When we think in terms of recompense we tend instinctively to imagine payment for services rendered. The dictionary definition includes making a return or giving an equivalent for something, requiting or repaying, indemnifying, compensating or making up for something, making satisfaction for a service or injury. To this frame of mind belongs insistence on our own rights, on what is our due, on revenge and retribution, on the letter of the law rather than on its spirit. This viewpoint is prevalent in present-day Britain. Jesus calls us to something different: to forgoing what we think is owing to us, to putting others before ourselves, to having regard to what is in our hearts rather than merely to outward forms of speech or behaviour. Above all, we should recollect that we have been forgiven when we did not deserve it and that we should therefore be forgiving towards others.
Conclusion.
The triumphalism of English and Dutch Protestants over the defeat of Catholic Spain sits ill with our society’s current values. The readiness of people of that age to see God as being on their side and against their enemies is something that nowadays makes us uncomfortable. We have, thankfully, learnt something in the intervening centuries (though it is fair to say that we have forgotten much of worth as well). Such attitudes also run counter to what Scripture teaches. In truth, we have no reason to be smug: “Do not rejoice, O Israel, do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God” (Hosea 9:1). We “have depended on [our] own strength and on [our] many warriors” with the consequence that “the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated” (Hosea 10:12-14). Instead of patting ourselves on the back for our cleverness, we should recognise that we are under the judgment of God for ignoring him, for relying on our own strength and imagining that we can do without him.
God will recompense us for our actions unless we bring ourselves under the umbrella of his forgiveness by repenting of what we have done and putting our faith (trust) in him. There is still time for us to turn, so that we reap unfailing love. If not, the whirlwind will be upon us. “It is time to seek the LORD until he comes” (Hosea 10:12).
16. Secret lives
Deuteronomy 29:29.
Key word: focus.
During the war with Spain the dog that did not bark was the feared fifth column within England: its Roman Catholic minority.[36] Those who remained loyal to the Pope had been driven underground, but a network was kept alive to enable them to continue worshipping in secret. Country houses up and down the land still proudly show their ‘priest’s holes’ where the celebrant of Mass could be hidden during searches by government agents. Those who declined to embrace state-sponsored religion were called recusants (from the Latin recusans, meaning refusing).
Adherents of the old faith lived a curious double life, often mixing outward conformity to Anglican rites with their inner allegiance. One such was the composer William Byrd (1543-1623). He was able to walk the tightrope with such skill that in 1563 he became organist at Lincoln cathedral. Thereafter Elizabeth I appointed him joint organist of the Chapel Royal with his co-religionist Thomas Tallis, with whom he was granted a licence to print and publish music and whom he succeeded in 1585.[37] For all his success, however, Byrd never forgot where his heart lay: his treatment of Psalm 137 is in effect a coded statement of continued loyalty to Rome.
The expectation that religious allegiance would trump national feeling made this embattled group dangerous in the eyes of government and people alike. Nor was the danger wholly illusory. In 1605 a group of Roman Catholics, of whom Guy Fawkes remains in popular imagination the central figure, conspired to blow up King James I during a sitting of Parliament. The plot was discovered before the intended date of its execution: 5 November, still celebrated with bonfires and fireworks each year as the date of the Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes and the other conspirators were executed, not for their religious beliefs, but for treason.
The link between Roman Catholicism and treason thereafter became so fixed in the minds of most Englishmen that the merest hint of suspicion was capable of producing hysterical overreaction. In 1678 Titus Oates invented the so-called Popish Plot, supposedly involving Jesuit plans to depose Charles II in favour of his Roman Catholic brother James (later James II). Despite evidence that no such plot existed, the resulting feverishness encouraged efforts to exclude James from the throne and helped prepare the ground for his eventual expulsion in favour of William and Mary.
Resentment and suspicion of Roman Catholics continued for generations. In 1780, during what became known as the Gordon riots, Protestant extremists led by Lord George Gordon marched on Parliament to protest at the passing two years beforehand of the Catholic Relief Act, which lifted some restrictions on Roman Catholics. The march degenerated into a week-long disturbance in which some four hundred and fifty people were killed. These were hardly glory days of religious toleration and freedom of worship. Until the late nineteenth century Roman Catholics (and indeed Nonconformists, too) would still find a career in the civil service or as an officer in the armed forces closed to them. They would risk censure, loss of a job and possibly attack. Small wonder, then, that many preferred to live secret lives.
Things kept secret.
Christianity is not a religion of secrets. All that we need to know for our salvation, for right living on earth and proper service and worship of our Lord can be read plainly in the words of the Bible. All Christians are equal in the sight of God. There is no class of adepts who are superior to the rank and file. There is no set of knowledge that is accessible to the few but not to the many. There is no group that has access to texts that are denied to others. The Protestant Reformation emphasised that all believers have access to God without the mediation of a priestly caste, since those who confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God form “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God.” (1 Peter 2:9).
One of the early heresies that the apostles went to great lengths to refute was Gnosticism (from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge). St Paul addresses it in his letter to the Colossians and both Peter and John deal with it in their letters. Gnosticism taught that there were those who had become perfect by being possessors of the secrets or knowledge boasted of by the sect concerned. The Bible quite clearly refutes such claims and ascribes them to the work of the forces of darkness: Revelation speaks of “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” (Revelation 2:24).
God likes things above board and undisguised. Jesus says: “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open” (Mark 4:22). He affirms that “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” (Matthew 10:26-27). To go by night is a sign of being furtive, of having a guilty conscience and of being in opposition to God: “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:20-21).
It is our duty to shine the light of God’s truth wherever we go and to “speak in the daylight” (Matthew 10:27), but we are not possessors of all knowledge. There are things that remain unknown by man: “the secret things [that] belong to the Lord our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). What these secret things might be is by definition beyond our ken: some will be unknowable by reason of our human limitations, some unknown because God chooses not to reveal them at this point.
Things revealed.
Rather than fret about what the secret things might be, we should rejoice that “the things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever” (Deuteronomy 29:29). These should be our focus. Our knowledge of God, his character, his ways and his plans would be limited indeed had he not chosen to reveal these through his prophets and ultimately through his Son. In his love and his desire to d
raw us back to him, God has always taken the initiative in revealing himself to mankind.
What God told his people at various stages in redemption history was sufficient for them to believe and do all that he required of them. The same remains true today. The Lord certainly can and does continue to speak to us in various ways, but we cannot on our own initiative add to what he has already said. It follows that, in our doctrinal and ethical teaching, we should emphasise the same things that Scripture emphasises. Where one portion of Scripture is stressed at the expense of another or undue attention given to particular verses divorced from their context there is a great likelihood that we will take a wrong turn.
Similarly, we should be content with what God has told us in Scripture. There are some things about which the Bible says little or nothing. The correct response is to acknowledge that God has revealed exactly what he deems right for us, neither too much nor too little. We should accept this and not regard the Bible as somehow incomplete, nor wish that God had given us more information than there appears. Neither should we treat any part of the Bible as irrelevant or surplus to requirements.
The fact that there are areas on which the Bible places relatively little emphasis should cause us to be humble with regard to doctrinal differences that are of a minor nature. The central truths of Christianity are non-negotiable and should not be traded away or watered down on any account, but there are other areas where Christians can and do differ in good faith. We should be gentle and understanding with each other in relation to these, preferring always to emphasise the things that we share and which unite us, rather than those points on which we disagree.
Things mysterious and paradoxical.
The fact that God has made his revelation plain to mankind does not mean that there are no mysteries connected with it. Even within the confines of what has been revealed, there are certain things that are known only to God and certain things that are knowable only by him. So, for example, the precise timing of events is usually beyond us. Jesus says that: “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” (Mark 13:32-33). So, too, “the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:44). This is as it should be. Were we to know when things will happen, it would tend to paralyse our day-to-day activity and replace dynamism with fatalism. It would sap our energies and make a mockery of free will.
In the same way that God’s revelation encompasses mysteries, it also contains paradoxes. From a human point of view, living according to the values of the kingdom of God is paradoxical, precisely since the ways of God are so different from those of man. Paradox exists in attitudes, behaviour and their outcomes. For example:
• “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” (Matthew 5:11).
• “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39).
• “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).
• “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25);
• “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:4).
• “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave” (Matthew 20:26-27).
• “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16);
We may not fully understand these paradoxical attitudes and types of behaviour intellectually, but we can test them by the simple process of living them out and observing the result. Those who do so are witness to the blessing that flows and the power of God that is thereby unleashed.
Paradox also exists in the way in which the kingdom of God breaks into the world. We are told that it will come, has come, is coming immediately and will be delayed. Jesus says:
• “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21).
• “The kingdom of God is near.” (Mark 1:15 and Luke 10:9, 10:11 and 21:31).
• “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28 and Luke 11:20).
• “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world’” (Matthew 25:34).
This is not nonsensical and it is not contradictory. It is instead a function of the fact that Jesus has come once and will come again. Applying the proper focus resolves any confusion.
Conclusion.
When we think in terms of secrets, we would do well to remember that the Lord “knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21), that there will come a “day when God will judge men’s secrets” (Romans 2:16) and that “the secrets of [man’s] heart will be laid bare.” (1 Corinthians 14:25). The Lord is the one “who sees what is done in secret” (Matthew 6:18) and “Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13). We should not live secret lives, but be open with God and with our fellow men.
In doing so, it is important to recognise that the “things revealed” belong to us for a purpose: in order that we “may follow all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Whilst they belong to us and our children, like any possession they can be lost, broken or forgotten. It is our obligation to retain their memory and to teach our young people about them. This is something that we have neglected in recent years. Now is the time to make amends. The spiritual longing in our nation is tangible. If we do not satisfy this need with the gospel, other things will fill the vacuum. We see this already. In words commonly attributed to G. K. Chesterton, “Once people cease to believe in God, they don’t believe in nothing. They believe anything.” It is time we let England into a secret: there is a God in heaven and the Lord God Almighty is his name. He and he alone should be the focus of our nation.
17. A nation chooses (1)
Exodus 23:20-33.
Key word: preparation.
Nowadays we read with distressing frequency of young men killed in knife fights. These have a long pedigree. In 1593 a twenty-nine year old died in a pub brawl in Deptford, stabbed to the heart. The area was then part of that collection of taverns, brothels, bear-pits and theatres south of the Thames that was beyond the control of the City of London authorities and consequently a haunt for all manner of dubious characters and pursuits. The man who breathed his last proved to have a warrant out for his arrest on charges of atheism and blasphemy, and there were rumours that he was a government agent of some kind. Such things were certainly somewhat uncommon compared to the more run-of-the mill criminality and intrigue of the age, but hardly enough to cause later generations to take note. This murder victim, however, also left behind works of erratic genius. He was Christopher Marlowe: poet, playwright and songwriter.
Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus takes a subject later explored by Goethe in Faust, dramatising a medieval tale of a man who sells his soul to Satan. Marlowe makes his protagonist a man of arrogance and ambition, who leagues himself with the devil Mephistopheles in order to become “great Emperor of the world.” Early in the play, Faustus questions Mephistopheles as to whether hell really exists. The latter replies: “Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it. Think’st thou that I who saw the face of God and tasted the eternal joys of heaven am not tormented with ten thousand hells in being deprived of everlasting bliss?” Ironically, a great paean of religious orthodoxy is put in the mouth of a fiend by a man who denied the existence of God.
The dramatic vision of the English atheist is bleaker than that of the German Romantic: Goethe’s Doctor is clai
med by heaven, Marlowe’s by hell.
In The Jew of Malta, Marlowe includes a statement more in keeping with his atheism: “I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.” It is a sentiment that chimes with many in modern-day England. For such as these, religion has nothing to offer to any but the retarded or deluded and the future belongs to science, with its promise to dispel ignorance.[38] For those who retain belief in the Almighty, all too often we feel ourselves surrounded by uncertainties and unsure which way to turn, latter-day Israelites wandering in the wilderness.
Preparing our hearts.
In his goodness and mercy, God provides the remedy for our situation: “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared ... My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivities and Jebusites” (Exodus 23:20 and 23). The fact that God has prepared a place for us, will guard us along the way and will provide the help we need to get there should be a cause of joy and confidence. We will not reach this place without effort on our part, however. There are three things that we need to do as we follow God’s way:
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