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Holding my tongue? Not on everything ...
Posted by Derrick
on
10:28
This is becoming an increasingly censorious world. Every week it seems there is a twitter storm. Some public figure makes a statement and is forced, after outrage on twitter and in the press, to recant their words and issue an apology.
Increasingly there are certain subjects that are becoming off limits to those who wish to comment. Race, politics, medical ethics, sexuality, religion and several others are subjects where you have to tread a fine line.
This goes hand in hand with our government increasing their desire to have us all hold to their notion of "British Values". In the last few months we have seen government ministers criticise Catholic schools for holding to a doctrinal position on marriage that is held by billions of people across the world. They have also said that churches need to "catch up" with modern society in the area of attitudes to sexuality.
Quite apart from the government having no right to interfere in what the churches teach, who are they to decide what "British Values" are?
What is creating the problem for me, as a Christian, is that it is becoming clear that the government would like to see us becoming a less vocal church. Having a religion is OK in private but your religious ideas should remain just that, private.
Christ doesn't give us that option though. We are not supposed to remain quiet. Where there is a cause of outrage we must speak out and we must act. Now, I realise that there are Christians who seem to see that there is only one problem in the world and speak only on that issue but we cannot silence the church merely because some of our more vocal members are a bit shouty.
Likewise, we have a duty to share the good news of salvation offered by Christ. He commanded us to do it. Staying silent means not really sharing the good news. Yes I know that we can show the love of Christ in our lives but we need to spread the Gospel vocally.
Increasingly it is becoming tough to speak openly about our faith. To say that you believe in Christ will often get you labelled an idiot. People assume you are anti-gay, believe in a 6,000 year old earth and want to remove all joy from the world. And heaven forbid you should dare say that Christ is the only way to God! If you do that you are an intolerant bigot. We should accept that all religions lead to God and that people of all faiths and none (what an annoying statement that is) have the same rights and have equally true religious beliefs.
This, of course is errant nonsense. All religions cannot be true. Their relative theologies do not allow this. Christianity has a triune God. Islam doesn't. Hinduism has many gods, Buddhism has none. How can they all be true? They can't.
Thus, I should, as a Christian, have the right to try to persuade people that they are wrong and that I am right. Likewise, so should Muslims, Jews, Hindus and all the others. I should do it gently and with due care and consideration but I must be allowed the right to defend and share my beliefs.
However, as time goes on there are more and more people being arrested for preaching the gospel. Some of them have even been told that they are not allowed to preach in churches until their cases are settled. Thankfully, the judiciary in this country have thrown out all of the cases against Christian street preachers in recent years but it has become worrying. In one recent case the defendant was found guilty of causing offence and the judge went so far as to explain which part of the Bible was against the law. A judge decided that some of Scripture was illegal and shouldn't be used for preaching. This was overturned on appeal but was a dangerous precedent nonetheless.
There has even been a case of a preacher taken to court over a sermon he gave in his own church. That's correct, his own church. Someone thought that they had the right to prosecute a preacher for comments made in his own pulpit. I will just let that sink in.
Taking a wider view, this is nothing to be worried about. We are to expect persecution and opposition after all. In the past the government has been far more firm in its suppression of good solid preaching. We are, of course, not in the state that our North Korean brothers and sisters are. We don't face the problems of Christians in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan.
Despite this though we are seeing an increase in pressure on Christians and on churches. More and more churches are caving in and moving away from Scripture. There are churches where the unique nature of Christ is downplayed. There are churches (and I have sat in them and heard the preaching) where the miracles of Christ are dismissed as coincidences or given feeble explanations to avoid being seen as actually believing them to be true. I have heard preachers say that there may be more than one way into heaven.
Which brings me back to having to hold my tongue. I don't speak out on certain issues and I watch what I say on my social media platforms. This is OK because there are things that are not that important and God doesn't have a particular issue with them. These things are important to some and not important to others.
I will not, however, hold my tongue on the fundamentals of my faith. I will not deny Christ in any form. I will not deny he existed, I will not deny he died for me on the cross, I will not deny he rose again on the third day and I absolutely will not deny that he is the only way to heaven. I will not deny the authority of Scripture (even the difficult bits) and I will not deny the core doctrines of my faith; Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fides.
Increasingly there are certain subjects that are becoming off limits to those who wish to comment. Race, politics, medical ethics, sexuality, religion and several others are subjects where you have to tread a fine line.
This goes hand in hand with our government increasing their desire to have us all hold to their notion of "British Values". In the last few months we have seen government ministers criticise Catholic schools for holding to a doctrinal position on marriage that is held by billions of people across the world. They have also said that churches need to "catch up" with modern society in the area of attitudes to sexuality.
Quite apart from the government having no right to interfere in what the churches teach, who are they to decide what "British Values" are?
What is creating the problem for me, as a Christian, is that it is becoming clear that the government would like to see us becoming a less vocal church. Having a religion is OK in private but your religious ideas should remain just that, private.
Christ doesn't give us that option though. We are not supposed to remain quiet. Where there is a cause of outrage we must speak out and we must act. Now, I realise that there are Christians who seem to see that there is only one problem in the world and speak only on that issue but we cannot silence the church merely because some of our more vocal members are a bit shouty.
Likewise, we have a duty to share the good news of salvation offered by Christ. He commanded us to do it. Staying silent means not really sharing the good news. Yes I know that we can show the love of Christ in our lives but we need to spread the Gospel vocally.
Increasingly it is becoming tough to speak openly about our faith. To say that you believe in Christ will often get you labelled an idiot. People assume you are anti-gay, believe in a 6,000 year old earth and want to remove all joy from the world. And heaven forbid you should dare say that Christ is the only way to God! If you do that you are an intolerant bigot. We should accept that all religions lead to God and that people of all faiths and none (what an annoying statement that is) have the same rights and have equally true religious beliefs.
This, of course is errant nonsense. All religions cannot be true. Their relative theologies do not allow this. Christianity has a triune God. Islam doesn't. Hinduism has many gods, Buddhism has none. How can they all be true? They can't.
Thus, I should, as a Christian, have the right to try to persuade people that they are wrong and that I am right. Likewise, so should Muslims, Jews, Hindus and all the others. I should do it gently and with due care and consideration but I must be allowed the right to defend and share my beliefs.
However, as time goes on there are more and more people being arrested for preaching the gospel. Some of them have even been told that they are not allowed to preach in churches until their cases are settled. Thankfully, the judiciary in this country have thrown out all of the cases against Christian street preachers in recent years but it has become worrying. In one recent case the defendant was found guilty of causing offence and the judge went so far as to explain which part of the Bible was against the law. A judge decided that some of Scripture was illegal and shouldn't be used for preaching. This was overturned on appeal but was a dangerous precedent nonetheless.
There has even been a case of a preacher taken to court over a sermon he gave in his own church. That's correct, his own church. Someone thought that they had the right to prosecute a preacher for comments made in his own pulpit. I will just let that sink in.
Taking a wider view, this is nothing to be worried about. We are to expect persecution and opposition after all. In the past the government has been far more firm in its suppression of good solid preaching. We are, of course, not in the state that our North Korean brothers and sisters are. We don't face the problems of Christians in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan.
Despite this though we are seeing an increase in pressure on Christians and on churches. More and more churches are caving in and moving away from Scripture. There are churches where the unique nature of Christ is downplayed. There are churches (and I have sat in them and heard the preaching) where the miracles of Christ are dismissed as coincidences or given feeble explanations to avoid being seen as actually believing them to be true. I have heard preachers say that there may be more than one way into heaven.
Which brings me back to having to hold my tongue. I don't speak out on certain issues and I watch what I say on my social media platforms. This is OK because there are things that are not that important and God doesn't have a particular issue with them. These things are important to some and not important to others.
I will not, however, hold my tongue on the fundamentals of my faith. I will not deny Christ in any form. I will not deny he existed, I will not deny he died for me on the cross, I will not deny he rose again on the third day and I absolutely will not deny that he is the only way to heaven. I will not deny the authority of Scripture (even the difficult bits) and I will not deny the core doctrines of my faith; Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fides.
