Couldn't Help Noticing

Is Australia a Christian country?

Last week, I watched a fascinating interview on A Current Affair with Ray Martin. Ray interviewed a young man (I think it was Wassim Doureihi) who represented an Islamic group (Hizb ut-Tahrir, I think). The man was born and raised in Australia, and looked like he was in his early 20s. He was an extremely articulate young man, and he didn't allow Ray to put words in his mouth (which is no mean feat when it comes to the media).

During the interview, Ray bombarded the man with questions about whether he accepted Australia's laws, whether he liked living here, whether he would be more comfortable living in another (more Islamic) country, whether he wanted to change Australian laws, etc. The question I found most fascinating was this: “Do you accept that Australia is basically a Christian country?”

Well, is it?

Australia was, of course, built on the Christian faith. Our laws reflect that, as do many other parts of our culture. But can we say that Australia is a predominantly Christian country now?

I don't think so. As a country, we have been rejecting the Christian God for years. That's what relativism is all about—arguing that there is no absolute right or wrong; just different opinions which are all equally valid. That's certainly the argument that I've had shoved down my throat by people for the last 10 years or so.

How interesting it is that after rejecting the Christian God for so long, we suddenly want to claim him back when it suits us. Except I have a feeling Ray Martin doesn't actually want God back. He just wants some of God's ideas for how we should live. The problem with this is that it is no longer relativism: it is no longer what Australians have been arguing for.

We are left with the same dilemma we've always had: Either there is no God, or there is a God.

If there is no God, then all we have are lots of different opinions which are equally valid. If this is the case, then any religious group is free to come to Australia and turn Australia into a country based on that religion (if they are able to do so). How can we object? There is, after all, no right or wrong. Just different opinions. We cannot choose which opinions are okay and which aren't.

If there is a God, then we have to figure out which God is the true God. That's all there is to it.

The young man's response to Ray's question was rather perceptive. He said, “I believe that this is a secular country, based on a capitalist philosophy.”

I believe he might be right.

(Unfortunately I am not 100% sure of the name of the young man or the Islamic group, and the website for ACA doesn't reveal anything. If anyone can remember more details, email me and I'll update this post.)

Homophobic kleptophobes

You wouldn't credit it. I wrote a letter to the editor and it got published.

You wouldn't call someone who doesn't agree with stealing cars a kleptophobe. Why brand someone who doesn't agree with homosexuality a homophobe? (Sydney's deep south shows strongest anti-gay feelings, SMH, July 27). This labelling demonstrates its own brand of bigotry.

Yours etc...

First Bible Stories

A year ago, in July 2004 (Briefing #310), we published a review of children's Bibles. One of the Bibles we recommended, and about which several people have since emailed very positive comments, is First Bible Stories, published by Parragon. Apparently this has been reprinted this year. One of our readers emailed us with the following comments:

I consider it to be the best book of Bible stories I have seen. It starts with Genesis, skips through many parts of the Bible, and ends at Acts with the sentence, “And today, all across the world, people still gather to hear God's message”. Each story has the Bible reference at the top. It has delightful, colourful illustrations. The book makes an excellent present for a child who can read or as a family present. I gave a copy to a ten-year-old girl for her birthday. When she visited me recently she said, “I'm reading all about God's rules in that Bible”.

First Bible Stories is available in Australia at Koorong, Angus & Robertson, and Dymocks. You can also probably get your local bookstore to order it in.

The gospel of Pell

In an interview on The 7.30 Report in April this year, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, made the following remark about salvation:

MAXINE MCKEW: Would Pope Benedict take the view that non-believers are damned?

CARDINAL GEORGE PELL: No, certainly not, certainly not. Salvation is open to all good people. Our God is a god of love and infinite mercy. The only person [sic] who might be damned are those who resolutely refuse to turn to towards the light, towards love, who lock them up obstinately in hate. My prayer and my hope is that very, very few will be damned.

This agrees with what he said in an interview on Sunday back in May 2001, just after he was installed as the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney:

JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: Do you believe in heaven and hell?

ARCHBISHOP GEORGE PELL, ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY: Yes, I certainly do. I believe there will be a judgment. We will be punished or rewarded. How many people are permanently excluded from God's life and light we've got no idea about that, but if there is a God that God will be just as well as merciful and some terrible crimes are committed and the scales of justice need to balance out across eternity.

JOHN LYONS, REPORTER: What criteria will people need to accept if they want to get into heaven?

ARCHBISHOP GEORGE PELL, ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY: That's spelt out at the end of Matthew's gospel, chapter 25, and the ones that were sent downstairs are the ones who were closed in on themselves. Never visited the sick, never clothed or fed the hungry, never clothed those who were naked, never visited those who were in prison. Christ said to those who will be rewarded whenever that is done to the least of his brothers and sisters, that's done to Christ.

This highlights the confusion we have between rewards and salvation. Christ was clear about the criteria for getting to heaven when he said,

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)

Salvation is not a reward for good works. Paul makes this point in Romans 4, especially in verses 4-5:

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

We must get this right. Salvation is a free gift from God, available to all who accept Jesus. It is not something God gives to people based on merit or good works. Rewards in heaven are precisely that: rewards you may or may not get once you are in heaven. But there is only one way to get to heaven, and that is through Jesus Christ.

George Pell says that “God will be just as well as merciful”. But how can God be just if he justifies the wicked? He did promise, after all, that sin would be punished. If he breaks that promise, he is being unjust and untrustworthy.

This is why the death of Jesus on the cross is so amazing. It is the only way that God is both just and merciful. He is just, because the of sin has been paid in full. He is merciful, because he pays that himself, with the death of his own Son. Paul captures it perfectly in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The wages of sin is not visiting the sick, or feeding the hungry, or clothing those who are naked, or visiting those who are in prison. We should do these things, but they can't pay for our eternal salvation.

So this is why each person has a choice: either pay the price for your sin yourself, with your own death (for eternity), or accept Jesus' death as the price for your sin.

And this is why all the ‘good works’ in the world won't do you any eternal good if you reject Jesus Christ.

The popularity of evangelicals

If you go back a century or so, you discover that the evangelicalism of the time was no mass movement. Evangelicals were seen back then as intellectual troglodytes, afraid to examine their faith in the light of reason. Members of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union even refused to affiliate with the then massive, intellectually respectable, but liberal-tending Student Christian Movement (SCM), simply because the SCM wouldn't acknowledge the centrality of the atoning death of Christ. One useful account of this story can be found here.

All of this did nothing to help the popularity of the evangelicals. This was a good thing because it meant that evangelicals were quite clear about what they believed (because it was the cause of their unpopularity) and furthermore, it was a constant reminder that the Bible was true when it promised opposition.

For example, evangelicals learned first-hand the truth of Jesus' words in John 15:18? “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” Likewise they understood the blessing of Matthew 5:11—“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Now, however, it seems everybody wants to be an evangelical. In London, the Pentecostal Hillsong church are only too happy to claim to be evangelical. A contact was recently told by one of their spokesmen that they are seeking to be affiliated with the UK Evangelical Alliance, and that while valuing diversity, they would “more strongly identify with the evangelical wing of Christianity”. This despite the association of the Hillsong churches with an emphasis on health, wealth, physical wellbeing and all-round prosperity; this too in spite of the almost complete absence from their preaching and teaching of any mention of the cross of Christ.

The previously hard-edged definition of ‘evangelical’, championed by people like the Cambridge students against SCM, seems to have melted like an ice-cube in the warm sun of popular acceptance. Should we keep fighting for clarity? Maybe, maybe not. But whether or not we want to debate terms, the reminder Paul gives in 1 Corinthians is all important:

“...it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:21-23)

If we preach that message, we will be a stranger to popularity—but we will be no stranger to the Lord Jesus. We will be known by God, and we will have the joy of making him known to others.