as the Sun, which are capable of supporting life, could not exist. Do you see any picture emerging?

The delicate balance of the elements in our universe, to use the illustration of the theoretical physicist Paul Davies, is like the accuracy level that a marksman needs in order to hit a coin twenty billion light years away on the other side of the observable universe. [A light year is the speed travelled by light in one year. And light, by the way, has the fastest travelling speed in our universe]. In fact it has been noted by some researchers that the earth is placed precisely in a part of the universe that is congenial to scientific studies in cosmology, galactic astronomy, stellar astrophysics and geophysics. That is, if our earth had been positioned in a part of the universe with too much starlight, we could not have been able to see into deep space. There are more than 3000 galaxies in the observable universe, each containing millions to trillions of stars – many being bigger than the earth.

Further, Oxford mathematician John Lennox in his book, ‘God’s undertaker: has Science buried God?’, notes that the distinguished mathematician and astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle, admitted that his atheism was shaken profoundly when he discovered the degree of fine-tuning needed between the nuclear ground state energy levels in order for carbon to be formed either by a combination of three helium nuclei, or by a combination of nuclei of helium and beryllium. (And for the record, life cannot exist on earth without an abundant supply of carbon). Sir Hoyle’s discovery, according to Lennox, led him to remark that, “a superintellect has monkeyed with physics as well as with chemistry and biology,” and that “there are no blind forces in nature worth talking about.” Interesting isn’t it? And let us not forget the issue of the human DNA – the molecule containing coded instructions for the cells in the body. A group of scientists have recently estimated that the adult body contains about 37.2 trillion cells, each containing DNA. Each person’s complete DNA is unique; the exception being identical twins. The instructions are in what is called Genetic language and they are detailed, complex and specific. These instructions include for example, which cells should grow and when, which cells should die and when, which cells should make hair and what colour it should be.  If all this sounds too technical, then let me make it simple: the scientific discoveries are pointing in the direction where it is highly unlikely that an intelligent Being did not plan and execute the creation of this whole skilfully crafted universe, including human beings like us.

What is my point with all this information? It is this: if conditions in this universe, and the nature of our human bodies, are the way they are – so delicately precision-tuned – and if human beings like us posses the kind of intelligence we posses, even to study them, then it is very reasonable to (and unreasonable not to) suppose that a more intelligent Being, (1) is out there, (2) is the cause of our beings and (3) is interested in our lives. Now if we relate this thought to Mr. Lewis’ thoughts about moral duties (discussed in part one of this article), we can say with a fair degree of confidence that the whole of mankind must have a Landlord. Our bodies, strictly speaking, are not ours. Our Landlord is this Intelligent Being who created this world and everything in it. Religious folks simply call him, God. Since this God is the cause of our intricately designed bodies and existence, it is not mind-boggling that any “Dos and Don’ts” on how we use our bodies should come from him.

 

A Curious Worldview

 In his speech to the members of the city council of Athens, Paul the apostle of Christ tried to give them a new view of God, saying, “God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.” (Acts 17:24 GNB) In a city so used to building alters and shrines for every imaginable god, this news was however unimaginable. But to the people in the city of Corinth (a city well-known for its immorality), who became believers in Jesus Christ, Paul wrote them a letter in which he explained to them the sacredness of their bodies: “…the body is not to be used for sexual immorality, but to serve the Lord, and the Lord provides for the body. God raised the Lord [i.e. Jesus] from death and will also raise us by his power. … Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God’s glory.” (1 Cor. 6: 13,14, 19,20 GNB). Dr Ravi Zacharias, a Christian philosopher, appropriately explains that, “the Christian walks with God, not to God. We no longer go to the temple to worship. Rather we go with our temples to worship.” The body of a believer in Christ, rather than a church building, is the holy dwelling place of God and must be treated as “holy grounds.” Thus what this person wears, or touches, or says, or looks at or reads or listens to must uphold God’s holiness.

So much for the Christian “bodies”! What bearing does this worldview have on those who do not subscribe to it? The non-Christian is a prospective temple of God. God wants to live in this person. The Christian explanation for human existence in general is that God made us and not only that, but also that he made us all for himself (Col. 1:16) and he made us in such a way that only in union with him can our greatest good be had (John 10:10). Sin does not allow this to happen. But God became man in Jesus Christ, lived uprightly among us, identified with our human weaknesses, paid for our sins in his death and rose up and wants to live in us to empower us to live as we ought to. Like C. S. Lewis once observed, God invented us in a certain sense like how a man invents an engine. And when a car is made to run of gasoline, it would not run properly on anything else. In this same sense God made the “human machine,” as Lewis puts it, to run on himself.

The fuel we need in order to function the way he designed us is God himself and the food we need to keep our souls spiritually alive is God himself. We cannot expect to function properly on our own terms. Sexual fulfillment (a major hunger of our generation) with its proper joy, peace and security does not come through the pulling down of God’s boundaries. Without God at the centre of a sexual relationship, our much desired real and secure intimacy which we often believe can be found in sexual intercourse will prove elusive. Any person, Christian or not, who tries to outsmart God on this front will soon find that the last laugh is always God’s, not ours; restlessness, emptiness, meaninglessness, broken trust, guilt and shame will ultimately come resting at our door steps. There is definitely pleasure in sin but it is fleeting. Kenyan Christian Apologist, John Njoroge, insightfully says that, “Trying to meet our real needs without God is like trying to satisfy our thirst with salty water: the more we drink, the thirstier we become.  This is a sure path to various sorts of addictions.”

Even in our limited wisdom, we realize that playing our cherished game of football without any rules does not make it really enjoyable. So we have created rules, in all their imperfections. Even with the rules in place, some people hurt others and get hurt themselves; they offend and get offended during the course of the game. Can you imagine the unbridled chaos that would exist if there were no clear rules? In the same way, we are living in an increasing sexually chaotic culture today because we are desperately throwing off God’s moral restraints: husbands and wives are sleeping with people other than their spouses, young unmarried boys and girls are “training” themselves in the act of sex yet ironically the idea of marriage is appearing uncomfortable to them because of its widely acknowledged moral limitations. God has provided a framework within which sex can be properly enjoyed physically, emotionally and spiritually, and it is not outside marriage.

 In God’s scheme of things, according to Christian teachings, you do not need to be experienced in sex before marriage. This is because you have the whole of your married life to get to know your spouse’s body (God’s gift to you) as your bodies lock and your spirits mesh in sexual intercourse before God. With each encounter you get to know the body of your spouse even better to the glory of God. And here is the rich wisdom of the Christian faith (which may seem foolish on the face of it): Any person who genuinely relies on Jesus Christ before his marriage and also during his marriage will be given the grace and spiritual strength to stay the course of marriage should he find out that he has ended up with a sexually defective spouse. Tough to take in, I know, but I cannot make this truth any more appealing than it sounds right now in a time like ours. Marriage is not a selfish enterprise, where if you are not having a sexually exciting life everything else must come crushing down for everyone in it. Rather it is essentially a self-giving worship of God as you commit yourself exclusively to that one person, to love, to cherish and to seek the good of this person always.

 The Christian scriptures teach that all who trust in God will not be disappointed, ultimately. But break God’s precepts on sex (or on any other issue of life) and you can be sure that you will not only separate yourself from God and into a dark loneliness of the soul but you will also hurt yourself and others. Let us be clear: the idea that God is an unloving and unfeeling Judge up there who is simply watching down to see who has gone even slightly wrong so that he may swiftly punish him, is wrong. God wants to reconcile us back to himself. This is the Christian message to the world. God’s precepts in the Bible are intended to facilitate our happiness and not to stifle it. A parent sternly warns her child to steer clear of fire not because she wants to make the child miserable but because she wants to prevent the child from getting hurt or even dying. How can a child enjoy life when he is hurt or dead? If we separate ourselves spiritually from God (a spiritual death), through sin, how can we expect to receive God’s best? God knows the limits within which our best can be had. Stolen waters are not as sweet as we want to believe. Many people may look happy on the outside but on the inside they may be empty, restless, bitter and troubled because they have violated God in this area of sex.

Conclusion

We were made for God and if we spend ourselves in illegitimate pleasures, we will only come away broken and impoverished in our souls (and perhaps with physical scars too). No one enriches his soul by being sexually immoral. Rather we bankrupt ourselves spiritually; we feel the emptiness, restlessness of the soul, the guilt and shame of sin because we have divorced ourselves from God, who is our ultimate good. A more serious side to sexual immorality is that in the end, we must give account of our lives to the God. Some people realize this quicker than others but the important thing is that we are willing to take the necessary steps back to God through the path he has provided – faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. And to be clear, faith in Jesus Christ is not mere intellectual belief in Jesus as Lord but includes a willful commitment to live the whole of one’s life in reverence of him and his teachings. Christ offers forgiveness and rebirth even to the one who has wrecked himself or herself sexually yet is willing to repent. Are you a mess, sexually? Jesus gives hope and strength to those seeking to please God in their sexual lives.

Just believe

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In John chapter 6 it is recorded that after Jesus had fed 5,000 men (no woman or child was included in this figure) and left, the people looked for him till they found him. Jesus explained to them that they were looking for him because they had eaten the bread he gave them and were full but not because they understood his miracles. He cautioned them not to work for food that goes bad but for food that lasts for eternal life. In saying this he was pointing the people to himself. He said it is this food that the Father has put his mark of approval on. It was at this point that the people asked the question, “What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do.” (v. 28 GNB)

They were looking for something they themselves could do, perhaps a way to life, a moral code, or some rituals or steps to follow. Jesus answered them saying “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent” (v.29 GNB). This was as unexpected and uncomfortable to the people then as it is for us today. “How can simply believing in this man give us eternal life?” they must have thought. In our technique-oriented world today we are always looking for the “5 methods,” “7 ways,” and “10 steps” to achieve many things, including our salvation. We want clear steps to follow. We may also want easy steps to follow (although we may not mind doing some difficult tasks) but Jesus’ prescription sounds suspiciously too easy. Just believe? We want to save ourselves so that we can pat ourselves on the back. But like C. S. Lewis once illustrated, if you are drowning in a river near its bank and a friend standing on the bank tries to save you by putting one of his feet in the river and extending his hand for you to hold on to it, will you put your hand in his or will you protest saying “This is not fair, you have one foot on the bank”? Spiritually we are helplessly lost, but God has extended his hand of help from heaven to save us.

Salvation is given freely by God alone to those who believe in the one he sent. It is not on merit so neither the believer who was born into a Christian family nor the person who converted from atheism or Islam or African Traditional religion can boast about it. It is God’s gracious gift to man. A noted Christian writer once said that he is not going to complain to God that there are not two doors to heaven but rather he is going to thank him that there is at least one door to heaven. I think he is spot on! Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

But lest we think that to ‘believe’ here simply means to give our mental approval of Jesus as the one sent by God, the context clarifies what is entailed in this believing.The people had eaten bread which was miraculously provided by Jesus. When he provided the bread, the people did not just look at the bread and believe that the bread existed – they ate it. “I am the bread of life. Those who come to me will never be hungry; ….” says Jesus (vs 35 GNB). There is a ‘coming’ to him. Jesus is not just asking us to believe in his existence as a person sent by God! No, he wants us to, as it were, eat him and digest him into our blood so that he becomes life to us. Food gives life to our mortal bodies only when it is digested into the blood, and not when we look at it and believe in the fact that it exists.

We must come to Jesus, we must give or make ourselves available to him (just as we make our hands, mouths, digestive systems and as a matter of fact, our whole physical bodies available to tangible foods). This way Jesus will penetrate our whole being – heart, soul, mind and body – with himself and with his life-giving words. This is what it means to believe in him who was sent by God. This kind of belief has a purifying effect upon our nature because the Spirit of God comes to indwell us and work within us to produce good works. “But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires,” writes the apostle Paul to the Galatian church (Gal 5:22&23 GNB).

You can never work your way to earn God’s salvation but you will begin to work out your salvation once you have believed in Christ Jesus because God himself through his Spirit will work in you both to will and to do. Without Jesus Christ you can do nothing remotely worthy of earning your salvation. Have you believed in Jesus Christ, in the sense of allowing him into the deepest parts of your being?

*GNB – Good News Bible, Second edition ©1994.

“Obia Nto Ne Collection”: Reflections On Castro and The Ghanaian God

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Author: Edem Morny

It has been a over a month now since the sad disappearance of the celebrated “Castro the Destroyer” and his female friend Janet Bandu whiles taking a ride on the Volta River in Ada. Many are the speculations as to what may have happened to them, and whiles the families of these 2 continue to hold out hope for their reappearance, the rest of the world can only mourn them and go on with life as usual. As is always common with the death/disappearance of any musician, their songs, especially the most recent hits become superhits with much airplay, and Castro’s “Adonai” song with Sarkodie is no exception. Paying more attention to this song vis-a-vis Castro’s demise certainly raises a lot of questions which we can either wish away, or confront somehow, and some of which I want to address here.

The song is indeed a good song melodically, and one can’t help dancing, tapping, nodding or singing along. However, one of the gifts of music is it’s ability to make you enjoy it without paying attention to it’s lyrics, and this song achieves this masterfully. I managed to find the lyrics dutifully written out here, which you can peruse yourself. Paying closer attention to them, one gets the impression that Castro together with his friend Sarkodie are praising God for making them the successful people they are today. In this attempt to praise God, they address their “enemies” or people who they suppose didn’t wish them well in life, and not only openly flaunt their vaunted success at these “enemies”, but also make a few disparaging comments about the inferiority of these “enemies” in comparison to them. All the while, Castro’s chorus continues to hook us in with its praise of God, encouraging us not to “lose guard”. All in all a brilliant musical composition no doubt.

First of all I’m not in the least bit surprised by the words of this song. It is the well established pattern in hip-hop culture to flaunt the “success” you’ve become and “diss” your perceived detractors. Coming from a people who have not only felt but experienced systemic poverty and economic marginalization, black American hip-hop culture has always felt that the music was a means to not only speak of the musician’s credentials as a bona fide “hustler who has made it”, but to rub everyone else’s nose in it, especially their perceived enemy. And so I’d rather have been surprised if Ghanaian hip-hop/hip-life songs like “Adonai” didn’t follow the pattern. In this respect, Sarkodie and Castro can pat themselves on the back for a good job done. But what happens when one says “Me nwuu y3 de3 na Nana Nyame te ase” (i.e. so far as I’m not dead, God is still alive) and dies a few months later? Shall we conclude that God is dead? Or more appropriately, shall we conclude that YOUR GOD is dead?

Ghanaians are known be a very religious people, if not one of the most religious in the world. In a country with over 65% claiming to be Christian, the term “God” tends to evoke the idea of the Christian conception of God. And yet I find that in much of Ghanaian discourse, the “God” we refer to is a god of our own creation, not the God revealed to us through the person of Jesus Christ. And to be frank, everyone worships one god or the other, even if they were atheists. So I don’t have a problem if we are referring to any number of these gods. But if we think we are referring to Jehovah as revealed through the person and ministry of Jesus, then we really need to think again.

Are we referring to the same Jehovah revealed through Jesus the Messiah, who told his disciples not only love their enemies but actually pray for them who persecute them, including the Roman soldiers who were persecuting them then (Mt 5:44)?

Are we referring to the same Jehovah revealed through Jesus the Messiah, who encourages his disciples that if forced (again by a Roman soldier, as they were legally empowered to do so) to carry a load one mile, they should carry it two miles (Mt 5:41)?

Are we talking about the same Jehovah revealed through Jesus the Messiah, who says that in his kingdom, blessed are the poor, those who are hungry, those who weep, those who are outcast (Lk 6:20-22), not because these states are states of bliss, but that in his kingdom now and in the future these people will experience reprieve from their troubles?

Are we talking about the same Jehovah revealed through Jesus the Messiah, who says the one thing that will mark his disciples out for the world to see is if they love one another (Jn 13:34-35)?

Or the same one who says the rich will have it much harder to enter into his kingdom (Mt 19:16-19), not because riches are bad, but can and has become a god that people, including musicians, serve?

Because if we are talking about this Jehovah, then he is not the one I see thanks being made to in Castro and Sarkodie’s song. And like I said, that’s alright, because everyone can create their own god and serve them and sing to them as they wish. But let not those who claim to follow Jehovah as revealed by Jesus the Messiah be fooled. They are talking about a different god. They are talking about the god of Ghanaian culture aka the Ghanaian God, under the cover of the Jewish title “Adonai”. For those who know which god they are referring to, at least they can enjoy their music and put on the appropriate filters when we hear “Nyame” and “Adonai” being mentioned. But for many ignorant ones, therein lies an even greater deception.

Because there is very little difference between songs like  “Adonai” and a host of other “gospel” songs that plague the airwaves today. A large majority of our supposed “gospel musicians” today are so clueless as to what they are singing about, supposing that they are singing about Jehovah as revealed by Jesus. No, they are singing about the Ghanaian God,

The Ghanaian God who is more worried about your enemies and their annihilation than he is about their redemption from sin and death. Who seems to be powerless in the face of “Abeyifuo” , “Kabrekyire” and “Obonsam”. The Ghanaian God who is a genie that exists to satisfy our personal agenda, working only for our personal success, whiles mowing down our enemies. The Ghanaian God who gives us riches so we can spend only on our extravagance, and watch our neighbours go to sleep hungry. The Ghanaian God who delights in tribalism and divisiveness, who doesn’t mind if we are corrupt at work so we can pay big tithes in church. The Ghanaian God who demands all our loyalty to this country only, so that you hardly ever hear Ghanaian Christians thinking, praying or working to alleviate the suffering that other Christians are going through in other countries. And when that Ghanaian God dies as he supposedly has in Castro’s case, we simply pretend nothing has happened and continue with business as usual.

There is definitely a god that most Ghanaian Christians serve, but I’m not sure his real name is Yahweh, whose son is Jesus Christ the King. No, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob left the building a long time ago. We are only feverishly serving a local substitute.

God, Sex and Me

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The desire for sex is one of the powerful hungers of our humanity. It can make you  restless when you have in one way or another provoked and entertained it but have no way of immediately satisfying it. Being a Christian or following Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour does not shield you from desiring to have sex. Getting married does not mean your sexual desire can only be aroused by your spouse. Some men in high positions have destroyed the trust and admiration the public had for them by not controlling their sexual urges. Think of the scandalous stories of Bill Clinton, Straus Khan, Tiger Woods and even King David in the Bible. A good thing can be abused and this has been our predicament with sex.In non-religious societies or among individuals who do not submit themselves to conservative religious doctrines, sex is like a free drug to be dispensed to anyone ready for it. They may only discriminate because of personal preferences such as attraction to the potential partner or the fact that they want to wait till marriage so that their wedding night will be special. Some Christians may hold the latter reason as something laudable. But as ideal as it sounds, it is not even Christian nor is it a biblical reason not to have sex.

In his satirical poem titled, Creed, the English journalist, Steve Turner, speaks about many of our modern secular ideas, and his second stanza mocks our present ideas on sex:

We believe in sex before, during, and

after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin.

We believe that adultery is fun.

We believe that sodomy’s OK.

We believe that taboos are taboo.

Many people today believe everything is alright as long as you do not hurt anyone, to the best of your definition of hurt, and to the best of your knowledge.  This belief has worked itself out in our lives – for both non-religious and religious folks.  Today we have an expression like “two consenting adults” as if to suggest that so long as there is agreement about the sexual act among two adults, there is really nothing morally wrong with it. The moral rightness or wrongness of the sexual act is now defined by the agreement or its absence thereof between the two adults.

Followers of Christ’s teachings have been and are expected (and rightly so) to live above reproach yet we are miserably not living up to expectations. Stories of pastors and church leaders involved in sexual scandals are common place. These are people whose philosophy of life dictates that they ought to have sex only with the woman they have married yet are living otherwise. ‎The unexposed private lives of the ordinary church members are no better. To suggest that the frequency of extra-marital sex and pre-marital sex among Christians within our churches is a problem is to state the issue too mildly. It is a scandal, a travesty, a matter calling for repentance and mourning. There is no denying that to some extent, these are indications of a stunted theological understanding of our sexuality. I remember attending youth programs in two different churches, (one an orthodox church, the other charismatic) that featured a talk on God’s view of sex and listening to some of the youth asking questions about whether sex before marriage was wrong. I was quite surprised to realize that this was an ambiguous area for them. But it underscored for me the fact that the times had changed. Churches are not preaching Christ’s precepts in this area; or if they are preaching it then perhaps not well enough. We are more concerned about teaching practical solutions for the temporary problems, rather than the eternal realities. Believers must be brought to a point of understanding that inspires firm belief and encourages acceptance of God’s teachings about our sexuality.

 Putting things in perspective

God made this world. He invented sex, so to speak, when he created our reproductive systems and also commanded us to reproduce. So sex is good and is a gift from God. In the Genesis story, God told man and woman to multiply and this required being one in flesh and in spirit. Indeed in the book of Malachi when God was no longer accepting the offerings from the people of Israel, the prophet explained one of the reasons as follows:

“You ask why he no longer accepts them. It is because he knows you have broken your promise to the wife you married when you were young. She was your partner, and you have broken your promise to her, although you promised before God that you would be faithful to her. Didn’t God make you one body and spirit with her? What was his purpose in this? It was that you should have children who are truly God’s people. So make sure that none of you breaks his promise to his wife. ” Malachi 2:14-15 GNB [Emphasis mine]

From this it is clear where the place of sex is intended to be – in marriage.  Outside this institution, having sex is sin. And sin means missing the mark, falling short of God’s standard. This does not seem like something serious. “Okay so, I missed the mark. What is the big deal?” one might think. It is a very serious deal – a deal with eternal dimensions.

Sin must be understood in terms of man’s relation to God. This is why Jesus, God in human flesh, can forgive sin that was not even done directly to him but rather to our fellow man. The definition of sin was given in the Genesis story when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They ate this forbidden fruit because they lost faith in God by believing a lie. They believed the devil’s subtle suggestion that God could not be trusted because he was keeping something good (i.e. the knowledge of good and evil) from them. Sin then is the faithless rebellion of man against the just authority of God. And this is where the significance of sin lays. Whenever we sin, whether we lie, cheat, yield to our bodily lusts etc, we show how faithless we are in God; how much we do not trust him. We make a statement which says we do not believe that God’s precepts and commandments are for our good or are in our interest; we believe he is keeping away from us something that is good for us.

Further, breaking God’s law at any point involves transgression at every point (Galatians 3:10). If we break the law of adultery, we have also broken the law of covetousness, killing etc. How come? This is so because the very authority of God which instituted the law of adultery is the same one that instituted the rest of the laws. As a result, rebelling against his authority in one area of life is simply rebellion against God’s authority, pure and simple. God has just one authority and it is himself. If you defy his law, you have defied his authority – you have defied him. You have broken fellowship with him. But because man was made to have fellowship with God, and to thrive on God, a sinful life brings a sense of restlessness and often a general lose of meaning in life because the divinely intended fellowship has been broken by sin.

In the Old Testament (Leviticus 18) God prohibited certain sexual activities. Also in the New Testament, in Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings, it is also clear that not all sexual encounters are permitted in God’s scheme of things. Adultery, homosexuality and fornication are spoken against in very clear terms – that people who engage in such things will not inherit God’s kingdom. Some current myths about sex that people have include:

        i.            Sex can be casual

The truth is God does not look upon sex as something to be treated casually; a pleasure to be had with just anyone when you feel like having it.

      ii.            If you love each other you can have sex.

The truth is that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4). Real love will wait for marriage, under God’s blessing, before expressing itself through sex. If your love cannot wait, it is not love. It is lust, it is selfishness – it wants what it wants, how it wants it, when it wants it.

    iii.            We are going to get married soon anyway, so what is the big deal?

The big deal and the gospel truth is that being “about to get married” is not the same thing as “married”; you are not married yet and any of you could change their minds (or even external factors may prevent the idea of marriage from becoming reality) after the sexual act.

iv.            There is the need to ensure “it works” before you commit

Here is the hard but real truth: If you have genuinely given your life to Jesus Christ yet God in his infinite wisdom gives you a sexually defective partner, you can be sure that God will also grant you the grace, the wisdom and strength to be able to live with that partner as you keep depending on him. I know this is easier said than done. It might be hard to take in but it is truth. God has the power to carry us. In the most trying times of life, trusting and obeying God is the only way to enjoy his profound peace and joy which transcends human understanding. God is always with those who rely on him in their times of distress. He carries them when all else is spent – when strength (whether emotional, psychological or physical) is gone, wisdom is …

ON JESUS AND THE TRINITY – Responding to the Jehovah’s Witnesses

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In the August 2013 edition of the Awake magazine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, there is an article on pages 12 &13 which is titled, “Should You Believe in the Trinity?” Essentially the article argues for the case that the word Trinity and the idea it seeks to encapsulate (an idea which is believed by many Christians) are not found in the Bible. They build their case by tracing the foundations of the Trinitarian idea to Roman Emperor Constantine, whom History recognizes as the first Roman Emperor to have embraced Christianity as his religion (at least if you read the work of the 4th century biographer, Eusibius). The article makes the case that Constantine called for hundreds of the Bishops in his empire to assemble at the city called Nicaea to settle their differences on whether Jesus was God or whether he was created by God. The article however does not explain why the Christians came to be divided on the matter. It just states that they were divided. So let me give you the background story from Eusibius.

A presbyter by name Arius had started to preach that there was a time when Jesus, the Son, did not exist – in other words, the Son was a created being and not eternal with the Father.  This implied that the Father was God but Jesus couldn’t be. Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, at the time,rejected this teaching and asked Arius to recant which he refused. Constantine wrote a letter, not as an Emperor decreeing, but in his own words, as a ‘fellow-servant’ ‘righteously’ advising them to solve their differences. Evidently this did not yield any results. The dissension grew to the point that it was no longer just an issue between heads of churches but was now among ordinary members. To prevent this tension from turning into a full blown instability in the empire, Constantine called all the Bishops in the Empire to meet in Nicaea to agree and outline what was Christian belief in the year 325 AD. Note that by this time Constantine had already come to faith in Christ and had received some education in the faith. As a result, he felt a certain brotherhood with the Church and felt that this disagreement was a disgrace, apart from the likelihood of it causing civil unrest. Constantine attended the meeting on the day of the final solution. The meeting had actually lasted for more than two months.

With this background, let’s come back to the Awake Magazine. The article says that the Emperor suggested they should insert the expression “of one substance with the Father.” This point is very true, but the Bishops did not add it without vigorous discussions as to what that expression meant.  The final Creed at the end of the meeting read as follows (which is a bit different from what we currently recite in our churches, which is from the council of Constantinople in 381 AD):

We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible:— And in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Only-begotten, that is,from the Substance of the Father; God from God, Light from Light, very God from very God, begotten, not made, One in substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both things in heaven and things in earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh, was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and cometh to judge quick and dead. “‘And in the Holy Ghost. But those who say, “Once He was not,” and “Before His generation He was not,” and “He came to be from nothing,” or those who pretend that the Son of God is “Of other subsistence or substance,” or “created,”or “alterable,” or “mutable,” the Catholic Church anathematizes.

The word ‘anathematizes’ implies the Church curses those who say the sort of things listed in the last few lines which go against the heart of the creed. This shows how strongly they felt about preaching correct doctrine. Again, as Eusibius, a Bishop present at the Council recounts,they did not accept the expression ‘of one substance with the Father’ without vigorous discussion:

On their dictating this formula[referring to the Creed], we did not let it pass without inquiry in what sense they introduced ‘of the substance of the Father,’ and ‘one in substance with the Father.’ Accordingly questions and explanations took place, and the meaning of the words underwent the scrutiny of reason. And they professed that the phrase ‘of the substance’ was indicative of the Son’s being indeed from the Father, yet without being as if a part of Him. And with this understanding we thought good to assent to the sense of such religious doctrine, teaching, as it did,that the Son was from the Father, not, however, a part of His substance. On this account we assented to the sense ourselves, without declining even the term ‘One in substance,’ peace being the object which we set before us, and steadfastness in the orthodox view.

It can be clearly seen that the Council was not about inventing new ideas but about stating in clearer terms, what was an existing view. And this they did. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, would have us believe that it was this expression, ‘of one Substance with the Father’, which in their view erroneously makes Jesus God, that laid a false foundation for what we call Trinity today. Thus since Trinity is based on this idea of Jesus’ oneness with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Christians have erred. The article goes onto say that “… Jesus never claimed to be equal with God.” (p.13) According to the article this is what the Bible says:

  1. “My Father is greater than I [Jesus].”John 14:28 KJV
  2. “I [Jesus] ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God” John 20:17 KJV
  3. “To us there is but one God, the Father.”1 Corinthians 8:6 KJV
  4. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:3 KJV
  5. “These things saith the Amen [Jesus],… the beginning of the creation of God” Revelations 3:14 KJV

[Notice where they place their emphases, in italics]

If these were really the only verses in the New Testament, then obviously the Church Bishops erred gravely. But you see, the issue of who Jesus is has always been more complex than this simplification by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Jesus Christ is the ‘Son of Man’ (his humanity), yes, but he is also the ‘Son of God’ (his divinity). But the Jehovah’s Witnesses are ignoring this and saying Jesus never claimed to be equal to God. This is not a strong argument. The fact that Jesus did not, in direct words, claim to be God or equal to God does not establish that he did not claim so indirectly. When he forgave the sin of the paralyzed man in Luke 5:20 what was he communicating. He was pointing out the fact that he had the same authority of God to forgive sins. Further he promised his disciples (John included) that he will ask the Father to send them another Helper who is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God. And in the beginning lines of the gospel according to John (this is after the Holy Spirit had come and was leading them into all truth), John reveals Jesus’ divinity in clear terms, “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him.” John 1:1-10 GNB. If this does not expressly speak to the Godhood of the Son, Jesus Christ, I don’t know what does.

Don’t the Jehovah Witnesses think that the Bishops at Nicaea were aware of these things as well as verses like:

  1. “The Father and I are one” John 10:30
  2. “Fora long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then do you say, ‘show us the Father’? Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” John 14: 9-10
  3. “Nor does the Father himself judge anyone. He has given his Son the full right to judge so that all will honour the Son in the same way as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.” John 5:22-23

This just shows the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ one-sided shallow study of the Bible, their intentional bias in selecting scriptures that support a preconceived idea and their wilful blindness to the entirety of Scripture.  When we want to get to truth, we must weigh all the evidence available, not just what suits our fancy. If Jesus did not claim equality with God, then why did he place himself on the same level of authority in the baptismal formula which he gave to his disciples?:  “… baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, …” Matthew 28:19. Also think of the Apostolic blessing used in 2 Corinthians 13:13, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” It shows how the first century apostles saw Jesus.

Trinity, as a word, may not be in the Bible, in fact it is not in it, but the concept that it captures is too uncomfortably visible in the Bible to be ignored. We see three persons (yet not separate) in the one God. This strikes us out of our wits. Mysterious, if you ask me. There is distinctness and a three-ness, yet a real indivisibility and a unity – a oneness in this God of the Bible. A tri –unity, a Trinity!

* Unless otherwise stated all scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, Second edition © 1994